Australia Day 2008 - Green Thumb Sunday

Australia Day 2008 is being celebrated so I thought I might share a few fruit trees from our Great South Land for this hot green thumb sunday.

Macadamia Nut Tree
Below is a picture of my Dwarf Macadamai Nut Tree in a pot
One of the best tasting nuts you will eat especially when roasted in honey or salt. Most people don't realise that it originates in Australia.

Australian Finger Lime
Comes in many different colours and I heard that it often fruits in Australia at times when your other citrus doesn't.

Midyim Berry

Our Staff Member Paul who has a passion for bushfoods describes this naturally occuring berry in the wild as his favourite. The flowers are quaint and pretty and the soft pulp is very sweet

Tree Ripened Fruit Is Superb

We recently asked each of our Staff about their favourite fruit trees and Greg gave what I thought was a very interesting answer by saying:

"a tree ripened Navelina Orange picked in June. The juicy and sweet flesh is superb."

Just recently a TV show exposed that fruit found in Australian supermarkets at certain times of the year would sit in a warehouses for 8 months before being sold.

You can watch the video here but the gist of it is that the chemical called ethylene can be measured to find the real age of fruit. The show concentrated on how the nutrition of fruit reduced with age but I think they missed what I think to be the most important point and probably what you know because you are reading a blog about fruit trees.

The point is this: There is a something becoming about picking and eating a piece of fruit that you have grown yourself.

Daleys in My Business Magazine Feb 2008

At Daley's we learnt very early on that growing fruit trees is a passion, a hobby and a lifestyle and our aim is to show this in as many parts of our nursery as we can. One way we have done this is through our monthly newsletters.

In 2006 when youtube was just starting up we decided to do our first video newsletter and ask our readers what they thought. We got some very mixed responses where some people loved it and others preferred the old format.

Since then we decided to go with mixed video and text which we have in many parts of our website now.

Minimum Quantities For Forestry Tubestock

We recently sent plants to Graham who gave us some great feedback on our forestry tubestock

Daleys service and plant quality was excellent, although i was little disappointed in not being able to buy tubestock in smaller than minimum quantities available. all the best for Christmas and the new year. regards Graham Banks, BOYNE ISLAND QLD AUSTRALIA (16th Dec 2007)

As our packing techniques are getting better we are able to handle these smaller fiddly quantities more efficiently. And we reduced it from a minimum tubestock amount of 7 down to 5 and today we have decreased it down to a minimum of 4. Our new boxes are also designed to accommodate these smaller quantities.

Fruit Trees in Pots - Green Thumb Sunday

A few pictures for Green Thumb Sunday from my backyard Pot Orchard.
My Glenn Mango Tree in pots are nearly ready. (2 years old) This is a dwarf lemon tree in a pot (1.5 years old) - it is keeping small but flowering and fruiting well

I am ready for some lemon grass tea (6 months old)

Washington Navel in some huge clay pots - (6 months old) They look fantastic with 3 oranges on them

The same two washington navel oranges in big clay pots

Green Thumb Sunday Blogroll

Kyogle Flood 5th January 2008 - Richmond River

The biggest flood in 54 years swept through Kyogle the second biggest on record. Most of our young plants are safe but some of our orchard went under water.

Video by Tacit Productions

Orchard Under Water

Flood Waters Creeping up to the Nursery

Lychee Trees, Diseases and Bats - Green Thumb Sunday

The lychee is one of the most delicious fruits you will ever taste our boss Greg Daley says they are his favourite. Lychees are a fruit tree which can have what we like to call a Bumper Crop. I visited my Nanna Maisy last week in Tweed Heads who has a lychee tree which she got from Daleys Nursery 20 years ago and it looked fantastic.

It got it's first harvest in the first 3 years when it was small however when it was 10 years old it got a disease which caused a lot of the leaves to fall off. Maisy was going to cut it down however it came good and ever since it has been getting huge crops like this one. She says she never waters it.
2 years ago a flying fox got caught in one of the nets and luckily my brother visited that day. He freed the bat and took off all the nets. Although it was uncovered not one bat visited the lychee that season.


Unfortunately their memory is only for a season and last year the Bats came when the lychees were the same size as the ones pictured, they ate every single lychee even though they were green.

Because the tree is huge Nanna has placed only a few nets over the lychees at head hight. The bats came again the last 2 nights and each morning nanna is picking up 2 buckets full of half eaten green lychees they have however not eaten the ones at the bottom with the nets.

After it crops I am going to visit and give it a very aggressive prune to about 2.5 meters so that it can become mananageable again.

Green Thumb Sunday Blogroll

Green Thumb Sunday - Coffee Beans

I am one of those people who dreams of the perfect cup of coffee. Here is a picture of my k7 coffee plant that I have had for 2 years now in a pot. I can't wait till they turn red.

Green Thumb Sunday Blogroll

Other Blogs done on Coffee Plants
Growing your own Coffee
Coffee Plants in Pots

Green Thumb Sunday

My very first pictures for this green thumb Sunday are my Glenn Mango Tree in a pot. And a close up of my very last Gulf Ruby Plum just before I ate it. Plums are in the shops at the moment but I must say the one I grew had such a full and rich flavor. The ones in the shops are bland, perhaps I am biased. Green Thumb Sunday Blogroll