Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer and Avocados

October 12, 2016

...18 that could be used by growers in CA. He provided a link to a short publication his lab put out on orchard sanitation best practices as well as a link to information for avocado growers on the use of Hero. Hero is a pyrethroid-based pesticide. For my own backyard tree I’m going to: Make sure pruning tools are disinfected before use. This is one of the main reasons we use a qualified arborist. Avoid moving firewood around. I’m going to have to th...

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How to Remove Bees From a Tree

Mr. Homegrown

March 20, 2013

Animals, Bees, Gardening, Trees

21 Comments

...rm. Perfect habitat for bees! This was entirely preventable with judicious pruning. Leave the bees alone. If they are way up in the tree and not bothering anyone, take a chill pill. Hire a beekeeper to remove the hive. What Kirk has done with tree hives is to come at night when all the bees are in their hive and wrap a screen around the entrance so they can’t get out. Next day he comes with a chainsaw and saws off the limb with the bees in it. The...

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How to Plant a Fruit Tree

Mr. Homegrown

January 16, 2014

Fruit Trees, Gardening

5 Comments

...bble–it’s been proven to be not a good idea to amend soil when you’re planting a tree. Other than that, this is how we’ve planted our trees and they’ve all grown well. And I wish that I had done the radical pruning you see at the end of the video. Cutting the tree to knee height will give you a shorter, more manageable tree. You can find more home orcharding videos on the Dave Wilson website....

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Loquat season is here!

Mrs. Homegrown

April 28, 2014

Foraging, Fruit Trees

51 Comments

...ng it’s vaguely tropical looking. They don’t seem to require much water or pruning–so they do well under benign neglect, though I’d suspect the fruit is best on trees which are not completely ignored. This is the time of year when the fruit comes ripe, and it’s always kind of an exciting time because the loquats bridge the “fruit gap” between winter citrus and stone fruit. The thing about loquats is that they are really suited only for fresh eatin...

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