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Get some TLC for fruit trees

SacTree program open to South Sacramento residents

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED DEC 28, 2020

Fruit trees can get some help to be healthy and productive via the Sacramento

Tree Foundation. (Photo: Kathy Morrison)

Could your fruit trees use some TLC? Have your citrus been less than fruitful? Or are you interested in growing your own supply of backyard fruit?

If you live in South Sacramento, you’re in luck. The Sacramento Tree Foundation has a special program, just for your neighborhood.

Thanks to additional state funding for SacTree’s mini-grant program, SacTree is offering free fruit tree care services to residents in South Sacramento.

“These services will help to ensure your trees develop well, and are on their way to a long and fruitful future,” SacTree posted online. “We’ve teamed up with regenerative agriculture expert Dominic Allamano to support previous fruit tree recipients and other South Sacramento residents in caring for their fruit trees.”

Available until Jan. 31, services include pruning, soil care and education. Trees will get thoughtful pruning to improve structure and future growth. Soil will get a boost with compost, worm castings and mulch. And residents will get expert advice on how to help those fruit trees thrive.

These services are part of the Sacramento Food Forestry Project, bringing more healthy food to those in need.

Boundaries for the project area are generally Fruitridge Road on the north, Mack Road on the south, Freeport Boulevard on the west and Power Inn Road on the east. (The service area does not include Sacramento Executive Airport; for a map, see web page.)

For more information or to sign up, go to: https://www.sactree.com/news/321

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Keywords:

orchard gardening Sacramento healthy eating backyard produce fruit trees Sacramento Tree Foundation home orchard

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Food in My Back Yard Series

April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)

April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers

April 8: When to plant summer vegetables

April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths

March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth

March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space

March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds

March 4: Potatoes from the garden

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Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants

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Garden Checklist for week of April 27

Once the clouds clear, get to work. Spring growth is in high gear.

* Set out tomato, pepper and eggplant transplants.

* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, radishes and squash. Plant onion sets.

* In the flower garden, plant seeds for asters, cosmos, celosia, marigolds, salvia, sunflowers and zinnias. Transplant petunias, zinnias, geraniums and other summer bloomers.

* Plant perennials and dahlia tubers for summer bloom. Late April is about the last chance to plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.

* Transplant lettuce and cabbage seedlings.

* Weed, weed, weed! Don’t let unwanted plants go to seed.

* April is the last chance to plant citrus trees such as dwarf orange, lemon and kumquat. These trees also look good in landscaping and provide fresh fruit in winter.

* Feed citrus trees with a low dose of balanced fertilizer (such as 10-10-10) during bloom to help set fruit. Keep an eye out for ants.

* Apply slow-release fertilizer to the lawn.

* Thoroughly clean debris from the bottom of outdoor ponds or fountains.

* Start thinning fruit that's formed on apple and stone fruit trees -- you'll get larger fruit at harvest (and avoid limb breakage) if some is thinned now. The UC recommendation is to thin fruit when it is about 3/4 of an inch in diameter. Peaches and nectarines should be thinned to about 6 inches apart; smaller fruit such as plums and pluots can be about 4 inches apart. Apricots can be left at 3 inches apart. Apples and pears should be thinned to one fruit per cluster of flowers, 6 to 8 inches apart.

* Azaleas and camellias looking a little yellow? If leaves are turning yellow between the veins, give them a boost with chelated iron.

* Trim dead flowers but not leaves from spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. Those leaves gather energy to create next year's flowers. Also, give the bulbs a fertilizer boost after bloom.

* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.

* Mulch around plants to conserve moisture and control weeds.

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