Backyard fruit growing in So Cal. While our Sauzee Swirl tree is just starting to push out a few flowers at this point, our August Pride is putting on a full flower show - not holding anything back!
Any bee activity?
Yes, thankfully several bees are working it as we speak! The warm weather has helped. The bees haven’t seemed to be as excited to visit my one pluot and one pluerry that are blooming right now. So I have been playing pollinator with those two in hopes of fruitset.
16 for a low yesterday, 21 today, if you need additional chill hours, you can take half of mine!
Yeah, we are getting an almost “normal” winter here in the NE as well. The lows never seem to get down to where they used to though. Of course, the main thing is to avoid early spring here- that often leads to frozen off flowers.
I have always observed the same in my orchard. Pluots and plums are the least bee attracting trees. Nectarines and cots attract bees very well.
Wow that is early.
Checking in a few weeks later. This August Pride tree has some serious fruit loading up on it! Will soon need to start thinning!
Have August Pride and May Pride on this one (some other smaller grafts but they’re still small & in the background of the photo, hoping for more extensive growth on those this season), full bloom here now, just starting to get some of the earliest petal fall. My 10A is a bit later than SoCal 10A
Honestly, wish we had more rain! We got a great amount for the area before the new year and it’s been completely dry since, plus a warm spell that’s now subsiding a bit. Back to our normal Spring range of 55 to low 60s high, mid 40s low. Peninsula part of SF Bay area.
Not sure where the OP is but my parents house in SoCal, northern/eastern Orange County was in the high 80s low 90s last week. Too
I’ve got to start watching like a hawk for aphids, they decimated my Weeping Santa Rosa last year.
I am here in northern/eastern OC as well in the city of Tustin. Over the next week, we are looking at 60s-70s during the day. 40-53. We were at 90/91 as a high on Wednesday-Saturday last week. Then it rained/hailed on Tuesday night. Now it’s on to the dry, gusty Santa Ana winds. Don’t you dare tell my garden it is only February!
Weird! My parents are walking distance to Foothill High and Hewes Middle.
Yeah that’s my hood!! We are technically in unincorporated Santa Ana. We love the area… being close to everything, but also being able to have a big lot, no street lights, and hearing the roosters crow in the morning. It is kind of a rural island in OC.
Very interesting! I grew up in the house they’re still in so know the area very well. Lived there before I was 18 and a couple years in my 20s.
They have always had an apricot tree (unknown variety), lemon, navel orange, valencia orange, tangerine, kumquat, loquat, a plum (removed), Hachiya Persimmon. They’ve since added a mandarin, another navel, apple, plum, nectarine, avocado, and cherries. But they’re having quite a bit of trouble recently keeping things healthy. Citrus have good but few fruit, and trees are pretty defoliated, avocado was sunburned, young citrus isn’t growing strongly, etc.
I think they’re not watering or fertilizing enough, but also their soil is such heavy clay and I can’t motivate them to add what I think should be tons of organic matter (over time) in compost and mulch. My mother’s been a gardener for forever, but tends to want nature to sort itself out when it comes to the fruit trees.
Are you having good results?
We have been in our home for two years so most of our trees haven’t been in the ground all that long. I was able to amend the soil before I planted which helped with the heavy clay we have here. My happiest trees here at this property are the avocados, mandarins, oranges, peaches and nectarines. I am always battling something with my plums and pluots. I’ve heard the same from my neighbors about plums and pluots. Maybe they cannot take the heat as well as the other trees. Blueberries also do really well here. I’m just eating my first berries off my early low chill varieties of blueberry this week