Growing fruit trees, berries, and vines

[Don Alaska]

Using diatomaceous earth outside of the pot, so that the ants would have to crawl over it, yet it wouldn't get wet when you watered the tree, should work, wouldn't it?

I also recently heard that some recycling centers offer finely crushed glass. It would be like sand but with tiny sharp edges/points. That might work as well and wouldn't be as affected by water since it is not absorbent.

 

[Beth Gallagher]

Using diatomaceous earth outside of the pot, so that the ants would have to crawl over it, yet it wouldn't get wet when you watered the tree, should work, wouldn't it?

That's what we did, but then it rained.

 

[Beth Gallagher]

I also recently heard that some recycling centers offer finely crushed glass. It would be like sand but with tiny sharp edges/points. That might work as well and wouldn't be as affected by water since it is not absorbent.

That sounds like a terrible idea to me. Who wants a bunch of "tiny sharp edges" to deal with? I'm imagining my garden gloves being covered with prickly glass.

 

[Don Alaska]

That sounds like a terrible idea to me. Who wants a bunch of "tiny sharp edges" to deal with? I'm imagining my garden gloves being covered with prickly glass.

I don't think you notice it. It apparently feels like sand to your hands but not to pests. I haven't tried it, so I cannot say for sure. I just thought I would throw it out there as a possible solution.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

It looks like we will have a good year for berries this year , and that makes me happy ! (Optimist that I am )
I have been brining in a large bowl of strawberries every day or so, and we are getting some larger ones now. The new strawberries that i just got are starting to show little green leaves, so they are coming along good, too, and once the ones that I am picking now are finished, I am going to thin them out and start some more berries elsewhere in the yard.

The blueberries are growing and I am seeing teeny-tiny black raspberries starting, and blossoms on the blackberries. The lady who is sending me my bush cherry (that went to the wrong address and was sent out to north Idaho by mistake) is also sending me some red and gold raspberry starts, and they should be here this weekend, and we can get those planted. Next week, the replacement red raspberries should arrive from Starks, who send me grapes by mistake.
I may or may not get a fall crop from the raspberries this year, but either way, we should have lots of berry plants for next year.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

I learned something new about fig trees today ! My fig tree out back has figs on it already, which surprised me because it is usually really late summer when we have figs on the trees.
I read that figs can have an early spring crop on last years old wood, and this is called “Breba” fig when this happens. Then they have their regular crop on the new wood later in the summer.

Usually , we prune back the fig trees in the fall, to try and keep them from getting too tall to reach the figs, but last year, it just did not get done, so we have lots of old branches this year, and they are setting the breba figs now. I am hoping the cats will keep the squirrels from getting them so we can have some of these early figs !

 

[Marie Mallory]

Jake planted some tomatoes and greens corn potatoes a couple months ago, so far all is ok, collards are cooked and in freezer,tomatoes are growing, although planted late.