I end up giving away a lot of fruits and vegetables every year to colleagues and friends, and that opens up all sorts of conversations about the subject. Sometimes those conversations get weird. Like the time I suggested to a friend that he should grow his own tomatoes, and he responded “How many years does it take for a tomato tree to start making tomatoes?”
I had another strange interaction this week. My boss was telling me that she found some really unique pears that were yellow and had a thin skin, and that she was going to bring one to the office for me. She did bring me one yesterday, and I said “Oh, yeah, I’ve had those before. They’re not pears, they’re plums.” And she said “No, they’re pears. See, they’re shaped like a pear. Although they do taste like plums.” And since she’s my boss, I said “Okay.” But here’s what she’d brought in.
Anyway, there are infinite subjects I know nothing about, so this isn’t intended to make fun of anyone. But I’d be curious to hear about other people’s strange interactions with non-fruit growing folk.
There are many things I am clueless about and have little knowledge of. But things I like I tend to become voracious to learn about. But I also got drug across the planet. And did a lot of wild and odd things. Seen a lot too. Been in some rough situations. Sometimes I just wish I could touch people and transfer my experiences. It would save a lot of time and eliminate a lot of incredibility issues.
As a good friend said. I’m just a big dumb jock, who might be pretty smart; but was too funny for our own good. That is what he wrote in my yearbook anyway.
When I’m out of my depth; I like to be told about it. It is a good start to learn more. Even if it came at the expense of my clueless-ness.
I don’t know the stats but I suspect over 90% of people in this country are born and spend most of their learning years in urban areas where there often is little opportunity to learn much about nature and where foods comes from. I was raised on a cotton farm pigs and cattle and my father rose early to milk the cows before breakfast. Studied agriculture in High school where I learned more about applying science to production. Still I am often amazed at how much I still don’t know! I’m thankful I got a head start being raised in an environment where food was gathered more than bought, so we need to be open to realizing the needs for constant education and sharing what we have learned with those who want to know. Most of what I now know about growing fruit I have gleaned from this forum. So I am thankful for all its members who contribute to our collective efforts to learn!
Dennis
Kent, Wa
I was having a conversation recently with someone about growing a whole lot of sub tropical plants. I was excitedly telling them about figs, loquats, pineapple guavas, persimmons etc. And how I get nice harvests from each of them.
Their next question was ‘Do you grow them inside your home or outside?’
Since many people grow tropicals as indoor plants, they apparently assumed that these fruit bearing sub tropicals may also be grown indoors.
I recently helped out a friend by pruning his trees. I told him to make a cut right above an outward facing bud. Blank look. I pointed out the outward facing bud. Blank look. I pointed out where to make the cut. Blank look. I realized eventually he didn’t know what I meant by bud. I ended up pruning it all by myself.
There’s guy who owns 17 acres who I’ve been helping on and off for a few years…i’m going to add in he’s mid 60’s ish and made money in another industry that is completely unrelated to fruit growing…and it shows…there’s times i try to explain something to him and based on the interactions I just want to tell him to retake high school biology and chemistry and let’s work from there.
I got a text from him one evening asking for 20 to 30 recommendations for dwarfing apple trees for the ‘heat and humidity of Southeastern PA’
I sighed, sluffed a handful of very sarcastic responses, texted him back a handful of dwarfing rootstocks and a handful of varieties that are often used with them and said, ‘Make sure you get one of these two people on the phone and make sure you get their recommendations for rootstocks that do well with these varieties.’
Somehow I think I only confused him more.
I have definitely been the ignorant one in any number of situations. I was late to gardening. I stumbled into it in my mid twenties. An early gardening friend came over to see what I was up to and we started talking about some of the forest trees. Several madrones and toyon had been dying recently and we had some discussion about one just outside the garden. I made some inquiry about ‘when will that be coming out of dormancy?’ (they’re evergreen). And he laughed, then realized I wasn’t joking. It was late Summer (dormant?!?). The trunk was pretty black if I can inhabit this embarrassing neurology sufficiently to recall.
Yo! I will humbly refrain from posting advice on the forum for the next 6 months, lol
I’ve found that the older I get, the less I really know.
I try to avoid giving much advice nowadays, simply because I’ve learned that what I thought were “answers” are really “possibilities”
I’ve argued with people that all of my citrus trees are not all indeed lime trees like they insist. And have somehow lost arguments (majority rule not validity) that fruit doesn’t change color when ripe. Also explaining the amount of time I’ve waited for fruit and will continue to wait really is met with more blank stares than anything else. Having people tell me my citrus trees are all limes is mildly infuriating when they don’t accept my response immediately.
Some years ago in late winter I came into the house via the back door with a couple grandkids. I pointed out the young trees in the yard, “…and those are my little apple trees.”
“But where are the apples?”
I have encountered adults, quite respected in their careers & making far more income than I have ever, ask me about growing an apple tree, “So when you graft, what kind of tree do you use? Would a maple make it too big?”
Once I took a bag of apples from one of my trees to a family down the block that had three lively children. Receiving the bag, their mom looked up, “But what do I do with them?”
Which words spur me to greater effort to enrich other lives.
When I explain my hope for fruit within 3+ years for something I’ve recently planted, many people react with shock that I would “waste” all that time and energy for something that takes that long for the “payoff” to come.
That’s when I tell them about the seedling Chilean wine palm that won’t likely fruit until around the year 2070.
Me and my sis called our grandfather “Paw-Paw” back when we were kids. I didn’t know what a pawpaw was until I moved to Kentucky. So imagine my confusion when I first heard of a pawpaw tree…
There are many serviceberry trees around the campus where I work. I will stop and snack on them frequently when the fruits are ripe. I have had people on two occasions come up and tell me, " don’t eat those, they’re poisonous!". I then ask if they know what they are. “No, but they’re poisonous!”. I just pop another handful in my mouth and laugh. I guess that just means more for me and the birds.
Next time, ask them how long until they expect to tap their Japanese Maple for syrup, or how long until they expect pine nuts from their Arborvitae, or how much they expect to get per pound of harvested grass seed from their lawn this year after fertilizing.