Avocado - Worlds Most Nutritious Fruit

Spring is a great time to get your teeth stuck into the many wonderful Tropical Fruit Trees that can be grown in Australia. Here is a picture of me taking this to new heights.

I visited tropical fruit world last weekend and got a brand new love for the World's Most Nutritious Fruit. The Avocado Tree. My tour guide told me this because he said "they contain almost all essential nutrients for us". Also he told me "They have more dietary fiber than any other fruit.". Being so smooth, creamy and delicious this was a surprise.

Lots more photos and fruity knowledge I learnt to come :)

Taste testing mulberries

I love mulberry season, the trees fruit prolifically and could well be my favourite fruit of all times. I gathered a selection from the orchard this morning and we tried them all out at morning tea time.

The pick of the day was the Angela, these are an unusual coloured fruit that I often describe as blonde/black, they are a pale purplish colour, sweet and are a good sized fruit.

Gayes Pink was also very popular, it may be only small but it has a delicious flavour and is very sweet. It was the sweetest of the fruits on the table this morning.

Of the black mulberries the Dwarf Black and the Hicks Fancy are very similar, both have a lively tang to them that makes them the ideal fruits for baking into pies or making mulberry jam with. The Dwarf Black is my favourite fruit as it is so prolific and I love the slightly sour flavour. The Beenleigh Black has beautiful large, luscious looking fruits but they did not win the tast testing competition.

Grafted Lychee Trees Fruit Quick

Paula from Worongary, QLD, AU  says of her Lychee Wai Chee Tree.

"This tree hardley ever gets fed or watered and just thrives."

From the picture though you will notice Paula has netted her lychee tree. When they are red and delicious no bird, possum, bat or human can resist them.

Please check out what a detailed job Paula has done on her my edibles page.

You can create your own My Edibles Page here:

Things to know about Lychee Trees

1. The lychee Trees that Daleys sell like

Lychee - Salathiel
Lychee - Wai Chee
Lychee - Bosworth 3
Lychee - Kiamana

They are grafted so you get fruit years earlier than a seedling. They are "true to type" so you know you are getting small seeds and lots of flesh and taste superb.

2. The first 2 years of your lychee tree are crucial if you get cold weather so make sure you heap up the mulch and perhaps cover it so that it will not die from a frost.

3. When the flowers appear don't let them get wet. If it looks like raining then get out your umbrellas or tarp and protect them at all costs :)

4. Lychees are best eaten in a hammock in the shade on a hot summers day and by yourself if supplies are limited.

Fig Black Genoa

The Fig Black Genoa Tree is very popular this Spring. They start fruiting very quickly from when you purchase them and when you get a big crop and figs are selling for $2.99 each you get that gloating feeling in the supermarket.

Also a fresh fig tastes heavenly.

Spring Tip: When picking the fruit make sure you wear a long sleeved shirt as rubbing your arms up against the big luscious leaves can cause irritation.

Blooming Beautiful

Spring has sprung and the heady scent of citrus blossoms is filling the air. The orchard is buzzing with bees who are out and about enjoying the spring blossom and clear blue sunny days, just like all the passionate gardeners amongst us. 

If your citrus trees are only small we would recommend that your remove any small fruits for the first two years, as heart breaking as this may seem it will give your tree the time it needs to establish into a strong healthy plant before you let it concentrate its precious energy on fruit production.

Citrus trees are highly productive trees and you can see from the number of flowers that your tree will produce more flowers and often set more fruit that it can hold to maturity. Citrus will naturally abort excess fruit but you may also choose to thin your fruits as this will give you less fruit but they will be larger in size.

Fertilise your tree once it has finished flowering and the tree has set small fruits. Use a balanced NPK fertiliser with trace elements. Don't make the mistake of using a high nitrogen fertiliser while your tree is flowering or you will get a mass of beautiful new leaf growth but no fruit.

Enjoy your spring blossoms and happy citrus growing. 

Creating Your Avocado Trees

Avocado Seed In our very Hot & Humid Polyhouse

Seperate the Seeds that were successful

Some Time Later in another Poly House

Grafting onto the above Seedling the Bacon Variety

Boxes of Fruit Trees being Mail Ordered to backyards around Australia

Spring means our Staff have been busy packing boxes of fruit trees. They will make their trip to backyards all around Australia.

From 3rd September 2013 ( The start of Spring ) 

The 3 most popular plants in these boxes were 1.Coffee Trees, 2. Blueberry Sharpblue Plants, 3. Finger Lime Trees.

Painting the Trunks of Trees with Copper, Lime and Paint

Peach Tree - Florida Prince

I always wondered why people paint the trunks of deciduous trees. They often use Copper, Lime, House Paint and water all equal parts.

The reason is that it stops sunburn and bacterial diseases like fungal rot. So a great "Pro-Tip" to get longevity from your fruit trees.