Grow 100 Rare Fruit Trees Backyard Orchard Urban Food Forest

Hi, my name is Charles Malki, biologist and plant expert with Ivory Organics, where we grow cool plants. And today we're here at Edgar Valdivia's home orchard. As many of us would like growing our food forests at home, Edgar has accomplished that. And thank you so much for having me here at your home. Thank you. No problem at all. So I met Edgar about two and a half years ago in I believe it was May of 2017. You opened your home and we got to meet through an organization called the California Rare Fruit Growers. And I'm going to put that link which is crfg.org. I would check it out for those of you in the California area as well as in Texas and Arizona. And even as you said throughout the world, you can find organizations nearest you and find other plant enthusiasts and get connected. And I just want you to know that Edgar has been on the board. His wife Pat is still currently on the board here in Los Angeles. And I try to make as many of these meetings as well. And hoping to see you there. I wanted to hopefully take a tour of your home garden and see all of the fruit trees that you have available. And hopefully you can educate and enlighten us on what's possible with a home garden. And here we are in the city of Simi Valley. So we're dealing with winters that are you know a little bit below freezing and summers that are about 110, 105 right on average. You can see it right here. I have a pomegranate is one of my projects. You know pomegranates now they used to be with a hard seed that when you eat it you can even break your teeth. Yeah. And make a mess in your hands. Right now we had so many 30 different types of pomegranates that we got it from the Middle East through the University of UC Davis. That they give it cuttings to us. And I'm planting here. For example, I used to have the old pomegranate that used to be the wonderful. That is very popular. Wonderful variety. Yeah. That's one of the most. I cut it completely all three. And all the new shoots that they come in. I grafted each shoot. I grafted 10 different types of pomegranate. So that's why you can see here we have so many different types of pomegranates. 10 different types growing in one single plant. So you can do that in your backyard too. So this originally wonderful variety of pomegranate was grafted with now 10 different excellent varieties of pomegranates that you've sourced from all around the world. Yeah. With soft seeds. That they don't sting your hands. And they have a lot of antioxidants. Pomegranates as you know is very healthy for your health. Because they have a lot of antioxidants. And something else I want to emphasize is the fact that we're here now at the end of September. And we're going to enter this food forest. And there's still so much more food to enjoy. And so much more to come. So let's continue. As we continue in the pomegranate. You can see the pomegranates can grow for two reasons. It can be for flower. So it gives you flowers. Like a carnation. Beautiful flowers. Like a carnation. Mostly they are grown the Japanese types. They are for ornamental. Ornamental. Just for the flower and just for the little fruits that they have. You can see in here we have a simple this. This is a pomegranate that has white flower. And the fruit is white. And the inside the aerials are white. Wow. Pomegranates are typically a reddish or orange flower. So these here bloom white. And also create white fruit with the inside is also white as well. That's amazing. Even we have it now a different pomegranate that is black. Black inside. Black fruit. Completely dark. That is very rich in antioxidants. Comes from actually native from Iran. That is a very good. Very good for nutritional ways. And antioxidants. And when will the pomegranates be ready? Again here we are at the end of September. When can we expect to harvest? Next month. So another month. Yeah. And I want to plan to do a festival. So people will come and taste all the different pomegranates. Fantastic. So October, November is ripening season. Yes. Fantastic. So here we are next to one of the two varieties. Actually hundreds of varieties that Edgar has basically developed. And Edgar is also known as being the world's leading educator and promoter of dragon fruits in this modern era. He has been educating about dragon fruits and increasing the popularity of the fruits through educational seminars across the country. And has developed a lot of varieties that are also making it into orchards and eventually to your table through his efforts. And over here the dragon fruit also originally known and it's been sourced from areas of South and Central America was known as the petahaya. Yes correct. And and now it was the it was basically taken from the Central and South America regions to Vietnam. I've learned all of this from you. And from Vietnam into China where it was popular popularized as the dragon fruit. And this here is a variety known as what? This is Trisha. This is the Trisha. Yeah you can see the Trisha has thorns the leaf and the fruit is completely different. So it's more of an elongated fruit. Yeah yeah. And the color of the fruit on the inside. I know we did that right deep in antioxidants. A deep red color and we did the tasting with the dragon fruit demonstration we did earlier. This plant is very good now because we realize it's a very good rootstock. Very strong. So and now since we learned that not only the people can grab plants that they're kind of a weak hold with the weather. And this rootstock is helping to survive better. The other cool thing about Trisha and being we've actually founded a business on the concept of whitewashing. This is the only dragon fruit variety that again you developed is that has natural whitewash within the tree. If you take a look you can actually see that there's a white film that the plant naturally develops to repel that excess light. And it all offers the plant protection during the hottest summer days. Just like you would put sunscreen on your body to stay cooler. And then in the winter it offers insulation to the plant too. Helping the plant endure some of the coldest days. Again just like whitewashing would otherwise do for your plant. It's got thorns to say stay off. Don't touch me. You know ready to harvest pretty soon. And what's awesome about dragon fruit which again I learned from you is from the time it goes from bud it'll flower within 30 days. And from flower to fruit it's just another 30 days. So it's one day cycle. So it's one of the fastest returns. Even faster than tomatoes. Faster than pretty much any other fruit that I'm aware of. They can go from flower to fruit that quickly. And you have from July till November that will flower. And you can enjoy from July till November. That's a huge season to capitalize on. This is a cross between pitaya, the cactus columnar, with the pitahaya, the regular. And I see that it's kind of budding near the top. You see at the very top like there's like two inches. Is that the flower that's going to maybe come out? Or you think it's going to be more growth? More growth. Yeah. And we already have one fruit this year. Oh I see one fruit around the corner. One fruit already. Yeah? How was it? Good. Delicious. Delicious. That's great. Very sweet. And not no no thorns. Nothing at all. And it's become very... So I... So that's another creation. Another invention going on. But it's the same family. But yeah they're related. And that one is very very rare. Very rare plant. Remember I am native from South America. So actually and my city is so hot. That's why my trees are so deep. Gives me the atmosphere that I am in the jungle. You know I need shade. Because it's so hot in this city. And that's why normally I teach that all the trees have to be six feet tall. But my trees they are completely high. Because my desire is that I want that way to give me pressure and feel like I am in the jungle and the shade. When I came here two years ago I was attracted and loved. Like when I always thought about food forest. I feel like I'm entering just as you mentioned you know from your native country. Which is from where? Just so people know. Peru. So from Peru. And the goal is you wanted a food forest. And this is truly a forest. But I know for me with all of the gardens I visited everyone's emphasizing the importance of as you've also met with Tom Spellman of Dave Wilson Nursery that talks about a gardening concept known as the backyard orchard culture. Which talks about as you also just mentioned is having trees that are six feet, seven feet, even four feet. The goal is you want to be able to reach the fruit. And you always also teach the fact that you explain. That you should be controlling the tree or the tree controlling you. How do you explain it? Actually you're supposed to control it and cut it you know. So then it's more rich. But because you don't want to climb into the ladders you know. Because you you're going to fall down. You're going to break your neck and it's very bad consequence to your health. So shorter is the best way to go. But I like bigger like I mentioned before for the shade. And make me feel like I am in the jungle. Because you know in Peru has the Amazons that is big jungle in there. This is spectacular. You're going to love it as we continue the tour. But there's so much going on right before we even start. Over here I have almost 80 different type of fruits. This is sapote. White sapote. It's almost like the fruit like avocado. And right below that check out these dragon fruit that are thriving in the shade. Yeah yeah there's like pinkish. It's already forming the fruit. It's fantastic. Sapote. Check out these clusters. Oh they are so good. This fruit is delicious. This fruit has to be hard. You pick it up hard and then inside you have become soft. When it's soft it's ready to eat. Over here we have the rose apple. Rose apples. Do you have any that are ready? Oh yes yes yes. And check out the leaves of the rose apple. It's an evergreen tree. Beautiful addition. Here's some fruit right up here. Here's some little ones that are starting to turn yellow. And the flower of this one is very very nice flower. Look the fruit. The amazing part of this particular fruit is when you eat this fruit it's like you're eating petals of roses. That's fantastic. And take a look at the inside. This here is called the rose apple. And there's a couple of seeds in here. And let's open that up. So typical being a California red fruit grower what mostly people they do they put the seeds in their packet. Watch me. I got a couple of my seeds too. This is fantastic. It's truly like eating petals of roses. So if you love roses this here's the rose apple. Over here we have another very rare fruit. It's like a cherry. It's a very black seed that the fruit comes in the trunk. Oh I know what that. What's that one called? Gojabora or something. Gojabora. It's very rare. It's from Brazil. Yes. Check this out. This here looks like a dragon alien fruit. What is this one here called? Cherimoya. This is the cherimoya. Did you hand pollinate these or it happened on its own? No I don't. You have to hand pollinate. If you want to get from one tree a hundred fruits you have to do hand pollination. But I don't do hand pollination. Check this out. Something got to your pomegranate. So in between this there's a pomegranate tree here. And there's fruit everywhere. Like there's more pomegranates. I'm going to continue going 100 feet. And then there's dragon fruit over this entire shed. Again most of it is within eight feet of reach. So again any fruit are all within reach. I'm assuming nectarine tree here. Nectarine. We have more dragon. I think different type of dragon already. Wow look at how happy these plants are. And look at all of them in time. Over here we have more cherimoya. So we did a lesson on dragon fruit earlier and we described how growing in container is the best way to be growing your dragon fruit. We have here the quince. The one side is crossed with an apple. So Edgar crossed the quince with apples to deliver more sweetness and moisture so it's not so dry. And now you can actually enjoy the flavor of quince without the bitterness and the as you also mentioned like you choke on it when you eat it. But now you don't with these with this new variety. We have in here so many different types of dragon. Check that out. All of them in pots. Beautiful. But the cold weather as you can see the heat damaged my plants. Especially the cold weather and the sun. So another variety of pomegranate here. We have 30 different types of pomegranate. 30 varieties. And this over here what's this beautiful tropical plant? This is a nispero. And also known more commonly as the loquat And this one is very special because this one came from Japan. This is from Japan. It is actually elongated. It's not round. It's big, elongated, very delicious. Over here we have citrus. We have lemons. We have nectarines. I mean tangerines. We have this is a cross between orange and a kumquat. It's called orange kumquat. That's awesome. Yeah but I don't develop that one. Look over here my pears. They're falling down and these are very good pears. Excellent. Here we got some pears that are just coming into season. Look. These are ripe and coming down but none of them are damaged. So we're gonna we're gonna take these in. Here's some more flowers off the dragon fruits that are coming out of nowhere in between the pear tree. We've got more dragon fruit. Check out all of these fruit. These are all again some more pears. Now look and the flavor of these pears is delicious. Did you ever taste that pear? No. What was the variety? The Bartlett pear. So here we take a look. We've got some pink on it from the last dragon fruit we ate. Yeah super sweet. It's ready. That's why you never will find this in the store. Never. When you grow it yourself you eat the different flavors. Well I've already learned this from the commercial growers. When they grow fruit the goal is to harvest the fruit two, three, four weeks before it's ever going to arrive to the store and eventually on your kitchen table. I have this piece over here. So the goal the goal here is just to enjoy you know fresh picked delicious fruit. Over here we have a lucky dragon fruit and that's growing into the tree. Loaded with it. So here's a guava tree and I can see the guava fruit near the top and then we've got this dragon fruit that's grabbed itself into the guava structure and just look at how beautiful the two have intertwined in the symbiotic way. And look how little the pot is in five gallon pot. And here we are. All of this happening right here. All of this benefit and beauty and food and nutrition and health. You know I have six different type of guava. This guava is from Asia. In Asia they can grow apples. So they have the guava that is very hard. They can this is a special one. Wow. It never becomes so. This is the pink guava. Inside is pink. Yeah. I love the pink one. Over here I grab my gold nugget. The gold nugget is a very good tangerine. I do my own grabs and more more dragons over here. Okay so we're going through the forest now. Here we go. We got another cave. It really feels like you're in another world. We have in here laurel to cook. Look. Figs. Laurel? Huge figs back there. Different type of figs. I grab my figs. Different guavas. Different churrimones. Fruit over there. That's very rare. Lugma? Lugma. Very rare. In the beginning only there were three trees in United States. And now we have maybe 200 because I give seeds. I give the plant. That's fantastic. And this tree is 25 years old. I live in this house 30 years. And you said you use the lugma to make the delicious ice cream. Oh heck. That's great. Very delicious. Look all the dragons. These are the original dragon fruits that Paul also give it to me. And I put it in the shade. Do you see? Yeah. You see too much shade. Look what happens. They don't do nothing. They're not performing. They need some sun. Yeah they need sun. And over here we have avocado. Over here we have orange. We have jujubes from China. Look at the jujubes over there. Loaded up there. So jujubes way at the very top. You can see those little fruit about the size of a quarter. And I'm next to here's one of his avocados. And then to the other side of me another avocado. And this here I'm guessing is a nut. No it's a lugma. Another lugma. Lugma tree. Wow. And then another one. L-U-C-U-M-A. Alberta peach. Over here we have another sapote. This very good sapote. Another Asian pear. We have in here a lot of pomodoro. Yeah. And avocado. This is special avocado. Oh you see the avocados in there? Yeah they are special. It's a you know I I don't cross pollinate nothing but I plant a seed. So if you want to explain why are they in a bag? Because I have a lot of squirrels. So to keep the squirrels away. And if you take a look here these are uncovered. Yeah because. Avocados. Yeah I try to protect from the squirrels because especially this one that is a brand new year that give me fruit. I want to see how they come out. And look over here we have excellent I know exactly this is the lemon verbena. So they make lemon teas. If you have a hard time sleeping you get these leaves and you make a tea and then you fall asleep relax you completely. Which way do we go next? We can come this way. And over here you have more ground fruit. Look everywhere. And this is one of the best that comes from Spain. So the cherimoya is up there. Yeah that produces by herself you don't have to do any pollinating. So self-pollinating. That's a huge saver of time. I know a lot of people don't enjoy fruit unless they go with their paintbrush. Pollinating. This is a different type of fig. Can I pick one? Oh yeah take this one. Do you know what variety it is? It's brown turkey. Here we go check this out. This is a brown turkey fig. Over here I'm growing my cuttings. So it's a berry flavored fig. Look I'm growing all my cuttings in here in this little greenhouse. Oh so many brand new cuttings that I'm growing. And then we continue. That's just so there's some more fruit here. There's more figs. So we have figs. This is something called sapote. Look you're going to have a chance to taste this. Are you sure it's ready? This pomegranate you're going to taste it. It's supposed to be very sweet and soft seed. Wow. I thought this was going to be the white pomegranate but it's not because the inside is pink. Yeah there we go. See very soft seed. Yeah it doesn't even seem like there is a seed in there. Usually like for example with the but there's no crunch at all. Nothing. It's just the flavor of pomegranate which is I know something kids would love. And don't sting your hands. No because they're lighter. That's why I say this type of pomegranate you can eat it in the table without destroying the house. And the areas are big. I have 30 different types of pomegranate. Figs. This is awesome. Different types over here. We have a lot of over here. We have a mulberries. Oh mulberries. You know the mulberry normally is a black. It's a big one. The mulberry and make it a lot of mess. It steams your hands. If you drop it in the floor then you walk inside. So I got this one from India. They give you a yellow. A yellow fruit. Yellow fruit. Very this the size of my finger. From what country again? From India. So there's an Indian mulberry tree that produces yellow fruit. Yeah it's called. Very very sweet. Oh this is excellent fruit you know. So imagine instead of like growing blackberries you can actually have a blackberry tree. Again this is called a mulberry and it comes in a variety of colors. From white to yellow. Yeah. To I've seen red. I have purple. Let me share with you the greenhouse. Take a look over here. This is where Edgar propagates and starts a lot of the exciting things that are happening within the garden. Just check this out. All of the different trees. The thing that caught my eye being that Edgar is. This is a dragon fruit. Comes up with so many commercial varieties of dragon fruit. Check out how these babies start. But you know you have to start from seed and when you start from seed you have to wait at least five years to see the result. So in the garden when you are creating new fruits you have to be patient. There's no from today till tomorrow. No but that's also the excitement. Yes. And that's what keeps you going from day after day and that's why gardening is just such an amazing hobby. You see even and now I have a lot of citrus that I are using the Trifolia. Trifolia. Citrus too. That's a good rootstock and I grafted the golden nugget in now. Excellent. Over here so then that I have more Lukmas growing in here you see. From seeds. Yeah. Lukmas and I have all this dragon fruit. I have Azuntas in here. Azunta 5 is this one. You see. Very strong. Very healthy. This is a Dora Trisha. Look completely different. Yep. No thorns. Nothing at all. Very good. And very strong. I'm gonna run you guys through the food forest real quick and then we're gonna conclude. So um follow me real quick. And I'm just gonna um just show off real quick to check out the dragon fruit within the citrus tree. And over here there's a date tree. Yeah. And then. Pao pao. Pao pao is rare. There's a pao pao tree. Chinese mulberry. Chinese mulberry. I see an apricot tree. Very rare this Chinese mulberry. Look it's already coming. They become red. See. It's from China. It's a mulberry. And then if you continue checking all the citrus clusters of I'm guessing grapefruit or oranges. This is Patelai. This is my creation. This is your creation. What is it? Flavor. A mixture between navel orange and grapefruit. So an orange grapefruit combination. If we continue through here. You have macadamia. The squirrels are eating in the ground. So here's some macadamia shells. The squirrels got some and hopefully Edgar's getting a few. We got again more avocados and apricots and peaches and nectarines. All of them from Turkmenistan. I mean who could ever wish for more. I mean you've got it all. Check out the apples. I mean you want apples. You come to the garden. You pick some apples. And then over here this is another beautiful fruit. Persimmons. So this is going to be November-December harvest. And then figs. You want you know ripe figs. You want green figs. You got unlimited food. Surinam cherry. Surinam cherry is like a little tomato. Red ones. Very delicious. So here we are now in this canopy of citrus. And what is this tree over here? Mulberry. That's the Indian mulberry. The white. So we got Indian mulberry. White mulberries. And then way up there. What is that amazing basketball sized fruit? That's a dragon fruit. That's the dragon fruit. Look at how amazing this is. And we're going to get to pick this one right? Yeah you're going to take home and enjoy this one. This one home? Twist it around. My kids are going to love it. This is going to be great. There it is. Look how big it is. Check this out. How majestic is that? And what variety is this? That is yours. This is called the George. This is a white one. Sweet. Fantastic. We're going to love this. Excellent. Well let's. Look at these little figs over here. They are so good. These little figs. Eat these little figs. You will enjoy it. I'm going to hold it. Yeah it tastes like strawberries. I think it's from Paul's house right? Yeah. Right? The figo preto. The figo preto. Thank you so much for this gift. Thank you for allowing me to sample all of these dragon fruit and a lot of these creations and cross-pollination varieties that have made it into commercial production. And sharing your beautiful garden in the food forest. And meeting your lovely wife. And I couldn't wish or ask for much more. Thank you so much. No problem at all. You are welcome. And I hope with your product I'm going to be able to produce more fruit. So I want to give you this as a gift from the Ivory Organics company. And I just want to share with you what I've got in here. This is our trio set which includes the Ivory Organics six macros plus fertilizers and the three-in-one plant guard. And the ready-to-use spray for you to use and experiment you know within your garden. And please keep me posted. And I'm also going to share with all of you the link to Edgar Valdivia's YouTube channel so that you can check out some more education that he makes available between he and his wife with the fig trees and the dragon fruit and so much more. Be sure to check that out. Subscribe. Click on that push bell notification. And if you have any questions feel free to write to him directly and it'll be able to communicate. Another important thing to consider is also joining the California Rare Fruit Growers which is at crfg.org. And there you can find a chapter nearest you. They're throughout the entire state of California in addition to Texas and Nevada. Nevada. And they're also in Nevada. And they have members throughout the entire world. So be sure to tap into that network and and just get connected with this awesome family of plant lovers throughout the world. And the value and the education that they have to offer to keep on making each of your growing seasons one of the best ever. Again thank you so much for having me. No problem at all. Thank you so much. Encouraging you all to also make sure you hit that subscribe button. Click bell notification and make sure you stay on top of all of the educational videos as Ivory Organics makes them available to you. As always keep growing with Ivory Organics and wishing you all. And you will get this beautiful magazine from California Rare Fruit Growers every two months. California Rare Fruit Growers and wishing you all happy gardening. Thank you again. All right here we go.