My feijoas looked like they were gonna die a couple of years ago when we had 116F. I biocharred them and then deep mulched them and they have recovered since then. I also put in ollas, clay pots under the soil to make sure they had water in the hot summer. They got too hot, but I think they also were getting some sun blocked by my mulberry so I chopped that back too.
John S
PDX OR
How does the olla work exactly? Does the water slowly leech out of the vessel or do you make tiny holes?
Does biochar help with water retention? I’m not all that familiar with that stuff.
An olla is a clay pot, buried in the soil. Yes, water slowly oozes out of the clay. You can buy one for hundreds of dollars, but I’m a cheap SOB. The blue collar way is to buy two clay pots. You glue them together with silicone. I put cement on the bottom hole. The top hole peeks above the soil line. Fill it once a week or so.
Yes, biochar helps a lot with water retention.
https://phttps://www.facebook.com/groups/1754011331682826
permies.com/f/190/biochar
John S
PDX OR
I fertilized in the early years (0-5) but have not done so for the past 25 years; the plant always put out plenty of new growth and flowers on its own. Heavy clay would not seem to be the ideal medium and waiting halfway through the growing season (mid-late July here for feijoa) to see what is happening and then apply fertilizer as needed is also not ideal. So, a modest amount of fertilizer every year may not hurt; I would go easy on nitrogen content.
Some heavy soils with low amounts of organic matter do not necessarily have actual “clay” ( a very specific particle size and mineral content) and are better at growing things than one would suspect.
The name I’ve heard tossed around in the master gardener program is Jory soil, which is common in the Willamette Valley, and has a high percentage of clay. For whatever reason, I don’t think that term is too well known outside of horticultural circles. The term used in the common colloquial is clay soil, even if that isn’t the solitary constituent. Would be interesting to see someone try to throw that stuff on a wheel to make a bowl.
Good to know! Mine look like that this year, too. I guess I won’t worry about them.
Yes, I have way more pollinated paw paw flowers than last year. One could speculate about why. I didn’t get many fruit last year. Also, one of my trees is much larger. Probably better weather.
JohN S
PDX OR
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It’s looking like another bumper year for pawpaw.
But I have to hand pollinate and my trees are much taller!!
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Not a problem here on the florence oregon coast inland 5 miles .
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How much growth do you need on a pluot cutting before you figure it must have roots?
I noticed one of these 3 had some leaves visible from around the weeds at the base of my multi-grafted pluot. I think I stabbed these into the mulched ground while pruning - maybe end of March. If I’d thought they had a good chance of rooting, I would have labeled them or at least made a note of which variety I’d done. Should be Splash, Geopride, or Emerald Drop.
On a related note, I took some scion wood from them, and noticed when pulling from the fridge that some of the Splash had significant callus. I put one in a pot last week just to see if something happens.
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