Well call me Johnny Appleseed!!!!

[Rbeckett]

Yesterday I planted 35 tree and fruit trees that did not require long stratification in the fridge to germinate. I planted 2 different varieties of Olive trees, Tangerines, Dwarf Pappaya, and several others. I plan to keep these plants inside until summer 2015 and put them out then. Once they have had an opportunity to get a head start and have well established roots and several real leaves. I started all of them in 2 1/2 inch compost based pots that will decompose and become fertilizer once the plants are repotted into larger containers. I only used 1/2 of the seeds I ordered so that I might start another batch in the spring and tend them inside till the spring of 2016. Hopefully that will give me enough of a start on building a grove in the front area of the yard. Out beyond our circle drive is a huge field that could use the trees to tame the growth of unwanted weeds and brush and the trees will contribute fruit and oxygen, as well as give the small critters in the area a place to hide from the hawks and owls that are decimating them now because of lack of adequate hiding places. The olive trees are slow growing trees, but the tangerines, lemons and papaya trees grow much faster and start to produce fruit within about 3 years normally. I have had trees that I planted that had fruit on them when I put them out into the ground so it all works out to about 3 years on the average. Once they start to produce fruit the critters will have a source of food as well as a place to hide. So I am looking forward to the mini orchard and grove doing well over the next few years.

Bob

 

[chuckorlando]

Awesome. Your gonna wanna watch that papaya in the winter. The ones around here are very cold sensitive. We also have some great peach trees and apple trees and I believe plum trees that have been hybridized to grow in our climate. You can get some awesome blueberries as well and they grow pretty fast

 

[Rbeckett]

I have some apples, and a couple of different cherries, but they require a cold soak in the fridge for 90-120 days to germinate successfully. I planted some hybrid lemons that are green like a lime, but are actually lemons, and the papaya are of the dwarf variety so they wont get more than about 10 feet tall when fully grown. This winter I will keep all of them inside where I can control the temp and humidity. so all I have to really worry about is are the grow lights giving them enough light to keep them growing strong. There's nothing worse than a leggy spindly plant that will not survive out in the real world environment. I don't baby the trees much, I water them for the first summer or maybe two but after that they are pretty much on their own to make or break as they grow. The water table here is very close to the surface so once the plants get a 1/2 decent tap root started they will find plenty of that good ole Florida Aquifer right below where they are planted. I planted several fruit and nut trees a few years ago and the nut trees did not do well, but the two fruit trees (Pears) are doing well. They have not produced any fruit yet but they are growing nicely and have a well established set of roots. Every year they threaten to put on fruit and get all kinds of buds, but I guess I didn't plant them close enough together to cross pollinate them so I have to rely on the bees and other pollinators to do it for me. I have a friend who is a bee keeper that lives close by and she might be willing to part with a queen or two so I can start a colony of bees somewhere out in the front pasture. I really did not want to invest in a bee house, but since I am putting in so many fruit trees it is probably a good idea to get it started when the spring rolls back around. Only problem is I am allergic to bee stings, so I will have to figure out how to manage them from a distance or get her to stop by from time to time and do it for me. She's a really nice lady who will be glad to help me out and get the colony started and keep it running. She is the president of the local bee keeping society so she also knows her stuff when it comes to queens and getting a hive to start successfully. This year I think they harvested somewhere around 50 pounds of raw honey and sold most of it to the local co-op and the rest at the farmers market on Saturdays. Nothing is better than a dab of fresh honey on toast for breakfast on the go in the morning. I would feed that to Holly since she leaves so early to go to work so it is cooler while she runs the drying oven for her T-shirt factory. Last winter she printed 17,000 t-shirts by hand, just for the Christmas rush. It started a week ago and will keep ramping up till they are getting 150-200 orders a day. Last year she had three full time students doing nothing but shipping out shirts from Oct to Jan. This year she has an automatic press that will take a bunch of the labor out of it and make it much easier to keep up with the orders from Ebay and Etsy. It will literally bury the shipping folks though.

Bob

 

[chuckorlando]

Brother you dont need but a plastic bag and a q tip if we are talking two trees. Just shake the flower from the one in the bag then q tip the pollen on the other one. If they aint to far apart maybe a couple big shop fans could blow it over. Banana grow well here as well. And most shrubs and trees only need water for the first year or so. Then the roots are deep enough to live all on mother nature. Before the housing market crashed I did a good deal of landscape installs. I took all the plants I would remove and pot them to sale to someone else. In some cases I would take one plant and split it into hundreds. Had a decent little nursery out back. I would buy common stuff small and grow it in to make more. Damn economy

 

[Rbeckett]

I'm also growing a lot of the herbs and plants that I pay way too much for at Winn Dixie. I pay way too much for cilantro, parsley and lemon Grass so I have 200 lemon Grass seeds available that I will plant slowly over a longer period so that there is always a few fresg stalks available for my world class Tom Yum hot and spicy soup. I use a Lee Kum Kee soup base and add freshly reconstituted ....aaki mushrooms and add lemon grass, Kafir lime leaves that are torn and beaten so they give up their essential oils and Galangal root for that authentic Thai taste. The galangal and Lemon Grass are not edible but contribute a ton to the over all finished product and should be left on the plate or fished out prior to serving. It all really depends on who I am serving it to whether I fish out the galangal and Lemon Grass or not. The last soup I made had Shrimp, and octopus added and was to die for. The octo came packed in Garlic oil and was in a small sardine type of can, but as long as you know what you are shopping for you can find a ton of really good ingredients in Winn Dixie and Publix without having to resort to the Asian market food store, Don't get me wrong, I love to shop at the Asian market, but if I can avoid a trip to town then why not save the gas and drive a little less for a change. Have fun and enjoy the recipes.

Bob