This is is somewhat of a special year for the Natomas Farm.....the orchards are coming into their forth year of age. After so much "live and learn".....all the trees but a few .......are looking great. Firm branches held by stocky trunks.
If you have been following the Natomas Farm blog......you know about the awful fire blight that hit out apples and the family pear trees a few years back. Fire blight is one of the most destructive diseases of apple and pear trees. We suffered 30% loss of trees and......then the radial prune back that I did to control this. Apple trees takes 4 -5 years of growth to start producing the large volume of apples. In all this, we lost a good two years of that 4 -5 years of growth.
The pluots are over eight feet tall. Healthy as can be. There are two varieties back there in the rear field orchard, King pluot and Flavor Queen pluot. Farmer Deno will be adding more King pluot "whips" to the orchard. There is is extra room to add three dozen more......and here on the farm....we hate extra unused land. Unused land equals no buckos!
The orange grove did really well for it's age of threes years. All but three trees have grown vibrantly this past 12 months. One tree was lost to a horse. Two are stunted .......I'll be working on that issue this year. Don't have a clue how to fix these two little trees......but will indeed find an answer.
We been picking oranges since the middle of December and have found that in December, the fruit was somewhat bitter. Each month pass....sweeter and sweeter. This February.....excellent. Much of the minimum crop was given to family and a few close friends. Also.....we have a freezer stocked with Blood Orange juice to last for a few months. Did you know that Blood oranges originated in southern Asia? At age 5 of the trees, we are expecting up to 400 fruits on each tree.
Our Black Figs.....looking great! Last year there was an good handful of fruit on these young trees that didn't last long at all. The humans (us) feasted on them, the birdies feasted on them......and our horse Big Girl discovered the yummy treats and became a pig! Now Farmer Deno must come up with protection of the figs from the pig....er.....horse.
Fig sales are not expected to happen for at least another threes years from now. This fruit tree is simple a slow grower. To add a little knowledge to your brain today......the edible fig is one of the first plants that was cultivated by humans.
The Berry patch was expanded 150 % this past few weeks. Now that was back breaking work! I also had the luxury of the sun beating down on me for the four days.....actually got facial sunburned out there during the winter month of February. This year's crop should be a whammy!