Bob Duncan: “Let’s Try It”

It just wasn't on the radar screen that many of these typically Mediterranean tree fruits could be grown in our climate.

It just, nobody ever even considered it.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, lots of people grew them in containers or whatever, but nobody ever thought to, uh, grow them in the ground out here.

I, I, I recognize that, you know, in, in true Mediterranean climates like California or Spain or Italy or Turkey, frost is a totally normal occurrence.

And yet you see all these interesting subtropical or Mediterranean fruits flourishing there in a climate where frost is quite normal in the winter.

I just looked at the Victoria situation and I said, "That's largely us." Frost is a common occurrence here in the winter, uh, but temperatures, s- serious freezes are relatively rare and, and getting rarer as we, as we go along.

And, and I thought to myself, "It's worth trying this.

Let's try it."

Let's try it.

It wasn't a reckless sort of experiment.

Bob paid close attention to climate, walls, winter lows, summer heat, and the stage of growth of the plant, but he was willing to challenge the typical recommendations.

One of the best examples was his Meyer lemon.

He planted it against a wall, protected it during the occasional cold spell, and kept watching what happened.

By the time of this interview, it had occupied a wall about 16 feet wide and nine feet high.

What's your harvest been like on great years?

The oldest plant that I have-

Mm-hmm

... uh, which is about 20 years old, uh, planted directly in the ground, it's about 20 years old.

It occupies a wall space, uh, about 16 feet, um, wide by about nine feet high.

That produces some- somewhere, uh, something over 400 lemons every year.

400?

Yeah, it's unbelievable.

[laughs] One time when I visited to interview Bob in person, he delayed harvesting so that I could see all of those lemons.

He was generous and thoughtful that way.