Weather

It's been cold here – we had several nights in the 30s, with a low of 31. I know, my friends in Boston don't feel sorry for me, but for my baby citrus trees, that's cold! While I was away this past week in San Diego Wolfi got lots of things done. One of those accomplishments was setting up our weather station. We have 3 spots we monitor - indoor (kitchen), outdoor behind house under the back covered patio, and about 20' lower elevation down where the stone fruits are going in. I wanted the latter

because when we go down the hill we almost always notice how much cooler it is, and it is interesting to me to keep track of the difference. I am curious why we have these temperature layers. The reading I've done so far leads me to think that the canyons channel the colder air down from the mountains (or in this case hills). Often in the evening we feel a real stream of cold air rushing out of the mouth of our canyon. The 31o reading was in the low spot; the low at the house was 39. It seems I am fortunate my greens germinated before this cold spell.

 

House is above to right, stone fruits are down the hill, right side of driveway

As for other weather, we have had several lovely rainstorms. I don’t have exact readings on those but will keep track in the future on the rain gauge Wolfi installed for me. Becki and I sowed our wildflower seeds on the hill above the house by sprinkling them down from the top, so I have faith that they have germinated and will establish themselves with the winter rains.

This week we got the Cara Cara orange, royal apricot and Santa Rosa plum in the ground, and the holes for the persimmon and peach are dug. A friend told me of these fruit tree planting instructions

from the late 1800s:

The instructions were to “dig a deep cavity in the ground, then put in rich dirt, then stones, then rich dirt. After this…put in layers of earth and dressing [compost] until the hole was filled.” (Ellen White, 3SM 328)

Yes, this was describing trees in Australia, but she had also done it that way in “the rocky soil in America”. This advice evidently pertains to bare root stocks, and our trees are in 5 or 15-gallon tubs, so I will be leaving the earth intact as much as possible (except for any ingrown roots, which will be gently pried apart). Even more details with instructions from the Rodale organic gardening book can be found here.

Thus I may plant these last 3 fruit trees a bit differently than the first. Until now I have been following Mike McGrath's instructions not to amend the hole at all, so that the tree's roots will enter the soil surrounding the original hole. Hopefully whichever trees were planted sub optimally will forgive and grow anyway!