Asian pear tree pruned to accessible but deer-unfriendly dimensions.
Pear tree with half of pruning done.
2nd Asian pear tree pruned today as usual Fruiting spurs low enough for me to reach w/o ladder, spurs too short to droop to deer height, and too high for deer to be comfortable reaching up to. I think this is Nijiseiki pear but it wasn't labeled. #HomeOrchard #deer #AccessibleGardening 🌱
Multigraft Asian plum tree after pruning. This tree started as Methley. I added on Shiro and Hollywood about ten years ago. My fruit tree shaping philosophy: no branches easily reached by deer. That includes long slender willowy branches that will droop with weight of fruit. But, as someone who isn't as able as I used to be, keep all branches low enough to reach without a ladder. So, there's a "Goldilocks Zone". I try to keep fruiting spurs 6" to a foot long. I don't worry too much about keeping the center open. it has sort of a flat top, so sun reaches all of the leaves and fruit.
I removed 2-3 feet of top growth from this Methley+Shiro+Hollywood Asian plum multigraft tree. Buds are swelling! So prolific - hundreds of potential plums. I thin a LOT. Pruning philosophy: short enough so no ladder needed. Too high for deer. 🌱 #HomeOrchard #AccessibleGardening
Show your garden some love on Valentine's Day and join us for the launch of Home Orchard, 2nd Ed.
📅 Saturday, Feb 14 | 9AM-Noon
📍 Fair Oaks Horticulture Center
11549 Fair Oaks Blvd, Fair Oaks, CA
Explore our gardens and bring questions for Master Gardeners.
#UCMasterGardener #HomeOrchard #FairOaks
Cross section of Stanley plum tree log. It shows colors of magenta heartwood, grey transition wood, and yellow sapwood.
This Stanley plum tree reached the end of its stability, so I started cutting it down.
Such pretty wood. If I was still a woodworker, I would save the logs and make something.
🌱 #gardening #homeorchard
Small Asian Pear tree, pruned 5 Feb 26. There are lots of flower buds.
Today I pruned the first multigraft Asian pear tree. Its main job now is pollination for its neighbor. It has some good pears. The goal is, flowers and pears stay above deer browsing height, but below what would need a ladder to reach. #gardensky #homeorchard 🌱
Trunk of dwarf Liberty apple tree
Branch fork of dwarf Liberty apple tree, with lichens and bark malformations.
Interesting bark on my 25 year old, dwarf Liberty apple tree. I don't know why it's so gnarly. Very productive of sweet, flavorful, crisp, juicy red apples. Might be triploid, so needs a pollinator and doesn't reciprocate (in theory. I think it does). #TreeTrunk #HomeOrchard #Gardening 🌱
Pieces of apple branches lying around, after the tree was cut down.
Today I cut down the 26 year old Jonagold apple tree. It's had, maybe, 3 productive years. It's triploid, so doesn't pollinate others. Delicious, crisp, sweet, juicy, flavorful apples. But I can't justify the burden of caring for it any more. I have other, better, varieties. #HomeOrchard 🌱
Liberty apple tree after pruning. Deer don't munch as high as those branches & spurs.
Another view, same apple tree after pruning
Power pruners. Great help! Extended reach, instant cut through inch - thick branches. Be very careful - they can do that to fingers too.
My helper. He stands out of the way until pruning is finished and I'm cleaning up.
Winter pruning has started. Today I pruned this "dwarf' Liberty Apple tree that way-outgrew its dwarfing rootstock. I keep the branches above deer munching height but still within human (me) reach without ladder. Power pruners help. Be VERY CAREFUL - they can cut off a finger! #HomeOrchard 🌱
Cover of The Home Orchard Second Edition showing a fruit tree.
Home Orchard, 2nd Edition is here!🍎
Nearly two decades of University of CA research updates.
From rootstocks to rainfall, pests to pruning—this is the guide for serious backyard fruit growers.
Get the guide, grow the dream.
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#HomeOrchard #FruitTrees #UCANR
Freshly picked "Coffeecake Persimmons", known in Japan as Nishimura Wise. These require a second variety for pollination. They are crisp and sweet.
Coffeecake persimmon on the tree. Fencing is for deer.
Birds got about half of the persimmons but there are still some for me.
Today's persimmon harvest. I should have checked weeks ago. Birds got a lot of them. This is Nishimura Wise, sold in the US as "Coffee Cake ". They require pollination to be sweet when crisp. These are very good! #Persimmons #HomeOrchard 🌱 #KitchenGarden
A blue-rimmed plate is piled high with ripe kadota figs. They are plump and round, in shades of brown and brownish-green. The plate sits on a blond wood table.
We have positively gorged on figs this year. Our little fig tree has been full to the brim! This is the last of them... now we'll have to be patient until next year.
#gardening #HomeOrchard #fruit #figs #GrowYourFood
Pear tree with ripe pears
Pears are ripe now. I picked a big box of them to take to the food bank. Also a box of apples. #gardening #HomeOrchard
Yellow and orange-blushed peaches sitting on a black surface
I still can't believe it worked! We grew peaches! They don't look perfect and the raccoons got too many, but they're juicy, complex, and delicious ♥️ #peaches #byoc #gardening #homeorchard
Large green caterpillar with fake eyes on leaf
Spotted on an apple leaf from pretty far away bc it is massive! Best guess: swallowtail butterfly caterpillar. Check out those fake eyes 👀 #gardening #appletree #caterpillar #homeorchard #swallowtail
Small blue Methley plums, ripe Illinois Everbearing mulberries, and purple / magenta Hollywood plums.
Golden Shiro plums on the tree. Sweet and juicy. I love them, but others prefer more fleshy / stronger flavored plums.
It's a plum nice day! Harvest of Hollywood and Methley plums. Also mulberries. Shiro plums glow on the branches. 🌱 #Gardening #HomeOrchard
a peach tree branch with 3 peaches on it, furry and green
when will my peaches be ready
can I beat the squirrel and raccoon to them
I am on high alert daily when I wake
there's only maybe 6 or 7 on this thing
I stare out the window, waiting and watching
#spokanegarden #gardensky #homeorchard
Easiest Tropical Fruits for Florida Gardeners
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#tropicalfruit #homeorchard #homesteading #SelfSufficiency #selfsufficient #FloridaGarden #FloridaGardening
southerngarden.net/easiest-trop...
Akane apple tree on Bud-9 rootstock. A Japanese variety, very productive Jonathan-type apples but a bit larger fruit. It's descended partly from Jonathan.
Pristine apple on a dwarfing Geneva rootstock. Pristine is a very early (July), "sparkly" tasting yellow apple. Very disease resistant. All of these highly dwarfing rootstocks are not strong, so require a strong post to keep the tree standing.
Sweet-16 mini-dwarf apple tree on Bud-9 rootstock. Sweet-16 is a mid-season (Sept) red apple with pink-toned flesh adjacent to the skin, and an unusual "cherry apple" flavor. This tree, using the rootstock and pruning, is about 5 feet tall and bears about 50 good size apples, with early fruit thinning.
On far right, "Tasty Red" columnar apple. I did not graft that one, it's on whatever rootstock the nursery used. Patented (originally Czech), disease resistant variety so cant be home grafted. On left, Gravenstein on Bud-9. Bears in July. Origin 17th century Europe. Triploid. Behind that, Jonared, a red sport of Jonathan, I think I grafted it onto on Geneva because it's a low vigor cultivar. Smaller apples, nostalgic. My parents had a Jonathan apple tree many years ago. Probably originates in rural New York in 1826. Behind that in the row is Akane, already described. Each mini tree can now bear about 50 apples, easily. On the miniaturizing rootstocks, they are easy to maintain, highly accessible to putter and give TLC. Grafting isn't too difficult. Scion and rootstocks are from various sources, mainly Fedco in Maine, and Burnt Ridge in WA State. I think they are close enough together for pollinating insects to travel between trees. They usually set fruit too well, requiring fruit thinning in Nay or June. Yesterday I noticed a few honeybees and more tiny pollinating solitary bees and wasps buzzing around the blossoms.
Apple blossom time. The earlies are in full bloom. Almost are grafted onto ultra-dwarfing rootstock, Budagovsky-9 (Bud 9) rootstock for high vigor varieties, or Geneva-222 for low vigor varieties. Trees are about six years old. 🌱 #AccessibleGardening #Homeorchard #AppleBlossom
green leaves with tiny flowers, gooseberry
a plum branch with white flowers about to open
large rhubarb leaves
a small pear tree
things growing:
gooseberry berries, green gage plum, rhubarb from @thekr.bsky.social , pear about to blossom
#zone7a #gardensky #homeorchard
Gravenstein Apple Blossoms. Many are fully open now, the earliest of my varieties. Gravenstein is an ancient, centuries-old variety from Europe - Denmark, Germany, or Italy may be the origin. It is tetraploid -four sets of chromosomes - a common apple trait usually resulting in large, sweet, flavorful apples but can't pollinate other trees. So if you grow Gravenstein, you need at least two other varieties so all can be pollinated. Liberty and Jonagold are also tetraploid.
Columnar "Tasty Red" apple blossoms. Quite a few have opened but not most.
Columnar "North Pole" blossoms "almost" open, These and Tasty Red can pollinate each other and Gravenstein. Gravenstein can't pollinate these, because it is tetraploid with ineffective pollen.
Apple Blossoms. Now Gravenstein is fully open, columnar Tasty Red has started to open, and North Pole is almost open. I hope the pollinating insects are out there. I see very few. 🌱 #AppleBlossoms #Gardening #HomeOrchard
Rescue pear tree in bloom. I usually have to do a lot of fruit thinning. We'll see about this year. Not many bees out there so far.
Orcas Pear tree in bloom, with Rescue Pear nearby.
European pears are blooming now (SW WA State). These are the varieties Orcas and Rescue, plus some grafts for pollination. Not seeing any honeybees, mason bees, or bumblebees 🙁 but maybe some native tiny pollinators. 🌱 #Gardening #HomeOrchard
Creating an orchard from heirloom fruits and exotic varieties takes a ton of time and work but it'll be worth it very soon #appletree #homeorchard
My hand is holding up a white plant tag that reads Blue Damson Plum. The tag is attached to the center trunk of a small bare fruit tree, which is sitting in a large terracotta pot full of potting soil. My car keys and piano pattern lanyard are dangling out of focus in the foreground. A messy greenhouse and small metal trash can are blurry in the background.
New addition to our future orchard - Blue Damson Plum 🥰 Absolutely gorgeous bare root tree from Trees of Antiquity #homeorchard #gardening #homesteading (notice my sad y'all o' meter in the greenhouse, sorry @rhyall.bsky.social 😂)
A bowl of cherries and a bowl of blackcurrants harvested from my home orchard
Today's harvest from the home orchard. Almost 1.5 kg blackcurrants, some already in a 🥧, the rest will be jam by tomorrow and the 🍒are delicious just as they are. #HomeGrown #HomeOrchard
