r/LosAngeles • u/darkpyschicforce • Dec 03 '21
Nature/Outdoors A Los Angeles Christmas Tree
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u/LongTimeLurker818 Dec 03 '21
Fun fact, Southern California has such a prolific climate for growing lemons that some farmers here can harvest up-to 3 times a year, depending on the variety. It's why Fillmore and Ojai have so many lemon groves. Source: know a bunch of farmers.
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u/bitcheslovedroids Whittier Dec 03 '21
my lemon tree always makes more lemons than I know what to do with
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u/Celesteven Dec 03 '21
Just before my grandpa died, he would always request lemonade. A house nearby started putting their lemons out front in a wheelbarrow for anyone to take. I really appreciate that they gave them out instead of tossing them and it was perfect timing. Grandpa had plenty of lemonade.
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u/TheOnlyBongo Dec 03 '21
Up until the mid-20th Century, citrus was one of Southern California's largest industries and one would be able to see citrus groves for miles around. After the 1950s however, land became more valuable than the citrus industry and farmers started to sell their lots to lucrative urban expansion development.
Many cities got rid of their citrus groves but a few remain. Prominently near major urban developments is the city of Riverside just south west of San Bernadino, which still has a ton of long-standing citrus groves up along Victoria Avenue. The city is also where the California Citrus State Historic Park is located where the state of California set aside 248 acres of groves for cultural and historic preservation. Outside of the state park, many of the remaining groves are slowly being bought out and redeveloped but you'll still find plenty around Victoria Avenue in Riverside, although the number shrinks every few years.
There's also other historic remnants of SoCal's once massive citrus industry. Most notably are the few packing houses that remain preserved. Packing houses were where fruits were consolidated and packed into shipping crates where they would then be ready to be shipped. The most notable and tourist-friendly one to visit is the Anaheim Packing House which remodeled the interior to be a foodie venue with many small shops and restaurants to be found inside.
And at such packing houses the crates of citrus would have to be shipped from the house to major rail hubs to be transported to other cities outside Southern California. Local railroad companies, such as Pacific Electric, found lucrative contracts in transporting these citrus laden railcars to major rail hubs. Some of the locomotives that pulled such trains, such as Pacific Electric 1624, can be found in restored operating condition down at the Southern California Railway Museum (Formerly the Orange Empire Railway Museum) in Perris, CA, where instead of pulling freight as it used to it is now used occasionally to pull excursion tourist trains down a short line of track.
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u/Eurynom0s Santa Monica Dec 04 '21
And I'm pretty sure citrus is one of the things California started growing because the south was desperate to cling to tobacco and cotton farming with sharecropping. Literally we're the country's breadbasket instead of having regional breadbaskets because of the legacy of slavery.
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u/klowny Santa Monica Dec 03 '21
My lazy ass lemons only fruit every 1.2 years it seems. But my oranges got the memo for 3x/year.
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u/clearthebored Dec 03 '21
do you ever fertilize
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u/Glitter_Bee Dec 04 '21
Maybe they are saying “This lazy ass owner never fertilizes me and expects me to fruit.” Lol
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u/magelanz Mid-City Dec 04 '21
My lemon trees always produce year-round but have more in the winter. I think it depends on the species.
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u/darkpyschicforce Dec 03 '21 edited Dec 03 '21
Fully decorated. The fruit should be ready to be opened around the 25th!
Edit:
This is a navel orange tree and those are ivy umbels growing alongside.
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Dec 03 '21
I miss my orange and lemon trees. :(
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u/GoldandBlue Dec 04 '21
I used to have a plum and apple tree in my backyard growing up. The old neighbor poisoned the ground because he didn't like plumbs falling in his yard. Fucking asshole.
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Dec 04 '21
The old neighbor poisoned the ground because he didn't like plumbs falling in his yard. Fucking asshole.
Jesus.. What an asshole.
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Dec 03 '21
That’s a healthy ass tree! 👍🏼 I’m trying to get my Lime tree to be this healthy and productive - what fertilizer and how often do you water, OP?
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Dec 04 '21
[deleted]
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Dec 04 '21
Damn, 8 hours!! My deep watering routine is 20 mins once a week (drip). I fertilize with a citrus tree fertilizer once every 3 months and I still get some yellowing in my leaves.
I’ve read you can destroy your tree’s roots from overwatering so I might try adding an extra ten minutes and see if that helps (I also spray with leaves with a nutritional spray twice a year). We get a decent yield but the above is amazing! OP probably doesn’t own the tree or just doesn’t wanna share their secrets (👎🏼) lol
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u/BothKindsofMusic Dec 03 '21
Anyone with a citrus tree has a swath of rotting fruit underneath it. (Source: my lime tree)
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u/immersemeinnature Dec 03 '21
My grandparents in Brea had a lemon tree in their backyard. She once sent me a box of lemons with blossoms intact while I was in graduate school in Massachusetts. When I got them it was ice storming. I cried tears of joy and longing then threw a tequila shots party using her lemons as chasers. One of my most cherished memories. She's gone now.
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u/Moneypenny_Dreadful Dec 03 '21
So beautiful! And Merry SoCal Xmas!!
But as many have said here, I think that's half an orange tree (not quite ripe), and half some kind of invasive ivy. We have the latter in our yard and fight against it every year, but the bees seem to like the starbursts...
My neighbor has lived here since the 60's and has a 'lemon' tree in their backyard. He always offers them to us, but they're super pithy and bitter - I think they crossed somehow with a neighbor's grapefruit or just grew wild.
On the flip side, I brought a dwarf Meyer and a dwarf Valencia up to our place in NoHo 12 years ago, and they're still fighting strong! My Meyer is stupid fecund this year, so we're going to make more preserved lemons!
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Dec 03 '21
someone please send me some I miss this more then anything oh and a bag of Caracara too please!!!!!! I will return the favor with local yummy kinda like a food penpal !!!
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u/Aeriellie Dec 03 '21
My tree finally has ORANGES tips so we don’t robbed? Someone thought it was a smart idea to plant is 5 feet from the driveway & sidewalk.
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u/cinnamoogoo Dec 03 '21
We made up a Christmas lemon song “it’s the story… of lemons…at Christmas…”
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u/TKRalf Cypress Park Dec 03 '21
Watch out for them lemon stealing whores though