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Lastly, the jewel of the property is separate Mandarin + Navel, and Tangerine orange trees. Tangerine (who I loved my whole childhood) called it quits at age 40, but the Mandarin + Navel have been pumping out insane loads of oranges for 50 years, no joke. I just ate a half dozen 2 weeks ago. Those trees go back so far, that the medfly-survey people would come and put traps in our branches. Those orange trees, are like the one strong irreplaceable memory that I will regret when I sell the property.
We had Valencia orange trees that were left from when our neighborhood used to be an orchard (north Orange County, CA). They were the biggest orange trees I have ever seen, and were already 30+ years old when my parents bought the property in the mid-1960s. When they sold 30 years later, the trees were still covered with delicious oranges every single year. There was a dwarf Meyer lemon, as well, which tried its best to grow bigger than dwarf (it got to about 5 feet high and pretty wide). We never lacked for lemons.
Of course, the new owners immediately dug them all out to put in a swimming pool.
I lived in my house in SoCal for 21 years and was told by the prior owner, who lived there for 5 years, that the Valencia orange tree was there when they moved in. I sold the house 10 years ago, so the tree is at least 36 years old & still producing lots of sweet, juicy fruit.
One plum tree grown from stone/pit of a plum from the groceries. S/O says would fail.
Thing sprout grow into tree, is now think 8 or 9 yrs had 2 years of a few plums but last summer nothing 0 plums. First it had many blossoms each early spring.
But there are very few bees , my garden has self seeded herbs like marjoram, mugwort, yarrow.
Only garden in street/area with lots of herbs. Lots of birds too. Birds ate the few plums.
[quote=SUPbud;60346524
...We had an avocado, but avocados are sexual reproducers, they need a male + a female tree within bees-flight distance. German neighbors moved away, new family cut down their avocado, ours died in lonely-ness and sympathy..[/QUOTE]
Avocados have both male and female flowers, they do not need additional pollinating trees.
I have a mostly tropical fruit orchard in Hawaii that was started 28 years ago. One of the citrus, a Satsuma tangerine, recently quit growing and producing so it has been removed and replaced.
Otherwise, the older trees are still cranking out the fruit. (Longan, rambutan,langsat, lychee, abiu, mamey sapote, canistel/eggfruit, jaboticaba, orange, tangerine, lemon, lime, pommelo, avocado, star apple/caimito, mangosteen, durian, jackfruit, breadfruit, chempadek and maybe a few forgotten others.)
Avocados have both male and female flowers, they do not need additional pollinating trees.
I have to pull rank on you, a little bit. For an individual TREE, the air temperature and the time of day determine if the flower opens as male or female - or sometimes not at all. Because those conditions occur AT DIFFERENT TIMES of DAY, it is UNLIKELY for an avocado to self-pollinate and produce clone fruit.
If you are a psycho who wants to break out a two-story ladder and climb up and down that ladder 150x per day so you can pollinate with a tiny paint brush, knock yourself out, but odds are you'll fall to your death on the 151st time you go up that ladder and slip - remember most accidents/fatalities occur at home.
Its far easier, and natural to plant multiple trees within close range, and lets the bees and the butterflys and the plain old flies (and angry wasps) and the wind do the rest.
source: owned avocado tree for decades. like literally, their cells and nutrients are a part of my body on a molecular level.
I have to pull rank on you, a little bit. For an individual TREE, the air temperature and the time of day determine if the flower opens as male or female - or sometimes not at all. Because those conditions occur AT DIFFERENT TIMES of DAY, it is UNLIKELY for an avocado to self-pollinate and produce clone fruit.
If you are a psycho who wants to break out a two-story ladder and climb up and down that ladder 150x per day so you can pollinate with a tiny paint brush, knock yourself out, but odds are you'll fall to your death on the 151st time you go up that ladder and slip - remember most accidents/fatalities occur at home.
Its far easier, and natural to plant multiple trees within close range, and lets the bees and the butterflys and the plain old flies (and angry wasps) and the wind do the rest.
source: owned avocado tree for decades. like literally, their cells and nutrients are a part of my body on a molecular level.
Excellent Avocado information from this UC Riverside Highlander alumnus from way back in the day. The University started out as a citrus experiment station...has a collection of over 1000 different types of citrus listed below in link. Students can pick the Oranges off some very old trees around campus although some are sour orange and other bizarre ornamental varieties and not very good. I used to occasionally pick Kumquats off a tree in front of the Bio-Ag library back in the day...sweet skin but VERY tart...will wake you up for sure!
OP, figure about 30 years for peaches. If they go longer, you have done a good job of caring for them
At one point, I had a house where the apple trees were over 80 years old and they were still going strong. I drove by the house 20 years after I sold it and the apple trees were still there and looking healthy. Unfortunately, I suspect they had been planted for cider and none of the trees had good eating apples. They produced a lot of apples and the deer liked them.
Prune trees will live a lot longer than Asian plum trees.
I've never owned anything but young cherry trees, but I suspect those trees are long lived when they are in suitable climate.
Here in the humid Piedmont region of the SE, apples seem to struggle. Peaches, plums, and pears are equally susceptible to insects, fire blight, brown rot, etc. Everything requires spraying and maintenance to survive. We manage to keep up with an organic spraying schedule in the cooler months and then more or less give up in June once the weather gets too hot to tolerate.
Our young orchard produced excellent plums and a decent batch of peaches on one tree. The apples don’t mature early enough to go unscathed. The birds attack before they’re ripe so we’ve only gotten a few. I’m not an apple fan, but would like to try making cider.
Now that I’ve learned that pears should be picked before ripeness, we’ll get a lot from our five varieties. Pears are divine.
The best fruit for our region seem to be figs, which live for decades; blueberries, which are native to the SE and require minimal care; muscadine grapes that live forever and thrive when pruned and fed; and thornless blackberries that require protection from birds, but are highly productive and easy to harvest.
I’m not bothered by the idea of replacing a couple of failing trees every so often if we can expect several years of productivity out of them.
Here in the humid Piedmont region of the SE, apples seem to struggle. Peaches, plums, and pears are equally susceptible to insects, fire blight, brown rot, etc. Everything requires spraying and maintenance to survive. We manage to keep up with an organic spraying schedule in the cooler months and then more or less give up in June once the weather gets too hot to tolerate.
Our young orchard produced excellent plums and a decent batch of peaches on one tree. The apples don’t mature early enough to go unscathed. The birds attack before they’re ripe so we’ve only gotten a few. I’m not an apple fan, but would like to try making cider.
Now that I’ve learned that pears should be picked before ripeness, we’ll get a lot from our five varieties. Pears are divine.
The best fruit for our region seem to be figs, which live for decades; blueberries, which are native to the SE and require minimal care; muscadine grapes that live forever and thrive when pruned and fed; and thornless blackberries that require protection from birds, but are highly productive and easy to harvest.
I’m not bothered by the idea of replacing a couple of failing trees every so often if we can expect several years of productivity out of them.
Yeah the only apples that grow here are the native crabapples (even those are rare). I have even tried the old southern heirloom types such as ‘Yates’ with no luck. They will live, but look terrible and do not grow.
I have to pull rank on you, a little bit. For an individual TREE, the air temperature and the time of day determine if the flower opens as male or female - or sometimes not at all. Because those conditions occur AT DIFFERENT TIMES of DAY, it is UNLIKELY for an avocado to self-pollinate and produce clone fruit...
Depends where you are, I guess. My experience in Hawaii says otherwise. For years I only had one avocado and it always produced. Kahaluu variety. Now I have a few other varieties in an adjacent 3 acre lot, though they're not located near one another. They all produce well, with a bit of staggered season.
For sure, cross pollination is always better.
It's the same story with durian. The literature says you must have different varieties for good cross pollination and fruit set. However, some years the only flowering and fruit production for me is from one cultivar.
For whatever reason it does just great without any help.
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