Wednesday, August 3, 2022

Holiday and Daily 11 avocados fruited in Davis

 This post describes my experience grafting Holiday and Daily 11 avocado cultivars onto my old (>20 years) Mexicola tree. Holiday was grafted in 2017 and Daily 11 was grafted in 2019. Holiday graft is a very weak grower. This year I grafted it onto a stronger branch of Mexicola to make sure that it has enough support from the stock tree. Daily 11 is a vigorous grower. Both cultivars fruited first time this year. Daily 11 made just one fruit, and Holiday produced four very large avocados. It seems that July is the month when they are ready here in Davis, CA. Daily 11 fruit is actually fell from the tree. I picked the first Holiday fruit on July 20, the same day the Daily 11 fruit fell. Here they are on the scales in the pictures below. Daily 11 is more elongated. 

Daily 11 ripened in 4 days, below pictures are from July 24 2022.
It has hard shell, the flesh can be scooped out as in the picture below 

I wouldn’t call this avocado taste excellent but it is good and has a lot of flesh as the seed was very small. Has a little amount of insignificant fibers.
This graft is making a good number of fruits that should be ready next July.

The Holiday fruit that I picked on July 20 got soft only on July 30. The fruit had perfect texture, very creamy, and gets a very good mark from me. It didn’t have any distinct flavors that could be found in some other cultivars. The shell is hard, the flesh can be easily scooped out. Beautiful fruit with no stings at all.
This small Holiday graft produced 4 large fruits this year.
 I only see one developing fruit that might be ready next July.
I don’t know why, but the seeds from both fruits Daily 11 (left in the image below) and Holiday are pink.




Tuesday, August 2, 2022

Round melons

 This post lists four cultivars of round melons harvested at the end of July 2022. Two of them have been grown by me, Kolkhoznitsa ( Collective Farm Woman) and Kampyr (Grandma, Кампыр, Бабушка). Two others, Golden Hami and Golden Honeydew have been grown by my farming neighbor Jim.


Left to right in the images below: Kolkhoznitsa, Golden Hami, Golden Honeydew and Kampyr. 

Kolkhoznitsa 

Very sweet, aromatic and complex in flavor, the flesh is medium density.


Golden Hami

Very sweet, the flesh is dense and crunchy. 


Golden Honeydew 

Sweet melting flesh. 


Kampyr 

Melting flesh but not much sugar yet. This wasn’t fully ripe fruit. I will retaste it in a few weeks.


The first three melons are excellent and early ripening. Kampyr should be harvested later. 


Cuttings sale in June of 2024

Update: No shipping after June 27, 2024 and until the winter sale. The orders placed after June 27 need to be picked up in person.  This pos...