On Saturday, September 7, 2013 9:15:33 PM UTC-7, David E. Ross wrote:
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.

You should move to Gawd's Countree. In Santa Monica, the City actively promotes xeriscape gardens -- in fact, they actually subsidize taking out lawns and re-landscaping xeriscapally (is that a word?).

When I get through "subsidizing" the plumber and the handyman (will it ever end?!) I plan to investigate those subsidized plans.


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".

Wise words!

* Home Despot should give me a special rate, considering how many bags of ground cover bark I schlep home every few months!

HB



--

David E. Ross

Climate: California Mediterranean, see

http://www.rossde.com/garden/climate.html

Gardening diary at http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary