Planning the home fruit garden requires a bit more future-thinking than the vegetable garden. Most vegetables are annuals or biennials and spend just one or two seasons in the garden. Most fruits are trees or shrubs and live for 10 to 50 years or more. The first consideration in planning an edible garden—either fruit or…
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Fruit Tree Chill Hours
Chill hours are the number of cold hours or days that a deciduous fruit tree (or nut tree) requires for flowering and fruit production each year. Every fruit tree variety has its own number of hours of chill needed for fruit production. Some fruit trees need as few as 100 chill hours, others need as…
Pruning Fruit Trees for Fruit
Fruit trees can be grown for fruit or shade. If you are growing a fruit tree for shade, pruning is not necessary. If you are growing a fruit tree for fruit, you should prune. A fruit tree that goes unpruned will produce fruit, but in all likelihood, the fruit will be smaller and less flavorful…
How to Grow Passion Fruit
Passion fruit is a form of berry that grows on the passion fruit plant. There are two types of passion fruit purple and yellow. The fruit of the purple passion fruit plant is purple. That fruit is slightly smaller than a lemon. The fruit of the yellow passion fruit plant is bright yellow. That fruit…
Grapefruits for Backyard Gardens
Tangy grapefruit can be eaten raw—by the half or peeled and sectioned, it can be added to green and fruit salads and compotes, and it can be juiced. Grapefruits require heat to develop their sweet-tart flavor. A grapefruit that feels heavy for its size is ripe and ready to eat or juice. Grapefruits are best…
How to Plant, Grow, Prune, and Harvest Kiwifruit
Kiwifruits are easy to grow. They grow in clusters like grapes. Each is about the size of an egg or smaller. They have firm flesh like a melon and flavor that is a blend of melon, banana, lime, and strawberry. There are several kiwifruit varieties, some for growing in warm winter regions, some for growing…
Insecticides for Organically Grown Vegetables and Fruits
Insecticides are substances used to control insect pests. There are insecticides derived from plants, animals, and natural mineral sources, and there are pesticides derived from synthetically produced chemicals. Naturally derived pesticides are often accepted for use on or around organically grown vegetables and fruits. Synthetically produced insecticides are not used in natural or organic gardening…
How to Make Blackberry (or other fruit) Ice Cream
The best ice cream is simply frozen custard. Egg yolks and cream make a very smooth, rich ice cream. You can make ice cream without egg yolks and cream but then it wouldn’t be a sin it would be frozen milk. Here’s a tip: make just enough custardy ice cream to serve fresh—not to freeze…
Baked Fruit and Nut Stuffed Apples
The baked stuffed apple is a delicious, traditional, and easy-to-make winter and holiday treat. I bake these apples on the oven shelf right under the baking ham. Choose any one or two of these great baking apples for this tasty dessert: Honeycrisp is sweet, Braeburn is sweet-spicy, Jonagold and Rome Beauty are sweet-tart, and Granny…
Corn Earworm and Tomato Fruitworm Control
The corn earworm—which is also known as the tomato fruitworm and the cotton bollworm—is a caterpillar that eats the fruit and leaves of corn, tomatoes, beans, peppers, squash, lettuce, peas, potatoes, and other crops. Corn earworms follow corn silks into the tips of husks and chew their way through the kernels. As tomato fruitworms they…
