The answer is straight forward: top work your trees. It is not true that planting a new tree will give you fruit faster. On the contrary, if you top work the tree with low chill varieties, you will get fruit the following year. I just top worked 5 peaches last Spring. In one season, each graft grew 5 feet and even branched out. This year, exactly one year later, they are covered with blooms and should fruit nicely. I am surprised that flavor queen is not fruiting for you, it's not a very high chill variety, mine flowers even after a short period of drought, i.e. I can get a Fall flowering if I withhold water in late Summer, and it is one of the first varieties to emerge out of dormancy at the first warm Spell in late January, blooming only a couple of weeks after Anna and Dorsett golden, so I suspect this variety needs next to nothing chill-wise. It's probably not 500 hours, because it fruits well in areas in the Monterey Bay that get under 400 hours of chill. I would hold on to the Flavor Queen, it tends to not be very vigorous, something else might be going on. But you can safely top work the apricot to a lower chill variety like katy. BTW, I have a similar problem with katy, barely any blooms on the tree two years in a row now, and it's supposed to be a low chill variety. (we have 600-1000 hours of chill annually, the low end is during El Nino years like this one) ) I don't know what is going on, I suspect it's getting too much fertilizer. I am curious what other varieties you have that do well for you. That would give me a better feel for how much chill you are really getting. If you are so close to the ocean that it rarely drops below 45F, then you might have a chill issue with Flavor Queen.

This is an update to my 2006 list. We've added many more varities and most things are fruiting now. FRUIT & SPICE TREES Acai Palm Allspice Ambarella Apple Anna Apple Dorset Golden Atemoya Gefner Grafted Avacado Haas Avacado Fuerte Banana Bay Rum Blackberry Black Sapote Seedless Black Walnut Blueberry Blueberry Gulf Coast Blueberry Sharp Blueberry Windsor Cocao Calomondin Camellia Sinesis, Tea Cashew Apple Cercropia Cherry Black Grafted Surinam Cherry Grumichama Cherry Rio Grand Cherry Barbados Cherry Dwarf Barbados Chestnut Malibar Cinnamon Coffee Dragon Fruit Eucalyptus Eugenia Confusa Fig Brown Turkey Fig Green Isha Fig Kadota Goji Berry Grapefruit Pink Grapefruit Yellow Grapes Bunch Grapes Muscadine Guave Chattey Guava Pineaple Guava Ruby Guava Strawberry Guava Jaboticaba Joy Perfume Michelia Champaca Jujube Katok Kiwi Tomuri m&f Lemon Harvey Lemon Sambukan Lemon Varigated Pink Lime Key Lime Kaffir Lime Persian Lime Red Longan Kahola Loquat Lychee Hakip Lychee Maritius Mango Mango Carrie MANGOSTEEN Michelia Alba Michela Champaca Miracle Fruit Mombin Red Monstera Deliciosa Moringa (Horseradish Tree) Mulberry Dwarf Mulberry Shangrila Natal Plum Nectarine Sun Raycer Neem Olive Fremtoya Orange Orange Dwarf Navel Orange Red Blood Orange Ortanique Orange Tarocco Blood Papaya Passionfruit Yellow Peach Red Cylon Peach Tropic Beauty Peanut Butter Fruit Pear Pear Pineapple Persimmon Ichibe Juro Persimmon Triumph Pineapple, Golden Pistachio Plantain Plum Gulf Rose Pomegranate Dwarf Pomegranate Vietnamese Rambutan Rose Apple Spanish Lime Strawberry Strawberry Tree Sugar Cane Tamarind Tangelo Tangerine Murcott Tangerine Satsuma Wax Jambu Thai Red Sunset White Sapote Yerba Mate HERBS Allheal Alow Arnica Montana Anise hyssop Bacopa Bacopa, Lemon Basils, Greek Columnar, Lemon, Lettuce Leaf, Lime, Sweet Bay Tree Bay Rum Bergamot (Monarda) Betel Betony Borage Calendula Camelia sinesis Caper bush Cardamom Catnip Chives, Garlic & Onion Cilantro Comfrey Coriander Culantro Curry Plant Daisy Dill, Boquet & Fernleaf Echinacea Fennel, Bronze & Sweet Feverfew Fuschia Galangal True Gardenia Garlic Society Geranium, Apple, Citronella, Lemon Sculpture, Rose Ginger Ginkgo Goji Berries Gotu kola Greek mountain tea Gynura Henna Hibiscus, Edible & False Roselle Honeysuckle Horseradish Jasmine Arabian Tea & Confederate Lambs Ear Lavender Lemon balm Lemon grass Lemon verbena LionÂs tail Marjoram Marshmallow Mint, Apple, Berries & Cream, Blackberry, Chocolate, Citrus kitchen, Corsican, Costa rican Kama Sutra, Cotton candy, English, Grapefruit, Hazelnut, Italian spice, JimÂs Fruit, Lavender. Lemon sweet, Margarita, MarilynÂs Salad, Mojito, Mountain, Orange Bergamot Oregano thyme, Pennyroyal, Spearmint, Sweet pear, Wintergreen, Yerba buena Monarda Moujean tea/Bahama Berry/Pineapple Verbena Mullein Murraya koeniggi Myrtle greek Nasturtium Oregano, Cuban, Italian, Mexican Pandanus Amaryllifolius Papalo Parsley, Curled & Flat Leaf Pepper, Black Pepper Vine, Chili, Habernero, Jalapeno, Ornamental, Red Pepper Vine, Tabasco Perilla Purslane Root beer plant Rose, Bon Silene Tea, Champneys pink cluster, Climbing don juan, Double red, Moanne lombard, Red cascade, Safrano, Treasure blend hybrid Rosemary, Romero, Spice island, Victorian Sage, Common, Diviners, Grape scented, Mexican, Pineapple Savory Spice bush, Lindera Benzoin Spilanthese Spinach, Malabar & Okinawa Star anise Stevia St johns wort Sugar cane Sushini Sweet almond verbena Tarragon Tea olive Thyme, English, Lemon Tilo Tomatoes Turmeric Violet sweet Yarrow Yerba mate Zaatar Zuta levana WATER PLANTS Bacopa, lemon Cattail Celer, water Chestnut, water Mint, water I'm working on a website with photos of our property in all stages of bloom and slowly working on a book for zone 9 edible gardening. We've had luck with almost everything we've tried. I'm happy to answer any questions about growing in tropical zones. Happy growing, Kelly

Sheri, I'm sure they were packed in. When I read the book, I was amazed at how many plants he had in a small space....and he was doing it in a colder zone than ours (Colorado). Tomato mania makes people do crazy things. Caspian Pink usually makes 5 or 6 feet in height easily before the killer summer heat slows it down and it really spreads OUT a lot too. After a while, it has grown so far beyond the cage that you cannot tell it even has a cage. By contrast, Cherokee Purple gets as tall in my garden, but not as wide and bushy. I think the duckies probably did greatly enrich the soil as they decomposed, so maybe that is why the spot seems to be a prime spot for growing tomatoes. I've had lots of blooms and fruitset, but the heat did slow everything down some I think. Now that the wind has backed off some (although I think it returns here either today or tomorrow), the plants are looking a lot better, and yesterday's inch of rain helped. One thing I have noticed this year that seems peculiar (maybe it is the weather) is that a lot of my plants have had more megablooms than usual. I know megablooms are common early in the growing season, but so far they continue to pop up here and there. (I guess if I was trying to grow giant competition/exhibition tomatoes, I'd be thrilled to have all the megablooms.) I have 5 paste tomatoes that have looked bad the last few days, and I finally realized they must have been hit by some Round-up drift when I was spraying the garden fenceline near them with Round-up to kill the bermuda grass that was trying to creep through the fence and into the garden. This week I am going to lay down cardboard and cover it with mulch along that fenceline, because I have a persistent bermuda grass problem there, and don't want to use Round-up again. I think the plants will recover as only the top few inches were affected. For some reason, all my Roma tomato plants are much larger than usual this year and I can't imagine why. They are in some of the worst soil in the garden, they were shaded by a willow tree that was growing on the banks of the retention pond at the northeast edge of the garden (DH cut that tree down Sunday), and they haven't gotten any special attention. I guess they thrive on neglect. In any season, I have found that tomato plant varieties can behave completely differently from what they did the year before, and can even behave differently from another plant of the same variety planted right next to them. When I comment on that, my DH reminds me that plants are like children--each one is a unique living creature, and that each sibling in a human family is different from the others, just like the plants. He has a good point! Dawn

Here is my list. I already have my seed. I will be starting them mid/late March, and investing in wall-o-water cold protectors so I can set them out a bit early. I may leave out one of the glacier/manitoba/moskovich varieties, but we'll see. Beefsteak Aunt Ruby's German Green * (cutworms got my plant last year) Big Rainbow Black Krim Black Sea Man * Brandywine, Sudduth's Strain Cherokee Purple Kellogg's Breakfast Northern Lights Striped German Sunset's Red Horizon Medium Black Prince Black Zebra * (cutworms got my plant last year) Druzba Earl of Edgecombe * Eva's Purple Ball Flammé Glacier Green Zebra Japanese Black Trifele * Manitoba Moskovich New Girl * Peche Jaune Pink Ping Pong Purple Calabash Shimmeig Striped Hollow Stupice Valencia Cherries Black Cherry Green Grape Principe Borghese Cherry Tomato Sun Gold Washington Cherry * White Cherry * Plum/Paste Andes * Debarao * Opalka * Orange Roma Purple Russian * Russian Big Roma * San Marzano Wonder Light * New to me this year