Do you need two avocado trees to get fruit?
No, you don't need two avocado trees to get fruit. Before I explain how I know this, let me say where I think this myth originates: avocado flowers are strange. They are dichogamous, it's called by botanists. The standard description of avocado flower behavior can be...
Applying urine as fertilizer
We know that urine has nutrients which plants use, but how to give it to them? The simplest guideline is to pee in a spot once and only once. Here are some details and research that support this guideline. One approach is to use the following statement by Håkan...
Your urine can be fertilizer
If you were to urinate on the ground beneath plants, it turns out that you would add many of the same nutrients to the soil that bags of fertilizer add, and in similar quantities. Bags of fertilizer are always labelled with their proportions of the three...
Apricot flowers becoming apricot fruit
The bloom on a branch of a Royal Blenheim apricot tree on March 4: And then the fruitlets the flowers have become on April 12: And here is the tree almost exactly six years later: April 13, 2021. Fruitset is weak this year: April 19, 2021. All of my Yard Posts are...
Winter grafts on deciduous fruit trees
Between January 29 and February 25, I took scion wood and grafted onto my deciduous fruit trees. I used the whip method for all nine grafts, and seven of the nine are growing today. Over the last year, I'd planted four new deciduous fruit trees, but I wanted more...
Sunrise from inside an orange tree
What to Do with 500 Gallons of Rainwater?
Looks like the rain's over. April is around the corner, and if we get anything more it's likely to be only showers. Still, I'm starting the dry season -- the season of irrigation -- with a full tank of 500 gallons of collected rain. Now the question is who should be...
Do avocado trees need a lot of water?
I heard a Master Gardener say she was hesitant to recommend that people plant avocado trees in their Southern California yards because avocados need a lot of water. Sounds sensible at first. We should be careful about our water use. But let's think further. Unless...






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