Today I drove over to the U.S.D.A. research station in Parlier to photograph the Lorna Apricot. I wanted to get good photos for our point of sale pages and picture tags, but our trees got their normal hard winter pruning (butchering) to force new vegetative growth for summer budwood. Thus no Lorna Apricots to take pictures of this year.Craig Ledbetter - the researcher who bred this and many other Apricots - took me to the…

Clemson University Cooperative Extension has a website called "Everything About Peaches". It is written by Dr. Desmond R. Layne. It is full of interesting information. http://www.clemson.edu/extension/peach/ I thought it was well done and worth using as a reference. Only disappointing thing is the discouragement for homeowners to grow peaches but remember, he is in South Carolina where there are humidity and bug issues tougher than most other places. Dr. Layne helps growers deal with these…

Question:  Previously I lived in W. Texas and had an orchard. I did not plant this orchard, so I don't know where the tree's came from. I had a peach tree that was reported to be a "Giant Elberta" white meat, freestone. I cannot find a listing anywhere that comes close to this, except possibly one on your site. This peach is aproxamately the size of a softball at ripen, it is a white meat…

Today we culminated a week of sales training with a walk through the fields and budwood orchards. As we passed the ripe Donut (Saturn) Peaches and were refreshing ourselves with their sweet, sugery goodness, I recalled a conversation I had with a customer earlier this year in Texas.  As I was describing the improvement of size and flavor of the Galaxy Peach over the Donut Peach, he commented, "can you pop the seed out of…

  Burgundy Plum Spring Bloom Everyone first notices the unusual (for us anyway) formation of the clouds in this photo. Burgundy Plum Bloom (and pruned hard for budwood - not fruit) What is not unusual is the yearly, stunning white bloom of the Burgundy Plum.   Most of us only think of the edible plums for their summer fruit and forget about the attractive spring bloom.  The Burgundy Plum has one of the nicest.  Again you…

4-N-1 Combination Fruit trees are popular - in spite of their cost.  Let me tell you a little about the extra work that goes into making these premium trees. Here is a row of Cold Climate 4-N-1 Apples First, you will notice they are widely spaced in the row.  To get a well balanced head, we cannot plant them 6 to 9 inches apart. There is care in where the buds are placed on the…

Ziziphus jujuba 'Sugar Cane' This exciting tree will be a new offering for the 2011 shipping season (sorry - not 2010). The trees you see here were just planted January 23, 2008!  The amount of fruit the second year is impressive. These trees will be supplying the graft wood for the trees to be sold in 2011. Based upon the rapid growth, if we have enough seedlings, we should get a good sized initial crop…

Champagne Peaches!     Every year I await the coming of August and mourn its passing because it is the month that my favorite peach ripens.  If you like sweet, juicy, white peaches then the Champagne is for you.  Just save some for me.     It is good enough to pick and eat while standing next to the tree or you can take things a step further and use it to make multiple culinary…

Homeowners often call their local nursery with a question:  Why does my Persimmon Tree drop its fruit at an immature stage? Juvenile Persimmons   On a mature tree, first choice is often excess nitrogen/fertilizers.  Second is over watering.  Most often I see the problem with Persimmons planted in a lawn where both happen.  A third option is not enough sun - planted in too much shade. More indepth information can be found at these links:…