Off the citrus topic for a second, here’s the rest of the harvest out of my orchard (in Nov). Again, most trees are 4 years old, so I wasn’t expecting anything. These were fun surprises.
Shogun Fuji on the left, Fuji on the right. There were a few Shinseiki pears, but the wasps got them.
This year most things will be 5 years old, so I’m looking forward to much more fruit! About 116 trees should be entering maturity!
Nice haul! How would you describe the difference between the Beni Shogun and regular Fuji? I loved growing Beni Shogun in the PNW but am unable to find here.
Shogun are known to water core, which is highly sought after in Japan. I think it also makes good juicing. Both are great at juice, just different. Fuji’s tend to be a little larger. That was def the case here. Could have been just new trees and an juvenile crop, but it is a known trend.
Some people really dislike all the sporterized versions of fuji, but I think the Shogun deserves some recognition. It makes a nice apple.
Shuguns have the added bonus of not having any known susceptibilities to apple ailments.
There must be a nursery somewhere in europe that can offer you a shogun!
Just finished hand pollinating my 2 Flavor Delight Apriums today. They have a lot of blossoms this year but started pushing early this year, they were at pink on Feb 7. My Beauty plum was not about to cooperate and be in bloom at the same time, just holding out at white popcorn, so I cut off a couple branches 3 days ago and brought them indoors in a jar of water. This worked well as they burst into bloom.
Im afraid that many of my aprium blossoms have been damaged by frost as you can especially see in the 2nd pic. Almost every night is below freezing.
I just picked my last 8 variegated lemons Sunday. They were in very good shape. The remaining yuzu were rotting inside their peels, though.
Hello Pacific Northwesters! Does anyone in the wet part of the PWN grow VIP, or any of Freddy Menge’s red-fleshed apples? VIP (below) often wins taste tests there (see https://www.instagram.com/p/DQAIeTqktE3/). There’s also Red on Red and Ruby Tuesday. I’m curious if they’re tasty here where it’s wet and cool and how they do with scab. Thanks!
Never seen those around. Did you order some?
I have had the older and less flashy mountain rose for a while now. It has never had any scab or problems and is a good eating apple. I have had my Lucy glow 3 years now and got about a dozen scab free apples last year from it.
Ooh, how did your home grown Lucy Glo compare to the ones from the grocery store? It will be 2027 at the earliest for me to get some.
I have them. I have Code Pink too. I had an apple last year, on first year i graft them and it was amazingly Sweet! Brix 20. Other Franky varieties should be all very good.
No I was hoping for some scab reports before I tried to decide which one to get. Thanks for the intel about Mtn Rose and Lucy Glo!
Mt Rose gets scab pretty bad for me. Its one of those varieties like Gala that even if you beat the primary scab if there is any secondary in the neighborhood it will infect the tree easily even in dry weather. The morning dew runs down the apple and sits on the bottom just long enough to, eventually after several days, generate a scab outbreak. So I have a lot of Arlie Red with scab on the bottoms. I use those for drying.
I have no experience with Lucy Glo although it does seem to ripen about 2-3 weeks earlier.
Hiya all, I’m Sox and I’m in Tacoma, WA 8b. Nice to meecha! 
I’m SUPER excited to finally meet some local growers in my area!!! I’ve been a gardening youtuber (SoxInTheGarden) for a little while now, so most of my online friends are all in Georgia, Texas, Australia and the UK, lol. So I’ve been feeling lonely growing here in the PNW. 
I grow lots of stuff in my backyard, all in containers, since I’m a renter. My dream is to one day have my own house with at least half an acre, so I can start my food forest! Thus, everything is in pots so I can move them with me when that dream comes true.
Temps in my area are still dipping to 38/39 at night, but the forecast shows most will be low/mid 40’s coming up soon, so I’m gonna chance it and pull my citrus outside this weekend. I’m hoping that may help the rest of my Cara Cara navel oranges, Rio Red grapefruit, Meyer’s lemons, and my single Smith blood orange ripen better. 
As for all my other citrus (about 15 other varieties in various sizes), they are all pushing new growth. I’ll probably keep my avocados (Sharwil, Catalina, Bacon, OohLaLa Super Hass, and Gem) in my makeshift winter tent for at least another month… or not. It’s gonna get pretty hot in there if daytime temps are going to steadily be in the 50’s and 60’s…
My Lychees and Longans can probably go outside… the guavas (not sure if they’re still alive, lol) probably not. My figs? I need to hard prune my Panache Tiger (it’s already pushing growth and is way too tall for my liking–I’m 5’4” and it’s like almost as tall as me, same as my Cara Cara orange tree ), my newly acquired Angelito fig and Latterula can probably go outside… Or I should play it safe and leave them in the tent till end of April/early May? My sprouted fig cuttings are doing okay in my unheated poly tunnel, so mybe I’ll throw them in there. My Smith, Violet de Bordeaux, and Ischia Green–as well as my young mango trees, are doing fine in there as well.
I got a bunch of other stuff growing outside as well… ANYWAY, super glad to meet you all!!! 
YAYYY, another local citrus grower!!! Are yours in containers or in ground? Mine are all in containers, and vary from 2-4 years old. I have… lemme think: Cara Cara navel, Washington navel, Owari satsuma, Frost Owari satsuma, Improved Meyer’s lemon, Variegated Pink lemon, Bearss lime, an Unknown lime, Meiwa kumquat, Variegated Calamondin, Variegated Minneola, Moro-Tarocco cross blood orange, Variegated Cara Cara navel, Smith Red blood orange, Vaniglia Sanguigno blood orange, Rio Red grapefruit, Oro Blanco grapefruit, Kishu mandarin, Okitsu Wase mandarin… that’s all I remember off the top of my head.
You wouldn’t happen to have jackfruit would you?
Our citrus are all in ground outside except for the makrut lime.
Nope. I grew up eating jackfruit from a can, a common treat in my Cambodian family, but I have never tasted it fresh. I do see many folks trying to grow them these days, but I’m more focused on trying to get a fresh mango or lychee and longan to fruit here in WA. 
Just because they’re yummy!!! They feel like such a delicacy when I buy them from the Asian store in summer.
I haven’t tried canned Jackfruit. Are they ripe and sweet, like for dessert?
I like them dried better than most dried fruit.
Fresh jackfruit has a unique and satisfying texture that I’ve grown to crave. We have one maybe 7 years old or so in a pot in our living room. Its maybe 7 feet tall and began making male flowers last year and there are a couple on it now. I’d like to graft on a known good variety to see if it will set fruit.
To be honest, it’s been so long since I’ve had it so I don’t recall. But generally, I don’t eat much stuff from cans anymore; never liked the weird “tin” flavor in the stuff they held inside. 
Happy Tuesday, everyone! Hope you all had a nice Easter (if you celebrate it), or a nifty weekend overall. I finally took all my potted citrus out of my unheated poly tunnel, so I went ahead and did a 2026 citrus tour video, in case anybody is interested. You can find me on youtube “soxinthegarden.” My citrus trees are my prized babies. I love, love, LOVE them all! I was kicking myself after the fact, because I went through every variety, then realized I still forgot to include my Kishu mandarin and my Ponderosa lemon.
I have a yuzu grown from seed and a couple of kumquat I need to plant in ground… I think my honey tangerine didn’t make it.
Was the honey tangerine in a container and protected over winter?
