Day -211 -- A walk around the orchard

People ask me all the time, “just how many fruit trees do you have?”…. So, I thought I’d do a walk about the back yard with a camera.

First, let’s start out front. Here is the front of the house.

Nicely mowed by a good team of lawn professionals. Note that along with the 3 REQUIRED palms (in an HOA), I have 3 Leyland Cyprus trees to make it seem softer and less harsh than the average place.

When i first moved into this house in 2004, there were 9 queen palms, 1 coconut palm, and about 30 or more Robellini palms in the back yard, and another 10 up front. I removed most of them myself with axes and saws. The bigger queens and the coconut (had a disease and died) were removed by a service. I didn’t want to drop them on the house, or fence.. None of those are native to Florida, so it was permitted.

I planted everything else myself. Kept it up for years too.

I have a little succulent garden up front. Those solar panels keep the light and camera charged.

Now to the Back Yard.

Starting in the screened pool enclosure, I have many fruit plants/trees. I was trying these “inside” to protect them from the squirrels and possum and raccoons. And, to see if I could get them to grow in various planters. The planters either have water reservoirs at the bottom, or a built in bucket in the middle, to ensure the plants don’t dry out.

The avocado tree in the corner (widest plant) produced a few fruit last year, but this year, even though there were many blossoms, no fruit formed. Thus, I added a couple others, the tall skinny one, and the little one to the right. Maybe they will work together next year — but I may not ever know!.

The small one is a condo variety and the tall skinny is supposedly another dwarf that only gets to 6-8 foot tall. I hope so.

Calaomondin orange with little fruits on it not ripe yet. And the combo meyer lemon and key lime.

Also inside are a Calamondin Orange and a combo indoor Meyer lemon / Key lime planting from Home Depot. The combo smells fantastic when in blossom..

Next, let’s step outside to the south fence. A group of pineapples in planters start the row. As the fruit starts to pop out of the middle of the plant, the mother puts out suckers to the sides. These suckers can be used as new plants when the fruit is ripe, and the mother removed. Or, if you pull the top off of the fruit, let it dry for a copy of days, that can be a new plant. So, one plant easily becomes 3 the next year.

Starting to ripen. Quite a ways to go though — a week plus for sure.

Since I let these turn a lovely golden color, all the way to the top, before picking, they are much sweeter than the store bought ones.

Oh, and notice the one mother’s sucker also produced a fruit. That happens for me about 1 plant in a dozen, every year. These pineapples should all ripen in the next month or so. And it takes about 1 year to go from planting to fruiting here. I will be taking them to the office to share. But I may do a cheat week on the low-carb diet to include some of this good fruit.You may have noticed that each plant has its own drip connection, and a little shut off valve. This way I can hook a hose to the end and do the entire fence line of plants. There is a separate drip zone for the 3 fence lines. We must conserve water whenever possible.

Next we get to the Cavendish Bananas. I am constantly chopping down new plants here. I don’t want more than 2 or 3 to produce, and want to have 2 or 3 small plants to replace them when they are done. The squirrels and I fight each year over these. A stalk of bananas may have 100-150 fruit on them (8-10 good hands). These are a shorter, smaller version of the normal Cavendish plants. These only get 6-8 foot tall. And the fruit are about 3/4th the size of the ones at the store. But, much, much more sweet tasting. Totally yummy.

There is a stalk about to fall over and blossom.

Since none of the plants are fruiting at the moment, I copied in an old picture or two, from years passed, of what they can look like.

Next is the Ice Cream Mango. Boy, I wish it tasted as good as that sounds. This one has way to much fiber and is slightly bland to me. Other people think this tastes like Mango Ice Cream. I think it tastes like the carton. It is a dwarf tree — I only “ordered” dwarf trees. As you will see, some didn’t quite stop at the 8-12 foot tall like the term suggests. The squirrels love these, but like to take a bite or three, then send them to the ground, and move onto another one. So the raccoons then get their desserts later.

Squirrels and raccoons have been busy since the lawn guys were here earlier today, and they clean this up.

Next is a few more pineapples planted in a raised bed. And in the middle of one of the beds is a Papaya from a rogue seedling from a prior Papaya tree I had — it got hurricaned, and I had to remove it. To people that like papaya, the fruit is really good. To me, not something I would try to pick, unless it was the only thing available. This tree will be taken down in the next year, if the little ones (you will see later) produce.

Notice the fruit is 12 foot or more off the ground. This thing grew that much in a single year!!!

The citrus trees are mostly on the east fence line. In the corner is the Ponderosa lemon. The first few fruits I had on this tree were as big as my head (and I got a beeeeg head). Now they are mostly like oversized grapefruit sized. The rind is thick, but one ripe lemon can give you close to a cup of juice. This tree used to look great, with lots of leaves, but the neighbor on the other side of the fence put in bamboo that grows 25 foot tall and shades everything. I am trying to bring the tree back, as I am with most of the citrus, but it may not happen.

Next is a Honey Belle Orange. The fruit on this tree is super sweet for an orange. But, like the lemon, the shade is destroying it. And it tried to grow out away from the fence line to seek the afternoon sun. I added a bunch of soil and propped it up, trying to get it back to straight. Time will tell if it works.

This little tree is a tangerine. For me, this always has been a sore spot. It used to produce fruit quite readily each year, but was always a super dry fruit. I tried watering more, watering less, adding fertilizers, and anything else I could think of. But, each year, the rind was juicier than the pulp. The segments were like sawdust. Then I neglected it, and the others for many years as I got fatter and lazier. Now I’m coming back, and hopefully they will too.

This next is the only plant in the back yard when I moved in. I don’t know the type of orange this is. It tastes okay, but nothing special. Could be the store brand..

Notice there is a pineapple planter almost between each tree..

Now we are onto the “dwarf” Thai mango. This mango is delicious. Both I, and the animals, love them. The fruit will turn a nice yellow on the outside, and the inside is a bright orange color. There is no fiber, and the seed is long and narrow, so there is a lot of flesh in each fruit. Did I mention it is a dwarf? Yeah, right!! I have had this tree topped 3 or 4 times, and it is still huge.

Next is a little fern that I got in a pot many years ago. I put it out, and it has taken that spot as its happy home.

This little bush is one of those miracle fruit plants. Fairly new. It blossomed this year, and there are little nubs on some of the branches, which could be the berries. I don’t really know. If you chew on one of these berries, it messes with your taste buds. Lemons, and vinegar will suddenly taste sweet. I was hoping to play with them this year. May happen, may not.

And, now, another orange tree. This is a Blood Orange. I have only gotten a few ripe fruit from it. They are cool oranges in that they end up with some reddishness to the rind, and streaks of red in the flesh. Doesn’t really affect the taste. They are a good, not great, orange.

Then, we have a pink grapefruit tree. Not bad tasting for a grapefruit. While all of the citrus are better after a day in the fridge, pulling one off the tree while working in the yard, is sometimes the best way to eat one.

Wurtz Avocado — leaves fell, then fruit started falling and new leaves starting

The last tree on the East fence is the “dwarf” Wurtz Avocado. Another, didn’t quite stop growing, dwarf tree. Not sure what is going on with it. After it fruits, the leaves start dropping. Last year, after that happened, we had many rain storms, day after day, with large winds, and the fruit was blown off. The tree then sprouted tons of new leaves and looked great again. This year, the fruit is growing first. Hopefully there will be tons of them ready to be picked in late September. The avocado is a unique fruit in that it will NOT ripen on the tree. You can pick them for months, and set them on the counter, wait 5-10 days and watch them ripen. Two years ago, I’d pick a bunch every 2 - 3 days and had a constant supply of ripe ones. They are quite good..

All of the little green and dark brown spots are fallen avocado fruits. Not happy to see them, but a hundred still on the branches.

Oh, lastly on the East fence, there were many more pineapples in planters. Yummy.

Time to move to the North fence line.

I just put most of this out over the last year. Their had been another shed, and some Eureka Palm stands here. Messy palms, and I removed them.

I am trying a couple of oranges in barrels/planters to see if they might be more likely to resist any ground born viruses and fungus issues. I may never know it that worked either.

White Pineapple plants. They were barely 2 leaves each when I planted them.

Yes, more pineapples. And the pineapple plants that have no fruit, are a new “white pineapple” variety I planted. They are supposedly quite white, and quite sweet. Sure want to try at least one…

The banana plants are a dwarf variety that produce tiny fruit. Shouldn’t get more than 3 foot tall before fruiting.

Lastly, back towards the screen enclosure. On the outside corner, in planters, two dwarf Papaya trees that should max out at 4-6 foot tall before producing. If they work out, and are tasty, they would end up in the planted beds instead of the tall papaya, on the South fence.

That is the end of my orchard. I only use organic fertilizers and pesticides as much as possible. The dusty look some of the plantings have is from a clay powder I use to annoy/kill bugs. Hey, if I’m going to eat these things, I really don’t want them peppered with Round-up..

I used to have all kinds of planters with peppers and tomatoes and carrots/lettuce/etc. inside of the screen enclosure. I had so much greenery in there, the sheriff department went around and around the house in a copter, and then came to give me a visit. I took them out back and shared some tomatoes with them. Not quite what they thought it might be.

So, after finally getting the outside in shape, this was the year I was to work the inside. I got just his area done before the “retirement” news. A nice sitting area to read and watch the fire. Oh well.

So, remember,

Enjoy Life..