Organic Gardening Info from Peaceful Valley

A PVFS Customer Email – With Staff Response

Question:
Hi,

I’m thinking of ordering a couple of fig trees (Desert king / Osborne Prolific), persimmon (Fuyu) and grapes (Interlaken). Do you know long it will take for them to start fruiting?

Thanks

Answer:

Regarding the Fig and Persimmon trees, it’s possible that they will fruit the 1st year for the Fig and 2nd for the Persimmon. It is better for the trees if you do not allow them to fully fruit out the first couple years so the tree will use it’s resources to establish a healthy root system. If they put out very much fruit the first couple years pick most of it off.

The grapes will possibly fruit by the 2nd year, again you want the first couple years focused on the root system for longevity and higher, healthier yields later on. Plus all this has variables related to the health of your soil and placement of the trees and vines. Southern exposure with full sun will fruit out the grapes faster.

Hope this helps. Thank you for your interest.

I just received three Muscat of Alexandria bare-root grapes.  They are planted, watered, well mulched.  Do I have to prune them back?  Since it is January, they will have a great root system by spring.

Many Thanks
Barbara

Hi Barbara,

Our instructions also say to prune back to two or three buds, and I think the timing is good for pruning.  The benefit of pruning soon after planting is that it will encourage the roots to start growing.  Grapes are vigorous growers, so they really need their root systems stimulated in order to keep up with the vine growth.

Hope that helps and thank you for growing organically!
Amber

From our limited perspectives on time, it is easy to forget, that humans have not always been farmers and gardeners. As we plant our fall crops, just before this year’s harvest festival, let us remember our ancient prehistorical heritage. Let us take a momentary look at those first few awkward steps from reliance on the bounty of nature and the luck of the hunt, to nurturing food-bearing crops. For over 90% of human existence on this planet we survived by picking what grew without interference in the wild, and also by the meat of the animals we could hunt by our strength and wits.

The exact beginning of plant cultivation is difficult to determine. In part, this is due to the fact that writing and thus written history, occurs thousands of years after the prevalence of hunter-gather type social groups. Yet also, it requires an act of luck on the part of modern researchers to find the remnants of plant material needed for evidence, when these fragments are tens of thousands of years old and highly perishable. (more…)