The Tropical Fruit Forum

Since 36-8 isn't yet available for the public to grow, I'm interested in hearing about it's siblings.
Fruit Punch has been available for a while now, and there's a lot of info out there, but has anybody been eating C12?

I'm interested in how it tastes, but most importantly shelf life.

So today I smashed a bug on our lemon tree, and when comparing it to the CDFA's leaflet looked very much like a ACP.

It was found on a graft received from UCR during this year's order, and it was grafted to our femminello.

I have only seen this type of insect on this one graft, nothing else in the yard has shown them.

Anyone else receive scions this year from UCR?

I didn't see much about this on the boards, so I thought I would share.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/2029109/

It's very interesting in that not only does it have the zesty appeal of citrus, but it has a very unique (to the west) bite.

When you have it on anything but the heaviest of dishes, it can be quite mouth numbing.

The leaves are also used at tender-green stage, and are an essential part of Spring cooking in Japanese cuisine.

It's very cold hardy as well.

The flavor is closest to mandarin, and it's a great topping for vanilla ice cream.

I was interested in Ume if anyone grows it. Mainly for umeboshi and umeshu.

Not sure this is the correct place for this discussion, but I couldn't find a subsection most appropriate for it. Please move if incorrectly placed.

So I am not a fruit grower so much as a Squirrel and Gopher grower.

The soft sandy loam I grow in supports abundant rodent populations, and I'm always working towards reducing their numbers.

Last year I removed 29 gophers, and this year I have removed 39 so far.

I am working on a hillside of two acres, but most gophers are within a few meters of the irrigated areas.


Intro out of the way, I find that gophers are some of the worst pests you can have, especially in an arid place like SoCal. All the time selecting and breeding superior cultivars, troubleshooting nutrient issues, spraying for pests and diseases, and the priciest water in the country, just to have your trees die due to gopher damage, or be severely stunted due to all their roots being consumed by the pests.

I am of the opinion that the quicker you deal with them, the less opportunity they will have to make all your efforts go to waste.

I find the best times to target them are immediately after a heavy rain, as the softer soil is much easier for them to excavate, and the gophers use the opportunity to lengthen their networks which can be several meters long. That being said I am getting more and more during the dry times between rains, though they are much less active.

There are many alleged methods for dealing with gophers, from blowing their runs up with propane, to using exhaust gas to suffocate them, to using chewing gum to block their digestive track. I use traps, because evidence is everything. I use several types of traps, from Macabees to Victor easy-sets, but none have been as effective as the Trapline traps. The Trapline traps are effective for a number of reasons, being short, they are easy to rotate down a curved path, and can be placed deeper in a tunnel. Wide clearances in the moving areas allow the traps to function even if they are full of dirt. They come in multiple sizes, I use the ones recommended on the web page, and I find that the best odds come from matching the size of the trap to the size of the tunnel.

When I set traps I look for fresh mounds, then dig back to the main run, and set on the main run, in all continuous directions. After setting the traps I then plug the hole with bunched up weeds. I use whatever is most prevalent in the area near the activity. That said, gophers have preferences, and I find they prefer mustard and radish over other types of weeds, though sunflowers and horehound work well if it is all that is available.

I find that if they leave a hole open, I can get them almost every time just by setting a single trap deep into the opening and closing the hole with weeds, but more often than not I'm trapping on main runs.

Is there anyone else with better advice out there? I'm finally getting the last ones (hopefully) from the most heavily planted areas, so fingers crossed my efforts won't be wasted in the future.