Permaculture Blog

Once again it is December, it is cold for a California boy (I think it’s supposed to be 60 tonight), my fruit trees are losing their leaves, and therefore it’s time again to consider chill hours. There is a calculator for California at https://ucanr.edu/chillcalc/index.cfm?controller=station&action=index And it is fun to play with. Still, it is my guess that we have no clue about the actual biological systems that give us a tree setting bloom or not. Certainly cool/cold temperatures are required and yet…. My cherry trees have bloomed every year since I put them in and there is no freaking way we are getting 400 chill hours. 2 years ago I had a tomato plant survive the entire winter and then produce tomatoes in the spring within 20 feet of the cherry … which bloomed and had a good crop of cherries for the squirrels and birds :-) I seriously doubt that a tomato plant can survive 400 chill hours. The funny thing is that my 100 chill hour apples have the toughest time resetting for spring. I would bet that there are several systems that overlap and allow the tree to sense ground temperature, light conditions, air temperature, etc. The cherry and tomato were near my pond and it’s possible that the pond kept the air temperature warm enough for the tomato but the ground temperature got cold enough to reset the cherry. Who knows, my point is that if you have a fruit tree that you want to plant, don’t worry so much about the chill hours required. Plant it, water it, nurture it, and see. Bob 310 429 8477 http://www.PuraVidaAquatic.com

Like many others I decided I would try putting a layer of chicken wire down to prevent gophers from destroying plants (in my case trees) I tried two different ways and thank goodness I didn’t go whole hog and do a lot because I will never do it again.

What wire mesh does is protect the gophers. They’ve got a safe area that they can burrow under to their hearts content. Nothing can dig down and get them. Coyotes, other predators that might dig, can only reach the wire.

The chicken wire will not last more than 2 or 3 years. Gopher tunnels leading up to it allow oxygen and moisture to cause rust and deterioration even if its galvanized. Then they go right through it even if it is half inch mesh. But they’re still very much protected from any larger predator above. Ever tried to dig up old rusted wire?

Gopher baits are designed to fail in the long run because all the tunnels are still there. A new juvenile gopher moves in and has the run of the entire network which can be quite extensive. So you have to go out and use more bait, which has probably gone bad, so you have to buy some more, and the chemical companies profit.

This is the same problem with chicken wire it protects all the tunnels under the area it covers and if a gopher moves in – even after 5 years they have the entire nest/tunnel system. And digging the wire out! Oh my lord! What a freaking pain! It took me all morning to get it out of about a 10 foot by 10 foot patch!

Chicken wire just encourages you to use poison out of desperation. And think about a snake that eats a poisoned gopher this is a huge percentage meal for a snake I will bet you a _lot_ that the gopher baits have not been tested at this level on reptiles. And why should it be? The chemical companies would love to kill the Gopher predators as well.

It is not a long term solution.

The best thing I have done is to destroy many of the existing gopher runs. I was amazed at how networked such a small area was. I then added compost to my excavations and kaboom – fruit.

That is a long term solution.

Bob
http://www.PuraVidaAquatic.com

Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. An observation that a human’s developing embryo goes through stages appearing to be similar to stages in our evolutionary history.

Early on we look like some very early chordates (sort of worm like). [and of course men never grow out of this stage :-) ] Then we look like fish (we even have gills), amphibians, lizards. At later stages we look incredibly like a young chicken. That is so cool, and it just happens to be what our embryos looks like, at least to some, and me too.

But it got me wondering whether the molecular and cellular connections that cause a human embryo to look like an amphibian might be similar enough that they would be sensitive to the chemicals that affect an amphibian or its development. Such as…. http://www.kcet.org/news/redefine/rewild/amphibians-1/central-valley-wildlife-refuges-are-deformed-frog-hotspots.html Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

A couple of months ago I attended a great class offered by the Southern California Rare Fruit Growers Association. It was on air-layering.

Air-layering is a technique to propagate woody trees by tricking them into believing that a branch has been cut off while it is still attached to the tree. This allows the branch to continue receiving water from the main tree so the branch doesn’t wilt. But the branch thinks it has been cut off and tries to grow roots.

I was all enthusiastic, came home, and air-layered a lot of my trees. There were so many, I jokingly refer to them as my tin foil fruit.

I opened up several a couple of months ago and a few had little roots started so I wrapped them back up. I thought that they should “ripen” a while longer. With some light rain predicted for Thursday, I decided I would pot the ones that looked good so I started opening up the tin foil fruit and here is one of the better ones. A lot of them didn’t work but enough did that I’m happy about it for a first time attempt.

I think often, about how I can live on my property without killing the animals that were already there – even accidentally kill them. That is one of the reasons I spent so much time and effort on my gopher moat. I really enjoy the critter coming and goings. Saw my first fox the other night.

Even the raccoon who has recently decided to bring its significant other to the parties held in my wetland. They turn over every single pot in my plant growing area. I’ll bet they are looking for snails or aquatic worms under them. But they aren’t very careful and they don’t set them back up when they’re done :-) Sigh.

I may end up getting an infrared motion detection sprinkler system. It is fairly effective at keeping them away — they don’t like being sprayed. Just like a cat. Which seems sort of funny because they like wading around in the water so much. So maybe I’ll get one and put it in that one area. My sort of solution … nontoxic non-lethal :-) and they can still visit the other areas of the wetland and pond all they want.

Because I enjoy the critters, I made my pond (pond0) sloped in _and_ out. Inside there is a long sloping section that leads out and it is also quite useful for putting plants at different water levels. All the animals can get in and out. bugs, mice, lizards snakes,… me! The birds love that area as a landing pad. That is why I think I had the toads breeding in there last year. The chorus frogs can climb into practically any bit of water anywhere but the toads don’t jump that well and certainly don’t have sticky pads to climb out once they are in. Boy, I really hope they are back this year.

I wish I could encourage other people who are building a pond to make it so that the native wildlife can use it better. I am so glad that the blog readers here and members of SanDiego Permaculture Meetup care about living with the world instead of against it. And that they feel along with me that permaculture is not about instant gratification.

Permaculture is not about digging a swale on your property just to be able to say “I have a swale”, but instead it’s about using your brain before you do something. Using your brain and asking yourself is this living with the world. And for me, sometimes using my brain means that I have to stop, look, and listen — in order to fully appreciate the roses :-)

So I just spent a couple of hours exchanging several emails with a wonderful guy who has the website www.Californiaherps.com He is very knowledgeable and has a lot of information on his website that will help one identify a snake or a lizard, turtle, toad, frog, et cetera . He also has a very useful section on the california laws regarding the touching, poking, killing, and collecting of native reptiles and amphibians. In short it’s pretty much against the law to bother them, which I think is great. So if you find a snake, frog, lizard, or toad on your property take a picture of it and go to his website to idenify it, but do your best to leave it alone. And I’ll bet your karma will reward you.

^quote Radioactive polonium-210 contained in phosphate fertilizers is absorbed by the roots of plants (such as tobacco) and stored in its tissues.[109][110][111] Tobacco plants fertilized by rock phosphates contain polonium-210, which emits alpha radiation estimated to cause about 11,700 lung cancer deaths annually worldwide. ^endquote from http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonium

Rock phosphate is of course the mineral phosphate you buy in a bag at a store. It’s recommended for organic farms :-( It’s mined in Florida

Much of the research on plant metabolism was done on tobacco (follow the money) but if tobacco takes it up it’s very likely that the majority of vegetables and fruit trees will take it up.

Polonium is also a breakdown product of uranium. Wonder how much California got from Fukushima?

Another reason to compost as composting will facilitate microbial detoxification of _small amounts_ of polonium and several other types of heavy metals. And will return your phosphate to you :-)

I have a lot of pill bugs in my vermiculture area. Or at least had. I opened it up today and not one was visible and in looking around I suddenly saw…. A Western spadefoot toad.

They come out in the rainy season and have the big tadpoles I talked about in an earlier post. In previous posts there are also pictures of some juvenile toads that I thought were particularly cute. toadpolls

There were a lot of earthworms moving around and so I believe that it has a preference for the pill bugs. WooHoo. I hope a bunch of the little toadpolls survived this year and get a good dinner during the upcoming rains.

^quote In June 2013 the Center and Pesticide Action Network filed an amended complaint in their ongoing efforts to protect the nation’s most vulnerable wildlife from toxic pesticides. The lawsuit seeks to compel the EPA to evaluate the impacts of dozens of pesticides known to be toxic to more than 100 endangered and threatened species, including Florida panthers, California condors, piping plovers, black-footed ferrets, arroyo toads, Indiana bats and Alabama sturgeon. Documents from the Fish and Wildlife Service and EPA, as well as peer-reviewed scientific studies, indicate that these species are harmed by the pesticides. ^endquote from http://enewspf.com/latest-news/science/science-a-environmental/47620-settlement-will-safeguard-endangered-california-frog-from-harmful-pesticides.html

^quote The scientific community is increasingly recognizing the role of chemical pollutants in amphibian decline. Though sadly, regulatory agencies do not: pesticides are not even required to be tested on amphibians before the pesticide is approved. Brühl commented to The Guardian that “We could only find one study for one pesticide that was using an exposure likely to occur on farmland.” This study, then, fills a research void in understanding the impacts of pesticides to amphibians. The study tested an array of seven insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides on the juvenile European Common Frog (Rana temporaria) at three different doses, the recommended dose, a tenth the dose, and ten times the recommended dose. One of the most striking results was for pyraclostrobin, a fungicide manufactured by BASF and sold as the product “Headline”: The product killed all of the frog within an hour when applied at label recommended rates. Others demonstrated acute toxicity even when researchers applied a tenth of the dose recommended on the label. For example, dimethoate, a toxic insecticide used on everything from asparagus and cherries, to tangerines and wheat, killed 40% of all frogs within a week of application. ^end quote from http://www.beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/?p=9269 And of course these toxins have virtually no effect on us. Hmmmmmm “wheat” I wonder what wheat plants metabolize these toxins into. They’re not even fully testing the actual toxins let alone putting the time, effort, and money into investigating what the toxins break down into. And of course they are then testing those unknown breakdown products on people, pets, and frogs.