Answer: I assume since this is June that the tree you planted was in a container (not bareroot) and the root ball fully enclosed with dirt (in other words, the dirt did not fall off and expose the roots as you planted it).  Since the fig was happy in the container at the nursery and not happy in the hole filled with compost and water, that something changed that it did not like.  Figs, for the most part, are a desert loving tree.  They do not like too much water.  Adding compost will retain moisture and soaking the tree 3 times a week is likely creating a soaked condition that is not allowing the roots the oxygen it needs. The roots are likely rotting and not taking in new moisture for the tops.

1) Stop watering immediately and let it dry down so you only feel dampness (not wet) 3" down in the hole.  2) Since I am assuming the roots are damaged, they need to recover but the top is still giving off water through photo synthesis.  I sould reduce the top to reduce the need for water until the roots recover and can support the top.  Thus I would trim back the top to only a few small branches with leaves.  That will reduce the demand for water so the tree does not dessicate itself.

Ron Ludekens

6-3-2013

See Introductory Article here: Taste Is Tops

1)  Locate your Sunset Climate Zone by Region here:

SUNSET CLIMATE ZONES MAPS

2) Click on Zone Number in Left Column for PDF of Recommended Variety List

Purple Robe Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia 'Purple Robe')

Saturday evening as I was taking my beautiful Bride to dinner, we drove by this stunning tree just a block away from our home.  Now I've photographed this tree in prior years - actually several times as it keeps growing up.  What was special about Saturday was the spectacular lighting (remember I am a photographer and lighting is king!).  The early evening sun was spotlighting it perfectly and it was stunning against a prefectly blue sky!  Now I usually have my camera with me as I go to work or travel around on sales trips and vacations but I normally don't drag it with me as I treat my hard working wife to dinner.  So I commented to Barbara that I need to come back tomorrow to capture that shot.

Well I forgot on Sunday as I had a major project I was working on for church.  Shame too since I could have timed the afternoon light perfectly.  Monday morning as I drove by the tree (lit from the wrong side by the morning sun), I reminded myself to get off early from work and take the shot. Well Monday turned cloudy, rainy (well "spit" at us is more accurate) and very windy.  So the shot you see above was the best I could accomplish in between wind gusts before retreating inside to protect the camera from water.

Purple Robe Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia 'Purple Robe')

Yesterday (Tuesday) I tried again but couldn't get away early enough before lengthening shadows from neighboring trees covered the bottom part of the Purple Robe Locust.  Between heavy winds, rain and progress of time, the blooms are no longer as stunning as last Saturday.  So guess I wait again for next year to nab that stunning shot I saw Saturday (and start carrying my camera to dinners?).

Purple Robe Locust is the most popular of the Robinia that we sell - simply because of this delightful spring showcase of blooms.  In the right places, with room to grow, it can be a desireable tree.  You can see more photos here: Purple Robe Locust

Next most popular in terms of our sales volume is the Frisia Gold Locust noted primarily for its yellow leaves (new growth nearly orange).  It has white flowers in the spring/early summer but not to the abundance like you see on the Purple Robe.  The flowers are nice but not its key selling feature. Since they were blooming too, I went out to the orchard to capture a few images.  These photos are from the heavily pruned (butchered) budwood orchard trees so all you get are closeups of foliage and blooms (and limb stubs):

Frisia Gold Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia 'Frisia') blooms

I do not have any local landscape shots of this tree since most yellow foliage trees in Central California are not popular (they don't stand out from the golden/brown environment of our "Golden State's" dry summers). They shine in the greener parts of the country where the yellow foliage contrasts so nicely.  So I took some photos (with permission) at the wonderful J.F. Schmidt Arboretum next to their nursery in Oregon.

Frisia Gold Locust in the landscape

You can see more Frisia Gold Locust photos here: Robinia pseudoacacia 'Frisia'

We also carry the Idaho Locust (Robinia x ambigua 'Idahoensis') which sells mostly into Idaho and Utah (I think I need to call one "California Locust" to see if the name helps it sell in a more populus state but that name sounds like a new invasive pest).

Lastly we sell some Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) which is the rootstock for our other trees.  It is a "trash tree" in my opinion and its detractions prevent me from ever recommending it for a yard or landscape.  But there seems to be some call for this seedling for environmental remediation work in tough climate areas.

Weather warmed up quicly this year so spring is rapidly advancing.  Hope you are enjoying your spring as much as we are.

Ron Ludekens 4-10-2013

This post might get me in trouble.  I might offend those tasteless people with poor tasters underdeveloped uninitiated taste buds.

A story from my past:  For 16 years, before I returned to the family business, I worked at Westinghouse Electric Corporation in various engineering and management positions.  On several occasions, I had the duty privilege of visiting corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh, PA (beautiful city except most of my trips were in freezing or sweltering times of the year).  One lovely August week, when there should have been a law forbidding suits and ties, I was invited along with some other stuffed shirts to an elegant dinner at one of the finer restaurants in town.  The corporate hosts repeatedly bragged about this dining establishment hosting the finest fresh fruit bar in all of the region.  As a country boy, I looked forward to it.

Yuck!  No flavor, no sugar, tasted little better than soggy cardboard in my opinion. Yet the locals raved over the quality of the fruit.  I figured that the fruit came from California or Georgia by rail car (yes it was that long ago), picked weeks before it was ripe to survive the rigors of transit.  Surely I did not want to find out what the "normal" fruit tasted like in their other restaurants. I had my eyes opend that day and marveled at how much enjoyment people were missing without truly delicious, tree ripened fruit.  And they did not know better.

Fast forward to re-joining the family business at the nursery and our 72 acres of budwood orchards.  Next to the office on this shared 20 acre parcel, we have the research orchard with one of nearly every fruit tree in production or in evaluation.  All summer we get to taste and evaluate the varieties so we (office, sales staff and visiting customers) can select and recommend the best tasting fruit.  Tough job, but someone has to do it!

Now, I also know there are differences in what people like even with tree ripened fruit.  I lean toward the sweeter side of fruit - but a watery-sugery peach without flavor doesn't pass muster with me.  My father leans toward the tarter side.  He wants strong flavor with a little kick to it. (He'll test taste persimmons to see how astringent it might be and I won't even risk finding out).  So I know my first choice may not be his.  But we all usually agree on what varieties should not be put on a recommended variety list.

Recommended Variety Lists

Years ago, some of us created recommended variety lists to help us as salesmen and our customers select the appropriate trees for their marketing regions.  Otherwise all the selections in the catalog can get overwhelming.  After all, the best tasting of a variety does you no good if it won't fruit in your neighborhood.  Over time, we had too many fine tuned regional or citywide lists and still did not cover most of the country.  So we decided it was time to try to make easier sense of it which took a lot if time.

Fruit trees cannot go by the USDA Cold Hardiness Zones.  That only tells you where extremes of the cold will kill a tree.  It does not address rainfall, summer heat and humidity, late frosts, length of season, chill  hours, drought, etc.  The closest thing we found that tries to address the all year round climate is the Sunset Climate Zones.  We agree that it is far from perfect, but it is the best that is availabile at this time.  So we set about over the last few years to create recommended variety lists for most of these climate zones.  Now, every year management and sales staff review the recommended variety lists and update with newer selections as appropriate and remove those that slipped further down the preferred list.  I hope you will take a look at them and use them in your marketing plan.

1) Find your Sunset Climate Zone (by Zip Code): Sunset Climate Zones 

2) Look up the Recommended Variety List for your area from this page:  Recommended Variety Lists by Sunset Zones

Disclaimer:  We do not live in every climate zone and in many places have made our recommendations based upon our understanding of the climate, anectdotal evidence of similar varieties and feed back from customers and passionate fruit hobbyists (thank you!).  So if you have concrete evidence of why something should or should not be on your list, we welcome feedback (email comments to sales (at) lecooke.com).  This is always a work in progress with constant fine tuning.  On the other hand, if something grows well in your area but in our opinion tastes less than stellar, we may not add it to the list.  After all, we can be opinionated (ask my wife) and your taste buds must be broken.... See - I knew I'd get in trouble.

Happy fruit tasting!

Ron Ludekens 05/30/2013

Shogetsu Flowering Cherry

Maybe I should title this the "Tale of Two Flowering Cherries".  One is very popular and the other is hardly known.  And the one that is hardly known is, in my opinion, the tree I would plant first.  So I intend, through this blog post, to shed more light on it.

Prunus serrulata 'Shogetsu' is rarely purchased from us to the point that I really should stop growing it (which I don't want to do).  And the Mt. Fuji (Prunus serrulata 'Shirotae') is quite popular with large numbers being grown.  Both have strong similarities to each other and both are beautiful trees.

Now this is personal preference, totally subjective and unscientific, but I like the pink blooms of the Shogetsu that turn to white as it ages as opposed to something that is nearly all white.  Granted, if you want a white flowering cherry, the Mt. Fuji - Shirotae is considered one of the best and there is nothing wrong with it.  It too is stunning in the spring season.  Another consideration is the Shogetsu is a slightly smaller growing tree for the dwindling sized yards.

So here are some comparison photos:

Shogetsu - bud stage

Mt. Fuji - Shirotae buds and open blooms

Shogetsu Open Blooms

Mt. Fuji - Shirotae - Full Open Blooms

Shogetsu - Full Open Blooms - Past Peak Bloom & starting to age

More photos can be seen here:  Shogetsu and Mt. Fuji Shirotae

I have shared my opinion - what are your thoughts?

Ron Ludekens 3-27-2013

2013-2014 Catalog Cover Quiz Answer Sheet

Hope you enjoyed the challenge. Besides just the answer, more information is available. Click on each answer to jump to an individual page for that variety. Click in the second column to jump to information pages for the category. The third column has blog posts related to the flowering category and what we like about each one. This might give you some ideas for recommending and selling some of these trees.

About this time last year I posted a blog about the Snow Fountains® Flowering Cherries that I have growing in my yard.  Well guess what - they are blooming again - and again I love them.  This year they were looking really stunning and last night a storm was blowing in.  So in the near dark, twilight I shot these photos before the rain and wind messed with my flowers:

Snow Fountains® Flowering Cherries - Before the Storm

One on left is budded at the ground and weeping all the way up the trunk.  One in center is top grafted.  Magenta blooms in the background are from Oklahoma Redbud.

6' Snow Fountains Budded at the Top

Snow Fountains® Flowering Cherry Budded at the Ground - Weeping All The Way Up.

I really like this form and think it is under-used in our industry.

I really like the 30" sized Snow Fountains® Flowering Cherry as an accent tree.

There are more photos here: www.CreatorsPalette.com

Point of Sale information pages here: Flowering Cherries

Other Blogs here:  Fall Color,  Harvest Photos of 3 Year Dormant Trees Showing Shape, Earliest Blog,  Last Spring's Blog

Enjoy your Spring - I know I am!    Ron Ludekens 3-20-13

What is the right rootstock for Fuyu Persimmon? If you do an internet search, often the #1 report found is one from a research project done in the 1930's and found in the California Avocado association 1940 Yearbook 25: 43-44. You can read it yourself or let me summarize it: According to the report, Fuyu should not be grown on Diospyros lotus and should be grown on Diospyros kaki.

This summary is repeated all across the Internet by academics and advisers alike - usually referring to that report.  We often bump against that conclusion since we grow 90+% on D. lotus and prospective buyers question that.

So why does L.E. Cooke Co, Orange County Nursery and Dave Wilson Nursery among many others mostly grow persimmons on Diospyros lotus and not D. kaki? Are we all wrong?

Answer: Because the #1 Fuyu persimmon grown commercially in the United States is Fuyu-Jiro and the #2 is Fuyu-Imoto.  These are both not the "true" Fuyu as used in the report.  I, personally, do not have any experience with the "true" Fuyu and want to get some to trial in the nursery.  And yes, if we got some, we would trial it on both rootstocks.  But we, and the others nurseries growing the Fuyu-Jiro, have vast experience with Fuyu-Jiro grown on Lotus rootstock.  Lotus is a far superior rootstock than D. kaki.

We (L.E. Cooke Co) have many trees growing in our budwood orchards right here in Visalia that were planted in 1966 and grown on D. Lotus.  As of this writing, that is 46 years!  We can walk from the office to the orchard and show them to anyone who wants proof (and photos below). They are thriving and still providing both great fruit and the cutting wood we need for thousands of trees to be reproduced for the farmers and homeowners across the U.S. and world.  We also have some that were grown on D. kaki, and although they are doing well, it is obvious that the rootstock is restrictive as seen by the reduced size of the root compared to the top. In one row, we have some varieties planted on both rootstocks - alternating from one to the next, side by side.  Here are some examples from that row:

Fuyu-Jiro on D. lotus rootstock planted 2-1-1966

Fuyu-Jiro Planted on D. kaki in February 1989 - notice more restriction in the rootstock.

Fuyu-Jiro planted on D. lotus February 1989 - more vigorous root.

In the production nursery, we can grow persimmon trees on D. lotus in both a 2 year and 3 year field and get good sized trees for sales.  We cannot grow on D. kaki in a 2 year field as they will never get to a sellable size.  We must grow in a 3 year field only.

Remember, in this rebuttal, we are talking about Fuyu-Jiro and Fuyu-Imoto (and Chocolate, Giant Fuyu(Gosho), Hachiya and others) growing successfully on D. lotus.  We are not talking about "true" Fuyu which we have no experience with.  There are varieties we grow which will do better on D. kaki and so we grow those on D. kaki (Izu, Matsumoto Wase Fuyu and a couple of other not currently in our catalog).

We are also just beginning to use D. virginiana (American Persimmon) as a rootstock for American Persimmon selections and may experiment with some Asian persimmons on that to see how they do.

Ron Ludekens 1-15-2013