Growing fruit trees in Encino

If you want to be the envy of your neighbors and grow a tree perfectly suited to the Encino climate and boost your anti-oxidents, there is nothing better than a pomegranate tree. These trees are beautiful in any season and are striking as decorative additions to any garden. But the trick is know that once it starts fruiting, if you want sweet fruit you need to add rock salt around the base. This is an old trick the gardeners in Iran learnt and few here seem to know it.

My tree is what is known as a Wonderful pomegranate that I bought at Green Arrow and it suits the climate. Fruit is ready to eat in October and can remain on the tree through December. I pick them and store them in the refrigerator. I could open a market with the amount of fruit on that tree.

The only challenges: squirrels, birds - especially finches and mockingbirds - and psyllids. If squirrels are your problem, here are some solutions that have worked for me. You can see one of those solutions in the lower photo.