Competiton - Dwarf Fruit Trees - $100 Prize

Use your digital camera to take a picture of a person with a Dwarf Fruit Tree that has fruit on it.

Everyone who enteres will get a $15 Gift Voucher from Daleys Nursery and there will be one Grand Prize winner who will get a $100 voucher.

ENTER COMPETITION OR SEE PICS SO FAR

Tips:

- Make sure the person and the fruit are the central focus

- Smile

- Be creative

Conditions:

- You can enter as many pictures as you want but will only receive one Gift Voucher unless of course you win the $100 grand prize.

- Vouchers can only be used in Australia (Excluding Tas and NT)

Wampees Guy Sam, Lychees, Lolly Tree, Coffee - GTS

Most cultures use masculin or femanin language to describe nature. And Wampee Trees and Lychee Trees are Men. I laughed when I read the description of our Guy Sam Wampee Teee.

"Wampees are a handsome foliage evergreen tree grown for Summer ripe fruit with grape like flesh"

So here are my 3 young men From Left to right: Wampee Tree Guy Sam - Lychee Tree Salathial - Lychee Tree Bosworth 3


Carla bought in some wampees for the staff to taste which she picked from 2 different wampee trees that she grew from seed. They both tasted totally different depending on from which tree they came from. One was very sour but the other was very sweet. That is why if you buy a grafted Wampee Tree like the Guy Sam you know that when the fruit finally does ripen it will have that characteristic sweet grape like flavour. But when you grow it from seed who knows how it could taste. It would depend on how it was pollinated perhaps. Sometimes the extra money for a grafted specimen from a nursery rather then a seedling from the markets or a big outlet chain which might be cheaper really does pay off with fruit trees. Unless of course you want to breed the next Guy Sam or Yeem Pay.

Also in the garden this Green Thumb Sunday are my Panama Berries which most days are giving me that abundantly sweet taste. By far the sweetest berry you will ever taste hence some people call it the lolly tree.
And of course my coffee plant is full of beans and come June in Australia I will be very keen to finally pick them after waiting so long. (About 9 months from flowering it will end up being)

Ants and Fruit Trees

So you want to grow organic fruit and your trees are maturing with new shoots and your hard work is paying off. However on your next visit you notice that someone else is working hard:

Someone who has no chief, officer or ruler but boy are they regimented.



When it comes to your scale on your citrus and other fruit trees Ants are quite happy to farm aphids and eat the sweet honeydew which the aphids secrete leaving a scale on your fruit trees and hampering new growth.

So let's assume that we are all responsible gardeners and don't want to spray our plants with poisons. What are our organic options?

One of our staff members Kath has taken some pictures of how she uses some grafting tape and Vaseline to stop not only ants but also vine weevil and earwigs.
Kath says on the art of Banding Citrus Trees: "the ant would reach it and then slip off the tree, then I put a big fat wadge of Vaseline around the tape to stop the little fellows climbing my tree. That has them stumped for a few days at least"