by Greg Alder | Jan 2, 2017 | Fruit |
There are so many options. In Southern California, we can grow pears, bananas, oranges, persimmons, figs, peaches, plums, nectarines, jujubes, cherimoyas, sapotes, pomegranates, tangerines, grapefruit, apricots, pluots, mangos, just to name a few. How do you choose?...
by Greg Alder | Dec 23, 2016 | Citrus, Fruit |
I suspected that when I pointed out to my son Cass that the Kishu mandarins were ready, it would be a whirlwind of peeling and chewing that wouldn’t stop until the tree was bare, and I was right. The photo above shows Cass on December 3rd with the final fruit....
by Greg Alder | Dec 20, 2016 | Fruit, Pests |
I love avocado trees, and I sure love my son Miles, but toward the end of the summer his placenta tree started to lose leaves and then lose more leaves and then have some die back on branch tips, so I got emotional in a way I never have toward a tree. I’ve...
by Greg Alder | Dec 16, 2016 | Fruit |
It’s as though there’s a second Christmas for food gardeners because around this time nurseries receive shipments of bare root fruit trees (as do mail order suppliers like Peaceful Valley). What’s so exciting about bare root fruit trees?...
by Greg Alder | Dec 6, 2016 | Avocados, Fruit |
(Last updated May 26, 2021) The answer is yes. My aunt asked me about this yesterday. Her yard space is well-spoken for, but her husband would really like to have an avocado tree. “They get big,” she said. They do indeed. Most varieties will exceed 30...
by Greg Alder | Oct 14, 2016 | Fruit |
Just attended a fascinating presentation by Ramiro Lobo, farm advisor in San Diego County with the University of California Cooperative Extension, about growing coffee in Southern California. The short of it is that there are a bunch of reasons to try it — even...
by Greg Alder | Oct 11, 2016 | Avocados, Resources |
While there isn’t a great single resource for growing avocados at home, the best of what’s available is a handbook written for commercial farmers that is edited by Gary Bender, former farm advisor in San Diego County. He taught my Master Gardener class on...
by Greg Alder | Oct 7, 2016 | Avocados, Watering |
Let’s say you just planted an avocado tree from a five-gallon container, the typical size available at nurseries. How should you water this tree? First, immediately after planting you should water lavishly, making sure that all of the container soil is wet and also...
by Greg Alder | Aug 30, 2016 | Berries and Vines, Native Plants |
This is the native grape of Southern California, Vitis girdiana, and I planted it two winters ago. Grapes grow like grass fires! The first year I tied it up a string that I hung from the fascia board. This year I tied it along a wire that runs parallel to the fascia...
by Greg Alder | Jun 30, 2016 | Fruit |
The standard advice from the experts once again doesn’t align with my experience. This time it relates to the idea that thinning fruit will lead to larger fruit. From the horse’s mouth: “Thinning immature fruit at the appropriate time allows each...
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