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.

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!

Staging Area for Tree Drop

I had wanted to add additional fruit trees to the garden. I had a bonanza peach that I had gotten when we first moved into our home. It was a dwarf tree, and it lived on the patio in a pot the first year. I finally decided to plant it into the ground and for nine years we had that dwarf bonanza peach and it was pretty, the flowers were awesome, but the fruit were pale in color, the flesh white-greenish, they were small and they were acrid. The had a slight tart sting to the tongue. So you think 'they are not getting what they need', maybe it is the lack of sun....

They were not picked too early, because you first notice them, ripened, when they are lying on the ground. The tree had a full lush canopy of leaves. The fruit were well hidden. That is why we had the tree so long. It looked so healthy.

Then you hear stories of peaches growing here in Las Vegas that are delicious, then you happen to taste one, and that is it! That dwarf peach has got to go. So I cut it down and dug up the root. I want you to understand what this entailed, so here is a photo of the tree.

 

As you can see from this photo it stood about 7 feet tall. It seemed like a big decision, and my husband wasn't too happy about it, but it was awkward to say I had a peach tree that you couldn't eat the peaches. I wanted a peach tree where you could eat the peaches, not an ornamental, althought it sure was pretty!

 

After it was gone, then I drew up a design of the backyard so that I could incorporate more fruit trees into the backyard space. 

  

                                      

 

Then I ordered fruit trees from the local master gardeners fruit tree order they put together in the fall. 

 

In the photo you can see the persimmon in the area in the top center on the right. It grew from two seeds that I had planted from a fruit I had gotten from the orchard when I worked as a master gardener a few years earlier.  I am no longer a master gardener. You could consider me a retired master gardener.

 

Well the two seeds that I had planted had both sprouted and were 3 feet tall. I had to cut one off at the base because they were not able to be transplanted and I couldn't keep two. I researched it and it did say they have a very long tap root, and if you cut the tap root that it will not survive, and as we live in a very rocky location, removing one of them by cutting it off was my only option.  Here is a photo of the two persimmons.

 

So that is what I did. I only have one now and it is going to be interesting to watch it grow and I will have to determine how to manage it because it is very close, as in extremely close to the pomegranate tree.

So with all of this, I waited for the fruit trees that I had ordered to arrive!




Oranges on a Whim

I was driving along and spotted this orange tree and had to stop and take a picture.

Seeing oranges growing in the valley is rare. 

There was alway the concern about the need of citrus to be protected by being planted in certain areas of the yard, thereby creating a micro climate that would keep the tree from freezing. The orange tree is up against the house in a corner created by the garage. The morning sun hits the face of the house and warms that corner as the house is facing due east. (the garage is on the north of the lot.)

 I hope to have my camera with me next time I spot a fruit tree so that I don't have to use cell phone photos in the future.

 

There are obvious concerns about the care of the tree. The place looks neglected, and that  is only because they don't have the mentality of a gardener. 

 

I learned from attending master gardening instruction that the lower branches that come from the trunk that typically are removed for asthetics, increase the girth of the trunks from their photosynthesis of the leaves, and they offer protection from the sun.  I am mentioning this because the first thing that I would do would be to trim off the dead branches and clear away the lower trunk growth.  Since it is probably suffering from watering issues (gardener's assumption based on the state of the yard) the leaves probably helped it's overall condition. But it does make you consider the amount of water that they do need! Something to consider.

 

Look at how tall it is! Wouldn't you love to have one!