Laguna Hills Nursery
Winter Returns Briefly
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Greetings!

This current back and forth (cool/warm/cool) weather just might keep all our plants happy.  Enough cold for deciduous trees, but not long enough to shut down the tropical plants.  Interestingly several normally deciduous trees in my garden are still green with last year's foliage. 

One customer in Irvine just mentioned to me that their Single Pink Ume is now in full bloom.  This places the minimum chill requirement of that fairly new cultivar at under 300 hours.  If any of you are fans of the Asian Sour Apricot, which is more commonly referred to as a Sour Plum and called umeboshi in Japan when pickled, this can be a useful edible ornamental.  It's a small tree to about 10 feet tall and wide and has spectacular pink flowers in late winter followed by small fruit.  The leaves resemble apricot foliage.  I loved to eat umeboshi when I was a kid.  My mother loved to eat them dried sweet and sour.  My father grew the single-white flowered Ume for more than a decade but only got one decent crop due to its minimum chill requirement of 400 hours.  If you want to pickle your own umeboshi, this should help.

A product available this week is called AGRI-FOS.  This is a "fertilizer" that is also a disease control.  The chemical is potassium salts of phosphorous acid.  AGRI-FOS is a liquid that is diluted and applied as a spray or as a soil drench.  In some states it is registered as a fertilizer.  In California it is registered as a fungicide.  It apparently works by beefing up the plant's immune system.  This is the best way to stop fireblight disease on apple trees, pear trees and loquat trees.  It is invaluable for preventing root rot diseases on many fruit trees, especially avocado and citrus.  We originally acquired this product to stop Downy mildew (different from Powdery Mildew) on roses during periods of wet weather.  Downy causes the lower leaves of roses, especially miniature roses, to turn ugly and fall off.  It is also being used to stop Sudden Oak Death.  We also use this to cure Pythium on lawns, slimy patches that appear during humid, warm weather.  Keep this on hand to treat your flowering pear and apple trees, both ornamental and fruiting types.  AGRI-FOS in pint container costs $18 (includes tax).

We also have Spinosad concentrate in a new smaller pint size for $17 (includes tax).

We are also carrying a few bags of Concern Weed Prevention Plus 25 pound for $35 (includes tax).  Concern is a wonderful organic fertilizer 8-2-4 (not certified, however) made of corn protein, wheat, bone and potassium salts.  The corn protein will prevent the germination of any seed (hopefully weed seed) for up to 5 weeks.  We starting carrying this product as a non-chemical method of preventing crabgrass germination in lawns in late winter.  It turns out to be the best fertilizer I've ever used on my lawn.  We use it on everything else also.  On lawns one bag covers 1500 square feet. 

We are now totally sold out of our Laguna Hills Nursery TROPICAL POTTING SOIL.  We are currently waiting patiently for our supplier to get our new potting soil into production.  Our TROPICAL POTTING SOIL was the best and only potting soil you can purchase that is suitable for permanent applications.  What we mean by this is that our soil won't shrink and its properties won't change significantly over its years of use. 

Other commercial potting soils are more than 90% organic and generally shrink with a huge loss of permeability.  Most also produce toxic compounds as they continue to decompose inside the pot. 

While we wait for our new product, we can still help you to grow trees and shrubs in containers.  A year ago I was growing all our container plants in a mixture of our Laguna Hills Nursery ACID MIX with sand at a ratio between 1:1 and 2:1.  Our bags of ACID MIX are 1 cubic feet.  A typical 50 pound sack of sand is 1/2 cubic feet, so if you mix 1 sack of each you will have a 2:1 ratio.  The 2:1 ratio was used to grow Gardenias, the 1:1 ratio was used for cacti, onions, persimmons and many plants where drainage is more important than moisture retention.  You don't have to be accurate as most plants will grow extremely well in either 100% ACID MIX or 100% sand. 
AVAILABLE THIS WEEK

Potting Soil ACID MIX  $10

Bare Root Fruiting Plants
Apple Anna  $24
Apple Dorsett Golden  $24  1 left
(more Apple Fuji by Saturday)
Apple Gala  $24
Apple Granny Smith  $24
Apple Jonagold  $24
Apple Pink Lady  $24
Apricot Sour Single Pink Ume  $24
(Apricot Goldkist & Katy should arrive next week)
Cherry Minnie Royal & Royal Lee  both for $70
Grape Blueberry Seedless $7
Grape Canadice Seedless  $7
Grape Himrod Seedless  $7
Grape Lakemont Seedless  $7
Jujube Ga-866  $34
Jujube Li  $34
Jujube Sherwood  $34
Mulberry Black Beauty  $24
Mulberry Pakistan  $34
(more Mulberry Teas Weeping by Saturday)
Nectaplum Spice Zee  $24
Nectarine Arctic Star  $26
Nectarine Panamint  $24
Nectarine Snow Queen  $24
(Peach Babcock arriving any day)
Peach Long Beach  $24
Peach Red Baron  $24  (few left, more arrive next week)
Peach Tropic Snow  $24
(Pear Floridahome arriving any day)
Pear Hood  $24
Persimmon Fuyu Imoto  $40
Persimmon Fuyu Izu  $42
(Persimmon Hachiya arriving any day)
Plum Burgundy  $24
Plum Catalina  $26
(Plum Santa Rosa arriving any day)
(Plum Satsuma arriving any day)
Plum Weeping Santa Rosa  $22
Pluot Flavor King  $29
Pluot Splash  $26
Pomegranate Ambrosia  $22
Pomegranate Angel Red  $22
Pomegranate Wonderful bush  $22
Pomegranate Wonderful tree  $34
Quince Smyrna  $24  (1 only)
(more Strawberry Seascape by Saturday)
Almond All-in-One  $24
Pecan Western Schley  $45

Potted Fruiting Plants
Blueberry Sharpblue  $18
(more cultivars arriving by Saturday)
(blackberries possibly arriving by Saturday)
Fig Black Jack  $20
Fig Black Mission  $22
Fig Flanders  $22
Fig Italian Everbearing  $20
Fig Panache  $22
Fig Violette de Bordeaux  $22
Pomegranate Desertnyi  $20
Pomegranate Parfianka  $20

Bare Root Ornamental Plants
(more Lilac possibly arriving by Saturday)
Maple Japanese Bloodgood  $46
Maple Japanese Tamykeyama  $69
Redbud Forest Pansy  $40

Excellent Herb selection this week!

Weekly Spotlight on Bare Root
Peaches
Peaches are not only one of the most desirable fruits to eat, the trees can be incredibly heavy producers.  A peach tree pruned to 7' tall and 5' wide can produce about 100 pieces of fruit!  This is about the same production as we would expect from a 20 foot tall avocado tree.  Unfortunately most peach cultivars require a cooler winter than local gardens typically get to produce flowers and fruit.  Fortunately of the few that perform some are quite outstanding.

A number of years ago the South Coast Field Station, a UC Riverside research facility located in Irvine, tested the flavor and production of a number of peach cultivars.  In general, they found that the most productive cultivars made the least desirable fruit.  Cultivars that are the most reliable producers in our mild winter climate must have a very low minimum chill requirement.  Many of these cultivars were developed for farms in Florida and Arizona.  Low chill peaches usually bloom early and consequently ripen their crop early, in spring instead of summer like most peach cultivars.  More sun and higher temperatures just before the fruit is harvested creates the best flavor.  Peaches that ripen in April and May in Florida or Arizona have perfect conditions for sweetness and flavor.  These same cultivars ripening during our spring gloom are pretty flat tasting.  Our best tasting peaches usually ripen after the 4th of July when sun and heat are most reliable.  Unfortunately low chill (early bloom) and late ripening are not often found together. 

If you either live in a local canyon where the winter chill is higher, or live further from the coast where spring temperatures are higher, you have more choices of cultivars will produce good quality fruit. 

Most of us are wanting that peach cultivar that ripens in July or August and blooms early, or at least blooms. 

Red Baron This cultivar has been our favorite.  The minimum chill requirement (MCR) is listed as 250-300 hours.  I think that it is closer to 300 hours since it won't produce every single year.  In most gardens estimate 3 out of 4 years.  The spring bloom is an incredible show and occurs much later than most low chill peaches.  The flowers look like red carnations and the tree is in bloom for more than a month.  The fruit ripens in late July.  This yellow peach is large, slightly pointed with outstanding flavor and firmness.  Two other peach cultivars in my garden ripen at the same time.  August Pride has a lower MCR but has never produced a large crop.  Bonita may be better eating than Red Baron, but the MCR is higher and I only get fruit 2 out of 5 years. 

We will probably sell out of Red Baron this weekend.  More plants are due to arrive next week. 

Long Beach This cultivar is a relatively new, very low chill, yellow peach that was found in Long Beach, California.  It is supposed to be a medium to large fruit of excellent quality.  The MCR is listed as 200 hours and the harvest is early June.  We'll have to see how it performs locally since harvest periods often vary widely depending upon climate.  Eva's Pride has been considered the best of the early ripening, low chill peaches, but in my garden the fruit has not approached the quality of the mid summer peaches.  Desert Gold, Earligrande, and Flordaprince are other low chill, early ripening cultivars that we have tried and discarded.  Their April-May harvest periods just won't result in good fruit this close to the coast unless we have an unusually early heat wave.

 It seems we used to have heat waves in the spring before June gloom sets in. 

Tropic Snow  This cultivar may be our best white peach.  The MCR of 200 hours is very low, so expect crops 9 out of 10 years.  The harvest period is late June and the fruit quality is very good to excellent.  It may not be quite as good as Babcock (MCR 250-400 hours), which ripens 2-3 weeks later, but its MCR is much lower. 

The harvest period of peaches varies wildly from year to year depending upon the time the winter chill has been reached.  It is common to see many different harvest periods listed in different catalogs and references.  We can easily see a 4 or even 5 week difference in harvest time for the same cultivar in a different year.  Of course, this also means that the fruit quality can vary greatly also. 

Peach trees are fairly simple to grow, but usually require chemical maintenance.  I grew peaches for many years with just watering, feeding and pruning.  Sometimes an isolated garden will remain free of pests and diseases.  Heavy rains often cause a leaf disease called Peach Leaf Curl.  An annual winter dormant spray containing copper or lime sulfur will prevent this disease that is worse to look at than actually damaging to the tree.  To be effective, dormant sprays have to be applied before the tree blooms.  Peach fruit can get infested with worms, the larvae of the Oriental Fruit Moth.  Unfortunately it is nearly impossible to tell if the fruit is infested until cut open (or eaten), because the worm enters the fruit through the stem.  Several treatments of an insecticide containing Spinosad during the spring helps tremendously.  Spinosad and dormant disease control products are usually registered for use on organic farms. 

Please visit us at our farmers market locations.

EVERY FRIDAY 9am-1pm
Mission Viejo Farmers Market
Mission Viejo Library
200 Civic Center Drive, Mission Viejo
Exit 5 at La Paz going east, turn right at Marguerite, turn right at Civic Center

EVERY SATURDAY 9am-1pm
Old Towne Orange Farmers & Artisans Market
Historic Villa Park Orchards Packing House at Chapman College
304 North Cypress street, Orange
Exit 55 at Chapman going west, turn right on Cypress

EVERY SUNDAY 10am-2pm
The Great Park Farmers Market
The Great Park in Irvine
Exit 5 at Sand Canyon, turn south on Marine way (parallels east side of 5), follow the signs

26285 Verona Place
Mission Viejo, California 92692