by Greg Alder | Apr 20, 2018 | Avocados |
It was 95 years ago that J. Eliot Coit, who would later be called the father of the avocado industry, wrote the article “How to make the avocado tree bear.” In other words, we’ve always wished avocado trees gave us more fruit. One way to encourage production is...
by Greg Alder | Apr 13, 2018 | Avocados, Citrus, Fruit |
April is a dynamic time to talk about fruit trees — as they are all blooming and flushing — and this last week I did so as the monthly speaker for the Ocean Hills Garden Club in Oceanside. When allotted only an hour to cover “Growing fruit trees in...
by Greg Alder | Mar 23, 2018 | Avocados |
This question is unanswerable in an objective sense. But I’m game to attack it with a fun and practical twist: I’m imagining that I just moved into a new house with a blank yard . . . One tree: Hass If I had the space for only one avocado tree, I would...
by Greg Alder | Mar 9, 2018 | Fruit |
The first time I pruned a plum tree, I climbed into it and started snipping off stubby branches that looked good for nothing. They were kind of in my way too, snagging on my shirt. Hmm, the plum tree didn’t flower much that year. It set only six plums in total....
by Greg Alder | Mar 3, 2018 | Avocados |
Our guide through the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve in the highlands of Costa Rica had just picked up a fallen orchid to show us when we heard a whistle. He put the orchid down and started walking briskly toward the whistle. We followed. He turned back to...
by Greg Alder | Feb 9, 2018 | Fruit |
My Pixie mandarin tree is carrying its first fruit, which look pitiful. They’re small, warped. If I didn’t know better, I’d say Pixie mandarins are no good, and I’d replace it with a different mandarin. Luckily, I’ve had fruit off of mature Pixie trees....
by Greg Alder | Jan 26, 2018 | Avocados |
I call this tree the Japanese Fuerte. I’d seen many pruned avocado trees, I’d pruned many avocado trees, and I’d read much about others’ pruning of avocado trees, but I’d never encountered an old tree that had been so consistently and artfully molded to a shape and...
by Greg Alder | Jan 19, 2018 | Fruit |
Whether or not you should prune a bare-root fruit tree depends on two things: One, what the tree looks like when you buy it. And two, what you want the tree to look like when it’s all grown up. This being mid-January, heart of bare-root season in Southern...
by Greg Alder | Jan 12, 2018 | Fruit |
“Sorry,” I said as I leaned in front of a guy to snap the above photo of the label on the bag of a bare-root Carpathian walnut tree at Home Depot. “Do you know what is different these?” asked the man, pointing also at the tree beside the Carpathian walnut,...
by Greg Alder | Dec 22, 2017 | Berries and Vines, Fruit |
I had a problem and passion fruit solved it. I live on a dirt road and my vegetable garden starts only twenty feet from the road. I wanted both privacy and dust catchment. Because there’s a chain link fence between the road and my garden, I was able to plant a passion...
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