|
FRUIT TREES AND OTHER EDIBLES FOR SANTA BARBARA (including guild/companion plants to plant in the wells underneath them) by Linda Buzzell-Saltzman 7/15/08 with advice from the members of the Santa Barbara Organic Garden Club, the Santa Barbara Permaculture Guild and the Ventura-Santa Barbara chapter of California Rare Fruit Growers. Special thanks to Tricia Green, Norm Beard, Larry Santoyo and Loren Luyendyk. Please note: This is an ongoing work in progress. If you’d like to make additions or corrections to this list, please e-mail Linda at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
The following are fruit tree varieties recommended for our area. Our area typically gets around 400 hours of winter chill at most, so we do best with low-chill fruit trees, although some varieties that need a little more also survive here as well. Please check the Bay Laurel Nursery online catalog for a good listing of low-chill fruit trees and www.davewilson.com for descriptions. Also don’t forget our local standby, the Sunset Western Garden book.
Bare root trees are usually available in January. You can order from Bay Laurel or you can get bareroot and other trees from local Beard Tropical Nursery, 200 Ellwood Ridge Road, Goleta, CA (the largest fruit tree nursery in SB County). Some fruit trees and rare plants are also available from Loren Luyendyk at Santa Barbara Organics (at Orella Ranch near El Capitan beach in Gaviota) (805) 452-8249 www.sborganics.com Also check out Trees of Antiquity in Paso Robles at www.treesofantiquity.com They offers CCOF-certified organic and heirloom apple and other trees. They’re at 20 Wellsona Road, Paso Robles, CA 93446 805) 467-9909 Note: if you order trees on dwarf or semi-dwarf rootstock, they will remain smaller (great for smaller gardens), usually give fruit at a younger age and be easier to harvest without ladders. Those that have been recommended by one of more of our members are given a * APPLE Adina Anna* Beverly Hills* Dorsett Golden* (100 hours chill needed) Einshemer (100 hours chill needed) Fuji* (600 hours chill needed) Gala* (500-600 hours chill needed) Golden Delicious Gordon (400 hours) Granny Smith (600 hours, needs long summer, high heat) Gravenstein (red or green) (700 hours) Mollie’s Delicious (400 – 500 chill hours needed. Pollenizer needed: Fuji, Granny Smith, Beverly Hills) Pettingill* (100 hours. Good keeper) A garden member says: “I like because it ripens in the fall when I'm ready for an apple; red, sweet-tart; haven't tried to cook w/ it or keep it for too long.” We think it’s the best-tasting low-chill apple. Pink Lady (400-500 hours) Red Fuji Reverend Morgan (400-500 hours) White Winter Pearmain* (400 hours, dates from 1200 A.D. Sept-Oct, good keeper.) Winter Banana (less then 400 hours, dates from 1890 in Indiana. Mid-late Sept. Partly self-fruitful, biggest crops if cross-pollinated) Yellow Bellflower. (400 hrs, dates from mid-1700s in New Jersey. Mid-Sept. Needs pollinizer) Companion plants: alliums, chives, leeks, penstemon and nasturtium (prevent sawfly and woolly aphis), stinging nettles (and dried nettles help with apple storage) APRICOTS Blenheim* (Royal) (500 hours, dates from 1830. Late June. Self pollinizer) One of our garden club members says: “ripens June; wonderful for eating, jam, baking (Are these really the same variety as many sources state? I have one tree labeled Royal and another labeled Blenheim (Royal) and the fruits are different in size/color, but both delicious).” Early Golden (450 hours, self-fruitful) Flora Gold (500 hours) Gold Kist* (300 hours, May-June) Katy* (400 hours, May-June) Newcastle Perfection (Goldbeck) Royalty Companion plants: alliums, garlic. No potatoes, tomatoes, oats APRIUM (apricot-plum cross) Flavor Delight* (600 hours) AVOCADO Some good varieties for our area: Bacon Fuerta Haas (somewhat temperamental, needs excellent drainage, but worth it if it succeeds) Reed BANANAS Ensete ventricosum "maurelii"- edible flower banana tree Musa (species) CHERIMOYA CHERRIES English Morelo* sour cherry. (300-400 hrs). Cooking cherry. Lapins* (800 hours, but grows here) Minnie Royal* (400-500 hrs. Mutual pollinizer with Royal Lee) Royal Lee* (400-500 hrs. Mutual pollinizer with Minnie Lee) Stella (700 hrs. Self-fruitful. Late harvest) Companion plants: grass, including clover and alfalfa. No potatoes or wheat CHERRY-PLUM Delight (400 hrs. Needs Sprite as pollenizer) Sprite (400 hrs. Needs Delight as pollenizer) CITRUS Our experience is that citrus aren’t as easy to grow here as one would hope. They need a lot of water, regular fertilizing, some coddling. When you plant them from the nursery, they’re often pumped up and can go backwards for years until they settle in. But of course many people grow them successfully, with a little patience. GRAPEFRUIT – Oro Blanco is the recommended variety for our area LEMON – the easiest, in our experience. If you can only have one lemon, plant Meyer lemon. Good choice for small gardens. Eureka lemon is a gangly tree, but good to have if space permits when you have no Meyers to harvest. LIME – also relatively easy. Mexican lime: small fruit; a good choice for small gardens; fairly ornamental, too. ORANGE – Valencia does well in our coastal area, Washington navel can do alright too, but prefers more heat. Blood oranges that can do well here include: Moro, Tarocco. Not recommended: ‘Midknight Valencia,’ inferior to ‘Valencia.’ TANGELO TANGERINE CRABAPPLE Dolgo (needs 500 hours chill, disease resistant) FEIJOA (Pineapple Guava). Sweet, edible petals in spring, green egg-shaped fruit in October. Makes excellent fruiting hedge. FIGS (most figs grow well in mild-winter areas like ours. Below are some our members and advisors grow) Black Jack Black Mission Brown Turkey Celestial Conadria Flanders Improved Brown Turkey Kadota Panache Peters Honey Violette de Bordeaux White Genoa GUAVA Strawberry Guava Lemon Guava MACADAMIA MANGO MULBERRIES Black Beauty, very prolific, sweet, semi-drawf to 15’ Pakistani Fruiting Mulberry* Persian Fruiting Mulberry* - Morus nigra Teas Weeping* White Fruiting Mulberry* – Morus alba ‘White’ NECTARINES Arctic Star (mid-June, no tartness, white) Desert Dawn* (250 hrs, mid-late May) Desert Delight (100-200 hrs, mid-June) Goldmine (400 hrs, August) Panamint* (250 hrs, late July, early August) A garden member says: “red skin over yellow flesh; produces young and heavily; needs dormant spray and thinning for best results” Rose Silver Lode (400 hrs, late June. Introduced in 1951) Snow Queen* (250-300 hrs, late June, white) Southern Belle Sunred NECTAPLUM Spice Zee OLIVES A garden member comments: “regarding fruiting olives - an organic spray is now available for the med olive fly, but must be applied weekly from fruit set to harvest, I have been told by a grower at the Farmer's Mkt. I tried the traps for years--they don't work; and the spray was quite costly when I checked a year ago. Didn't make sense for my 3 trees/small crop.” PEACHES August Pride (300 hrs) Babcock (250-300, mid-July) White-fleshed fruit. One garden member likes the fruit, another finds it mealy and insipid. Bonanza Miniature Peach (250 hrs, mid-late June) Bonita (400 hrs, late July) Desert Gold (250 hrs, May) Donut (400-500 hrs, late June, early July. White, doughnut shaped) Earligrand (300 hrs, May. Does well in Arizona, Texas Gulf Coast) Earlitreat (400 hrs, early May) Early Amber (300-350 hrs, mid-June) Edwards Ambrosia Only low-chill peach that’s resistant to peach curl. From Bay Laurel Nursery in Atascadero Eva’s Pride (100-200 hrs, June) Flordaking (450 hrs, mid-May) Flordaprince (150, early May) Maypride (200 hrs, May) Midpride (250 hrs, mid-season, best yellow freestone for southern Calif.) Red Baron (Flowering/fruiting. 300 hrs, mid-July. Showy double-red blossoms) Santa Barbara* (300 hrs, mid-season) Saturn (Flowering/fruiting. 300 hrs, mid-July. Spectacular, large, double, dark-pink blossoms) Stark Saturn (Donut)* Scarlet Robe (400 hrs, late July. Does well in Houston, TX) Strawberry Free (400-500 hrs, mid-July, white) Southern Rose (but only “fair” flavor) Sweet Bagel* Tropic Snow (Flowering/fruiting. 200 hrs, mid-June. Showy blossoms) Ventura Companion plants: don’t plant near almonds, they may hybridize and create bitter almonds. PEAR, ASIAN Shinseiki (350-450 hours. Self-fruitful. Easy to grow. Late July, early Aug) Tsu Li (pollinizer for Ya Li. Sept.) Ya Li (needs Tsu Li as pollinizer. Sept.) PEAR, EUROPEAN Fan Stil Flordahome (400 hrs, July-Aug, pollinate with Hood, Pineapple) Hood* (100-200 hrs, early, pollinate with Flordahome, Pineapple) Kieffer* (300 hrs, med-late season, cooking pear, great disease resistance) Monterrey Moonglow (700 hrs, use fresh or for canning) Orient (350 hrs, used mostly for canning, introduced 1945 in Chico, CA. Interfruitful with Keiffer, fireblight resistant) Pineapple (Cooking pear. Needs pollinator – Hood, Flordahome) Zones 8-10) PERSIMMONS All are low-chill. SOFT-RIPE (are astringent til fully ripe and soft) Chocolate Hachiya HARD-RIPE (non-astringent, use like apples in salad etc.) Coffeecake Fuyu-Jiro PLUMS, EUROPEAN Green Gage (500 hrs, late summer, relatively small tree) One garden club member grows it successfully in Carpinteria, another says the tree needs more chill than we can provide here. (Self pollinizers unless mentioned) Beauty* (250 hrs, June) One of our garden club members says “ripens June, sweet-tart, very juicy, good for eating and jam; highly ornamental tree (I've grown this in 3 different gardens and they've all been ‘beauties’)” Burbank (400 hrs, imported from Japan by Luther Burbank, pollinated by Santa Rosa) Burgundy* (400 hrs, mid-July to Aug, narrow, upright habit) Catalina (400 hrs, late July) El Dorado (400 hrs, pollenizer required: Santa Rosa or Catalina) Elephant Heart* Friar (400 hrs, mid-late Aug) Golden Nectar* Howard Miracle (400 hrs, pollinizer required: another Japanese plum like Santa Rosa or Beauty, originated in Montebello, east of LA) Kelsey (400 hrs, pollinizer needed: Santa Rosa, Beauty or Wickson) Laroda (400 hrs, mid-July to mid-Aug) Mariposa (Improved Satsuma) (250 hrs, August. Pollenizer needed: Beauty, Nubiana, Santa Rosa) Methley (250 hrs, June) Santa Rosa (300 hrs, late June) Satsuma* (300 hrs, late July. Pollenizer: Santa Rosa or Beauty) Meaty plum,not too juicy, good for eating, cooking, freezing. The Pearl (Luther Burbank) (Reine Claude x Prune d’Agen – from the time of the Crusaders) Weeping Santa Rosa Semi-Dwarf* (400 hrs, can be espaliered) A very ornamental tree for a garden, with good fruit too. Companion plants: white closer (attracts beneficials), garlic PLUM, GREENGAGE (need dry, warm summer) Denniston’s Superb Mirabelle PLUMCOT (apricot-plum) Flavorella (250 hrs, late May, early June) PLUOT (plum-apricot) Dapple Dandy Pluot ® (400-500 hrs, August, pollinate with Santa Rosa or Burgundy plum) Flavor King (700 hrs) Flavorosa Pluot ® (400 hrs, end of May, pollinate with Japanese plum) POMEGRANATE (All are low-chill. The question to ask with pomegranates is if they need summer heat or can grow in coastal areas) Ambrosia* Any soil. Inland or coastal climate. Large pale pink fruits. Angel Red. Late-Aug, early Sept -1 month earlier than Wonderful. Eversweet* (coast or inland, almost seedless, non-staining juice) Garnet Sash (naturally slightly dwarf, late Sept - Oct) Granada* (coast or inland) Kashmir Blend Pink Satin* Red Silk* Sharp Velvet Sweet (cool summer climate OK, late summer) Wonderful* (best in hot inland climate) QUINCE (All are low-chill. Easy in our climate, highly ornamental small flowering trees, fruit aromatic, best cooked with other fruits) Orange* Pineapple* Smyrna* SAPOTE (casimiroa edulis) Lemon Gold McDill Pike Suebelle NUT TREES ALMOND Prefers long, hot, dry summers. ‘Garden Prince’ is a dwarf variety. A garden club member says: “I have a heavy crop this year for the first time (planted 6 years ago )and am looking forward to a true test of the fruit. Highly ornamental, blooms early in spring, perfect for small gardens.” MACADAMIA OAK Our native Coast Live Oak yields bushels of nuts full of excellent protein, but they have to be processed. WALNUT There are walnuts that will grow here, but be aware that apparently all walnuts exude a substance that kills many understory plants. We need to find out what will grow in a walnut guild. ADDITIONAL EDIBLES TREES Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis). A garden member comments: “Laurus nobilis - European Bay Laurel. It does so well here in the landscape or in a container, and it's so wonderful to have your own bay leaves for cooking and as an insect deterrent. Everyone should have one!” Carob. Grows fast, yields chocolate substitute. Leucaena. Nitrogen-fixing tree, yields seeds which can be used to make flour. BERRIES BLUEBERRY (to grow well here, they need acid soil, so a container is often the best solution. One gardener we know waters hers with a very dilute solution of white vinegar, plus puts pine needles, coffee grounds around the plant) Sharpblue CANE BERRIES Blackberry We learned the hard way that you don’t want to put in thorny cane blackberries that sucker underground – they pop up all over the yard and are hard to eradicate. We’re now limiting ourselves to thornless varieties and our current favorite is ‘Navajo’ thornless. Raspberry ELDERBERRY. There is a Calif. Native type that yields flowers, berries. Birds love this plant, so we let them enjoy it. LEMONADE BERRY (native). Rhus integrifolia. Can control erosion. VINES Grapes Canadice Interlaken Seedless Pinot Noir Kiwi vines Unless you have a self-fruitful variety, you will need a male pollenizer for female vines. Passion fruit (passiflora edulis). A garden member says “mine is simply rampant, productive and trouble free; gets little to no supplemental water.” The juice can be used to make a spectacular salad dressing (served at Los Arroyos on Coast Village Road in their tropical salad). MISCELLANEOUS CANNA EDULIS. Edible canna. Smaller flowers than the common ornamental. Roots can be eaten like potatoes. PEPINO MELON ROSES The old antique roses are tough and edible perennial shrubs. In fact, many fruit trees are also in the rosaceae family. The yield? Beauty, insect attraction, edible petals (in salads) and hips for tea or jam. Easy, recommended cultivars: ‘Cecile Brunner’ (bush or climber), ‘Mutabilis’ (antique China rose that blooms 12 months a year), ‘Old Blush’ (antique China), ‘Grandmother’s Hat’ (rescued old rose), ‘Madame Lombard’, ‘Gilbert Nabonnand’, ‘Niles Cochet’ and many other old tea roses. If you’re interested in these, I’d be happy to give you a free consultation. Source: Vintage Gardens at www.vintagegardens.com YACON. Crunchy root like jicama YUCCA. We’ve read that yucca yields edible fruit and flower buds. Anyone have more info on this? |
Articles 
