by Greg Alder | Feb 21, 2017 | Avocados, Fruit |
I just planted the avocado tree in the photo above, on February 10, 2017. It’s a Hass from a five-gallon container. How long can I expect to wait for an avocado tree like this to bear fruit? Short answer: three to four years. I get such an expectation from the...
by Greg Alder | Feb 2, 2017 | Fruit |
Opinions on how to prune deciduous fruit trees are innumerable. I have just one: Keep your tree small. I believe it’s the single best thing you can do if you want your tree to produce fruit and you want to pick and eat that fruit. A small tree’s fruit is...
by Greg Alder | Jan 26, 2017 | Avocados, Fruit |
My grandpa once asked me when to start picking fruit from his Hass avocado tree. I said February. But it’s true that I’ve been picking one every now and then from my Hass tree since November. They’ve tasted acceptable, but I know that from...
by Greg Alder | Jan 7, 2017 | Citrus, Fruit |
Can you tell? Hint: the purple blush on the back sides of the petals gives it away. See the comments section for the answer. Share Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)...
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...
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