Cherry Blair

Any western tappable trees known?? We have black walnut but does it not get cold enough?

Jeanne Wallace wrote:We started a Support Small & Local Businesses spreadsheet online (on AirTable).
One tab shows alternatives to amazon and other large corporations.
The other tab is a list of small businesses. You can add your business by clicking the link at the top. https://airtable.com/shrWIK5XAf9rQf5a1

Hey! Starwest botanicals is local to me! How cool. Small world.

My tip is if you have a pretty big hot water heater it will hold heat for quite a while you can fill any bottles you have on hand or thermoses, other sealable containers and stick them under your blankets in your bed. (Make sure they wont warp or leak!!) we did this during the big power outage here in California and it kept our little babies and us warm in the winter weather. We lived in an apartment so we couldn’t really do much else and the apartment is completely electric. I was also able to use a hot water bottle under a tarp to keep my tropical plants warm. They also keep each other warm for about 48 hours.

S Bengi wrote:@John C Daley
Yes its also called Chocolate Vine. I actually like eating the fruit, similar to pawpaw different cultivars have slightly different flavors. But worse case you can just eat them with some tart like say lemon juice. And yes the entire plant is edible, the root, stem, leave and skin of the fruit.

@Cherry Blair
I am surprised that raspberry doesn't grow well for you in your zone9 N.California climate. They have ones that grow in zone 11 Florida, so it's just a matter of finding the right ciltivar, look for a nursery in S.Florida or S.California and have them ship it to you if you can't find something local. Personally as long as it is in the rasberry/blackberry sub-family I would plant and eat it, independent of whatever name they want to call the dozens of hybrids and species. Give Jaboticaba a try, it just might make it in your zone9. As for currants/gooseberry/jostaberry, check out these guys, I got my jostaberry from them and they bear the 1st year. https://onegreenworld.com/product-category/berries/jostaberry-berries/ If you cant grow pawpaw you can try one of it hardy relative that goes also dormant for the winter. https://toptropicals.com/cgi-bin/garden_catalog/cat.cgi?uid=Annona_squamosa

Oh! You have purchased from top tropicals personally? I was wondering how legitimate the site was. I know it was closed down much of last year. I will definitely check both out! Thank you!

S Bengi wrote:I have found that apples and pear required alot of spraying and babying. So I recommend getting a few of these:
Jujube (you can put 2 in one hole)
Pawpaw ( you can put 2 in one hole about 14inches apart, Sunflower + Prolific, they are dwarfing/slow)
Hybrid Persimmon (Nikita is one of two hybrid that I have for small space)
Dwarf/Weeping Mulberry
Currants/Gooseberry/Jostaberry
Blackberry/Raspberry/Dewberry
Native Grapes (not the European/Middle eastern ones)
Artic and Hardy Kiwi
Akebia (these are unique pest free vine, look them up)

I want all of this. XD I heard pawpaw wont grow well here though. Same with raspberry but I do know a guy in town who babies his and they are growing pretty well. Dewberry is new to me… looking up!

Anyone know anyone who ships currants that are ready to fruit? We got some last year and nothing. :/

S Bengi wrote:@Cherry
It sounds like you are in zone10 which makes me think of Phoenix, AZ or Miami, Florida. In both of those location, I dont see how you would shock a citrus/tropical tree by planting now vs another time in the year. So I recommend planting it now. If you had the plants indoor it would still give them time to acclimate to the soon to be colder temp outside.

Close! 9B! :) moving to a house that will be right on 9a/9b! I worry for them going from a solid 72° day and night to a sudden 70° Morning but 48°ish night.   I wish florida.. i could plant all my heart desires there!!! XD california :) mid northern. Moving to more northern but not quite.

Thanks for the advice!

Mark Reed wrote:Now is a perfect time for planting pretty much any kind of trees, much better than spring. They have opportunity to start rooting in without the stress of doing that and growing above ground at the same time and you don't have to water every few minutes.

Also perfect for planting tree seeds, walnuts, pecans, apples, pears peaches. I plant all of those just by scraping away grass or weeds with a hoe, dropping the seeds and covering with an inch or so of compost or just soil if you don't have compost. Actually you can plant the larger seeds like walnut a a little deeper if you want too, about and inch or two. Then I cover it up with boards, or rocks, or old rugs, what ever I have and pull the cover back off the next spring. It's an easy way to direct plant where you want the tree to live rather than transplanting and you'd be surprised how fast a seed sprouted tree can grow, never having had the experience of transplant shock.

Probably lots of other perennial things could be planted now too. Maybe various berries, rhubarb, horseradish, lots of things. Also the cooler weather of fall is good for work like clearing areas, trimming trees, cutting firewood and so on.  

THIS! Thank you. I was worried planting them now would put them into shock. Does this apply to citrus as well or just cold hardy type fruits? We dont get below 30°F here tyia!

Welcome Alan! I am so excited to read this! We are closing on a house in November with a decent urban lot. I cant wait to add more to the food forest the prior owner had! )) my question is can you plant citrus in the ground in autumn? Temps here never go below 30°F. Thank you!

I tried the website Sheffield’s Seed Company, but shipping is more than double the seeds, so I'd rather find it somewhere else since its supposed to be standard ground shipping. I see them on the agrohaitai site but when I click to calculate it just sits there :C and that one looked most promising. Sow Exotic sells a tree but is out of stock, as well as the fact that I have yet to get a living plant from them. There is also a woman who sells them on etsy at a whopping 60$ a tree :O

I'll have to keep looking!