Fruit Trees, Fertilizer, Compost & Garden Update

A few weeks ago we finally sorted and sifted our compost from the bin.  Some of this we used in potted plants around our garden. This week we widened the fruit tree wells, mixed our compost with composted steer and chicken manure, and amended all the fruit trees.  The trees look... variable.

Valencia - established - looks very happy
Algerian Mandarin - some new growth but not a ton
Eureka Lemon - which was slowest to grow last year - robust, very happy growth. Like I'd expect from a lemon.
Minneola Tangelo - this one fruited well last year then dropped all the fruit mid-maturation. It had tons of aphids and little green bugs that I think were katydids.  Now it has many new small leaves starting.
Gold Nugget Mandarin - grew well first year and had surprising amount of delicious fruit for so young. Now it has mottled mature leaves and many tiny new leaves. This is the tree that the Agricultural Inspector sampled.


Also...
Anna Apple Tree - established - has a pretty little crop going
Peach - established - beautiful bloom this year. Never has given fruit. There was weed barrier very close to this trunk. We pulled a lot of it back when widening the well.  I wonder if it will improve the tree's growth and fruiting.
Pomegranate - established - this tree has either been trimmed or eaten by animals for years. The last 2 years I watched carefully and its sudden trimming happened at once. It has not yet happened this year, but this is the usual time.

Speaking of trimming... some animal has aggressively eaten the aloes in the back down to pathetic nubs. And another succulent has had lesser hits.  I've seen both rabbits and squirrels regularly plus we know there are rats and mice, too.  We continue to have regular owl appearances, including pellets in the backyard. And this week I nearly stepped on a snake, which gave me a start. After so many rattlesnakes in the yard one year, I'm just waiting for the next sighting. But this was a beautiful, fast garter snake.

In the past week and a half, we also had bees swarm in the backyard TWICE! The first time they set up housekeeping in the gazebo over the spa, and the second they found the lid of the compost bin appealing.  It's felt like a wildlife adventure!

State Ag Looking for Asian Citrus Psyllid

This afternoon an Agricultural Inspector from the California Department of Food and Agriculture inspected all of our citrus trees.  She was combing the neighborhood looking for the Asian Citrus Psyllid, which is new to our area and can carry Huanglongbing (HLB) Disease or "citrus greening".  I did not realize that HLB is now found in Orange County and Mexico, so both north and south of us. She was looking for the psyllid, which is a tiny critter about the size of an aphid, and for signs of HLB, including mottled leaves.  One of our trees, the newer Gold Nugget Mandarin, caught her attention.  It does have mottled leaves this spring. I'd figured this was cholorsis, partially from our wet winter. She sampled 20 leaves off the tree to bring back for testing. They only notify people if the results are concerning for HLB.  So we shall see.  Here is a link to their website for more information and recommendations.

Fertilized Fruit Trees

We've had a lot of rain this winter, and the plants are quite happy about that. We've enjoyed delicious Algerian and Gold Nugget Mandarins from our new, cute trees. I want them to get big soon because they're so yummy.  I gave each fruit tree a dose of fertilizer on 3/19/19.  I hope we'll get the compost sifted soon so we can add that plus some chicken and cow manure from bags.

Romanesco is my favorite Brassica to grow!

I planted some seeds last winter that sprouted this fall. By that time, I couldn't recall if the plant was cauliflower or broccoli. I was pleasantly surprised that it was a Romanesco Cauliflower, which is my favorite to grow due to its fractal-like beauty.  This beast defied measurement in one piece on my kitchen scale which wasn't up to the weighty task because it exceeded the maximum. In total it weighed 7 pounds 15.25 ounces. Later I found a happy slug in it, so its weight is included in that mighty sum, which is kind of cheating.  I cut the behemoth brassica in half and set one aside for future cooking. Eventually both ended up roasted in small pieces and seasoned with salt, pepper, and olive oil. It was delicious!  And the extra crunch of Romanesco over usual cauliflower or broccoli went well with the roasting technique. The whole family enjoyed it, with my daughter asking for more.

We're also enjoying kale from the garden. 

Holiday Lights, Citrus, and Fertilizer

Something I love about our street is that people work together to string holiday lights across the street from the roof of one home to another. Today was that day.  In addition to the lights going up across the street, we put up our own along the front, in the apple tree, on a couple trellises and on the ivy and into the pigmy date palms.  We also have some big ornaments we put in those date palms. I love watching them blow in the breeze, although sometimes it blows so hard that they blow right off.

We also added composted chicken manure and organic citrus fertilizer to all of the fruit trees. The lemon got an extra dose of humic acid (Gro-Power), as did the star jasmine.  Also, several pots, the star jasmine, a camelia and a few other plants got some all purpose fertilizer (OsmoCote).  Some rain would be welcome to really water that in well.  This week we got some long awaited rain... 0.09 inches. I know... impressive.

Front Pot and Citrus Update

The front pot... the soil sulfur is going to take a while to work.  I'm told it requires breakdown by soil microbes, which are more active in warm, moist soil.  To continue the chemical experiment on this sad potted plant, I added humic acid and ferrous sulfate today. Do you think the soil will ignite?  It did not immediately do so.

The Eureka Lemon is loving the liquid iron, humic acid and citrus fertilizer I applied last month.  It is in the least sunny position of all the citrus I'd planted and wasn't growing much. With those recent additions it has put up considerable new green growth.

Soil Sulfur to Front Pot and Star Jasmine update

The poor plant in that front pot.  It's hating life even more after flushing it out. I think partially because the soil has stayed so wet after all of that soaking.  Working another angle, 10/30/18 I put soil sulfur in the pot to see if acidifying the soil might help.

On the bright side, the star jasmine has been quite pleased with the humic acid, fertilizer and fish emulsion. The leaves have stopped turning red and there are new green leaves developing.