Have what once was a driveway on one side of our house on 5k sqft lot morphing into something edible. Will use this for journaling a bit about what’s going on. Welcome any and all feedback as I’m new to growing fruit (and other good) and gardening.
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Here are a few navel orange scions grafted on what looks like a seedling lemon from a prior owner.
I think I’m supposed to head back when shoots reach a couple feet, and also select only one scion to remain.
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Nice looking grafts and 3 good takes! Nice job. Now you have to pick one soon. Look forward to seeing more of your edible “fruitway”
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So far on our little lot I have:
Lime, believe Bearss, from prior owner
Lemon, seedling maybe of Lisbon, from prior owner
Fuji apple espalier, planted ~Feb 2018
Weeping Santa Rosa plum, planted ~Feb 2018
Flavor King Pluot, planted ~Feb 2018
Flame Grape, planted ~Feb 2020
Multi bud Peach, planted ~April 2019
Fuyu Persimmon, panted ~April 2019
Craig’s Crimson, planted ~April 2019, died shortly after
Lapins Cherry, planted ~April 2019
Royal Rainier Cherry,planted ~April 2019
Kishu Mandarin, planted Spring 2019
Golden Nugget Mandarin, planted Spring 2019
Satsuma Mandarin, planted Fall 2019
Parfianka Pomegranate, planted ~Feb 2018
Eversweet Pomegranate, planted ~Feb 2018
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Flame Grape
Cherries planted 2 in 1 hole (3 but one died)
Persimmon (photo of the lone 2 fruits developing in second pic)
Apple espalier (will pull the top tier down once grafts are a bit more solid–it budded in April which all dropped, and now has two bud clusters as of a couple weeks ago)
Peach (was impressed with fruit set, but really screwed that one up on my own with an oil spray that was too concentrated, and they along with most of the leaves dropped. Really glad it’s recovering OK-- though now waiting for fruit until next season)
Weeping Santa Rosa Plum. (same as Peach in terms of fruit set and spray…
)
Pluot (some fruit actually survived the same spray issue)
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Thanks, yes was unsure if and when to pull the rest off but definitely can tell which should stay. The leader of the pack has pushed the buds to about 4-5" stems, other only has one that length and the third with tiny shoots still, similar to the picture which was taken a couple of weeks ago.
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I’m reluctant to give advice on citrus since I don’t (can’t) grow it, but if that were most other trees I think I’d leave at least the two best growing ones on there quite a bit longer-if not all 3. Nothing hurts more than taking off a good graft in favor of a better one, only to have the better one fail or break or whatever. I’ve seen several Dave Wilson videos where they leave all 3 grafts until they are 3 feet or more long!
One thing, though. I cannot urge you strong enough to somehow anchor one or all of those new grafts. The longer they get, the more the wind blows them. I cannot tell you how many times I have had perfect grafts like those break off or split the bark they are under or both. Nothing hurts worse than finding your big strong graft laying on the ground wilted and ruined because it broke off in the wind. You can attach a long stick to the trunk and let the top of the stick reach 12-24 inches above the graft point and tie the new growth to it. Or put a T-post along side the new growth and attach to it. You can figure out a way, but I implore you to do something before its too late and one or all of those nice new grafts break off or come loose from the tunk.
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Sage advice. I can handle that. Other side of the house has nice bamboo canes from 6-12 feet (that I wouldn’t ever plant but haven’t mustered the effort to dig it all out), those are pretty strong so I’ll use one or two of those.
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PERFECT! As I said, I’ve learned the hard way- on more than one occasion- what its like to watch a graft take and grow long and happy, only to walk up and find it laying on the ground after some wind! Trust me, the few minutes it will take you to collect some bamboo and brace those grafts will likely save you from having to start all over next year after loosing those to some wind…or a bird landing on them to rest, etc.
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Found these in the raised bed today. Apparently there;s something called Wolf’s Milk Slime… what a name! Never seen it before here.
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Noticed these strange cuts on the small persimmon tree. It has a number of leaves with them in similar fashion. One or two of which bend or fold as the slashes really limit the leaf’s ability to support itself. Always central around the vein and near the stem end like in the picture.
Bugs? Deficiency?
Noticed some white flies on it but doesn’t seem like anything they’d do.
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Also saw over that last two days this happening on the Violette de Bordeaux fig. It’d been growing fine after getting a slow start since I transplanted it to the 5gal bucket. Leaves are. it exactly cupping, the middle kind of twists over with the slight cupping on the outside.
I watered quite well though it doesn’t seem like it’s dry, and this was before the day was very warm (70ish at 9:30am)
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Violette is our most delicious but most water sensitive fig. Ours dries out much more easily than the others but it’s still my favorite
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I’ll keep a closer eye on the watering. I’d hoped this makeshift sub-irrigated planted from two 5-gallon Home Depot buckets would make it a little less sensitive to timing, but maybe I overestimated the impact. It had been doing pretty good after adjusting to the transplant shock with no noticeable curl for a month or two, but the warmer weather has only started over the last few weeks and I may have just not increased the frequency enough during the 80-90 degF weather.
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So, it seems I’d been outsmarted by the SIP bucket. The drain hole that is supposed to allow for some air exposure to the bottom of the soil media was plugged, so it was waterlogged for a number of days. Leaves are starting to return to normal after I unplugged it. Will keep an eye on this. I’d added some weedblock to the hole to keep mosquitos from using the accessible still water, but that got fouled so need to find a different solution.
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Picture from 3/3/21: Flavor King is happy? Perhaps, I guess I never know if it’s stress or happiness but at least it doesn’t look like it’s dying 
I also notice that some of the flowers have smaller ends of their male parts vs. others larger. Is this typically due to pollinators pulling off pollen grains, just variation in size by flower, or something else…?
Ignore the house!! Embarrassingly behind in getting it painted.
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The Flavor King is still fairly small.Maybe limit the fruit quantity for long term quality.
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Good spot. it isn’t very big. That tallest limb I headed back to about 5’ but most of the limbs are down around 4’. It’s in a pretty small space so I don’t want it to grow much wider but up would be good.
I’ll see how much it sets and likely have to thin a bunch. Last year it had great flavor for the 7 pluots I let it bear. How many do you think would be ok?
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what a fantastic show of flowers, great job! yard looks great
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Probably,not more than a half dozen.
BTW:I have some Honey series Nectarine wood,as per your earlier posting.
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