088 Empire Apple on Fabulous Fruit Friday! Pruning Tomatoes for Earlier Production. Gasoline Tips for Outdoor Power Equipment.

Do you like apples? Fruit tree expert Ed Laivo of TomorrowsHarvest.com returns with an apple variety that is not only delicious, but can be grown throughout most of the United States. Today on Fabulous Fruit Friday, it’s the Empire apple. 
If you’re having problems starting your outdoor garden power equipment, it might be your gas. We have tips to make sure your mower, weed trimmer, leaf blower and other gas powered equipment starts on the first pull of the rope or turn of the key. 
And, our favorite college horticulture professor, Debbie Flower, has tomato plant pruning tips that can hasten the arrival of those tasty red orbs in the coming months.

It’s all on episode 88 of the Garden Basics podcast, brought to you by Smart Pots and Tomorrows Harvest. And we will do it all in under 30 minutes. Let’s go!

Pictured:
The Empire Apple

Links:
Smart Pots!
Tomorrow's Harvest
JB's Power Equipment,  Davis, CA
K-100 Gasoline Additive

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Chapters

• 1:30 Empire Apple on Fabulous Fruit Friday!
• 12:42 Smart Pots!
• 13:55 Gasoline Tips for Garden Power Equipment
• 21:32 Tomorrow's Harvest
• 22:50 Pruning Tomatoes for Earlier Harvest
• 27:01 How to Contact Us

Transcript

GB 088 FFF Empire Apple, Gasoline Tips, Tomato Armpit Hairs

SPEAKERS

Debbie Flower, Ed Laivo, Brad Gay, Farmer Fred

Farmer Fred  00:00

Garden Basics with Farmer Fred is brought to you by Smart Pots, the original lightweight, long lasting fabric plant container. it's made in the USA. Visit SmartPots.com slash Fred for more information and a special discount, that's SmartPots.com/Fred.

Farmer Fred  00:20

Welcome to the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. If you're just a beginning gardener or you want good gardening information, you've come to the right spot.

Farmer Fred  00:32

 Do you like apples? Well, fruit tree expert Ed Laivo of tomorrow'sharvest.com returns with an apple variety that is not only delicious, but can be grown throughout most of the United States. It's today on Fabulous Fruit Friday, the Empire apple. Plus if you're having problems starting your outdoor garden power equipment, it just might be your gasoline. We have tips to make sure your mower, weed trimmer, leaf blower, and other gas powered equipment starts on the first pull of the rope or turn of the key. And our favorite college horticulture Professor (retired) Debbie Flower has tomato plant pruning tips that can hasten the arrival of those tasty red orbs in the coming months. It's all on episode 88 of the garden basics podcast brought to you by smart pots and tomorrow's harvest. And we'll do it all in under 30 minutes. Let's go. 

Farmer Fred  01:28

It's fabulous fruit Friday here at Garden Basics with Farmer Fred. And it's time to bring in Ed Laivo, from Burchell nursery and tomorrow's harvest.com to give us a tasty piece of fruit to talk about. And maybe someday, for you to munch on. Ed, I'm hankering for an apple. I know it's not apple season. It's only March. But still, I'd like a fresh apple.

Ed Laivo  01:52

Hey, Fred, it's fruit tree season. In general, this is a time when you go out and you kind of plan and purchase what you really want to plant for this year. And you really have to have some inspiration to do that. And there's no more inspiration out there than when you bite into an empire Apple. Empire apples are incredible, incredibly special, wonderful piece of fruit.

Farmer Fred  02:16

Where did that come from?

Ed Laivo  02:18

It's got a curious history. It's not technically an heirloom apple yet. It's not even close to it. But it's really a variety that was first crossed in the mid 40s, I think then kind of investigated by Cornell University in the mid 50s. And then introduced in the mid 60s. So its kind of had a short, long introduction into the world. And I think I became familiar with it towards the end of the 70s when I got the chance to taste it at an orchard down in Santa Cruz (coastal CA). And surprisingly enough, you know, here's a New York apple growing in Santa Cruz and I thought, at the time, I was just kind of getting into fruit trees. And I really thought it was curious that you know, everything that I had learned about chill, and this apple that obviously came out of the New York which would be considerably high chill, was growing and producing such wonderful fruit in the Santa Cruz area.

Farmer Fred  03:16

The Empire Apple, it must have come from a couple of parents.

Ed Laivo  03:22

And special parents as well. You know, it came from the Macintosh Apple, which of course, at the turn of the century, was one of the most popular apples planted. And then of the Red Delicious, which would fast become one of the most popular apples ever. That cross, of course, seem to be at the time, I'm sure in the mid 40s, seem to be an ideal, you know, pairing of two of the most popular varieties of fruit and in fact, it resulted in the Empire Apple which I do consider to be superior to both.

Farmer Fred  03:54

I would imagine then with that kind of parentage, this has to be a dark red apple.

Farmer Fred  03:58

it is. it's a dark red, kind of blotched over, a little bit of yellow,  that comes through. It is really pretty perfectly round. Probably one of the things that I think is is most outstanding, aside from the flavor, it;s got an incredible creamy flesh with real sprightly sub-acid flavor. So sprightly almost a certain effervescence that the flesh has. And it's definitely a sub-acid so it really doesn't have anything to get in the way of a lot of sugar. The skin snaps like crazy so it's got this. It's got this almost fun snap that happens every time you bought it bite into it, which is typical of a Macintosh, but this is a tighter skin than a Mac. The tree itself, it has a real kind of a very balanced growth habit. Very easy to prune. Another thing about the fruit, the fruit sets very evenly around through the tree. So thinning is a breeze on an Empire. It sets very, very heavy crops. So you want to thin it mainly to get size because it's only a medium size apple. So you really thin it because there are heavy producers. So you thin it to get, you know good size of your fruit. But the thinning is amazing because  it just seems that the fruit balances itself out in the canopy. So that makes for easy picking and easy thinning and you know, it's just a real neat, neat tree to work with. It requires a pollinator though. Some, some people say that it is self fruitful. And I would say that I've never ever tested it specifically to determine whether or not it's so fruitful and nor have I seen it in situations where it wasn't adjacent to other varieties of apples to ever qualify whether it was self fruitful, but I do see that in some catalogs, so I would suspect that some others possibly have. But in there is the fact that it is one of the best pollinators for many varieties of apples and particularly it's quite often recommended for pollinating the Gravenstein. And of course the Mutsu. I love the Mutsu.

Ed Laivo  06:18

Yeah, they're pollen, sterile variety. So they require a pollinator, definitely that Empire is absolutely one of the best pollinators for both.

Farmer Fred  06:28

If it had its choice, who would its pollinator be?

Ed Laivo  06:32

I think, you know, it takes many of the standard varieties like your Fujis, Honeycrisp.  Keep in mind that the Empire Apple has one of the widest range of adaptations of any variety of Apple I know of. There might be a few that come close. But you know, Empire apples is an Apple that'll set well in zone four, and it'll set well in zone nine B, of course, with my great friend, Tom Spellman from the Dave Wilson nursery. He's done his tests out in UC Irvine, and Empire is a just a stellar performer down in zone nine B. So this is an apple that has such a wide range of adaptation, it just makes it that much more attractive to the home gardener, it's got fairly decent disease resistance, you really want to grow it in a place that has good air drainage and gets morning sun. It is really, really important in dealing with powdery mildew, and that it's the drying sun, that dries the tree out the quickest that helps in controlling it. But it does have a fair resistance to fire blight. So that's that's a good thing you know, really seen very little in my personal experience, but I do know that it does get it.

Farmer Fred  07:41

Alright, so if it can be pollinated by any other number of Apple varieties, it would make sense then to put in other Apple varieties that might ripen at a different time. You don't want a bunch of apples all at once. If you've got three or four apple trees, it would be nice to have them all mature at different stages.

Ed Laivo  08:02

Yeah, and you know, we could have some fun with that too, with successive  ripening. I think so often, Fred, people don't key into that when they're choosing fruit trees for their backyard. You know, for instance, they'll plant three of their favorite varieties and they'll all ripen right at the same time. And then of course, you have too much fruit though you may enjoy your abundance of fruit at the same time, you're probably going to have a lot that goes to waste. But successive ripening and having fruit that ripens through the whole season is a great goal when you're planning your home garden with the Empire. Of course, that's a late, mid season apple, or early late season, for confusion's sake. And so pairing that up with  an earlier Honeycrisp in cold country might be a real cool idea. And then maybe in between, you could put a Cox's orange Pippin in. And then of course, you know your Empire would ripen late or you could actually go with the Honeycrisp. If you're really partial to the Honeycrisp and you want something cold hardy, you could lay in maybe, you know something like a Winesap that comes in later, or possibly an Arkansas Black.

Farmer Fred  09:14

But basically if you're going to start with one apple, perhaps the Empire would be a good place to start.

Ed Laivo  09:19

Yeah, definitely. You know, the Empire Apple is one of the varieties they get very excited about simply because it is one that consistently, year after year after year, produces a wonderful piece of fruit. I've never ever been disappointed by, you know, the Empire Apple out in the orchards and even when I visited apple orchards in New England through the years in New Hampshire and Vermont, in New York, and Connecticut. Empire, you know, pops up quite frequently in those areas as well and it even gets a darker color there. On the west coast. It tends to be a little bit brighter, lighter, red, still deep red but lighter and brighter, but on the East Coast it's a deep red and very very distinct.

Farmer Fred  10:04

Give us four apple trees that are compatible with the Empire that would do well in warmer climates. Would the Arkansas black fit that description.

Ed Laivo  10:14

Oh, yeah, it's one of my favorites. It's in my backyard here in the Bay Area. So definitely and that's a late season so then you would have your Empire come in just before that. Then of course if you wanted to have a good warm area apple, you'd have your Gala. You know Galas not only are great pollinators there as well. But of course an incredibly popular apple if you wanted something really, really early and something that you know you could enjoy. That's traditional California. And you could start the year off with a Gravenstein.

Farmer Fred  10:47

Oh, okay. All right. And would you work a Fuji in there?

Ed Laivo  10:51

 Fuji is going to be late you know that's a late season apple. Sure you can, that's easy. Actually, Fuji would be another great pollinating variety but still popular in the grocery store. Something that everybody knows, I always liked the idea of putting in some of the more, esoteric varieties. My combination that I have here in my backyard is a combination of a Swaar, which is a Dutch variety. S-W-A-A-R. And then a Pink Pearl which is an Albert Etter variety out of California that has pink flesh and it's wonderful. And then I have an Arkansas Black in  a high density three way planting. And yeah, I get lots of fruit and they all come off at different times. 

Farmer Fred  11:41

The Empire Apple. You can find it at tomorrow's harvest.com You can find a list of nurseries that carry Burchell nursery's tomorrow harvest lineup of fine tasting fruit trees. If your local nursery doesn't have it, you can order it online from tomorrow's harvest.com. Is that true?

Ed Laivo  12:00

You know, as a matter of fact, it is. Fred, if nothing else, you are an honest man.

Farmer Fred  12:07

Thank you. And of course, Ed is a salesman. Ed Laivo, longtime fruit expert and a good guy.

Ed Laivo  12:15

Yeah. And blows a heavy harp.

Farmer Fred  12:18

Blows a heavy harp! Ladies and gentlemen, once again, the blues according to Ed. Pretty good. All right, it's tomorrow's harvest.com. Check it out for all your fruit tree needs. Ed Laivo,  thanks for spending a few minutes with us talking about the Empire apple.

Ed Laivo  12:40

Thanks for having me, Fred.I will look forward to next week...

Farmer Fred  12:42

on Fabulous fruit Friday. 

Farmer Fred  12:49

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Farmer Fred  13:56

Well, it's springtime. You might be starting up that outdoor power equipment. Maybe the lawn mower, maybe a rototiller, maybe something else. But, oh, it's not starting? What could the problem be? Maybe it's a case of the gasoline. In fact, my next guest would say it's probably a 90% chance that it is the gasoline. And not all gas is created equal. Brad Gay is with JB's Power Equipment in Davis, CA. He's been repairing outdoor power equipment for decades. And Brad, the fact of the matter is, gas goes bad and doesn't store for very long for your outdoor power equipment.

Brad Gay  14:34

No, You're right about that. Now we used to do a (morning) demonstration where we have like a coffee can, a small coffee can. We'd pour some gasoline in it. Just to give people kind of an idea of what happens. From about 830 to noon. About noon it started looking like cream in it, coffee with cream in it. Because of the moisture, and it depends on the humidity of where you are. Having the alcohol in the fuel alcohol attracts moisture. Most people might not know this, but when you go to a gas station, that gas, it comes from the bulk plant that produces that fuel and in the process, they take and put it into the tank of a truck is air tight, and there's no air that can get in it. When it goes from the truck into the tanks into the ground it's sealed, so no air is going to get into that fuel. And there's a reason. What we were talking about, the alcohol, will absorb the moisture. So that's what we have to avoid. And there's a number ways to get a good fuel to use in whatever product you have, if you can get something that doesn't have alcohol, and we buy that, but usually you're gonna pay more for it. And then you're gonna find the performance going to perform better, you're gonna have less problems.

Farmer Fred  15:53

Well, let's talk about that alcohol, we're talking, I would imagine, about ethanol. And it would be important that if you are buying your gas at a gas station and putting it in a one gallon, two gallon or five gallon container, you pay attention to which nozzle you're sticking in that can. Take a look at that pump and see what the ethanol content is. What was the limit? For I think most gas has ethanol in it. It's very hard at a gas station to find a gas pump with no ethanol.

Brad Gay  16:25

Yeah, you're not gonna find a little in some states, you're not gonna find that for sure. I know. California, you're not going to get you have to buy a separate. But in some states, you can still buy alcohol free. fuel. That's, that happens a lot. I wish we could do that here in California. But that's just how things are. The main thing you have to do, even if the alcohol isn't such an issue, because  they're only putting in 10% alcohol, at least here in California is all you're doing. If it starts getting higher than that, the performance of the small engines is really goes kaput. So the big key thing we're telling people is use the highest octane you can wherever you're buying the fuel, stay away from regular fuels, get a good fuel, go to the name brands, Shell, Chevron, if you got to Costco, Costco is premiums actually very good. You want to buy a high octane, you know, fuel. And that's, that's the main thing. And then the alcohol is secondary after that. There's additives you can put it in with that fuel to stabilize it for a long period of time in your air tight gas can. And you won't have problems. Not near the problems that you would just from buying cheap regular gas.

Farmer Fred  17:41

Well, and an airtight gas can. Good luck on that one because you're probably using the same five gallon container or two gallon container that you've been using for the last decade or so. Gasoline doesn't last through the winter in those containers if it's not air sealed. So I guess the answer is to put in some sort of stabilizer.

Brad Gay  18:00

Stabilizers are good.  Get a good gas can. Honestly, this was two days ago. I'm talking to a customer. I tell him you got to have an airtight gas can. He goes, Well, no, I just take mine just open it up. So it breathes a little bit. No, don't do that, it will go bad quicker. So but yeah, you need to, you need to get a good gas can and then a stabilizer is I would say, is pertinent. We've got a stabilizer, K-100, is one of the things we recommend  because they actually have on the side of the bottle,  we burn water. But anyway, anything that does get absorbed by the alcohol, a lot of times that helps pass that through. And we've had a demonstration of jars where we have that mix in fuel and we can take an eyedropper and take water out of the dropper and put it into the fuel. It will usually under most cases, it becomes like a salad dressing, vinegar and oil, and it separates and goes to the bottom. That bubble will be in there. But with this mixture that K 100 in there, it will it just becomes part of the gas and it will burn but it will stabilize your gas for a lot longer time. It's not going to stabilize it forever. But it gives you a better chance to get back out there and use that machine and have it start like you want it to instead of sitting there pulling the rope wondering what the hell happened. The whole idea of this whole conversation we're talking about is making life better for you the user and not having to be frustrated trying to start your stuff up. This is good information. if you listen and do this, you will not have problems starting that unit.

Farmer Fred  19:43

Exactly when you go to pull that rope or turn the key. You will not have fuel issues. If you're using fresh fuel, if you're storing it correctly in an air sealed can. If you haven't purchased a new gasoline container in a while, things have changed. Are the newer ones are better sealed?

Brad Gay  20:02

Yes, even the plastic ones, they actually have them. On the inside of that gas tank, they actually have on with a sealant in there so that nothing will go through that plastic. I mean, it's, it's amazing. the Air Resources Board came up with all of these regulations. So they forced the people making these gas cans, they do not want this emitting, they don't want to go into the air. And I don't know if that's in every state. I know it is here in California. And so we have you know, if you're in California, we've got that funky gas nozzle, you got to stick on there. And you know, it's you got to, you know, it's like a vacuum on your gas nozzle. If you go to Oregon or Nevada or any of these other states, just a regular old gas nozzle. So we have a lot of restrictions and things that we have to have dealing with this alcohol fuel. Just find the best fuel you can. And if you want to put the additive in there, that's good, but you want to buy the highest octane, really concentrate on that.

Farmer Fred  21:06

And if you're storing that fuel for any length of time, be sure to get that stabilizer and put that in the container.

Brad Gay  21:13

I would recommend that highly. Absolutely.

Farmer Fred  21:15

All right. We've got your mower started, so you can go out and mow the lawn now. Congratulations. Brad Gay from JB's Power Equipment in Davis. Brad, thanks for gassing us up.

Brad Gay  21:25

Oh, you bet Fred. You know what? It's been a gas talking to you.

Farmer Fred  21:39

The warmer weather means that fruit trees and berry bushes will soon spring to life, with the promise of tasty, nutritious fresh fruit for you and your family. What are you waiting for? A website for more information? OK, it’s Tomorrow’s Harvest dot com, your go-to site for a complete line of backyard fruit trees and bushes. Tomorrows harvest fine line of fruit trees is the result of 75 years of developing, testing and growing.  For well over 75 years three generations of the Burchell family have been at the forefront of research and development of plants of the highest quality. All of these beautiful, edible plants have been carefully cultivated for your home garden. And they come in Plantable Paper Pots, ready for you to stick directly in the ground, pot and all. Look for Tomorrow’s Harvest fruit trees at better retail nurseries. And If your favorite nursery doesn’t carry any of Tomorrows Harvest fruit, nut and berry varieties, you can order them directly from Tomorrows harvest dot. com.   Let the Burchell family’s three generations of experience take root in your home orchard, landscape and garden. Tomorrows Harvest: It’s goodness you can grow. To find out more about their nutritious and delicious fruit and nut varieties, visit tomorrowsharvest.com. 

Farmer Fred  22:53

Oh, the things you learn when you travel to a nursery with our favorite retired college horticultural Professor, Debbie Flower. We were looking at tomato plants recently. And I learned a thing or two and now you will, as well, about tomato suckers. I mean, I like to call them the tomato armpit hairs. But it's those little branches that grow between a side stem and the main stem. Do you keep them? Do you lose them? And, are they good for anything? Turns out, they are. Here's a quick tip with Debbie Flower. 

Farmer Fred  23:26

Now what about all the little armpit hairs I'll refer to on this tomato plant, which are little branches that are growing in the intersection of where there's a horizontal branch and the main stem. You'll see these little branches popping out in that armpit, right? Lose them or keep them?

Debbie Flower  23:41

It depends. You get a choice there. When I grew tomatoes in New Jersey, which is the Garden State, and tomatoes, I went to Rutgers, tomatoes was a big research crop for Rutgers. I was told and it has to do with our growing season because we had a short growing season in New Jersey. To take those out, take every one of them out and we would stake our tomatoes to a wooden stake or metal stake we'd make them very upright plants and it would be a single stem that I was told it would lead to earlier fruit production. But we weren't going for quantity of fruit production. We didn't have the growing season for that. If you leave them on they will become their own long branches and they will produce flowers and fruit but you end up getting this very dense bushy plant. Great place for tomato hornworms for instance to hide and leaf footed bugs and leaf footed bugs and maybe funguses to grow. So you get a choice of leaving them or taking them off. I tend to remove some and leave some.

Farmer Fred  23:43

So are you saying that if I remove those tomato armpit hairs, I will get tomatoes sooner?

Debbie Flower  24:53

That is what I was told when I went to Rutgers. Yes, that's a non committal answer. I don't know if it's scientifically proven

Farmer Fred  25:01

All right, so the choice is yours folks.

Debbie Flower  25:02

it is. And when the season comes to an end, when we're at the other end of the growing season, and you're getting these shoots in the armpits, with leaves and stems of their very own. If you want to preserve your tomato over the winter, that's the part you take, you take that little stem with leaves on it out of the armpit and root it, and then that will grow through the winter.

Farmer Fred  25:25

Ooh, and you can have that indoors. So you put it in a pot. Would you use seed starting mix?

Debbie Flower  25:29

No, I would use container mix. Okay, right and grow it over the winter, maybe in a greenhouse, they tend to attract white flies, it's not the easiest things to do, you'll need sun supplement, and need to make sure they stay warm. But then, if you really liked that tomato, it might be worth it to, to have it for the next spring, even if it's a yucky looking plant, by the time you get through the winter and start into the spring, you could propagate from that plant again. Same thing, take the stem out of the armpit, root it and then put it into your summer garden for the next year.

Farmer Fred  26:03

And unlike taking the seed from the tomato that was grown from this plant and planting it the next year, you're not necessarily going to get the tomato the same tomato variety from that.

Farmer Fred  26:16

if you take the armpit hair out, say in September or October when you have figured out that hey, I really liked  this tomato This is really good. If you clip out those little armpit hairs and plant them in a container and keep it indoors, you will get the same tomato next.

Debbie Flower  26:33

Yes, you're cloning. So you're making an exact copy of the plant that you had before.

Farmer Fred  26:38

Is this question going to be on the final?

Debbie Flower  26:40

Everything's on the final.

Farmer Fred  26:42

So this would be called asexual reproduction.

Debbie Flower  26:45

Yes. asexual propagation, right? Yep, absolutely. 

Farmer Fred  26:49

All right, I get an A. All right. There you go. A great tip for tomatoes not only in planting them now. But if you really like that tomato how to save it for the next year too. There you go.

Farmer Fred  27:04

The Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast has a lot of information posted at each episode: transcripts, links to any products or books mentioned during the show, and other helpful links for even more information. Plus, you can listen to just the portions of the show that interest you, it’s been divided into easily accessible chapters.  Plus you’ll find more information about how to get in touch with us. Leave an audio question without making a phone call via Speakpipe, at speak pipe dot com slash gardenbasics. it’s easy, give it a try. And you just might hear your voice on the Garden Basics podcast! If you’re listening to us via Apple podcasts, put your question in the Ratings and Reviews section. Text us the question and pictures, or leave us your question at: 916-292-8964.916-292-8964. E-mail: fred@farmerfred.com . If you tell us where you’re from, that will help us greatly to accurately answer your garden questions. Because all gardening is local. In the show notes you’ll find links to all our social media outlets, including facebook, instagram, twitter, and youtube. Also, a link to the farmerfred.com website. 

Farmer Fred  28:22

Thanks for listening to Garden Basics with Farmer Fred, brought to you by Smart Pots. Garden Basics comes out every Tuesday and Friday. It's available on many podcast platforms including Apple, Spotify, Google, IHeart, Stitcher and many more. And if you're listening on Apple, please leave a comment or a rating. That helps us decide which garden topics you'd like to see addressed. And again, thank you.