Native blue elderberry, Sambucus cerulea, can grow twenty feet tall and wide in the wild. It is rare among compact home gardens. Domestic specimens are fortunately conducive to various pruning techniques, though. They regenerate very efficiently from coppicing or pollarding. Alternating canes pruning involves more effort but promotes berry production.
Blue elderberries are toxic while fresh, but make good jelly or syrup when cooked. They are also edible dried. Although quite tiny, they grow in large clusters that are three or four inches wide or wider. They ripen through late summer. Flowers, which bloom during late spring, are useful for teas or cordials. Some find their floral fragrance to be unappealing.
Because it grows so large, blue elderberry can be a large shrub or a small tree. It usually develops several trunks. Aggressive dormant pruning enhances foliar lushness. Without much pruning, old trees can develop dense thicket growth with sparse foliage. Individual leaves are pinnately compound, with five to nine leaflets. They are as long as six inches.
Not many fruit trees have been in cultivation for as long. After several thousands of years of breeding, there are quite too many cultivars to count. Pomegranate, Punica granatum, is now common in many regions throughout the World. It is particularly productive within Mediterranean climates, including locally. Bare root trees are now available in nurseries.
Without pruning, old trees can grow fifteen feet tall, with dense and thorny thicket growth. Fruit is easier to collect from tamer trees that are subject to regular thinning and pruning. Individual trees typically develop a few trunks, but can have only one. They may survive for centuries. Ruddy orange flowers bloom for spring. Foliage yellows prior to defoliation.
Pomegranate fruit ripens so late during autumn that it can linger after autumn defoliation. It is generally brownish red. Individual fruits are about three or four inches wide, but may be wider. They contain hundreds of seeds, which are surrounded by juicy and succulent flesh. Such flesh is generally garnet red, but might be purplish, pinkish or even colorless. Flowers are edible too.
Bare root season begins now because bare root stock is so efficiently dormant for winter. Dormancy is the same reason that this is now also time for dormant pruning of fruit trees. It is comparable to anesthesia for surgery. Affected fruit trees waken from dormancy after winter with no idea of what happened. They then resume growth as if nothing happened.
Dormant pruning is important because of the unnatural breeding of most fruit trees. They have been bred to produce unnaturally large and unnaturally abundant fruit. Their fruit is so excessive that they can not support all that they could produce. Dormant pruning both limits production and concentrates resources. Resulting fruit is less abundant but bigger.
Bigger, better but less abundant fruits collectively weigh less than overly abundant fruits. Furthermore, dormant pruning improves structural integrity of affected trees. So, affected trees are able to support more weight but must support less. Ideally, they should need no propping for limbs that are too heavy with fruit. Limbs should not break from their weight.
Dormant pruning also directs and stimulates growth. It should prevent stems from getting so high that their fruit is beyond reach. Actually, most fruit should be within reach from the ground without a ladder. Vigorous growth is more resistant to pathogens than congested and less vigorous growth. There are actually quite a few advantages of dormant pruning.
Stone fruit trees and pome fruit trees are popular types that need dormant pruning. Stone fruit include apricot, cherry, nectarine, peach, plum and prune. They need similar pruning but to varying degrees. Peach needs more severe pruning because its fruit is so big and heavy. Cherry needs less aggressive pruning. Apple, pear and quince are all pome fruit.
Deciduous fruit trees are quite demanding, and reliant on timely dormant pruning. Those who would like to grow them should first be aware of their cultural requirements. Diligent research of pruning technique is helpful. Practical and annual experience is even better. Each year, it is an opportunity to observe how subject trees respond to dormant pruning.
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.
‘Beurre d’Anjou’ is to the left. ‘Seckel’ is to the right.
Two new pear trees have grown well this year after being grafted last winter.
‘Seckel’ is to the right in the picture above. I acquired its scion from the Scion Exchange of the Monterey Bay Chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers on the first of February. It was one of only two cultivars that I wanted to graft onto one of only three quince understock trees that were available at the time.
‘Beurre d’Anjou’ is to the left in the picture above. Because it was unavailable from the Scion Exchange, and also because it was the other of only two cultivars that I wanted to graft, I purchased its scion online.
I wanted to retain one of the three quince understock trees for its fruit, and possibly for cuttings for understock for more pear trees in the future. However, more copies of it grew from cutting from the two trees that were grafted last winter. Now, I have a third quince tree to graft a pear scion onto this winter. I will most likely procure a scion of ‘Bartlett’, because, a very long time ago, that was the most common cultivar within the orchards of the Santa Clara Valley.
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.
Pote-8-o or pote-aht-o? Tome-8-o or tome-aht-o? Ape-ricot or app-ricot? Pee-can or pi-kahn? What about “almond”? This is different from the distinction of plums and prunes. It is a matter of pronunciation. Is “almond” pronounced like “salmon” or “common”? Those who grow them, and likely know better than the rest of us, commonly pronounce it like “salmon”. Most of the rest of us pronounce it like “common”. The nuts are harvested by machines that shake them from their trees, which supposedly shakes the ‘ell out of them, which sort of makes sense. Although the “l” is silent within both pronunciations, it might be slightly more so within the “common” pronunciation. Everything associated with almonds prior to harvest, such as their orchards, trees, bloom, unharvested nuts and their collective industry, commonly employs the “salmon” pronunciation, in which the “l” may be slightly less silent. Everything associated with harvested and processed nuts and their products, which are what most of us are familiar with, more commonly employs the “common” pronunciation. For the pair of trees in my garden, I use the “salmon” pronunciation. For their nuts, I use the “common” pronunciation.
Tony Tomeo 