Greetings from Lake Balboa, CA!

General Fruit Growing
#1

Looking forward to interacting with all of you. I see a lot of familiar names. As most of you already know, I’m a long time Backyard Orchard Culture fan.

Here’s what I’ve got growing. Everything is in ground except blueberries:

Citrus: Washington Navel, Valencia Orange, Lane Late, Meyer Lemon, Pink Lemonade, Kishu Mandarin, Page Mangarin. Bearss Seedless Lime, Meiwa Kumquat

Pink Lady apple - Royal Apricot - Flavor Delight Aprium - 20th Century Asian Pear - Hass Avocado

Blueberries: O’Neal, Misty, Sunshine Blue, Jubilee, Emerald, Sharpblue

Thornless Boysenberry - Fall Gold Raspberry - Loquat: Big Jim, Champagne - Olive: Arbequina, Arbosana - Fig: Black Jack, Panache, Violette de Bordeaux

Crimson Seedless Grape - Pomegranate: Angel Red, Wonderful - Pluot: Dapple Dandy, Flavor King, Flavor Grenade - Plum: Burgundy, Beauty, Santa Rosa

Peach: Babcock, Desert Gold, August Pride - Nectarine: Arctic Star, Goldmine

Strawberry: Quinault, Albion, Camarosa

The goal here is to walk outside my door and bring in high-quality fresh fruit every day of the year. So far so good.

#2

MeClint,

Very good to see you here.

Mike

#3

No, please, no reports on your current outside temps and what you are harvesting in February! :wink:

Great to have you aboard, Mr. Clint.

#4

Hi, Clint, good to see you here. Tell me about your strawberries - do you grow them in the ground? How do you keep the snails out? Thinking of putting mine in my raised veggie bed.

Patty S.

#5

Thanks for the warm welcome! I like the new forum. Nice to see that you folks started your own forum.

Mike, you’re up there near Alan?

Alan, had to sleep with the window closed last night, downright chilly! Best wishes go out to all of you that are battling this frigid Winter. I flat out wouldn’t be able to do it.

Patty, I had to move my strawbs to pots. The trial bed was in a cleared out lawn area, which only works for annuals as the lawn is primarily Bermuda & St Augustine grasses. Slugs have been almost non-existent since I started using redwood bark mulch around paths and beds. I do see some from time to time, but they are not very adventuresome. Birds are a problem, so I use the little plastic berry baskets as cages to keep them out. Here’s a pic I took this morning:

#6

MrC…

Yup… probably 50-60 miles straight north of Alan.

Mike

#7

Keeping the strawberry footprint small and manageable this year. Here’s this morning’s haul:

#8

Nice snack

#9

Yes, after lunch snack. :ok_hand:

#10

Good way to grow strawberries - in pots. I think I will order up some runners and stick them in my raised bed. I’ll have to put netting over the bed so the dang birds stay out, too. Curious as to why you picked your particular cultivars, and what are you currently picking? I know you’re good about stretching our harvests, so I’m guessing that may be one reason way you’ve picked these 3 cultivars, but what else made you decide to select these three?

#11

When I did my trial these three emerged as winners for one or more of the following reasons: Flavor, preciousness, size, texture and plant vigor. A lot more June bearing berries will be added this weekend. When they are going great guns, I have to cover them with BirdBlock.

#12

Thanks, Clint. This is what I figured. What grows well for you should do the same for me, as our climates are very similar. Keep us posted, would you? I haven’t grown strawberries yet, because for me, too many snails/slugs, so they would have to be up in pots, or better yet, up in my raised veggie garden. So, harvesting a bunch of lettuce to make room for the strawberries. Haven’t seen any snails make it all the way up to the raised bed. Yet.

#13

Patty,
It almost seems that it’d be too hot and dry there for those creatures.Maybe they are clever at finding a cool and wet place to live. Brady

#14

Oh, I’m not hot and dry, Brady. It’s pretty mild where I live. I’m only about 6 miles from the coast. We have an ocean view :slight_smile: We have a huge issue with snails and slugs, mainly due to all the plant material in my yard. They get themselves under the plants and hang out there, and then in the evening, they all come out and munch away. I probably should take out stock in Sluggo, for as much as I buy, lol!! :snail: :snail: :snail: