Inedible, gigantic fruit from Eureka lemon tree hurt by its rootstock
QI have a mature Eureka lemon tree that has always been a prolific producer. However, in the last two years it has been producing large round fruit that look more like grapefruit.
Do you have any idea what has gone wrong? The fruit is inedible. Is there anything I can do to rehabilitate it?
— Cherie, Sunnyvale
AThat’s a common problem with citrus. Some owners get excited that they are growing monster-sized lemons, but what they’ve actually got are pomelos or another citrus related to the grapefruit. The rinds on these fruits are dramatically thick and yes, in some cases, the fruit is not edible.
Your Eureka tree is actually two trees — the bottom is the rootstock and the top is your Eureka lemon, which was grafted onto the rootstock by the grower. This is a common practice in the industry and I doubt you could even buy an ungrafted tree these the taste of the fruit as it only serves as a base for the fruit tree.
Unfortunately, because the rootstock can be so strong, it puts out suckers that emerge below the graft. The tree then puts all of its energy into producing its own fruit and neglecting the grafted tree. Because the rootstock was chosen for its durability and not its fruit, often the fruit is less than tasty.
As the tree ages, it can days. be more difficult to find where
They do this for several the graft starts, but if you can reasons, but mostly spot it, you can prune away because it improves the the rootstock’s limbs and chances that the grafted suckers below the graft and tree will survive. The rootstocks your tree may recover. Your chosen are hardy other option would be to create trees, able to grow in a variety a new graft with a Eureka of climates and soil scion or plant a new tree. conditions, and are generally
Q more disease resistant. Last year, sparrows The rootstock doesn’t affect ate the flower buds from our wisteria vine. We didn’t get any blooms at all and they’re back at it this year, too.
I love watching the birds, but I also love the beautiful wisteria blooms that we used to get.
The wisteria is up on a pergola over the patio. Do you have any suggestions for how I could get the birds to leave the wisteria buds alone?
— Peggy Quillman,
Fremont
AThat’s a problem. Normally, you would cover blooms with a fine mesh netting, but laying the net on top of the pergola would allow the birds to reach any buds that pop through.
It would be extra work, but you could build a structure on top of the pergola so you could stretch the netting above the wisteria. You’d have to make sure it was secured on all sides to keep the birds from slipping underneath and possibly getting tangled.
You also could try hanging shiny objects, such as old CDs or Mylar ribbons, above the pergola or string twinkle lights through the branches and hang small wind chimes all around. Birds don’t like those things and it might keep the sparrows away.
I’d also recommend setting up some seed feeders a good distance away from the wisteria to lure the sparrows elsewhere, but with a salmonella outbreak in full swing, you’ll need to wait until April to do that.
As spring approaches, it brings green hills and the promise of wildflowers. Unfortunately, it also brings the active season for those eightlegged pests, the ticks.
Ticks are always with us in the outdoors, but they’re most active during the wet months between December and June. Adult ticks are about the size of the letter O in newsprint until they’ve sampled blood and become engorged. In the larval and nymph stages of their life cycle, ticks are even smaller and harder to spot — about the size of a poppy seed.
Ticks don’t fly or drop from trees. They climb to the tips of vegetation just a couple of feet off the ground, usually along animal trails or paths. There they wait for a passing animal or human to brush against them. Then they hitch a ride, crawl around on their unsuspecting hosts, bite and extract blood, then drop off. Ticks can carry a variety of diseases. The best known is Lyme disease, which creates flu-like symptoms and can be serious. Fortunately, only a small percentage of ticks are infected, the variety called Ixodes pacificus.
Prevention is really the best defense against ticks. When you visit the outdoors, stay on the official trails. Don’t cut cross-country through grasslands or chaparral. If you do pass through brushy country, check yourself afterwards. For that reason it’s advisable to wear light-colored clothing so you can see the bugs more easily. Tuck your pants into socks or boots and tuck your shirt into your pants.
Ticks will crawl around for a while after transferring from vegetation to your clothing, so there’s time to find them and brush them off. Be sure to check Fido as well; ticks attach easily to dog fur. If a tick has attached to your skin, pull it straight out gently but firmly, preferably while wearing latex gloves. Apply antiseptic to the bite and wash your hands. Tick extraction kits, including special tweezers, are available at sporting goods stores.
Tick information is posted on the signs at East Bay Regional Park District trailheads and there’s a good article on ticks in the March-April edition of the district’s “Regional in Nature” newsletter, which you can read online at the district’s website, ebparks.org.
You can also obtain more detailed information on ticks and Lyme disease from the California Public Health Department’s online at bayareane.ws/38zVBxY and bayareane.ws/3rHDOfN. Also check out bayarealyme.org, the Bay Area Lyme Foundation’s website.
The district’s current newsletter has an article about projects completed or well underway that will increase public access to several of the regional parks. You can read about the new facilities now open at Encinal Beach behind Encinal High School in Alameda. Attractions include restored sand dunes, new trails and improved disabled access. The site is adjacent to the city
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of Alameda’s public Encinal Boat Launch.
Other projects are well underway. Dumbarton Quarry shoreline campground in Fremont — with camping spaces for cyclists, hikers, cars, motorcycles and recreational vehicles — is expected to open at midyear. McCosker Creek at Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve in the Oakland hills is undergoing the largest creek restoration project in the park district’s history, scheduled for completion in 2023. A half-mile extension of the San Francisco Bay Trail at Lone Tree Point in Richmond will open later this year.
Also scheduled to open this year is the Berkeley Brickyard at McLaughlin Eastshore State Park, which the district operates for the state. Improvements will include walking paths, a staging area, drinking fountains, a restroom, and a restored marshland habitat. And the Tidewater Day Use Area at Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline in Oakland is being expanded with parking, restrooms, picnic sites and water fountains. So there’s plenty to anticipate in the regional parks as winter ends.
It’s a little-known swamp in unincorporated Novato, but an effort to change the name of Black John Slough aims to send a big message.
Michael Warner, a San Rafael resident who is leading the charge, hopes for a replacement that honors namesake John Pinkston, a mid-1800s settler in Marin County who was of African Caribbean descent. The slough is a waterway that connects Rush Creek and Basalt Creek to the Petaluma River just north of the Bahia Marsh.
“How we name the landscape in which we live serves as a collective memory for future generations,” Warner said. “With this name, his history doesn’t really get told and it regulates what we remember and what we don’t remember.”
Warner, 32, has collected more than 100 signatures on a Change.org petition that he plans to file with the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, a government agency charged with maintaining uniform usage. The petition calls for renaming the waterway to Pinkston Slough to honor his contribution to society and erase “the value of tying one’s worth to the color of their skin,” Warner said.
The effort is the latest attempt in Marin County to remove official names that critics link to racism, including the Dixie School District and various Sir Francis Drake Boulevard landmarks.
Warner, a Marin County park ranger, said his effort started during the movements for racial justice last year. He stumbled upon Pinkston’s story while doing research on parklands for the county’s ranger-led interpretive programs.
He said Mount Burdell was once called “N-word Hill,” a name used well into the early 1900s. Pinkston was tied to that property as well as the waterway, which later became known as Black John Slough.
Pinkston’s story isn’t well documented, but Warner said he pieced together what he could from old news articles and other documents. According to a 2011 article published in Kin Tracer, the former quarterly journal of the Marin County Genealogical Society, Pinkston went by Samuel John Pinkston and arrived in Marin County in 1844. He is said to have been a slave who earned his freedom.
Pinkston was given the nickname “Black John,” which first appeared in the 1852 census, according to the article.
Pinkston later became known as John Henry Pinkston and was a mediator between the Coast Miwok living in the area and Mexican American settlers. He was friends with Camillo Ynitia, leader of the Olompali people and eventually married Ynitia’s adopted daughter, Mary, according to the article.
They had two children: Juan Jose and Mary. The son was awarded several
acres of Rancho Olompali, which John Pinkston managed until he came of age. The land is in the area of Redwood Boulevard and Buck Center Drive.
Pinkston died in 1872, according to an obituary in the Marin Journal. The name “Black John” began to appear on maps marking the land he once owned. The same name was later given to the slough.
According to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, the board “will consider proposals to change names considered derogatory or offensive. As with any name change, there must be a compelling reason and evidence of support for the change.”
Marin County Supervisor Judy Arnold, whose District 5 includes Novato, said the proposed name Pinkston Slough seems like an appropriate replacement.
“I’m all for that, absolutely,” she said.
Warner said he thinks this fits the bill.
“The goal right now is to collect support,” Warner said. “We have Mt. Burdell after Galen and Mary Burdell and Rush Creek after Carl Peter Rush. Why is this named ‘Black John’? It doesn’t seem fair to him and his legacy.”