I’m on the 8b/9a zone line here near Houston. Pecans are dropping. Have picked up around 13 gallons of native nuts. For some reason this year the nuts are 55 nuts/lb which is as big as some of the smaller named varieties. Last year nuts were much smaller. Have got enough nuts to pick up only 2 years out of 7 we have been in our home. Tree is 2+ feet in diameter and 50+ feet tall. Shortly will get a friend to crack them for me. Makes picking out nut meat much easier. He has a commercial cracker.
Citrus is also starting to get softer and should be ready around December 1. Pictured is fruit from a seedling sugar belle mandarin hybrid. This variety is patented and not available in Texas so I had to grow out a seedling and wait. I grew out the seedling big enough for a bud and then grafted it to a fast growing rootstock trifoliate x grapefruit or swingle. I planted the seedling in the ground around 7 years ago and just got fruit last year at the top of the tree when it got around 10 feet tall. This particular tree was a 4 year old pixie mandarin. I took bud wood off the top of the bearing tree and top worked the tree to sugar belle. This will give me more fruit quicker. Fruit is on the large size for sugar belle but my large tree only has 6 fruit. Tree is now pixie on the bottom and sugar belle on the top. I’ve been lax in spraying the trees and the citrus rust mites have darkened the skin of the fruit. Damage is only cosmetic.
Citrus comes true to seed for around 99% of varieties. The sugar belle is true and I tasted the fruit last year although only had one fruit. BTW also growing out seedlings for Daisy SL(seedless) and Neopolitan(seedless). Got the seeds from fruit last spring. You may be wondering about growing out a tree from a seedless fruit. Ate around 10 pounds of Daisy SL and got a couple seeds so it isn’t 100% seedless! I always graft several of the seedling trees and give them to friends with lots of room to grow trees. I also ate around 10 pounds of blood clementine tree, ruby tangy, and didn’t get a single seed!
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