Your flavor king tree looks gorgeous, cute little tree! Flavor King on citation tends to be small with pruning. Yes, its a prolific bloomer and so is flavor grenade. 1 fruit every 12 inches should be ok depending on the age. How many years old is the tree?
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Hi @Girly ! It would be in the ground about 3 years now. I’ll definitely thin. I’ve gotten takes on this also from the scions you shared! You can see the makeshift supplies I used with the plastic bag keeping one of the scions moist. It’s already started healing and leafing out in there.
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Had been waiting for the right opportunity for an avocado and found this at a reopened OSH (Outdoor Supply Hardware, not Orchard Supply Hardware 
, looks almost exactly the same…).
It’s a Carmen Hass. Apparently, should conditions be favorable, it can crop twice a year. Need to decide and prep the spot this week!! Nervous given how picky they are supposed to be with drainage.
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Pretty happy with one major annoyance here in the small suburban yard (5760 sqft with probably <20% “arable”–without structure/hardscape). Spring in full swing as of a month or two ago, though it hasn’t warmed up appreciably yet, typical of this part of the San Francisco Peninsula. Very mild climate.
Huge problem with aphids on my Weeping Santa Rosa plum. Fruit still hanging, but >80% of the foliage is affected. Had been weary of spraying with oil as I set back trees >1 year with a heavy handed spray last year in Spring. Have done a few spots with soap in recent days to see if that helps and doesn’t induce phytotoxicity that was from the oil last time. Avoiding use of stronger synthetic pesticides.
Still working DIY… slowly… on window trim/paint on the house so avert your eyes 
May Pride, Eva’s Pride multi-graft tree originally purchased from Bay Laurel. Tried bark/cleft grafts of some peach/nect cultivars from @Girly , all but Baby Crawford took, will be re-trying
Bay Laurel purchased Flavor King pluot + more spring grafts from @Girly. One failed, will be re-trying:
Oroblanco grafts onto what I think is a seedling lemon from a previous owner. Lemons have very thick rind and not always juicy. Oroblanco graft a couple years old and first year with many flowers
Unknown rose from previous owner that I relocated. Weeping Santa Rosa needs to be tied back a bit
Home Depot purchased Satsuma mandarin, has been having trouble in this spot that is pretty heavy clay and probably more shade than it’d like. Negotiating with the wife to move some purple potato flower trees to make a new spot for this but not successful yet. Going to be removing anything that fruits as it’s just not put on any growth for a year.
Weeping Santa Rosa, aphid heaven. Almost thinking about cutting it down and grafting over the stump. Pluot is across the drive from it and has lots of aphid pressure but not curling so somehow has more tolerance of those.
Prior owner planted lime (Key?). Thorny, fruit turns yellow when ripe.
Bare root strawberries planted a couple months ago. Started to deflower but it crept up on me and if it slows their growth a bit, no problem. Not in a huge rush. These in the raised bed are way healthier than container planted, leaves are yuuuuuge.
Fuyu persimmon. Tried 2x grafts of coffee cake from @Girly but having trouble getting it to take.
VdB fig in sub-irrigated bucket. Has 4 brebas trying to ripen.
Calabrese broccoli. Seedling bay tree that not sure how it got there as well, will transplant when it’s a little bigger. Also tomato that I didn’t seed, probably from a dropped one last season.
Two in one hole cherry… mismatched rootstocks so we’ll see how it works long-term. Lapins on Zaigers dwarfing stock (newroot?) on right and Royal Rainier on Maxma on left (along with some Peach branches creeping in).
Anya Candycot seedling from @Girly . The mixed you used is great, going to have to ask for the recipe Trying to start some tomatoes, artichoke, peppers, japanese maple in pots there.
Flame Seedless being trained along fence. Trying to decide how to tie structure to fence posts.
Seedling Blenheim given by a friend. We’ll see how good fruit is, but not this year. Tiny fruit dropped, about 3 set from about 15 blossoms. Grafted tiny scion from Anya from the tree from @Girly there and Moorpark scions she gave. Both seemed to have taken but Anya just has the smallest green buds for now, while the Moorpark has leafed out.
Two in one hole Kishu and Golden Nugget. these had spray damage from too heavy of neem last year so they got set back and i cut especially the Kishu way back. Can see the older leaves with some trouble still on the Golden Nugget but new growth looks healthy.
Strawberry containers. same as in the box although varieties should have been tagged as I’m now not 100% confident which is which (Mara Des Bois, Sequoia, Seascape)
Pomegranate (Eversweet left, Parfianka right). Main thoroughfare (highway 82!) at front “yard”–primarily a driveway with some border area.
Phoenix/Mendez No. 1/Carmen Hass also in front [background of image] (going to have to fight off passers by from picking I hope!). Hoping the leaves just showing some transplant shock. Planted on a mound with some coarse sand to improve drainage, topped with compost and mulch. It’s slowly pushing some growth at terminal buds so seems … OK.
Overall shots. “Fruitway” as this used to be a driveway to a detached garage in the rear that we demo’d.
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Very nice garden. I am always embarrassed how folks here maintain a beautiful garden but mine (in a similar sq. ft) looks like a jungle
I have seen such fruit trees in my neighborhood. This is almost always a rootstock taking over a tree. I don’t know which rootstock produces such “pommelo” like fruits which is mostly rind. Seems like an old one before C35 or Flying Dragon which are commonly used as citrus rootstocks now. Your Oro Blanco grafts should produce delicious fruits soon.
My Satsuma plum was EXACTLY in the same stage last year. The trick is to do 2-3 dormant sprays in the winter. Cornell university recipes using canola oil, soap and baking soda are available online. I did that (with neem oil to be specific) and it made a huge difference. Significantly reduced aphid pressure.
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@californicus I’ve been hesitant to fully top work the lemon. It’s quite productive, but given what you said, I think a big CCPP order is in my future!! I get so lost when looking at their cultivar list as there are so many options for each category, e.g. many Navels, many Satsuma mandarins, etc. but going to do that this year!
Your comments and also those from @Girly in a PM make me think I have a chance against these aphids next year. I will definitely be diligent about the oil spray (& timing?) next dormant period. Surprising to me, it has fruit on the tree even in its sorry state. Will be monitoring to see if it matures and is any good…
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Also regarding the aphids, make sure you DON’T spray any ladybugs or other insects that like to feast on them.
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Ended up not spraying at all, as I did finally see lots of ladybugs (and finally learned what their larvae look like) and assassin bugs. However, the aphids took a toll, as after a huge bloom, not that many fruit were taken to maturity. About 12 total plums on a tree in its 4th season on my plot (was 1-2 years I would assume before I planted it).
Plums were very good though!!! Will check brix tomorrow.
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These photos made me really happy. Thanks for sharing (even if I’m late to the party).
I’m curious, for the espalier, why do you have both wire and a pole for training the branches? I thought that’s what the wire was for.
I see in later photos, that tree’s branches slant downward below horizontal. Is that what the pole was for?
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Hi @IntrepidNewbie if you’re looking at the apple with the bamboo poles along the laterals. I have read to use those to train the branches along to keep them straight. During the growing season the idea is to keep the poles at 45 degree incline to keep up the vigor, and then pull them down to horizontal upon dormancy.
This is my first and only so I’m sure there are other ways. When I do it again, I’ll follow the written advice on how to establish the layers, as I created the multiple layers too quickly in succession so that the lower laterals have not yet filled out/are not getting enough “juice” to grow into strong scaffolds as you’d want. Energy is going to the top ones mainly…
Good reminder, I need to get updated photos in here. Particularly excited to get some shots of my grafts in. Almost all are still small yet but some may fruit this year.
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To start, a couple recent ones of the pluot (mainly Flavor King), and peach. Have noticed bees really enjoy the peach blooms, but are choosy about the plum blossoms and don’t really spend much time on those…
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Gorgeous!!!
I’m watching my snow wistfully, waiting for spring…
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Flies always seem be the main pollinators for plums. At least where I live.
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Would make sense! A deep whiff to my nose has the plums and pluot resembling, though much more mild, the callery pear (yuck!).
Anyway, I will not get so worried about the lackadaisical nature of the bees with those. Thanks.
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I am going to have a pain thinning these peaches, pluots, and hopefully plums as well. One tree each, can’t imagine those of you with orders of magnitude more trees. Nice time of year to spend time outside though!
2 “in 1 hole” cherries:
get those aphids, lady B!
amazing cluster of once was flowers, many seem to be developing fruit. i’d think all but one have to go on each similar cluster!! quite a few clusters like this on the rather small tree (mainly Flavor King, but with some small grafts):
Lime is also out of its mind. Citrus blooms the best smelling, but most fruit is set now:
Weeping Santa Rosa’s form is getting better than it was:
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Gorgeous.
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Back again after being somewhat active with my fruit trees but after moving. I’m now in San Ramon, CA instead of San Mateo, CA area. A bit hotter and drier, less marine influence, but not quite Central Valley CA climate. 9B here.
I’ve moved into a house that had some existing fruit trees on the property but some in bad shape. I want to start cataloging progress again here hopefully as a motivator to keep it up.
What I’d also like to do is ID the trees/cultivars if possible. I have some confidence in a couple but not very sure about the pears. Anyone have a guess as to this tree? Previous owner only knew European pear. From googling, it looks close to Comice to me but I’ve never grown any pears before so that’s a pear newbie’s take. They’re not quite to the point of dropping off when I pick them up to 45 degrees from hanging which is what I’ve heard the “tell” is for harvest.
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Good to hear about your new lot. I can’t help with the ID but I’m guessing @mayhaw9999 and others will have some answers.
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Give me a good photo of the calix and stem ends of the pear. My Comice do not have the beautiful blush of your pears. Comice has a fairly distinctive basin so I may be able to help. Also, that stem looks quite thick.
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