‘Wonderful' is the pomegranate most of us pick up at the grocery store. Originally found in a bundle of cuttings from Florida, ‘Wonderful' has been propagated widely in California since the early 1900s. But the story of pomegranates (Punicagranatum) goes back much further.
Also called Chinese apples, pomegranates are one of the oldest documented edible fruits. They require long, hot summers and can survive under myriad conditions. For best fruit production in Napa Valley, plant pomegranates in a sunny location in ordinary soil with good drainage. For the first two years, water deeply every two to four weeks in dry weather to encourage root establishment and fruit production.
When pomegranate plants are about two feet high, select four or five of the healthiest-looking branches, preferably well-spaced, and cut them back to 12 inches.Remove the remaining growth and any shoots or suckers that appear above or below these chosen branches.
Pomegranate trees can be grown as dwarfs, but most reach 15 to 20 feet tall. Disciplined pruning can keep them tidy in smaller spaces.
The pomegranate produces fruit at the end of new growth. Judicious pruning annually for the first three years will produce bushy plants with abundant new growth each year.
With their shiny, dark leaves, bright orange flowers and dramatic red fruits, pomegranates make attractive, long-lived additions to the garden. Their ruby arils—the pulp-covered seeds—are beautiful in salads and make a refreshing juice. The fruit is also used commercially for making grenadine, the sweet red syrup in a Shirley Temple. Local birds appreciate any fruit left on the tree.
No wonder the Spanish missionaries considered pomegranates essential to propagate along El Camino Real in the 1700s. Pomegranates are still often found on old homesteads and in historic gardens across the state.
By 1927 California boasted 2,750 acres of pomegranates. As of 2011, the last year the USDA tracked commercial production, California had more than 30,000 acres of pomegranate orchards.
Some fruit trees, like plums, are susceptible to oak-root rot and can't be grown near diseased oak trees. Fortunately, pomegranates do not have this issue. Sometimes the pomegranate rind splits, exposing the seeds to insects, moisture and mold. Regular watering minimizes splitting, as it does for tomatoes and other fruits. Cease watering two to three weeks before your anticipated harvest.
Allow pomegranates to ripen fully on the tree as they won't ripen further after harvest. Clip the stem to avoid damaging the fruit; do not pull the fruit off the stem.
Pomegranates actually improve in storage, becoming juicier and more flavorful. Keep the fruit cool but not cold. A temperature below 41°Fwill turnred arils pale and promote decay. Stored at the proper temperature and around 85% humidity,the fruit can last for up to seven months. When the arilsstart to fade and look streaky, flavor fades, too, and it is time to put the fruit in the compost.
Pomegranate seeds germinate readily, but you may not get a high-quality tree from seed. Most pomegranates are propagated from rooted cuttings.
A few years ago, University of California Extension fruit-tree specialists Paul Vossen and Deborah Silver published a paper recommending pomegranate varieties for our area (http://home orchard.ucdavis.edu/plant_pomegranate.pdf). They describe ‘Wonderful' as producing large, deep-red fruits with juicy red arils, small seeds and good flavor. Vossen and Silver also suggest ‘Grenada' and ‘Eversweet' for a harvest that begins in August instead of September.
And if you have space for only one? Taste different varieties to find your favorite. The good news is that even ordinary pomegranates from your grocer's shelf can be Wonderful.
Workshop: U. C. Master Gardeners of Napa County will host a workshop on “Making Wreaths from Your Garden” on Sunday, December 6, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., at Yountville Community Center, 6516 Washington Street, Yountville. Learn what plants from your garden will make good wreaths and how to choose and prepare plant materials to make them last a long time. Get tips and tricks for designing and making easy creative wreaths for the holidays or any time. Each participant will create a wreath to take home, using locally collected plant materials and supplies provided. To register, call the Parks and Recreation Department at 707-944-8712 or visit its web site.
Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. U. C. Master Gardeners of Napa County ( http://ucanr.org/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions? Find us on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.
Monarch butterflies are declining rapidly in number, along with the native milkweed plants that they depend on from Canada through much of the U.S. Experts attribute the decline to the expansion of cities and suburbs,morelawn mowing, more herbicide use and more intensive farming practices. The drought hasn't helped.
California boasts 15 native species of milkweed; most are drought tolerant. These plants are the primary food of Monarch larvae.Milkweeds also support a large range of pollinators, such as bees and hummingbirds.
Milkweeds are named for their milky sap, a sticky latex that oozes out when the plant is cut. The plant tissues contain cardenolides, a type of steroid. Monarch caterpillars eat the plants, which then protects them by making them distasteful to predators.
Most livestock avoid milkweed unless they are very hungry or unless it is accidentally mixed in with hay or feed. Milkweed tastes bitter and all parts of the plant are considered toxic to most mammals. Use gloves or wash your hands after touching the plant and avoid touching your eyes.
Native Americans used fibers from the milkweed stem to weave cloth and make cords and ropes. They treated ringworm and bee stings with the sap and made an extract from the leaves for curing coughs, relieving lung inflammation and stimulating lymphatic drainage.
The seed pods contain a fair amount of floss that carries the seeds on the wind. Today the floss is used as a hypoallergenic filling for pillows and comforters.
Milkweeds typically flower between late spring and the end of summer. After they disperse their seed, the above-ground growth dies back, readying for winter. My milkweed had a little stub above ground throughout winter. This last spring and summer, it shot up to about three feet with good space between the narrow green leaves. In mid to late summer, the colorful blooms attracted one lonely Monarch that seemed to keep circling back to feed and rest over many days.
I adopted this plant without knowing what type of milkweed it was. I was told it was hardy and drought tolerant and to leave it alone after planting. I was instructed to water it for a few weeks and then very little once established.
Newly planted seedlings produce leaves the first year; in the second year, you get flowers. Once I saw the orange, red and yellow blooms, I looked up what kind of milkweed I had. To my horror, I learned that it was a tropical milkweed bloodflower (Asclepiascurassavica), also known as butterfly Asclepias ‘Bright Wings'.
This milkweed is not native north of Mexico. Unfortunately, due to its showy flowers, multiple bloom periods and ability to attract egg-laying Monarchs, it has been widely planted.
Scientists are concerned that this non-native milkweed, unlike North American milkweeds, will have foliage year-round when grown in areas with mild winters and adequate moisture. This persistent foliage might encourage Monarchs to lay eggs outside of their regular breeding season or to linger in areas longer than they normally would and to risk freezing. The year-round presence of milkweed is also associated with higher parasitism rates in Monarchs, lowering the survival rate.
My tropical milkweed has produced many seed pods. I remove them before they pop open to prevent reseeding. I recently tried finding some native milkweed in nurseries to replace mine, but they were sold out. Mail-order sources had milkweeds, but they looked too much like mine.
This spring I will plant seeds of showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa, which grows up to five feet) and narrow-leaved milkweed (Asclepiasfascicularis, which reaches three feet) or get seedlings at the nursery. The California Native Plant Society recommends these species for Napa Valley.
My Monarch moved on by October 10. I was going to remove the tropical milkweed, but on close inspection, I noticed four healthy, good-sized Monarch caterpillars and a number of tiny ones chomping away. I hope some will make it to the coast as butterflies before winter. Then I will uproot the tropical milkweed.
For more information on native milkweeds and Monarch butterflies, consult the website of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation or the California Native Plant Society.
Workshop: U. C. Master Gardeners of Napa County will hold a workshop on “Fruit Tree Selection and Planting” on Sunday, November 15, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Yountville Community Center, 6516 Washington Street, Yountville. Get ready to plant bare-root fruit trees or to transplant from a pot into the ground. You will learn about soil types, site selection and preparation, and first-year care so that your new fruit trees thrive. The second half of this workshop will help you decide what trees to plant. Topics include disease resistance, rootstock influence, climate and chill hours, and specific varieties that perform well in various parts of Napa County. To register, call 707-944-8712 or visit the Parks and Recreation web site.
Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. U. C. Master Gardeners of Napa County ( http://ucanr.org/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions? Find us on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.
When we finally have some rainy days, take the opportunity to do some garden “bookkeeping.” Set up a garden calendar or journal. Have a page for seed-starting dates, fertilizer dates, watering schedules, first harvest, and a space for notes on what did and did not work. Include a page for daily temperatures and rainfall.
I have an inexpensive indoor/outdoor thermometer inside on my counter, with an additional sensor outside. I can check inside and outside temperatures from the kitchen by just pushing a button. Rain gauges come in a range of styles and prices, so check your local nursery or home-improvement store. Depending on your organizational style, a computer-based gardening program might work for you. Or perhaps you would prefer a spiral-bound notebook in a waterproof case that you can take into the garden.
If we finally get ample rain and the soil becomes saturated, cover sections of the garden to get a head start on spring crops. Use clear plastic tenting to exclude excess rain and raise the soil temperature. Remove the plastic between rains (I'm obviously an optimist) to evaporate excess moisture.
It might seem early to be thinking about planting, but fruit trees, shrubs, vegetables and flowers can all go in the ground this month. If the soil is not too wet, you can dig up and divide overcrowded clumps of perennials.
Valentine's Day is imminent. Potted red camellias, cerise azaleas or white gardenias make lovely romantic gifts that can transition to long lives in the garden. Even if you're not buying for a Valentine, February is a great month to visit nurseries to view color options on blooming camellias and other winter-flowering shrubs and plants.
Bare-root asparagus and rhubarb are still available, but not for long. Both are long-lived crops that will produce for years in an area they like.
Potatoes are also in nurseries now and can be planted along with carrots, peas, onions, radishes, lettuce, spinach, parsley and chard. To these familiar vegetables, consider adding Asian greens, cresses, arugula and kales.
If you grow warm-season vegetables from seed, it is time to pull out your warming mat and set up your lights or find your sunniest window. Early in the month, start seeds for cabbage, cauliflower, onions, parsley and lettuce. Later in the month, sow seeds for your favorite tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and basil.
If you have raised beds in your garden or hills with ample compost, winter squash and pumpkin seeds can go directly in the ground now. I began popping in a few pumpkin seeds this early after noting that volunteer squash seedlings always came up much sooner than I felt safe planting them. They ripened and were ready to harvest sooner, too.
If you are craving color, shop now for penstemon, dianthus, coreopsis and sages. Or trade with gardening friends who have an excess.
Shop for dahlias now. These Escher-like flowers, geometrically complex and available in a huge range of sizes and colors, make fanciful additions to the garden and can create whimsical memories for little people. If you buy dahlia tubers, select those with several “eyes” on each stem and plant late in March. Until then, keep them in moist wood shavings so they don't dry out. Prepare their bed according to the planting directions that come with them.
If you see evidence of snails or slugs (slimy trails are one clue), try setting out inverted flower pots, propped up a tad on one side so the pests have a way in to the “snail hotel.” Collect your victims in the morning and throw them away or feed to your chickens. Thisnon-toxic approach keeps chemicals out of your garden and away from pets and children.
Spray peach and nectarine trees to prevent peach-leaf curl just when the buds begin to bulge and show color. Alternatively, you can pick off the crinkled leaves as they appear, put them in a bag and dispose of them. Eventually the tree will replace them with healthy leaves.
Weeds begin to appear now. Tackle them with pre-emergent herbicides, hula hoes or your favorite implement. Try to catch weeds early, before they go to seed. If they have set seed, toss them in the yard-waste bin. Weed seeds often survive home composting.
Drought alert: Yes, you should be watering your plants since nature is not. Water any plants that still have leaves. Many California native plants need water now and should be your top priority, followed by newly planted trees, fruit trees,other large trees and any plants pushing buds. Dormant plants that leaf out early should be watered before those that leaf out later. Make small plants a lower priority as they cost less to replace than trees and large shrubs. Fruit trees that get irregular or insufficient water may drop fruit or produce undersized or malformed fruit.
Workshop: Napa County Master Gardeners will host a workshop on “Fruit Tree Pruning” on Saturday, February 22, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. (indoor lecture) and from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. (outdoor hands-on workshop). Lecture location is the University of California Cooperative Extension, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Napa. Outdoor location to be determined.
Now is the best time to prune your fruit trees. Learn techniques to keep them healthy and productive. Please dress for outdoor weather. Online registration (credit card only) Mail in registration (cash or check only)
Napa County Master Gardeners welcome the public to visit their demonstration garden at Connolly Ranch on Thursdays, from 10:00 a.m. until noon, except the last Thursday of the month. Connolly Ranch is at 3141 Browns Valley Road at Thompson Avenue in Napa. Enter on Thompson Avenue.
Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. Napa County Master Gardeners ( http://ucanr.org/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions? Find us on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.
A few years ago my husband and I decided to plant a persimmon tree. We didn't know much about persimmons then, but we really enjoyed eating the ‘Fuyu' persimmons in the fall, particularly in salads. I have since come to appreciate persimmon trees even more after doing some research.
The Oriental or Japanese persimmon (Diospyros kaki) has been grown in China and Japan for centuries. It was introduced to California in the mid-1800s. Virtually all persimmon fruit sold in the United States is grown in California, with the majority from the central San Joaquin Valley.
The persimmon tree is a wonderful ornamental to grow in your home garden, both for its beauty and its freedom from most pests and diseases. It produces delicious fruit, which matures in October and November, long after most fruit trees have already yielded their crops.
Persimmon trees can grow in a wide range of soils, but they do best in well-drained loam. They tolerate clay soils better than most other fruit trees. Persimmon trees are sensitive to boron and salts in the soil. They are drought tolerant but will produce larger fruit and a greater yield with regular irrigation. They take minimal fertilizer and do not have the winter chill requirement that many deciduous fruit trees do.
Two varieties account for most of the persimmons grown in home orchards: the ‘Fuyu' and the ‘Hachiya'. Both produce larger fruit than many other varieties, such as the ‘Hayakuma', ‘Izu' and Diospyros virginiana. The ‘Hayakuma' has medium-sized orange fruit and chocolate- or cinnamon- colored flesh if pollinated. ‘Izu' produces round, medium-sized fruit. Diospyros virginiana, which is native to the U. S., yields small, flavorful fruit. It tolerates both drought and excess moisture, but it suckers badly.
Neither the ‘Hachiya' nor the ‘Fuyu' needs cross pollination, which means that the tree will produce fruit without another persimmon tree nearby. In fact, cross pollination can be a problem if the ‘Hachiya' and ‘Fuyu' are planted within one-half mile of each other. If a ‘Fuyu' is close to another variety producing male flowers, some of the ‘Fuyu' fruit will be seedy. If a ‘Hachiya' is pollinated from another variety, black areas will appear in the flesh and the fruit will have seeds.
The ‘Hachiya' tree gets large and requires an area of 20 feet when mature. ‘Fuyu' trees are smaller and require less space, between 14 to 16 feet. Blossoms and fruit are produced on the current season's shoots that originate from buds near the tips of one-year-old branches.
Persimmon fruit is classified as either astringent on non-astringent. Fruit from astringent varieties must be allowed to soften before eating, while non-astringent varieties are eaten when crisp. ‘Hachiya' is in the astringent category, while ‘Fuyu' is non-astringent.
When harvesting persimmons, allow the fruit to remain on the tree until it develops good color. Use pruning shears to cut the stem, leaving a short stem and the green calyx attached to the fruit. If the fruit is snapped off rather than clipped, the fruit may bruise.
Astringent types such as ‘Hachiya' can be left on the tree until they become soft-ripe, or you can harvest them when they have reached full color but are still firm. In that case, let them soften at room temperature before eating. Harvest non-astringent types such as ‘Fuyu' when they develop their full orange color. The ‘Hachiya' fruit is somewhat acorn-shaped while the ‘Fuyu' has a squat shape, like a flattened ball.
Persimmons can be refrigerated for a month or more. Pull them out of the refrigerator as you need them and allowed them to finish ripening at room temperature.
I often freeze ‘Hachiya' fruit for use at Christmas time in puddings and cakes. In the future, I plan to dry some ‘Fuyus.' The fruit is very sweet when dried.
If you share my enthusiasm for persimmons and would like to plant one, you can find them in local nurseries as bare-root plants in December and January. Their roots are fragile, so plant with care.
Workshop: Napa County Master Gardeners present a workshop on “Edible Landscape Design” on Saturday, October 5, from 10 a.m. to noon. Location is American Canyon Library, 300 Crawford Way in American Canyon. Design your garden to be both beautiful and edible. Learn what to consider and how to integrate edible plants into your ornamental garden. Bring a detailed plan of your garden to work on with guidance from U.C. Master Gardeners. Learn about books to help you with your design from Napa County Library as part of the Eat, Move, Read program. Seating is limited. Register online at http://ucanr.edu/ucmgnapa or call 707-253-4147.
Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. Napa County Master Gardeners ( http://ucanr.org/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions? We can be found on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.
- Posted by: Yvonne Rasmussen
We have all watched fruit trees grow and change through the seasons.
Fruit and nut trees grow most rapidly in the spring and summer months. As summer progresses, the growth rate slows until it all but stops in the fall. Days shorten, temperatures drop and the trees drop their leaves. Finally, the trees go dormant for winter.
It might not look like much is happening outdoors during the next few cold months of dormancy, but fruit and nut trees' hormonal systems are hard at work.
The longer, cooler days trigger hormonal growth inhibitors. Trees produce these hormones to prevent them from growing in winter and being damaged by cold. During its dormancy, if a tree has not received sufficient chill hours, even a warm spell with perfect conditions will not awaken it. Some plants do not have this hormonal protection. Many of us have lost plants that were fooled by an early warm spell and coaxed to bud, only to be killed by a later frost or freeze.
Napa County is luckier than many parts of the country. Winters are warm enough here that plants are not usually killed by extreme cold, yet we have enough chilling hours to meet the needs of our fruit trees and promote an abundant crop.
Trees have different requirements for the number of hours they need to break dormancy. Almonds require at least 250 to 500 hours at less than 45 degrees Fahrenheit to break dormancy. Pears, including Bartlett and Bosc types, need 700 to 800 chilling hours. Asian pears, which do well in my garden, need only 350 to 400 hours.
Most red-skinned apples need a cool climate to develop good color. But while some apple varieties require 500 to 1,000 hours of chilling, others need only 400 to 600 hours. When you shop for apples and other bare-root fruit trees, look at the plant tag to see if your choice has high or low chilling needs. Local nurseries tend to choose varieties suited to our climate, so you will usually find choices that are going to be successful. This is a good reason to buy locally instead of from catalogs that carry plants suited to zones and growing conditions different than ours.
We certainly have enough winter chill to grow many kinds of peaches, pears, plums and other fruits and nuts. Take a stroll down the bare-root aisle of your local nursery or home improvement store next month and survey the selection. Just be sure to read the plant tags and ask a nursery professional if you are not sure whether a variety is suited to your microclimate.
If your garden does not get much frost, you probably won't have much luck with sour cherries, which need 1,200 hours of chill. But you still have many options. Figs of all types, Hachiya and Fuyu persimmons, almonds, olives, pomegranates, chestnuts and pecans usually produce abundant crops with a minimum of chill.
A mild winter may be pleasant, but it can diminish our future harvests. Warm winters can result in delayed foliation and prolonged blossoming, but the buds deteriorate or drop, yielding few flowers or fruit.
December and January are the most important months for meeting chilling requirements. If the temperature falls below 45 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 400 hours in each of these months, and those cold hours are fairly evenly distributed, most of our orchard trees' needs will be met.
Once a fruit tree has accumulated the chilling hours it needs, a period of warm weather will signal to its hormones that it is spring, time to break dormancy and safe to grow.
Napa County Master Gardeners (cenapa.ucdavis.edu) answer gardening questions Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to noon, at the UC Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Ave., Suite 4, Napa, 253-4221.
