博客存档 - The Bell House - Growing Fruit Trees in Northwest Houston

Irrigation Upgrade

4/29/2012

New Sprinkler

As I mentioned in a previous post, I used to water all my trees by just laying a hose near the base of the trunk and setting a timer. This works fine for a few trees, but I have somewhere around 50, and keeping everything alive during the brutal summer last year was very difficult and labor intensive. Also, after being laid up in the hospital for awhile, I realized I needed to automate the process as much as possible to make things easier for Dr. Wife to take care of things when I couldn't. I thought I was very clever, and rigged up a homemade drip irrigation system by putting a garden hose on a timer, snaking it around my trees, and drilling holes in the hose where I wanted to deliver the water. All things considered, it really worked very well, although the holes tended to get plugged up with dirt.

The homemade drip system met its end when I forgot to raise the blades on the lawnmower, and shredded the garden hose. Disappointed, but not discouraged, I knew what I had to do. It was time to bit the bullet and install a real irrigation system. I went back and forth as to whether to used a sprinkler or a drip-type system, and after evaluating all the options I decided to opt for the sprinklers:

I felt sprinklers would do a better job watering a large area under the tree.
I wouldn't have to worry about mowing over the water lines or emitters.
I would have to worry about drip emitters getting clogged or plugged.
I could quickly see if there was a problem, and where it was.
I wouldn't have to run the water for several hours at a time.

I'm sure there are many people who successfully use drip irrigation for their trees, and I use it for my strawberry bed and other potted plants, but I think sprinklers are going to work the best for my trees. Once I had decided what I wanted to do, I sketched out my plan, and started digging. From each of my three outdoor spigots, I dug a 3 to 4 inch deep trench to the fence line, and then along the fence behind the trees. I laid 1/2-inch PVC water lines in the trenches, and installed a 1 or 1.5 foot riser next to each tree. I put 90 degree sprinkler heads on each riser, hooked up a timer, and buried all the lines. It was a lot of work (I did it in phases as time allowed), but the whole set up works exceptionally well. With one turn of the dial, I can water 7 to 8 trees at once, and they really seem to be responding well to having water applied to the whole area under the tree, not just in one spot.

The only place I didn't bury PVC was along the west side of the house and in the front yard. This side of the house is full of other buried utilities like the electrical and gas connections, and the front yard is full of huge thick roots from the large pine tree in front of the house. To get around these obstacles, I decided to try some DIG micro-sprinklers. I ran a plastic 1/2 supply line above ground along the west side of the house, and buried the line just below the sod in the front yard. The sprinklers connect to the main line via 1/4-inch line. Setting it all up an connecting it was very quick and easy, and for a minute I wished I had used the micro-sprinklers everywhere instead of working so hard to bury all that PVC.

Then I turned it on.

When I turned on the micro-sprinklers, they worked, but the water pressure was too high for the little sprinkler heads. Instead of coming out as a nice spray, the water jetted out as a mist. I watched as small gusts of wind caught the mist and carried it away from the trees I was trying to water. My kids had a great time running around in the spritz, but the sprinklers weren't effective for irrigation. I turned the water completely off, and then opened up the valve a quarter turn. At this lower pressure the sprinklers worked much better, but being smaller they don't put out nearly as much water as the other sprinklers. I'm not thrilled with them, but I'm so disappointed that I'm planning to dig them out either. I'll just have to run the micro-sprinklers for a longer period of time to deliver the needed volume of water.

Live and learn I guess. Still, I'm very happy to have almost all of my irrigation installed and semi-automated before the summer. I love being able to turn a dial and just let the sprinklers do the work. I'm finding that since I'm not having to spend all weekend moving water hoses around, I have more time for other projects. I really should have done this sooner.

Laying PVC in trench along back fence.

Snaking PVC around buried line to blueberries.

PVC line connected through simple timer.

Sprinklers watering citrus trees.

DIG Micro Sprayer

DIG tubing is very easy to connect.

Wasted Water - Sprinkler Spritz

5 Comments

Surinam Cherry - Eugenia uniflora

4/22/2012

3 Comments

Surinam Cherries

The Surinam cherry, also known as the Pitanga, is a little shrubby tree that produces a uniquely shaped fruit. I picked one up a couple of years ago at JRN Nursery, brought it home, and planted it in a 10-gallon pot out front by the driveway. It has grown very well there, but until this year it has never flowered. It has just grown over the sidewalk in a weeping form, annoying Dr. Wife, and getting in the way anytime someone walks from the driveway to the front door. I call it my 'coffee plant' because I pour old coffee out of my travel mug into the pot every morning. True to her gracious nature, Dr. Wife has tolerated it blocking the walk because she loves me, and it was a fruit I was experimenting with. I was really hoping to reward her patience with some delicious tropical fruit.

So after patiently waiting, keeping the plant watered, and protecting it from freezes, it finally flowered and fruited for me this year. I had read that that the fruit could taste very unpleasant if picked before completely ripe, so I waited to taste the fruit until one was nice and bright red, felt soft to the touch, and pulled away easily from the plant. I took a delicate test bite and was shocked. The fruit tasted absolutely terrible, tart, acidic, and resinous. The only thing I can think to compare it to is an unripe astringent persimmon, but with acidity of a sour lemon instead of the tannic pucker. I thought that perhaps that fruit had not been completely ripe, so I waited and waited for another fruit to fully ripen.

Finally, a darker-red fruit fell from the bush. It was very soft, and I thought for sure that this one would be better, but I was disappointed. While this fallen fruit was much less acidic and resinous than the first one I tried, it still tasted awful, and I don't think the fruit has the potential to get any better. The darker red to purple varieties are hard to find and reportedly better tasting, but based on how bad my red variety tasted, I'm not inclined to invest my money and time to grow one. Since I my family and I can't eat the fruit, I'm going to just get rid of the plant and replace it with something else. You can't win them all I guess.

Surinam Cherry Bush

Cluster of fruit at various stages of ripeness.

Fallen Cherry

Each fruit contains one large seed.

3 Comments

Grafting Figs

4/15/2012

5 Comments

LSU Gold Fig

I've been wanting to add more varieties of figs to my collection, but I don't have any room for more trees in the yard. The only way I can continue to collect varieties is to graft them onto the trees I've already planted. I looked around on the internet for information on grafting figs, and found very little information. I even contacted the NAFEX fig expert Ray Givan about the best way to graft figs. He replied, "I've never had success grafting figs. Good luck." Fortunately the GCFSG expert grafter and propagator George McAfee was able to give me some pointers at the citrus program last Thursday, and Dr. Randall was kind enough to give me some cuttings from his Banana and Nagle/Mysteak figs, two varieties I've been searching for.

I decided to add the cuttings to my LSU Gold tree because it is the largest fig I have, and I think its in the best location. According to Mr. McAfee, figs can be propagated by cleft grafting, bark inlay grafting, or chip budding. He recommended I try the bark inlay method. I really like the bark inlay graft for citrus, and am comfortable with the method, but I had never attempted it with figs before. I also knew it was going to be challenging because fig wood is soft, exudes a sticky latex sap, and it very gnarled and knobby, making it really hard to find a nice straight piece for trimming symmetrically shaped scions.

I sprayed the branches with 90% alcohol to kill any mold spores, disinfected my pruners and grafting knife, and cut off three of the large branches. After I let the white sap run for a little bit, I made an initial incision into the bark along the top of one of the branches. I was happy to find the bark slipped very easily. I then did my best to cut and trim a shallow scion wedge from one of Dr. Randall's cuttings, and slid it under the bark. Finally, I wrapped the stock and scion with parafilm, and secured it in place with a rubber band. I did two of these grafts, and then attempted a cleft graft. I'll be surprised if the cleft graft takes, since I couldn't get a nice straight cut of scion wood, and I had a really hard time getting the cambium layers to line up well. Hopefully at least one of them will take. I'll know in a few weeks.

Cut back branches on one side.

Branch before bark inlay grafting.

3-inch incision along the top of the branch.

Banana fig scion trimmed to a narrow wedge.

Sliding the scion under the incision in the bark.

Stock and scion wrapped in parafilm.

I tried two bark inlay grafts and a cleft graft.

This experiment cost me at least 9 big figs. Hope it works.

5 Comments

Video Walkabout - April 2012

4/8/2012

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This week I thought I'd put up another little video tour of the fruits I'm growing in my yard. Click here if the video link doesn't show up in the subscription email.

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Strawberries 2012

4/1/2012

3 Comments

Sweet Charlie Strawberries

Back in late November, I planted somewhere around 150 Sweet Charlie strawberries in the flower beds around the covered deck, and they have grown very well. My family loves berries so much that I really wanted to do everything I could this year to make sure they got a good crop. Since November I've stayed on top of watering, fertilizing, and weeding as best as I could, and now my efforts are paying off. Dr. Wife and the boys have been picking and eating berries everyday. Fresh picked strawberries are a real joy, especially for kids. Boy #2 will almost jump out of your arms to get one, and Boy #1 has a hard time waiting for them to ripen. The sweetest and most flavorful berries are the ones that have ripened to a deep, dark red, but even berries picked a little before then are better than anything you can buy at the store.

I had previously used cheap black soaker hoses to irrigate the strawberry bed, but they always got clogged, sprung leaks, or didn't water evenly. I've learned my lesson, and have since upgraded to a drip system. It works wonderfully! I was even able to run emitters to the peach and cherry trees that are growing in containers set into the strawberry beds. Switching to this style of irrigation has made a big difference. The strawberry plants are large and healthy, and the berries themselves are larger than in previous years. I'm hopeful that this system will hold up through the year, and help me keep the plants alive through the hottest parts of the summer when I usually lose several. I've also planted some pepper plants in the bed, which I'm hoping will shade the strawberry plants when it gets really hot.

Surprisingly, the biggest pest problem I've had with strawberries has not been from birds, but from pill bugs (aka roly polys). These little crustaceans (that's right, they're not insects) will eat holes in the strawberries, and then eat it from the inside out. I also sometimes find earwigs damaging the fruit, but not as often. This year I decided to fight back using diatomaceous earth. Diatomacous earth is composed of the remains of diatoms, which are single-celled algae that create a shell of silica. Under a microscope the shells look like shards of glass. Diatomaceous earth works by dehydrating the bodies of insects and other little pests, and by getting in between the joints of their exoskeletons and tearing them up. I've been dusting the strawberry beds every couple of weeks, and it seems to have really made a dent in the pill bug population. I like this approach because diatomaceous earth is cheap, organic, and completely harmless to humans. It kills the pests by physcially, not by being toxic. You can get an 8 pound bag at Plants for All Seasons for just a few bucks, which should last for a couple of years.