Well heres a perspective for you guys on the subject. For the last almost 20 years I have run a business dealing in maintaining high end marine aquariums. A huge part of what we do is hauling fresh made seawater out to clients houses and do whats called partial water changes. Usually 30% of total volume. We drain out old water and pump in new. We usually drain out to the curb or to a sewer clean out. But in certain cases ive had clients that had neither and they have instructed me that they are ok with us draining the water on a side yard, this is after ive warned them that such may sterilize the ground.

 Well here is what ive seen in these instances......ive drained literally thousands of gallons of seawater over years and years on lawns, near trees, and misc plants (at these clients who ok'ed it) and expected to see them all suffer. Ummm nope. Not even a little. No yellowing, no negative anything. I was a shocked as anyone. So I dont know if there is a beneficial side of it, but im here to say it isnt necessarily a death sentence. And btw this is Phoenix with our slow draining clay.

Ha Oscar! They must get something, they simply dont exist here.

Ice Cream (blue java) or Raja Puri are the two sure things in bananas here in Phoenix. You guys are funneling alot of money to Don..... Might want to slow down, figure out how to get these thru a summer and then a winter, then invest in more trees. Keeping these tropicals alive here aint exactly easy. Good luck.

Bermuda is our main lawn grass here in Phoenix and is just about the only grass that can stand our heat and lack of humidity. Yes it does love to grow in mulch and hops right over or under and barrier put in its path. Its roots are very aggressive and competes for water and nutrients with small trees. Around our deciduous fruit trees I clear the immediate area about 3 times a summer with roundup. We garden organicly and try to take a natural path if its possible. Bermuda is one of those places where anything less than chemical warfare is hard to make work. To make things worse we are in a area that flood irrigates (twice a month bulk dammed river water floods our property till its 3-5" deep) and the irrigation water spreads bermuda seeds around everywhere.

Irrigation

If anyone is interested in how our flood irrigation works out here this video gives a rundown.

Who out there is has experience with using roundup or the equivalent around the base of mango trees? Out here in the desert southwest we have Bermuda Grass and trying to keep it from invading the root zone of newly planted mangoes is next to impossible without roundup. Im only talking about a controlled spray around the base without any contacting the leaves, safe or not? Not looking for hysterics, just practical experience.   

Question for you guys using Phyto-Fos.......The only source I can find for it is a 2.5 gallon size and it prices out at $100. Is it really worth that or do you guys have a source for a smaller amount? Would like to start a foliar program out here similar to whats listed in this thread.

The greenhouse is for vegetables, all my tropicals are outside. I build heated frost structures around them. The top number (16) is the outside air temp, the middle number is the temp inside the frost structure, and the bottom number is humidity. Cold is a funny thing, we get some pretty impressive lows around here and I find that I really dont run into much trouble till it gets down below 25. My guess is that it tends to get and stay cold around these parts, usually not rising much above 60 during the day and below 30 every night from mid December till the end of February. I believe that this keeps tropicals in a dormant, hardened off state that makes them less vulnerable than in other places (like Florida) where its still getting quite warm and then one night WHAM!

 Yes its a pain in the ass keeping things going for a few months of the year but there are advantages. I estimate that we get 800+ chill hours. Its kinda cool to have mangoes, sapotes, passionfruit harvesting next to cherries, apples, persimmons, pears, etc. 

Thank you so much Oscar! Booking tickets now.

Paging Oscar.........


 Ill look up Frankies place, thanks. I hear the the Hilo farmers market is a must see??