 Florida King Peach I was walking over to the blueberries this afternoon, when something red caught my eye. It was a peach! I couldn't believe it! I have had pretty good luck growing lots of different fruits, but I have never had success growing peaches. Last year I planted Florida King and a Midpride peach trees in large pots set into the strawberry bed. They haven't grown much, but they've been healthy. I really didn't expect to see any fruit so soon, especially considering we hardly got any chill hours this year. They didn't bloom very much, and I was surprised to see each tree set a few fruit. Since I grow all my fruit organically, I'm used to the bugs getting their share, and didn't expect to get to harvest any peaches this year.
Even though the peach was very small (about the size of a racquet ball), it was well colored, so I gave it a little squeeze. It was soft, and the flesh yielded gently to my touch. I picked it and examined it carefully for bug damage. It had several blemishes on the top, and I almost pitched it in the compost pile. Now I'm glad I didn't! I brought it in and cut it up, removing all the damaged flesh. The smell was wonderful! Growing up, I always thought peaches were supposed to be crunchy. I never knew just how delicious a soft, perfectly ripe peach could be until Dr. Wife introduced me to some real Georgia peaches. After all the damaged flesh was removed, there was only enough left for everyone to taste just a little bit. I took the precious golden fruit upstairs to share it with everyone.
The boys just loved it! Boy #1 kept asking for more, and Boy #2 relished his piece for 20 minutes. I thought it was absolutely delicious! It was soft and melting, very sweet, with a very nice flavor. The flesh was yellow, and clung to the seed (clingstone). I just wish I had more to share, and that the peach had been bigger. I don't know if the size of the fruit was so small because of the bug damage, or because perhaps the tree needed more water during fruit development. Regardless, the fruit was good enough that I will definitely do whatever it takes to get some more next year. There's one green peach still hanging on the Midpride, that so far doesn't appear to have any insect damage. I'll keep a close eye on it, and hopefully we'll be eating it soon. There's also one small Santa Rosa plum on the tree out front that is slowly turning red. Maybe my bad luck with stone fruits is turning around.
 Small Florida King Peach  Dang bugs.  Cut out all the bug damage.  Boy #1 loved his piece of peach.  Boy #2 loves peaches too!  Santa Rosa plum, slowly ripening
 Rabbiteye Blueberries If you have little kids, you should try to grow berries. The blueberries and blackberries have been coming in this week, and the whole family has been having a wonderful time picking them. Boy #1 has been in absolute berry heaven, and every chance he gets he wants to go pick blueberries. He likes the strawberries too, but there's just something magical about blueberries for him. Even when he was a toddler he loved to go pick and eat blueberries. He would grab my hand and say 'Gung-Gungs!" when he wanted to go pick some more. Now Boy #2 is getting to join in the fun, but so far his heart still belongs to strawberries. According to Boy #1: he is Blueberry-Boy, Boy #2 is Strawberry-Boy, I'm Blackberry-Boy, and Dr. Wife is Kitty-Kat-Girl (we have no idea why).
I grow five or six different kinds of rabbiteye blueberries (eight bushes total), but I've managed to lose most of the tags, so I don't always know which berry is what variety. All of them taste about the same to me, but Dr. Wife likes the Brightwell blueberries the best. She says that they are the biggest, juiciest, and tastiest, although that particular bush seems to be a little less productive than the others. I think they're all great once you learn how to tell the difference between the berries that are ready from the ones that need another day or two to fully ripen. The blackberries (Kiowa) have been wonderful too, although I can't let the boys pick them because of the vicious thorns. Boy #1 likes them, but prefers the blueberries, and Boy #2 just isn't interested. That's OK, more for the grown-ups! I look for the biggest, perfectly-ripe ones and give them to Dr. Wife like little love notes. There is no denying that a soft, fully-ripened blackberry may be one of the most delicious things known to human kind.
The blackberries have been relatively productive, but I don't think they get enough sun where they are now. Once the blackberries are finished fruiting my plan is to transplant them to a sunnier spot, and put seven or eight Southern Highbush blueberries in their place. I'll also be planting the new blueberries in large pots of peat moss/potting soil mix, and will run new piping to them from the rain tank. The blackberries will be planted in a zig-zag pattern in the side yard, and trained up metal t-posts. If all goes to plan I'll have twice the blueberry and blackberry plants, and therefore effectively double my berry harvest. At the rate my boys are gobbling up berries, I may need more!
Huge blackberry.
Kiowa Blackberries
Brightwell rabbiteye blueberries. Dr. Wife's favorite.
Blackberries on the left, blueberries on the right.
Dr. Wife and Boy #1 busy picking.
Boy #2 is one happy berry boy!
Making blueberry pancakes.
 Trifoliate Rootstock Seedlings When I visited the Texas A&M Citrus Center last year, I was very impressed with how they raised their rootstocks from seed in tall plastic pots. To keep the pots upright, they have built custom tables topped with steel remesh. I've been wanting to build a rootstock propagation table of my own ever since, and this weekend I finally did. I had lots of leftover 2x4s from when I tore down my shed, and plenty of leftover screws from building the play fort for the kids. The only things I needed were the pots and something to keep them from falling over.I talked to John Watson at the Citrus Center, and he said that they have found 4x4x14 tree pots from Stuewe & Sons work the best for them. I bought a case of pots ($0.41 each) online, and started building my table as soon as they arrived. I am glad I waited until the pots arrived before I bought a sheet of remesh. I don't know where they get the mesh they use in Weslaco, but the remesh at my local Home Depot had 6x6 holes, and was just too big. I couldn't find any other metal fencing that fit the pots well, so I just picked up some wire.Once the kids went down for their naps I got to work. The dimensions are roughly two feet deep, three feet tall, and five feet wide. Instead of using metal fencing to hold the pots up, I just used wire. I drove nails every five inches along the top rails, and wrapped the wire around them to form a grid. This actually worked out very nicely, and was cheaper than buying a sheet of metal fencing that might not have fit well anyway. The finished table holds 56 tree pots. I had planned to get all of my rootstock seedlings transplanted, but I was out of town most of the weekend, and just didn't have time. I'll just have to find time to get it done sometime this week. John Watson says that by using a good potting soil, deep tree pots, and Osmocote, the Citrus Center is able to grow both sour orange and trifoliate rootstocks to grafting size in one year. I hope I'm able to do it too, and that I'll have 50 rootstocks to graft and share next winter. I'm planning on building a second one for grafted trees that will go in the greenhouse when it's finished.
 Photo from my trip to the Citrus Center.  Simple Table Frame  Slats to hold up trees.  Wire to keep pots from falling over.  Table holds 56 tree pots  Boy #2 enjoying the first blueberries of the year.  Transplanted trifoliate seedlings
 New Sprinkler As I mentioned in a previous post, I used to water all my trees by just laying a hose near the base of the trunk and setting a timer. This works fine for a few trees, but I have somewhere around 50, and keeping everything alive during the brutal summer last year was very difficult and labor intensive. Also, after being laid up in the hospital for awhile, I realized I needed to automate the process as much as possible to make things easier for Dr. Wife to take care of things when I couldn't. I thought I was very clever, and rigged up a homemade drip irrigation system by putting a garden hose on a timer, snaking it around my trees, and drilling holes in the hose where I wanted to deliver the water. All things considered, it really worked very well, although the holes tended to get plugged up with dirt.The homemade drip system met its end when I forgot to raise the blades on the lawnmower, and shredded the garden hose. Disappointed, but not discouraged, I knew what I had to do. It was time to bit the bullet and install a real irrigation system. I went back and forth as to whether to used a sprinkler or a drip-type system, and after evaluating all the options I decided to opt for the sprinklers:- I felt sprinklers would do a better job watering a large area under the tree.
- I wouldn't have to worry about mowing over the water lines or emitters.
- I would have to worry about drip emitters getting clogged or plugged.
- I could quickly see if there was a problem, and where it was.
- I wouldn't have to run the water for several hours at a time.
I'm sure there are many people who successfully use drip irrigation for their trees, and I use it for my strawberry bed and other potted plants, but I think sprinklers are going to work the best for my trees. Once I had decided what I wanted to do, I sketched out my plan, and started digging. From each of my three outdoor spigots, I dug a 3 to 4 inch deep trench to the fence line, and then along the fence behind the trees. I laid 1/2-inch PVC water lines in the trenches, and installed a 1 or 1.5 foot riser next to each tree. I put 90 degree sprinkler heads on each riser, hooked up a timer, and buried all the lines. It was a lot of work (I did it in phases as time allowed), but the whole set up works exceptionally well. With one turn of the dial, I can water 7 to 8 trees at once, and they really seem to be responding well to having water applied to the whole area under the tree, not just in one spot.
The only place I didn't bury PVC was along the west side of the house and in the front yard. This side of the house is full of other buried utilities like the electrical and gas connections, and the front yard is full of huge thick roots from the large pine tree in front of the house. To get around these obstacles, I decided to try some DIG micro-sprinklers. I ran a plastic 1/2 supply line above ground along the west side of the house, and buried the line just below the sod in the front yard. The sprinklers connect to the main line via 1/4-inch line. Setting it all up an connecting it was very quick and easy, and for a minute I wished I had used the micro-sprinklers everywhere instead of working so hard to bury all that PVC.Then I turned it on.
When I turned on the micro-sprinklers, they worked, but the water pressure was too high for the little sprinkler heads. Instead of coming out as a nice spray, the water jetted out as a mist. I watched as small gusts of wind caught the mist and carried it away from the trees I was trying to water. My kids had a great time running around in the spritz, but the sprinklers weren't effective for irrigation. I turned the water completely off, and then opened up the valve a quarter turn. At this lower pressure the sprinklers worked much better, but being smaller they don't put out nearly as much water as the other sprinklers. I'm not thrilled with them, but I'm so disappointed that I'm planning to dig them out either. I'll just have to run the micro-sprinklers for a longer period of time to deliver the needed volume of water. Live and learn I guess. Still, I'm very happy to have almost all of my irrigation installed and semi-automated before the summer. I love being able to turn a dial and just let the sprinklers do the work. I'm finding that since I'm not having to spend all weekend moving water hoses around, I have more time for other projects. I really should have done this sooner.
Laying PVC in trench along back fence.
Snaking PVC around buried line to blueberries.
PVC line connected through simple timer.
Sprinklers watering citrus trees.
DIG Micro Sprayer
DIG tubing is very easy to connect.
Wasted Water - Sprinkler Spritz
 Surinam Cherries The Surinam cherry, also known as the Pitanga, is a little shrubby tree that produces a uniquely shaped fruit. I picked one up a couple of years ago at JRN Nursery, brought it home, and planted it in a 10-gallon pot out front by the driveway. It has grown very well there, but until this year it has never flowered. It has just grown over the sidewalk in a weeping form, annoying Dr. Wife, and getting in the way anytime someone walks from the driveway to the front door. I call it my 'coffee plant' because I pour old coffee out of my travel mug into the pot every morning. True to her gracious nature, Dr. Wife has tolerated it blocking the walk because she loves me, and it was a fruit I was experimenting with. I was really hoping to reward her patience with some delicious tropical fruit.
So after patiently waiting, keeping the plant watered, and protecting it from freezes, it finally flowered and fruited for me this year. I had read that that the fruit could taste very unpleasant if picked before completely ripe, so I waited to taste the fruit until one was nice and bright red, felt soft to the touch, and pulled away easily from the plant. I took a delicate test bite and was shocked. The fruit tasted absolutely terrible, tart, acidic, and resinous. The only thing I can think to compare it to is an unripe astringent persimmon, but with acidity of a sour lemon instead of the tannic pucker. I thought that perhaps that fruit had not been completely ripe, so I waited and waited for another fruit to fully ripen.
Finally, a darker-red fruit fell from the bush. It was very soft, and I thought for sure that this one would be better, but I was disappointed. While this fallen fruit was much less acidic and resinous than the first one I tried, it still tasted awful, and I don't think the fruit has the potential to get any better. The darker red to purple varieties are hard to find and reportedly better tasting, but based on how bad my red variety tasted, I'm not inclined to invest my money and time to grow one. Since I my family and I can't eat the fruit, I'm going to just get rid of the plant and replace it with something else. You can't win them all I guess.
Surinam Cherry Bush
Cluster of fruit at various stages of ripeness.
Fallen Cherry
Each fruit contains one large seed.
 LSU Gold Fig I've been wanting to add more varieties of figs to my collection, but I don't have any room for more trees in the yard. The only way I can continue to collect varieties is to graft them onto the trees I've already planted. I looked around on the internet for information on grafting figs, and found very little information. I even contacted the NAFEX fig expert Ray Givan about the best way to graft figs. He replied, "I've never had success grafting figs. Good luck." Fortunately the GCFSG expert grafter and propagator George McAfee was able to give me some pointers at the citrus program last Thursday, and Dr. Randall was kind enough to give me some cuttings from his Banana and Nagle/Mysteak figs, two varieties I've been searching for.
I decided to add the cuttings to my LSU Gold tree because it is the largest fig I have, and I think its in the best location. According to Mr. McAfee, figs can be propagated by cleft grafting, bark inlay grafting, or chip budding. He recommended I try the bark inlay method. I really like the bark inlay graft for citrus, and am comfortable with the method, but I had never attempted it with figs before. I also knew it was going to be challenging because fig wood is soft, exudes a sticky latex sap, and it very gnarled and knobby, making it really hard to find a nice straight piece for trimming symmetrically shaped scions.
I sprayed the branches with 90% alcohol to kill any mold spores, disinfected my pruners and grafting knife, and cut off three of the large branches. After I let the white sap run for a little bit, I made an initial incision into the bark along the top of one of the branches. I was happy to find the bark slipped very easily. I then did my best to cut and trim a shallow scion wedge from one of Dr. Randall's cuttings, and slid it under the bark. Finally, I wrapped the stock and scion with parafilm, and secured it in place with a rubber band. I did two of these grafts, and then attempted a cleft graft. I'll be surprised if the cleft graft takes, since I couldn't get a nice straight cut of scion wood, and I had a really hard time getting the cambium layers to line up well. Hopefully at least one of them will take. I'll know in a few weeks.
 Cut back branches on one side.  Branch before bark inlay grafting.  3-inch incision along the top of the branch.  Banana fig scion trimmed to a narrow wedge.  Sliding the scion under the incision in the bark.  Stock and scion wrapped in parafilm.  I tried two bark inlay grafts and a cleft graft.  This experiment cost me at least 9 big figs. Hope it works.
This week I thought I'd put up another little video tour of the fruits I'm growing in my yard. Click here if the video link doesn't show up in the subscription email.
 Sweet Charlie Strawberries Back in late November, I planted somewhere around 150 Sweet Charlie strawberries in the flower beds around the covered deck, and they have grown very well. My family loves berries so much that I really wanted to do everything I could this year to make sure they got a good crop. Since November I've stayed on top of watering, fertilizing, and weeding as best as I could, and now my efforts are paying off. Dr. Wife and the boys have been picking and eating berries everyday. Fresh picked strawberries are a real joy, especially for kids. Boy #2 will almost jump out of your arms to get one, and Boy #1 has a hard time waiting for them to ripen. The sweetest and most flavorful berries are the ones that have ripened to a deep, dark red, but even berries picked a little before then are better than anything you can buy at the store. I had previously used cheap black soaker hoses to irrigate the strawberry bed, but they always got clogged, sprung leaks, or didn't water evenly. I've learned my lesson, and have since upgraded to a drip system. It works wonderfully! I was even able to run emitters to the peach and cherry trees that are growing in containers set into the strawberry beds. Switching to this style of irrigation has made a big difference. The strawberry plants are large and healthy, and the berries themselves are larger than in previous years. I'm hopeful that this system will hold up through the year, and help me keep the plants alive through the hottest parts of the summer when I usually lose several. I've also planted some pepper plants in the bed, which I'm hoping will shade the strawberry plants when it gets really hot.Surprisingly, the biggest pest problem I've had with strawberries has not been from birds, but from pill bugs (aka roly polys). These little crustaceans (that's right, they're not insects) will eat holes in the strawberries, and then eat it from the inside out. I also sometimes find earwigs damaging the fruit, but not as often. This year I decided to fight back using diatomaceous earth. Diatomacous earth is composed of the remains of diatoms, which are single-celled algae that create a shell of silica. Under a microscope the shells look like shards of glass. Diatomaceous earth works by dehydrating the bodies of insects and other little pests, and by getting in between the joints of their exoskeletons and tearing them up. I've been dusting the strawberry beds every couple of weeks, and it seems to have really made a dent in the pill bug population. I like this approach because diatomaceous earth is cheap, organic, and completely harmless to humans. It kills the pests by physcially, not by being toxic. You can get an 8 pound bag at Plants for All Seasons for just a few bucks, which should last for a couple of years.
 Good sized berries.  Sweet with excellent flavor.  Strawberry Bed  Irrigation upgrade  Diatomaceous Earth
 Fire Blight I'm very thankful for all the rain we've been getting, but unfortunately it also means that conditions have been optimal for fire blight. Fire blight is a bacteria that infects pears and apples, and is so named because the affected areas look black and shriveled as though they had been burned. Pears are especially susceptible to fire blight, and can be completely killed if left untreated. It usually strikes tender new growth and blossoms, and can be spread by bees and other insects. It spreads rapidly in warm humid weather, so far we've had a very warm and wet spring.
The best solution to this problem is to plant varieties that are resistant to fire blight in the first place. Dr. Ethan Natelson and the Gulf Coast Fruit Study Group (GCFSG) have spent many years researching the best pears varieties for Houston, and I am very grateful to Yvonne Gibbs for taking so much time to share her knowledge with me. You can meet and learn from extremely knowledgeable and experienced fruit growers at GCFSG meetings, and I would recommend that anyone interested in planting a fruit tree attend one. Their research has identified Southern King, Southern Queen, Southern Bartlett, Tennessee, and Acres Home as fire-blight resistant varieties for Houston. Unfortunately these varieties are resistant to fire blight, but not immune to it.
I have Acres Home, Tennhosui, and Southern King pear trees, and this year I grafted on Southern Queen, Southern Bartlett, Tennessee, and Meadows. During one of my routine walks around the yard, I noticed some fire blight on the Acres Home and the Tennhosui. There was no sign of it on any of the other varieties. I immediately grabbed my pruning shrears, sterilized them with alcohol, and pruned out the infected areas. As recommended, I made the pruning cut at least 6-inches below the infection, and sterilized my pruning shears after each cut. According to Urban Harvest, Acres Home tends to get a little fire blight, but it typically doesn't travel down the branches to kill the tree. I cut it out anyway just to be safe, and to get it out of my yard to reduce the chance of re-infection. Sadly, my neighbor has a big neglected pear tree that I'm afraid will always harbor fire blight that can spread to my trees.
While taking the diseased wood over to the trash pile, I noticed more fire blight on my apple trees! The Dorsett Golden and the Anna both had small areas of infection, and one of my Honeycrisp grafts was burned. I again pruned out the affected areas several inches below the infection. With more rain and warm temperatures in the forecast, I decided to be proactive. I swung by Plants for All Seasons, and picked up some Fertilome Fire Blight Spray (it's organic). This spray is 21% streptomycin sulfate, an antibiotic also used to treat tuberculosis and other infections. After the rain last week, Boy #1 and I mixed up a batch and sprayed all the pear and apple trees. Hopefully removing all of the diseased wood and spraying the trees with antibiotic will help protect all of our growing grafts until they get a little bit bigger, and help reduce the chances of fire blight infection.
Infected branch.
Burned blossoms.
Another infected branch.
Good picture of the infection spreading down a branch.
Bunch of cut branches.
Fire Blight Spray
Boy #1 helping me spray the pear trees.
 Cluster of Dorsett Golden apples. Last year there were tons of apples on my trees, and we lost most of them to bug damage. I didn't really do a good job thinning them, and I didn't spray, so I wound up with a whole bunch of very small, bug-infested apples. I am determined to prevent this from happening again, so this year I'm doing it right. Each flower-spur is capable of producing 5-6 apples, and if they're all allowed to mature, you'll have a bunch of golf-ball sized apples. However, if you thin the cluster down to just one fruit, all the energy that would have been split between several fruits is now concentrated, and you'll get a nice big apple. Since I'm growing apples for fresh eating and not for pressing into cider, I want big apples.Last year Julia Putman and the Dallas Fruit Grower suggested that I give Fruit Sox a try. Fruit Sox are essentially panty-hose that you place over the developing fruit to prevent codling moth and apple maggots from damaging your crop. You may have seen them in shoe stores for people to wear when they're trying on shoes. According to the Home Orchard Society, they're very effective, cheap, and easy to use. The Home Orchard Society also sells them soaked in Surround, but when I tried to order some from their website, the option wasn't available. After some searching I found another forum which listed many sources of materials for bagging/protecting fruit. It said that the same Disposable Slip On Sox sold by Home Orchard Society (without the Surround) could be ordered from MacPherson Leather Co. in Seattle, Washington. You get 144 sox in a box for $8.90. I've also been told you can order them from Raintree Nursery. I ordered 3 boxes from MacPherson back in December.
Thinning the clusters and applying the fruit sox was not as time consuming as I had feared. I was able to go through two trees full of young fruit in under two hours. I first went through each tree thinning the clusters down to just one fruit, and I then made a second pass to thin out the fruit so that there was only one fruit every 8 inches or so. I don't want to let the trees over produce or risk breaking branches. Once I finished thinning, I then went through and placed a nylon sock over each fruit, and secured it loosely with a twist tie. Some people say you don't need to secure them, but I since I have a box of 1,000 ties I did it anyway. The Anna apple is absolutely loaded this year, and the Dorsett Golden set quite a few as well, although it just doesn't seem to be as heavy bearing. I didn't count all of them, but I used the better part of a box of sox, so I estimate there are at least 80 apples on the trees. I can't wait to let the boys run out there and pick one. One thing I'm not sure of is when to take the sox off. According to multiple sources, you just take them off a week before they're ripe to let them "color up", but that assumes you know when they're going to be ripe. My two trees now have 11 different cultivars grafted onto them, and I have no idea when each kind will be ripe, especially not given the bizarre weather we've been having. I guess I'll just wait until they're around the size I think they should be, and go from there. I'm very hopeful that this cheap and simple method will mean bumper crops of apples from now on.
Cluster of Anna apples.
"Fruit Sox"
Cluster thinned down to one apple.
Fruit sock on apple, secured with twist tie.
Anna tree covered in fruit sox.
Monarch Butterfly
|
RSS Feed
