Topics in Subtropics

There has been more than the usual number of questions about what I am calling "bio-based" herbicides recently. Arguably, this is coming from news that some school districts and cities specifically calling out the use of glyphosate on the properties they manage.

Because of potential contamination of mulches from pesticides, mulch use is being called into question and testing may be required for mulches applied to organic orchards. This is a recent ruling.

Here is a system of avocado pruning that seems to be working for the grower. He has been keeping his 12 year old Hass' planted on 16 x 16 to 8 feet high by pruning out center limbs each year.

Get ready for more rotting avocado fruit if you have leaf blight showing up in your tree canopy. The fungal spores (one of the Botryosphaerias we once lumped as Dothiorella) that create the infection spread in an irregular pattern over the leaf and down the stem (then called stem blight).

This has been a hot time. Look for irrigation problems, but also look for other weather related problems. This is possibly the most shocking. If you see your citrus tree suddenly collapse.