Arizona Chickens

[MagicChicken]

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And DesertMarcy is closer to Eloy than most other folks in the Tucson area. I live in southwest Tucson. It takes me 40 minutes to get to her house. 30-60 minutes to get to most other places in Tucson. Pima County is twice the size of Connecticut and the Tucson area takes a big chunk of the eastern end of the county.

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Several years ago we had a huge population of sphinx moths in my neighborhood. Then there was a crash. Hardly saw any for the next few years. They are starting to pick up in numbers again. It is good to see them, even if the hornworms do go for the tomato plants.

That's weird that that you never got hornworms on your devil's claw. They were like a magnate for them here. Get your hands on some Nichols tomato seeds from Native Seed Search, they do much better than most varieties during the worst of our heat. We have a couple volunteers that are going wickedly strong now and producing all that we can eat. Were there any of those in the seed box? The punta banda tomatoes also produce well in our heat, but not as well for us as the Nichols have this year.

I never tried growing panic grass. I read that tortoises like it so we're going to give it a try.

Both Nichols Heirloom and Texas Wild Cherry tomatoes from Native Seeds Search have done well in my garden, and are now the only tomatoes I grow. Mostly because they keep volunteering whether I want them or not. The plants usually produce a short spring crop before it gets too hot. Most of them hang in through the summer without producing much, then give me a great fall crop. Sometimes the birds even let me have some of the fruit.

I planted a small patch of panic grass the other day as an experiment. I screened the seeded area from birds. Found it swarming with ants yesterday. Hope there are some seeds left to germinate. Also planted amaranth and desert chia. Hope something will grow. It's been a rough year for the garden.

The ground squirrel population has exploded here. Squirrels have tunneled up into two of my garden beds, under my chick brooder, and under my air conditioner slab. Haven't succeeded in trapping them. Starting to feel like Bill Murray in Caddyshack. Outwitted by rodents.

Back in my great-great grandfather's time lobster was considered poor people's food. It was abundant, easily caught, and the rich people wouldn't touch it. Not any more.

 

[desertmarcy]

I went out this morning to check on the Moringa tree seeds that I planted last week and found this! Yay!

You better cover that seedling with a wire basket or something or a rodent will come along and nip it right off. I had some foot high or so in one gallon pots and one night a packrat nipped a lot of the branches right off. One was nipped and only had a stem left, no leaves. They all came back and Monday I repotted them all into 5-gallon containers.

 

[desertmarcy]

Nice! I managed to keep a few moringas alive that I planted late last winter. Most of the ones I planted in the ground died.

There is one exception that is doing well in the ground and it is almost as tall as me. The moringa trees I kept in pots are doing very well. One is probably about 8' tall now. I did some reading that suggested they should be cut off at about 1m height once they reach 2m tall. Has anyone done this? Seems like such a brutal thing to do but apparently it makes them bushier rather than tall and spindly.

Cutting them back is recommended. Like I just posted, a packrat did that for me....but they weren't tall enough for such a pruning yet! I haven't decided where to plant mine. I want to try a few in the ground and keep some in pots. I ended up with only 10 trees out of 100 or so I started...if I get more seeds, I will definitely not try starting them in the cool season, that was a mistake. I hope they like the mish-mash potting soil I mixed up to transplant them into, in the bigger pots.

 

[a little chiken]

I was thinking of planting mine in containers for this monsoon season and until I move. Any suggestions on soil or is my compost and potting soil mix ok?

 

[a little chiken]

Ok Gallo and any other aquaponics ppl I have a question. When I build mine how do I get the bees to go in and pollinate for me? I am allergic so I cannot take them in there but I have a friend that is wanting to set up bee boxes on my property. I really want natural pollination if possible but we are planning to have it in a temp controlled structure. any thoughts will be appreciated

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Ok Gallo and any other aquaponics ppl I have a question. When I build mine how do I get the bees to go in and pollinate for me? I am allergic so I cannot take them in there but I have a friend that is wanting to set up bee boxes on my property. I really want natural pollination if possible but we are planning to have it in a temp controlled structure. any thoughts will be appreciated

Umm, yeah, that's a problem. Once I climate controlled the greenhouse I couldn't plant things that require a pollinator, which I don't like. My plan is to, someday, install a roll up curtain so that I can open up the side to let them in. I'll have wire underneath/inside so that the chickens can't get through. Even more importantly, I want the opening to let in predators that will eat the aphids that seem to appear right after sealing it up for the winter.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

I was thinking of planting mine in containers for this monsoon season and until I move. Any suggestions on soil or is my compost and potting soil mix ok?

Once they were eight inches tall or so I transplanted them from the 4" pots into larger (mostly 15 gallon) pots using primarily a mix of soil from my garden, which is pretty decent. I think I added perlite to facilitate drainage and aeration of the roots.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Cutting them back is recommended. Like I just posted, a packrat did that for me....but they weren't tall enough for such a pruning yet! I haven't decided where to plant mine. I want to try a few in the ground and keep some in pots. I ended up with only 10 trees out of 100 or so I started...if I get more seeds, I will definitely not try starting them in the cool season, that was a mistake. I hope they like the mish-mash potting soil I mixed up to transplant them into, in the bigger pots.

Bummer about the packrats. It's amazing what damage the moringas will come back from though. I think I had only slightly better luck than you did starting a month or so later, I think I planted about 30 and have about a dozen or so left. Yeah, starting them in the cool season was not the thing to do. I don't think I gained anything by starting them so early. Think I might cut my biggest tree today. I looked at it this morning and it's now about 11' tall and the trunk is about 1 1/4" diameter at the base.

 

[desertmarcy]

Once they were eight inches tall or so I transplanted them from the 4" pots into larger (mostly 15 gallon) pots using primarily a mix of soil from my garden, which is pretty decent. I think I added perlite to facilitate drainage and aeration of the roots.

Brad at EcoGro told me that Moringa does not like vermiculite. There was some vermiculite in a soil mix I reused for the last two trees I repotted since I ran out of the first batch. I don't think it is a high % of it in there, but it will be interesting to see if those 2 decline!

 

[desertmarcy]

I've got some young birds separated without food, waiting to butcher them today. But then discovered neither of us replenished the ice in the freezer to chill them

We always freeze gallons of water for the butcher process.