The Tropical Fruit Forum

Most, if not all nitrogen fixers release the goods after they die and roots breakdown.  I wouldn't imagine that a tree would be good choice due to a slow return on investment.  Annuals would be the way to go, if this is your focus.

lol...check out what wiki says about the Carolina Wren...based on the description, it must be what I have...

 "It has an affinity for dilapidated buildings and unkempt yards in man-made areas"

Home, Sweet Home.

Ants are smarter than you think.  With baits, the usual result is thst they (queen inclusive) are not killed off but they just relocate.  Maybe somewhere else in your yard, maybe the neighbor's.  Unfortunately this can be temporary as a lot of times they work their way back in a different location.

This is why I prefer the slow acting poisons, better chance of distribution before die off. There is only one ant that you need to kill, the old lady.  But you are absolutely right, even with the slow acting poisons, you can still play whack-a-mole on the mounds.  Boiling water and other insta-kill methods are a waste of time, unless you get lucky and the queen is in the vicinity.  I do find killing fire ants good therapy tho.  Usually people get nailed by a few and want instant gratification, I just took my first sting of the season today, time to break out the slo-kill.

I've had good success using Terro liquid baits on the raspberry (probably not the correct name) ants.

Some ants like sugar some like protein.  You gotta kill the queen, any other action is temporary.
This winter I had rats in the garage, on the menu, fire ant killer.  Pretty sure the rats didn't even get indigestion.  The point being, as a rule, Ant poisons made today are extremely low toxicity, just enough to kill an ant.  One meal can kill an ant, think about what size of that meal is to you, less than the head of a pin.
I'm not a fan of chemicals but I will drop queen-killing baits in a heartbeat.  A bonus is that you can localize your attacks to the mounds, you can still end up playing whack-a-mole on the mounds.
Queen killing baits (slow acting) can take longer but they can deliver the coup-de-grace.
I wouldn't broadcast spread unless the infestation was real bad.

The university of Arkansas has some decent information on fire ant control.
http://www.uaex.edu/publications/pdf/fsa-7036.pdf
https://www.uaex.edu/publications/pdf/FSA-7052.pdf

My goodness!
How did plants ever survive for millions of years without Monsanto!

...baseline test......love it.

I've done a lot of container growing. If you do a search, you can find threads where I described a system of plastic grow bags and styrofoam peanuts, where I got into a lot of detail about how to manage containers for a large collection of tropical fruits. It makes them so light and portable, and they seem very happy.

If you are in a windy spot, light pots are not your friend.

great shape too!
Surprised Photosynth hasn't shut down from those blooms.
I'd be in a watchtower next to the tree on patrol.
Just, wow.

Some people don't like the dye, I suspect that it is mostly harmless, in most cases.  The bigger issue is what are they dye-ing? Often construction scraps can be used, that means formaldehyde, treated lumber and who knows what.  I think this is one of those things can vary greatly from place to place, like haircuts.

On the previous page you wrote about Jelly Palm....someone said there are big differences among plant as size and taste of their fruits...so, are there some selected Jelly Palms? Are know cultivar with specific characteristics?

It is my understanding....
Pindo/Jelly palm seeds are highly variable in fruit quality.  You can't exactly graft or air-layer these things, so unless they pup, tissue culture would be the only option.  I think I said before, these are not currently cultivated for their fruit, only for their ornamental value.  I suppose there is a market niche there.
Here is one of mine, not the best picture for it, but I neglected it, the thing is trying to climb out of the pot! about 3 inches.  They are definitely hardy. Since repotted.

That 7th mango in the first set looks awesome.  Compact, great branching, and utterly covered with blooms.  Lucky you.

Kent started blooming about 6 weeks ago, blooms survived after a few emergency low-temp trips to the garage.
LZ looks like mixed bloom leaves...
GO LZ!
GO LZ!

(Ya, I know, doesn't help much either).

Not much else is popping, ...yet.

I don't think the topical stuff works as well. The miners deposit eggs on/in the tender leaves. So they may or may not be biting those leaves to get poisoned.

Once the eggs hatch, the larvae tunnel through the interior of the leaves and won't be biting the surface. I don't know if the eggs are actually on the leaves or in the leaves to begin with. I guess that makes a difference.

Valid point, once inside the leaf, topicals do nothing.  Topicals are preventive, not curative.