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Trees to feed the family
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Posted by reversethong (My Page) on Thu, Oct 29, 09 at 4:03
| If you needed to feed your family or self on your own land or farm, no stores and you could only have five citrus trees. Which varieties would you choose? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Trees to feed the family
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I'd have a standard Meyer lemon, a Lisbon Lemon, Rio Red Grapefruit, Trovita Orange. I've also heard that Temple oranges are probably the best tasting, but hard to find.
I think I would also have a Kumquat, maybe Meiwa variety, they're pretty tough little trees. Well this is just my opinion, but then I don't think I could live with only 5 citrus trees LOL... although it would be pretty easy to graft a whole bunch of different varieties of citrus on that one Lisbon lemon, since I doubt a family could use all the lemons on a mature Lisbon tree. |
RE: Trees to feed the family
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I think that you must aim for quantity rather than taste or quality if you need to feed a family without hitting the supermarket.
Based on that, here is my recommendation:
1. a true lemon - Lisbon or Eureka lemon - both are prolific producers
2. Washington navel orange
3. Owari satsuma mandarin
4. Either a Meiwa kumquat or Bearss seedless lime or a Cara Cara orange - based on your family's cooking habits and eating habits
5. Oroblanco grapefruit But, if I can choose more than 5 - then a Meyer lemon would be on top of my list - they are harder to grow and sweeter than lemons and a mexican lime - i like it. And I would opt for Tangerines and Kishu and Gold nugget mandarins compared to the satsuma. |
RE: Trees to feed the family
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Interesting, I'd like to see more people's favorites. I just wanted to mention that my choices are based on taste and cold hardiness, which would be an important consideration where I am as we do get a a few freezes once in a while. The truth is that there are so many great choices and factors that might vary from one person to another. And while it's nice to get quantity, if your family is not keen on the taste/texture of a very prolific variety, then I guess you might have to end up using it for bartering.
Could we get info about the original poster's location? that might help narrow down choices. My suggestions are obviously influenced by my own location (Maricopa County, AZ)
Another thing: Here, the county coop extension people put together a couple of "Citrus Clinics" every year, with samples to taste, and tons of information about the different varieties. Here's one of their publications about citrus varieties. Of course this is mostly aimed at the ones that do well locally, but there's a lot of info in there about many varieties:
http://cals.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/az1001.pdf |
RE: Trees to feed the family
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hi
Very interesting ?? but don't see how it could be answered without a location. Why Citrus and not other types of fruit trees?? Why only five? limit space get grafted "cocktail trees . Since your entire family is going to eat nothing but Citrus I'd suggest everbearers .lol
If you live in Washington I'd skip the Citrus and plant apple,pear,plum,certainly cherry.
Since I live in florida I'm sort of stuck with Citrus lol though all kinds of "EXOTIC" stuff that is difficult to grow elsewhere. What does your family like and for what function would you use the fruit?? gary |
RE: Trees to feed the family
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| Hadn't thought of the "cocktail citrus" trees - they are a good idea when space is limited. |
RE: Trees to feed the family
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| I live in Arizona. I want everyone's ideas regardless of their location. Just choose the 5 trees you think would be best and why. Remember the idea is an isolated farm with no other resources outside of the farm. Other foods don't count, I only want the Citrus opinions. My first choices would included a Washington Naval and a either a Meyer, Eureka or Lisbon lemon. A Rio Red Grapefruit, a Valencia Orange and some kind of Orange or Mandarin to catch the offseason between Valancia and Navel. I guess I'm looking for survival trees. |
RE: Trees to feed the family
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Hi
Would think the best advice for you would be to visit a
commercial grove in your area. This would tell you the best selections for your goals. Since there are well over 3,000 cultivars not to mention everbearers and grafting multiseason trees for increased production. You can almost design your own tree lol. Of course among other things to consider would be disease resistance , hardiness in YOUR area. Are those you mentioned the most commonly grown ??
Most groves here go for juice rather than fruit except for the "designer" fruit dealers . They plant strictly for appearance of course .
Know almost nothing about citrus outside of florida. Zilch about Arizona lol Maybe someone else will chime in??? gary |
RE: Trees to feed the family
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| A lot depends on where you live or what enviroment they are going to be in- Favorites are always subjective - I have yet to taste anything that is even in the ballpark with a Honeybell ( Mineola Tangelo ). I have never tasted a good navel and I have eaten many-- but I live in the southeast and maybe the western Navels are good. |
RE: Trees to feed the family
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| I hoping to just get everyones wish list with those stipulations. 5 trees if you have to survive on your own accord. |
RE: Trees to feed the family
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| The grapefruit would have to be Duncan, the original and still the best. Flavor bar none plus will come true from seed. |
RE: Trees to feed the family
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| I would go with a Fukumoto Navel, a Washington Navel, and an Autumn Gold or Powell Navel for the bulk crop. That would give you high quality fruit in succession from the first of October until June or even July. |
RE: Trees to feed the family
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| I think there is a problem with one the trees picked for Arizona. I copied this from the link posted above for growing citrus in Arizona. "‘Meyer’ is illegal (and therefore not available) in the
State of Arizona. This variety is known to harbor the
Citrus Tristeza Virus (CTV), which is a devastating
disease of citrus. Meyer is not a true lemon, but likely
a hybrid of a sweet orange and lemon." |
RE: Trees to feed the family
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| If by "family" you mean more than two people - I would think that two or more of your trees would have to be the same species but maybe different cultivars. In my potted citrus collection, none of them produce enough fruit for an entire family to eat off of all year. I think Limes are more productive then lemons and both of them seem a bit more productive then oranges. I use a lot of lime and lemon juice for cooking so it is easy to freeze (I guess you could even can it). Another problem would be that outside of the citrus belt they tend to all fruit at the same time, whereas if you had a large kumquat or calamondin you would have fruit ripening in the other seasons. So I would plan on two limes, one lemon, one orange and one calamondin. |
RE: Trees to feed the family
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| Meyer's are ok in AZ now. Well, I just planted an "improved Meyer" so the improved must be something that isn't CTV prone. |
RE: Trees to feed the family
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| Thanks for the input. I should have also added Citrus that could have other uses. Oils, juice, leaves. I'm interested in self sufficiency and would like to know what trees would be the best. Beside eating, lemons and limes could used for cleaning, bleaching. Citrus wood that could be used for smoking meats. Juice for marinating and preserving. Wine could be maybe the attraction from Bees could offer benefits as well. |
RE: Trees to feed the family
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- Posted by mrclint z10SoCal Valley (My Page) on
Tue, Feb 9, 10 at 12:01
| I would plant five of whichever fruit tree has the best market in my area and then sell or barter the fruit to feed my family. Five trees does not a self-sustaining orchard make. Even if large and mature and planted for successive ripening, if one of those trees alternate bears -- I would be done for. I would wait until I could get a bigger piece of land to be successfully self-sustaining. If push came to shove and space were that limited and times that tough, I might not even plant the five citrus trees and opt for more nutrient dense crops such as corn, potatoes and/or chickens instead. For a casual backyard orchard, with no ones life hanging in the balance, I would plant the following for successive ripening:
* Owari Satsuma or Kishu Mandarin or Fukumoto Navel
* Washington or Cara Cara Navel
* Lane Late Navel
* Page or Gold Nugget or Pixie Mandarin
* Valencia Orange |
RE: Trees to feed the family
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This thing has to be regionally adapted. "True lemons",
Valencias, Oroblancos and Rio Reds dont do well in many places. For survival I would not have even one lemon
much less two. Also after a few years, it is hard to eat
all the fruit a large tree will yield. Also satsumas
don't hold well here. And Republic of Texas orange
is highly alternate bearing even though they can be
easily grown from seed or cuttings and they give the
sweetest fruit. I'd choose these for the Houston area: 1. Golden grape fruit for those of us who dont
like sour bitter grapefruit, it is wonderful,
mid Nov - Feb.
2. Henderson or Rio red seedling for late season.
3. Red navel.
4. Page hybrid.
5. Bob Randal's Tonkan seedling, huge crops,
super easy to juice, rind is good for flavoring.
This is the cadmium red skinned mandarin that
was at the Ag Extention orchard at Bear Creek
Park. Can be grown from seed. All these fruit have high ammounts of nutrients
and sugar. |
RE: Trees to feed the family
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| What about the value lemon or lime have for cooking, preserving food and other uses? I meant to aim this question at a survivalist angle, or a self sufficient one. So other uses the trees could offer could also be a consideration. Limes and lemons could be used for cleaning, bleaching, ect... |
RE: Trees to feed the family
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| I had 41 citrus trees at one time, but have a different property now, and after having all those trees, I can speak from experience. I won't eat grapefruits if I have oranges and tangerines. 1. Navels
2. Valencias
3. Algerian/Clementime Tangerine
4. Minneola Tangelo
5. Any grapefruit. My reasons: Navels are the best eating orange. Valencias produce much later in the season. Algerians are such a favorite of mine, and great for kids. The Minneola is a large tree that is very productive and gives great juicy oranges perfect for eating and juice. I don't care for grapefruits if I have oranges, but a grapefruit trees produces the same volume of about 3 orange trees, so that's a consideration. |
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