Joshua shares his Grocery wrangle Gardening progression and a question about pruning :
Hey David ,
I had left you a comment a couple weeks ago stating that I was going to build up our own grocery row gardens in Space Coast FL . 4 course each 28 substructure recollective . Well 28 yards of Natalie Wood chip mulch and 10 yards of compost later on and mission accomplished . I understand your disdain for woodchip mulch now baha . 28 yard * 27 three-dimensional ft / yd = 756 cu.ft . of mulch / 8 cu.ft . in a roulette wheel grave mound = 94.5 wheel lawn cart load over the last 2 calendar week . The mulch was pile high up on my suburban driveway all the way to the road ! Praise the Lord , last encumbrance of mulch was placed today . Oorah ! I was able to pretty much eliminate all trace of Gunter Grass in my yard now , so i parked my push lawn mower by the road and its die now !
Tree judicious so far I have implant : 1 avocado , 1 “ Christmas ” loquat , 1 moringa , 1 nanus namwa banana , 1 unknown dwarf banana bull head with pup , 3 transplant peach varieties in 1 muddle , 1 red hybrid jaboticaba , 2 olive tree diagram planted in 1 hole , 1 Valencia pride mango tree , 1 afganski pomegranate , 1 nam doc mai mango , and 1 LSU purpleness Al-Jama’a al-Islamiyyah al-Muqatilah bi-Libya . Oh and I am espaliering a variegate grafted lemon and a Cogshall Mangifera indica on the south side of my menage next to the grocery rowing gardens . Berry President Bush are on the way to fill in the gaps between yield trees : 2 nanus common fig tree trees , 2Mysore raspberries , 5 southern highbush blueberries , and 2 blackberries .
I ’ve already planted like 15 varieties of black-eyed pea and 10 types of Abelmoschus esculentus , 2 kinds of pigeon pea , cassava , and will be fill in the col with dulcet white potato vines slips I have grow elsewhere .
So I ’m writing to update that I ’m loving this method . The OCD unbowed lines mixed with the freedom and bedlam of the method make both halves of my wit quite happy .
My one question is : Since its soooo scorching spicy right on now in my part of Florida and the showery season has n’t quite started yet , should I hold off on pruning until the end of summer ? I ’m disquieted that if I cut these trees back to the 18 column inch mark mighty now , that they will shrivel up . Should I let them go until they go dormant and just hack em back in winter to right frame ? I ’m plan on conducting wire / fan training several of them , and vase conformation for others .
Thanks again for your work .
P.S. My 5 - year older is a flora flake just like his forefather , and he continually postulate me to say your Grocery Row Garden booklet to him and excuse what it all stand for . We finish intro together and are knee late in chapter 1 .
Your five - year - old is going to outstrip all of us ! Go Kyd , go ! Please assure him that David The Good tell hi .
I opine your gardens are going to really take off . Wood micro chip mulch is a pain to spread around , but it certainly make skillful soil over fourth dimension . For perennial it ’s impossible to stupefy .
Pruning Tropical Trees
As for the pruning , I think your instincts are correct . Do n’t accent them for now .
There ’s another caveat I must share : pruning tropical trees is n’t quite the same as temperate trees . Isidor Feinstein Stone yield like peaches and plums respond well to vigorous pruning while they are inactive , as they wake up shortly afterwards as the weather warms and their sap raise , then they scud upwards to the sky . In June , they reach their peak of growth and can then be dress for energy . If you chop up them back around the summer solstice , they ’ll lose strength and you ’ll control their size .
With tropical trees that do n’t really take off until the heat of summer and the pouring rains , things are a little unlike . I would guess that since they do n’t kip , you may really prune at almost any point .
This agricultural bulletin from Australia on Mangifera indica pruningnotes :
“ To develop a strong luggage compartment the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree should be give up to grow to over 1 meter in elevation initially . They are then cut back to a acme of between 0.6 to 0.7 m. The site of first cut is important for the development of a firm frame . Mangifera indica grow in outpouring , each flower is delineated by a hard roll of leaves on the stem . This is referred to as a “ annulus of bud ” , as a bud capable of shape into a branch is situated at the base of each foliage . If the cut is made above this “ halo of bud ” the resulting regrowth will be a feather duster gist of seven or more shoots developing . These would need to be dilute out to three or four if a good tree bodily structure is to be fall upon . Even so this would be a weak point , prone to breaking during storms or impregnable winds . Below the “ pack of bud ” the leave are more spaced out along the automobile trunk . This is an idealistic office to do the first cut ( see Figure 1 ) . It will assure that the branches are well spaced out up the body and only three shoots will usually develop , resulting in a strong skeleton for future maturation . After the initial cut earmark the three shoots to originate into branch of over 1 metre long . These are then abbreviate back to about a metre in distance , which will give you a good strong branch for supporting the develop tree . Again it is significant to ensure the cut is below the “ halo of bud ” so only three shoots will develop . This should take care of any pruning necessary for the young developing tree diagram . After this the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree should start branching by themselves . youthful trees can be pruned at any metre of the year . The intention should be to arise a fan out Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree rather than a tall tree diagram . Downward and in growing branches or offshoot that pass over over each other should also be remove . ”
Cut when you feel like cutting .
Jaboticaba Tree are often pruned to reveal more of the trunk – and not necessarily cut back for tiptop , as they are a small , slow - get Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree .
Also – I have almost never killed anything by pruning it . If a tree is fairly healthy , it ’ll believably live .
I would probably cut everything tropical some time in July once the rainfall are fall well . afterward pruning is more likely to give you warm growth which could be hurt by a freak hoar .
Also – here ’s my latest TV from our Grocery Row Gardens :
When something does n’t do well , keep tweaking !
All the best ,
DTG
