San Diego garden photos

[spaugh]

Took a bunch of photos of the garden today.  I have some jackrabbits eating trees and some persea mites but otherwise things are looking nice.  Plants are loving the heat.


Just put in some dragon fruits.  I got 8 or 9 different types in 5 2x2ft boxes.  Trying redwood 4x4s and also 8ft tall T post.   




watermelons


fuji apples


I had 4 banana trees but the rabbits took out the smallest one down to the ground.  Pesky rabbits.  I'm in the process of wrapping chicken wire around the bottom of the 750ft of plastic deer fence that the rabbits can chew through. 



Mandarin orange tree doing a big flush and 2nd bloom.




mexican guavas




mandavillas and plumeria






desert rose



florida grafted mangos planted over winter






Avocados fruit set, lamb hass, sir prize, hass, reed











Avocado trees, I've been pruning these heavily to keep them 6 to 8 ft tall.  Now I am going to let them grow until spring and get a bit larger.  They have a nice balanced shape I like now.  The trees are all around 2 years or less.

fuerte


reed



hass and stewart trees



holiday

[shaneatwell]

Nice spaugh

[shinzo]

Nice trees!! where are the cherimoyas ??

[Samu]

All your trees look healthy, Brad!
Do you use City water, or well water?

[simon_grow]

Your garden is looking awesome! The Tropical s are finally pushing with all this heat. Can't wait to see your yard in person. Keep up the great gardening!

Simin

[roblack]

Wow! Great job on the garden. Everything looks very happy, must be fun just watering all that.

[spaugh]

The cherimoyas are there but still pretty small and unimpressive.  Everything is about 2 years old or younger so they are all young.  But the plants that have not been through a summer yet are really little. 

I have well water that is fairly hard at around 600ppm and its mostly calcium and manganese in the water.  The PH is around 7.5

The water is harder than tap water which is around 500ppm in san diego city but the well water has no chlorine and other toxins.  And I can water heavier to wash any salts out.  I had a little salt burn at the end of last summer.  But have been using softer fertilizers now so hopefully not salt build up.  Also the heavy rains this winter really cleared the soil of excess salts.  All of my trees are on sprinklers but I do spend a few hours a week hand watering some plants.

Things are good here I am pretty much just on cruise cotrol until next spring.  I have a bunch of stone fruits and cherimoyas I didnt post photos of because they are so little.  Will have to take photos of those after this summer.

[fyliu]

Do you do anything to keep birds away from the watermelons? I had one just 2 days into development when it was pecked at. It was marble sized so I figured the whole fruit was not going to survive so I picked it off.

[spaugh]

I don't do anything for the birds.  They don't touch my fruits and berries.  My neighbors feed the birds daily and can even call the birds in to feed each afternoon so they must be getting enough handouts to leave me alone.  My problem animals are rabbits, deer, and coyotes. 

[ScottR]

Beautiful plants Spaugh, you tree's are loving your heat!!

[AlwaysHotinFL]

Nice spread!

[tropical66]

Nice

[Ulfr]

Very nice some fantastic size on those trees for 2 years! What size were the avos when planted? My Fuerte here has been my most vigorous but would be half the size of yours, also at at 2 yrs. It was a 3 gallon pot to use your lots measurements.

[spaugh]

The trees were all 5 gallon pots maybe 1 meter or less skinny little trees when planted.  The hass and fuerte trees are the largest and fastest growing.  Ive actually been doing heavy pruning on them.  They are very vigorous and the conditions are pretty ideal here for avocados.  We live on top of a south facing hill that is all decomposed granite soil.

Here is a photo from May of last year.  They have grown a ton.  And they still have until November or so here to grow a lot more this summer. If you want your trees to grow fast use amonium sulfate or urea the first year or so to really make them grow.  Just beware you will burn them if you don't mulch and water heavy with that.   I would fertilize then water 3 weeks and then week 4 do a 2 hour salt flush on them.  Did that every month for 4 mo ths last summer. 

May 2016   The fuerte tree is there to the left of the boards.

[boxturtle]

freaking awesome!

[spaugh]

July 5 2017

[shinzo]

Awsome spot you live in spaugh.
Can you explain how you flush an inground tree please? you leave the hose open for 2 hours?  weak water flow or regular water flow?

[spaugh]

All of my avovado trees have a 90 degree (quarter circle) sprayer on them.  They are adjustable flow so as the trees get larger I adjust them to a higher flow rate.  At full open they spray around 4 liters per minute.  So my normal runtime of the system per week is 45 minutes to 1.5 hours depending on how hot, dry, and windy it is.  I dont use a scheduled timer.  I have a sprinkler control box and I go manually punch in how long I want it to run for once ir twice a week in summer.  So if I want to rinse the soil I just run it 2X as long as I normally would.  I dont use a hose as the water will pool up and run off or drown the tree.  And I dont like drippers for avocados because they dont make a nice even pattern and coverage.  The little micro sprinklers are nice but you have to run them for a lot longer and they clog easier with dirty water.  I have sediment filters on the lines but still some iron bacteria that grows in my water tank can get into dripers and cause problems.  I have tried a lot of different sprinkler types and these plain shrub/lawn sprinklers work best for me.  They throw enough water that my boost pump doesnt cycle on and off and they dont throw so much that there is runoff.  Everyone will have different issues depending on your plumbing situation and water quality.  So as the trees grow I can adjust the flow rate up and pull the sprinkler further from the tree to make the wet area larger.

Heres a photo of my sprinklers and the wet spots to give you an idea.

This is a fairly new tree that hasnt been through a summer yet.


You can kind of see the wet areas here.

[spaugh]

By the way, thank you everyone for the compliments.  I have been into gardening since I was a kid but didnt really have a good place to do it until we moved here in 2014.  I lived in a 1/8th acre parecel in the city of San Diego for 10 years and tried growing citrus and avocados and the trees always died.  We had poor soil full of rocks and clay, the city water was bad and the lot didn't get good sun penetration.  In 2014 we decided to sell and move about 30 minutes north of San Diego in the coutryside.  Our property backs up to a 3500 acre wilderness preserve and a marine base.  Thats the open space you can see.  We moved here and started a family and a big garden.  Both are ongoing efforts that take all of my time.  My son is turning 3 and I have a daughter due in October.  And my trees are like my other babies.  I love them all but of the plants the avocados are my favorites. 

[Jose Spain]

Amazing garden and awesome place for a family. Really nice to see this kind of things. I bet you all gonna enjoy every bit of that plot and surroundings. Congrats 

[Greg A]

I have to add that I visited Brad's yard a few weeks ago and these avocados are even prettier in person. In five years, he's going to have the lushest, most productive grove you can dream of.

[Delvi83]

Your plants look very healthy....congratulation

[spaugh]

Snapped a few photos of my mango trees, the heat wave we had kicked them into a good flush.  Will have to take some more photos of all the other plants, they have all grown a ton in since I created this thread a few months ago. 

I'm going to start building some frost protection on the mango trees.  Maybe just use my big 24" tomato cages for that.

[Jct]

Your trees look awesome! 

[Mikey]

Wow you have a lot of land!!!!  What kind of cherimoya do u have?