Horticulturist Tom Spellman from Dave Wilson Nursery will offer advice on backyard orchard culture for Palisades Garden Club members and guests on Monday, May 7 at 7 p.m. at the Woman’s Club, 901 Haverford. There are big differences in philosophy between commercial fruit production and home production, Spellman says. In fact, they are diametrically opposed. Commercial growers are looking for fruit to mature at the same time, he notes, whereas home growers want to spread out the production over time. Also, commercial growers like to cultivate a single variety, while home growers prefer multiple varieties. Trees for commercial production can reach as high as 25 feet; backyard trees should be small and manageable for easy picking. Commercial growers also use chemical sprays to fight pests, while homeowners prefer to stick with organic pest control. Spellman, who has 35 years in horticultural production and sales of fruiting plants (including everything from subtropical varieties to grapes), is the Southwestern sales manager for Dave Wilson Nursery. He will be offering suggestions on new varieties of fruit trees for home gardeners and, in particular, those varieties which are loaded with antioxidants. These include blueberries and blackberries, avocados, pigmented citrus (such as blood oranges and pink grapefruit), red-fleshed plums, pomegranates and two new low-chill sweet cherries’Mini Royal and Royal Lee. A family-owned and -operated nursery established in 1938, Dave Wilson Nursery is the largest wholesale grower of fruit trees for the home garden in the United States. It is one of the largest growers of deciduous fruit, nut and shade trees in the state, farming more than 1,000 acres on a four-year rotation and growing more than two million trees a year, east of Modesto. The nursery is the primary licensee and propagator (in the United States) of new fruit varieties developed by Zaiger’s Genetics, including the pluot and the aprium.
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