What Is Pat Up To?
I’m back from recent travels, shown here attending the annual garden tour in Laguna Beach last week and eager as ever to answer your garden questions.
I hope to continue gardening, painting, traveling, and writing books indefinitely.
I’m currently writing a proposal for a new book edition. When it’s published I intend to come out of retirement to give talks and promote it in all ways, including social media. (My retirement, in case you heard about it, lasted about 5 minutes.)
Pat Welsh
We planted an Anna’s apple in our Goleta, Ca yard last year. It has produced some fruit, but it is very small, turned reddish quickly, and then dropped off the tree. Can you give us advice? Celia Cummings
Anna apple needs either ‘Dorset’ or ‘Ein Shemer’ as a pollinator, but ‘Dorset’ often blooms at the wrong time, so I think ‘Ein Shemer’ works better. Without a pollinator the fruit will be long and narrow and smaller than you would want. If there are no bees then hand-pollinate the blossoms by using a sable watercolor paintbrush to go from blossom to blossom on the two trees and making like a bee.
Lack of pollination can cause small, misshapen fruit as described above, but fruit falling off prematurely comes from another reason. June drop is a natural occurrence where immature small fruits fall off the tree in spring, often in large numbers, in order to lessen the load on the tree. This is nothing to worry about and does not always occur in June but often in May. If a tree has put on more fruit than it can bring to maturity it may drop many. This does not often happen to Anna but, nonetheless, always thin the small fruit so that only one or at the most two fruits remain at each cluster. Begin doing this early when fruits are only walnut size.
There is another factor to consider and that is climate. Last year we had drought and sudden swings of high and low temperatures. If roots suddenly go dry this can cause all the fruit to drop off the tree. When this happens it is not June drop but the result of shock. The tree thinks it is going to die and drops all fruit and sometimes leaves as well. Make sure the root zone and drip line of the tree is wall irrigated. Additionally, be sure to lightly feed the tree under the drip line just as blossoms open. Apply a balanced fertilizer recommended for deciduous fruit trees and if rains are not adequate, follow up with irrigation.
I hail from the Peak District in England & have loved gardening since childhood. I married an US naval officer & we have two daughters & live in the Eastlake area of Chula Vista. I so missed the countryside of my youth, my husband agreed to us buying land in the Pine Hills area of Julian.
We have spent years clearing the many oaks that have succumbed to the GSOB & it seems we’ll be doing so for many more years. Now we have built a small off-grid residence there (weekends & holidays) & I have planted a gravity water fed orchard. I am wanting to plant an enclosed vegetable garden (lots of deer) & I am looking for advise to speed up my learning curve & improve success & limit the expensive failures.
I found you when I was searching online on how to grow artichokes. Do you ever give lectures that include tips for growing plants in zone 8 (local mountain conditions) & for people who have growing locations away from daily care and protection? I do so enjoy watching & listening to you on your Youtube videos.
We plan to move to the property on a more full-time basis & to grow more extensively. This will be after our girls have gone off to university & when my husband’s career permits him to work less in his La Jolla office & more via the internet. Meanwhile, I drive up to beautiful Julian, with my Labrador retriever by my side to do little chores & every other weekend we all go up & enjoy ourselves tackling a little bit more work together.
I have attended the Bonita Garden Club meetings but these really focus on plants suitable for the south bay climate & general garden tips. This fall I have signed up for South Western College’s horticulture course in fruit tree pruning in the hope to help me attend to our tiny orchard. It would be such a pleasure to hear you in person!
I am so sorry your trees are succumbing the the Golden Spotted Oak Borer (GSOB).
Unfortunately I am now 88 years old and largely retired. I will be 89 in May. I have had to give up giving talks due to stress. Your letter touched my heart and I wish I were still able to do the talks. As long as it lasted I loved every minute.