On 9/7/13 8:05 PM, Higgs Boson wrote [in part]:
On Saturday, September 7, 2013 7:45:00 PM UTC-7, songbird wrote [also in part]:
Higgs Boson wrote:

...

Thanks, Kay - very informative. Question: From the tree's
POV, its raison d'etre -- along with all living things,
including people -- is to reproduce the species. So why
would it engage in such wild "mood-swings", rather than
consistently reserving enough photosynthate (new term to
me) to produce enough fruit which it "hopes" will create
more trees?

By setting an abundant crop of fruit one year, the tree is too stressed
to set much fruit the following year. A year later, the tree has
recovered enough to set an abundant crop again. As noted in another
reply, the cure is to thin the crop while the fruit is still very
immature.

With peaches, you can actually obtain more useable fruit by thinning:
The remaining peaches will become much larger, but the peach pits will
not.


once you take a natural fruit tree and then graft it
onto some other root stock, then plant it in a lawn you've
stacked the deck against regular production.

This is really interesting! Innocent question: WHY would grafting
and planting "stack the deck..."


You are growing a plant that never existed in nature, that has been
altered to grow differently from how it would grow if it did exist in
nature, in an environment much unlike and far removed from where its
ancestors might be found. You irrigate it with water from hundreds of
miles away (from either Owens Valley, the Delta, or the Colorado). Even
if you use organic fertilizers, you feed it because the nutrients
already in the soil are insufficient and because your soil is probably
naturally alkaline while citrus needs acidic soil.

I am doing the same. Thus, I do not use organic methods in my garden.
If I did have a natural garden -- a drought-tolerant garden using
California native plants -- the Ventura County Fire Protection District
would likely levy a fine against me for creating a wildfire hazard.

Instead, I have a garden that is not drought-tolerant; but my gardening
methods conserve water through mulching and "wise irrigation". I use
chemical fertilizers on some plants and organic fertilizers on others
simply because "one size does NOT fit all".

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean, see
http://www.rossde.com/garden/climate.html
Gardening diary at http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary