Q: My Black Jack fig produced just a few full-sized figs early within the season however within the final month the figs are small, flip darkish and dry up. What may or not it's? The tree is about 40 years outdated and seems wholesome.
A: Normally, if a tree (or different fruit-bearing plant) produces fruit that's deformed, small, or fails to develop, pollination is the issue. For figs, pollination is a bit tough as a result of the fruit is basically an inside-out flower (truly, an entire bunch of flowers).
Figs are pollinated by itty-bitty wasps which can be sufficiently small to make their means contained in the fruit. Every sort of fig is pollinated by a novel species of wasp, so it’s vital to supply a wide range of wasp-friendly flowers. This ensures that the suitable species of wasp will present as much as do the job.
Now we have discovered that our fig tree produces probably the most fruit on its youthful branches. Our tree has a a number of trunk type, so yearly we reduce the oldest trunk to the bottom. This retains the tree a semi-reasonable dimension and encourages extra new, productive development. Since your tree is so outdated, I’m undecided how nicely this tactic will give you the results you want, however for those who see some new development after its annual pruning, watch the brand new development for productiveness.
Q: How do I defend my tomatoes and cucumbers from rats, mice, and rabbits?
A: Fencing can exclude rabbits, but it surely needs to be tight and partially buried. I like half-inch hardware material as a result of it’s nearly unattainable to gnaw by way of and in any other case very sturdy. When putting in, partially bury it to stop extremely motivated rabbits from burrowing beneath it.
Mice and rats are a bit of trickier. Mice are so small that they'll simply squeeze by way of any small gaps in your fence. Each rats and mice can climb however desire to not as a result of this makes them seen to predators. Hold tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and different vining crops off the bottom by trellising them. This is probably not foolproof, but it surely ought to reduce down on the harm.
The place attainable, take away or transfer any hiding areas resembling wooden piles or scrap lumber. Owls can eat an incredible variety of rodents, so that you’ll need to make their work simpler.
Don’t use bait as a result of it should poison owls and different useful predators. Sticky traps ought to by no means be used as a result of they're more likely to hurt non-target wildlife, and are merciless.
Snap traps and electrocution traps are humane, however they require cleansing and resetting. A fast web search will present a number of methods to entice a large number of rodents utilizing both a big bucket or trash can by luring them in by some ingenious methodology. The issue is that you could then determine what to do with a bucket of mice or a trash can filled with rats.
I might advocate fencing and trellising.