Hi - I'm a bit further south - San Diego coastal, but have 2 almonds - All-in-one and I think - Mission. The first one has developed fire blight (from an infected pear), but am in hopes of spraying after winter rains with recommended half/half peroxide/water. It did produce a few, however. The Mission did quite well - even tho we had almost no chill hours - although better than most winters on that score. It bore quite a few nuts that I harvested, dried and preserved for cooking purposes. The Mission has a leathery hull that splits when on the tree. At this time, it is best to go into "squirrel-attack-mode." They seem to sense when this event is about to happen. The nuts need to dry and will usually extrude themselves. This year, I tied mylar balloons onto the tree branches, which bounce and dance in the wind. It worked, but I'm not sure whether it will do so again next year. In conjunction with the balloons, I also tied old computer discs to my surrounding fruit trees - apricots mainly, and we enjoyed a decent harvest this past year.

"I was wondering what are the easiest, most fruit bearing trees to plant in Southern California. (I just put in a dwarf avocado and I also have two figs, a pomegranate, lemon, lime, and orange. Do you think its wise to try apples or peaches? The citrus trees seem to have a lot of different maladies, while the figs seem to be thriving on their own.)" "Sunset Zone 23 has always been Southern California's best zone for avocados"-Sunset. Natural, ideal fit for Suptropical So Cal - Avocados, Figs, Pomegranates, Persimmons Jujube Loquat Citrus (great evergreens, but recent disease issues) Low chill Apricot/Aprium, Low Chill Plum/Pluot, Low Chill Nectarine/hybrids Mangos, Bananas, Guavas & other tropicals (esp. if you have a hot, south-facing wall.) Fussier Trees - Peaches (climate), Cherimoya (hand pollination), low-chill cherry (Royal pair can take 7 years to sync up & produce fruit), apple of any chill rating (grow just fine, but one blight can wipe them out), pear (grow just fine, but one blight can wipe them out) Consider first: Sunset zone information - quite helful How "low chill" do you need? (Compare to Sunset maps) If you want fruit, you have to select varieties with chill requirements less than the number of chill hours you get in the majority of years. (If your chill range is 150-500, a tree rated 400 might give fruit prolifically one in every seven years.) I would set the Dave Wilson Nursery tool under your median chill hour to look for varieties. Not trees, but good perennial fruit: Kiwi, Grapes, Passionfruit, Low chill southern highbush blueberries, Low chill hybrid caneberries (boysen, olallie, rasp, black etc), Gogi, etc. --------------- One more link: Here is the VERY helpful Dave Wilson Chill Zone selection tool. It's a very long link, but I've adjusted the settings to get you started. Make sure you adjust these settings for just under your average chill hours per year (set here for 300) and your USDA zone (set here for 10). If you have FROST (most don't), then maybeadjust the harvest dates too.): http://www.davewilson.com/product-information/quick-screen/fruit-varieties-zone-chill-testing?field_product_fruit_group_value%5B%5D=apple&field_product_fruit_group_value%5B%5D=apricot&field_product_fruit_group_value%5B%5D=cherry&field_product_fruit_group_value%5B%5D=fig&field_product_fruit_group_value%5B%5D=jujube&field_product_fruit_group_value%5B%5D=nectarine&field_product_fruit_group_value%5B%5D=peach&field_product_fruit_group_value%5B%5D=pear&field_product_fruit_group_value%5B%5D=persimmon&field_product_fruit_group_value%5B%5D=plum&field_product_fruit_group_value%5B%5D=interspecifics&field_product_fruit_group_value%5B%5D=domestica&field_product_zone_lowest_value_op=%3C%3D&field_product_zone_lowest_value%5Bvalue%5D=10&field_product_zone_lowest_value%5Bmin%5D=&field_product_zone_lowest_value%5Bmax%5D=&field_product_zone_highest_value_op=%3E%3D&field_product_zone_highest_value%5Bvalue%5D=10&field_product_zone_highest_value%5Bmin%5D=&field_product_zone_highest_value%5Bmax%5D=&field_product_chill_hours_value_op=%3C%3D&field_product_chill_hours_value%5Bvalue%5D=300&field_product_chill_hours_value%5Bmin%5D=&field_product_chill_hours_value%5Bmax%5D=&field_harvest_date_value%5Bmin%5D%5Byear%5D=2012&field_harvest_date_value%5Bmin%5D%5Bmonth%5D=1&field_harvest_date_value%5Bmin%5D%5Bday%5D=1&field_harvest_date_value%5Bmax%5D%5Byear%5D=2012&field_harvest_date_value%5Bmax%5D%5Bmonth%5D=12&field_harvest_date_value%5Bmax%5D%5Bday%5D=31

Jack, Your orange tree looks very much like the one I grew up with in SoCal. And I agree with you that the flavor is out of this world! Yours doesn't look bad to me actually, but I suspect you could improve on your watering and feeding. If I were you, I'd first install a drip irrigation system around the drip-line of the tree and make sure the tree gets sufficient watering, especially during our very dry/drought summers! Do contact your local Cooperative Extension (LA link below) on how much water is appropriate for your area (a call to the UC Riverside citrus researcher center might also be useful). They will also be able to suggest what commercial citrus fertilizers are appropriate and how much/frequently you should be adding to your tree - I suspect that with the size of your tree, it'll require POUNDS of fertilizer/yr(!) spread out probably in 3-4 applications. Remember that most old citrus trees decline and die due to insufficient feeding (I think you will need more than the N your chicken are providing, BTW, namely micronutrients that can best be provided by a citrus fert.). Lastly, I would suggest a proper trimming by an arborist specially trained to trim citrus. A proper haircut should rejuvenate your tree and decrease the canopy for easier harvesting of the fruit. If you're lucky, Patty (hoosierquilt) who hails from SoCal will be by shortly to give you her invaluable opinion on your tree. As I recall, she is trained as a Master Gardener and frequently attends lectures given by the citrus experts at UCR. Cheers, Tim Here is a link that might be useful: University of California Cooperative Extension help

I am familiar with that area. Virtually any citrus can grow in Los Angeles. Due to it being a very sprawling developed city, there is a heat island effect. In the old days they could grow orange groves in that area, but occasionally they would have winters that could damage the orange crops, so they would actually sometimes light big fires around the trees to help keep them warm through the coldest nights. Temperatures in the area do not get as cold as they used to 70 years ago, due to the extensive development and suburban sprawl. Mandarins and Meyer lemons will be just a little more cold tolerant than oranges and regular lemons, and should have no problem at all. (Though Meyer lemon tastes different than regular lemons, so be aware of that) There are certainly ways to plant trees on a slope. But the trees will most likely have to be irrigated in the summer. In that climate, the fierce hot dry summers will be more of an ordeal to plants than the winters. It is classified in climate zone 10, so there are many borderline tropicals/subtropicals that can be grown that cannot even be grown in the Northern part of Florida. You can grow mango trees, for example.