Great Links for Information on
Fruits
The California
Rare Fruit Growers (CRFG) has useful information
on cultivation and some of the named varieties for a couple of
dozen fruits. This link is direct to these "fruit facts
on line", not the CRFG home
page. Two links that may be of particular interest on
the home page (besides fruit facts) are "Tidbits of Information"
and "Related Web Sites". The latter contains a
link to nurseries, some of which are in the San Diego area.
Fruits
of Warm Climates by J. Morton is an out of print book that
has been put on line. You can find information on more fruits
that provided by the Calif. Rare Fruit Growers, but it is not
as up to date.
"Good" Pesticides
The (nearly) organic gardener has an increasing arsenal of
weapons available for dealing with pests. Here are a few
that I know about.
- Build good soil: Healthy
soil fosters healthy plants. Get a good soil mix and
use mycorrhizal fungi (See "Soil Preparation" below.),
avoid harsh fertilizers since they kill microflora in the soil
(Use organic or slow release brands.)
- Choose plants: These are
traditional methods that include companion planting, using diversity
and providing plants for pest predators.
- Stop the Argentine ants:
These are the small brown ants. Most of California is one
giant Argentine ant multi-queen colony, so there's no intraspecies
fighting. What do they do besides invade your house? They
go after nectar, defend their herds of aphids and scale against
predators and, I think, horde some small weed seeds that later
sprout. You can keep them off of trees by using Tanglefoot,
which is messy to work with. Wrap the trunk of the tree
to protect the bark (e.g., masking tape) and apply the tanglefoot. Eventually
it gets coated with dust and dead ants and needs to be stirred
up. After a while, the whole mess needs to be peeled
off and replaced. Another possibility is boric acid
or Borax laced food. Boron is a mild poison, so keep
it away from food, children and pets. Also, too much
buildup of boron in the soil is bad for plants. Boiling
water can be poured on the nests. There is an orange-oil
based spray that can be used around food and discourages them
for a few days. Bioganic has some contact sprays (See
pesticide note.) A water (or insecticidal soap & water)
spray can be used on the aphids and (if soapy) on the scale.
Of course it's not 100% effective so it needs periodic repeating.
- Introduce predators: These
are becoming more widespread. Ladybugs and praying mantis are
traditional. These are available at some nurseries.
- Use "safe" pesticides: It's
not just your safety but also the safety of the predators and
the soil microflora. There is now a slug and snail bait
based on iron and phosphate, both of which are beneficial to
plants. Sluggo is one brand name. Bioganic
has a variety of products which Dr. David Williams (Alternatives,
May 2001) recommends as safe. Many are based on a clove
oil extract with blocks a neurotransmitter found in insects but
not in fish, mammals or birds. Of course, it would kill
beneficial insects, too.
Fig and Passionfruit Cuttings
If you can pick them up from me at UCSD, I can provide the
following cuttings. See CRFG for information
on the varieties. If interested in cuttings, email me.
1. Passionfruit, variety Frederick (a rapidly growing evergreen
vine with fruit Aug. to Feb.)
2. Fig, variety Osborne Prolific (a potentially large tree with
large brown fruit in the Fall)
Soil Preparation
Soil preparation is essential in much of San Diego since our
soil is often either mostly sand or mostly clay. I've no experience
with sand, but we moved into a new home in 1995. The soil
had so much clay that the builder had to use specially tensioned
slabs because clay expands considerably when wet. I prepared
the backyard soil for under $1 per square foot plus a lot of labor.
Things are growing great. The unprepared front yard
is not doing well. Below is what I did. It's just
my own experience, so I don't know how it will work for someone
else and I don't know if everything I did is essential.
- Prepare the whole area, not just a small space where plants
are going to be.
- Work soil to a depth of 1.5 to 2 feet. I had to get
it wet to be able to dig it. American Kelp has a product
that seemed to make digging easier.
- Add gypsum to the bottom and mix in some gypsum, organic
matter (I used steer manure because it was cheap; however it
is a bit salty so don't use too much.), and the kelp/pumice residue
from agar extraction. The last adds a variety of nutrients
and helps texture the soil. I used more of it than
I did the steer manure. It's available in San Diego
from American Kelp and the price is very reasonable. Between
loosening the soil and adding a large amount of the kelp stuff,
I had a lot of clay that needed to be disposed of. No the
kelp is not salty; however, someone told me he had problems with
the kelp because of high boron levels in it. I have
about 1500 square feet and used about one dozen bags of gypsum,
three dozen bags of steer manure, and eight tons of kelp stuff.
- Add mycorrhizal fungi to the roots of the plants. These
fungi symbiotically colonize roots of many plants (including
vegetables). The hyphae (root-like filaments) of the fungi,
in effect, vastly increase the root surface, thereby providing
more nutrients, especially micronutrients, greater tolerance
for soil and water variability, and greater disease resistance.
They can be killed by overfertilizing, especially with typical
quick release non-organic fertilizers. They can be stored
for a year or two (probably more with decreasing spore germination
rate). I got mine by mail order from http://www.chappyspowerorganics.com/,
which is in Camarillo, CA.
Since then I've been composting and have fertilized.
By the way, if your limited in composting space the way I am,
you can use the stuff as mulch long before it's fully broken down.
This halves the turn-around time. Also if you have a lot
of leaves, consider getting an electric leaf blower/vacuum.
Unlike the gasoline powered ones electric leaf blowers can be
run as vacuums. In that mode, leaves are shredded by the
fan and deposited into a bag. They can be added to the compost
where they break down more quickly and mat up less. They
can also be used as mulch. If you wet them down after applying
them, they seem to blow much less than the unshredded leaves and,
of course, they feed the soil more quickly, too. I chose
my blower by looking in Consumer Reports. They cost about
$70-$80.