Yesterday I hung out with a group of avocado growers. The current cold and rainy weather that is following a lengthy cold and rainy winter was a main topic of discussion.
“There have been, what, three days over 70 degrees this winter?” said one grower. “I can’t even fertilize yet. The ground’s still cold, the trees aren’t moving.”
Avocados, and citrus and mangos and bananas and papayas and pineapples, don’t appreciate this long, chilly, rainy winter of 2022-2023.
Which is why I’m glad I grow a diversity of tree crops, some of which relish a drawn-out, cold and wet winter.
Even among the vegetables, there are crops that do better in a drier, warmer winter.
And there are vegetable crops that love this wetter, colder winter we are experiencing now.
In part, I grow a range of food plants because I like to eat a range of fruits and vegetables. And in part, I grow a range of food plants because the weather is always a little different each year. Sometimes we have hotter summers and sometimes we have milder summers; there are warm winters and there are cold winters.
I aim for a diversity of plants so that I’m less vulnerable to the vagaries of weather and so that I’ve always got something to eat. I’ve learned to do this through visiting others with diversified food gardens and seeing the reliable abundance such a planting approach can produce.
But yesterday I drove by a yard in the San Gabriel Valley that had only papaya and dragon fruit and annonas. All of the plants were surviving but not thriving. If that were my yard, I would not be enjoying this winter.
They’re missing out, I thought. If they substituted one of those plants for an apricot or an apple, they would be able to rejoice this winter for the sake of those plants rather than only wishing it were more suitable for their tropicals.
You might like to read my posts on the effects of cool winters versus warm winters on deciduous fruit trees.
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Diversity is good! Here in Northern California – Sonoma County – it has been freezing overnight for over a month now. My fava plants slump overnight into morning, some with black frostbitten leaves, then perk up as the sun or temps warm over the course of the day, Fruit trees are budding but also at risk. One of the main fruit growers said they had exceeded their chill hours for their orchards by a landslide. It’s been so cold!
We ate our last Bacon avocado today so glad to hear you’ve got more in the pipeline. Can always Venmo orders?
In west Sonoma County. Wind knocked off most avocados. Foxes got into the persimmons. Too cold for the passion fruit. Oranges abundant, sweet and juicy, but hard peeling this year, wondering why. Kiwis nearly done. Plums and peaches starting to bloom. Brought the young dragon fruit bought last summer inside.
Hi Sharon,
That’s a spectrum you’ve got there. Love it!
Hi Mariangela,
We’ve had some slumping of our fava beans too. I was wondering if they’d recover and they have.
Thanks for reminder of Venmo possibility.
My bananas are so miserable too. They’re still trying to put out leaves (we’ve had many days over 70° here in Lakeside) so I guess they aren’t completely dead. I’ve been distracting myself with fig cuttings, but I’m really ready for Spring!! I keep checking my grape and my bare root peach waiting for them to break dormancy. C’mon spring!!
Me too, Jessica. I am usually in no hurry to finish winter, but this year I’m finding myself eager for a spring warm-up. Spring is going to be so welcome and beautiful this year!
Please send out address for donations. Do not want to do electronically Thanks!
Done, Diane. Thanks for asking.
Bananas really love a wall or a corner facing South especially morning sun can keep them alive but they will suffer damage with temperatures dropping. The rain will help them stay alive through this. They also love to be gown in clumps, and some love companion plants to keep them warm. My stone fruits thankfully have not opened yet most of my trees are still in the bud stage. The cold weather has prolonged this which has helped me this time keep the fruit. But I am sure there is some wind damage. Diversity is so important for the backyard grower. You want to always have some kind of fruit. Reed avocado’s have not even started budding yet, they are late compared to other avocado’s. Hopefully this year we all should see amazing fruits!!
I’ve been trying to get a jump on sowing/planting vegetables from seeds this year. So based on your recommended planting & sowing guidelines, I planted radish, carrots and beets from seeds the first week of January. Almost 2 months later, they’ve barely moved past the sprouting stage. Would the cold weather be the cause for the slow start?
I think so, Rob. My seedlings are also growing painfully slowly right now. I’ve been putting some plastic over them some days in order to create a little greenhouse effect and speed them up. Still, they are barely growing. I’ve checked roots and they seem to be healthy down below so maybe when it warms up they’ll jump in size rapidly.
I know many of you like us have shared your experiences of the cold winter in SoCal. At the request of my wife I planted a dozen collard greens a few months ago. They actually love this weather and along with a few frosty mornings they have grown with great vigor. Collards are loaded with nutrients and taste even better when they are exposed to frost like weather. Probably not a hard frost though. I’m so glad we planted them. Simply cooked like spinach with chopped pancetta. The taste is excellent. I read that sometimes they are bitter. Our were not. if you google recipes there are many. We also planted leaf lettuce and all 12 of these plants have provided enough lettuce for lunch and dinner every day.
Hi Greg,
Thanks for the useful posts.
I have a Fuerte & a Hass avocado trees. As you see in the pictures their leaves are folding & drooping, especially the Fuerte tree. I live in Northern California in the East Bay Area of San Francisco. This year we had quite a few freezing nights. I am wondering if that is the cause of their problems & by the weather warming up soon it is going to go away.
My citrus trees also have problems. They have more yellow leaves than green ones. I have been giving them iron in the fertilizer to no avail. I appreciate any help that I can get. By the way my Hass avocado tree is about 8 years old & has about 90 avocados on it.
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Hi Zahra,
Check out this post to see if your Fuertes leaves are drooping because it is about to flower: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/reading-avocado-leaves/
Most likely, your citrus trees are yellow because the soil is cold. No matter how much iron you add, nothing will change until temperatures warm. This happens to some of my citrus trees in winter too.
Greg, I am of the opinion that when you can grow a food forest, your plants will survive a cold winter much better. An example would be my banana trees. Previous years they would get hammered but this year they seem to be doing much better with my food forest now mature. All the plants provide a protective canopy and only the tops might get damaged. Even my Jaboticaba seems to be doing well in East Poway. Just an observation and perhaps motivation for others to plant as much as you can. 😉
Hi Jacques,
I’m not sure if this is what you’re referring to, but what I’ve seen is that understory (short) plants like bananas do get less cold damage when they’re growing under the higher canopy of a tall tree. For example, I’ve grown bananas under a tall oak in my yard where they never got cold damage like the ones on open ground nearby.
Unfortunately, the protection of the tall tree’s canopy does come at a price. The bananas under the oak never grew as fast as the ones in full sun. Nevertheless, if you don’t have a spot in your yard that’s warm enough except for under a tall tree’s canopy, then that’s definitely the best option.
Thanks for the reminder, Jacques!
My tropicals seem to be doing alright but the cold has slowed any growth to a crawl or stopped it altogether. Interestingly enough, my early stone fruits woke up and I’ve been thinning some already, but most of the stone fruit that woke up and started to bud went into some sort of holding pattern for the rest of the buds to flower. I’m not sure if it’s all the rain or cold. Either way I’m expecting a bunch of fruit this year.
Hi all, Im in Australia and have just stumbked upon your site. Its stupidly hot here this summer. I repotted my Tahatian Lime, Imoerial Mandarin and Eureka Lemon a couple of months ago and I think they had a bit of shock and watering has been guess work a little. Theyve been attacked by aphids n scale. Thats under control. My Tangelo has some very big double leaves. Is this a compensation for a deficiency? My lemon n lime have lots of yelloe blotches and chlorosis, the lemon even has younger leaf discolouration that looks like the beginning of cammo! Theyre both looking pretty lacklustre. Any hints would be appreciated.
Cheers
Danielle.
Hi Greg!
I have been debating a pluerry but haven’t seen a post about them.
Would you recommend any specific type?