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Topics - jbclem

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Citrus General Discussion / TDS levels and gray water watering
« on: September 21, 2022, 05:59:26 AM »
With the drought restrictions here in S.Calif, I've been watering my citrus with gray water.  I've also started checking the TDS (total dissolved solids/salts) levels to make sure the gray water isn't harming the trees.  But I don't have any reference levels as to what levels are too high.  I have some old citrus trees in the ground and also some young ones.  The soil at my house is silty sand/sandy silt and drains well.

My tap water is showing about 310 on the TDS meter.  Since I've started using soap nuts instead of laundry detergent,  the laundry gray water levels have been 300-350.  With regular detergent I get 400-500, and the highest I've measured so far was 650 from a 5 gal bucket of Oxiclean and water.

I'm also watering a loquat and a pear tree with the gray water.

I've read that citrus is sensitive to salt but haven't found any TDS reference levels.  Does anyone know what I should be watching out  for?

John


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Citrus General Discussion / What is this bug on my blood orange tree?
« on: September 03, 2021, 04:11:34 AM »
Can anyone identify this bug, I just saw four of them on one leaf on a blood orange tree I have in a 15 gal container.  When I touched the leaf, they all ran to the underside of the leaf.  And when I wisked one of them into a plastic bag, the others seem to have dropped off the leaf and I couldn't find them anywhere...so they have a strong protective instinct.  I'm hoping they aren't a citrus specific pest.

As the photo shows, they are about 1/2" long, six legs, 2 feelers/antenna, and orange with black markings.  No obvious wings.




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Citrus General Discussion / Anyone using mosquito netting for CLM?
« on: August 16, 2020, 01:55:55 AM »
I'm trying to figure out the correct hole size in mosquito netting (or noseeum netting) used to keep citrus leaf miner off my flushing citrus.  I bought one type designed to hang over a bed, and it works great but I'm worried that the holes aren't small enough.

The CLM moth is said to have a 4-5 mm wingspan, and using that as a reference the body looks about 4mm long and 2mm wide.  So what size hole could this moth squeeze it's way through?  Taking a deep breath and holding it's wings tight, maybe it could get through a 2mm hole.  The netting I bought has 169 holes per square inch, and I tried to measure the holes with a caliper...they look like 1.5-2mm wide.  Other mosquito nettings are about 250 holes per sq inch.  Some noseeum nettings advertise 600 holes per square inch and I've seen claims up to 1800 holes per sq inch...but it's hard to know who to believe on that score.

I'd like to buy some more of the same netting I bought, and it's cheaper than the noseeum nettings and I have a bunch of container and small citrus that I need to cover...but I'm just speculating about the size of the CLM moth and it's ability(and desire) to squeeze through holes.  Does anyone have better information or experience using mosquito netting?

This is the one I bought: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005E18MEG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

John

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Citrus General Discussion / Calcined kaolin clay and Citrus Leaf Miner?
« on: September 30, 2019, 07:32:55 AM »
I was reading an article on an Australian fruit site where they were discussing dealing with a citrus gall wasp problem they have over there.  One of the treatments they tried was spraying Surround on some of 10 young trees in an experiment.  And they  noticed that none of the trees sprayed with Surround has any sign of CLM, although other adjacent trees had plenty of it. 

I'm going to try this if I can find a source of Surround in small quantity, a pound or less.  Has anyone tried this, and does anyone know where to buy Surround in small size bags?

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I've read that you don't need to and shouldn't add any soil amendments when you are planting a citrus tree in the ground.  But my soil doesn't hold moisture that well and I end up watering a lot in the long hot summers.  Soil tests show that I have sandy silt and/or silty sand type soil.  And my own jar soil tests usually don't show any(or very little) organic matter.   So I'm thinking of trying what I've been doing with my vegetable plantings, adding peat moss to the soil.  For the vegetables I've also been adding compost from my compost piles when it's available.

I'd like to hear some opinions about this, especially why it might not be advisable.

John 

 

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Citrus General Discussion / Current UCR budwood prices ?
« on: May 18, 2019, 08:47:52 PM »
When I've ordered previously, the UCR (CCPP) budwood prices were $0.75 per bud.  And although it is still listed as this on one website, when I try to place an order, on their revamped order form site, the price is $1.50 per bud.  Which makes it too high for me given my low percentage of takes when bud grafting.
 
Could someone confirm this new price level?  I've tried emailing them twice but no one is answering.

John

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Is anyone growing Femminello Siracusano 2KR lemon in the Los Angeles area.  I ask because I've read that it can't tolerate dry weather and wind.  And we are nothing if not dry in these parts, not to mention the yearly bouts of strong SantaAna winds.

John

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Growing avocado in sandy soil
« on: November 02, 2018, 05:27:16 AM »
I have a two year old Fuerte that I recently planted in soil that's classified as sandy silt or silty sand.  The problem seems to be either that it drains too fast or just doesn't retain enough moisture for the roots to take in.  Even now, in daytime 70-80F fall weather(S. Calif zip 90290), I need to water every two or three days or the leaves will start to droop.  They pick up after I water, but I'd like to know what I can do to lengthen the watering interval.

I'm also concerned about root rot (from watering so much) even though the soil is sandy.

And for the next avocado I plant, I'd like to add to the sandy soil to try to alleviate this problem.  I'm thinking of peat moss, and compost, but also worried that too much organic matter might increase the chances of root rot.

Any opinions and suggestions for me?

John

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Growing avocados in gopher land
« on: November 02, 2016, 10:47:31 PM »
I have two avocado trees I want to plant on a hillside that's combed with gopher tunnels.  Although there's usually only one gopher in residence at any given time (at least so I think?) I recently lost a nice five year old apricot to them...all the roots eaten back to nubs at the trunk.  That was with a chicken wire basket that had rusted out enough for the gopher to get through.

I usually plant fruit trees in homemade gopher baskets but I've been advised not to do this with avocados since their roots spread out so much.  But I don't really have any choice in the matter, the trees have to be protected.  So I want to ask what others have done in the same situation. 

And also some questions occur to me that I need information on:

1.  how wide does the avocado tree root spread, how thick are the roots 24" from the trunk, and what happens to the tree is this spread is limited...will it be dwarfed?

2.  what would be an optimal diameter for a hardware cloth basket around the tree?  I've used  2' diameter ones but for avocado I'm thinking 3' or 4'.  That's a lot of basket and a lot of work since I clip out many of the 1/2" mesh holes to make them larger.

3.  one of my trees, Fuerte, is in a deep narrow container (C&M Nursery).  The other one is a seedling Duke.  Will only the seedling have a tap root (it's still 8" high and in a plastic 20 oz cup).

Unfortunately, although I check the gopher holes almost daily and put traps and chewing gum in some of them, there's no way I can control every gopher that comes my way by doing this...there are just too many tunnels.  It's just like with squirrels, the minute you relax and forget the be vigilant, there's one ready to strike(ie: eat!).

Any thoughts about this?

John

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The soil, on the hillside where I want to plant some avocados, is called sandy silt/silty sand according to a soil test a few years ago.  I have a 2 month old Duke grown from seed and a 2 year old Fuerte (in a container) ready to plant.

The soil drains fairly quickly and doesn't seem to have much (or any) organic matter.  I'd like some suggestions for ways to amend the soil in the 2' x 2' hole I'm going to dig for the planting.  I'm going to go down more than the rootball depth because I have to put in a hardware cloth cage to stop gophers.

I also have my own mix of potting soil that I could use if that would work.  That consists of 1/3 compost, 1/3 Earthgro Ground Cover Bark run through 1/2" screen, and 1/3 used SuperSoil (mostly peat).  I also add gypsum to the potting soil.

I'd like to hear what others have done to improve the planting hole for the avocado tree.

John

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About 10 months ago my Fuerte avocado (still in container) trunk started turning brown.  The attached photos will show this.  For a while it didn't seem to be spreading any more, but a few months ago I noticed it had spread up to the top.  So I cut off the top two feet.

The tree in partially under the overhang of a large tree, so it get's some sun but is also shaded a bit from the late afternoon sun.

There are still some nice healthy looking young branches growing, just as in the photos, and I'm not sure what to do about this discoloration.  I don't want to plant it in the ground if there's some kind of terminal disease process going on. 

Can someone identify this problem?

John

ps...since I can't find any instructions on posting photos, I'm trying the "add image to post", but don't have any idea if it will work.  If there are no photos with this post, perhaps some kind soul will tell me how to post them.

 



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