Fruit Trees

• I want a lemon tree -- need advice
• Where to buy an avocado tree
• Moving an Olive Tree
• What kind of fruit tree for Berkeley Hills?
• Squirrels (we think) eating our fruit
• Green figs, not purple

I want a lemon tree -- need advice

June 2010

I want to plant a lemon tree. That's all I know. We have a sunny spot. I want a tree, but a guarantee that it won't get too big (2nd story is too big). No invasive roots (there's sidewalks not too far away).

Any advice about lemon trees? Which type is easy and fruitful? Are meyer lemons flavorless when home-grown? Should I get a miniature (my inclination is for a regular-sized one, but do some varieties grow too big)?

One of the possible locations has water pipes buried below. If necessary, there's a second spot without that problem.

I am so jealous of everyone with messages about too many lemons! Oooh, and where to buy? Can I plant it now, or is there an optimal time of year? Any special care tips? thank you, BPN community anne

You can get a lemon on dwarf stock. It will grow to a maximum of 15' tall, usually much smaller. Lemons can also be pruned to keep the tree smaller and fruit within reach. Meyer lemons are my favorite, fragrant and juicy. Lemon trees like heat, a good hot full sun spot is best. Lemons trees can be damaged in winter freezes, so a spot near your home can work well because the ambiant heat from your home will keep it a degree or two warmer than if it were further out. Roots on dwarf lemon trees are not invasive, I've seen them planted very close to paving, although its not ideal. Dwarf lemons can also grow in a large pot and can look attractive on a patio grouped with smaller flower filled pots. Sue

We have a Meyer lemon tree that was already there when we bought the house. I love it! It has very fragrant flowers and lots of fruit almost year round. I keep it smallish (about 5-6ft) by occasional pruning. It is up against the house and close to the french drain which is probably not ideal but the drain still works! I water it a couple of times a week in the summer and feed with a citrus fertilizer in the spring. Many nurseries carry Meyer lemons - Berkeley Hort is my favorite. Spring or fall are the best times for planting. Laura

Where to buy an avocado tree

Dec 2009

I'd like to plant an avocado tree and have heard there are quick-fruiting (two years) trees. Does anyone know a good place to buy avocado trees, either online or at a store locally? I like Trees of Antiquity (online) for other fruits but they don't have avocado. tree fan

Spiral Gardens on Sacramento at Oregon in Berkeley sells avocado trees. They often sell things close to their cost since it is also a community food project site. Melanie

I've had good luck with trees from Berkeley Horticulture, and ESPECIALLY good experience (and better prices) from Adachi in El Sobrante. Marilyn

I was just at the Berkeley Horticultural Nursery near Monterey Market, (Hopkins St.) in N. Berkeley, and they had some avocado trees. S. Carter

Try Yabusaki's Dwight Way Nursery on Dwight between 9th and 10th in Berkeley. They've got lots of fruit trees and seem to know just about everything about them. They're also very friendly and it's a family-owned business. C

Moving an Olive Tree

Dec 2009

We planted an Olive tree in our backyard 2 years ago but now think it would look better in a different location. Does anyone know if it's easy to move an olive tree or how to do it? I've looked at various websites but they all refer to old (100 yrs.,etc.) Olive trees and the need to hire a professional. The tree originally cost us less than $100 but we would hate to kill it by moving it since it is one of the few trees we have. Any advice would be appreciated. Lori

Moving an Olive that's only been in the ground 2 years should not be difficult.

Look to see if it is dormant. No flowering, fruiting or new growth should be occuring.

Measure the caliper (diameter) of the trunk at the ground. For every one inch caliper, dig a ball one foot in diameter. You can make this a little larger if you like.

Replant immediately in new location, making sure to set the top of the root ball slightly high relative to the existing ground. Your hole should be at least 6 inches in radius larger than the ball. Ray

What kind of fruit tree for Berkeley Hills?

Feb 2009

Looking for recommendations for fruit trees. We know we need to get dwarf varieties. We live in the Berkeley Hills and have a Meyer Lemon that does well. I'd love to have a cherry tree. Can anyone recommend one suitable to my area? Can anyone recommend any others? Also, where is the best place to buy? Thank you in advance.

Just because you're space limited, you don't need to get dwarf trees, just get standard trees and prune them to the size you want. This is Berkeley Hort's philosophy, and it seems a good one (and you ought to check them out, as they run free classes, e.g., on pruning fruit trees)... when trees are bred to be dwarfs, they're selected for size, not taste, etc. Trees that seem to do well around here would include figs and apricots... peach leaf curl dissuaded us from nectarines. If you want a deciduous tree, you might try persimmon (or fig), though the squirrels do a number on ours almost every year... when we can wrest a crop out of their nasty little paws, they're quite tasty. But do talk to Berkeley Hort re dwarf vs. standard varieties. Albany Gardener

There are lots of wonderful local nurseries, but I think the best one for help choosing edible plants and trees that will thrive and produce in your location is Spiral Gardens at 2830 Sacramento in Berkeley. They have good inventory, too. I also got good ideas on the Bay Friendly Garden Tour last April. Heidi

We live near the campus in Berkeley and we adore our Santa Rosa plum. I think it might be a semi-dwarf, which is a great size for a patio area. Just don't go away at the end of June, beginning of July or you'll miss the plums! anon

Squirrels (we think) eating our fruit

May 2007

Help! We recently spent several hundred dollars on fruit trees and we've found some broken branches and fruit scattered near the base of the young trees. Our guess is squirrels, could it be birds? In any case, does anybody know any ecofriendly way to save our trees/fruit from these pesky creatures? Love my home-grown fruit

It could be rats too. In my case, a few years back a few rats (saw them and trapped them) targeted my fruit trees. In addition to whatever you decide to do about getting rid of the annoying creature, you might consider stripping the trees of ALL fruit ASAP, as that will remove the attractive food source. In my case, the rats not only ate the fruit, but painstakingly stripped a lot of tender bark off the tree's branches, severely stressing it. I watered and fertilized it (something I had never done) for a while afterward to support its recovery. It recovered fine and is/was a lovely tree. Jennifer

It could be squirrels, and if you've seen them at work during the day then it probably is- but you would be seeing them busy scurrying around.

If you're not seeing a lot of squirrel activity, then I hate to tell you this, but it's probably roof rats (who don't just live in roofs and attics)- they love fruit, will even eat lemons (the peel), and are very common. They are nocturnal so you don't see them at work.

For squirrels, there are a few things to try to do to outwit them. You can put fake plastic hawks, owls, and snakes in your fruit trees- these are all natural squirrel predators and may fool some of the squirrels some of the time. You can also try hanging aluminum pie tins in your trees, but you have to hang a lot in order to have any chance of spooking them.

And/or, you can fasten a 12' wide band of sheet metal around the trunks about 6' from the ground, and/or cage the trees in chicken wire.

One thing that will help slow the squirrels down a bit is to keep the canopies of your trees far enough apart and far enough from roofs that the squirrels can't leap through the air easily from tree to tree.

But squirrels are very clever and hard to defeat, so, in lieu of buying a rifle, I've relaxed and have adopted the approach of ''sharing''- they can have some as long as they leave me plenty, and that generally works out okay.

However, when I finally realized that it was rats, not squirrels, who were seriously decimating my fruity back garden, my desire to share with nature's creatures flew out the window and I bought a couple of rat traps and a big jar of peanut butter.

It turns out that rats are clever too, and 3 out of 4 times they get the bait without the trap getting them, but the fourth time the trap gets them. It's yucky, but I'm not going to pay an exterminator to do what I can do myself, and I won't use rat poison- the rats live inside my shear-walling and that's where they'd crawl off to to die their gruesome poisoned death and let's not even talk about that smell.

Raccoons and possoms and skunks also visit my garden- the raccoons come mostly for persimmon season, the possoms liked my grape vine (but since I took it out I haven't seen any), and skunks will eat most anything. All of these guys are also nocturnal, so squirrels may be taking the rap for their feasting. Cece

Green figs, not purple

Sept 2006

Does anyone know where I can buy a green fig tree? (We don't like the purple ones as much.) Thanks! Figless-on-CurtisSt

We bought a green fig (Conadria) at Berkeley Hort a while back and it's been great. It was just a bare stick (!) but it's totally leafed out and is going crazy with delicious figs. The nice thing about green figs is apparently the birds don't go after them as much (they think green means un-ripe) Fig Happy