Fruit in the Home Garden

Autumn

Once the leaves have fallen from the stone fruit varieties plus apples and pears, a general tidy of their shape as part of pruning can begin, After pruning spray the trees with Lime Sulphur and repeat after 4 weeks

Remove all weeds and grass around Citrus trees and apply Giganic fertiliser around the trees early in March. This will swell the fruit and improve the sweetness when ripe

New Bare-rooted trees should be purchased and planted in June and July. New strawberry beds should by prepared in May.

Suggested fruit varieties for this area:

Plums: Satsuma, Mariposa (these two should be planted together as they cross pollinate to produce heavier crops). Santa Rosa is self fertile but improves if Mariposa is used as a pollinator. Frontier is another good variety.

Apricots: The old Moorpark is still a widely grown favourite, plus Trevatt, Hunter & Earlicot.

Nectarines: Goldmine, Arctic Rose and Anzac are all white fleshed and freestone. Flavortop is an excellent yellow fleshed freestone variety for eating, cooking, drying or bottling.

Peaches: Anzac is early maturing and freestone. Redhaven and Golden Queen are well proven favourites with the late season Golden Queen excellent for bottling.

Growing Citrus

Citrus varieties grow well in the Warragul & Drouin area. In fact they are probably the easiest and most rewarding of all fruit to grow.

Recomended Varieties:
Lemons: Lisbon, Eureka and Meyer
Oranges: Washington Navel, Valencia
Mandarins: Emperor, Imperial, Afourer (also known as Murcott)
Limes: Tahitian, Kaffir, Australian Limes.
Grapefruit: Marsh, Ruby.
Cumquats: Marumi, Ngami, Variegated

NOTE: Double grafted trees with two varieties can save space as can those grafted onto dwarf rootstock.