beginner fruit/veg garden

First fruits of two trees planted a while ago.

Orange
IMG_20190303_174127.jpg

Papaya or PawPaw

IMG_20190303_174147.jpg

About 7 fruits with lots of buds still to convert from flour to fruit. Need to cap the crown soon.
 
Marsie27 said:
Signates, so you don't do the soak in water which you change every day for a month routine? Supposedly to remove some of the bitterness. How many trees do you have? We have 3, but the South Easter hammers them in the blossom stage, not to mention the drought, so they are largely decorative at the moment, more's the pity.
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There's two ways I use to remove the bitterness. The first method is to soak it in plain water for a month and change the water daily. I did this the first time a few years ago. Took too much time having to change the water daily but you they should ready quicker.

The second method is to mix up a brine mixture. 1 part salt to 10 parts water. Leave it to soak for 4 to 6 months. Taste every few weeks to check if the bitterness is gone. When ready, replace the brine with a fresh brine mixture, chili, garlic clove, any other flavour. Leave for 1 more month and it should be ready.

I only have 1 olive tree. Its pretty much protected from the wind by other larger trees around it. Also no drought problem for me with my well.
 
signates said:
I only have 1 olive tree. Its pretty much protected from the wind by other larger trees around it. Also no drought problem for me with my well.
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I live in hope... I think we will just need to buy some in from the Boland.
 
ahmedy said:
Please can you explain the need to cap the crown? Would this help in the paw paw tree in staying smaller but still bare fruit?
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Correct. It forces horizontal growth, side trunks etc. That one of mine already has two small trunks coming up. You have to be careful though as the trees are hollow and you can get crown rot.

Mine stands about 2.5m tall at its highest.
 
ahmedy said:
Please can you explain the need to cap the crown? Would this help in the paw paw tree in staying smaller but still bare fruit?
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Otherwise they can grow higher than the gutters, and the fruits drop just before you reckon they are ripe enough to pick, and your perfect pawpaw goes splat. Personal experience.
 
Kosmik, so can you tell at this stage whether you have a male or a female tree? Or only when you see fruits? The fruit of the female is a lot sweeter, IMO.
 
Kosmik said:
Correct. It forces horizontal growth, side trunks etc. That one of mine already has two small trunks coming up. You have to be careful though as the trees are hollow and you can get crown rot.

Mine stands about 2.5m tall at its highest.
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So to cap the crown requires that I just cut the top off? Or is there more to it than that?
 
Marsie27 said:
Kosmik, so can you tell at this stage whether you have a male or a female tree? Or only when you see fruits? The fruit of the female is a lot sweeter, IMO.
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From the flowers. Female flowers are short and stubby, male trees have a central stalk with in the center of the flower.

Male

papaya-male-flowers-72.jpg


Female

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ahmedy said:
So to cap the crown requires that I just cut the top off? Or is there more to it than that?
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You can either cut the branches ( be careful of them acting as hollow tubes directing water into the trunk but my favourite is just take a small bucket put it over the top of the center stalk. You can cut as well but don't cut the main trunk itself, just the branches. The tree grows taller by growing branches first so by capping it, new branches are unable to grow and hence the horizontal growth.
 
Kosmik said:
From the flowers. Female flowers are short and stubby, male trees have a central stalk with in the center of the flower.

Male

papaya-male-flowers-72.jpg


Female

6820396897_ca3cc18b20_m.jpg




You can either cut the branches ( be careful of them acting as hollow tubes directing water into the trunk but my favourite is just take a small bucket put it over the top of the center stalk. You can cut as well but don't cut the main trunk itself, just the branches. The tree grows taller by growing branches first so by capping it, new branches are unable to grow and hence the horizontal growth.
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Thanks, appreciate it. Post a pic of yours when its done as reference for others as this was not something I could find on google
 
I harvested some curry leaf tree berries and planted some of the seeds. I tried to grow a plant from a cutting a while back but it didn't take.

My curry leaf tree is about 2m tall. 20190316_094236.jpeg20190316_094851.jpeg20190316_100212.jpeg20190316_101558.jpeg
 
Kosmik said:
Correct. It forces horizontal growth, side trunks etc. That one of mine already has two small trunks coming up. You have to be careful though as the trees are hollow and you can get crown rot.

Mine stands about 2.5m tall at its highest.
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We found a little tree. By now just over 50cm tall. At what stage do you start topping it?

Note: I don't do pawpaw, but know many who do. I don't know how the seed landed in our yard. But will leave it to grow.
 
Venomous said:
We found a little tree. By now just over 50cm tall. At what stage do you start topping it?

Note: I don't do pawpaw, but know many who do. I don't know how the seed landed in our yard. But will leave it to grow.
Click to expand...

Is up to you but I wouldn't start until first fruit or and you have side shoots, say about 2m normally.
 
No point posting a pic of my peach tree cos all you'll see is the frost cover :)
Last year I lost all (yes... every single one) of my blossoms cos of a mid-September frost. The tree had like 100 billion blossoms so it was such a disaster for me. Would have been my first fruit from the tree. So I'm not leaving anything to chance this year. Only gonna take off the frost cover in October. I dunno if that means my blossoms won't get pollinated, but I will cry for my mummy if I lose my blossoms again to a frost so I'm going to the extreme to protect it
 
Inevitability said:
No point posting a pic of my peach tree cos all you'll see is the frost cover :)
Last year I lost all (yes... every single one) of my blossoms cos of a mid-September frost. The tree had like 100 billion blossoms so it was such a disaster for me. Would have been my first fruit from the tree. So I'm not leaving anything to chance this year. Only gonna take off the frost cover in October. I dunno if that means my blossoms won't get pollinated, but I will cry for my mummy if I lose my blossoms again to a frost so I'm going to the extreme to protect it
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Hello. I'm glad that I stumbled upon this thread. I was itchy to start my own garden and now I finally have land to do it. My dad even gave me his old tractor and a bunch of rakes and shovels. I have managed to make a decent yard as well as grow some crops, tomatoes mostly. I'm thinking to try something new and my dad said I'll need tons of fertilizer for my needs. I want to buy a spreader from this list he suggested but I'm not sure which one to pick and what else I should need in the future. I have 3 acres by the way.
 
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