Gophers and cherimoyas?

[FigoVelo]

Good day y’all. I am planting some cherimoya trees. I am using gopher baskets. But it makes me wonder - can anyone share any observations on gophers’ preference or otherwise for cherimoya tree roots? Are they a favorite or preferred food when available? My area is overloaded with gophers so it’s always an important consideration.

Thanks,
Alastair

[ScottR]

I have maybe twelve tree's which are twenty years old and I have ton's of gophers and they have never bothered the root system of these tree's. Want a sure magnet close my your cherimoya plant a fig tree they love those trees.

[FigoVelo]

Thanks, Scott. I already have several dozen fig trees in the ground, so the gophers can have them if they want! Knock on wood, but I have not had a single fig tree killed by a gopher in seven years. I suppose the odds of a cherimoya getting killed are even lower.

[MasOlas]

Gopher(s) killed my last lime tree. I've planted numerous other trees since and they all get a chicken wire cage to protect the root ball. So far no issues.

[K-Rimes]

I have had gopher activity near my cherimoya with lisa graft on top, but they didn't target it despite being feet away, they were going after other stuff. Gophers LOVE citrus out of all the trees I've planted, they also seem to love figs as ScottR points out. I just deploy traps immediately when I see them. It's the only way to be sure your garden is safe. I don't basket anymore.

[FigoVelo]

Kevin, is there a reason you prefer not to use gopher baskets?

[K-Rimes]

Kevin, is there a reason you prefer not to use gopher baskets?

I am confident enough in my abilities to nail a gopher before it kills a tree. I trap well outside of my property now, at the neighbor's, on the frontage road, etc. Sure, they may pop up by a tree here and there, but I nail them in under 24 hours 90% of the time.

I don't know about the longevity of the baskets long term anyways. Chicken wire in wet conditions could be rusted out in as short as 1 year.

[Mikey]

Cherimoya roots are toxic to gophers.   

[spaugh]

Kevin, is there a reason you prefer not to use gopher baskets?

I am confident enough in my abilities to nail a gopher before it kills a tree. I trap well outside of my property now, at the neighbor's, on the frontage road, etc. Sure, they may pop up by a tree here and there, but I nail them in under 24 hours 90% of the time.

I don't know about the longevity of the baskets long term anyways. Chicken wire in wet conditions could be rusted out in as short as 1 year.

exactly.  the baskets don't last.  the way to deal with gophers is start trapping them.  Then it is easy to keep under control.  It may take a while and a lot of work to get the upper hand if your property is over run.

I have a friend that has 1 or 2 acres in Poway.  Their lot was over run and she wanted to get on top of it and grow some avocado trees.  I showed her how to use the traps and she went to town on them.  It took her about a year to get on top of it and she killed around 125 gophers last I spoke with her. 

[FigoVelo]

I’ve been working about 1 acre of trees and garden beds for seven years. I’ve killed at least 200 gophers. And it makes a difference visibly compared to properties where there is no trapping. However, it would be murder to plant a fig tree in Sebastopol with no gopher basket. I have dug trees up after several years, and the baskets were still intact.

[FigoVelo]

On a related topic, I have rather heavy soil here. I have talked about this before on this forum. It is not heavy clay, but it’s about halfway there. For my avocados I have created raised beds with loose, sandy soil, and lots of organic matter. My question: are cherimoyas as fussy as avocados about loose soil and drainage? Could I plant them directly in heavy loam/clay? (I would like to plant more cherimoyas around my property but I am getting tired of building raised beds for each new tree.)

[spaugh]

On a related topic, I have rather heavy soil here. I have talked about this before on this forum. It is not heavy clay, but it’s about halfway there. For my avocados I have created raised beds with loose, sandy soil, and lots of organic matter. My question: are cherimoyas as fussy as avocados about loose soil and drainage? Could I plant them directly in heavy loam/clay? (I would like to plant more cherimoyas around my property but I am getting tired of building raised beds for each new tree.)

I don't think they are as easily rotted as avocado but google says they can get root rot.

Why not just plant a some and try it.

Cherimoyas are super easy to grow from seeds.  Put a bunch of seedlings in and see what happens.  I literally had 250 or more cherimoya volunteer trees pop up this summer.  They are everywhere like weeds.  The DR White tree and its seedlings seem the most vigorous and hardy. 

[FigoVelo]

Every time I eat a cherimoya, about 30 new trees are born. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. But point is, I do have lots of planted seedlings and some volunteers. I guess I should just plant a few here and there and see what comes of them.

[K-Rimes]

Every time I eat a cherimoya, about 30 new trees are born. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. But point is, I do have lots of planted seedlings and some volunteers. I guess I should just plant a few here and there and see what comes of them.

Seedling trees crush it and grow super, super fast. An expensive grafted tree from a nursery can be kind of slow. Just throw them in the positions you want a future 'moya and see what happens. Low effort, low cost. If one takes off, top work it.

[palingkecil]

I’ve been working about 1 acre of trees and garden beds for seven years. I’ve killed at least 200 gophers. And it makes a difference visibly compared to properties where there is no trapping. However, it would be murder to plant a fig tree in Sebastopol with no gopher basket. I have dug trees up after several years, and the baskets were still intact.

What gopher trap do you use? I use everything I could buy, and it will trap 1-3 gophers, and afterward the gophers are not getting close to it anymore. Gopher hawk, chinc gopher trap, regular trap, I tried them all. Not to brag, I swear my gophers have higher IQ than others.
They only like mango trees though, they never touch any of my citrus,avocado, mulberry, loquat, jackfruit, cherimoya, sapodilla, starfruit, sapote, longan, stone fruit, etc.
But I have lost more than 12 mango trees to gophers, and recently lost my prize Sugarloaf with nice size fruits on it. so from now on, a gopher basket on every mango tree!

[K-Rimes]

I use a variety of traps. Sometimes they get smart. You need to use more than one trap at a time, in my opinion, at least two of the same and one other type to really increase success.

My strategy is simple:

1. Clean up / smooth over all old gopher mounds so you're starting fresh.
2. Only trap at the newest mounds. Don't waste time and traps on old ones.
3. The mound is NOT the tunnel to trap at, it's just where they put the dirt from the main "highway" tunnel. The main tunnel is about 1' away from the mound, use a probe to find it.
4. Either dig out a hole in the "highway" and place traps in both directions, or put GopherHawks in both directions. Stuff the traps (if using snap traps) in with grass or leaves, whatever is fresh and green or put a paver over the hole.
5. Check traps morning and night.

If you get a gopher that is smarter than average and avoiding your traps, switch out the trap method. I find they mostly get wise to the Victor/Macabee snap traps and know to avoid them, but they'll fall for a gopher hawk put upstream in the tunnels. If they somehow figure that one out, blackhole will get them. Sometimes you just need to be really brutal and deploy like 10+ traps in an area to get the really smart ones. Don't let those breed. They somehow pass on the knowledge, ask me how I know. Second generation was all wise to the traps. Now I only get moron gophers that I get first deployment.

Another tip is to deploy traps along borders. They are just like other rodents and love to go beside concrete, retaining walls, pipes, etc. You can get some really good deployment if you have some logs or pavers in your yard too, roll the log back and you can see a cherry tunnel to put some Victors in, then put the log back carefully.

[FigoVelo]

What gopher trap do you use?

I use cinch traps and "gophinator" traps. I don't see any pattern of them growing wise to certain devices. I also try to use the ones made for moles. They fit more easily into gopher tunnels.

[spaugh]

What gopher trap do you use?

I use cinch traps and "gophinator" traps. I don't see any pattern of them growing wise to certain devices. I also try to use the ones made for moles. They fit more easily into gopher tunnels.

Aree wirh this post.  They cant wise up if you kill them all. 

[K-Rimes]

Are you into the Cinch trap Brad? That was the first time I'd heard of it, does look easier.

[spaugh]

no, I have about 15 of the gophenators.  I keep a handful in different areas of the orchard so I don't have to walk all over the place to go get them.  Plus when I see a gopher, I put 4 or 5 traps in sometimes.  Minimum 2 traps.  1 in each direction of the tunnel.  Stuff it with tasty weeds, then cover the hole with dirt so they can't see.  And they walk into it.  So I may have 10+ traps set at one time if I am going for multiple gophers.

Kick all the mounds down with your boots, like you mentioned so you can see where the new ones are.  And I do like the large Mole size trap over the regular gopher size also like someone else mentioned.  I have no gophers.  They are all dead.  About 20 or so a year and its easily maintainable.  Thats on 3 acres of orchard area.

[spaugh]

Heres a pic of a trap setup.  My neighbor, who is a deep sea fisherman, rigged them up with metal fishing line and a pvc pipe handle.  It makes pulling the dead boys out really easy.  And we spray them bright pink or orange so they are easy to see in the orchard.

[FigoVelo]

I like the brightly colored PVC. My property has become a graveyard of lost gopher traps. Every now and then I come across one that I lost years before. I might try your system.

[spaugh]

I have misplaced a few things in my yard once or twice also.

Here is another piece of advice for those using this trap.  I noticed some of them had a defect from the factory where the part that the red arrow points at was leaning too far to the left and blocking the trigger bar from going far enough to trigger.  You can bend that piece to the right a little so the gap shown by the blue line is a little bigger.

I had a gopher I was trying to get for weeks one time and finally figured that out.  When you get new traps, test them and make sure they trigger easily.