Here it is: our deep winter. In January only — and a couple weeks before and after — can we enjoy a fire in the fireplace and do we have the chance to see a little frost on the ground. Appreciate it before it’s warm again for 10 months. (Rough life?)
Have any of your trees finally lost all of their leaves? Enjoy that look while it lasts too. Next month, trees will already start blooming and leafing out again. Winter is brief indeed here in the Southland.
And there are seasonal “opportunities” in the garden for January.
We can:
Sow and plant
– Sow seeds or plant seedlings of these vegetables: beets, carrots, greens (chard, collards, kale, mustard, turnip), lettuce, peas, potatoes (the blue words link to my posts on growing those crops in Southern California)
– Sow seeds or plant seedlings of: broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower, but be aware that a warmer-than-normal spring might mean poor results, especially for inland locations (so planting seedlings in January is safer)
– Plant cuttings of pomegranate and grapes at the very end of January
– Plant bare-root fruit and nut trees, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, grapes, asparagus
Planting a bare-root Fan-stil pear. All together now.– Transplant shoots of your raspberries and runners of your strawberries
– Put in plants that are native to your neighborhood, especially in a part of your yard where you don’t want to irrigate; (my post on natives I’ve planted like this)
Harvest and eat
From your garden, here in January you can/could . . .
– Harvest and eat these vegetables: beets, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, greens (chard, collards, kale, mustard, turnip), lettuce, peas, potatoes
– Harvest and eat these fruits: avocados (Bacon, Fuerte, Ettinger, Puebla, Pinkerton, Sir-Prize), citrus (grapefruit, limes, mandarins like Satsuma and Kishu, navel oranges)
Miscellaneous
– Prune deciduous fruit trees and grape vines; it’s easy to see the structure of the bare branches now (here’s a good video on winter pruning from Tom Spellman of Dave Wilson Nursery); my best advice on pruning fruit trees is to keep them small
– Collect or redirect rainwater so it sinks into your yard near your plants and isn’t lost into the street
– Walk around on a cold evening or morning to notice warmer and chillier spots; note them because later you’ll want to put plants in those spots that like those conditions
– Observe where afternoon shade is; don’t place your vegetable garden there unless you only want to grow in the summer
– Cut scion wood for grafting stone and pome fruits (apricot, plum, peach, pear, apple); you might also start grafting here in January
– Cut scion wood for grafting avocados, but it’s usually best to keep it in the fridge and wait until February or March to graft
– Start a journal or calendar for notes for the new year; jot down weather observations, irrigation schedules, sowing and planting dates, arrival of pests, harvest times (next January you’ll thank yourself); see my post “Taking notes on your garden”
All of my Yard Posts are listed HERE
Here it is in January in Mission Viejo CA, and my Stone fruit trees (Apricot, Plum, Nectarine etc) have not lost even half of their leaves yet. And most of the leaves have not started to turn color yet. I need to do a winter pruning at some point. Should I strip them or leave the leaves on? Any thoughts?
Hi Chris,
I was driving through the Central Valley this past week and I noticed that most almond trees (closely related to apricot, plum, nectarine) had finally lost their leaves but then there were some young orchards still almost in full leaf. I wondered why. Different variety? Different watering or fertilization?
I don’t know, but I do know that my own stone fruit trees all lose leaves at slightly different times. I’ve even got a multi-graft peach/nectarine that is a good illustration because you can see different branches on the same tree with distinctly different leaf color and leaf loss.
I’ve never stripped leaves on any of my deciduous trees (including apple, pear, cherry). However, I know people who do, and I know people who think it is helpful in causing the tree to enter proper dormancy. I’ve never seen evidence for that though. My view at the moment is that you can do it either way and it doesn’t make much of a difference.
If you want to strip leaves so that you can see branches more easily in order to prune, I say go for it.
Greg, a casual search for pruning citrus turns up this advice near the top of a Google search: “Prune outdoor citrus trees in the summer to fall when the blossoms begin to develop fruit. Wait until your dward citrus tree begins to bear fruit so you can see where the fruit will set.” This seems ridiculous. I’ve also read that you should wait until the flowers are budding so you don’t cut of “fruit wood.” Based on your detailed description of your trees and very limited pruning, I think I’ll leave my trees alone. (The video of commercial trimming was fascinating!) My Blood Oranges don’t want to bloom … I would appreciate any advice on how to encourage blooms. Look forward to reading more on your garden and I’ll share photos of my roses, trumpets, potted citrus, jasmine, etc.
Hi Peter,
I agree with you that that is ridiculous advice. Unfortunately, Google searches often feature bad advice as top results.
Citrus bloom the most if they’re in lots of sun, not pruned a lot, in fertile soil, well watered, older, had a small crop the previous year. The lack of any of these conditions could cause the tree to have less bloom than otherwise, and I’m sure there are ten more conditions that I’m forgetting.
Thanks Greg,
Yesterday I purchased a Bearss Lime and Mexican Lime, 5 Hawthorn and 2 gardenia bushes, and a few other plants. I’ll drop some photos here once I have everything in the ground/pot. Cheers, Peter
Here in the Rancho San Diego area, my Haas avocado has lots of fruit. I harvested twice in fall, there are so many left. Should harvest the remainder now, or just keep taking a dozen or every week or two?
Good to hear from you, Mark. There’s no right answer here, but what I do is just pick the amount I want to eat, starting from when I like the taste. So for Hass, I start really picking in February, then pick a dozen or so per week until they run out.
If you strip all the fruit off the tree right now, early in the harvest season, you will probably get a bit more fruit setting this spring to be eaten next year. That’s what experiments have shown. But the big downside to that for a home grower is likely wasting a bunch of fruit this year. If you pick 100 avocados at one time to strip the tree, you’re going to have to give a lot away unless you have a very large family. So I just pick as I want to eat.
I noticed your answer to someone commenting about pruning citrus – where you point out pruning in the fall is not a good time. You even point out that they do best with minimal pruning. I think my dwarf Meyer Lemon does need some pruning though as it’s a real messy tangle and I’ve got suckers coming out not just from the base but also from fruiting branches. There’s no more fruit on the tree and just about 3 sets of flower buds. Any advice on when I should prune?
Hi Lisa,
Now sounds like a great time to prune your Meyer lemon because you won’t sacrifice fruit. Some more of my thoughts on pruning citrus are here: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/when-and-how-to-prune-citrus-trees/