Friends have been asking about these topics:
1. How will you support your tomatoes this season? I use cages for some, and I use stakes and string for others. Check out this post:
“Comparing tomato supports: cage vs. stake-and-string”
2. Your avocado tree has just finished flowering (unless it’s a Reed or another late bloomer). So you may be seeing small green fruit forming and . . . dropping. Oh, no! Fear not, and read this post:
“Avocado fruit drop: Why? When? How many?”
3. The ants are back, and they’re thirsty and hungry. If you’ve got a plant in a pot that erupts with ants every time you water, try this method of forcing them to find a new home:
“Eliminating ants from potted plants”
All of my Yard Posts are listed HERE
In your last email you mentioned low stone fruit production. Up here in Humboldt we had similar temperature inversion (warmer winter and cooler spring) though our lows are probably a little warmer and our highs are definitely cooler.. My apricot blooms early March into early April, had a profusion of flowers and a decent set of tiny fruit, most of which have fallen off. I’m thinking it needs another tree as pollinator. But my dwarf peach trees are loaded to the point I was thinning fruit from the little trees in 25 and 15 gallon pots. The Rainer cherry tree had few blooms while the Montmorency cherry was full of blooms and now young, growing fruit. .Avocados blooming now are missing pollinators due to the cooler days ad gusty winds (15 – 25 MPH). So it’s not going to be a perfect producing year, but good enough to have some peaches and a few apricots and my Lamb’s first avocados, (8 of them) later this summer. Our weather is “supposed” to warm up this week. Now if he winds slow down, maybe just in time for my Reed which is just beginning to think about opening its flowers. Hope your gardens are doing well and your bees have worked their magic on your trees. P.S. the box of avocados took time to ripen and were so worth it and soooo good!
Good to hear these updates, Larry. A question: does Reed reliably set fruit for you? I’m wondering if its late bloom season is also an advantage up in your Humboldt conditions.