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Watering New Plantings

2/1/2014

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Watering New Plantings.

Your soil has now been well and properly prepped/improved and has good moisture holding capacity.

There is no simple rule for when and how much water to give to plants, though no watering can spell disaster for newly planted shrubs, trees and perennials.

The best means of determining when and how much water to give plants is to literally stick your finger in the ground next to plants, below the mulch into the top inch of good soil. Is it damp? Wet? Dry?

Water plants well if they are dry. That means about a gallon of water around the base of each small plant, and 2-3 gallons of water around the base of shrubs and small trees.

If you were to do this every other week when there has been no significant rainfall than I imagine your plants would be in great shape. A quarter-inch of rainfall is a good rain.

Supplemental watering is critical for the first 2-3 months a plant has been put into the ground in spring, and during warm summer months. By fall most of these plants will have healthy, vigorous root systems and capable of mining the soil for their own moisture other than in extreme dry conditions where there has been no significant rainfall for three weeks or longer.

I like to use a watering wand. It is a 2-3 foot long aluminum pipe with a slight bend in it near the spray head. The spray head is about one inch x one inch cylinder with a lot of small holes that produces a nice gentle flow of water like a low-flow showerhead. Better ones will have a shut-off valve at the other end of the pipe and easily attach to your garden hose. The aluminum pipe allows you to easily tuck the spray head under shrubs directing the water to the roots where its suppose to go. Watering the foliage of a plant serves no purpose, is a waste of water and can lead to diseases such as leafspot and powdery mildew.

Morning waterings are preferred to other times. But if the plants are stressed from dryness immediate watering is better than waiting for the ideal time of day.


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COYOTES IN OUR NEIGHBORHOODS

2/1/2014

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COYOTES IN OUR NEIGHBORHOODS

I went to a presentation at Orange County Animal Services  January, 2013 and listened to a national speaker talk about Coyote Behavior and Reducing Conflict with Humans. It was cosponsored by several organizations including The Humane Society of the U.S.

To try and summarize, coyotes are very adaptive, smart and shy. Their diet consists mostly of rodents (mice, rats, rabbits and squirrels), fruit, birds and small deer (fawns). Domestic cats, human garbage and pet food also contribute to their diet. Coyote have been known to eat anything that smells of food including fast-food restaurant bags and Styrofoam containers. Small dogs, cats and chickens are at risk of being killed if they are left outside in unsecure enclosures. Coyote can jump a six foot fence and climb chain link fences.  It is suggested that you do not leave pets outdoors unsupervised and that you always use a leash when taking dogs for a walk.

Coyote do not hunt in packs but live in small family units with only the alpha female bearing pups each year. Efforts to control coyote populations through trapping and relocating and lethal extermination have proven to be ineffective. Biologically, coyote reproduction will accelerate and quickly fill an empty niche. Coyotes maybe territorial and react aggressively only if you are taking a dog for a walk and get too close to a den where they are raising their pups.

Habituation. Coyotes will grow accustomed to humans and our neighborhoods as they learn to associate our surroundings as a food supply. It is imperative that we as a community recognize and change our behaviors to discourage coyotes from entering our yards and onto our porches. We can effectively minimize human-coyote interactions by scaring them away (known as hazing) and by avoiding enticements.

                Do not leave pet food outside

                Keep garbage and compost in secure containers

                Small pets should not be left outdoors without supervision, and above all

                Do Not Feed Coyotes.

Hazing is a group of simple deterrent practices to re-program coyotes to fear humans and to avoid us and our homes. Hazing methods include making a lot of noise and waving your arms and standing your ground when in close contact with a coyote. Bang on pots and yell ‘Go Away Coyote.’ Throwing sticks and rocks will also dissuade coyote from feeling comfortable around humans.  They will not attack you. If you have small pets with you, pick them up and hold them in your arms or put them behind you and face down the coyote. One should never run away from a coyote.  It is important to persist in these behaviors each and every time you make contact with a coyote and not let up until they have clearly left a great distance, not just draw back ten or 20 feet. With time these measures will provide sustained results. See, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8OuXTZmwh0

For more information and tips, see: www.humanesociety.org/animals/coyotes

Matthew Arnsberger
Piedmont Environmental Landscaping and Design
Carrboro, NC


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How to Eat a Persimmon and Love It.

10/12/2013

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How to Eat a Persimmon and Love It.

My top favorite easy-to-grow edible fruits for the NC Piedmont are figs, muscadines, blueberries, blackberries and persimmons. Of these edibles the one most people have the least exposure to are persimmons. There are two species of persimmons that can be grown here, the native, wild persimmon, Diospyrus virginiana, and the Asian or Kaki persimmon, Diospyrus kaki. The American persimmon is a medium to tall, 30-50 foot tree that bears copious small persimmon fruits that ripen in October or November. They are relished by all sorts of wild animals including raccoons, possums and deer. People have enjoyed the fruit since before recorded history but only have to learn once that the fruit must be dead-ripe (I mean melt in your fingers ripe) before they are to be eaten. But boy are they sweet and delicious! They usually have several large seeds, so they are best eaten out-of-doors, just spit the seeds out as you go. 
The best way to harvest American persimmons is to find a wild tree and check on it every fall for free fruit. Gather the fruit as it falls. Trees will usually drop fruit continuously for 3-6 weeks. If they are not fully ripe when you gather them, just leave them on the counter in a bowl to ripen. There are plenty of recipes for wild persimmon pudding, bread, dried fruit, ice cream, etc., in fact whole websites are devoted to persimmons, http://www.persimmonpudding.com and persimmon recipes, http://www.epersimmons.com/recipes.htm Persimmons freeze well, but their seeds can be a nuisance if kept this way. There is a name variety of American persimmon worthy of planting, Diospyrus ‘Meader’. It produces large, tasty, seedless persimmons even as a young tree. Local garden centers can order Meader persimmons for fall or spring planting seasons.

Eat a wild persimmon before it is dead ripe and you’ll learn first-hand what tannins will feel like in your mouth, like the insides of your mouth were made out of dried cardboard, as if you had no moisture in your mouth anymore. This is astringency. Occasionally you will sense a bit of astringency in a ripe persimmon but it will pass quickly.

Kaki Persimmons are smaller trees usually less than twenty feet tall and make great home landscape trees. They have large droopy, tropical looking leaves and gorgeous fall color. They are easy to grow and have few or no pest problems. Their fruit are much larger, about the size of a tennis ball and vary in shape with the name variety. They are very orange when ripe and hang onto the tree after the leaves have fallen, looking sometimes like little pumpkins hanging in the tree.

Kaki persimmons varieties can be astringent-types and non-astringent-types. Garden centers most often sell the non-astringent, Fuyu-type kakis which I think is regrettable because the astringent, Hachiya-types are sweeter and richer and juicier. Like the American persimmon, the astringent, Hachiya-type kakis need to be so soft that the flesh is the consistency of jelly. The papery skin holds it all together like a water balloon.

So this is how to eat a ripe Kaki Persimmon: Clasp the whole fruit with your fingertips upside down so the dry green calyx is down, pierce the skin with your teeth and suck the flesh out. Sometimes its messy so its best to eat them standing up and leaning forward a little.

The non-astringent, Fuyu-types are suitable for market and maybe that’s one reason why they are more readily available as landscape trees, but I also think that garden centers and their growers are reluctant to sell astringent types for fear of tree owners unfamiliar with the nature of true ripened persimmons. The non-astringent, Fuyu-type Kakis lack in tannins so they can be eaten firm like an apple, their flavor is crisp and mellow, but their sweetness and flavor improves as they ripen and are better eaten when soft as well.

Kaki persimmons are harvested firm and stored chilled. Leave them at room temperature for about a week or two to allow them to ripen. They will keep for two months in the fridge. I will store whole persimmons in the freezer and use them at my preference or make a puree out of them and freezer containers of the puree ready for baking when thawed.

There are many varieties of astringent and non-astringent Kaki Persimmons. The following all have great flavor and are good producers.

Non-Astringent (Fuyu-type)
Jiro- nice mid-size tree, hardy in zone 6
Ichi-ki-kei-jiro – dwarf 8’x10’ tree, seedless
Fuyu – heavy producer, late season bearing
Hana Fuyu – pretty landscape tree 10’ x 10’

Astringent (Hachiya-type)
Great Wall –medium size tree, 15’ x 12’
Saijo – large tree with small very sweet fruit
Sheng – medium size tree, 12-15 feet
Hira Tanenashi – ripens over six weeks, seedless

If you want to plant easy-to-grow fruits in your home landscape try ‘Meader’ American Persimmon, or one of the numerous varieties of Kaki Persimmons. At first you may find them to be a novelty fruit but will soon find them to be an edible you look forward to each fall and winter.

Matthew Arnsberger
December, 2010

The following mail-order nurseries offer numerous varieties of persimmons, and have good website descriptions of tree sizes and forms, fruiting characteristics and flavor.

Edible Landscaping, http://eat-it.com/plants.php?func=cats&catID=3&catSubID=25
              http://eat-it.com/plants.php?func=cats&catID=3&catSubID=26
Just Fruits, http://www.justfruitsandexotics.com/Persimmons.htm
Chestnut Hill, http://www.chestnuthilltreefarm.com/Kaki-Persimmons-1919.Category.html
Hidden Springs Nursery, http://www.hiddenspringsnursery.com/

A great amateur fruit growers’ organization is North American Fruit Growers Association, http://www.nafex.org/index.htm


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