TIME TO PLANT FRUIT TREES

By Ella Tyler

My Roddy cousins lived in Menlo Park, California. My uncle Jim had an orange tree that he raised from a seed and was very proud of, but it produced very sour fruit. He was in the advertising business and was sure that, if he could convince his children that the oranges were store-bought, they would like them. He’d hide them with the commercial ones in the fruit bowl or would put them in a brown paper bag as though they had come from the store. He’d write a price on the side of the bag to add an authentic touch. (This was a while ago) Finally, my cousins colored each fruit bright orange with a crayon, printed “Sunkist” carefully on the side, and put them back in the bag. He gave up.

Sometimes you can plant a citrus seed and get a producing tree, but the easier way is to go to the Urban Harvest fruit tree sale on Saturday, January 17 from 9 am to 2 pm at Rice Stadium. There will be more than 6,000 trees that will produce edible fruit, in your lifetime, for sale. If you miss that sale, Master Gardener groups around the region are also having fruit tree sales this month.

The virtue of a specialty sale is that the varieties that are sold are adapted to our climate. Many kinds of fruit need a certain amount of cold weather (chill hours) and others are not cold hardy. Peach varieties that will produce in the Woodlands will not produce in Galveston, and citrus that is happy in Clear Lake may freeze in Tomball. Locally owned nurseries also stock with these issues in mind.

Also, these events are staffed with knowledgeable volunteers who can tell you what care a plant needs. Some need pollinators, others do not. Some are easy to grow, and others are divas. You will get instructions for an organic regimen, so your home-grown fruit isn’t full of pesticides.

The list of trees that will be sold at the Urban Harvest sale is surprising – and it all can be grown here. There will be citrus of all kinds, apples, pears, persimmons, peaches, plums, apricots, figs, pomegranates, grapes, muscadines, blueberries, blackberries, jujubes, pecans, avocados, star fruit, cherry of the Rio Grande, Barbados cherry, sugar apple, longan, Dragon Fruit, grumichama, olives, mulberries and guava., If you’ve never heard of some of these before, the Urban Harvest website has descriptions.

If you want to start a small orchard, you may want to attend Urban Harvest’s ‘Planting and Care of Fruit Trees’ class on Tuesday, January 13 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm at 2311 Canal. If you want to plant something more exotic, try ‘Tropical Fruits for Houston’ on Thursday, January 15, also at Urban Harvest. For more information about the classes, call (713) 880-5540.

My Uncle Roddy’s oranges aside, nothing tastes as wonderful as fruit that you grow yourself. If you don’t have the time, space, or inclination to grow your own, go by one of the local farmers markets. There is one at Rice Stadium on Tuesday afternoons. The Urban Harvest Farmers Market is every Saturday from 8 am to noon at 3100 Richmond (you can sell your surplus fruit there) and Central City Coop’s is Thursday afternoons at Discovery Green.