The Apricot

Apricot is a stone fruit that (in my opinion) no home should be without. While they are not the easiest fruit to grow in areas where spring weather fluctuates, in the seasons that the blossoms do survive the last frosts, the tree provides some of the juiciest semi-tart fruit that you could imagine. Last year was one of the unfortunate years that my blossoms were frozen in early spring from a late frost. Nearly all of the stone fruit trees that I had suffered from this event last season.

I have since added more apricot trees in an effort to spread this risk round a bit in hopes that I will still get a healthy harvest of apricots in the coming seasons. I now have three apricots in my yard: ultra-dwarf Royal Blenheim, semi-dwarf Gold Kist, and a semi-dwarf Early Autumn.

First weekend in March and this
Royal Blenheim is almost in full bloom

The Royal Blenheim is the first apricot tree that I planted in the summer of 2008. In 2010, it produced a healthy harvest of around 60 apricots that I ate fresh and made into sauces or jams. I especially enjoyed them over my morning pancakes. This tree is planted on a Southeast facing corner of a block wall. It is one of the first trees that you see when you walk into my courtyard, and it looks very picturesque during all seasons. This season it has begun flowering in mid February and does not appear to have suffered from frost at this point. I expect fruit on this tree to be ready for the picking around the end of June.

Beginning of a Gold Kist apricot
free-form fan espalier

The Gold Kist apricot is my first attempt at an espalier. Espalier is a technique of growing a tree along a 2 dimensional plane. I have chosen to espalier this tree against the South-facing back wall of my fireplace. My intention is to keep it more of a natural fan shape to accent the characteristics of the apricot branches. This tree looks as if it will produce fruit this season, however, since I planted the tree early last season, I intend to pinch off any fruit to promote branch development the current season. It is currently blooming at the beginning of March, and if I let the fruit develop, I would expect them around the beginning of June.

The newest apricot - Early Autumn

The Early Autumn, was just planted on the 2nd of March 2012. Most apricots produce early in the season, but in my search for the right fruit trees, I found a later blooming and later fruiting apricot tree that produces in August. It was the logical choice for my yard because it allows me to have some of my favorite type of fruit later in the season. This one is placed in a north west corner of my block wall. The wall is only 5 feet high so growing the semi-dwarf tree to a height of 8-10 feet will provide the tree with plenty of sunshine for a nice harvest. I doubt there will be a harvest next year, but we shall see how the tree grows over this first season.

For pruning these trees, I try not to prune off too much growth because they seem to produce on spurs from older growth and on the tips of last years growth. I found the best way to see what can be pruned is to wait until the tree blooms and then just try not to prune off the blossoms unless I am trying to encourage new growth. For tips on pruning, I recommend The Pruning Book by Le Reich. It has been very informative for pruning of all types of plants.

Apricots

Nothing quite so elegant as soft white blossoms among gnarled craggy branches

Fruit combination of sweet and tart with only the juiciest flesh

Leaves of summer shimmer on the tree like aspen

Gnarled branches are picturesque in winter



A single Royal Blenheim apricot blossom in mid February



So I leave you with this; an apricot is not the easiest of fruit trees to grow, but it has been one of the most rewarding for me. I hope sharing my apricots with you has inspired you to try one in your yard.

-Desert Orchardist

First Time Plants

It is nearing the end of winter here in Southern California, and while the last frost has not yet occurred, the yard has already begun to spring to life. As this is the first post of my first blog, I find it only fitting that I introduce the first time plants (at least new to me) that I am trying this year: gooseberries, clove currants, kiwi, avocado, and figs. These are plants I would have never thought to try in my region, some because of the extreme heat, and others because of the freezing temperatures.



New leaves and thorns on the
Hinnomaki - Red Gooseberry



After reading Landscaping with Fruit by Lee Reich (a detailed book on edible landscaping), I was given a better idea of how to take advantage of micro-climates that a yard can present. Micro-climates are created by the heat of the sun beating on a wall, the direction of a slope, a depression in the land where cold accumulates, the different sides of a house, or any other feature that can influence the temperature around a plant. You can take advantage of these micro-climates and push the boundaries of a plant's habitable climate zone. My particular zone will see temperatures from the teens in the winter to well over 100 in the summer.



Gooseberries are a fruit that I have never had the luxury to try. The berries are large, with what I have heard described as sweet flavor with a pleasantly acidic bite. There are thorns on this plant which can make picking tedious. This plant is cold tolerant but struggles under higher heat. For this reason, I have chosen to place this plant on East wall of my house. This provides the bush with 4-5 hours of morning sunlight and plenty of afternoon shade to keep the temperatures down. I plan on keeping the soil moist (but not saturated) to keep the plant hydrated during the hot summers.



Crandall - Clove Currant



Clove currants are a native currant to the Midwest. The produce a dark black sweet berry with fragrant yellow blooms in the spring. They are very tolerant of cold and - from what I gather from their native region - the heat. While this is not particularly a plant that cannot handle the heat, I have decided to protect these currant by offering afternoon shade. They have been planted on the North side of the house just outside of the shade of the house, but close enough to the front wall to eliminate the chance of the late afternoon sun scorching the deep green leaves.

Anna (female) and Meader (male)
Kiwi ready to be planted



Kiwi is a fruit that has a naturally tropical look and flavor. So much so that many don't realize that it's not so much the freezing temperatures that give me pause for whether or not to plant it as it is the high temperatures. I will not waste time describing the flavor of Kiwi, for many have had this fruit, but I will say that this fruit does not grow on a tree. In fact, it is not so dissimilar to a grape vine. A kiwi vine gets pruned the same way you would prune a grape vine or muscadine.This vine struggles with the high temperatures of the desert. For this reason I have decided to plant mine overhanging my lawn on a North-facing brick retaining wall. The trellis that I will build will provide full sun for most of the day, but will benefit from the cooling effects of the grass below. This trellis will be constructed this season to prepare for the new kiwi vines, so keep posted for future updates on this project. 



Mexicola Avocado Tree
against a South-facing wall

Avocado is a subtropical fruit. It doesn't tolerate the cold very well. The ability to grow avocado is a necessity for my family. We would put avocado on everything if we could afford it. The other day I came across a smaller avocado plant called a Mexicola Avocado. This avocado was tagged as being able to tolerate down to 10 degrees, but I would guess it is more like 18-20 degrees. For this tree I decided to plant it on the south facing wall of my house. The south facing wall will give the plant added heat through the night by using the sun's heat that has been stored up in the wall throughout the day and radiating that heat through the night. So far the plant has been in for about a week and has shown no signs of any frost bite, and we have had some cold nights this past week, including some frosts. Should it get too cold, I have some tricks that I've learned, but we can discuss those in another post.
  

Black Jack - Fig Tree
Against a South-facing wall

Figs are an interesting fruit, and while I've never eaten a fresh fig, I have had dried figs and enjoyed them very much. From what I have seen, these trees grow quite a bit in a single season and they respond very well to pruning. They are not extremely winter hardy, however there are some varieties that are. I have chosen a Black Jack Fig primarily because of it's compact size. It is described as mix of a Mission Fig and a Brown Turkey Fig. The fig is not grafted so in the event of a winter kill of the trunk and branches, the fig would grow true to form from the root of the tree as long as the root was protected. Luckily in my zone, there is little chance of this problem, but I decided to plant the tree against the same South-facing wall that I planted my avocado tree. Not only will this help to protect the tree in the winter time, but it will provide added heat in the summer to ripen the figs (hotter temperature means sweeter figs). Hopefully this is not too hot...

Well that's all for now. I hope to make this a regular event, and I will surely post the status of each of these first time plants in the future.

-Desert Orchardist