Gardeners in the Asylum

[bvilchez]

Originally Posted by MarkinCA

Jay, where abouts are you now in SoCal and what variety of Avocado did you purchase? Is it a standard, semi-standard, or dwarf tree?

Mark, I'm in the Temecula/Lake Elsinore area....Wildomar to be exact. The avocado tree is a standard fuerte.

[azar]

Mark absolutely beautiful to bad we weren't closer together I would give you the patio pots I have gathered over the years. An older neighbor of ours gave us a ton of them. She moved to a nursing home.
I talked with another neighbor she is planting today. I am going to let today pass the 7 day forcast starting tomorrow seems promising at least away from the freezing mark!
Mack

[MarkinAZ]

Originally Posted by bvilchez

Mark, I'm in the Temecula/Lake Elsinore area....Wildomar to be exact. The avocado tree is a standard fuerte.

You're definitely in avocado country Jay. My parents have 104 acre's of avocado/grapefruit property in Pauma Valley (just South of your location). Your fuerte will have no problemo in surviving. You will basically have to go out of your way to kill it by not watering it.

Well, that standard tree can reach a height in excess of 25+ feet for one. At some point in time, and for convenience of harvesting, you will want to keep it trimmed low in time (maybe to around twelve feet). It will be easier to get a picking latter up into the branches that way. There are picking poles that extend with a small canvas bag on the end. You telescope the pole to the desired length, find a avocado, cut it, and it falls into the bag. However, that's some time down the road for you.

Make sure you have dug a nice size hole to plant the tree in, add the appropriate nutrients and compost and work it well into the soil, then water it all in, and plant your tree. Back fill with a mixture of the original soil and compost, and water in good. I don't know what the diameter of your tree's canopy, but your hole should be approximately the same size. When irrigating the tree, you should irrigate underneath the tree about the same diameter of the canopy. That is, the circumference of the spread out branches (hopefully that made some sort of sense). You can check out more here:

http://uccemg.com/Edible_Plants/?ds=530&uid=127

http://www.mastergardenerssandiego.o...%20Gardens.pdf

Originally Posted by azar

Mark absolutely beautiful to bad we weren't closer together I would give you the patio pots I have gathered over the years. An older neighbor of ours gave us a ton of them. She moved to a nursing home.

Thanks Mack. I'm sure someone in your area can make use of those pots...

[bvilchez]

Thanks for the advice Mark. The tree is in the ground already (planted by the nursery where we purchased it from) but they did add any amendments to the soil. It is starting to produce fruit though. Their guidance to us was water everyday for the first week and then 2-3x a week after that. They did make a 'well' of mulch around it and stated fill the 'well' and that will suffice for water for the tree. I will say I am somewhat fearful of adding fertilizer (too much or not enough). I have been keeping it simple by adding MiracleGro to it. Is that beneficial? BTW, thanks for the input. I will read up on those sites tonight.

[MarkinAZ]

Originally Posted by bvilchez

Thanks for the advice Mark. The tree is in the ground already (planted by the nursery where we purchased it from) but they did add any amendments to the soil. It is starting to produce fruit though. Their guidance to us was water everyday for the first week and then 2-3x a week after that. They did make a 'well' of mulch around it and stated fill the 'well' and that will suffice for water for the tree. I will say I am somewhat fearful of adding fertilizer (too much or not enough). I have been keeping it simple by adding MiracleGro to it. Is that beneficial? BTW, thanks for the input. I will read up on those sites tonight.

It sounds like you're all set there Jay. It appears that the nursery crew most likely prepared the soil prior to planting your tree. You may want to call and ask them if they did prepare your soil with fertilizer just for the fun of it. If they did, great. If they did not, there's most likely a reason. I would also ask about a fertilization program for your tree once it has established itself in your yard. The one thing you do not want to do is over fertilize and burn out your beautiful avocado tree.

Enjoy all of that guacamole Jay!

[azar]

After weather this weekend Monday rolls around still over cast T* are up a little and 7 day doesn't even come close to freezing! I got up early and here are my results
Cucumber/lettuce(seeds)

Onion bed

Tomatoes/squash/and broccoli.

More tomatoes/water melon/ and celery!

Later today I will be putting in my PVC for irrigation system we went with soaker hose simply because we got the hoses for cheap and we will see how well it works.
We have had successful years in the past. The past 2 years have been very disappointing as far as gardening go weeds ate my lunch the 1st year then our city workers sprayed last year for weeds and killed my garden 1 month in!

This is my first year doing raised beds and we are looking forward to our results. I began doing home work on these almost a year ago. After talking with a couple of friends and neighbors they are trying them also.

Mack

[Fordman4ever]

Looks great Mack

Here's my first raised bed






Now all I have to do is fill it with dirt and plant stuff. I wont be planting anything anytime soon though, getting ready to deploy over the summer.

[HK3-]

Garden update- I've got more lettuce than i can eat and I'm getting tired of eating it. Broccoli is looking good and probably has a few more weeks to go. Tomatoes are plentiful but still green. Zucchini has been picked a few times and is about to be in full swing along with the cucumbers.

Had to break out the 7dust yesterday due to the caterpillars having their way with my greens.

[Fordman4ever]

Fried green tomatoes

I filled the bed with compost today.

[azar]

Originally Posted by HK3-

Garden update- I've got more lettuce than i can eat and I'm getting tired of eating it. Broccoli is looking good and probably has a few more weeks to go. Tomatoes are plentiful but still green. Zucchini has been picked a few times and is about to be in full swing along with the cucumbers.

Had to break out the 7dust yesterday due to the caterpillars having their way with my greens.

Hal you are killing me I want a fresh salad out of garden so bad I can taste it! Tell you what send me some up if you have to much. Even mailed to me is probably fresher then anything we get here!
Ford that is a great looking garden spot. I am sorry you won't get to try it out this year. But you will have a jump on next year's growing season.
Mack

[HK3-]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[hammondc]

Hal-

The lettuce--- Does it keep producing or is it a one and done type thing?

[Chainsaw13]

Originally Posted by hammondc

Hal-

The lettuce--- Does it keep producing or is it a one and done type thing?

You should just be able to cut it back, leaving the root, and it'll regrow.

My tomato plants have started to take off. Seems like over night they doubled in size. Finally put the cages over them before they got too big.

[HK3-]

Originally Posted by hammondc

Hal-

The lettuce--- Does it keep producing or is it a one and done type thing?

It's crazy. Some grew a second head next to the original but most grew almost three feet tall….

I harvested six heads of broccoli this morning and hacked down some of the whacked out lettuce heads. Planted a ghost, scorpion, habanero, and two Thai hot pepper plants.

Looks like the cauliflower will be ready to harvest in less than two weeks.

Maters are plentiful but still green…. Oh, I toasted a rabbit in the garden yesterday evening. One down and a few more to go.

[hammondc]

OK! I have a little spare room in one of my boxes. I may thrown some lettuce in there.

[HK3-]

Picked a handful of zucchini on Sunday along with one jalepeno and two bell peppers.

Finished removing the rest of the lettuce heads and replaced them with two carolina reapers, two okra, and one more tomato plant.

My daughter and I planted two Wee B pumpkin plants on the side hill far away from anything for it to choke out or grind up in the mower.

[sigsauer]

broccoli
tomatoes
squash
string beans
arugula
romaine

[hammondc]

Originally Posted by sigsauer

broccoli
tomatoes
squash
string beans
arugula
romaine

I am going Romaine & Arugala next weekend.

[azar]

The garden after I fenced it and graveled the walks.

[MarkinAZ]

Looks great Mack! Always nice to place some gravel in between the raised planters...