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I am happy to note that the orchard did not suffer much durng the drought but certainly is standing tall with last nights rain. I was pleased to see the beginnings of figs, blood oranges, tangerines, lemons limes, kafir limes and even some oranges. Yayyyyyyy..... 
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
Posts: 510
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Joined: Nov 2007
Glad to hear your fruit trees are doing well! I have tagerines and oranges on 15th st in the park doing well too!
Mac nut
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Speaking of figs -
Pam, do you if they move easily?
The one we got my dad a few years ago is a miniature and is in a pot and about 5' tall. Can it move easily (not traumatically like ficus who hate to be moved) do you know? I mean from 300' Honomu elevation weather to Kapoho 11' elevation weather?
-Cat
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Cat, I have moved figs in CA that were at least that tall. I removed 1/3 of the growth when moving and do it after it fruits. In Captain Cook Ken love has a fig tree which is trimmed in an espalier style. It is one tree but the branches are over 15' long and all are under 4' tall for easy picking. He has galvanized pipes supporting the tree's branches. The figs produce year round there. BUT... keep in mind that they are the absolute favorite food of birds here. You can protect the fruit in a variety of ways, making little bags or using baby socks to cover them as they grow. Ken uses old CD's hanging from the trees and he figures with that method about 90% of the fruit survives. He supplies all of the West side restaurants with figs, makes jams and products with them and sells them at the farmer's market. The tree is about 10 years old.
Aloha au i Hawai`i,
devany
www.myhawaiianhome.blogspot.com
www.eastbaypotters.blogspot.com
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Those new fruit trees we planted this season.... they have almost all broken out with huge populations of aphids. ICK. Three days ago I sprayed the whole orchard, tree by tree, with a soap solution and let it stay on. Today I used a sponge to sponge off teach tree, leaf by leaf, with NEEM. Well to be truthful, I only hand washed leaves with visible aphids. The rest I sprayed. I am hoping for some rain soon to help wash it all away.
Does anyone know.... can I leave the NEEM on for a while or do I need to rinse it off?
Thanks for your input. Pam
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
Posts: 255
Threads: 56
Joined: Aug 2006
Is it neem oil? I spray my trees every few months with neem oil. Yes you leave it on. It works great!
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Thank you Jade. Yes, it is NEEM oil.
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
Posts: 5,024
Threads: 84
Joined: Feb 2009
Have you noticed ants in the same trees? We had ants that were farming the aphids in our lemons.Got rid of the ants and then spayed with oil and we have had no more problems.
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Right about the ants.
Elizabeth has for a few years wrapped our citrus tree trunks with masking tape inverted with the sticky side out, and applied some gooey stuff from Garden Exchange around that. This lasts for a while, till it rains a lot, and breaks up the ant path. The tape and gooey stuff gets replaced about twice a year.
However, I have been told by others that the aphids do fly at one stage of the life cycle. So, the blocking of the ants is only a partial solution. Nevertheless, we have found it almost always gives the trees a break so they can produce some good leaves and grow. Eventually, it is a matter of the tree getting big enough that the aphid damage is only on a small part of the leaves.
btw: here in lower HPP, the drought has definitely NOT broken and everything is getting very dry.
James Weatherford, Ph.D.
15-1888 Hialoa
Hawaiian Paradise Park
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We have had two evening breakthroughs with light rain for a few hours. Enough to keep the trees happy... light and slow enough to soak in and not just run/flood off. Wind is billowing an there are dark clouds in the sky... hoping for a good rain. It will come, eventually....
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
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