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Hi Tina

I had a very productive Anna apple in Arizona, zone 10. I like the looks of the tree and the apples were good for cooking like applesauce or pies, for fresh eating they were not that good for my taste, they were selling them in the local farmers market as cooking apples.
It probably does well by you and is always nice to have fresh apples and is a pretty tree, can grow big.

Silvia

oh that's not so good. Nick definately wants a fresh eating apple. BTW - I didn't kill the potato slips! I have 10 plants from the potato you gave me so far. They aren't giants....but they are alive with green leaves. I have had such a better spring growing season than I had in Fall! The blue tomatoes are starting to change color now! I water it tons every day, but it always looks like it wants more. We planted two swordbean seeds and they are both up. The black jungle beans are up too. I had some black alabama limas already, so I've saved the seeds you gave me. Will I be able to save the bean seeds from my different plants or do they cross polinate? Have you got anything new growing? Sally gave me some dwarf papaya's that I am trying to nurse to a plantable size, but I may be a little late for this year.

You will need a polinator, golden dorset will be good for our zone and for the anna. I had both but lost one and now the remaining tree flowers but doesn't fruit.

Tina, Nick maybe likes the taste of the Anna apple, it is a little bit tart but crispy. When younger I would go for that kind of flavors, you can eat it as a fresh apple for sure. And that one tree it was the only apple that I had and like I said it was very productive! I did ask at the nursery where I bought that question because I only wanted to plant one of each category of fruit.

And I agree with you, growing in the cooler months it is more efficient for the veggies and us, it is getting hot and it seems that the plants are always thirsty,:)

As long as you keep the sweet potatoes alive when young they will make it and won't need water as often later on, they will grow even in the cooler months and as long as you save some potatoes, you will never have to buy a sweet potato again.

When I saved the black jungle butterbeans they were the only ones that I was growing because after the season is out with the pole beans, I plant the butterbeans, the original owner of the beans Harry said the same thing, I really don't know if they will cross or not.

A lot of the papayas that are grown these days are hybrids and they are very easy to cross pollinate if another one is growing nearby, that is one reason that I don't save any papaya seeds, I rather buy the seeds and be sure of the variety that I am growing.

I bought a new variety of sweet potato and a dwarf papaya at Echo, if I like them I will grow them again.

And I have new winter squash coming up one is blue kuri and the other is red kuri, the big pumpkin is almost ready, it is huge!

Blue kuri winter squash

I will be planting okra, black jungle butterbeans, maybe the red noodle yard long beans if I have space, soon I am going to get hit with the tomato season. The hearts that I am growing have been ripening now and they are good!
And every day I am looking to give away beans, cucumber, summer squash and peppers, my small garden produces more than we can eat.

And Nick will love the sword bean, he can show his friends, just remember they can only be eaten when not mature before they developed beans, it is a fun vine to grow!

My vine where I have cucumbers, peppers and eggplants is getting huge and flowering some very pretty flowers, it is a perennial, but I don't know if I will keep it, it will be good once the cucumbers are done.

Silvia

Hmm, we have an Anna on dwarf stock. And hubs is expecting it to be good for fresh eating. And our neighbor planted a dorset. Which reminds me I better go water it. From Bay Laurel description:

ANNA APPLE
Price: Make Selection For Price
Remarkable fruit for mild winter climates in southern California and southern Arizona. Bears heavy crops of sweet, crisp, flavorful apples even in low desert. Use fresh or cooked. Keeps for 2 months in the refrigerator. Ripens in July. 200 hrs. Self-fruitful or pollinated by Dorsett Golden or Ein Shemer. Available on: M111 and M27

~dianne

Okay - I guess we'll give it a shot. Not like Nick would have it any other way anyway! :) He just wanted that tree.

I really like that vine Silvia. What is it?

We'll probably let the sword bean grow into it's full glory and not try to eat it. I have so many beans going we won't miss it even a little. I've got Speckled limas, doves breast, alabama black limas, florida speckled limas, your jungle limas, red noodle beans, kentucky wonder, and a garden bed full of pinto beans I'm growing as a cover crop to start out a new bed with:

I should probably thin them....but they look so lush!

Nick's Dill is in full bloom...but we keep eating the cukes so I am not sure we'll have enough pickle material.

How are your curry leaf tree and turmeric doing?

Tina, wow! that is a lot of beans, the good thing with the lima and butterbeans is that they are easy to store either dried or as a shellies in the freezer.

When you don't have anything else to compare Anna apples are good, a fresh apple at home is much better than the store bought. But in the local farmers market in Arizona they had 2 farms, one in more temperate area where they could grow a very good tasting apples, that is the reason they sold the Anna apples as a cooking kind.:)

Here is another picture of the red kuri winter squash, more beans and in the background is a surinam cherry, another taste I don't like but others do. To me it leaves like an aftertaste. It makes for an easy care shrub and I have to pick the fruit so it don't fall on the floor and gets bugs. That is one of the very important reasons to try to sample the fruit before buying the tree. I know that sometimes that is not possible.

And my curry leaf tree and turmeric are doing very well, adjusting to the weather and growing some roots, thank you.

The vine in the picture is a cup and saucer vine and start with green flowers that open to purple, very pretty! and is serving the purpose of shading some of the cucumbers, peppers and eggplants.

Silvia

You weren't kidding! The turmeric looks really good! Another one came up in my garden bed and the painter stepped on it. :( But luckily one more came up in a pot, so I have one at least. The curry leaf tree I have is shaded for a large part of the day and I keep it only three feet high. That's plenty.

We have a Dorset and an Anna apple tree in our backyard in Ocala. I bought the trees from the Marion County Master Gardener Annual plant sale for about $15 each three years ago and both have apples on them.

Today, I picked one of the Anna apples and we made a smoothie with it along with a banana, six tomatoes, blueberries, blackberries and one tablespoon of the Turindo sugar (all natural). All fruit is from our yard.

Our apple trees are watered three times per week along with our small 4H garden.

Well, I spoke to soon. I went to remove my remainng apple tree and found 2 good sized apples on it. I was so surprised! I am sure she knew her life was on the line so she produced. LOL Now I will have to research and trim her properly (after harvest) as the poor thing has been neglectd.