This is somewhat different than the movie being released in May, but very good. I finished watching the second episode tonight. This was aired on Canadian TV and now on Youtube, two segments each about 45 minutes:


Part 1: "The Evolution of Desire" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_osOLHjr27w
Part 2: "Defenders of Diversity" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMdc6JY3z7w

I posted this in the fig forum first and it's had a very wonderful response there so I thought I would share it here as well. There is some citrus included.

Sorry for sharing with fig folks first, but that's my latest focus of attention. I added about 75 varieties this year.

Thanks for sharing it!

Harvey with all your pomegranates, citrus, chestnuts, and now figs, you getting to be a shining light of California agriculture. - Millet

Great job, Harvey! Diversify! Try new things! I like it!

Great videos, Thanks for sharing.

Harvey just Excellent. - Millet

I'm not really sure why I get so deeply involved in different things so often. Last year I grew about 30 tomato varieties and my son Michael and I planted a little over 300 tomato plants and we turned it into his summer job as well as an aid to funding his Boy Scout Eagle service project. Besides funding about $500 towards his Eagle service project, he cleared about $4,000 which is pretty good for a 14 year old. I thought it would be good experience for him to learn to deal with buyers as well as the growing, of course. He became an Eagle Scout on January 23rd of this year, by the way, a few weeks before his 15th birthday. Some of my trials of different fruits is partly to consider different ventures in case decides to farm one day. I think he can take one of my various projects and expand it and make a career out of it, if he'd like (not pomegranates, probably, seems too much heavy marketing by mono-culture giant Paramount Farms). I really enjoy the diversity of plants God has blessed us with. Another fruit I've been working with is white sapote (Casimora edulis). I have 12 trees grafted to 26 varieties. I think it is probably the most under-appreciated and little known fruit suitable for zone 9 and above. It is extremely productive, possibly the most productive species known to man (there are some instances of single trees being recorded to produce over 6,000 pounds of fruit in a year). Unfortunately, it doesn't transport well but I would think there should be good demand for it as a processed product to be used for smoothies, sorbets, etc. Today I went to a CRFG chapter meeting in the Bay Area where CRFG white sapote expert made a presentation. In his talk, he commented that he had heard that Dole once researched the fruit (maybe around 1972) and did taste tests with consumers and reportedly found that it had the highest level of consumer acceptance of any fruit they had tested. My climate gets a bit cold for it but it still has done quite well in the five years I've been growing it.

I still love citrus a lot but, admittedly, take them for granted.

My wife and son haven't seen this video yet and my son has an extremely busy schedule for a bit longer (working in school theater production through next weekend). My son teases me some about all of my plants but I think just maybe he'll get a greater appreciation for what I've done after watching this.

Great videos, I love this kind of thing, thanks for posting!

Thanks harveyc, I really enjoined that. Now I know what I want to be when I grow up. The problem is I am too darn old now.

wonderful videos. thank you so much for sharing!


Stupid question coming so I warned you, Lol

I assume that most of these remote fruit trees must come true to seed right? Reason I ask is because for example the white mango. I got the impression that there is more than just that one tree in the forest and the concern was that deforestation is wiping them out. Obviously grafting preserves the genetics but there is no way someone grafted all the trees already in the forest. I guess im confused why they are trying so hard to graft them when the others trees seem to have grown just fine from seed naturally. How else did the other white mango trees get there.

Am I missing something?
is it because the seeds are illegal to import and the bud wood isnt?

Mike

If you listen close to the video, it said it was illegal to take the seeds, they didn't elaborate if it was the export or import that was illegal, it is ok to take the cuttings however but they still had to meet some requirements. As for the genetics, I wondered the same things, since these are wild, they can't be grafts, and they must come true, or at least similar enough to the parent and nearby trees if grown by seed.

Charles, go down to the Fairchild Tropical Garden on their public sale and tastilng weekend and purchase some of the varieties, such as the White Mango,and others that you are interested in and plant the seeds.. - Millet

Charles, I have a farm but, even with that, I'm going to be squeezing figs in. The south end of my chestnut orchard has soil with a pH higher than chestnuts like. The trees there do "okay", but I'm going to inter-plant a few rows with about 150 fig trees spaced 7' apart. By the time they get large enough to be any sort of a nuisance I hope to have figured out if there is a future in commercial fig production for fresh market sales or not. Then I can decide what of the 90 varieties I want to focus on (75 varieties is in addition to the 15 or so I already had). Some are quite rare so productivity is very uncertain.

Regarding the white mango, I haven't learned yet if the grafts were successful or not. I wrote to Richard Campbell and he replied, but he didn't answer my question! I've heard of the mango festival before and may just have to make it there one of these years.