Archive for the ‘fruit’ tag
It’s fruit and nut tree time in Houston
Today I went to a talk given by the owner of Pineywoods Nursery on fruit and nut trees and attracting wildlife. Perfect timing as January is when most of the local fruit and nut tree sales take place and after the great freeze of twenty-ten you’ve probably got a few bare spots to fill in the garden.
While Tree Search Farms is a wholesale only tree seller, I’m told the website is an excellent source of information about local fruit trees. Anything they sell does well here.
Useful things I learned at this talk:
If your fruit tree isn’t fruiting it is usually because winter wasn’t cold enough or you don’t have enough pollinators. To attract bees plant various cupheas (Bat faced cuphea, Cuphea ignea, Mexican Heather ) around your fruit trees.
Fruit trees should be heavily pruned, but are easily infected, use sterile tools.
Tips for proper tree planting in Houston
PineyWoods recommends these fruit trees for the Houston area:
PawPaw – fruit is similar to bananas, spoils rapidly, fruit is high theft item from local critters, you’ll need to be quick
Mexican Plum ( prunus Mexicana ) great for dry areas
Chinkapin (Castanea pumila ) Chestnut tree, grows slowly but very tall
Mayhaw (Crataegus opaca) Hawthorne, loves damp areas
Darrows Blueberry ( Baccinium darrowii) stays compact, good foundation plant, need male and female plants to get berries.
Black Cherry ( Prunus serotina) Tall tree, interesting bark
Grapes ( Ison muscadine ) build a very strong trellis first
Mexican Thornless lime- only hybridized limes grow in Houston, this plant is good for pots
Improved Meyers Lemon – best lemon for Houston area
Republic of Texas Orange – only good orange for the Houston area
Rio Red Grapefruit
Blood Oranges
Celeste fig, brown turkey is best
Beauty Plums – need multiple varieties to produce
Red Barron Peaches
Dorsett Golden Apples
Housi Pear
Fuyu persimmons – a great wildlife attractor if you don’t like persimmons
Garnet Pomegranate
Jan 16th
9 am – 2pm Sale/ 730-2pm Symposium
Fruit and Nut Sale ( pdf flyer ) 3033 Bear Creek Drive, Houston.
Jan 23
Program 8-9, Sale 9-1pm
Fruit and Nut Tree Sale Montgomery County Master Gardeners
And if you miss the sales, just drop by Pineywoods Nursery they have plenty of fruit trees for sale.
* Note: When your fruit tree comes back from the great freeze, be sure it’s your fruit tree and not a Flying Dragon which is the root stock most of our fruit trees are grafted to. Flying Dragon is curvy with large thorns, remove immediately or you’ll be sorry.
