- Author: Ed Perry
Fruit color is a poor indication of ripeness, because many fruits have fully colored rinds a long time before they can be eaten.
Don't expect citrus fruits to increase in sweetness or ripen more fully once you've picked them, as do peaches and some other fruits. When picked at any stage of maturity, citrus fruit does not change after picking, except that it may decay or slowly dry out.
When you're picking citrus fruit that you plan to store for awhile, be careful not to bruise or break the skin. Fruits that are cut or scratched during harvesting will rot fairly quickly in storage. Citrus fruits with perfectly sound skin are fairly decay proof, and will last in cool, moist storage for several weeks (38 to 48 degrees F, 85 to 95 percent relative humidity). Under dry conditions at room temperature, fruits develop off flavors and shrivel within a week to 10 days.
Ed Perry is the emeritus Environmental Horticultural Advisor for University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) in Stanislaus County where he worked for over 30 years.
- Author: Ed Perry
- Editor: Anne Schellman
The peach leaf curl fungus is spread by tiny spores which are produced on infected leaves and blown about by wind. As leaves begin to emerge in the spring, the spores are washed onto them, and infection begins. If the weather remains cool and wet, young leaves will be continually infected. Throughout the winter, while the tree is dormant, the spores lie exposed on limbs, twigs and buds. It is during this period that the disease can be controlled with fungicide sprays. In the dry, hot weather of late spring and early summer, the disease stops spreading.
Spraying now during the dormant season helps prevent peach leaf curl in spring. Several products are generally effective in controlling peach leaf curl and are readily available at nurseries and garden stores. These include products containing basic copper sulfate. Make sure to do a thorough job of covering every bit of the tree with the spray.
Ed Perry is the emeritus Environmental Horticultural Advisor for University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) in Stanislaus County where he worked for over 30 years.
The adult beetles are small (1/8 inch), slender, black beetles with dull yellow wing bands. The larvae are white, short-legged grubs. They are especially attracted to overripe, broken, fermenting, and dried fruits, and are common in orchards, drying sheds, and on fruit trays. The adults lay their eggs on ripe and rotting fruits of all types. They may also infest grapes before they have been completely dried and made into raisins. Fig varieties that have large "eyes" (openings at the blossom ends of fruits) are most affected; fig varieties such as 'Mission' and 'Tina' have small eyes, and are less infested by the beetles.
A complete life cycle of the dried fruit beetle may vary from a minimum of 15 days in the summer to several months in the winter. In winter, both adults and larvae survive in decaying cull fruit of any kind. The pupae generally overwinter in the soil.
Sanitation is the best way of controlling dried fruit beetles. Eliminate potential breeding sites by harvesting ripe fruit promptly and picking up fallen fruit as soon as possible. Keep cull fruit in tight garbage cans or garbage bags until disposed of. If you dry fruit, you should thoroughly clean your drying trays after each use.
You may want to try trapping to reduce dried fruit beetle infestations. To do this, place several overripe peaches in a bucket, then coat the insides of the bucket with 90-weight oil, Tanglefoot, or a similar sticky material. Once the buckets are hanging in the tree, the fermenting peaches attract the beetles, and they become trapped in the sticky material. This method will give you partial control only.
Ed Perry is the emeritus Environmental Horticultural Advisor for University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) in Stanislaus County where he worked for over 30 years.
- Author: Ed Perry
Citrus trees grow best in loam or sandy loam soil, but you can grow them in most soils that have good drainage. If your soil drains poorly, you might try planting in a raised bed or on a mound. Plant your trees in an area that receives full sun, and allow enough room for the tree's mature size. I don't recommend planting in a lawn area because it's difficult to irrigate both the citrus and the lawn correctly. Also, the grass tends to absorb many of the nutrients needed by the tree.
Dig the planting hole just deep enough to plant the tree at the same level that it was in the nursery. The diameter of the hole should be about 6 inches larger than the root ball. If the hole is too deep, the tree will settle too much after planting. Trees that settle too deep are likely to be killed by crown rot, a fungus disease that frequently develops where the soil covers the bark of the tree.
You can place balled and burlap-wrapped trees in the planting holes without removing the cloth sacking that covers the roots. Plant them a little higher than they were in the nursery, allowing about 3 inches for settling. Try to have the uppermost roots branch out at about ground level after the trees have settled.
Do not put any fertilizer in the hole when planting your tree because it may damage the roots. It's safer to apply fertilizer to the surface of the soil after you've planted. If you use manure, use it lightly because roots may be damaged by salts which manures contain.
Citrus trees do very poorly in dry soil, so be sure to pay close attention to irrigation, especially during the first summer.
Ed Perry is the emeritus Environmental Horticultural Advisor for University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) in Stanislaus County where he worked for over 30 years.
- Author: Ed Perry
Do you keep notes on how your garden performs each year to help you remember what is working well and what is not? Maybe this is your year to start. Barb Fick, Home Horticulturist with the Oregon State University Extension Service, explains that there are many good reasons to keep a garden journal. A blank bound book or a ring binder filled with loose-leaf paper can make a great place to record what you do in your garden.
Having a year-to-year record of where things are planted will also help with crop rotation, which is the system of changing the types of vegetables and flowers planted each year in each garden location. Rotation discourages depletion of soil nutrients, pest outbreaks and soil borne disease. Without a good record of where each crop is planted however, it's easy to forget where a particular species may have been growing last year.
By recording each year's seasonal “landmarks” such as rainfall patterns and amounts, unusual weather such as rapid temperature changes, the date of the first daffodil bloom, the first frost and the arrival of the first hummingbird, you will be able to compare different years to one another and relate them to plant performance.
Fick writes that it's a good idea to record pest outbreaks in relation to what plants they are found on. It's also very important to include any control measures used, and the success or failure of those measures. This information will help you prepare for the same problem next year, or may help you decide not to grow that particular species next year. Also, record the appearance and activities of beneficial insects and their host plants. For instance, you may record that aphids on your rose bushes were brought under control by ladybird beetles and other natural enemies by mid-April. This information might help you make a decision on whether to use an insecticide to control the aphids the following year, or to let nature take its course.
To keep track of the amount of money spent on seed, fertilizer and garden tools, a journal can come in handy. It can also be a good way of keeping track of yields and a safe place to record the identities of the things you plant. You can keep a good record of species and varieties simply by taping the plant identification tags onto your journal pages, along with the planting dates and garden locations.
Fick says that along with being very practical, a garden journal can give you a feeling of accomplishment. When you add up the many hours spent, the numbers of species planted and the various garden methods used, most gardeners will feel proud of what they've done.