Bustin Out, New Arrivals,& WTF

This has been a fun week around here alot of  my fruit trees have started blooming (bustin out), I planted 4 new trees, and 1 of my peach trees trees has shown up with some freaky looking wounds. First off my Anna and Golden Dorsett Apples started budding out, along with my Florida Prince Peach tree(bustin out). I planted 4 new trees. One Pineapple Guava the flowers are supposed to taste like candy, I don't no much about the fruit, but I love candy so I probably won't get much fruit. Two plum trees Santa Rosa and Mariposa Plums, the Santa Rosa is a proven winner here in the valley, the Mariposa is supposed to be even better. We'll see I haven't been able to find alot of info on the Mariposa except what's on the Dave Wilson Nursery website. Both of these trees were root bound , I took a knife to the root ball and opened it up I also cut them down to 30 inches to build a better scaffold hopefully? They were 12 bucks each from HD so if they don't work out I can get my money back. Finally I planted a Chinese Honey Fig, I bought the tree through the VPA fruit tree program.. According to the info about the tree in 1979 general secretary to the communist party of China Deng Xiaping brought a Chinese Honey Fig as a present for then President Jimmy Carter in his 1979 visit to the U.S. The tree was then cloned and grown throughout the US, the Az Rare Fruit Growers propagated the trees for this years tree sale. It's a cool story even if it's not true and I've got a new fig tree. Finally my Desert Gold Peach tree showed up with some real gnarly looking wounds all the sudden. Nobody really knows what's going on but I think it has to do with the freezing temps 2 weeks ago and now the trees are bustin out, we'll see.

Florida Prince Peach bustin out

Dorset Golden Apple bustin out.

Anna Apple bustin out.

Bubbler system for the newbies.

New bubbler system finished I now have 8 zones on my sprinkler system in my backyard for watering my lawn and trees.

Pineapple Guava

 The Mariposa Plum, and Santa Rosa Plum I decided to try a few different things with there planting. The tree was extremely root bound so I really cut into the rootball. I also applied some new school planting techniques, I only dug the hole as big as the container, I didn't amend the soil, and I made sure that the tree was planted above the soil level of the backyard. The tree is planted on a mound and the root flare (where the roots start at) are right at the top of the hill. This tough love style of planting seems odd but it makes sense. Amending the soil and digging the hole 2-3 times bigger than the rootball only coddles the tree and doesn't really help it adapt to the valleys harsh soils. Planting the tree on a hill with the top of the root flare almost exposed keeps the tree from drowning, the main killer of new trees is over watering, because the tree sits down lower than the level of the yard that's around it,  you want to encourage the tree roots to grow deep, not shallow. You accomplish this by deep infrequent watering. I also knee capped the trees which means I cut all branches off at 30 inches this will insure that the trees form a short wide structure better for urban orcharding. The pics above are before and after Mariposa Plum

Santa Rosa Plum planted high and knee capped.

Chinese Honey Fig planted high no knee capping required. Side notes, chickens love figs, and fig trees are one of the few plants that love a top dressing of cow manure. You want your fig to grow big, throw down some cow manure.

Finally my Desert Gold Peach showed up with these crazy wounds. I have no idea where they came from, I'm hoping they're from the recent crazy weather, 5 days of freezing and an inch and a half of rain over this weekend. I hope?