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Village Harvest redirects surplus from home gardens to those who can use it.

Surplus need not go to waste.

(This article is several years old, so some of the information within is likely outdated.)

Those who witnessed the event know that it actually happened. During citrus season a few years ago, a crew of volunteers descended upon, or should I say, ascended ladders into the legendary and monstrously large King Grapefruit Tree in a gallant but hopeless attempt to harvest the fruit. Our caravan of an assortment of smaller pickups and my full sized Ford that we drove out to confront this aberration of nature where it resided was completely full by the time we had harvested only about a third of the fruit. We left happy with our plunder, but unexpectedly defeated by the abundance left behind. I have seen many fruit trees throughout my career, but have never seen so much fruit in a single tree! 

It may have watched us leave exasperated with our mud-flaps dragging, but the King Grapefruit Tree was not solely victorious. We Village Harvest volunteers and the many beneficiaries of Village Harvest enjoyed its fruit for weeks! Village Harvest arranges for community fruit harvesting events to collect fruit that might otherwise go to waste so that it can instead be distributed to people in the community who can use it. The fruit of the King Grapefruit Tree was donated, and more was harvested later, so that it would not become an unwanted mess for the residents of the nearby home.

This is just one of many examples of how Village Harvest community fruit harvesting events benefit everyone involved. Those who donate their surplus fruit get it harvested and taken away before it becomes messy. Village Harvest volunteers get to take a bag or so of the fruit that gets harvested during the event. The clientele of the local food agencies that distribute the produce get fresh home grown fruit from the Santa Clara Valley; which is, as we all know, the best in the world.

Although citrus season is still several months away, five community fruit harvesting events are scheduled to collect summer fruit through July. On July 18 and again on August 1, two Mountain View community harvesting events will be from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.. Two Central San Jose community harvesting events will be from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on both July 20 and July 27. The Sunnyvale community harvesting event will be from 8:00 a.m. to noon on July 26. Locations to meet for each event can be determined when making reservations.

Information about volunteering for any of these and other events, or how to arrange for donation of fruit, can be found at the website, www.villageharvest.org, or by telephoning 888 – 378 4841. Because admission is limited, it is advisable to make reservations for any event early, either online or by telephone. (It may be too late for the July 18 event.) Parking is also limited, so participants should carpool if possible. Pickups and station wagons to help transport fruit are very helpful. So is a grocery bag to share in the harvest afterward. Covered shoes (not sandals) are important. Layered clothing is more comfortable for cool mornings that get warmer closer to noon.  

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Going Bananas!

‘Double Mahoi’ is not even a fraction of a single yet, but can grow fast.

This is not banana territory. The soil is good, and water is readily available; but the climate is a limiting factor. The weather does not get very warm for very long. When it rarely gets almost unpleasantly warm during the day, it generally gets tolerably cooler overnight. Bananas are none too keen on such comfortable weather. They want sustained warmth, with less fluctuation of temperature between night and day.

This is precisely why I should not have acquired as many as fourteen cultivars of banana. Some may never do more than generate appealingly lush foliage here. Those that produce fruit will unlikely produce fruit that is much more than marginally palatable. One of the cultivars is the oem, which is the largest banana ‘tree’ in the World. I have NO idea of how to manage it. ‘Mekong Giant’ also grows quite large and heavy. Two cultivars are unidentified, so could possibly be copies of others. ‘Kokopo Patupi’ may not have survived last winter, as it has not begun to regenerate yet. Four other cultivars were given away, but then generated pups that are now returning! I do not remember how many cultivars are here now, but I know that there are too many.

Oem is resuming growth faster than the others, but with small leaves from within pseudostems that produced larger leaves last year. ‘Double Mahoi’ is likewise regenerating dinky and pale leaves that are actually dinkier than those that emerged earlier from a shriveled carcass of a dinky pup that got frosted last winter.

I want all of the cultivars of banana to survive and thrive, but I should have planned for them better. Now, I should plan to find homes for most of them instead. Even if I could manage them all, I can not justify doing so.

Oem is the biggest banana ‘tree’ in the World!
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Simple Species

Unidentified cultivar of Tecoma stans

Tecoma stans is somewhat popular within the neighborhood where I stayed while in Arizona. It is available in nurseries also. I suppose that I could have purchased one or more for my garden. I had wanted to grow it for a long time. I refrained. I can explain.

The Tecoma stans that I can get from nurseries is an improved cultivar, or actually, about three cultivars. They are not the simple species, as it would be found growing wild. I realize that improved cultivars are known as ‘improved’ for a reason, but ultimately, I want to grow the simple species.

Crazy Green Thumbs sent me the seed for the simple species of Tecoma stans that I want to grow. That is all I need. Other colleagues have sent me seed, seedlings or cuttings for simple species of American beautyberry, American holly, American persimmon, pawpaw, red mulberry, red elderberry and perhaps too many other species to list briefly. In the future, I suppose that I could try cultivars of some of these species. I would like to get acquainted with them first though.

For most species, I suppose that I prefer cultivars. I want to grow the same ‘Moorpark’ and ‘Blenheim’ apricots that I grew up with. Eventually, I want to grow ‘John F. Kennedy’ rose. Cultivars serve a purpose also.

There are a few reasons why I want simple species rather than cultivars of some species. For American beautyberry, American holly and red elderberry, I want to grow what most other garden enthusiasts within the native ranges of these species grow merely because such species appear uninvited in their gardens. For American persimmon, pawpaw and red mulberry, I want to grow a few of the fruits that people enjoyed for culinary application prior to the development of relatively modern cultivars.

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Saskatoon

Saskatoon prefers significant chill during winter.

Of eighteen species that are native to North America, only two are native to California. Of these two, only one is native locally. However, some of the few nurseries that sell various saskatoons market them as native. Obviously, most are not. A few are hybrids. All of them are species of Amelanchier, and are still rare here. Their common names are numerous.

Serviceberry, sarvisberry or sarvis may be some of the more common of common names. Shadbush, shadwood or shadblow may be less common. Juneberry, chuckley pear, wild plum and sugarplum are likely regional names. They are more familiar where winters are cooler. Some sorts do not perform well locally because they prefer a bit more winter chill.

Saskatoons are locally popular primarily for their fruit, and only among a few enthusiasts. They are more available online than in nurseries. The fruits are pommes like tiny apples, but are only the size of blueberries. They ripen to blackish purple for summer. Their early spring flowers are like wispy apple flowers. Most Saskatoons grow less than ten feet tall. Some rarer types can grow thirty feet tall in favorable climates.

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Raspberries Are Similar To Blackberries . . . But Different.

Like these dormant fruit trees, raspberry canes should go into the garden during bare root season.

            My grandmother would have gotten better results by sending me out to the garden for zucchini. She should have known better than to send me out for raspberries. I could have brought in as many zucchini as she wanted in a short while. With raspberries though, I was gone too long, and returned with meager spoils and diminished appetite.

            Neither raspberries nor zucchini will be exploitable for a few more months. Raspberries though, can get planted about now. Also, established raspberry canes should be pruned about now to promote abundant production later. Just like most deciduous fruit trees and blackberries, raspberries are not ‘low maintenance’, and require intensive specialized pruning.   

            New bare root plants should be spaced about two to three feet apart and mulched to insulate the soil until they develop enough foliage to shade their own roots. Their canes can then be cut back so that only a single bud is visible above ground. Because raspberries spread, root barriers are sometimes useful to keep them out of neighbors’ gardens.  

            Through summer, new plants should produce three or more new canes. These canes should be able to support themselves, but are less rampant if tied to a trellis or wire. I like to train them onto a fence like grapevines, because there are not many other uses for a fence.

            The more popular everbearing cultivars like Heritage, September, Summit, Golden Summit and Fallgold may develop fruit on the tops of their new canes during their first autumn. During the following winter, the tops of the canes should be cut back as far down as fruit developed. The remaining lower portions of their canes that did not develop fruit in the first year will do so during their second summer, and should get pruned out as they finish producing.

            At about the same time, about five to ten of the best new canes should be selected, and trained if desired. Superfluous canes should be cut to the ground. Like their predecessors, the remaining selected canes should fruit on top during autumn, get pruned in winter, and fruit again during the following summer before getting pruned out. This process should be repeated annually.

            Summer bearing cultivars like Willamette, Canby and Tulameen should not fruit in their first year, and should be pruned to about five feet tall during the following winter. Every subsequent summer, many new canes emerge as the older canes bloom and fruit. Every subsequent winter, about five to ten of these new canes should be selected, tied to support if desired, and pruned to about five feet tall, as all spent canes and superfluous new canes get cut to the ground.

            Black and purple raspberries are shrubbier, so get pruned differently than the more traditional red and yellow raspberries do.  During their first summer, canes should be pruned back to about two feet to promote branching. All except about six or seven of the best of these canes should be removed over winter. The side branches of the selected canes of black raspberries should then get pruned to about half a foot long. Side branches of purple raspberries can be twice as long. After these canes finish fruiting during the following summer, they should be cut to the ground. New canes can then be pruned like during the first summer so that the process can be repeated annually.  

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Blackberry Canes Need Specialized Maintenance

Dormant blackberry canes are now available with other bare root stock.

            One of my favorite modern California impressionistic paintings depicts suburban gardening of the post agricultural period in the Santa Clara Valley. It is a finger painting that I made in kindergarten at Bucknall School in about 1972 or 3, to illustrate some of my favorite features of my grandparents’ garden in Santa Clara. To the left is a vertical brown stripe below green squiggles with black spots; the avocado tree. To the right is a similar image with red instead of black spots; the cherry tree. Between and below these, and lacking a vertical stripe, is a flurry of green squiggles with more black spots. These are blackberry canes.

            Blackberries are not at all ‘low maintenance’ since they require rather intensive specialized pruning. Most of the work that they need gets done during summer; but bare-root blackberry plants become available and get planted this time of year with other bare-root plants. Blackberries produce fruit on biennial canes which grow during their first year, and then bloom and fruit during their second year before dieing out.

            Once the tough roots are established, there is no shortage of fresh new canes to replace the old canes. In fact, surplus young canes can be dug and divided with roots to propagate new plants during winter. Because they have a way of spreading outward, blackberries should not be planted too near to neighbors’ fences without root barriers to keep them contained.  

            The most popular blackberries locally are ‘trailing’ types such as ‘Boysen’, ‘Marion’ and ‘Olallie’, which are also known as ‘Boysenberry’, ‘Marionberry’ and ‘Olallieberry’.  Less common ‘erect’ types, such as ‘Arapaho’, ‘Chickasaw’, ‘Choctaw’ and ‘Navaho’, are more tolerant to cold winter weather, so are more popular where winters are more severe. Hybrids of trailing and erect blackberries are ‘semierect’, and are generally treated like trailing types.

            After they get planted in winter, trailing and semierect blackberry canes can do whatever they want to through their first year. In their second year, canes should be trained onto trellises or wires until they have finished fruiting in summer. When the fruit is finished, these canes should be cut to the ground.

            Some of the canes that were growing on the ground below the trellises while all this was going on should now be trained like the canes that were just removed. For trailing types, about ten to fifteen of the best canes should be selected, trained and pruned to about six or seven feet long. About half as many canes of semierect types should be selected and pruned about a foot shorter. All remaining canes should be cut to the ground. (A few of the smallest remaining canes may be left intact through summer to be divided for propagation in winter.)     

            Side branches grow from the pruned canes through late summer and early autumn. At the end of the following winter, these side branches should be pruned to about a foot long. New growth from these stems blooms and fruits during the following summer. Again, when fruit is gone, the spent canes get cut to the ground so that the process can be repeated.

            Erect blackberries do not need to be trained onto support. Canes that develop during their first year can be cut to about two and a half feet tall in the middle of summer. Resulting branches should be cut about a foot long in winter. During the following summer, these fruiting canes should be cut to the ground as fruit is depleted. New canes can then be pruned like the previous canes were.

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Ponderosa

‘Ponderosa’ for the Ponderosa

Citrus ripen through winter. This ‘Ponderosa’ lemon is taking its time, probably because it is still growing. Individual ‘Ponderosa’ lemons commonly weigh two pounds, and can potentially get a bit heavier than five pounds. That is heavier than some of Rhody’s chihuahua friends. I doubt that this particular lemon will get much larger than it is now, but it is already bigger than an average ‘Eureka’ lemon. It is about as big as a baseball.

The problem with this fruit is that it is on a tiny lemon tree in a #1 can. It is one of two fruits. I should not have allowed them to develop as much as they have. I should have removed them when they first appeared in order to divert resources into vegetative growth, rather than fruit development. Now that they grew this much, I sort of want them to finish ripening. It would be a waste to remove them now. After they ripen, I can prune their stems from the tiny tree, and process them as cuttings to grow more new trees.

I would like to install this little ‘Ponderosa’ lemon tree into a landscape at Ponderosa Lodge. Not only is its name appropriate, but the weirdly huge fruit might be interesting to the children who come to ‘Outdoor Science’ school there. Contrary to the huge size of its fruits, ‘Ponderosa’ lemon trees do not grow very large or very fast. However, a mature ‘Eureka’ lemon already inhabits the garden there, and we recently installed a ‘Bearss’ lime. Another lemon tree would redundant. We would prefer to grow a more edible citrus within the limited space that is available, such as a sweet orange, Mandarin orange or kumquat. For now, we will just enjoy this tiny lemon tree with its huge lemons right here.

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Lime

Most ripe limes are greenish yellow.

Among citrus, limes are the most diverse. They include more species and hybrids than other types of citrus. Only a few of countless cultivars from centuries of development are available here. Yet, each of these few is very distinct from the others. Most provide juice for culinary application. At least one provides herbal foliage. Few limes are eaten intact.

Dwarfing understock is one commonality of almost all home garden lime trees. Not many grow more than twelve feet tall. With occasional pruning, most might stay less than eight feet tall. All have bright green evergreen foliage and small white flowers. Most have tiny but sharp thorns. Some are more bothersomely thorny. Fruit is green or greenish yellow.

‘Bearss’ lime is the most popular. Its ripe fruits are about three inches long, and resemble greenish lemons. ‘Mexican’ lime provides fruits that are about an inch and a half wide, on thorny stems. ‘Palestine’ lime is thorny also, with round and yellowish fruit that is edible intact. ‘Rangpur’ lime produces bright orange fruit because it is really a sour mandarine.

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Citrus Fruit Ripens Through Winter

Unharvested lemons stay fresh for months.

Winter is bare root season, which is the best time for installation of deciduous fruit trees. It is also the best time for dormant pruning of deciduous fruit trees. Evergreen fruit trees do not get much attention. Installation and any pruning of evergreen fruit trees happens after winter. However, regardless of perceived neglect, winter is actually citrus season.

Technically, citrus are always in season here. That is because most citrus fruits last so long on their trees after ripening. Also, some types produce a few fruits sporadically after their primary season. The latest ‘Lisbon’ lemons can still be good as the earliest of the following season ripen. ‘Eureka’ lemons ripen in minor phases after their primary phase.

Therefore, winter is citrus season merely because it is when most citrus fruit ripens. The schedule is ideal. It begins as pear and apple season finishes. It finishes as cherry and apricot season begins. Pears and apples, and especially cherries and apricots, are less predictable than citrus. Fortunately, citrus can begin a bit early or finish late if necessary.

All citrus are species or hybrids of the same genus of Citrus. Kumquats also classify as Fortunella though. The primary components of the flavors of their fruits are sweet, sour and bitter. The most familiar oranges are sweet oranges, but sour and bitter oranges also exist. Most lemons and limes are sour, but there are also sweet lemons and sweet limes.

Oranges, which are generally sweet oranges, are the most popular citrus. Navel oranges are traditional eating oranges. ‘Valencia’ is a traditional juicing orange. Blood oranges are a bit more tart, with blushed or red flesh and juice. ‘Seville’ sour orange is useful for marmalade. Rare bitter oranges provide flavoring for teas, and fragrance for perfumery.

Lemons are the second most popular citrus. Mandarin oranges, or mandarines, should probably be more popular. They are the more perishable of citrus though, because their rinds are relatively loose. Tangerines are merely mandarines of the Americas. ‘Rangpur’ lime is a sour mandarine. Real limes are very diverse, but mostly ripen greenish yellow. Grapefruits combine sweet, sour and bitter.

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Apple

There are countless varieties of apple.

Apples are amazingly diverse. They have been in cultivation for thousands of years. Too many cultivars to document developed during that time. Some ripen as early as summer, while others ripen for late autumn. Some are best for eating fresh, while others are better for cooking, baking or juicing. Some are sugary sweet, while others are impressively tart.

Malus domestica is the general botanical name for most domesticated apples. However, this classification includes countless hybrids of a few species. Some are products of very extensive breeding. Most can grow as large as small shade trees. Grafting onto rootstock limits their size accordingly. Most ‘semi dwarf’ home garden trees are relatively compact.

Apple trees bloom with small but profuse and brilliant white flowers for spring. Flowering crabapple trees generally bloom pink or reddish pink, but produce dinky fruit. Otherwise, apples are about as big as baseballs. Some are significantly bigger or smaller. They can be variable shades of red, yellow or green. Some are striped or blushed with two colors. Their deciduous foliage turns yellow through autumn, and defoliates through winter.