Netted Plum

Right after the apricot is finished being harvested, it is time to move the bird netting over to the plum tree. There is no time to wait for this, as that is how close the fruits come into maturity.

So I am putting up apricots, and the last of the apricots are just being stowed away when  the plums are ready to harvest.

Here is the Burgundy plum with fruit mostly at the bottom of the tree. Last year it had a light amount of fruit, and this year it was a healthy amount of fruit, and I really hard pruned the top of the tree to open it up and lower the height in the early spring.

We usually have a couple of plum crostatas, then I make jam, then we eat them fresh and give some away.

We have had this tree since 2011. It came from the Community College of So. Nevada when they used to have fruit tree sales in early spring. You would order them in November and they were shipped from a nursery in CA. This particular one is on rootstock Mariana 26-24. The only thing I can tell you about this rootstock is that it sends up saplings all around the tree from the roots. That might be consistent with most grafted plums but it is prolific!

Burgundy plum is a great choice if you are interested in getting a plum tree for your backyard.

Loving the Comice Pear Tree

I had gone shopping for a pear tree, and I had done research to find out what would grow well here in the foothills of Las Vegas. I recall looking for a Century pear, and I don't recall the other names, but somehow I ended up with a pear tree that had a lot of pears on it from the nursery, and they were cute little pears in abundance and it was nice to see what it was capable of if it had pollinators nearby, which would be all of the other pear trees all lined up for sale.

Well, it is a fabulous self fertile pear tree and I am really happy I got it.

It has been in the garden 2 years now, and the amount of pears on it this 2nd year is phenomenal for it's size!

I got it from Star Nursery and I do not know anything else about it, as typically I am at that place now where I like to write down where I got it, the name of the nursery it was grown at and the rootstock, if any of that information is possible. 

When I got it, I layrt also got another pear tree and it is an Asian pear, and I was hopeful that they might be able to flower simultaneously in order to pollenate each other. The Asian pear is earlier, and therefore does not get pollenated, and it is not self fertile like the Comice. The Asian pear is the Shinseiki. 

Right now it sits with 2 pears on it, and Comice has 31. That is a remarkable difference!

So I will have to get another Asian pear tree if I would like to have Shinseiki pears. and I have no idea where it will go, as it is pretty full around here. 

 Here is the Shinseiki. I do enjoy the difference in the pear leaf in contrast to the typical leaves of trees in the desert. They are so rich and full.

 

I have this pear tree planted right in the middle of the yard and I was really hoping that it would cast shade in this central part of the garden. The other fruit trees were going to be kept in backyard small orchard size with these two pears allowed to grow big for shade trees, and that was the plan anyway. This year the birds have discovered the Comice pear, and although they are not ripe, there are marks from bird beaks trying to get moisture. That might change the design of these two being large shade trees, if the birds go after the fruit, then I will have to net them, and there is a limit to the size they can get, and still be able to get a net over them to keep the birds out. Seems like I will be putting a net on the Comice!

Nice Little Dancy

I picked up a nice little Dancy mandarin tree at Lowe's. We have been getting those tiny mandarins from the grocery store in those mesh bags that are so easy to peel in the winter, and the idea to have a tree filled with those fruit sounded awesome!

It was planted in a very large pot, and overwintered, and had a heavy flower load, then started dropping all of it's flowers, and in a panic I determined that I cannot grow fruit trees in pots because the irrigation when it is on the same cycle as the rest of the yard, it is too difficult to dial in. Well it is just too much water in a pot. The same amount of water in the yard is a different outcome so in the yard it had to go.

Now, next to the patio where I had taken out the Pink Lady seemed like a promising spot. I had already filled in that spot with a pineapple guava and I was pleased with the fact that this is a foundational spot, this is the corner of the yard, and to have an evergreen there for winter was something that was needed because that whole area loses any sign of life, the peach loses it's leaves, the asparagus and the cannas completely disappear, and all you have are a few vining branches of the orange tube flowering vines and some iris.

So I snuggled the mandarin in next to the pineapple guava, and between the two of them there is humidity for this baking hot corner, and I think it will fare okay in the long run. I particularly like the depth of the plantings in this corner.

Transplanting a tree with fruit was daunting, and it did drop a few but I think there are 4 left, and it will be the first fruit for this tree if they hold on!

Some of the leaves have curled, and I wonder about the water difference, and the location difference of sun and heat, and the mulch, how it pulls nitrogen to break down. There are all of these differences to have to isolate why a particular thing is happening, like why are the new leaves curling? So I am watching it to see if it modifies back to normal.  What do you think? Mulch? You know, even a bagged product of soil to add to the planting hole can rob your nitrogen. I think it is the soil I bought to add while planting.

Off with Bigfoot

I had planted a nicely shaped apple tree that I had gotten from Star Nursery when we first moved into our home. I got a dwarf red delicious, and this was one of the first trees in the yard. It was before my fruit tree awareness... 

I saw the other trees that were available and at the time and it was limited on the variety, and pretty much the word out was that Anna did well here, and there were Annas for sale, but they were rough looking and I said well if it doesn't do well it would be pretty as an ornamental. My have I changed!

It was a very pretty tree, but it never really did fruit, alternating between a dozen to 2 dozen apples, and I considered it a fluke and wanted to remove it and start over with a different variety, but my husband was always complained saying it WAS a lovely ornamental, and by that time, whenever I was talking gardening with anyone, we would get on the subject of fruit trees and I would have this tree that was in name only which is no way to have an orchard.

It was the same with the bonanza peach on the dwarfing rootstock, the fruit was not that great, and I had removed that tree the year before, except the apple tree was much bigger!

Okay, so my husband goes away on a bigfoot hunting trip, and while he was gone I removed the apple tree, and I decided that I would plant the 2 1/2 foot tall Pink Lady sapling that had been damaged by a light saber. He was a little dismayed, but I have to keep busy while he is gone.....

It was so freeing to chop that tree down, and then there is the saying that you are not to plant the same tree in the hole of one that was there before, but I decided to go ahead and plant the Pink Lady there and see how it turns out!

Now here is a picture of where it was before. It was in the corner so in this picture it is on the far left. The branches were terminating out below where it was damaged. My experience with the last apple tree was that these branches really had a tendency to lay down and spread out, and I did  not want the tree to be that large in spread, so by cutting all of the lower branches off, I was able to force sprouts higher up on the trunk.

 So here is the Pink Lady in it's new home a year after it was damaged. It has 4 terminating branches and the shape looks good so far!

Brought To Your Knees

Well a lot has occurred about the fruit trees since the last post.

Startlingly, I went outside and my Pink Lady apple was folded over in half, and the top half was dangling and midway was a spot on the trunk where all I can imagine happened is that it had been whapped with a stick in the midsection, and the shock of the impact had scarred the entire core and outer bark, because it was like looking at a section of cork instead of a thin branch trunk of a tree.

We had had company, and one of the girls was running around with a light saber, and I imagine she whapped the tree and it took a couple of months to die, and I tried to save some of the branches to start some pink lady trees by propagating them and they survived the winter, until early spring, but I tossed them, because they really do need to be on a root stock to uptake nutrients in the desert, and to offer whatever the benefits the rootstock provides. So I tossed them. I realized I could only give them to someone as a flowering pollinator, and I decided against even having that conversation.

But what it speaks on is the ability to propagate fruit tree cuttings...

Also what it speaks on is that there is a 2 foot sapling without any branching form.

It was a shocker. To order the tree from the orchard up in North Las Vegas, plant it and have it for a whole year, you are so excited to see how big they are getting, an are so hopeful, then brought to your knees!

What to do?

Loosing my Lemon

(This is a past post. It is a couple of years old, but I am back to posting more pictures of my fruit trees to share with everyone, so I will bring everyone up to date with the new by starting with this post about the lemon tree.)

Lemon trees grow here in the Las Vegas valley. I see them in my travels, and covered with lemons in the fall is truly a magnificent site.

Many of the lemons last up to the following February, and I did have a lemon that I picked in March.

I noticed my little lemon tree was looking dry on one side of the pot, so I increased the water in order to have it be thoroughly watered.

It was too much for it, being in a pot, and by the 2nd day all of the leaves where wilted and hanging over.

Lemon trees do much better planted directly in the yard, and they do only like to be watered when they need a drink, and I had mine on the numerous times a day general yard watering system.

I think it was fatal. I have lost the lemon.

Over the Wall

Husband and I went to visit someone and happened to notice fruit trees lining the side of someone's house. It was nice to be in the passenger seat for the ride and notice the different familiar leaves.

 From the looks of it it seems that the first tree is a pomegranate, then maybe a
citrus as they can really get light green, then a apple, then a peach, then a fig.....

Then an apple, another fig, another pomegranate.....
 

 



Then what looks like possibly an asian pear... I just got one and it is similar. Look at the leaves they are so round....

 

I thought you might appreciate the orchard that they have growing on the side of their home that from the looks of it is less then 8 feet wide. (Most of the side yards are 6 feet wide.)

There is always plenty of room for fruit trees!