The Dekopon (known as “Sumo” in the grocery stores) is large, easy-to-peel, and sweet mandarin. They’re also nearly seedless. And, if you find a seed, that is the only legal way to grow them in California (unless you are one of a small number of commercial growers in California) at this point in time. As a result of this exclusivity, they cost $3+ per pound here in California.

Last year we bought a few in hopes of finding a seed. No such luck. This year was a different story… we found one! So, off to learning how to germinating citrus from a seed I went, and up the seedling has now risen! The last photo was taken 15 days after initiating the process.

Can’t wait to share more about our Dekopon seed experiment with you! -Ben

Take 2. The first try was two years ago (see here). We’ve learned a lot since and made some modifications, namely, raised beds.

During the two years, we’ve also learned about Kevin Hauser and his knack for growing apples in hot climates. As a result we’ve been exposed to some non-traditional apples for our area; varieties once thought limited to much colder climates.

Now that they’ve been planted, they really just look like short sticks in the ground. However, we’re hoping that one day, these espaliered trees will be providing us with some excellent apples. We highly recommend Kevin’s trees and how-to manuals, especially for those in hotter areas!

We wrap up a few garden projects, only to start whole plethora of new ones. Things are starting to take shape, but we still have a long way to go until we are done. Honestly, I don’t think we will ever be done. Once everything is planted, then there’s the upkeep and pruning that will have to be done constantly to care for these 60+ trees growing in our backyard.

But it is fun to savor moments of progress… a flush of new growth here, a blossom there. And while some of the blossoms seen (first two photos) will die off as a result of the unestablished trees’ root systems, it still provides eye candy if nothing else for the time being!

(Photos, top to bottom: Nectarine x2, Ronde de Bordeaux fig, Australian Finger Lime, Meyer Lemon.)

There goes Ben again, he ends up pulling some of our plants to put in more fruit trees, and I think it’s pretty funny. Always looking for backyard real estate to “shoehorn” in more fruit trees! The latest victim? My overgrown lavender bushes and my broom plant (the lavender is being relocated around the wooden beds.)

As a result of the poorly draining soil in our backyard, we’ve had to raise the roots on the fruit trees, off of the ground to allow them to properly oxygenate. Some of the beds we had custom-made from Corten steel; these recent ones he made from old redwood scraps he had combined with new redwood boards (he said the cost of redwood has more then doubled since the last time he purchased it a few years back!).

It’s bare root fruit tree season, so now is the best time of the year re: price and variety for a lot of these deciduous fruit trees. The vast majority originated from Dave Wilson Nursery. The apples he just purchased at his most recent CRFG (California Rare Fruit Growers) meeting, from Kuffel Creek (they specialize in apples for hot climates). Here’s a listing of all the deciduous fruit trees we have in beds now (the rest of the fruit trees consist of some citrus, blueberries, a passion fruit, guava, a kiwi, and a wax apple tree.):

Cherry Minnie Royal
Royal Lee

Nectarine Arctic Star
Nectarine Atomic Red
Nectarine Double Delight
Nectarine Snow Queen

Nectaplum Spice Zee
Aprium Cot-N-Candy

Peach Eva’s Pride
Peach Donut

Pluot Dapple Supreme
Pluot Splash
Pluot Emerald Drop
Plum Burgundy
Peach Kaweah
Pluot Flavor King
Pluot Flavor Grenade

Asian Pear Shinseiki
Asian Pear Hosui
Asian Pear 20th Century
Chinese Pear Ya Li
Chinese Pear Tsu Li

Fig Black Mission
Fig Kadota
Fig Peter’s Honey
Fig Tiger Panache
Fig Ronde de Bordeaux

Pomegranate Parfianka
Pomegranate Angel Red

Apple Williams Pride
Apple Sierra Beauty
Apple King David
Apple Fuiji
Apple Dixie Red Delight
Apple Lady Wiliams

Persimmon Fuyu

Che (Chinese Mulberry)

They’re ALL pretty much “babies” now, so, the journey has just begun! Read more backyard orchard culture posts here.

Ben nerds out when it comes to fruit and vegetable plant life; for example, he’ll visit all types of fruit and vegetable online forums. When he was looking to round out our four fig trees with two more, he visited Figs 4 Fun for guidance.

One of the figs that popularly rated high for taste was Ronde de Bordeaux. Despite having a good amount of local (well, San Diego), niche nurseries selling rare fruit tree cultivars, he had trouble finding this one.

He learned that fig trees can start out as “cuttings” so he was able to find a Ronde de Bordeaux cutting on eBay. This eBayer was really both helpful and thoughtful… so thoughtful that not only did she send cuttings from other fig trees, but a small Ronde de Bordeaux plant as well!

For the cuttings, she directed him to this string on the Figs 4 Fun site to learn about “rooting” them in coconut coir. We found some at a local soil distributor (you can also find them on Amazon and perhaps at a local nursery); we started experimenting with it as instructed.

The approach is simple: (1) moisten the dehydrated coir in a small shoebox-sized plastic container; (2) cover the cuttings with the moistened coir; and then (3) cover the container. They’re two weeks in and we don’t see any rooting yet. We might have taken too long to plant them. Because of the hustle and bustle of the holidays, Ben wasn’t able to place them in the coir until about three weeks after receiving them. They stayed refrigerated (which was recommended), but not sure if we took too long to transfer them into a rooting medium like the coconut coir. We’ll let you know! Gardening is such a learning process…