One Thousand Questions in California Agriculture Answered Part 18

My tangerines last fall shot up like lemon trees - a dozen to twenty shoots two or three feet high. The trees are eight years old and are loaded with bloom and some of the shoots have buds and bloom clear to the top. Some shoots have no bloom. What should I do with these shoots?

Cut them back like lemons or let them remain?

You must shorten the shoots if you desire to have a low tree. This will cause their branching and it will be necessary, therefore, to remove some of the shoots entirely, either now or later, in order that the tree will not become too compact.

Dying Back of Fruit Trees.

I have a few orange and lemon trees that are starting to die. One tree has died on the top. What kind of spray shall I use?

The dying back of a tree at the top indicates that the trouble is in the roots, and it is usually due to standing water in the soil, resulting either from excessive application of water or because the soil is too retentive to distribute an amount of water which might not be excessive on a lighter soil which would allow of its freer movement. Dig down near the tree and see if you have not a muddy subsoil. The same trouble would result if the subsoil is too dry, and that also you can ascertain by digging. If you find moisture ample, and yet not excessive, the injury to the root might be due to the presence of alkali, or to excessive use of fertilizers. The cause of the trouble has to be determined by local examination and cannot be prescribed on the basis of a description of the plant. It cannot be cured by spraying unless specific parasite is found which can be killed by it.

Young Trees Dropping Fruit.

I have a few citrus fruit trees about three years old. They have made a good growth and are between seven and eight feet high with a good shaped top or head. I did not expect any fruit last year and did not have any.

This spring they blossomed irregularly at blooming time, but quite an amount of fruit set and grew as large as marbles, some of it the size of a walnut, but lately it has about all fallen off the trees.

There is always more or less dropping from fruit trees. Some years large numbers of oranges drop. There may be many causes, and the trouble has thus far not been found preventable. When the foliage is good and the growth satisfactory, the young tree is certainly not in need of anything. It is rather more likely that fruit is dropped by the young trees owing to their excessive vegetative vigor, for it is a general fact that fruit trees which are growing very fast are less certain in fruit-setting. It is, of course, possible that you have been forcing such action by too free use of water. You will do well to let your trees go along so long as they appear thrifty and satisfactory, and expect better fruiting when they become older.

Orange Training.

Is not a single leader in an orange tree more desirable than the much-forked tree so commonly seen! Can a single-leader tree be made from the nursery trees which have already formed their heads, by cutting off the heads below so that only a straight stick without any branches is left?

An orange tree with a central leader would not be at all satisfactory if it were carried very high. Of course, a central stem can be to advantage taken higher than it is often done, but we would not think of growing an orange tree with a central stem to the apex. The laterals would droop, crowd down upon each other badly, open the center to sunburn, and encourage also a growth of central suckers and occasion an amount of pruning altogether beyond what is necessary with a properly branched tree without a central stem.

Curing Citron.

I wish to know a way to cure citrons at home. I have a fine tree that has borne very fine-looking fruit for the past two years.

An outline for the preparation of candied citron is as follows: The fruit, before a.s.suming a yellow color, and also when bright yellow, is picked and placed in barrels filled with brine, and left for at least a month. The brine is renewed several times, and the fruit allowed to remain in it until required for use, often for a period of four or five months. When the citrons are to be candied they are taken from the barrels and boiled in fresh water to soften them. They are then cut into halves, the seed and pulp are removed, and the fruit is again immersed in cold water, soon becoming of a greenish color. After this it is placed in large earthen jars, covered with hot syrup, and allowed to stand about three weeks. During this time the strength of the syrup is gradually increased. The fruit is then put into boilers with crystallized sugar dissolved in a small quant.i.ty of water, and cooked; then allowed to cool, and boiled again until it will take up no more sugar. It is then dried and packed in wooden boxes.

Crops Between Orange Trees.

What crop can I plant between rows of young orange trees to utilize the ground as well as pay a little something?

It depends not alone upon what will grow, but upon what can be profitably sold or used on the place, and unless sure of that, it is usually better not to undertake planting between young trees but rather to cultivate well, irrigate intelligently, and trust for the reward in a better growth and later productiveness of the trees. It is clear, California experience that planting between trees except to things which are demonstrated to be profitable should not be undertaken, and where one does not need immediate returns is, as a rule, undesirable. The growth of a strip of alfalfa, if one is careful not to submerge the trees by over-irrigation, would be the best thing one could undertake for the purpose of improving the soil by increasing the humus content, reducing the amount of reflected heat from a clean surface, and is otherwise desirable wherever moisture is available for it. You could also grow cow peas for the good of the land if not for other profit. You can, of course, grow small fruits and vegetables for home use if you will cultivate well. Common field crops, with scant cultivation, will generally cause you to lose more from the bad condition in which they leave the soil than you can gain from the use or sale of the crop.

Navels and Valencias.

Navel trees are being budded to Valencias in southern California, because of the higher price received for the late-ripening Valencias.

Are the orchards in central and northern California being planted in Navels, and is there any difference in soil or climate requirements of Navels and Valencias?

There is no particular difference in the soil requirements of Valencia and Navel oranges. They are both budded on the same root. The desirability of Navel oranges in the upper citrus districts arises from the fact that the policy of those districts at the present time is to produce an early orange. This they could not accomplish by growing the Valencia. The great advantage of the Valencia in southern California, on the other hand, lies in the very fact that it is late and that it can be marketed in midsummer and early autumn when there are no Navels available from anywhere.

Orange Seedlings.

What about planting the seed from St. Michael's oranges or of grapefruit for a seed-bed to be budded to Valencias?

Good plump St. Michael's seeds would be all right if you desire to use sweet seedling stock. Grapefruit seedlings are good and quite widely used, though the general preference is for sour-stock seedlings.

Acres of Oranges to a Man.

In your opinion, is it possible for one man, of average strength, to take perfect care of a twenty-acre citrus orchard? Are the services of a man who takes the entire responsibility of an orchard (citrus) worth more than those of a common ranch hand?

It depends upon the man, upon the age of the trees, upon the kind of soil he has to handle, upon the irrigation arrangements and upon what you mean by "perfect care." If you contract the picking and hauling of fruit, the fumigation and allow extra help when conditions require that something must be done quickly, whatever it may be, a man with good legs and arms, and a good head full of special knowledge to make them go, can handle twenty acres and if he does it right you ought to pay him twice as much as an ordinary ranch hand.

Roots for Orange Trees.

What are the conditions most favorable to orange trees budded upon sour stock; also upon sweet stock and trifoliata?

The sour stock is believed to be more hardy against trying conditions of soil moisture - both excess and deficiency, and diseases incident thereto. The sweet stock is a free growing and satisfactory stock and most of the older orchards are upon this root, but it is held to be less resistant of soil troubles than the sour stock, and therefore propagators are now largely using the latter. The trifoliata has been promoted as more likely to induce dormancy of the top growth during cold weather, because of its own deciduous habit. It has also been advocated as likely to induce earlier maturity in the fruit and thus minister to early marketing. The objection urged against it has been a claimed dwarfing of the tree worked upon it.