Late November Avocados

 This month I don't have any avocados on my trees.  When my Mexicola tree was young, it used to fruit into November, but this year it started very early, as I remember picking the first fruits in August. Most of Mexicola fruits we harvested by early October. On October 25, I picked the last fruit from my tree. It was a Brazos Belle fruit from a recent graft onto my large Mexicola. The fruit was good, but not as intensely flavored as Mexicola.

In November, I started to buy store avocados.  The first pack of small fruit from a fruit stand made me question if those were even Hass. They were watery, but OK in flavor. The next pack of medium sized Hass from a large store seems to be even worse.  Today I compared one of the Hass fruits with a fruit of Mexican cultivar that my neighbor gifted me.

The Mexican cultivar definitely wins, although it is not very oily, not as nutty as Mexicola, but overall a better one in this comparison. My neighbor does not know the cultivar name. I thought that this is Mexicola Grande, but not sure about it anymore.  More fruits from this tree are in the last picture.  Please comment if you know the variety name.

  

Pomegranate cultivar Linda

This chance seedling is from the farm of Harvey Correia in Isleton. He grows various excellent cultivars of pomegranates, and he suspects that this tree is a seedling of one of them. The fruits are medium to large in size, very dark. The arils are very large and dark with soft seeds.  The seeds seem to be softer than Desertnyi's seeds. The flavor reminds me of Desertnyi, but a bit sweeter, like a cross with Vina. Overall, an excellent accession, and I am planning to make a tree for myself.

The propagation wood is usually available during our winter sale at reallygoodplants.com

White sapote cultivar Fisch

I have a small graft of Fisch white sapote on my Golden Globe tree. The Fisch graft was from 2018 and produced two ripe fruits in November 2020. The fruits are pretty different from most white sapote cultivars I tasted.  Fisch fruits are dense and do not macerate when overripe. The skin is not bitter and very thin. The flavor is very nice with citrusy notes.

November fruits of Sacramento Valley

I am planning to write quick posts here on what I have fruiting every months of the year.

November might be the most productive month here in the Sacramento Valley. 

1. Pomegranate - most if not all cultivars are ready

2. Feijoa - midseason cultivars are dropping fruits

3. Persimmons - mostly just Jiro from the old trees on the farm. From the newer grafts, I just collected the first fruit of an old astringent cultivar I call Watermelon.  A few American persimmons, Early Jewel, Lehman's Delight and Meader

4. Citrus - Early satsumas (Okitsu Wase, Miyagawa, Miho Wase), Rangpur Lime, Thornless Mexican lime

5. Tropical guava - My Brazilian seedling produces plenty of fruit 

6. Kei Apple - The productive "Sweet Female #4" - good amount of fruit into November

7. Che - Oregon Exotics is ripe and the production is good

8. Occasionally I pick dragon fruits. On November 11, I picked "Hardy", and on November 21 "Haley's Comet" and "Vietnamese Giant"

9. Cherimoya Fortuna produced one very nice fruit

10. No avocados on my trees, all finished, but my neighbor's tree is fruiting now.  The cultivar might be Mexicola Grande or another Mexican large fruited cultivar.  I need to graft her wood onto my tree.

Watermelon persimmon below

Haley's Comet and Vietnamese Giant dragon fruits

My neighbor's avocados

The propagation wood for many fruiting trees is usually available during our winter sale at reallygoodplants.com

Early Satsuma mandarins

Okitsu wase satsuma is ready in October, and it is my first mandarin.  It is followed by Miyagawa satsuma, and Miho wase is just starting now.  My Miho wase is grafted onto a Navel orange tree, and the fruits probably would be better if grafted on a regular rootstock or another mandarin.

In the pictures below, left to right are Miho wase, Miyagawa, and Okitsu wase satsumas. 

Okitsu wase is very good starting from October, and it is still the best one out of these three satsumas in November. The outer color of these mandarins are often green and does not reflect the fruit ripeness. 

Cherimoya cultivar Fortuna

This cultivar was registered by Nino Cupaiuolo with the California Rare Fruit Growers in 1997.  Fortuna is not distributed widely, as it did not make it to any of the large commercial nurseries. La Verne propagates many other cherimoya cultivars, but not Fortuna.  Five years ago I was gifted a small grafted tree by a friend in Southern California.  The tree made it through couple of first harsh winters we had in Davis, and finally started to produce.  I do not expect to get a lot of fruits, as the tree is growing in a very densely planted bed along with a few other trees. Like many home gardeners I grow too many trees in too little space.  Never the less, today I harvested a very nice sweet fruit.  I believe this cultivar deserves a better distribution.  An important attribute of this cultivar is its early fruiting time, that should allow to harvest the fruits before the frosts. We occasionally have them in the Sacramento Valley.

Check our sales site if we have the cuttings available during our late winter- early spring sale at reallygoodplants.com

Hylocereus undatus cv. Hardy

Back in 2015 I visited the garden of Leo Manuel in San Diego.  Leo is known for his collection of dragon fruits, mangos, and other tropicals.  The purpose of my visit was to buy the book on dragon fruit written buy Paul Thomson. During the yard visit, Leo offered me two cuttings from the plants that were not well distributed.  One was a hybrid between some tropical species that promptly died in it's first winter in Davis.  The second one was a pure H. undatus acquired from a friend. All he knew is that the plant should be hardier than most.  He called it "Hardy". Five years after, the plant still lives in Davis and occasionally fruits. The flowers are self fertile. The fruit is typical of an undatus. It is large, white fleshed, mildly sweet. The flesh is significantly sweeter in the middle of the fruit as compared to the fruit periphery. The fruit in the pictures below was collected on November 10, 2020 and was of an excellent quality.