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

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.

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

Garden Update

The weather has been great.  Yesterday it was cool and rainy!  It’s May and it was cool and rainy!!!  Here’s a quick garden update:The strawberries are really producing well.  They’ve been fed (Dr. Earth), irrigated daily, and are enjoying full sun.  The fruit size is large and well developed.  There is some loss to insects; but no loss to birds.  The scare tape and owl kite seem to be great scarecrows.French Breakfast Radishes were planted among the Lemon Squash on 05/15/10.  They germinated today, 05/18/10.  The purpose of planting them with the squash is to repel pests that could damage the squash.  If anyone is new to gardening with seeds and would like to enjoy fast results, these radishes should do the trick.In the holes of the cinder block that form the raised bed for the peppers, I planted some Borlotto Solista Beans.  They are only planted on the north side of the bed to allow for maximum sun to the peppers.  Al Kuffa tomatoes are also sharing the bed with the soon to be planted peppers. A few small oranges are hanging on to the Robertson Navel Orange tree.  I thought this tree might be in danger of being lost; but it looks like it is gaining strength and may grow vigorously.  Sadly, the Satsuma Mandarin was pitched into the green waste.  It’s root system was very small and the tree ended with no leaves.

All the tomatoes have been planted (37 plants) with the remaining to be given away.  Four of the tomato plants were auctioned at today’s meeting of the Daughters of the British Empire. It was a nice day in the garden.