With Citrus, Christmas Can't Be Far Away

Grapefruit - Rio Red

Bounteous amounts of citrus means the calendar is closing in on Christmas time.  Here in Bakersfield and probably most of the San Joaquin Valley, residents with citrus trees are looking for neighbors to unload the bounty.  Citrus is winter's zucchini - but in a very good way.  Citrus is my favorite. The scent is in everything from the bloom to the peel to the fruit.  It's even in the limbs when they are pruned.  Wonderful.  The fruit can remain on the tree for quite a long time so it can be harvested as needed.  Local nurseries sponsor citrus tasting events throughout the winter where gardeners can learn about the different varieties, sample the fruit/juice, and purchase health stock.

Grapefruit is my favorite citrus.  Rio Red is delicious.  My dwarf tree is weighted down with the most fruit ever.  That little tree should give enough fruit to last through the winter months.  No scurvy here.

Navel Oranges - Robertson

The fruit is now starting to gain color that is really accentuated by the rain washed leaves.  Yes, it rained yesterday and just a bit today.  Wonderful.  Some of the oranges have split.  That is probably due to uneven irrigation.  Any split fruit is removed as soon as it is detected and disposed.  2014 looks to be a bumper year for the oranges as well.

Lemon - Pink Variegated

Two of the fruit trees are potted - lemon and mandarin.  Neither have fruit.  The Satsuma mandarin is very young and having no fruit is expected while it develops.  The lemon, however, usually has some fruit.  Currently, it's blooming.  In the photo above, some Leaf Miner damage can be seen in the leaf on the left.  That's only cosmetic.

Leaf Miner Larva

Leaf Miner larva mine just below the surface of the young leaves and the skin of the fruit.  These moth babies are annoying but not scary like the Asian Citrus Psyllid that can carry the Huanglongbing (HLB or citrus greening) disease.  Many areas of California are quarantined because of this pest.   That pest is the reason I have not added a lime tree to my citrus collection. 

Asian Citrus Psyllid

In the meantime, it's a joy to work in the soft soil in the garden after some wonderful rain. (Let's not talk about the amount of dirt the wind blew in before the rain.  Yuck.)  All the winter vegetables are experiencing a growth boost with the cooler weather and the rain.

Lettuce - Cimmaron

Hello. Good Bye.

Some onions are about ready to burst attracting more pollinators to the garden.  Not many butterflies yet; but there are honey bees, bumble bees, and hummingbirds visiting.  More visitors to the garden are expected soon.

This weekend I searched for a grape tomato plant to help fill my mother's need for daily munchable tomatoes.  She can be found cruising the grocery store aisles popping tiny tomatoes before finally checking out and paying for her treat.  We went for a ride to a nursery on the other side of town and found an overpriced, gangly plant that should work.

Johnny's Select Seeds describes this variety:  Bite-size, firm, oval-shaped grape tomatoes. Fruits avg. 10 gm. Plants have medium-short internodes and are manageable without pruning, but staking is recommended. Determinate.  For the metric challenged, 1gm = 0.035274 oz.  I'm still looking for a couple of other varieties of small tomatoes to try.  Determinate would be great; but it's not a requirement.  The search continues.

Sweet Olive Tomato Planted 05/04/14

The lame plant is very spindly and was growing horizontally.  I removed it's lower sets of leaves and planted it deep in nicely amended soil with organic fertilizer.  A bamboo stake and green garden tape helped to convince Sweet Olive that she needs to stand up straight.  Sweet Kern River water was then applied to welcome Sweet Olive into the garden. 

Rio Red Grapefruit

Sadly, this is the last harvest from the grapefruit tree for 2014.  Supplies have lasted from the first of the year until now.  And I usually eat one grapefruit each morning.  Good bye, Rio Red.  See you again in a few months.  

That's pretty good - and delicious.  My daily fruit will now switch to berries - boysenberries, blueberries, and strawberries.

Winterizing Fruit Trees

 

The seasons on the calendar are moving from autumn to winter but the garden hasn't gotten the message yet.  Leaves are hanging on the deciduous fruit trees hampering the application of dormant spraying.  There is a very slim window of time to apply the oil until the buds begin to break.  Hopefully, a freeze will be in the forecast soon.  These trees need hours of cold temperatures in order to produce fruit --- good fruit.  Those cold temperatures also help kill off nasty pests that are still hanging around.

 

Rio Red Grapefruit

All the fruit trees get three applications to keep them healthy and pest free.  Even the citrus gets the treatment.  I was advised that keeping the citrus fruit on the trees during applications is harmless.  Farmer MacGregor will not hear of it; so the fruit will have to be harvested prior to that.  That's the silver lining for the application delay.  The citrus will continue to sweeten on the trees until the deciduous trees get naked.

 

Gardening question:  What is the term for when a fruit tree blooms a second time in a season producing fruit?  The Granny Smith Apple tree did that this year and produced some ornamental apples.

Granny Smith Apple 2nd crop 2012

 

 

 

 

 

Citrus Christmas

Rio Red Grapefruit

Well, well, well.  Looks like all I had to do was to wait a bit and Blogger would sort out the mess that kept me from posting.  Unfortunately, I deleted a few images to try to add space.  If you notice any missing images, please let me know and I'll try to restore. 

This morning, I enjoyed the first of many grapefruits of the season. It was delicious and cold.  Boy did it smell good too.  No sugar required either.  All the fruit trees in the garden are dwarf to enable our aging bodies to easily maintain and harvest.  The orange and grapefruit are in the ground and the lemon (currently blooming - beautiful) and mandarin are potted.  All have fruit except the mandarin. 

Leaf miner damage (Wikipedia)

All of the citrus show cosmetic damage from leaf miners.  The skin of the fruit show some of those squiggle trails as well. I haven't heard reports of the Asian Citrus Psyllid in Kern County yet.  Hope that plight stays away even though it is in adjacent Los Angeles and Tulare counties.  Probably just a matter of time.

For now, we have grapefruit, oranges, and lemons to enjoy throughout the Christmas season.

It's also nice to be able to add to my garden journal.

Between the Raindrops

Miracles.  A scant amount of rain has fallen in the southern San Joaquin Valley.  When the sun came out in force this afternoon, I grabbed the camera to use on my garden stroll.  Here's a few things I spied.

Chrysanthemums from my pals at work.

Iceberg Rose

Marigolds EVERYWHERE!

Gold Currant tomatoes EVERYWHERE!

Red Flame grapes/raisins.

Rio Red grapefruit loaded on the tiny tree.

Robertson Navel orange

Variegated Pink lemon

There is also items too low for me to capture: lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, mustard, herbs.

Hope the clouds stack up against the Sierras and let loose this weekend.

Garden Update

My screwed up back doesn't allow me to work in the garden as I would like.  I can't even get down and take photos.  I simply get down as low as I can, point the lens in the general direction, then snap a photo.  Most times it works.  If it doesn't, I simply delete.  Here's a sample of what's going on in the garden.

Garlic Chives are going to seed.

The vegetable garden is still producing.  In fact, the fall/winter vegetables have already germinated.  Seeds of broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower were sown on Labor Day, September 3, with the majority of germination occurring just 3 days later on September 6.

Waltham 29 Broccoli


Peppers of all varieties are improving with the cooler weather.  Some might not consider 95° cooler; but it is and there are fewer hours of the day dedicated to baking at those temperatures.

Bell Pepper

A couple of Better Boy Tomatoes were planted earlier this summer with the thought of having fresh, large tomatoes into the fall.  Looks like that plan is working out.

Better Boy Tomato

Pumpkins continue to produce well.  Daily squash bugs hunts continue as well.  The pumpkins rest on dried grape leaves in an attempt to avoid rotting portions on the squash.  So far, so good.

Jarrahdale Pumpkin

 





Fruit trees that have fruit are Granny Smith Apple, Robertson Orange, Rio Red Grapefruit, and Variegated Pink Lemon.  All the fruit trees are due for a haircut/pruning and a feeding.  I would like to wait for the weather to cool down further; but it doesn't look like that will happen anytime soon.

Granny Smith Apple

The Red Flame Grapes set a second crop of berries this summer.  The first issue was a bust.  All the berries split and were moldy.  These bunches aren't as tight and look pretty good.  The berries a larger too.  Don't know if they will be very sweet.

Red Flame Grapes

Some flowers in the veggie patch are appreciating the change in weather too.  All kinds of pollinators are attracted to the garden with the help of all kinds of flowering plants.

Calibrachoa Hybrid - Superbells Coralberry Punch

Petunias without bud worms!

There's tons that needs to be done before we're officially out of Swamp Pants Season:

• Turn the old tomato bed.
• Plant peas
• Plant sweet peas
• Clean up the overflowing boysenberry canes.
• Prune / feed roses.
• Clean out remaining tomato (Gold Currant) bed.
• Plant lettuce
• Plant onions
• Prune / feed all fruit trees.

Christmas is Citrus

Rio Red Grapefruit

At Christmas, all kinds of citrus is ripe around here.  I remember as a kid going out to the shed at the citrus orchards and sampling all kinds of citrus that could be purchased and shipped as gifts.  All the fruit was naturally cold, sweet, and juicy.  This Christmas I only have 2 varieties ready (or real close) – grapefruit and lemons.

Variegated Pink Lemon

It’s a brain scratcher seeing the price of citrus in the grocery store then seeing loads of wasted fruit in yards with citrus trees.  Fruit is left to rot on the ground until the gardener comes along and carts it off to the dump.  What a lame waste.

Even though I’ve never experienced a White Christmas or anything that resembles a scene on a box of Rite Aid Russel Stover’s candy, I have enjoyed Christmases with fresh citrus fruit and blossoms.  If I can’t have the snow, this is a fine trade.

Scale Wranglers

On a scale of 1 to 10, having an infestation of scale on my grapefruit tree rates about a 9.  I noticed that ants had been skeletonizing the leaves of the Rio Red Grapefruit and Robertson Naval Orange.  Thankfully, Farmer MacGregor will not stand for interlopers in the garden and went into attack mode.  He loaded his weapon of choice (garden sprayer) with a few rounds of ammunition (Take Down Garden Spray).  His initial mission was to spray the trunks of these two trees to prevent the ants from getting to the leaves.  That mission increased dramatically when he discovered the scale he thought he had licked was back.The citrus had been sprayed with Take Down over the winter but it must not have been enough.  Take Down Garden Spray is a mixture of pyrethrums and canola oil which can be used to control a wide range of insects during the dormant and growing seasons. The unique combination of pyrethrins and canola oil has a dual effect which helps to control both adult and juvenile insects.  The oil is supposed to smother the stinkers IF they are covered.  If not, scale is moved around by the ants to suck the life out of a tree and leave honeydew for the ants.  Ants are kinda like cowboys of the bug world.  Black sooty mold is resulting from this infestation.  Old MacGregor will need to follow up with another application in about 10 days to beat these suckers down.  Scale has only been recognized on the grapefruit tree but the orange tree is close enough that the ants may have started their shenanigans over there.  To be safe, both trees will be treated. Once the scale is eradicated, any damaged limbs will be pruned out.  There isn’t any litter under the trees and I’ll keep it that way.  So far, the emerging fruits look untouched.  These strange bugs look more like a fungal growth than insects.  I hope to be able to post of a successful take down.

Citrus Blossom Time

Longer days, warmer days, and good fertilization along with sweet rain on well drained soil all combined to help create a bounty of citrus blossoms.  The scent will fill the garden along with the wisteria in the coming days.  Most of the blossoms will drop from these dwarf varieties because they are so young; but I’ll enjoy the blossoms for now.

Locally, one of the last citrus tasting events will be held tomorrow at White Forest Nursery.  It’s pretty nice way to sample a variety of citrus to help determine what works best.  A representative from Four Winds Growers is there to provide samples to taste, growing advice, and stock to buy.  It’s a pretty great deal to help get started in growing citrus.

 Variegated Pink Lemon

 

Satsuma Mandarin

 

Robertson Orange

 

 Rio Red Grapefruit

Fruit Trees – Love in Bloom in the Garden

Checking on the fruit trees on this sunny afternoon.  The espalier were pruned some time ago.  They had the 1st application of dormant spray on January 16th.  The next application is scheduled for Super Bowl Sunday, February 6th.  The buds are fattening up just a little bit.  Once the buds break, dormant spray can no longer be applied.

My garden assistant for the afternoon was checking out the other end of the line where the plum, peach, and apple grow while I inspected the apricot, nectarine, and pear on my end.  Each tree will be getting fertilized and additional compost prior to Valentine’s Day.  We moved on to the only citrus tree currently producing.

The Rio Red Grapefruit tree.

The dwarf tree, planted on Valentine’s Day 2009, has produced 7 fruits this season.  Farmer MacGregor and I enjoyed the 1st pick several weeks ago; but old MacGregor declared that the fruit was a wee bit too tart yet.  I thought it was just right.  That could be due to the fact that I’m so sweet and counteract any tartness. We’ll wait just a bit longer until more is harvested.  I prefer to eat grapefruit with a spoon and never like I would eat an orange.  It must be some kind of reaction with the metal of the spoon or something that makes the grapefruit more appealing to me to eat that way.

The stakes surrounding the tree will remain in place until all danger of frost has passed.  Plastic sheeting is draped over the stakes to form a small greenhouse and help ward off any damage from cold weather.  Other than frost dangers, citrus are fairly maintenance free here in zone 8-9.

Perhaps the next time the farmer and I enjoy a grapefruit, we can use something like this to celebrate Valentine’s Day after the trees are fed and composted.  Ain’t it romantic?

Almost RED!

The Rio Red Grapefruit was planted February 14, 2009.  It looks like I may be able to enjoy fruit about 2 years after planting.  This is a dwarf variety and seems to be one of the more vigorous citrus trees here in the garden.  There are about 7 fruits on the tree.  The immature branches needed to be supported because the weight of the fruit is too much.

The tree is planted in the ground on the west side of the shed.  It was sprayed with dormant oil earlier in the year.  It’s fertilized about every 6 – 8 weeks and watered irregularly.  One thing I learned is that citrus don’t like to be too wet.  In fact, a little neglect when it comes to irrigation seems to work better.  Leaf miners have invaded all of the citrus in the garden except for the new mandarin.  Hopefully the upcoming dormant spraying will control the damage of leaf curl and those snail like trails on the fruit skin.  Recent freezing conditions made it necessary to build a temporary cold frame around the tree.  The plastic gets draped over the frame as needed.  Currently, the tree is exposed to the wonderful steady rain California is enjoying.

Measuring Up

I’m adding a measuring stick today to record the progress of a few items in the garden.  Above is a Scarlet Nantes Carrot planted 10/05/09. Jaune D’Or Ovale Radishes planted 04/28/10.

 Evergreen Bunching Onions planted 04/18/10.

O’Henry Peaches planted 01/12/09.  This is the tree’s 2nd season.  Each season it has produced fruit.

Red Flame Grapes planted January 2009.  Like the peach, the grapes are in their 2nd season.  Each season fruit was produced.

Henderson’s Pink Ponderosa planted 03/01/10.  All the tomatoes are ready to be planted in the ground.  As soon as Farmer MacGregor finishes building the supports, the planting can begin.  Some of the tomato plants have buds on them.

Sweet Pinkie Strawberries planted 03/01/09.  This variety is really thriving in the cinder blocks.  During this coming winter they need to be thinned.

This evening’s harvest of Sweet Pinkies.  No chance of me being scooped up as a hand model.  Oh well.

Candy Hybrid Onions planted 09/20/09.

Here’s a seed head on a Candy Hybrid Onion.

Ladybug dining on parsley.

Rio Red Grapefruit planted 02/14/09.  The fruit seems to be staying on the tree this year although some are dropping off.

Variegated Pink Lemon planted in a pot fall 2009.

That’s how a few things are measuring up in the garden today.