Crimson Sweet watermoelon and Persian melon at the orchard Q. I have several watermelons on the vine. How am I able to tell when they’re ripe? Can you “store them” on the vine? I had one split open by itself and it was mostly white inside. After 50 years I still have trouble buying a commercial watermelon, whenever I think I have found the right characteristics I’m proved wrong. A. Watermelons do not continue to ripen after they are picked so what is important to pick them at the right time. This is not true of many of the other melons such as muskmelon. Once picked from your garden, you can store many melons at 50-60° F for a couple of weeks. This may not be true of store bought melons. Basically there are three methods used for determining if a melon is ripe or not. This includes the color of the melon touching the ground, thumping them and drying of the tendrils on the vine close to the fruit. Personally I just use two; the color of the melon touching the ground and thumping. Tendrils are tiny extensions of the vine close to the fruit that look a little bit like a corkscrew or pig’s tale. The bottom of a watermelon should be turning lemon yellow instead of pale yellow or white on many watermelons. Thumping watermelons can be tricky unless you can learn what the thump is supposed to sound like. It should have a dull, resonating sound that vibrates through the entire melon. It is important to pickup a melon to thump it, not leave it on the ground when thumping. If you’re in a store, pick it up to thump it.

Q.  I have some bushes in the front garden that hide the front door. Due to a recent break in on our block, I want to trim these bushes. However, if I trim them as low as I’d like, it would expose bare branches. Will exposing these bare branches cause new growth to occur or do I have to cut them to the ground and start over?  Pruning cuts like this heading cut results in many side buds below the cut growing, all fighting for light and dominance. Closeup of heading cut and side buds breaking A.  I would not cut these branches at this time of the year which is late summer. Light pruning can be done during the summer months but if you cut into older wood you may cause some serious damage. Wait to do this type of pruning until at least mid fall, around October. It would be good to know what kind of shrub it is. Some shrubs respond to pruning very nicely while others really struggle to grow back. In making the pruning cuts it would be wise to make thinning cuts rather than heading cuts. Heading cuts are like giving the shrub a butch haircut. We usually call this type of pruning, butchering. Cuts are made indiscriminately anywhere along the branches frequently all of the same height. This is a big no no no no no.  Shrub showing lots of older wood that may be slow to come back from pruning cuts particularly during summer months  Thinning cuts are removal of entire branches back to another major branch that leaving no stub. Identify the branches which are the tallest visually. Follow this branch down along its length until it intersects with another major branch. If this intersection is low enough, make the cut so that it removes the taller branch that you followed. The cut is made flush, leaving no stub. Identify another tall branch and do the same thing, tracing its length down inside the canopy until it intersects with another branch and remove it. Do this until all of the branches which are too tall have been removed to another major branch deeper inside the canopy. This technique called thinning maintains the integrity of the shrub and its eye-appeal without damaging it and causing a surge of growth that will be unsightly. If you do this, no one can call you a plant butcher.

Roots to be cut by reader Q. I have, what I believe is a Fan Tex Ash Tree in our backyard. There are some roots that are on the top of the ground that are lifting up a concrete edging. My question: is it safe to cut these roots out so I can put the concrete edging back down. Attached are pictures. The first two are the roots in question. The third is an overall picture of the tree. We have only been in the house since November, but the tree seems to be in good health. It has a nice shape and when the leaves were still there it looked quite nice. By the way, I would estimate the roots have a diameter of 4 or 5 inches (but that’s just a guess). A. You can safely cut and remove the roots you have shown me without any problems. Make sure you sanitize your cutting equipment and keep the wounds sanitized and clean for about 48 hours after you cut them to prevent any type of infections. This can be done with alcohol. A bigger problem that faces you is how close the tree is to the wall. This tree is far too close to that wall and will eventually cause the wall to crack and heave. I would recommend that you remove that tree in the next few years. Now is a good time to make a new selection, plant it and get some size on it so that you can remove the ash. Keep trees at a distance from walls at least half the radius of the canopy (1/4 of the diameter of its canopy spread at mature height).

Sapsucker damage to upper limbs of apple Sapsucker picture I found on the web, not sure its the right one but the idea is the same Damage to another apple Q. I have a nine year old semi-dwarf green gage plum tree in my yard. About a month ago I noticed about 20 small holes grouped together on one of the limbs. Each hole is a little less than 1/4 ” in diameter. I can see no other holes on the tree. It is as if someone had taken a drill and drilled several small holes on the limb, and deep enough to get through the bark and slightly into the flesh of the tree. Any idea what may be causing this? This has never happened before. I did dormant spray the tree in early January. Do I need to spray the tree with insecticide? A. This is most likely sapsucker damage to the tree. Sapsuckers are birds in the woodpecker family of birds that make holes in trees and feed on the sap or look for insects. I believe they are migratory here and cause damage as they pass through this part of the country. If I am seeing the image in my mind correctly this is not due to insects or borers. This is what the damage looks like. The best control is to protect the trunk or limbs with wire cloth or chicken wire. We have trees that get damaged in the orchard by these birds and they have survived this way many years as long as they are healthy. It is definitely not good for the trees but there are not many other alternatives They seem to like some varieties of fruit trees more than others.

Q. I have no problem getting medium-sized tomato fruit from my Spring crop. The fall crop has been another matter. It is a game I play every year, much like Lucy holding the football for Charley Brown in the comics, only to pull it away at the last minute as he tries to kick the ball. The trick is to start plants early enough to have ripe fruits by December, but not too early to watch plant growth succumb to the feedings of white flies, aphids and tomato fruit worms. This year I lost again. Our first frost came a week earlier than I expected. Trays of green tomatoes anointed with an ethylene-producing apple ripen in trays in my garage, presaging another crop of fried green tomatoes for our dietary this December. Yet there is a bright side. This year I have grown the largest green tomatoes yet, suggesting the heat of May probably suppresses growth of larger fruits in Spring. So much for trying to grow beefsteak and other types of allegedly huge tomatoes next Spring. But come next August, as the eternal optimist, Early Girl and I shall try again. A. In this climate is very discouraging in the fall with tomatoes due to the short season we have from ideal fruit setting temperatures around 90F and below and the number of days till frost. And of course as the frost approaches these fruit slow down as well. In the spring it is more ideal since we have some good fruit setting temperatures and then the heat comes. The tomato fruit likes the heat so that doesn’t interfere with production. They stop setting around 95F so you get a bunch of tomatoes that set at temperatures below 95F and the vines stop producing usually in late July. Late July is the time to begin cutting them back, fertilizing and getting set for fall temperatures below 95F. This past fall we had an unusually early frost in November so unless they were protected the vines died. There are a couple of approaches that can be used for fall production of tomatoes. One is to remove tomatoes when they no longer produce and replant with varieties that produce in fewer days. Early Girl is a good choice with setting fruit at 50 to 62 days after transplanting but even better choices are the cherry, grape and pear types that set fruit easily in our climate. One technique I have used in the past is to pull the entire plant from the ground before a freeze and hang it in the garage. The fruits will continue to ripen on the vine and slowly rather than ripening all at once as they do when they are picked from the vine. You don’t need the apple. Once picked they start producing their own ethylene but putting a very ripe banana or apple (banana is best) will hasten the ripening process.

 Almond splitting  Q. We have an All-In-One almond tree with the shells just now starting to break through the skins. I was told that September is when the nuts are harvested. I’m wondering if you have a rule of thumb on harvesting these trees.      Green almonds at the right stage for harvesting  A. You can start harvesting any time after the husk splits open. The sooner the better if you want to avoid problems. If you do not have ground squirrel problems that will steal the nuts from your trees. Insects will enter the split husk if you are not careful. If there is rain you run the risk of having the nuts mold after splitting. When you see them split, harvest and put them in a protected area in the shade to finish drying. Then you can leave them on the tree and let them Dry there. If you have ground squirrels, then it is best to begin to harvest them now and put them somewhere to dry. Ground squirrels can clean up the tree in one or two days. They will be all gone. Right now at the orchard ground squirrels have devastated most of the remaining almonds on the tree.  Green almond taken from the husk at the right stage  We harvested most of the almonds green last April. Green almonds are used in some Mediterranean recipes. We sold them through a broker to one of the San Francisco farmer markets for $4.00 a pound. Birds can also cause damage but ground squirrels are the worst. I have attached a picture of an Almond which is ready to harvest. Some almonds will split entirely open to the nut while others do not. 

Zinfandel I know that you’re harvesting wine grapes right now but July and August are the months for harvesting plums and plum relatives such as pluots as well. Plums such as Emerald beauty and Elephant Heart should be coming on soon or ready now. Flavor Queen pluots should be ready or very close to being ready. There should be apples coming on so walk the apples and see. If the apple looks like it might be ready then bite or cut into it and inspect the seeds. The seeds should be brown if they are ripe and ready to pick. Do some fruit evaluations on apples if they are ready. Remember to get multiple brix readings and do not combine evaluation scores but record them all independent from one another. Hosui Asian pear 2009 and we are now working on developing size by increasing our thinning Yutaka on Saturdays can give you some advice regarding Asian pears but the early producers should be coming in soon. Please get some evaluations of this fruit as it ripens because we have scant data on how well they are performing. Last year was the first really good year for many of them and many achieved very high quality both visually and taste. They are getting better and better under Yutaka’s watchful eye. This is an important fruit to document since this is definitely not the Asian pear climate. The remaining almonds were pretty much decimated by ground squirrels before I left. Good thing we sold a lot of them as green almonds this year. That would be a good market for us next year if we can let local chefs know that we have them. They went to San Francisco this year and sold at $4.00 per pound that their farmers markets. We sold them to a broker for $2.00 per pound. Fallen fruit is always going to be a problem this time of year and if you do not keep it picked up you will have an outbreak of pests that attack ripe fruit such as the confused sap and dried fruit beetles. Fallen fruit should not be kept very long in buckets or exposed to the open air or the same thing will occur. If you leave the fruit sitting in buckets you are just moving the potential for infestation from the orchard aisles to buckets. These beetles can fly and they will go out looking for girlfriends and boyfriends. Remember, we used to put them in large containers that had lids. The lids kept them from getting infested. Somehow you need to keep this picked up fruit from getting infested and not leave them exposed. Bubblers should have a perfect cone if they have no debris in them and the pressure is adequate. Because of the frequency of irrigation right now bubblers will have a tendency to plug more often. Once a month the irrigation bubblers need to be walked and checked for plugging. The easiest way to do this is to use the remote for changing irrigation stations and have two or three people inspect the bubblers for plugging. These inspectors should carry spare cleaned bubblers and replace plugged ones as they see them. You can flag the plugged bubblers and when the irrigation has moved to the next station then replace the bubbler unless of course you are hot and want a shower. Pests that can occur now are still the peach twig borer which is the little worm that gets in the soft fruit, dried fruit beetle if you don’t pick up fallen fruit and we may have a short outbreak of Green June Beetles but they will be gone in a couple of weeks if they occur. It is also possible that we can act of revisit by the grape flea beetle soon which chews holes in the leaves. They cause some damage to the leaves but we don’t get real excited because the damage is minimal and they disappear in a couple of weeks. I am sure Jon will have numerous things to do but here it is a short list of things that might be coming up in the orchard Jujube fruit from the contorted jujube. There are quite a few varieties to pick from. Along with almonds displayed still in their husks these are showstoppers at farmers markets because people want to know what they are Remember to keep harvested fruit out of direct sunlight as much as you can or you will build up excessive heat in the fruit and internal breakdown of the fruit will happen much more quickly. After harvesting put the trays in the shade of the trees until you are ready to take them to the cooler or the shaded area. Todo for August • Pick up fallen fruit and make sure they are properly disposed of • Irrigate and make sure bubblers are not plugged. • Help with the wine grape harvest on Saturdays. • Inspect apples for ripe fruit. • Inspect late plums and pluots such is Emerald Beauty and Elephant Heart as well as Flavor Queen pluot if they have not already been harvested. • Vegetables should be sprayed regularly with our insecticidal soap. • Inspect asparagus for female plants and remove them. • There should be table grapes and figs ready for harvest • Don’t forget jujube as it should be coming in very soon. Some people like it mottled brown and green and still plump while others like it dried, brown and shriveled. It would probably be a novelty and attract people to a farmer’s market table just to ask what it is

Q. I am interested in planting various fruits in my backyard. One that I am curious about is growing blueberries in our region. Do you know how they do here? Would you have any recommendations? I did not realize the varieties of blueberry plants that are out there! In my search I also came across pink lemonade blueberries, I am definitely interested, but I do not want to put forth the effort if they will not be a productive plant in our area. A. This is the case where your gardening skills are going to be challenged. They are definitely not suited to our climate and definitely not suited to our soils. So let’s give it a try! This means we have to modify the climate they are in as much as possible and also the soils. Pick a microclimate in your landscape that will be as cool as possible yet still provide 6 to 8 hours of sunlight every day and out of the way of strong winds. This would most likely be an east or north side of a landscape that avoids late afternoon direct sunlight. Find a location or create a location that is protected from prevailing strong winds. Next, modify the soil. Blend anywhere from half to 2/3 of the existing soil with a good quality compost. To this mix and sulfur that is as finely ground as you can find or in a liquid form. If you are not opposed to it, aluminum sulfate can help lower the alkalinity. It is not used much any more and may be hard to find. Water the soil thoroughly and let it drain several times before planting. Use only southern high bush blueberries in the planting holes and space them according to the directions. Stake the plants securely in the soil the first season of growth. You will need pollenizers so make sure you get the correct blueberries together for good fruit set. Drip irrigation can be used or you can flood the area with water from bubblers. Cover the planting area with 3 to 4 inches of wood mulch, keeping the mulch away about 6 inches from stems that enter the soil. Grow them for one season and see how they do. If you see signs of leaf scorching on the edges you might want to put 30% shade cloth over the top of them to help them a bit from intense sunlight. Every year you should be adding compost and acidifying the soil with finely ground sulfur or aluminum sulfate plus a good fertilizer and a soil applied iron chelate containing EDDHA. This is done in the spring before you see new growth. This should help get you started.

Q. Short story, we had a horse get out of their corral while we were out of the house today for probably 4-5 hours. While out, he ate most of the bark off of 60% of the trunk of one of our pear trees. The tree has quite a bit of fruit on it right now. We are more concerned with saving the tree than this year’s crop. Suggestions or ideas on anything you would suggest we should do would be very much appreciated. Pruning cut healing over. Notice the wood is rolling over the dead wood in the cylinder of the tree. Smoothing out rough damage on the edges will help promote faster closure. Use a sterilized instrument. A. Long answer. The good part of this is that your tree, provided it is healthy, will probably survive. I have had fruit trees with that much damage to the trunk survive in the past. Your horse probably ate all the way down to the wood. This means that the tissue which transports food from the leaves to the roots is gone in that area as well as the tissue which transports water from the roots to the leaves. With 40% intact on the trunk the tree may struggle but it should still survive. I would recommend that you mulch the ground around the trunk with wood mulch which you can obtain free from our orchard. Saturate the ground around the trunk of the tree with water 2 to 3 times each week. Clean the wound created by the horse with a sharp, sterile knife, cleaning the jagged edges of the damaged bark so that it is smooth. You do not need to paint the wound with anything. Just let it go after you have traced the wound with your knife. Make sure you fertilize the tree next January and each January while it is trying to heal. Enjoy the fruit. But next year thin the fruit out why it is the size of the silver dollar so there is only one fruit per cluster.

Q. I need your assistance. The photo I sent depicts the present condition of my backyard. It has patches of dry or dead grass. I don’t know what caused the problem. Is there some way to revive the grass without going to the extreme of re-sodding? And what shall I do to prevent this in the future? Lawn with patches of dead grass; damage is past and now the grass surrounding the dead spots is recovering A. Thanks for the picture. The picture helps and it doesn’t help. It would have helped if I saw something in the picture that gave me a clue. But there is nothing in the picture that is distinctive to me. It would be interesting to know if those dead spots were in any kind of pattern in relation to your irrigation heads. I did notice in the picture that whatever caused the damage appears to be gone. This would tend to eliminate irrigation as a problem unless you changed your irrigation schedule. If these dead spots occur in the same spots year after year it is usually associated with irrigation. I tend to think it is either insect or disease from your picture. Browning due to poor irrigation coverage by the sprinklers; darker green near the sprinklers and brown between; not well defined Let me just point out some weaknesses in the design that might contribute to the current problem. I tend to discourage homeowners from designing a turfgrass area other than straight lines. I know this might be somewhat boring but water from sprinkler heads tend to be thrown in straight lines. Irregular lines or curving lines tend to cause those areas inside the curves to be under watered or the areas outside the curves and no longer in the turfgrass to be overwatered. I noticed in your picture that most of the damage is closest to the non turfgrass area while the solid turf area are less damaged. Another point, those areas of the turfgrass closest to rock mulch, sidewalks or patios in full sun tend to use more water than those areas deep inside the turf area. These areas close to non turfgrass areas tend to be warmer and more prone to insect attacks than others. Insect damage that is fresh tends to cause the grass on the edge of the damaged area to pull up freely from the lawn. If the insect damage is long gone, then it will no longer pull up. Lawn diseases can also cause patterns like this. Unless a sample is sent to a qualified plant pathologist or we have seen the disease many times before it is a shot in the dark as to which disease it might be. From your picture, it is not a disease pattern I recognize. Distinct horseshoe shape dying spots of summer patch disease on winter overseeded perennial ryegrass   Since the problem is gone, there is probably no need to apply an insecticide or fungicide. At this point leave the dead grass alone and do not rake it up or you will open the soil surface to invasion by weeds. Since the cause of the problem is unknown it would be hard to tell you how to prevent it from happening again. Around the end of September through mid October rake up the dead grass and broadcast the same seed or nearly the same seed in the dead areas and mulch the surface with top dressing and fertilizer.