It lacks the spectacular spring bloom of the other deciduous fruit trees, but compensates. Persimmon, Diospyros kaki, performs double duty with fall color. Its autumn foliar color is impressively fiery orange. Then, it defoliates to reveal plump, abundant and comparably fiery orange fruit. So, it is spectacular with both autumn foliar color and autumn fruit color.
Persimmon trees are tempting. Some cultivars can grow twenty feet tall to become small or even mid sized shade trees. However, if they do so, much of their overly abundant fruit is unreachable. Aggressive and strategic pruning limits their production with most of their fruit in reach. Although undemanding otherwise, this major dormant pruning is important.
Persimmons are self fruitful without a pollinator. However, they supposedly provide more fruit of better quality with another cultivar. Fruit is unfortunately inedible before thoroughly ripe, but then all ripens simultaneously. That is an incentive to share with neighbors and friends. With a bit of effort, fruit is conducive to drying and freezing, although not canning. Ripe fruit is very perishable.
The Santa Clara Valley was formerly famous for fruit and nut production.
(This article is recycled from several years ago, so contains outdated information.)
The vast orchards that formerly inhabited the Santa Clara Valley were here because this is among the best places on Earth to grow apricots, cherries, prunes, almonds and walnuts. Actually, there are not many fruit trees that would prefer to be somewhere else. Home gardens continue to produce the many traditional fruits, as well as many other types of fruit that were not so common in the orchards; such as citrus, figs, apples, pears, persimmons, avocados, peaches, nectarines and too many more to fit into a brief list.
Those of us who enjoy growing fruit trees do not need to be reminded of how well they do here. Some trees produce too much and can become overwhelming. It is not always possible to can, dry, freeze or share with friends and neighbors all the fruit from the more productive trees. Leaving the fruit out in the garden is not only wasteful, but also bad for the garden, attractive to vermin, very messy and smelly.
Besides, there are other people in the community who could use it. During this past year, Village Harvest has harvested from local gardens, and distributed to those who can use the produce, approximately 156,000 pounds of fruit. The record for distribution of produce may be exceeded this year after apples, persimmons and citrus are harvested.
Volunteers make Village Harvest possible, by collecting excessive fruit from home gardens. Some of the people with productive trees like to retain some of the fruit. Volunteers are also welcome to take some of the fruit. The vast majority of fruit gets dispersed to others in the community who can use it.
(Most of the following information is outdated.)
The next apple harvest event in the Cupertino orchard on October 22 may no longer be able to accommodate additional volunteers; but the next major apple harvest in the Woodside Orchard on October 29 may still be in need of volunteers. Harvests take about three and a half to four hours, between 9:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.. Volunteers must be at least sixteen years old.
Volunteers can register for harvest events, or get more information at villageharvest.org. Early registration is recommended since space is limited. Volunteer instructions, including meeting location addresses will be e-mailed to volunteers a few days prior to each event. Those of us with excessively productive fruit trees who happen to be within range of harvest events can possibly make arrangements to get fruit harvested.
The next few neighborhood harvests will be on October 25 in Central San Jose, October 31 in Sunnyvale, November 1 in Central San Jose, November 6 in Mountain View, November 8 in Central San Jose, and November 14 in Sunnyvale. Sunnyvale harvests begin at 8:00 a.m.. Some harvests are repeated. For example, the Central San Jose harvests are weekly on Tuesday.
There are a few reasons to not grow avocado trees from seed. Such trees take a few years to produce fruit. Then, their fruit may be very different from the fruit that provided the seed. It is therefore better to purchase a grafted tree, or at least to graft a seedling. However, some of the best and most productive avocado trees have grown from seed. I have been acquainted with many such trees, and have never met even one that produced inferior fruit. (The primary problem that I notice with seed grown avocado trees is that they grow so tall while young that most of their fruit is out of reach, but that is another topic for later.) Anyway, this is my justification for growing mango trees from seed. I am told that they are much more likely than seed grown avocado trees to produce inferior fruit. I suppose that I will find out now. I am willing to try grafting them if their fruit is not good. They can at least become good understock. Yet, I am also wondering why I get into these situations. I should have known better than to grow something that I know nothing about.
The Shrub Queen sent me seed for sea grape, Coccoloba uvifera. Naturally, it is now very important to me. I wanted to grow it before obtaining the seed. Now, I am obligated to grow it well! Some of the seed germinated readily. The problem is that slugs promptly ate the tops of the seedlings. Only one seedling survived without damage. It now has its first pair of leaves, and looks like a green butterfly. A second seedling that germinated shortly afterward retains one of its first pair of leaves, so could possibly survive. Hopefully, more seed will germinate later. Sea grape is dioecious; so the primary seedling is either male or female, and therefore unable to produce fruit without a mate of the opposite gender. Most sea grape are female; so even if the secondary seedling survives, there is more than a fifty percent probability that both the primary and secondary seedlings are female. If more seedlings germinate in the future, they will increase the probability that at least one will be a gender that is different from the others. Actually though, I would be pleased with only a single fruitless sea grape. The seed was such a generous gift.
Given the opportunity, blackberry and raspberry canes become rampant thickets. The trick is to keep them contained and controlled so that they can produce berries without conquering the garden. Besides, proper pruning promotes production. Properly maintained canes are therefore both better behaved and more productive.
Berry canes are certainly not low maintenance, and should be selectively pruned a few times through the year. The type of pruning needed is determined by the type of growth that the canes exhibit in particular seasons. Spent canes or upper portions of everbearing raspberry canes that produced berries through summer and early autumn will need to be removed by the end of winter while new canes that grew through this year get trained to replace them.
Pruning and thinning of new canes should be delayed until the end of winter; but removal or pruning of spent canes can begin as soon as their fruit gets depleted. Spent canes of traditional summer bearing raspberries like ‘Willamette’, ‘Tulameen’ and ‘Canby’ can be pruned to the ground. ‘September’, ‘Heritage’, ‘Summit’, ‘Fallgold’ and other everbearing raspberry canes should be pruned only as low as their fruit was produced. Lower portions that did not produce fruit should be left to bloom and produce berries next spring.
Just like raspberry canes, new blackberry canes that grew this year do not need to be pruned until late winter. However, the canes that grew last year and are finishing berry production this year can be pruned to the ground as their last berries get taken. There is no rush for this procedure, but getting it done early makes later pruning of new canes for next year a bit easier.
Of course, every different cultivar (cultivated variety) of raspberry and blackberry behaves differently. Some finish producing and are ready to be pruned sooner than others. Their behavior is also affected by climate and environmental conditions, so that the same variety may be earlier or later in different areas, or even different parts of the same garden.
Favorite berry canes are very easy to propagate by division of superfluous new shoots during winter. Alternatively, spent canes that should be removed can be ‘layered’ instead. They simply need to be bent down and partially buried, and can be dug and separated as they develop roots.
The top few inches of cane should extend above the soil. At least a few inches of cane below the top should be buried a few inches below the surface of the soil. The length of cane between the buried portion and the base of the parent plant can remain exposed.
Layering can be done at any time of year if the layer (buried section of cane) gets watered while developing roots. Layering this time of year is easiest though, because layers get plenty of water from rain through winter, and develop roots most efficiently as they come out of dormancy late in winter or early in spring. If layers are buried where new plants are desired, they do not need to be dug and moved next year.
Ecological balance should be an asset to the garden. Good insects eat bad insects. Certain birds eat more bad insects. The problem is that some visitors to the garden are not so beneficial.
Besides the bad insects that can damage various plants in the garden, there are several types of birds and squirrels that compete for nuts and fruit. Birds and squirrels are much more aggressive in their tactics than insects are, and are often more difficult to control.
Some people like to provide alternate sources of food for hungry birds. However, birds that crave fresh berries are not so likely to be distracted by dry birdseed in a bird feeder.
Flash tape (which is strips of silver Mylar) or unwanted CDs hung prominently in fruit trees repels birds for a while, but eventually fail to impress. Such bling should be put out in the garden only as fruit starts to become attractive to birds. If hung out too early, birds become accustomed to them and will not be deterred by the time the fruit ripens.
Flash tape or CDs should be placed where they will flutter in the breeze and can be seen from most perspectives, and may be more effective if moved every few days. Scarecrows are much more work to move about, but are no more effective. Besides, they can be unpopular with neighbors.
Bird netting is more effective to keep birds away. It can be installed over fruit trees a week or more before the fruit ripens. It should be tied around the trunk below lower branches or extend to the ground if birds are persistent enough to look for access through it. Netting should be removed when the fruit is harvested, so that stems to not grow through it.
Squirrels are more of a challenge. They have no problem getting through netting, and do not mind flashy bling. Squirrels may temporarily avoid dummy owls that repel pigeons and rats, but eventually realize that they are not a threat. Poison baits are dangerous to cats or dogs or anyone else that may be interested in poisoned squirrels, particularly since squirrels are so easy to catch as they succumb to poison!
Plastic rodent guards (or even sheet metal) wrapped around the trunks of fruit trees block access to squirrels because they are too smooth for rodents to get a grip into. Some types flare out too far for rodents to reach around. Others are too wide (from top to bottom) for squirrels to reach over. They should be located at least six feet above the ground so that squirrels do not simply jump past them from the ground.
However, rodent guards are only effective if all other access is also blocked. Lower limbs should be pruned about six feet above the ground, as well as six feet from roofs, fences, other trees or anything else that squirrels can jump from. This can be somewhat of a hassle when it is time to harvest ripe fruit that is out of reach.
My niece knows the weird flowers of passion vine as ‘flying saucers’ because they look like something from another planet. The most common species, Passiflora X alatocaerulea, has fragrant, four inch wide flowers with slightly pinkish or lavender shaded white outer petals (and sepals) around deep blue or purple halos that surround the alien looking central flower parts. The three inch long leaves have three blunt lobes, and can sometimes be rather yellowish. The rampant vines can climb more than twenty feet, and become shabby and invasive, but may die to the ground when winter gets cold. Other specie have different flower colors. Some produce interesting fruit. Passiflora edule is actually grown more for its small but richly sweet fruit than for flowers.
Oregon grape, Mahonia aquifolium, is the Official State Flower of Oregon. Fruit such as this develops after its bright yellow bloom. It is nothing like grapes, though. It is edible, but unimpressive alone and fresh. Locally, it is not abundant enough to bother with collecting for culinary application, such as jelly. Wild plants are both rare and scarcely productive. Landscape plants are not much better. That justifies growing it in a garden where fruit production can be promoted. Perhaps it requires specialized pruning, like other species that are grown for fruit. Perhaps, like cane berries, it would be more productive if its old canes get pruned out annually. I really do not know, and am therefore receptive to suggestion. I already intend to grow it, although it will take a few years to get enough fruit to do anything with. Not so long ago, I was similarly intrigued by the native but ignored blue elderberry, which I found to be as useful as black elderberry of the East. My blue elderberry jelly won more ribbons than I can remember at the annual Jelly Competition of the Boulder Creek Harvest Festival. A blue ribbon for Oregon grape jelly would be excellent!
Apricot trees, which are mostly of the species Prunus armeniaca, have history here. Vast apricot orchards formerly inhabited the Santa Clara Valley. Many remain as a significant industry of the San Joaquin Valley. Apricot trees are both famously reliable and famously productive here. If they can not inhabit orchards, they can be as happy in home gardens.
Home garden apricot trees are not quite the same as orchard trees. Most are grafted onto dwarfing rootstock to stay more compact than orchard trees. More cultivars are popular in home gardens than in orchards. Regardless, even relatively compact home garden trees need dormant pruning in winter. Otherwise, they provide more fruit than they can support.
Apricot trees change with the seasons. They are strikingly bare while dormant for winter. Their profuse white bloom is spectacular for early spring. Their rich green foliage mostly obscures their fruit as it ripens through early summer. It then turns cheery yellow before it defoliates in autumn. Home garden trees should be about ten feet tall with good pruning. Fruit is difficult to reach in overgrown trees.
Prunes are not merely dried plums. They are European fruits which, although very edible fresh, are also popular for drying. Their significant sugar content inhibits mold during the drying process. Plums, Prunus domestica, are of the same species, but are of Japanese origin. They are quite popular fresh, but are more likely to mold than dry like prunes can.
Besides their lower sugar content, plums are a bit bigger and rounder than most prunes. Prunes are ‘freestone’, so their flesh separates from their seeds when ripe. Old fashioned plums are ‘clingstone’, so their flesh adheres to their seeds when ripe. The most popular plums are maroon or purple. Others are red, yellow, orange, green, blue or almost black.
Almost all plum trees within home gardens are semi dwarf. Although they do not grow as big as orchard trees, they can grow twenty feet tall. They require specialized aggressive dormant pruning during winter. Otherwise, they become shabbily overgrown with most of their fruit out of reach. Their prolific and bright white bloom is spectacular for early spring.
Tony Tomeo 