Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on January 3, 2010 at 7:48am

Hi April,

Leaf curl on peaches is frustrating. It is caused by a fungus. The spores wash into buds during fall and winter rains, and start growing when the leaves and flowers grow. Once it starts in leaves and buds, those leaves and buds can't be cured, they have to die off and be replaced. If the tree is healthy otherwise and hasn't been too overwhelmed, the new leaves that start after rainy season will get it through the year, until the cycle begins again.

I control leaf curl by a 2-step method. I agree it's intense. My trees are genetic dwarf varieties, and grow to 4 to 6 feet tall, so more like bushes. In early winter, I spray them with an organic copper fungicide spray. Then I bundle the branches together, and tie them, then cover with plastic bags, and tie those. That way, no rain reaches the branches. In March, when it looks like the buds are swelling, I unbundle the branches. I've only done this once (2009) but had bumper crop with no leaf curl, for the first time.

A better solution is to have leaf-curl resistant varieties. For that, you probably have to peruse the internet and get them via mail order - not sure if they can be shipped into California.

As for "nature", the vast majority of our fruits and vegetables are far from where they originated, and have been bred for size, flavor, production, and more recently, shipping qualities. Disease resistance was not a factor in most breeding programs. So, we have to deal with the result. Peaches originated in South China, and cultivation spread West from there through Persia, ultimately Rome and Europe, then to the Americas by the Europeans.

You can probably get really good advice from the gardening podcast out of Davis on KDRT . Your climate is a bit milder than mine, and longer season, but I love listening to that program anyway.

Permalink Reply by April Vail on February 3, 2010 at 3:56pm

Thanks so much for the great info! My peach tree may be a little large for bagging up (though we'll see what I'm saying next year). I guess the spray is my best bet. I'm glad there are organic sprays out there at least.

Thanks for the podcast suggestion! I hadn't heard of it before. It's great to find such locally pertinent knowledge!

Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on April 28, 2010 at 2:20pm

Are you taking boarders?

Don't worry, my fruit trees are my babies, I would have to bring them with me! I grew the figs from cuttings and most of the others from small baby whips.

This winter I added a mulberry and 2 more minidwarf apples - one is a Dutch variety, Karmijn, the other is Honeycrisp. The mulberry is starting to leaf out. I will also prune it to maintain low branching and a final height low enough to cover with netting to keep the birds out, and low enough to pick the mulberries by hand.

We are on our "3rd wave" of blooms - first the peaches, apricots, plums; then the sweet cherries, early apples, and pears, now the sour cherry and late apples. Next the grapes, although the blooms are not so attractive to human eyes. Figs are forming for the summer crop.

Sounds like a huge orchard, really just a very messy suburban yard.

Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on April 28, 2010 at 9:40pm

If your climate supports cherries, peaches, apricots, you can grow figs, I'm sure. Fig forum on gardenweb.com has a numbe rof Arizona fig fanatics, and they know lots of varieties that grow well there. Some of them will provide cuttings or starts, probably. I've mailed off lots of cuttings from mine, but it may be too late in the spring to start new fig cuttings. They usually start bearing figs in 2 or 3 years, in my experience, but bearing lots & lots of figs in 4 or 5 years.

Grapes should do equally well, if you can grow apples and stone fruits. Actually, also equally easy from cuttings. It takes about 1 year longer to get grapes from cuttings than from a purchased start.

SOunds like you have a fantastic place!

Permalink Reply by Tonya Wynn on September 15, 2011 at 5:59pm

If you have a healthy Black Mission, fig, I would be willing to trade you a found fig.  My dad found a long-ago abandoned fig orchard at the ancient Fort Pulaski in Savannah, GA and took cuttings, growing 5 trees from them, then 25 years later giving me a well-rooted cutting.  So I don't know the name, but it bears well here.  But, most fig trees bear well here, near Atlanta.

I also successfully grew prickly pear and wild plum trees (p. americana) from seed. 

Also edible and very good for you, PURSLANE, the horrible weed that is high in Omega-3 fatty acids...it's my newest found edible.  Nice for salads. 

Edible landscaping is one of my favorite subjects.

I have a loquat tree.  Plenty of cuttings, but none currently rooted.

Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on September 15, 2011 at 10:58pm

No Black Mission.  I have King, White Marseilles (Lattarula, Blanche), Petite negri, Brunswick (Magnolia), and Hardy Chicago.  Most of them I grew from cuttings.  

 

A lot of the information on growing figs came from a Georgia website.

 

I have some plum seeds planted, but no idea about what will happen with them.

Permalink Reply by Tonya Wynn on October 24, 2011 at 11:17am

Which Catalog are you purusing.  I know of a few...Raintree, One Green World...?

Are the gentic peaches yummy?  I read they aren't as tasty as non-genetic dwarfs.

My fig tree did SO MUCH better after I applied 2-3 pounds of wood ashes, from a woodstove, on it.

I would like Shinseiki Asian pear because it is self-fruitful, but I don't always trust what these catalogs say.  Also want goumi, a type of elaeagnus bush, but don't know if the taste is the same or as good as 'siverberry' elaeagnus, which I already have (and which is evergreen).

I'm confused about your climate zone.  SWEET cherries in your yard?!

Would you like some elephant garlic?  I fould it in an abandoned (now wooded) yard and it is SO easy and multiplies well.  I alo can send wild plum bush cuttings, and, next year, seed (we had a drought this year, so no fruit).

Just got Premier and Climax rabbiteye blueberry bushes.  But they get tall and are deciduous.

The Black Mission fig I wanted is no longer desired because most or all of them in this area have a black-spot-looking fungus, unlike any other fig around here.

 

 

Permalink Reply by Tonya Wynn on October 24, 2011 at 11:20am

Oh, just got the tender Black Ginger, which has dark leaves and tastes more like galangal.

Tasted the hardy ginger at work and it IS edible, just like 2 books said.  SO I want that.  Ours, at work, is $20 a pot, so I'll wait.  The peach colored one is fabulous, though!

Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on April 12, 2012 at 10:50pm

I'm double posting this pic because the comment thread is transient, and it's relevant here.  Sweet cherries are either in bloom, or about to.  This year they have the most flowers ever.  Here is the maintenance pruning I did July 18th - 

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Before

after

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I took off about 3 or 4 feet of new growth, leaving about 6 inches on each branch.  I also cleared some center growth because, unlike California, we don't get so much sun here in SW Washington.  When I do this, I always think "I've ruined the trees for next year's crop".  But here they are now.  The L tree is not quite in full bloom.  The right tree branches are covered with flower bud clusters - the most ever.

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Similar, this Hollywood plum.  I don't know if it will get many or any fruit - we had frost when it was in bloom.  The flowers are beautiful, pink flowers. The leaves and plums are maroon.  Even the plum juice is maroon.  They are so much better than grocery plums, they don't seem like the same species.

This is my little backyard orchard, or part of it.  The trees in bloom include a 5-variety grafted pear, another sweet cherry, and a 3-variety grafted sweet cherry.  The multi's take some special care but have the advantage of various ripening times, different fruit varieties, and superior pollination.  Horticulturalists pan them as gimmicks.  I have several and I like them, but they take care not to allow a vigorous branch to dominate the less vigorous.

Below is a 3-variety grafted Asian pear.  Asian pears are SO GOOD.  And like the plums, the grocery varieties are no competition.  This tree is in its 4th year.

Permalink Reply by Tonya Wynn on May 4, 2012 at 11:41am

My mulberry tree is so tall that I can't really reach the berries.  I pick them off of the driveway when they fall, but, boy, do they make a mess!  My driveway/walkway is stained purple!  I recently read that they are high in anti-oxidants and that they are used dried in the Middle East.  Want a weeping form for many reasons.  Mainly because I can reach the berries.  Got a few cuttings, but they may not have made it...no green leaves.

Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on May 9, 2012 at 11:09pm

I'm keeping my mulberry pruned small - not more than 7 or 8 feet tall once it gets to that.  Currently is is only 3 years old and 4 feet tall.  I prune it to train for a well branched, open center tree.  That way, I can cover with a net to keep birds out, and I can reach all of the berries without a ladder.  That's my theory - I'm not aware this has been done.  It works with figs, which are distant cousins.  And with many other fruit trees.

Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on November 19, 2012 at 9:31pm

Monica, thanks!  Home orchards are great!  You can get such good fruit, you'll never want grocery fruit again.

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