Growing tomatoes in Southern California
Occasionally, if I’m not producing certain vegetables in the garden, my wife buys them at the grocery store. She’ll buy some peppers in winter, for example, or cauliflower in summer. But never do we buy tomatoes. Tomatoes that aren’t home grown aren’t worth eating. If...
Where do fruit trees flower?
This is the time of year when I stroll through my yard looking closely at the flowers on my fruit trees. Where are they? Are the flowers on branches that are growing anew right now, or on branches that grew last summer, or on older branches? Are the flowers forming...
Cara Cara navel orange tree: a profile
Cara Caras are tasting like candy here in mid-February. They’re like a pink Jolly Rancher – even though they’re an “orange.” I hear of people harvesting Cara Caras around Christmas, and the entry for Cara Cara navel orange in the University of California at...
Our kids will thank us later
My dad never made me learn plumbing, but I’m making my kids learn to grow their own food. Growing fruits and vegetables is one of the few skills I have, and I would be neglectful if I didn’t pass it on to my three children. I watched my dad repair plumbing equipment...
Grafting avocados
The skill of grafting empowers you. Being able to graft gives you options. Nursery doesn’t have a Sharwil tree for sale? If you can get your hands on a Sharwil scion, then you can make your own. Just moved into a house with a big avocado tree that makes inferior...
Starting vegetable seeds: Six keys to success
Upon reflection, if my vegetable seeds germinate fast and grow into strong seedlings, it’s because I’ve done things right in six specific areas. Here I note what to do and what not to do in these areas so that I don’t repeat mistakes, and so you never make them in the...
Satsuma vs. Kishu: Comparing two early mandarins
Choosing a mandarin tree to plant can be overwhelming because of the abundance of varieties available to us in California. One way to narrow the possibilities is to consider seasonality. Among the types of mandarins that ripen earliest, I grow two that I like and that...
Avocado cukes
What's that little pickle hanging on my avocado tree? That's not a pickle; that's a cuke: an avocado fruit that developed without a seed inside. It's growing on a type of avocado tree called Ettinger, and here is what a normal Ettinger avocado looks like: The cuke and...
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