Category: Fruit Trees

Multi-Graft Fruit Trees add Flavor in Less Space

multi graft fruit treesMulti-graft fruit trees include several varieties of fruit on the same tree. They save both space and effort while giving you variety and successive ripening in a small yard.

The multi-graft approach is practical. You don’t need to have multiple trees when just one tree will do the job of several. Each fruit variety grafted branch grows independently from the others on the same tree, and the different fruits always retain their characteristic flavor, appearance, ripening time, etc.

Many multi-graft fruit trees have been deliberately crafted to give you a staggered fruit harvest. By combining fruit varieties that bloom at different times, and harvest at different times, you get the added advantage of an extended fruit harvesting season. As one goes out of season, the next one comes in! This feature also means you get the benefit of a long-term fruit harvest without the “glut” of too much of a good thing all at once that you might have with a single species fruit tree.

Multi-Graft fruit trees are perfect for today’s smaller yards. Trees grow on semi-dwarfing rootstock; small size means anyone can have their multiple fruit harvest within a 10 x 10 patch of yard or less. So even the smallest of gardens can be a source of fresh homegrown fruit. It is not the fruit that is small, but rather the tree.

Come in for more details on how multi-graft fruit trees can give you the satisfaction of having your multi-variety fruit orchard in a smaller space than you might have thought possible.

January Pruning – What to Prune When

pruning[1]We have officially entered pruning season. Most leafless plants are fair game for pruning right now. Exceptions include ornamental flowering cherries, plums, and lilacs that bloom once a year in spring and are leafless now. Prune these just after they bloom otherwise you will be cutting off next spring’s blooms. Most other plants, including fruit trees and shade trees “can” as opposed to “must” be pruned because many plants are happy with little or no pruning.

Feel free to visit us for additional information.

For additional reading, the University of California has produced an in-depth article. Click Here For Handout

January Garden Checklist

checkbox Brighten the garden with colorful bedding plants. Refresh your garden beds and containers with primroses, pansies, Iceland poppies and more. Check with the staff for helpful advice and ideas.

checkbox Feed camellias, azaleas, rhododendrons monthly with Master Bloom through March.

checkbox Prevent crabgrass before it starts. Apply Bonide Crabgrass & Weed Preventer (with fertilizer) now to keep crabgrass seeds from sprouting in your lawn. Apply Bonide Crabgrass & Weed Preventer (without fertilizer) to ornamental landscape. Use Corn Gluten around edibles.

checkbox Spray Your Roses Now. An application of dormant oil just after winter pruning will help reduce pest populations by smothering over-wintering eggs. Spraying copper fungicides, as well, will halt diseases such as rust, blackspot and powdery mildew. Bonide All Seasons Spray Oil and copper are listed for use on organic gardens.

checkbox Protect tender plants when frosts are expected. If it hasn’t been raining, make sure to water plants ahead of a cold snap. Cover with drawstring frost bags or drape with protective frost blanket. String non-LED Christmas tree lights on your frost-tender plants when a freeze is expected. The warmth from the bulbs will provide another measure of protection.

checkbox Keep up your New Year’s Resolution . . . join the Livermore-Amador Valley Garden Club (lavgc.org) and the Mt. Diablo Rose Society (mtdiablorosesociety.org), Northern California Daffodil Society (daffodil.org), Iris Society (MtDiabloIris@gmail.com) and Valley Bonsai Society (valleybonsaisociety.com).

Figs

pixdfig[1]Fig trees are among the easiest fruit trees that can be grown.  They grow happily in the ground and some varieties in containers (Black Jack or Violette de Bordeaux), making them perfect for all kinds of gardeners; they also look great with bold textured, tropical-like leaves spring through fall. They need to be planted in an area with good drainage where they will receive full sun, at least eight hours a day.

In the past, we brought fig trees into the nursery in January with the bare root fruit trees, but figs would prefer not to go through the trauma of bare root transplanting. We now have a very large assortment of fig trees grown in tall liner pots, which means they have undisturbed roots and they transplant very well.  All are self-fruitful and very water-wise when established and long-lived.

Fig Varieties

Black Jack
Large, purplish-brown figs with sweet, juicy, strawberry red flesh. Harvest August to October in Central California. Naturally small (semi-dwarf) tree. Suitable for planting in a large container, or in the ground planting.
Black Mission
The favorite. Purplish-black skin, strawberry – colored flesh, rich flavor. Heavy bearing, large tree. Coast or inland.
Brown Turkey
Large, brown skin, pink flesh. Sweet, rich flavor used fresh. Widely adapted – coast or inland climate. A small tree, prune to any shape.
Panache ‘Tiger’
Especially fine flavor! Small to medium sized fruit with green color and yellow “tiger” stripes. Strawberry pulp is blood red in color.

Pomegranates – Ornamental – Edible – Wholesome

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Pomegranates are now in stock, a delicious and juicy fruit as well as a beautiful water-saving landscape shrub or small tree. They are perfectly happy in our warm sunny climate, producing showy orange-red blooms in summer followed by beautiful bright red fruits that ripen in late fall. There are several varieties of Pomegranates to choose from including Wonderful, Pink Satin, and Eversweet.

pomegranate-small

Pomegranates are also healthy. The juice around the seeds is laden with antioxidants, very delicious and a delight to eat. Press fruit to juice. If you object to a mouthful of edible seeds remove the seeds through a strainer.  Pomegranates are great for jelly making.

All pomegranates are long-lived, self-fruitful and they are naturally water-wise; they can be grown in any well-drained soil. A look through the garden on a spring or summer day will seldom turn up a pest on a pomegranate. They are virtually pest and disease free.

Varieties

Eversweet
Very sweet, virtually seedless fruit. (Even immature fruits are sweet.) Red skin, clear (non-staining) juice. Harvest late summer through fall. Coast or inland. 8-10 ft arching shrub, train as tree or espalier. Large, showy, orange-red flowers.

Pink Satin
Medium to large size, medium pink to dark red fruit with medium to large, light-pink edible seeds. Wonderful refreshing light-colored juice is non-staining, with a sweet, fruit punch flavor. The plant is vigorous and can be grown as a shrub or tree and kept at any height by summer pruning. Eat fresh, juice or use in salads.

pomegranate-seeds

Wonderful
Large, purple-red fruit with delicious, tangy flavor. Best quality in hot inland climate. Red-orange bloom, ornamental foliage.

Parfianka
A large bright red high quality fruit from Turkmenistan. Arils are large and bright red with a small, soft edible seed. Sweet fruit with a hint of acidity.

Eve
A superb introduction from the University of California. Eve pomegranate has bright red fruits with dark red arils. The flavor is excellent and has been described to have hints of cherry.

Grenada
Grenada pomegranate is known for being darker in color and less tart than Wonderful. It also ripens about a month earlier than most pomegranates.

Alternatives to the Traditional Christmas Tree

Consider a living tree to decorate this holiday season — Colorado and Alberta spruce are two great traditional choices.  If you want to be daring here are some fun alternatives:

  • Citrus already decorated with fruit
  • Japanese maple with stunning branches
  • Holly plant
  • A blooming Yuletide camellia whose bright red single flowers may well be decoration enough, or
  • A fruitless or fruiting olive
  • Bay Laurel makes a beautiful container plant. They can be trained to form a small tree, cone, or remain as a bush.
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Meyer Lemons

All of these possibilities would make great landscape plants at the season’s end. If there’s no room in your garden, consider donating your plant to the garden of a local school, park or church? What a great way to green our communities.

Here are some helpful hints to keep your living Christmas tree healthy and happy.

This is a hard one – try to minimize its indoor time. A week to ten days is a good maximum to be in the house. Choose a well-lit area away from the heat of a fireplace or furnace. Protect the floor with a cork trivet topped with a large saucer to catch the watering water. In between deep waterings water your plant with ice cubes that slowly melt (helpful hint: use a turkey baster to relieve excess water from the saucer after the plant has had an hour or so to absorb it).

Decorate with small lights and light-weight ornaments.

Backyard Orchard Culture

Plan backyard orchards for variety and prolonged harvests
For years, most of the information about growing fruit came from commercial orchards that advocated methods promoting maximum size for maximum yield but required 12-foot ladders for pruning, thinning and picking, and 400 to 600 square feet of land per tree. Tree spacing had to allow for tractors and heavy automated equipment. Homeowners today do not need or expect commercial results from their backyard fruit trees. A commercial grower would never consider using his commercial methods in a residential backyard, and neither should a homeowner.

Prolonged Harvest of Tree-ripe Fruit From a Small Space
Backyard orchard culture means planting close together several or many fruit varieties which ripen at different times and keeping the trees small by summer pruning. Homeowners today have less space for fruit trees, less time to take care of them, and less time to process or preserve large crops than in the past. Plan today’s backyard orchards with different objectives in mind.

High-Density Planting and Successive Ripening
Maximizing the length of the fruit season means planting several (or many) fruit varieties with different ripening times. Because of the limited space available to most homeowners, this means using one or more of the techniques for close-planting and training fruit trees; two, three or four trees in one hole, espalier, and hedgerow are the most common of these techniques. Four trees instead of one can provide ten to twelve weeks of fruit instead of only two or three.

Close-planting Restricts Tree Vigor – Helping Dwarf Trees Naturally
Trees won’t grow as big when there are competing trees close by. Close-planting works best when rootstocks of similar vigor are planted together. For example, for a four-in-one-hole planting, four trees of the same rootstock would be easier to maintain than a combination of different rootstocks.

Planting More Varieties Means Better Cross-pollination
In our climate, this can also mean more consistent production of pears, apples, plums, and cherries.

Typical High-Density Planting Option Diagrams


Planting Description
Planting Diagram

Area Dimensions: 8′ x 8′
Number of Holes: 1
Number of Trees: 2
Distance Apart: 18 inches

Area Dimensions: 5′ x 10′
Number of Trees: 2 (espaliered)
Area Dimensions: 10′ x 10′
Number of Holes: 1
Number of Trees: 4
Distance Apart: 18 inches

Area Dimensions: 10′ x 20′
Number of Holes: 2
Number of Trees: 8
Distance Apart: 18 inches (in each set)

The key things to remember are you do not need a lot of space and that you can plant multiple trees and even different kinds of trees in a small area that the old methods would have told you was not possible.

These are just some sample diagrams to show you how high-density planting can work in your own backyard, and, in fact, you do not even need a backyard. You can create your own functional, practical orchard on a patio or you can use containers and plant your “backyard orchard” on a sunny balcony.

Many backyard orchard possibilities exist using these new, but proven methods. Come in and spend a few minutes with your Alden Lane fruit tree professionals to learn your options for your particular space, lifestyle and backyard orchard goals.

Tasty Tropicals

Buttery avocados, red strawberry guavas, plump passion fruits . . . all grown at home. Wait – what? You mean we can grow luscious tropical fruits right here in the Tri-Valley? I thought our Sunset Zone 14 (USDA Zone 9) winters were too cold for tropicals!

While it’s true we are a bit too cold for many truly tropical plants which come from a climate with nary a frost, with a little imagination and shift in our thinking we can grow lots of similar fruits which can withstand a bit of cold below 32 degrees. Many of these are from sub-tropical regions of the world. Not only will you be adding delicious treats to your yard, you also gain gorgeous assets in your landscape.

Lots of these plants will look right at home in a landscape themed with layers of palms, large-leaved shrubs, and bright, hot flower colors, straight from your most recent vacation to the tropics. Plant them in sheltered spots in your yard – up close to your house on the south or the east side is a good spot for the most frost tender. Most like a minimum of six hours of sunshine to produce well. And think frost protection for at least the first few years – cover with frost blankets over the tops and down to the ground, and/or wrap with small incandescent Christmas lights for extra warmth.

Try growing a couple of these juicy edible tropicals:

  • Avocados – yes, challenging, but can be done! Pick a sheltered spot, and choose one of the hardier Mexican varieties, like ‘Stewart’, ‘Mexicola Grande’, ‘Fuerte’, or ­‘Zutano’. Fruit ripen 6 to 8 months after flowering.
  • Bananas – though you won’t harvest any fruit, what a great accent plant, and probably the best way to grow your own plates!
  • Guavas – so many sub-tropical varieties! They are beautiful, small scale, easy to grow, evergreen trees or large shrubs which deserve a place in every yard.
  • Limes – add some sweet/sour zest to your Mexican and Caribbean dishes. ‘Bearss’ lime (pictured above) is an all purpose juicy workhorse, while the smaller, rounder Mexican lime dazzles in cocktails and for eating fresh.
  • Dragonfruit – an intriguing looking cactus-type plant that bears a beautiful pink highly nutritious fruits.
  • Loquat – easy growing and tropical looking with its coarse texture and serrated large leaves. Try loquat for virtually effortless clusters of fruit. (‘Big Jim’ loquat pictured)
  • Passion Fruit – exquisite, exotic purple and white and green flowers like something off a space ship give way to green, then purple hanging orbs with sweet orangy-citrusy pulp inside. Try spooning it out.

To grow tropicals, practice good soil preparation incorporating lots of compost. We recommend Bumper Crop. Raise up planting beds, and add Sure Start at planting. Mulch well, and water deeply, allowing ­plantings to dry down a bit between soaks.

Enjoy the fruits of your labor!

Tree Ripened Fruit From Your Own Garden

Better than Farm Fresh – Tree Ripened Fruit From Your Own Garden!

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Just Think! . . . Your Own Farm Fresh Tree Ripened Fruit!!

Admittedly the grocery store is convenient and a farmer’s market has more taste and unusual varieties available – but the best of the best? Well, that’s just plain homegrown! 

For years Alden Lane Nursery has worked with Dave Wilson Nursery to purchase the best varieties of fruit trees, berries, and grapes for the valley area. There’s nothing like the taste of fresh peach plucked from your own tree – warm, juicy and sweet, or a warm, fragrant slice of apple pie made with apples from a tree you planted and nourished while it grew. 

Check with us at Alden Lane for the right varieties for your home orchard. We’re all about home orchard culture that is different from commercial ventures. It’s about having fruit in the garden throughout the summer and fall seasons because you’ve planted varieties that produce one right after the other. It’s about taking advantage of the space you can plant espaliers, four trees in one hole, hedgerows or whatever it takes to bring you the rewards of the best experience you’ve ever had plucking an apricot from your own tree and melting into the sweet taste. 

Pre-Order 2022 Fruit Trees starting later this month (end of July)! PRE-ORDER YOUR FRUIT TREES FOR ARRIVAL IN FEBRUARY 2022.

2022 Fruit Tree Pre-Order List

Planting and Growing Citrus


Citrus are the most versatile of the trees and shrubs that grow in our valley. They can be grown as specimens, in hedges, as espalier or in containers. Citrus plants offer beautiful foliage, decorative fruit, and fragrant flowers. Growing citrus can be easy; the difficulty is in selecting the variety which you will enjoy the most.

Growing Citrus

Choosing the Site
citrus-planting-diagramCitrus prefer a hot south or west facing location with good draining soil. Test how well the soil drains by digging a 1’x1′ hole. Fill it with water. The water must be gone in 24 hours. Citrus should not be planted in a low or soggy spot that has poor drainage or in a lawn. If the water does not drain, it may be necessary to raise the overall soil level by creating a mound or building a planting box or look for an alternate planting location. An open-bottom-box measuring 3’x3′ wide and 8″ deep makes a great raised bed. A reflective wall or fence is helpful and planting citrus under the south or west facing eve of the house will provide some important protection from winter cold temperatures.

Preparing the Planting Hole
Dig a hole three times as wide as the root ball and just as deep as the root ball. The edges of the planting hole should then be dug out deeper than the center to accommodate additional soil amendments. (See Illustration)

Improve the existing soil from the planting hole with Master Nursery Acid Planting Mix at a ratio of 75% Planting mix to 25% existing soil. To this improved soil, add the appropriate amount of Master Nursery Master Start and Osmocote Slow Release Fertilizer, mix thoroughly.

Planting
Plant by carefully removing it from its container. Gently rough the outer edges of the root ball if the soil is tight, and place it in the hole so that the top of the root ball rests slightly higher than the existing ground level (never place any soil above the root ball, covering the stem). Back-fill around the root ball with the improved soil mixture. Tamp to compress the soil as you go. Use some of the extra soil to build a circular dam around the new plant to hold a generous quantity of irrigation water.

Watering
Water the plant thoroughly after you have finished planting it. Let the water soak in, and then water again. Citrus plants need less frequent watering than most garden plants. Give it a deep soak once or, at most twice a week, depending on the weather, (frequent watering is the most common cause of failure with citrus). However, to preserve the crop, never let the plant dry out during the bloom & pea-sized fruit stages.