May Lotito

A kind of flute instrument is made from birdhouse gourd in China called Hulusi:

After reading about milkweed being edible, I ventured out of my comfort zone and picked some young shoots to try. I stir fried them in bacon grease with eggs just like cooking asparagus. And they are delicious! The stalk parts are milder but younger leaves are so flavorful. No bitterness or slimenes that I tend to associate with wild forages.  And they are everywhere, easier to grow than asparagus. I can't wait to try the pods this summer.

If you want to fo it organically, pomace, castings from worms fed with fruits, alfalfa pellets or manure from rabbits fed with alfalfa all have relatively higher level of boron, and other nutrients. A 50 lb bag of alfalfa pellet with 15% moisture and 50 ppm boron contains 1 gram net boron. It's analogous to treating anemia with iron supplements. If the situation is mild, correct it with diet; if severe, take concentrated form for speedy recovery.

Good to hear your soil has sufficient reserve. If you just need maintaining, 1 table spoon for 100 sq ft every other year is enough. Dissolve in water and apply evenly with a watering can. When plants transpire and uptake the boron, the excess will accumulate at the tips of the leaves and when it rains, it washes out and recycles back in the soil (drip line!). In our climate, toxicity is unlikely because of the high rate of leaching.

For me, I did 5 applications each of 4 lb borax on one acre from Feb to June last year, based on my local rainfall/temperature pattern. So about 2 lb of net boron per acre and 3 months prior to that I already put down hundreds of pounds of lime and gypsum to raise calcium level.  It was kind of high rate because I need to get it deep in the soil profile. I don't need to this year. My oldest peach tree finally has hundreds of flower buds surviving -12F and multiple warm-ups and freezes, after 3 years of nearly zero harvest. It might be able to fend of plum curculio without any protection as well.

Use some on your pear and apple too. Prunus are the very few genus that boron is mobile and gets moved to the fruits. Replenishing it helps with healthy growth and next year's fruiting. Boron mainly acts as structural component of the cell wall: B and calcium both bind to pectin with calcium forming tight binding for rigidity and borate crosslinking with sidechains of two pectins to provide elasticity. You will find boron deficient plants with stiff and puckered new growths. Strawberry is a good indicator too since the deformed fruits are very characteristic.

There are many types of boron products. Plants uptake boron mainly as boric acid as it is small and uncharged, through passive diffusion or mass transport with water. When using borax for soil amendment, it is more slower acting since calcium in the soil will buffer it. Rainfall can leach boron quickly, so if is better to divide the applications in spring to early summer. I only use boric acid for correcting emergency and the concentration will be calculated carefully by the case since it gets into the tissues readily.

I actually have dozens of successful stories bringing plants back to health using boron but I don't want to overstate it as some silver bullet. Sea water, or ground water in arid or semi arid area have sufficient amount of mineral boron, and fertile soil, alluvial soil have boron from organic matter.  My area is none of the above and I grow too much high demanding plants, making it more critical. Just like other things, add only when the plants need it.

I found out that seeds from green bell pepper are mature enough to sprout. I can just buy one and get hundreds of seedlings in a couple weeks. I tried one last year and it produced just fine.
I also rooted this small piece of store bought ginger to grow free plant.

Much needed rain to ease the drought! Spring arrived 2-3 weeks early this year in the ozarks. My area got down to 16F for two nights when trees were in bloom. No spring colors from forsythia or redbud. Somehow my peach flower buds in the calyx green stage or earlier survived and now in shuck split. Pear and apple blooms are not affected but I see very few bees around, or maybe because it has been very windy? Do you notice change in pollinator activities this year?

Thanks, M.K. I will look in to that. My mulberry might need it too. These persimmons are volunteers and the two big ones are both males. There's no financial loss so to speak. I would like to give it a try as some learning experience. I pushed a stiff but flexible plastic tube down each hole as deep as possible and checked each morning until no new ooze showed up.  I think the grubs have been taken care of. I also broadcasted wood ash around the trunks to deter the adult moths if any. So far trees are budding normally.

My local oak and nut trees are bug ridden. There is worm hole in almost every acorn or nut and basically no seedling under the trees. Tannin level is low from my experience with the dyeing and tanning projects using local plant materials. I am wondering if the persimmon trees under attack might have low tannin in the barks or weak defense system, or that proper feeding would make the trees stronger so as not to attract pests in the first place. This thread is about peach borer and the same principle will apply to peach trees as well.

There're a lot more roots than the blueberry I bought.

Last year the young paw paw fruitlets dropped after heavy rain. Here it comes back again with more flowers, even after a deep freeze in mid March killed 1/3 of the buds. Hopefully I will get some fruit this time.