November mandarins

Listing here my earliest mandarins that were ready in November of 2018.

The first mandarin we started to eat already in October was Myagawa Satsuma, and the fruits became sweeter in November.  By the mid-November, Primorosa mandarin, Miho Wase Satsuma, and Corsica #2 mandarin were ready. S9 satsuma ripened by the end of November.

Left to right here: Myagawa, Primorosa, Miho Wase, Corsica #2.

Indiomandarinquat is on top (not ready in November)

S9 satsuma

They are about the same size as Miho Wase. 

Feijoa fruits in late October 2018

Four varieties of feijoa were fruiting during the last few days. They are Coolidgei, Apollo, my seedling #3, and Marion (the fruits turned out to be from rootstock under Marion).

Coolidgei (left) and Apollo

Apollo is sweeter and smoother. Its almost grit-less.

My seedling #3 (left) and Marion (the fruits turned out to be from rootstock under Marion)

Surprisingly, seedling #3 has smooth and sweet flesh. It is significantly sweeter than this particular fruit of Marion (the fruits turned out to be from rootstock under Marion)

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Early feijoas in 2018

As of October 11, I have three varieties ripe with the fruits dropped from the trees. Coolidgei is my oldest feijoa tree planted in 2001.  This tree might be the original Coolidge, as it has round fruits.  However I bought it labelled as Coolidgei. The other two varieties are Marion (the fruits turned out to be from rootstock under Marion) and Kaiteri. These are small trees planted couple of years ago, and they produced just few fruits this year. In the picture below, Coolidgei is top left, Marion (the fruits turned out to be from rootstock under Marion) is on the right, and Kaiteri is at the bottom.

My favorite out of this three is Kaiteri. However, I was surprised to hear that my son prefers the old plain Coolidgei that has significantly less soft matter in the fruit, and more acidic than Kaiteri. All these are good fruits.

Below are the cut fruits, left to right: Kaiteri, Marion (the fruits turned out to be from rootstock under Marion), Coolidgei. All Kaiteri fruits have darker flesh.  They are not overripe.

Check our sales site if we have the scions available reallygoodplants.com

Feijoa seedlings fruit early

This post shows that many feijoa seedlings will fruit in their third summer in ground.

In November of 2015, Mark Albert was invited by the Golden Gate chapter of CRFG to give a presentation on feijoa.  He also brought many fruits with him for us to try. I germinated the seeds from those fruits over the winter of 2015-2016, and then I grew them in pots in the spring-summer of 2016. In early August of 2016, I planted them in ground (Vacaville, CA), and most of them bloomed this spring of 2018, and now they are fruiting.  In the sample presented in the pictures below, five out of seven feijoa trees are fruiting. The first picture is from August 6, 2016.  The second and the third ones are from August 5, 2018. The third feijoa tree from the left was replaced by a loquat tree in 2017.

August 6, 2016. 

8 feijoa seedlings just planted.

August 5, 2018.

7 feijoa seedlings are still in the same place.

5 out of 7 are fruiting this summer.

Sample of feijoa fruits in August 2018.

Kit Donnell and Baby Crawford peaches

Here in Davis and Vacaville, Kit Donnell and Baby Crawford peaches are ready by the end of July.  They both are excellent peaches. This summer, I sampled them first time from my recent grafts.  Kit Donnell is sweeter, and I prefer it better.  I hope to sample more of them this Sunday at the orchard of Andy Mariani.  He grows them commercially, and they should be available in his shop around this time.

Kit Donnell (left) and Baby Crawford

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Cereus comarapanus, first flower

About three years ago I purchased a cutting of Cereus comarapanus from a fellow gardener in San Diego area. Last night, the first flower showed up.  This cactus produces red fleshed fruit, and I really looking forward to the fruit.  However, the only other cactus pollen I had last night was from Lobivia silvestris flower.  Let's hope C. comarapanus is self-fetrile, or can make fruit with L. sivestris pollen.

And the same flower this morning

Lobivia silvestris

Presentation for Golden Gate chapter of CRFG