Home made fruit trees

When I bought our property in 1971 the orchard was a motley assortment of neglected and dilapidated fruit trees, relics from the famous Vacaville early-ripening fruit region. But it was late May and delicious cherries were ripe, followed soon by Royal apricots, Spring Crest peaches and various plum varieties, all with flavor beyond anything I had ever experienced. Without question I took on the job of preserving those old trees and propagating more.

When I talked about planting more trees, my old Italian neighbors showed me how their father started his orchards from scratch. Upon immigrating from Italy, he started most of his own trees by rooting cuttings and grafting them. Having little money but ample youthful ambition, I did just that.

Scion from Royal apricot being prepared
for grafting to wild plum root stock

Because a tree grown from the seed of a great apricot, peach or plum will not produce the same fruit as the parent, these and many other fruits are propagated by grafting wood from the desired variety onto a particular root stock. The root stock is a compatible type of tree that has good disease resistance and vigor but does not usually produce great fruit of its own. Apricots and plums are normally grafted onto a wild plum root stock. Peaches must grow on a wild peach root, and cherries on a wild cherry root.

Fresh leaves indicate this peach root stock
cutting has begun to take root. It will be grafted
to a Springcrest peach the following winter

So my old neighbors showed up one winter day with a handful of dormant wild plum cuttings, 15"-18" long lengths of suckers that had sprouted from the base (below the apricot graft union) of their homestead apricot trees during the previous year. As instructed, I stuck them in the garden about 6" deep and kept the soil wet. In spring the cuttings began to sprout leaves. Keeping them well watered, I let them grow through the summer, developing root systems and small branches.

The next winter I dug the dormant rooted cuttings and planted them out in the orchard, filling in empty spaces in the grid. After this second season of growth, I then grafted them to apricot or plum the following dormant season. Now except for a handful of original trees, our apricot, peach and plum trees have all been "home made" just this way.

Next post I'll show some of my favorite methods of grafting. Meanwhile, our warm dry spring has been perfect for pollination, so most trees are bristling with tiny fruit free of the fungus spots caused by late season rains. On the down side the lack of rain means low well levels and lots of stress for the trees this summer. But like us they will just have to make do with what they have.

A new peach tree in its
second year after grafting.

A grafted peach in its fifth year

Our Barn Owl Rodent Patrol

A family of barn owls comes out of their hollow tree

In the early days gophers were a constant problem, devouring our garden vegetables and gnawing through roots of young trees. Then one Spring we noticed a family of barn owls nesting in an old oak tree across the road. Watching with binoculars at night, we could see the parents flying in and out of the nest, a hollow cavity in an old branch, delivering rodents to their young.

Upon reading that a nesting pair and their young can eat more than 1000 rodents per year, I began making and installing barn owl nest boxes on and around our property. I felt that additional nesting sites would help establish a local colony. Given the declining number of barns and large old trees with hollow nesting cavities, it turns out that nest boxes are a sure way to encourage owls to live and breed in an area.

Four young barn owls in their tree trunk nest

The same owls just two weeks later

Now years later, our gopher problems have gone from out-of-control to insignificant. Many years we've had a bumper crop of new owls from multiple nest boxes, often with five to seven owlets per nest. 
I would strongly encourage anyone with rodent problems, or anyone just wanting to encourage owl populations, to  consider putting up a nesting box or two. Just Google "barn owl nest boxes" and you'll get a wealth of information. 

Young owls in a plywood nesting box

Above are five young barn owls inside one of my nest boxes. Note the age difference - the mother lays an egg every day or two, but begins sitting after the first egg is layed, resulting in staggered hatching and quite an age difference among the chicks.

Seven young owls crowded in their box

Above is a big family of seven owlets. We noticed the parents roosted elsewhere, appearing only after dark to hunt and drop off food for the young.

To take these shots, I waited until dark when the adults went out hunting, then climbed the tree and used a digital camera with flash.

Above is one of the adults, relegated to roosting in a tree since the nest box was overcrowded with young.

This adult peeks out of his box. I locate the boxes to give the owls
as much privacy and safety as possible, but it is a great joy to catch
a glimpse of them using binoculars or a telephoto lens.

A young owl takes his first tentative hop,
from the nest opening to a nearby branch

It is a real pleasure to walk outside at dusk and catch a glimpse of an owl, cruising silently over the orchard, on patrol for rodents. Who says you can't find good help anymore?

Some pruning tips

The orchard trees are dormant and now it's time for their annual pruning. This job is essential for maintaining tree health and fruit production, and keeping their size manageable. It is a big job involving hundreds of cuts on each tree. But it's also a creative one, like a type of sculpture, where I get to guide the tree's form and hopefully maximize its health and vigor.

In a previous post I discussed some general principles and objectives of pruning stone fruit trees. These were:

• controlling tree size and shape
• stimulating growth of new fruiting wood
• opening up space for sunlight and air to reach all parts of the tree
• removing dead or damaged wood

Here I'll show some of the details involved in good pruning practice.

Pruning tools
The photo above shows the basics - a three legged orchard ladder (the only type suitable for uneven ground), loppers for medium cuts, pruning saw for larger cuts, and bypass type hand shears for smaller cuts. Most importantly the tools need to be sharp and the pivots of the loppers and shears kept snug and oiled. Dull, loose tools make ragged cuts that will not heal quickly. I touch up my blades with a file or stone every few hours of use.

What to cut
Since most stone fruits are born on 2-3 year old shoots, always look for opportunities to remove older wood in favor of newer. The photo below left shows an older, silvery looking apricot shoot next to a newer, two year old shoot. The area is too crowded so the right side photo shows the older wood removed along with one shoot of the newer.

The photo below shows young apricot fruit spurs. These will bear for several more years so this branch would be a high priority to keep if possible. If the newest growth from the end is too long or hanging too low, that portion can be cut back to a few inches long.

The left side photo below shows the effect of pruning, namely that it stimulates future growth mostly right at the point of pruning. The red arrows show where two long shoots were cut back in January 2012, with the result that 2-3 buds near each of those cuts grew into very long shoots in the Spring. Left unpruned, this dense growth will shade out growth lower in the tree, will leave the tree taller than I want, will rub together in the wind, and with a heavy fruit set may break off. The right side photo shows the shoots thinned from 3 to 2, and the remaining ones shortened by 3/4 or more.

Dead wood can attract disease, adds to clutter in the tree, and can damage fruit that might rub against it in the wind. So always remove dead wood, even small twigs as pictured at right.














Where to make cuts
The bigger the cut the more easily disease can enter the tree through the wound. And large saw cuts may never heal over completely. But careful and neat pruning can minimize the risk. When completely removing a side shoot from a branch you should avoid leaving a stub. This does not exactly mean cutting it off "flush" but rather just beyond the "collar." The photo at right shows the pruners positioned slightly away from the main branch, at the narrow point of the collar. This will leave a wound about half the size of one made perfectly flush to the main branch. It also creates the wound at an area of intense sap flow and hence faster healing.

And by the way, applying a sealer or "wound dressing" has not been shown to speed healing and may even harbor disease organisms in pruning cuts.

When making heading cuts (shortening a branch rather than completely removing it), you can somewhat direct the resulting new growth. In the photo at right, the cut is made just above an outward facing bud. This will tend to encourage further spreading of the tree. But when a branch is already extended quite far you might choose to cut to an inward facing bud or side shoot.





When heading a branch back to a lateral, that lateral should be at least one third the diameter of the branch being cut. Otherwise the lateral has little chance of surviving. The photo at right shows the wrong place to head back (red X) versus the better choice (removing completely at the green line). If a cut is made at the red line, the tiny lateral will be right next to a large wound and will likely die.

The next two photos show a small apricot tree before and after pruning. Too-long shoots have been headed back to make the tree strong and stocky, and many have been removed to eliminate crowding and allow light penetration. All cuts were made with an eye toward replacing older wood with newer, keeping the tree to a workable height, and maintaining ladder access for thinning and harvest. Another critical point for our hot summer climate is leaving plenty of small shoots on the south and west facing branches to prevent sunburn. It's hard to show all this with two dimensional photos, but clicking on each to enlarge might give give you a better idea.

Before pruning

After pruning

Of course each type of tree has its own growth habit and therefore slightly different pruning needs. Here are some resources that might be useful:

• http://www.davewilson.com/homegrown/BOC_explained.html
• http://cesonoma.ucdavis.edu/files/27164.pdf
• http://homeorchard.ucdavis.edu/8058.pdf
• http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/07003.html
• http://cals.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/mg/pruning/fruit.html

Persimmons

Our Fuyu persimmons are plentiful now and we should have them through mid December. For those not familiar with this tasty Fall fruit, Fuyus are the type of persimmon that can be eaten firm. They are mild and sweet, delicious eaten like an apple or peeled and sliced into fruit or green salads. They also make a great dried fruit.

Fuyus with lime

But once again we have to mention our favorite special fruit plate: sliced Fuyus with lime. This simple yet exotic taste combination always gets "wows" when served to guests. Just peel with a vegetable peeler, slice into rounds about 1/4" thick, and drizzle with a bit of fresh lime juice. The sand dollar-like markings inside the fruit also add visual appeal to this amazing dish.

More information on persimmons can be found here and here.

We also have Hachiya persimmons. These are the type that need to be ripened off the tree until fully soft before eating. Once gooshy soft they are like jam inside a skin, super sweet and perfect to spoon directly over oatmeal or pancakes. The sweet pulp can also be used in cookies or fruit bars.

Always call ahead (707-448-4792) before coming out to make sure we're here and have fruit for sale.



Wild grapes decorate the creek banks each Fall

The first rainy days, it's time for soup!

The first rains of fall delivered many pleasures, freshly-washed air and gorgeous clouds among them. The trees appreciated the shower; their leaves immediately perked up and absorbed the moisture. Our soil is now soft underfoot and the dried leaves and grasses are quiet too, no longer crunching underfoot. We now turn our thoughts to planting the winter cover crop in the orchard. If there is a good dry spell this weekend we'll have our chance.

 

Meanwhile, we have a new recipe to share. Our neighbor Judy gave us a butternut squash from her garden. We had apples from Bill’s mother in Mendocino County and some onions from our garden. The result was a smooth and hearty soup, perfect for autumn.

Curried Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees. Put a large roasting pan on the lower middle rack and pre-heat it too.

Roasting Ingredients, group 1:

• Butternut squash, about 2 pounds, peeled, seeded and cut into 1 ½ -inch chunks
• 2 medium size onions (or 3 shallots) peeled and quartered
• Golden delicious apples, 1 pound, peeled, quartered then chopped in half
• 1 Tablespoon canola oil
• ½ tsp. salt (or less)
• ¼ tsp. pepper (or to taste)

Put all the above in a large bowl and toss. Put this mixture into the pre-heated roasting pan, spreading it out evenly.  Roast it until the squash is soft and slightly brown, probably 50 to 60 minutes. Stir the mixture halfway through the roasting time.

Soup Ingredients, group 2

• 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• ½ cup water
• ¼ cup half-and-half
• 1 Tbsp. Maple syrup
• ½ tsp. curry powder

When the roasting pan comes out of the oven, add about ½ cup of the broth to the pan, then scrape up the brown bits off the bottom; add a little more broth if needed to get the bottom clean. Return pan to the oven for a few more minutes if there is still liquid visible. Otherwise, turn off the oven and get out the blender.

Combine the broth, water, and the roasted mixture in the blender until smooth, working in two or three small batches. Put everything in a Dutch oven or soup pot and add the syrup, half-and-half, and curry powder. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Heat gently until hot enough to serve.

Recipe taken from America’s Test Kitchen Light & Healthy 2010, pp. 38-39

Checking Soil's Vital Signs

We are finally getting some cooler mornings, the sun's path is moving quickly south and we're occasionally treated to beautiful cloudy sunrises, all signs that Fall is approaching and it’s time to prepare the orchard soil for the wet season. Our annual load of compost is ordered and I will soon spread it in the orchard along with any needed amendments, then sow the cover crop seed. Just like our body chemistry, soil chemistry needs to be balanced in order to maximize plant vigor and disease resistance. So each September I pull soil samples and send them off to an agricultural testing lab for analysis. The results will give a snapshot of chemical balance in the soil and point out amendments that might be beneficial to the cover crop and fruit trees.

Of course a perfectly balanced, rich soil alone does not guarantee good plant health since there can be many other problems like plant disease, poor drainage, harmful nematodes, fungi, root eating rodents, or aggressive competing roots from nearby non-crop trees. I occasionally sample soil for others, and in fact in some cases have seen the most obvious reasons for their poor plant health to be invasive roots from nearby landscape trees as well as severe gopher damage to roots. Those problems need to be dealt with, but a balanced soil will give plants the best chance of coping with most other stresses as well as maximizing nutrient content and flavor of the food harvested from that soil.

Soil testing probe

Taking soil samples
For meaningful results soil samples must be correctly taken, and to spot trends over time they should be taken at the same time each year and sent to the same lab. I use A&L Western Agricultural Labs in Modesto which provides excellent service. Of course once you have the results you need to figure out what they mean, and soil balancing is as much art as science. A&L will provide broad recommendations if requested. Another option is to order their test through Peaceful Valley Farm Supply and order the soil test package that comes with the booklet, "Understanding Your Soil Analysis Report." I send my samples directly to A&L and interpret the results myself using several books and publications along with observations from over the years.

The soil test report contains measurements of available major nutrients, the proportions of certain positive ions, pH, soil organic matter content, the presence of salts, and for the comprehensive test we order, trace mineral amounts. Before amending soil to correct imbalances there are several important points to remember:

-If a soil is too acid or alkaline (pH too low or high), some nutrients become unavailable to plants. Generally calcium in the form of lime is used to raise pH in acid soils and sulfur is added to lower pH in soils that are too alkaline. However there can be other reasons for a pH problem and just adding calcium or sulfur to soils already high in those elements may cause other problems.

- Higher nutrient levels are not necessarily better. If the level of one element is too high it can "tie up" other elements making them unavailable to plants. So the aim of fertilizing should generally be to balance nutrients rather than assuming that "more is better."

- Trace elements are critical to plant health and balanced soil chemistry. Just as our bodies need very tiny amounts of vitamins along with macro amounts of carbohydrates, proteins etc., elements like boron, copper, manganese, and zinc need to be present in single digit parts per million amounts for balanced and healthy soil life.

- Building a high organic matter content should be a top priority. Organic matter (decaying plant and animal residue) is the engine of soil health. It improves soil structure, aeration, drainage and water retention, it increases soil biological activity and thereby provides for the slow steady release of nutrients to plants, and it tends to buffer nutrient levels so they naturally come into balance. But as with other amendments the type and amount of organic matter is important. Too much raw high carbon material like wood chips or straw mixed into the soil use up nitrogen as they break down, causing a shortage in the crop. So well decomposed compost is best.

- It can take years to increase organic matter content, and tilling is the enemy of organic matter, causing it to quickly oxidize and disappear. Three steps to building soil organic matter are:

1. Park the tiller.
2. Never leave a bare soil surface, instead always keep either a crop or cover crop growing, or cover the ground with compost or mulch when between crops.
3. Before planting the garden mow the cover crop closely, then run a stirrup hoe down the row to slice off roots just below the surface without inverting the soil. Then plant and apply more mulch or compost.

Aggregation or tilth are terms used to describe the physical condition of soils that are porous, high in organic matter, and crumbly, all important qualities of a healthy soil. Our untilled soil has by now developed the texture of an oatmeal cookie, bound together loosely by root hairs and the excretions of biological life but easily crumbling in the hand.

Summertime, and the livin' is hot

Here in early August we're moving more slowly. Done with the frantic June/July harvest, we can now afford a more relaxed pace better suited to the summer heat. Not that there isn't plenty to do, but we are free from the unrelenting flood of ripening fruit during peak season.

Figs in the solar dryer

Our only commercial crop right now is second-crop figs; there are only two trees which we can easily manage. We are drying most now but starting next week will begin restaurant deliveries.

We seldom have extras for sale to the public, but this wonderful fruit can be found growing wild along many local roadsides. For recipe ideas check our previous posts here and here.

Drip irrigation in the orchard

With the apricot, peach and plum crop done for the year the trees are storing food in their roots and developing buds for next season's fruit. This period between harvest and winter dormancy is an important time in the cycle and despite our very dry summer soil the trees manage well. Their leaves will flag in the heat of the afternoons (as do we!), hanging limp and closing off their stomata to conserve moisture. But they perk right up overnight and put on vigorous growth year after year despite getting only a tiny fraction of the water lavished upon conventionally irrigated orchards. Our water supply is very limited so I use small emmiters dripping through mounds of compost to serve as watering/feeding stations that apply about 20 gallons of water per tree per week along with nutrients leached from the compost.



Juliet tomatoes

As the trees store up food for next winter we are busy doing the same. We've canned, dried and frozen loads of fruit and now are hoarding garden crops. As usual our favorite tomato variety, Juliet, is producing like crazy and Fern is filling the pantry with canned tomatoes, soup and salsa.  Green bean vines are growing inches a day and okra is producing heavily.

Okra blossom



A rattlesnake waits for a passing rodent

Of course everyone has to eat and rattlesnakes are no exception so this time of year we have to be careful where we step or reach. We recently were treated to the sight of two big gopher snakes mating. They seemed quite enthusiastic and not at all self conscious, writhing and twisting for several minutes as we stood there watching!

Gopher snakes making whoopee

Our resident hummingbirds are entertaining us with their feeding frenzies, emptying two large feeders daily. While too numerous to count we estimate that hundreds must live in the area.



So mid-summer offers much to do but also lots to see and enjoy. Life is good and we experience each sunset with appreciation for the day's gifts.