Desert Valley Orchard

Monday, April 1, 2019

Moringa Airlayering Experiment, part 1

I have been looking around for information on airlayering moringa and found very little information. So I am giving it a shot myself.

Why bother airlayering morninga? I mean (in our heat at least) it goes from a seed planted in May to an 8-10 ft tree by October. But I am one of those 'what the hell' kind of guys. So... what the hell.

I trim back my morningas very hard each spring. Taking it from a 20-25 ft tree down to a 8-10 ft tree. But this year I left one of the vertical branches for an airlayer experiment. You can see in the image below where I hard pruned it two weeks ago, and the tree has already put out 6 inches of new growth. These guys are crazy :)

Moringa airlayer experiment, part 1

I will check back in a month to see if any roots have formed.

Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Spring Wake Up 2019

As brutal as the winter has been for the subtropicals (see previous post), the deciduous trees are very happy. Sunset view through the blooms in my deciduous section.

Monday, February 4, 2019

Winter Update

Update for Winter 2018/2019:

2018 was a tough year. Tough summer and this winter was probably the most brutal since I have been doing the backyard orchard. Around New Years we got into the mid-20s. Not much colder in terms of the actual low temperature that we usually experience, but the duration of the cold was much harsher. Basically one night was below freezing right around midnight and stayed that way until 8 am. So this 'cold soak' damaged a lot of things that would normally deal with the winter just fine.

I will do a more extensive update in the spring when stuff wakes up and I can really assess the damage. But here is a list of what I can tell right now.

Stuff that is severely damaged or likely dead

Mangos - The ones that were covered look okay but the ones that were not are all severely damaged. Several trees are likely dead
Soursop - Likely dead. I was able to keep this one alive for a few years, but I think this winter did it in
Sugar Apple - Likely dead, no surprise
Atemoya - looks like crap, but likely not dead
Cherimoya - Lots of damage and defoliation. This was a shock. These are reportedly a much more cold hardy Anonna. All other winters they have done fine, but not this one
Ross Sapote - lots of damage
Black Sapote - lots of damage on the Black Beauty. But Reinecke looks pretty undamaged. Interesting data points.
Royal Poinciana - Defoliated as expected, but lots of branch die back too
Moringa - Same as Poinciana above
Neem - This was a surprise. Neem usually handles our winters as an evergreen. But my smaller trees all have die back. The largest tree still has green leaves at the bottom of the canopy
Frankincense - All foliage is crispy and dead

Stuff that is okay or minimally damaged

Avocados - My Aravaipa is likely dead, but that is from the summer. But my Oro Negro, Brogdon, Day and Wurtz all made it through the winter just fine with no leaf burn whatsoever
Lychees - Heavy shade helped these through the summer, but they all look spectacular now in the winter
Longans - Not as nice looking as the lychees (a little damage) but not bad
Mamey Sapote and Canistel - These were some nice surprises. These are protected under a citrus tree, a little more sheltered than the Ross Sapote, but not by much. I was expecting these guys to be dead, but instead they only have minor damage. Maybe they are a little more cold tolerant than people think?
Guava - These are very exposed and show only minor damage at the very top of the plant. I am very impressed with these.
Citrus - All the citrus in my yard (limes, lemons, orages, pummelos, etc.) all look fantastic. Could not even tell there was a winter if you look a them.
Java Plum - No damage at all, pleasant surprise!

That is a roundup of most of the sub-tropicals in my yard.