Daleys Fruit Tree Blog

Improving your drainage

Drainage is one of the most important factors to consider when planting fruit trees. If you have heavy clay based soil it is important to plant your fruit trees into a raised mound which improves the drainage and gets your trees off to a good start.
Dig the hole into the ground as normal and then create a mound, with compost and the top soil from the hole. In these pictures I am planting a coconut, as I have heavy soils and coconuts grow along our sandy coastline I added a wheelbarrow of sand to create my mound.

To reduce competition from weeds, I recycle my old newspapers 8 sheets thick, which keeps the weeds at bay - for a little while at least

and then I cover this with a healthy layer or organic mulch, lucerne hay is perfect to use as mulch as it is rich in notrogen and feeds the trees as it composts.

London Plane Trees

I occasionally receive calls from customers who have followed the directions of their GPS to Daley's Nursery via the bridge at the end of Clark's Lane. The main problem with these street directions is that this particular bridge washed away back in the flood of 1989. So those who leave the gravel road on Clark's lane and persist down the goat track end up here where the remnants of the old bridge can still be seen. If you arrive late in the day it is worth sitting quietly for a little while as you may be lucky enough to spot a platypus in the waterhole and if you fancy a dip the nursery is just across the other side of the Richmond River, which on a hot day such as today is cool and inviting.

The bridge was built in 1900, this picture shows the same view from Clark's Lane looking back towards Daley's Lane, with Saville's Homestead in the background. This bridge was the only way to cross the Richmond River near Kyogle until 1912 - without getting wet.

Many years ago around the time of the Second World War or soon after someone in Kyogle planted an avenue of London Plane trees on either side of the river, these trees still stand today. There are four trees on the Daleys side of the river which have matured into impressive specimen trees while the six trees on the harder, dryer side of the river along Clark's Lane are about half the size, in fact it is hard to believe they are the same age.

This is the avenue from Daleys Lane leading down to the river, the nursery is in the background. London Plane are famous for their attractive bark pattern, their old bark flakes off to reveal fresh pale coloured bark underneath creating beautiful splodgy patterns in green, white and pale brown. The trees are striking when they are deciduous as the attractive bark becomes more pronounced.

They are also fabulous habitat trees, longicorn beetles burrow into the wood creating small holes that over time form larger hollows that are vital for many of our native birds, possums and other hollow dwellers. I discovered this small skink using one of the large hollows yesterday as I peered in to see who was in residence.

London Planes are common street plantings as they are very tolerant of atmospheric pollution and compaction of the soil around their roots. They are also useful as specimen trees in parks and large gardens where they can be given plenty of space to spread and mature to full size, they can grow 20-35m tall and have a spreading shady canopy. They do however have irritating hairs on the foliage which may cause allergies and asthma in some people, but if given plenty of room they are a stunning addition to the landscape.

Coffee Tree Has Beans Ready to Pick

Growing Dwarf Coffee Trees is very easy throughout Australia. I have used some Bonsai Bags so you can move them around wherever you like to get shade or out of the wind.

You can actually just pick the red beans off and then suck out the juices while chewing on the seed and then spit out the pulp. It is mildly sweet surprisingly. As the coffee bean legend goes the goat farmer apparently found he could stay awake by doing this.

I have never seen it done but for all you Coffee shop owners out there who have an outside place for your customers or even inside area with a bit off sun. Why don't you add a few coffee plants?

Their flowers are a great strong sweet smell even at 4 meters away. Their beans are strikingly red and I think would be a great talking point. Their leaves unlike my one below which has been a bit neglected are a large deep green.

Coffee Beans Ready to Pick

The Coffee Tree in a Bonsai Bag 35L

And in unrelated ( non coffee ) news here is some flowers from the Dwarf Tropical Anna Apple Tree.

Fruit Fly Spring Australia

The start of Spring means that the temperature is starting to warm up, the days are getting longer and the fruit fly are gathering their troops.

So the start of Spring is a great time to develop a fruit fly control strategy. There is a whole range of organic methods through the Wild May Fruit Fly Control Systems but you need to get onto it early and stop them breeding up. The other method is exclusion netting where you place a special fruit fly net over your fruit before they get stung by fruit fly that have bread up and become rampant.

We have got a great 2 minute video for you which discusses this in more depth. So if you want to get juicy nectarines and peaches this season without nasty surprises we hope you enjoy this video.

http://www.daleysfruit.com.au/Exclusion-Bags.htm

Spring Flowers, Buds & Fruit Forming 2010

Blueberry Plant Blossoms Spring 2010

Black Sapote Tree or Chocolate Pudding Tree Fruit Forming 2010

Apple Buds Forming Spring 2010

Apple Tree Flowers Spring 2010

Macadamia Nut Flowers Spring 2010

Myrtaceae Biosecurity Restrictions

Customers in WA, SA and Victoria may notice that many plants that we were once able to ship to you without any problems are now generating the warning quarantine won't allow these plants into the state. The reason for these changes stem from the Myrtle Rust outbreak which has occurred in southern NSW, as a result all plants from the Myrtaceae family are no longer allowed to be shipped from NSW into WA, SA, QLD or Victoria. We do apologize for any inconvenience however we do take our responsibility to biosecurity seriously and therefore at this stage we will not be shipping these plants across the borders. Unfortunately the family is huge and includes many native plants such as Eucalyptus, Acmena, Syzygium, Austromyrtus, Eugenia, Leptospermum these families also include many of our fruit trees and bush food others we can no longer send include Feijoa, Myrciara and Psidium.
If anyone would like more information contact your local domestic quarantine service.
http://www.quarantinedomestic.gov.au/

Paypal Now Accepted.

We have had quite a few requests for people who prefer to use paypal and we have just added it as an option to our shopping cart.

So just before you press checkout you will have the option of Paypal... Enjoy :)

Bare Rooted Grapes

It is the middle of winter here in Kyogle and at this time of the year we are receiving our bare rooted plants from around the country. Many of these products are higher chill than our subtropical climate allows us to propagate and grow with ease and so it is that we have looked beyond our humid hills for a supplier of bare rooted grapes that we can offer to our customers as a great product at a great price.

Nina, one of our propagation experts is holding an example of the Menindee Seedless grapes so you can see what you will be buying. The bare rooted selections of grapes include the Menindee Seedless, Thompson Seedless and the Crimson Seedless, all of which are well suited to regions with cool winters and long hot dry summers requiring about 500-600 hours of winter chill, unfortunately they will not thrive in humid coastal climates.

Winter is the perfect time to plants grapes while they are deciduous, it is important to be prepared and have a trellis ready for the vine to climb once it shoots with a burst of vigorous growth in the spring.