Fruit Talk!

Due to getting covid, spring has been delayed! Usually it's the weather in April, but not this time...  Join me on this episode of Fruit Talk! where I explain how the orchard is waking up, things to watch out for, the troubles with the garden & an update on the fig trees progress under the low tunnels.

Getting your garden and orchard in order is a process that starts 2-3 months prior to when your growing season actually begins. In this episode of Fruit Talk! I will discuss my plans for the next 3 months. We'll cover propagation, grafting, seeding, rooting, planning, and my almost final garden plans.

In this episode of Fruit Talk! I breakdown my reasoning for leaving all of the fig communities, my plan to start my own and a few life lessons. Followed up by the annual fruit and veggie varieties I plan to grow in my garden during 2021.

In this episode of Fruit Talk! I finalize quite a bit we've talked about in prior weeks. Specifically what citrus tree varieties I'll be going with, a much greater insight into my garden plans for 2021 and what my ideas are for better strawberry production and to avoid critter damage.

In this episode of Fruit Talk! I go over my recent successful fruit tree/cutting sales. What worked, what we might do differently next year and what varieties are standards, more experimental or are some of the best and/or tastiest figs I grow. We then transition into talking about how much space I now have on the patio and what other fruiting plants that allows me to grow in containers. Of course citrus comes to mind and we talk about citrus varieties I'm going to try and grow as well as plans for strawberries in a hinged raised bed and my raspberry varieties.

In this episode of fruit talk I'm all over the place. First we start off talking about my super successful bare root fig tree sale. 47 trees sold in 48 hours! Then I touch on the health benefits of cruciferous vegetables and how they're helping me. I talk about why I think growing figs in container is obsolete and lastly what my favorite dried fruits are. A discussion about persimmons, hoshigaki, dates of different types and of course dried figs.

With the season coming to an end I've learned quite a bit about growing figs this year. Specifically on light penetration, pinching and fruit shape and how that affects splitting. I also detail my favorite varieties, my keepers and the varieties I'm most hopeful for going forward and of course we can't forget about the varieties I am getting rid of. You can't know what's good without seeing the bad.  

Lastly, a bonus on health and mushroom gardening that we spoke on last week.

Can't get any more intensive than gardening with mushrooms. That's a next level amount of food by taking advantage of multiple layers of "food forest." If it can be done. I talk about the pros and cons of doing such a method. Whether you're growing them in the walkways, in the straw mulch, on logs edging the raised beds or in the actual soil itself.

Welcome back for another livestream of Fruit Talk! Q&A at the end. Lets talk figs.  

https://www.figboss.com/post/name-this-fig-win-part-2 

https://www.silive.com/entertainment/2020/09/si-nightlife-fig-fest-2020-returns-with-real-life-mingling-and-celeb-ficus-experts.html

In this episode of Fruit Talk! I mention some interesting fig varieties that are being grown in Italy. Preserved in Paolo Belloni's collection and actually have made their way into the US. Most of which I am actually growing myself.

During this portion of the season a lot of my time is spent on harvesting and therefore about half of my time is actually spent away from the garden/orchard and instead I'm in the kitchen. Processing, cooking, preserving, pickling, reducing. You name it. This is the episode about using my homegrown food in the kitchen.

After visiting Japan years a couple years ago and experiencing the best melon of my lifetime, I was instantly hooked. This year I am enjoying some from my own garden. See where I'm at in this journey to bring a piece of Japan back to Philadelphia.

A bit of clarification on my perspective about the varieties I grow I thought was needed after last week's comments. Plus semi-final insight into the varieties I believe to be superior.

With the recent rain and hurricane that came through the Philadelphia area along with it came a wake up call. A wake up call to all fig collectors. This cannot continue.

In this episode of fruit talk! I talk about my plans for my 2021 summer garden. What I'll grow, what I liked from my 2020 garden and how I'll accomplish this.

A checklist for all fig growers to ensure a successful harvest and happy trees.

1. Make sure there is adequate light penetration into the canopy of your tree. Bend limbs and prune accordingly to open the canopy. Thin new shoots at bud break. Train figs as a tree form or as a cordon when possible. A bush should have no more than 3-6 trunks from the base. Trees with no more than 3-6 scaffolds.
   
2. Have a well draining & consistently moist soil. Not wet. Not dry. Consistently slightly drier than moist for optimum fruit quality.
   
3. Applications of 10-4-12 should be applied 4-6 times early in the growing season. Preferably stopping after fruit set. Cover all micro nutrients and trace elements. Specifically calcium, magnesium & silica.
   
4. Remove weeds, unnecessary suckers and any competition.
   
5. Keep winter pruning to a minimum when possible. Remove spindly weak growth & lower growth during dormancy. Diseased, damaged or dead wood at any time.
   
6. Ripen fruits at the height of your season. Usually the driest and warmest time of the year. Your harvest can be timed perfectly with pinching and breba production.
   
7. Ideally wait until the neck of the fig is soft before harvesting OR harvest before a big rain event.
   
8. Choose the right variety for your climate. Focus on varieties that are rain/humidity resistant, crack resistant and dry easily in humid climates, varieties that don't spoil, are very tasty and benefit from caprification in very hot/dry climates and varieties that ripen early and are hardy in short season/cold climates.
   
9. Raise soil temperatures in the spring. Maintain them at or below 95F in the summer. Again raising them in the fall. Sunlight hours, thermal mass, containers & mulch goes a long way.
   
10. Check for scale, spider mites, fungus gnats & borers. I recommend an annual spray of dormant oil, horticultural oil or neem during dormancy. Pick up fallen fruit and remove split fruit to avoid fruit flies and wasps. Use Tanglefoot for ants and slugs. Organza bags or netting for critters.
    
11. Rejuvenation prune and root prune when trees are heavily affected with FMV, growing slowly, sickly or have lower than normal production.
    
12. Allow figs to go dormant when possible.
    
13. Avoid soils that are heavily infested with root knot nematodes. Grow in pots or graft varieties onto LSU Purple.
    
14. Pick up fallen leaves and diseased leaves when struggling with rust issues. Apply silica  either at the soil level or as a foliar spray (Dyna-Grow Protekt).
    
15. Reduce water and fertilizer 3 or more months prior to first frost date.
    

Creating a garden is simple. Maybe daunting at first, but having the right soil, having the garden in the right location & the timing of planting your crops are the 3 main things you need to worry about. See how to create a garden in this episode as well as how my summer and fall gardens are doing.

There's a new post on the blog. It's a ripening chart of when fruit will ripen here in the Philadelphia area. I'm using it to fill any potential gaps in fruit production as I feel so much better when 50% or more of my diet is fruit. It's also really good, haha. So this will greatly help my ambition of having fruit all year. Not just during the growing season.

In this episode of Fruit Talk! I share my plans of a fall/winter garden. It's something you must plant for now to get harvests later. While it can be difficult getting cool loving crops through the heat of the summer, I've been planning or have been planting things like: brassicas, arugula, chard, radish, carrot, beets, the list goes on!

In this episode of Fruit Talk! I explain what the hungry gap is, but not necessarily the hungry gap that most growers face after storage crops run low, but instead my hungry gap in July. I'm also mentioning the fruit trees that I'm looking forward the most to tasting one day and why we're planning on planting those this spring. Things like the Comice pear, Asian pears, Goumi, Persimmons and many types of European Plums like the Mirabelles & Gage plums that are always exciting to the taste.

Honeyberries I've found to be just like blueberries. Visually, but also in terms of flavor and texture. They're getting a lot of attention and due to their slow maturing habit, they therefore have a lot misconceptions. I clear some up in this episode of Fruit Talk! Additionally, we talk about the importance of silica in the garden, my early plans of my fall garden and ways I've found to grow more food in a small space.

My late spring fruits are finally here! Usually starting in mid June through the beginning of the summer. These are the Plums, Apricots, Cherries (sweet & tart), gooseberries, blueberries, raspberries & mulberries. Each with their own character and amazing-ness.  I talk all about them in this episode of Fruit Talk! Plus a little on plant hormones and how that relates to growing fig trees,and how training, staking and thinning can aid in this issue. Q&A at the end.

My early spring fruits are finally here! Usually starting in mid May through the first week of June. These are the honeyberries, strawberries, red currants & goumi. Each with their own character and amazing-ness.  I talk all about them in this episode of Fruit Talk! Plus a little on plant hormones, girdling and hormonal imbalance in fig trees.

It's early June now in the garden and backyard orchard and things are as busy as ever. More than expected actually. In this episode of fruit talk I cover some pests we've been having, row covers, a new way of planting alliums, summer pruning fruit trees, rejuvenation pruning & harvests.

In this episode of Fruit Talk! I talk with you guys about some perennial food sources that anyone can grow that will give you a nice reliable source of food after a long winter food drought. With an ocean of mycellium, garlic for scapes, elephant garlic for leeks, sea kale for broccoli, perennial kale or collards, honeyberries, strawberries, cherries, apricots, currants, and mulberries there is so much to choose from.

There's never been a better time to start a farm or orchard than now. With COVID-19 and the current state of the world economy, we are at a financial low. Many farms, restaurants, even entire industries are going bankrupt. Now is the time to strike. After recession, depression, big events such as this. Buy low, sell high. Lets ride the way up. I will be and I encourage you too.

Peas are one of the most underrated vegetables that you can grow at home. Every spring I look forward to these more than anything else I grow. They're so sweet, juicy and crisp. Because there's different types. Peas you shell and freeze, pea pods and the underrated sugar snap pea. Far superior to store quality because you can pick them to perfection at home. Do yourself a favor and grow sugar snap peas. You'll never look back.