Arizona Chickens

[rufus]

Hmmm! I am not too sure that a cherry tree would do well down in the valley. They seem to be a difficult tree even up in the mountains. My wife bought a couple for the house in Overgaard. I planted them, and then it took about three years for them to produce. The fruit was awful. They were montmorency cherries, not the sweet ones I like.

I suspect that cherries need a lot more chilling than we get in the valley. That said, I always thought that of apples, but now I hear people saying that they have apple trees that produce. So maybe I am behind the times on this issue.

I have a lemon tree that is bound and determined to commit suicide. The darn thing is four years old and looks smaller and worse off than it did when we bought it at the dead tree sale at Home Depot. It really looks sad. In Spanish they refer to that condition as "tristeza" which is a condition in which the plant refuses to thrive.

I covered it with a cardboard box during the frosty nights. In retrospect, I probably should have let nature take its course. Then I could replace it with something more viable. I thought of a black mission fig, but my wife thinks that fig trees draw a lot of bugs.

Maybe a plum tree. I am running out of space in my backyard, so it will have to be something small but really good. Maybe a loquat.

 

[rufus]

On the question of vaccination, I realize that everyone is entitled to their opinion. But I invite those who do not vaccinate to walk through the Mesa graveyard and note all of the graves from 1917 and 1918. If you have not known the sorrow of losing a loved one to influenza, you are lucky, but that luck may not hold forever. Think about it.

 

[Demosthine]

I covered it with a cardboard box during the frosty nights. In retrospect, I probably should have let nature take its course. Then I could replace it with something more viable. I thought of a black mission fig, but my wife thinks that fig trees draw a lot of bugs.

My Grandma has a black mission fig tree in her yard. It's been there for as long as I can remember and has always produced fantastic amounts of fruit. She's out in old-town Avondale, for those interested in her area and climate. I don't recall her ever having a major bug problem, but I'll ask her this weekend.

Besides, wouldn't the bugs be a good thing? They absolutely love to eat them. Mine go crazy over anything I give them. If it's in their red feeding dish, they follow me around and attack the poor contents the moment it hits the ground.

I actually have about a five-pound block of prepared figs to make jam with. It's in my freezer, since I ran out of time to bake it. She didn't process her last batch correctly and it spoiled, unfortunately. I've never had fig jam, so I'm pretty curious.

On the table today, though, is making a huge batch of Bella Adorn Salsa. All of the ingredients are dirt cheap this week, so I'm making roughly six quarts. A friend is supposed to bring all her ingredients over so we can make her a batch, too. She's been nagging me for months to make some more. It's like chicken crack for her, uh, I mean scratch...

 

[cbnovick]

HI.
My birds love the wheat grass sprouted to about 2-3 inches in height the best...that way it is still firm and easier to just nibble right off the top! If I have let it get much taller, then they don't like it as well.

 

[cbnovick]

MaMa Hen Chris, I put some silver appleyard duck eggs under my broody Jersey Giant hen when I lived in Northern Cali...she did great with them...it was so amusing to see a hen raising her ducklings...she panicked every time they jumped into the water bucket (-; Lots of fun...good luck with your hatch!

 

[Mama Hen Chris]

MaMa Hen Chris, I put some silver appleyard duck eggs under my broody Jersey Giant hen when I lived in Northern Cali...she did great with them...it was so amusing to see a hen raising her ducklings...she panicked every time they jumped into the water bucket (-; Lots of fun...good luck with your hatch!

Will be fun for sure. I love mama'a and their babies. Would you like some duckies to add to your menagerie?

 

[squeakyballs]

Will be fun for sure. I love mama'a and their babies. Would you like some duckies to add to your menagerie?

I wish I could have ducks!

 

[pastrymama]

I wish I could have ducks!

in 28 days, YOU CAN!!!!!!! get your squeakyballs up here and get em!

i'll throw in some used ratty silkies too. (yeah, i remember that)

 

[AZKat]

Rufus: The cherry trees that I'm looking at planting are a fairly new, low chill variety of sweet cherry. Well, actually two different varieties, the Minnie Royal and the Royal Lee, since you need one to pollinate the other. The estimated chill is 400 hours, which is on the high side for the Valley, but not impossible. Reportedly they don't produce a lot of fruit until the fourth or fifth year, so until then I'll just have to enjoy the pretty pink blossoms

I'm starting to get worried about my orange tree. It was planted 2 years ago, so this year I let it set a few fruit. A windstorm ripped off a branch that had six oranges on it, and even though I covered it, the frost seems to have nipped a lot of the leaves, so we'll have to see how it does. If it dies, we'll have to replace it, but I hate the idea of going back to square one, especially since citrus can take so long to really produce well.

 

[kevs-chickadees]

Rufus: The cherry trees that I'm looking at planting are a fairly new, low chill variety of sweet cherry. Well, actually two different varieties, the Minnie Royal and the Royal Lee, since you need one to pollinate the other. The estimated chill is 400 hours, which is on the high side for the Valley, but not impossible. Reportedly they don't produce a lot of fruit until the fourth or fifth year, so until then I'll just have to enjoy the pretty pink blossoms

I'm starting to get worried about my orange tree. It was planted 2 years ago, so this year I let it set a few fruit. A windstorm ripped off a branch that had six oranges on it, and even though I covered it, the frost seems to have nipped a lot of the leaves, so we'll have to see how it does. If it dies, we'll have to replace it, but I hate the idea of going back to square one, especially since citrus can take so long to really produce well.

I agree with the cherry trees, I picked up the set last year after hearing about it from Gallo. I guess some don't consider them a true cherry because of the lower chill hours, doesn't matter to me. I picked mine up from that tropica something nursery out in AJ. I think they are about 3 years old when I bought them. They were also the only ones I could find that had the Western Schley (sp) pecan trees.

I'm going to hit up a nursery in Glendale when the tax return comes to pick up as many trees as I can fit. Really looking forward to getting a Burgandy plum as they are self fruitful and good pollinators, even better then the Santa Rosa. My S.R. doesn't really do anything. This nursery grows their own rootstocks, does their own grafts etc. and the trees are already at a fruit bearing age. All I have to do is resist waisting my $ on the ones that are imported here that die in my yard halfway through the summer.