Winter at Dun Hagan

So, here it is February and the novelty of cold weather has long since worn off. I've lost track of how many frosts we've had so far. No record breaking low temperatures though we did get one night of twenty one that hammered my grove citrus and may get another one come this Wednesday. February ranks right up there with August as my least favorite months of the year.

Nevertheless life goes on so we go with it. Not everything is dead or dormant.

This is a Pink Perfection camellia (C. japonica)I planted a few weeks ago after making the poor thing suffer in a pot for a year before deciding where I wanted it. It was horribly rootbound of course, but seems to be overcoming it. The blossom isn't fully open yet.

And this one is a Little Man camellia (also C. japonica) that I planted just this weekend. The blossom appears white in the sunlight, but is actually the palest of pinks.

The roses are slowly growing out there as well, but at the moment do not have any open blossoms. I'm hoping to have a nice Mutablis photo soon.

Winter in Florida can be a busy time in the vegetable garden if you want it to be. It's always been traditional to have a "greens garden" of turnips, mustards, and collards, but there is much more we can grow than those three standbys. This year I have succession planted three varieties of ordinary green cabbage, one of savoy, and a red variety. Joining them are broccoli, Brussels sprouts, pac choi, and Chinese cabbage. In the non-greens I've planted a couple hundred onions along with turnips, carrots, and sugar snap peas. Red skinned potatoes will soon be joining them. Not everything has been a success, but many of them have done well.

This is my paper mache garden. The white mulch you see is shredded office paper. In the walkways between the rows there is cardboard underneath the shredded stuff. Admittedly it's not very pretty, but it works well and most importantly it's FREE. I don't have to pay for it or rake it up. I wouldn't use it around my ornamentals unless I could hide it under a more visually appealing mulch, but the vegetable garden is on the backside of the property where it doesn't have to please anyone but me.

The row on the center right I have just planted red and green cabbage, broccoli, and collards. Towards the back just to the right of them is the pac choi and to the right of it is the carrots. That row came in very sparse for being hit with a frost just as they broke ground but what there is are growing well. To the right of them are the Brussels sprouts and it looks like this year I might actually get something to harvest. I plant them to keep me humble because I've yet to actually make them produce for me. Hope springs eternal though so I keep trying.

The row to the center left has the last couple of heads of cabbage from the first planting towards the back. In the front is the savoy cabbage I planted a month or so ago and the row to the left of them has the rest of them as well as some more broccoli and collards. They need fertilizing as they're starting to lag. Hopefully I'll be able to get to that this weekend.

This is the first planting of broccoli. It's all been cut now and is steadily producing side shoots. I haven't kept up with them as often as I should so a few in the front are starting to bolt (blossoming).

The onion patch. These are granex (Vidalia) onions that bulb well here in the Deep South. Big, sweet tasting onions. The twenty one degree freeze of the other day yellowed them out, but they've been coming back nicely. The two rows to the right were planted from sets back in November and some of them are already the size of tennis balls. The row to the left were from plants about a month later so aren't as big yet, but they're working on it. The paper mulch keeps the soil moisture even and slows down nutrient leaching so I can usually get very good growth. Elephant garlic has also done well for me in the past and keeps even better. I was tight for space so I didn't plant any this time.

In the greenhouse things are perking right along. In fact it's beginning to get rather crowded in there (big surprise!). Between the warmth, nutrients, and lengthening days the blossoms are really starting to pop.

A Key lime blossom surrounded by new leaves. No leaf miners this time of year.

Another Key lime. This one has mature leaves that you can still see some residue of sooty mold on from before I sprayed them. As the new growth emerges the citrus aphids grow with it so need a bit of control once in a while. Tis a pity I can't buy just a half handful of ladybugs...

This is a Buddha Hand citron. It's among the more persnickety of the citrus that I grow so it's only been recently that I've learned how to make it happy which shows in the new leaves and heavy blossoming it's doing. I'm hoping this time it will hold onto at least a few fruit.


This is a mature Buddha Hand fruit from Wikipedia. They don't really have any practical value beyond making candied peel or zest, but they're so odd looking that they make great curiosities. In some Asian nations they are used as room fresheners as they are highly fragrant.

Blossoms on a Eureka lemon. When I went to repot this one last winter I did not have the size container under the bench that I thought I did so ended up having to use one larger than I really wanted. This subsequently caused problems with drainage, root rot, and leaf loss over the course of the summer. Last September I finally realized my error and moved it into a more appropriate size of pot and it responded by beginning to grow again. Since moving it into the greenhouse it has put out copious new leaves and blossoms. As the new foliage comes up to size it drops older damaged leaves such as the ones you can see with leaf miner tracks in the background.

Another Eureka lemon. We've taken to calling this one "the little tree that could" because it doesn't seem to matter how much the leaf miners and grasshoppers harass the thing it always matures a large crop of lemons. As you can see from the bronzy looking leaves in the foreground it's putting out a lot of new growth as well. I'm hoping they'll all go into spring with a healthy crop of mature leaves before the first leaf miners show up. I could eliminate them, but it would require the use of systemic pesticides that I'm not keen on using so have to tolerate their damage.

I'm not completely focused on citrus. There are a few other things out there that divert me from time to time such as this pink geranium. Looks nice against the tomato foliage doesn't it? The poor thing needs a good pruning from having been squashed flat last summer when another plant fell on it, but it's been blooming so heavily I can't bring myself to chop it up!

Now my grandmother actually gave that pink geranium to the Kinder Major several years ago. One of several flowers at the time. But what I think is that it was really a clever plot to draw her daddy into flower gardening because she knew who it was that was going to have to do the looking after it! And it may be working too because a couple of months ago when I was at the Home Depot looking for something else I came across this peppermint geranium. I ended up buying the thing even though it was looking rather poorly because the blossoms really caught my eye. It turns out that it was badly overpotted and suffering from soggy roots. I moved it into smaller quarters and it has responded well. It stands out nicely against the parsley background.

The nut crop in some parts of the country last fall was nearly non-existent which has left the local squirrel populations in desperate straits to keep from starving so they are eating all sorts of things they normally wouldn't touch. One such was my grandmother's potted hibiscus that she overwinters on her back porch every year. When we were up to the farm for Christmas they had gotten onto the porch to eat every bud, leaf, and twig tip from her plants. So I thought I'd post one of mine so she wouldn't forget what they looked like while hers are recovering. ;)

Winter drags on. We've got another hard freeze predicted for the next three nights and I've still to do a lot of my winter chores of pruning and spraying and chainsaw work. Even if nothing is growing outside there's no end of work waiting to be done.

Y'all stay warm now.

.....Alan.

The 2008/2009 Greenhouse

As anyone who knows me would have said was predictable over the spring and summer of the last year my collection of cold sensitive container plants outgrew the space available in the 8x10 greenhouse I built for the previous winter. This meant I was either going to have to reduce my collection to fit or building a larger structure to use for this winter. There was only one correct answer to that particular dilemma so I started accumulating the necessary materials.

Now according to the natural laws that govern the universe this undertaking was not going to go smoothly and it didn't. My first problem was that I couldn't decide how big I wanted the new greenhouse to be! I first figured on going to a 10x12 structure, but quickly realized that it wasn't really going to give me much additional space so I stepped up to 10x16. A fit of greed overtook me though so I decided to go all out for a 10x20 house. As each change in dimension altered the necessary bill of materials Diana just shook her head figuring it was problaby still cheaper than me hanging out in bars.

The second problem proved to be the weather. Hither to now I've tried to have the greenhouse finished by mid-November at the latest in anticipation of our first frost of the season which usually falls within a few days either way of the first of December. Ma Nature had other ideas this year though and treated us to a suprise frost on October 29th! This meant doing the Large Thorny Plant Shuffle in and out of the workshop for the three frosts that occurred before I was able to finish construction. The old gal isn't going to do me that way next year because I'm going to have the thing ready by mid-October from now on!

The third problem made itself apparent when I began to make the bows only to realize that forcing twenty feet of PVC pipe into a ten foot wide bow was placing an unacceptable amount of strain on the joints. So on the fly I expanded the house to a twelve foot width. First though I had to make sure my twenty foot wide plastic would satisfactorily cover the bows while leaving me sufficient material left over on either side to fasten it down. I briefly considered lengthening the house beyond twenty feet but realized I might be exceeding the heating capacity of the available electric power I can run out there so I finally exercised some restraint. After all a man should know his limitations!

The wood frame at the bottom is made of pressure treated 2x6s. The corners are joined by pieces of flat metal bent into right angles with several screws into the wood in each leg. You can find them at your local hardware store in the metal fasteners area for building joists and trusses. They come flat and I bent each one in a vice. As usual you may click on each photo to see the larger version for more detail.


On the insides there are two pipe clamps at the bottom of each leg of the bows. This keeps them from wobbling in the frame once they are tightened down after the pipes have been inserted. A screwdriver bit in a cordless drill makes this an easy chore.

The pipes are one inch Schedule 40 pvc joined at the tops by 4-way fittings for the interior bows and 3-ways for the two end bows. All joints are primed then solidly glued and allowed to cure for at least a day in the sun before bending. The short sections that connect the bows to one another are not glued, but merely held together by friction.

On the long sides I sistered the two boards together using some old pieces of 2x6s that were kicking around. The two long sides used four 10ft boards and the short sides used two 12ft lengths. As the bows are set into place they begin to exert an outward pressure along the twenty foot length of the house causing it to bow outwards. To counter this I drove three stakes cut from 2x2s on each side evenly spaced. I did not otherwise fasten them to the frame in case I later decided I wanted to move the house (which in fact I did several days afterward).

In retrospect I think I'd use 3/4 inch pipe rather than the one inch that I did use if I had to build it again. Slightly more flexibility while still retaining sufficient stiffness with somewhat of a savings in cost.

With the basic frame and the bows in place it was time to frame the ends. My previous greenhouses did not have end framing, but with this expansion there was going to be too much square area for the wind to blow against for that to work. I didn't want to drill holes in the pipe as I figured that would weaken it so I used the method that I use for building chicken tractors and wired it in place.


It's not the prettiest job I've ever done, but it works. The wire is seventeen gauge galvanized electric fence wire which serves as the universal bailing wire around here. Just keep the part running over the top of the pipe as smooth as you can so it won't abrade a hole in the plastic over time.

Once the ends were framed it was time to build and hang the doors. The hinges are on the left hand side for both as you face them so that when I have them propped open they can catch the breeze to funnel it inside. The warm, bright sunny days can run the temperature up pretty high inside so good ventilation is a must.

Here's the house fully covered. The plastic is plain 4-mil twenty foot wide translucent builders polyethylene. It's not UV stabilized so here in Florida it will last through a fall and winter then begin to crack and shred sometime in the late spring to early summer. For my purposes this is OK as by then I no longer need the protection. For the next time I need to cover it I have a roll of six mill poly for somewhat greater durability, but it still won't last more than a year at best. For a more permanent installation I'd buy actual UV stabilized greenhouse plastic which is mail orderable from a number of supply companies.

The plastic is secured to the frame along both sides by using simple firring strips and screws first drilling small pilot holes before putting in the screws to eliminate splitting. You can see the end of one piece in the first photo at the top of this entry. I like to fold the plastic over on itself then secure it with the wood.

The plastic is secured to the hoops by the use of clamps that I purchased from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply.



They comes in various sizes for each width of pipe. You can also get some of the hard to find pipe fittings there as well if you aren't able to find them locally. I'm sure there are many suppliers for these products so feel free to shop around if you want to. The clamps have held up well for me thus far even after several gusty cold fronts have blown through. I think I'm using five clamps per bow leg which makes for a tight seal of plastic to pipe.

The photo above is the house fully covered. When I did the ends I first stretched the plastic upright so that I could fasten it evenly to the bottom frame with the firring strips. This done I then pulled it taught in an upward direction so that I could clip it into place on the end bows. Once it was smooth and even from side to side and top to bottom I could cut the door out. This was done carefully along three sides, but leaving the hinge side uncut for better weather proofing. The cut edges were folded over on themselves then secured in place with more firring strips. So far this has held well through several windy cold fronts.

And here is the house complete with plants, benches, power, fan, and heaters inside. I'm not using proper greenhouse heaters as are recommended because I can't afford them, but I am careful to unplug everything when I water and both heaters are supported off the floor by boards. I covered the bottom in landscape fabric to keep the grass growth down. It's available from most garden center in various widths and lengths. I used three runs of four foot width material in mine and secured it to the ground with the recommended landscape staples. It's not really necessary, but I thought I'd try it this time. It also makes it easy to sweep up inside which mine needs doing with the citrus dropping their old, bug damaged leaves as they grow new ones.

Between the two heaters I have a combined 2500 watts of heating power along with a small eight inch fan to move it around inside. The house passed our twenty one degree night without incident. I don't have automatic vents so I have to use some forethought about opening and closing the doors to either retain heat or let it out. On our coldest days that never climbed above sixty degrees I never opened it at all. Any warmer than that and I'll open at least one door a few inches. Warm sunny days I open both doors wide open.

In a climate that is significantly colder than Florida's I'd either need to reduce the size of the house or use insulation to keep heating costs within reason. Next year I may order one of the clear plastic solar pool covers (think giant sheet of bubble wrap) that some folks use with their houses. This should help significantly in retaining heat, especially in the event of a power failure.

This iteration is as large as I think I care to go in building a greenhouse. If I just had to have more space I believe I'd build a second. What I'm thinking about now though is where I'm going to put our permanent greenhouse and what design I should use. I'm thinking out past by sycamore tree by the corner of the vegetable garden...

.....Alan.

2008 Southeastern Citrus Exposition - Part Two

The Fruit Judging Contest

There was more to the exposition than the speakers and the tours there was also the fruit judging contest!

It was ironic that though this was the southeastern citrus expo no fruit from Florida could be shown due to the quarantine on shipping uninspected citrus out of the state. Even if an attendee had been able to run his personally grown fruit through through an inspected packing house the contest rules required that at least a few leaves remain attached to the stem of at least one of the fruits to prove it wasn't grocery store fruit which are part of what the quarantine bans. Given the inability to stop the spread of the psyllid this may change in the future I suppose. I had a hat full of beautiful Key limes this year that were the size of golf balls that I'd have loved to enter.

The lack of Florida fruit aside there were still some very nice specimens from dozens of varieties of citrus to be seen. The first five shots are of whole categories. There were more than just these, but they are the ones that came out the best.



Remember that none of these fruit came from Florida, but rather the other Southeastern states so citrus is a possibility in many areas. If you have a greenhouse or a sunny southern exposure window you can grow even the most cold sensitive varities. For the folks up to the line of central Georgia and Alabama you can grow certain sweet citrus varieties in the ground. The coastal areas of the Carolinas can grow many good citrus varieties as well. If you're willing to settle for a non-edible ornamental there are varieties that can be grown all the way to the Mason-Dixon and beyond.

Following are some close up photos of specific varieties. Some were grown in the ground and some in containers, but all came from the non-Florida southeastern states.

Page Orange (left) and Sunburst Tangerine (right)

The Page Orange is in my opinion one of the best tasting citrus varieties ever developed, but they were never able to achieve good fruit size with them and they are a bit soft at maturity for long distance shipping so it never gained commercial popularity. Technically speaking the Page isn't an orange at all. It's the product of a cross between the Minneola tangelo and the Clementine tangerine which makes it three quarters tangerine and one quarter grapefruit by breeding. Nevertheless the USDA called it an orange when they released it back in 1963 so many people know it as one so orange it's going to be here.

The Sunburst Tangerine on the other hand is very popular with commercial growers and is now the most common commercially grown tangerine in Florida. The flavor is great and the color everything one expects of a tangerine.

Page Orange

A little better view from the previous picture. In my opinion, when grown in Florida, the Page is the best tasting citrus variety to be found. It also has fair cold resistance which is why I have one in my own grove. Come the spring I will be replacing my old one with one I bought recently that is grafted on trifoliate which performs better for me here than the rootstock my old one is on.

Owari Satsuma

Like tangerines all satsumas are mandarins, but not all mandarins are satsumas. Some of the distinguishing characteristics of the breed is that they reach their best flavor in areas generally too cool for sweet oranges and their easy peeling 'zipper skin.' They are popular in Japan which is where many varieties originated though the earliest ancestors are Chinese in origin. The Owari is one of the most commonly grown. Nice flavor when picked at the peak of ripeness. They don't hold up well to long distance shipping though so their market is mostly local.

Ambersweet Orange

Like the Page Orange above the Ambersweet Orangeis not a pure orange, but a hybrid of the Orlando tangelo, Clementine tangerine, and an unknown sweet orange which makes it both seedless and gives a greater cold resistance than common sweet oranges which is why I have one in my grove as well. They make nice sized, good tasting and juicy fruit. I like them right well.

Honey Orange

I'm not familiar with this one, by that name anyway. Moderately seedy, but plainly juicy and with a good color. Given the name it's probably rather sweet as well.

Orlando Tangelo

Another hybrid that has become popular as a grocery store fruit. Good color, size, juiciness, and flavor with only a moderate amount of seeds. The Orlando has a degree of cold resistance so I have one in my grove. Unlike many varieties this one is not self-fertile so requires a pollenizer. The Sunburst tangerine is the same way and fortunately one will pollinate the other so I have one of each planted in close proximity. I like the Orlando more for juice than eating out of hand.

Nansho Dadai (Citrus Taiwanica)

The Nansha is an exotic sour orange originally hailing from Taiwan. I don't know much about it other than what you can read at the link.

It is possible for many types of citrus to be completely mature and still green as grass in their peel color. In fact this is rather common in the more tropical areas that do not receive enough cool weather to cause color change in citrus peels.

Duncan Grapefruit.

Remarkably few seeds for this variety. The Duncan is the grandaddy of all grapefruits being the first named variety from which all others were developed. Many expericed citrus people think the Duncan is still the best tasting of all grapefruit, but it's white flesh and (usually) many seeds now render it commercially unattractive. If you can find one picked fresh off the tree along about March it is worth your while.

Blush Grapefruit

Red or pink grapefruit are what is popular in the market these days. Pretty color and no seeds.

Variegated Pink Lemon
Not only attractive, but can make your own naturally pink lemonade!

Australian Finger Lime

This was the only Australian citrus entry that I recall seeing. The finger limes are still rather rare in the United States, are not the most easily grown citrus and the flavor of some varieties leaves something to be desired, but they have a high curiousity value.

Yuzu Lemons

The Yuzu has developed a catchet among certain foodophiles. I haven't tried one myself yet as I haven't found a tree to bring home, but I'm told it's a different sort of lemon flavor than one gets from ordinary grocery store lemons.

Meyer Lemon

Some of you may have seen the Meyer in the grocery store where it's not uncommon in the southwest. It's a cross between a lemon and a sweet orange and is one of the most common container citrus grown. It has a degree of cold hardiness so I have one in my grove.

Key limes (left) and Persian/Tahiti limes (right)

Key limes are what got me into container citrus as I'm too far north for them to survive planted outside unprotected. They have a flavor that is different from the larger Persian limes that are more commonly found in the grocery in the eastern U.S.

Calamondin

This is another common container citrus variety. Calamondins are similar to kumquats in that the flesh is sour, but the peels are rather sweet. They have a nice color as well. Even a small tree can give a lot of fruit.

Trifoliate Orange

Trifoliate orange is a common roostock plant when maximum cold resistance is needed. The fruit itself is essentially inedible. Assuming you can find any pulp to eat between all the seeds it has a bad flavor and aroma that one can often smell across a room. This time though the room was so full of good smelling citrus I couldn't smell the trifoliate at all. It has been crossed into many other varieties in an attempt to achieve better cold resistance with varying degrees of success. One usually loses the cold resistance before the awful trifoliate flavor fades, but there has been a lot of work done with them and is still being done.

Rusk Citrange

There has been a lot of cross-breeding done with trifoliate orange over the years in an attempt to either develop a desirable edible fruit with good cold resistance or a rootstock plant with characteristics improved or minimized from the original trifoliate parent. The edible fruit experiments largely never worked well, but the rootstock work very much did so that they are now some of the most common rootstocks used in Florida and many other parts of the world. The Rusk Citrange pictured here falls somewhere in the middle in that as an edible fruit it's one of the better produced meaning it has only a trace of the disagreeable trifoliate aroma, good color, good juiciness, is essentially seedless, but the fruit tend to be small. The faint trifoliata aroma and small size were enough to keep it from becoming popular as an edible fruit and the lack of seeds makes it difficult to use as a rootstock. Supposedly it is a great one for tangerines, satsumas, and mandarins though.

Swingle Citrumelo

Another of the trifoliate crosses, this one developed by one of the founders of the modern citrus industry, Dr. Swingle who worked for the USDA in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in both Florida and California. Swingle citrumelo is now the most common rootstock used in Florida. The fruit are essentially inedible though.

Troyer Citrange

A trifoliate and sweet orange cross. Troyer makes a nice sized fruit with good color, juiciness, not too many seeds, but it's trifoliate parentage comes through so is not popular as other than a rootstock except for where a citrus is wanted in areas otherise too cold for the more palatable varieties. Juiced, diluted, and sweetened it can make an acceptable drink.


For you citrus growers in the southeast come on down to the 2009 expo and enter YOUR fruit! See you there!

.....Alan.

2008 Southeastern Citrus Exposition - Part One

2008 was much too full to get it all into one post so I've decided to do a couple more looking back over the year.

In early November I drove up to the University of Georgia Coastal Plains Experiment Station in Tifton to attend the Southeastern Citrus Exposition. It's an annual event held in various states and attended by citrus enthusiasts from all over the country. This time it was close enough that I could day trip the thing so off I went.

I left the house at five a.m. driving through on and off rain all the way up and one truly torrential downpour between Gainesville and Alachua to arrive at the confence center at 8:00 a.m. when the registration opened. When I got there the plant sale in the parking lot had already started.


Naturally being a citrus exposition there was a lot of it on offer but there were also many other plants as well such cycads, palms, deciduous trees and a nice selection of camellias.

I got close to them just long enough to snap that shot then kept my distance before I lost all reason and started buying as I really like camellias.

After nearly spending myself broke I finally made my way inside to register and settle in for a long day of all things citrus.

There were some good speakers. Monte Nesbit from the Auburn University, Gulf Coast Research Station in Fairhope, AL. spoke about their continuing efforts to bring back the commercial satsuma industry in southern Alabama and the rest of the upper Gulf Coast. Before commercial citrus became as big as it is today in penninsular Florida there used to be quite a few satsuma groves across the upper Gulf Coast. They're more cold hardy than most sweet oranges and need cooler fall temperatures to develop their best flavor.

Dr. Wayne Dixon with the USDA spoke about the citrus greening disease problem that has broken out in Florida, Brazil and now possibly California. This is a potentially devastating disease that first renders the fruit inedible then ultimately kills the tree. If we cannot come up with a successful management plan it has the potential to eliminate citrus as a commercial crop in Florida. Unfortunately the disease is spread by a small insect called the Asian Citrus Psyllid. It looks like a small moth and has proven to be easily transported by both man and weather so that now it has been found in nearly every Florida county, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, and Southern California (by way of Mexico they think). Complicating matters further is that the disease can remain latent up to four years before the first visible symptoms in the tree occurs which in practical effect means that if the psyillid has been found in a given area it's very likely the disease is there by now as well, but not yet visible.

There doesn't seem to be any way to stop the spread of the insect and eradication of the disease is impossible so management is the only alternative. The only upside of all of this is that there is now a twenty million dollar research effort underway here in Florida to come up with that management plan. There are experiments using salicylate compounds to treat the disease, but they're still too preliminary to know if they're going to amount to anything. And there are some indications that some types of guava may deter psyllids from trees they are interplanted with, but those experiments are still in early days as well. I'm personally going with the plan to keep on keeping on with what I'm doing until they come up with some sort of management or defense or until the disease kills all of my trees and I have to move on to other types of fruit. The situation may look bad, but we're not dead yet.

After Dr. Dixon we heard from Jerry Selph, retired from the Helena Chemical Company down to Indian River county in Central Florida on identifying and managing common citrus pests and diseases. Some very good photos and management advice. For a chemical company man he was not really big on the use of pesticides, recommending using them only to the extent that was necessary to bring an out of control problem back to where naturally occuring predators could deal with them. Over spraying was he said one of the best ways of turning a difficult management problem into an impossible one when the naturally occurring predatory insects had been killed off.

The last speaker was Dr. Jack Hearn, Retired USDA Citrus Scientist. For anyone interested in ag history he was one of the most interesting speakers of the morning and I wish there had been more time to hear him talk.

When the speakers were finished it was time for the fruit contest awards and the raffle drawing. This is my one halfway-decent photo from inside the auditorium as the awards were being given.

That citrus fruit shirt he's wearing really stands out doesn't it? The plants on the stage are for the raffle and the bit of the palm you can see him standing in front of was the first item drawn won by yours truly - a European Fan Palm. It was somewhat like carrying a porcupine getting it into and out of the truck. I still haven't decided where I'm going to plant the thing, but I'm sure something will come to me presently. The bad thing about it is that it's gotten me interested in palms now as if I needed yet another type of plant interest...

Once the awards and the raffle were over it was time for lunch which gave me a chance to pick Monte Nesbitt's brain more about his work with satsumas in Alabama and the various cold resistance strategies they've employed. I have a terrible memory for names so I can't recall everyone that I spoke with that day, but there were a lot of them! There was an amazing amount of knowledge walking around the place.

Lunch finished it was time for the walking tours. The first was with Dr. Wayne Hanna. He's the turf and forage grass specialist at Tifton, but he's taken an interest in cold hardy citrus and is trying to develop seedless varieties that can be grown in South Georgia. Here's a photo of us all out in the field near to the conference center where he's telling us about his experiments with Changsha tangerine and Ichang lemon. The conference center is the large building in the far background.


Behind him are his trees. The Changsha row on the left, the Ichang on the right.

He says the lemons have only just begun to bear so I was only able to find one fruit in a position that I could get a photo.


It's too soon to say if they are going to pan out, but it looks promising so far.

The Changsha he is further along with. As you can see the trees are loaded with fruit.


The lighting is a bit weird because the sky was starting to lighten a bit and I wasn't able to improve it more than that in the editing.

Here's a close up of the fruit on the branches:

They had nice color and most of them had good external qualities.

But what he's working on is seedlessness so it's the inside that tells the story. Here are several of the fruit that he cut for us.


As you can see most of them have a fair amount of seeds, but you'll note the one fruit in the lower left is seedless. Here's a close up for a better view.


He's still working on identifying the specific branches of specific trees in the row that are producing the seedless fruit and whether they'll continue to do it year after year, but it looks promising so far.

Of course no seeds is only part of the story. The fruit has to taste good as well and Dr. Hanna graciously allowed me to sample some of the seedless one that he cut when the presentation was over. It was surprisingly good. A decent Page or Ponkan would still be better in my opinion, but had I paid money for a sack of those Changshas at a fruit stand I'd have been pleased with what I got. If he's providing any cold protection for those trees I must have missed it. I can say they are all out in the open just several hundred yards from the conference center. If ever he is able to develop one that he's satisfied to release I'll be in the line to get one.

The second walking tour was Dr. Ruter's ornamentals work at the plots on the other side of the Interstate. The only photos I took of that area were the oil camellias he's working with. The species name is Camillia oleifera and they look much like any other camellia in the appearance of the plant itself. The flowers are mostly single though he had some nice doubles as well. What makes them of particular interest are the rather large seeds they produce. The pod with the seeds inside is about the size of a ping-pong ball and they have a high extractable oil content. Given that the plant is a long lasting perennial there is potential for development of an edible oil source similar to olive oil in chemical composition and with a higher smoke point. He's still fairly early into his project but I think it shows some promise.

The 2009 Exposition is scheduled to be held November 21st in Charleston, South Carolina at Magnolia Plantation. I don't have any further information yet, but when it becomes available it should be posted on the Southeastern Palm Society website who sponsor the exposition every year. I'll try to remember to post it here as well.

In the next post will be the photos from the fruit judging competition. If you have any interest in citrus you want to see them!

.....Alan.