Citrus and Peach trees

[Ludi]

The record low freezing temps recently damaged the citrus in the greenhouse. I may lose the two lime trees. We'll see...

So sad!

[PeakOiler]

Nearly all those lemon blossoms shown earlier are gone, as well as most of the leaves...

I have some serious improvements that need to made to the greenhouse...

That extended freeze was terrible. It's difficult to plan on weather that breaks 20+ year old records...

[PeakOiler]

It's getting pink around here. All 13 of my peach trees have either blossomed or are about to. It may be another record breaking peach harvest season this year. We'll see...

Meanwhile, I pronounce my two potted lime trees as dead. The extended freezing temperatures in early February was just too much for them in the greenhouse. I now wish I had not put both of them in the greenhouse, but instead had brought them into the house. I had room. My mistake.



The red line shows the high temps, the blue line shows the low temps.
The circled data points in the graph above indicate record-setting temperatures.

If my tree investment efforts becomes positive this year due to a productive peach harvest, I'll get another lime tree.

It's a shame I can't eat peaches now that I have type II diabetes. Well, I may cheat and eat one...

[PeakOiler]

And now for something completely different...

Today I moved the two potted grapefruit trees outside onto the deck. They're both putting out new leaves. The four satsuma survived the winter. So did the two orange and two of three lemon trees. The tangelo produced it's first small (68 grams, edible) fruit a couple weeks ago. Delicious!

The 13 flowering peach trees are doing just fine, but we sure could use some rain. Most of Texas is in a drought again...

I started another batch of peach wine using frozen peaches from last year's harvest. (Kept frozen in a solar powered freezer, btw.) I'll let y'all know how it comes out. I'll be giving/trading most of the wine away, however, since I'm to avoid alcohol (as much as possible) due to the change of diet. Damn! Diabetes sucks!

The potted pineapples growing in the living room are fine. I gave one of the largest plants to a friend for his birthday. The pineapple fruit shown (in another thread) is getting bigger. I didn't give that pineapple plant to my friend! "That one's mine", I said. lol
Damn! Another food I'm not supposed to eat anymore...
If that fruit matures and I harvest it, I'll eat that pineapple just a little at a time. Like over months...

I'm glad I planted pecan trees. Now that's a food I can still eat.

[Shaved Monkey]

My tropical Peach fruited over summer (December) and is already in blossom again.(March)
Its done this before when I get 2 crops in one year.
I live in a Subtropical climate (southern Hemisphere),its all new to me as I have only grown peaches in temperate climate before.
I'm not complaining though.
If you want virtual year round fruit in the subtropics,try a Acerola its almost never stops fruiting
Massively high in vitamin C

[PeakOiler]

Thanks for the tip re acerola fruit and trees.
Readers can check
http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/acerola.html
for some good info.

Above I wrote that one of the three lemon trees did not survive the winter, but it's actually putting out some new growth. I've pruned away a lot of the deadwood. The other two lemon trees are fine and have blossoms.

The four satsuma have blossomed as well as the grapefruit and orange trees. The bees are happy.

Edit:
I looked up the nutrient values at http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/
for raw acerola and orange juice and learned that 100 grams of acerola juice contains 1600 mg vitamin C while raw orange juice contains only 50 mg vitamin C/100 grams juice. Acerola also contains less sugars than OJ, gram per gram.

Edit for clarification. (Vitamin C values)

[PrestonSturges]

I've heard some people string Christmas tree lights on plants they want to protect from bad cold snaps, and they produce just a little heat.

[PeakOiler]

I've heard some people string Christmas tree lights on plants they want to protect from bad cold snaps, and they produce just a little heat.

A few pages back in this thread I related how I have used drop lights in the greenhouse or in the hoop house to help provide some warmth for the citrus, but lights, alas, are only somewhat effective in protection from freezing temperatures and one tends to use A LOT more energy in the form of electricity than what food energy is returned in the form of calories from the fruit. (Just a reminder...)

Now if the source of electricity was "renewable", then the EROEI is better...

Better yet: Use no "extra" electricity to keep freeze-sensitive plants warm...

[Shaved Monkey]

Just bought a navel orange, raspberry and blueberry today.
Will take cutting and eventually have an understory of blueberries under my food forest and set up a raspberry cage.

[PeakOiler]

My young navel orange tree has blossomed. Perhaps this year I may get it's first fruit. We'll see.
Edit to add pic of orange blossoms and immature fruit:



The satsuma mandarin are still blossoming and also have a few immature fruit. One of the grapefruit trees has a few immature fruit too. The hummingbirds and bees are busy.

[PeakOiler]

Here's a picture of the citrus and pineapples on the front deck/porch:



Checking my Garden Logbook, I have produced 253 citrus fruits since 2005.

[PeakOiler]

One of the potted lime trees that I thought I had lost to the deep freeze back in February is putting out new growth!

[DomusAlbion]

All our peach, apricot and nectaries are either dying or dead. This valley just gets too cold in the spring. It warms up and encourages the trees to start blooming then wham! in comes a freeze.

I'll take out the ailing trees and replace them with apple, pear, cherry & plum. sad.

[PeakOiler]

Sorry to read that, DomusAlbion.

The drought is making it difficult to establish trees here.

My peach crop will be minimal this year. The pecans are doing OK so far.

The "I'm not quite dead, I'm getting better" grapefruit tree has a couple of fruit on it this year.
The other gf tree has about a dozen fruit on it! The satsuma mandarines are doing well too. I may get my first orange this season. The lemon trees that were damaged in the Feb freeze are making a good comeback.

I've been using the lime juice from fruit I harvested last year in my iced tea. One lime tree is still making a comeback.

[Shaved Monkey]

All our peach, apricot and nectaries are either dying or dead. This valley just gets too cold in the spring. It warms up and encourages the trees to start blooming then wham! in comes a freeze.

I'll take out the ailing trees and replace them with apple, pear, cherry & plum. sad.

Have you tried dark mulch(even rocks) to trap heat in the roots and wind breaks on the side your cold winds are comming from.Maybe a sun trap stone/brick walls and maybe fine netting or some kind of low shading shade cloth to keep the frosts off,depending on how big the trees are. Plant legume trees along side to create shade from frost and provide nitrogen.Try and create micro climates.Or dwarfing fruit trees in pots.
http://www.daleysfruit.com.au/fruit%20p ... fpeach.htm
If you can afford to do any of those it might be worth it for the extra variety of fruit.

[jdmartin]

^^^ Interesting. I was reading Prince Charles' gardening book, and they did something similar in order to create a microclimate that was a zone or two better than everything around them. Smart thinking..

My peach tree is looking like a bumper crop this year, for it's age - I estimate there's still about 40-50 peaches on it, from over 100 that set fruit in the spring. I thinned some of it out, and some of it just tossed off on its own. Don't know how thin I should make it, but I'm probably going to just let it run the way it is right now and if the peaches are too small I'll thin more next year. I've probably got 3 or 4 peaches left on each branch right now - PO, does that sound about right?

[PrestonSturges]

^^^ Interesting. I was reading Prince Charles' gardening book, and they did something similar in order to create a microclimate that was a zone or two better than everything around them. Smart thinking..

My peach tree is looking like a bumper crop this year, for it's age - I estimate there's still about 40-50 peaches on it, from over 100 that set fruit in the spring. I thinned some of it out, and some of it just tossed off on its own. Don't know how thin I should make it, but I'm probably going to just let it run the way it is right now and if the peaches are too small I'll thin more next year. I've probably got 3 or 4 peaches left on each branch right now - PO, does that sound about right?

Or go the other direction and plant on the north side of a one story structure where they will not get direct sun until late April (depending on latitude), keeping them dormant longer.

[PeakOiler]

See, jdmartin? Didn't I write earlier in this thread that your peach yields would get better? Glad to read that you're having a good peach season. Keep up the good work!

I'm not having a good peach season.

I recently read this reference with regard to one of Fredericksburg, TX best peach orchards:
http://www.marburgerorchard.com/

Because there were fewer peaches on the trees this year, the thinning work went much faster, and consisted of removing excess fruit in spots where it was "clustered", and pulling off "doubles", of which there were many this year. A benefit of having less fruit on the trees is that we may avoid having unusually small fruit that is commonly associated with stressful drought conditions. It also may be an advantage to the health of the trees to not be carrying very much fruit this year, with the lack of rainfall. The disadvantage for customers is that the availability of peaches will be more scarce and sporadic.

I noticed the local grocery's prices for fresh Texas peaches are twice that of last year @ $1.98/lb.

[PeakOiler]

Meanwhile the potted citrus trees are doing OK, except for the lime trees. At this time there are about a dozen young grapefruit, about a dozen young satsuma tangerines, about a dozen young lemons and a couple of oranges forming.

No sign of any more pineapple--but the plants are getting bigger.

[PeakOiler]

Picked three more small peaches today. I believe that's it for the season.

Have I mentioned that droughts bite?

Too bad the first named tropical storm in the GOM is heading towards Mexico instead of Texas.