Clay Pot Effect

If you are not cursed/blessed with heavy clay soil, you can skip this entry.

I have mentioned the "clay pot effect" a few times on my blog. This is when you dig into clay soil an create a slick edge with the shovel that impaires the roots from growing. Once the slick edge hardens, the roots are unable to penetrate it. This will force the roots to turn back into themselves and the plant becomes rootbound. Either the roots eventually penetrate the hard edge in two to three years or the plant dies. It also hinders drainage around the plant and it can drown after heavy rains.

Today we went out to the orchard to dig holes for trees coming in this winter. We used a Bobcat with an 18 inch auger bit to drill out the holes. You easily get a large hole about 2-3 feet deep but it creates a very hard slick edge in the clay. To fix this problem, I use a fork to penetrate the slick surface and pop the soil out. You can use this same method when planting with a shovel in the backyard. Dig it out with a shovel first and then use a fork to pop the edges.


Wife in the Bobcat. She handles it like a pro.

Here is the hole with very slick hard edges. Digging with a shovel can create this same problem to a less extent. The shade is making it hard to really see how bad it really is.

Buy a really good fork for this job. None of the cheapo forks will last long if you have a lot of holes to pop.

The end result is a hole with rough edges that allow roots to more easily penetrate into the outside soil. I only worked the top 18 inches of the hole and the bottom. Most of the roots will grow laterally in the top 14 inches of clay and slowly work down since the aeration of clay is so poor. In addition, there will also be a larger taproot that goes straight down on many of my fruit trees. It provides water to the tree in times of drought.

I burn easily

For the last few years I have been experimenting with shade tolerant plants. One thing I have noticed is that many plants that like the shade are also acid soil loving plants. This sucks for me as my soil is neutral at the house. Here are some of the varieties that I have tried.

Chilean Guava
This is actually a berry and not a real Guava. It comes from Chile and is hardy down past 14F. The problem is that it burns once it gets over 98F. They are able to fruit in the shade so I am planting one in the front that only gets sun early in the morning. This fruit is insanely good! It is so rich that each little berry feels like it packs as much flavor as a large fruit. Queen Victoria delclared it the most delicious fruit in the world.

Evergreen Huckleberry
This guy is in the pot with the Chilean Guava. It is more heat tolerant that the Chilean Guava but it may have problems getting enough cold to fruit. Both are in a slightly acid soil mix. I should know how they are going to do by mid-summer. The fruit should be similar to a Blueberry but not quite.

Akebia
This vine loves the shade. If you plant two or more varieties, you will get large magenta pods in the spring that have a tapioca pudding like substance inside. I have three of these but they are unfortunately the same variety. I am ordering two new kinds this spring.

Ginger
I bought some Ginger at the store and planted it in deep shade last year. It shot up some very attractive young bamboo type shoots that froze back this winter. I suspect they will keep coming back each year.

Leatherleaf Mahonia
These guys are impossible to kill. They take the heat, cold, drought and keep on coming. The fruit is very tart unless dead ripe. They are related to Barberries and Oregon Grape. This plant is more on the wild foraging side of the fruit spectrum. It is actually starting to bloom now in December. I will keep this on the "i am starving" side of edible.

Serviceberry
These guys will go full sun or shade. They rock! They have incredible blooms, incredible Blueberry type fruit with an Almond aftertaste. They can take -60F cold and over 100F heat. I am trying many varieties to see which ones do the best in Texas.

Maypop
I didnt think they would do good in shade but they sure do. This Passionfruit vine will produce flowers and fruit in deep shade but yields are greatly diminished.

Mexican Plum
This wild plum will grow and fruit in the shade but sadly the fruit is very tart and not very good. I was disappointed but plan on using the tree to graft Cherries and Plums this spring. We will see.

New toy and volunteers

I have completely destroyed every gardening fork I have purchased in the last few years. Since we have clay soil, you have to pop the edges of holes after digging so it doesnt create a "clay pot" and stop all the roots from expanding further out. All the other forks have bent or snapped while planting out at the orchard. This one has been recommended to me by a "hippie" so you know it is good. We will be testing it this weekend when we dig 200 holes at the orchard.

VOLUNTEER PLANTS

I just love that description. It is almost like the seeds sat around and discussed which one would sprout and try to ink out a living in our backyard. We get lots of Loquat sprouts every year and I try to give them all away but last year we got a citrus sprout. It survived the 14F degree freeze last winter with some damage and it has started to grow again this year. I dont know if it is Lime, Orange or Lemon.

HURRY UP AND GROW FASTER!!!!!

Jujube

I love this tree. This is the tree that inspired me to start my orchard and growing my own food.

Why???

This is a lazy mans fruit tree! After you plant and take care of it for one year, you can just walk away and it will take care of itself. There are Jujube trees in our neighborhood that have been around for decades that still fruit with no one taking care of them.

The United States government developed Jujube varieties in the early 1900s and released them throughout the south. Unfortunately, they were released with little information about the different varieties and how to maintain them. Their popularity diminished with large scale shipment of fruits such as the Apple. The trees continued to fruit even when abandoned during the worst of the dust bowl days in Oklahoma. Many are still growing where they were planted nearly 100 years ago while we waste water trying to grow other fruits that are less adapted to Texas. Go figure.

Here are some of the requirements for Jujube.

LOTS OF SUN
I mean lots. They love sun and the hotter the better. You are not going to fry this tree no matter how hot it gets.

COLD
Not only can they take the heat, they are very cold tolerant. The trees cold hardiness range from -5 to -20F. They also have a very small chill requirement of 100 hours to fruit.

FERTILIZER
Not required. These trees will produce about the same amount of fruit with or without fertilization. They can grow in the middle of the yard covered in grass and be fine with the grass stealing all the nutrients. Fertilization will increase growth rate so you can add some if you would like after the second year in the ground but it will be fine without.

PESTICIDES
None needed. The fruit has few to no natural pests in the United States. I have had a few squirrels and birds nibble at them. I have found a worm in one every now and then but it is rare. Those little assassin bugs get on them by accident sometimes thinking they are Tomato. They dont harm the fruit.

SPACE
These trees grow vertical by nature so you can put one in a very tiny spot and it will grow straight up. If you prefer a wider tree, just keep cutting the top branches down and it will start to spread out. Here is a tree that is about 25 feet tall and only 5-6 feet wide. I personally trim mine to be wider.

SOIL
No special requirements here. They like sandy soils the best but they grow fine in my heavy clay even with water-logging. Mine have already experienced a flood in summer and water-logging in winter/spring. They can also take both acid and alkaline soils.

WATER
Once the Jujube tree is established, it will only need 7 inches of rain a year to survive. I suspect it will need at least 15 inches to fruit and anything over 25 will be heavy fruiting. If you have a very well drained soil that doesnt retain moisture this may be a little bit more but they do send down a deep taproot.

SUCKERING
This tree will sucker just like a Crepe Myrtle. Just mow them down or snip them. Whatever you would do to your Crepe to keep it in check, you would do with the Jujube. Dont let the suckers grow because they are from the rootstock and will not produce the same fruit. It will be tiny and sour.

FRUIT

This is some fruit from the Li Jujube. They will get bigger and red sploches will appear on them. You can start eating them at this point but they will not reach their full sweetness until they are totally red. I like them best about half red.

This one is about to start turning red. You can tell when it starts to turn from green, to green/yellow and finally red.

The taste is similar to Apples but only a little. It definitely has its own distinct flavor. There is a very nice aftertaste that lingers in your mouth. Some of the fruits are very plain and others extremely sweet. It is important to know what variety you are eating because the fruits are broken up into two categories. One is fresh eating and the other is for drying. You can also usually dry the fresh eating varieties. If you eat a variety that is bred for dehydration, you probably wont like it fresh off the tree.

Varieties like Lang, are bred just for drying. I leave mine on the window edge outside during the summer and they are usually dried within 10 days. The insects leave them alone. They have a very different flavor at this point and people almost always compare them to a rich sweet date. You can buy the dried fruit at every Asian market in town but they are shipped from China and really are inferior in taste due to perservatives or chemicals. If you can get the dried fruit grown in the U.S., it is usually much better and chemical free. This is funny because China has better tasting varieties. They just nuke them with something.Wash them really well and see how you like them.


HARVEST
Another good reason to grow Jujube is harvesting. You can pick them by hand or set down a blanket and shake the tree. The ripe ones will usually fall.

*****IMPORTANT*****
Jujube fruit will lose their moisture during the heat of the day. If you plan on picking some, water the day before your pick if it hasnt rained in a long time. Then pick the fruit in the morning. The earlier the better. Many people are put off of Jujube because they pick one in the afternoon. Some varieties can literally have the consistency of styrofoam if you pick them when it is hot. The same fruit the next morning will be juicy and sweet.

The fruit will stay good on the counter for 3-5 days. If you put them in the fridge, they will be good for weeks. If you dry them, they will be good for over a year.

VARIETIES

I am only going to go over the varieties that you might find in the spring at nurseries or online. It is rare to find them after June in a nursery as they go quick. The wholesale resource I have for them is completely sold out this year.

Li:
Fresh eating variety. Plum sized. Sweet. Most popular in U.S.

Lang:
Drying variety. Elongated pear shape. Golf ball sized or bigger.

Sugarcane:
Fresh eating variety. Ping pong ball sized. Very sweet. Good moisture content.

So or Contorted:
Fresh eating. Similar to Sugar Cane. Extremely ornamental tree.

Sherwood:
Fresh eating. Weeping attractive leaves. Medium taste. Less than average yields.

GA866:
Fresh eating. Elongated. Good taste. Higher sugar content but does not reflect that in taste.

Honey Jar:
Fresh eating. Ping Pong ball sized. Extremely sweet and rich. Always very juicy regardless of pick time.
Hard to find.

Eating new stuff all the time

I recently found out that Hackberry berries are edible. Hackberry trees are generally considered trash trees here in Texas since they are EVERYWHERE. In fact, we have to kill hundreds of seedlings all over the yard every year. After I found out that the tiny berries were edible, I tried one. Well, it is all seed. There is a thin coat around the seed that tastes like a tame cinnamon red hot but not much to eat. The seed is too hard to bite through but if you smash them up into little bits, they have a cookie dough consistency that is okay.

Well, one site said to look for a tree that has thin seed shells. I found one at the land today and it was like eating M&Ms. I am now a big fan of this tree I have cursed for years. Too bad the two 40 foot trees at my house have hard seeds.

I suspect the best way to harvest these will be by putting a blanket down and lightly tapping the branches with a pole.

Here are some of the berries that I am shipping to a guy from the Texas Rare Fruit Growers. He lives in Mississippi. Go figure.

Late night greenhouse setup

XMAS came early at my house as I now am the proud owner of a mini-greenhouse. It came in a box about 3'x3'x5" and when I opened it, the greenhouse just expanded to full size. It was pretty cool. You then install some tent poles but it only takes a second. I stuck it over some Lychee that I have growing in the yard that would freeze around 25F. The 100W lightbulb should raise the temp in there enough to keep it warm on the coldest nights here in Central Texas. I might upgrade to a 150W just in case. I will stick all my other sub-tropicals that are in pots in there this week.

This came from Lowes and is 6.5 feet tall and 5 feet wide. The cost was 84.00 bucks. That sir, is a bargain. The plastic material looks woven and appears to be very strong. It has a front and rear door, screen doors inside the main doors, a green floor if you want to use a floor, tent stakes for high winds and reinforcing tie downs for extreme winds. Remind you, this all came in a 3 foot box only 5 inches thick.

Dreaming of Serviceberries

If you live in an extremely cold environment, this plant is for you. The Serviceberry is cold hardy from -10F to -40F degrees depending on what variety you are growing. I purchased multiple varieties a few years ago on a lark since they are so cheap. Check out EBAY and you should get multiple hits.

I was totally shocked. They took 69 days over 100F in 2009 and didnt even blink. I had many northern plants completely melt but the Serviceberry took it better than some of the natives. I was deeply sceptical that it would produce any fruit. Usually cold tolerance is an indicator of a very high chill requirement. Chill requirement is the number of hours between 45F and 32F each winter. Some plants require over 1000 hours to fruit and San Marcos, TX usually gets 300-500 hours. Well, multiple plants flowered and fruited the first year. They look just like Blueberries but the taste is very different. It is smoother, less tart with a strong Almond after taste as your break apart the tiny soft seeds in the middle. It was wonderful!

The Serviceberry can be grown in shrub form to 30 foot trees. Imagine a 30 foot tall tree covered in Blueberry-ish fruit. The flowers are insane as well. They will go toe-to-toe with Crabapples in the Spring for blossoms.

They can grow in full sun or partial shade. Unlike most fruit, they will still produce fruit in the shade.