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identify NE Arizona tree

 
Posts: 176
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Hi
I saw this tree growing on the side of the road in Northeast Arizona. Anything tht grows out here without help is worth looking at.
Unfortunately it was next to the road and was cut down by road maintenance.
Thanks
203.jpg
growing on the side of the road in Northeast Arizona
growing on the side of the road in Northeast Arizona
200.jpg
Anything tht grows out here without help is worth looking at
Anything tht grows out here without help is worth looking at
 
gardener
Posts: 2518
Location: Ladakh, Indian Himalayas at 10,500 feet, zone 5
844
trees food preservation solar greening the desert
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Looks a lot like the russian olive that grows around here, but can't be sure from just a picture.
 
pollinator
Posts: 524
Location: Salt Lake Valley, Utah, hardiness zone 6b/7a
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I will second that. I have a Russian Olive in my backyard and the leaves and branches look the same. It is an invasive species and considered a noxious weed in many jurisdictions. While it does provide food for a number of birds and small animals, native species are preferred for providing wildlife habitat. As an ornamental, it is fast growing and provides a soft filtered shade, but it is thorny. It is also difficult to get rid of. I will probably be taking mine out this year or next. Will probably replace with scrub oak.
 
kevin stewart
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I looked up russian olive when rebbeca suggested it but i thought the olive had a narrower leaf. It does have thorns like you said. Two opinions are good for me.
Thank you.
I'm in cattle country, invasive species are not a problem. Anything that goes past the fence line:chomp, chomp.

 
Rebecca Norman
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Posts: 2518
Location: Ladakh, Indian Himalayas at 10,500 feet, zone 5
844
trees food preservation solar greening the desert
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There are several ealeagnus species. Maybe it's one of the others.

Yes they are vigorous and sort of thorny, but they are also nitrogen fixers, and grow in poor soil with less water than other things. So some people grow them intentionally, especially as a pioneer.

If you think it will be easy to take it out and replace it, be careful. It loves being cut down to the ground during dormancy, and will grow back bigger than before by the end of summer. Maybe cutting back during the season would be more effective but I sort of doubt it. I've been pruning ours for crown lifting but they sprout numerous shoots from any cut, for years, even if I keep cutting off regrowth during the growing season.
 
Rebecca Norman
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Posts: 2518
Location: Ladakh, Indian Himalayas at 10,500 feet, zone 5
844
trees food preservation solar greening the desert
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By the way if you want to propagate it quickly, just whack off lots of sticks during late winter before it leafs out, and plant them right side up with a foot or two in the ground. Water initially and a few times the first year. We get almost 100% this way.
 
kevin stewart
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Sounds good to me.
I have 40 acres of grass and shrub.
Anything that will grow.
 
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Have you looked into growing bamboo?
 
kevin stewart
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We are in our third year of severe/extreme/are you kidding me, drought.
Nothing grows without a lot of help. I'm lucky to get there once every six weeks.

I did plant two small trees last
november.the idea was to plant them as they are going dormant. Plant them in a hole bigger than they need with good soil.cover the soil with black plastic and make the hole lower than the surrounding area.(sam, I saw your pictures with the same idea.)

In june and july I circled the trees with heavy chicken wire and covered them with shade cloth.
I am very pleased with their growth and I will plant another twenty this november.

The silver lining to the drought was that the local rancher couldn't pay his water bill and so he took his cows and left.
I am two years cow free.
IMG_20160902_124932.jpg
I am very pleased with their growth
I am very pleased with their growth
 
Sam Fel
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kevin stewart wrote:We are in our third year of severe/extreme/are you kidding me, drought.
Nothing grows without a lot of help. I'm lucky to get there once every six weeks.

I did plant two small trees last
november.the idea was to plant them as they are going dormant. Plant them in a hole bigger than they need with good soil.cover the soil with black plastic and make the hole lower than the surrounding area.(sam, I saw your pictures with the same idea.)

In june and july I circled the trees with heavy chicken wire and covered them with shade cloth.
I am very pleased with their growth and I will plant another twenty this november.

The silver lining to the drought was that the local rancher couldn't pay his water bill and so he took his cows and left.
I am two years cow free.



How cold do your winters get? What type of trees are those? Yea that's exactly what I did when planting my trees I also just went to Home Depot and bought 3cubic feet of "Kellogg's garden soil" and dumped one bag rack on the tree as a fast way to mulch and add organic matter. I'm hoping to get into contact with a local tree trimmer so I can start getting wood chimps to mulch or get my own wood chipper.
Also you'd be surprised how drought tolerant some cultivars of bamboo. I had a friend who was renting land in temecula and he never watered the bamboo on the property it just kept growing like there was no drought at all.
 
kevin stewart
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I think the tree is arizona cypress or something.
I have about 20.

I will look at bamboo when I have a better watering set up.

This tree got melted snow in winter,whatever rain in summer, and gallons of water whenever I visited.that was it.
When I do set up a drip system I will put a loop of irrigation hose above each tree. That way when the pump stops each tree will have a little reservoir of water.
Previously I spent the money on ball valve timers. Water would rush past many trees and overwater everything at the bottom.
I do a lot of stuff with boat bilge pumps and my next watering system will be a 12 volt timer pumping water in a loop from my goldfish pond up to the trees and back. I don't think fish poop and drips work well together.

This 400 odd gallon fish tank is also the source of water for the pit greenhouse hydroponic trays. (Sounds better than it is but this august I was verry, verry happy with the result.
 
pollinator
Posts: 268
Location: Sunizona Az., USA @ 4,500' Zone 8a
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We have land in SE Az. & successfully grow Jujube, Sand Cherry, Honey Locust, Black Locust, & Melon Berry so far. If I actually lived there to take care of the trees for a year or so, I would grow all kinds of stuff.
ResizedImage_1434936832427.jpg
If I actually lived there to take care of the trees for a year or so, I would grow all kinds of stuff
If I actually lived there to take care of the trees for a year or so, I would grow all kinds of stuff
 
kevin stewart
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The joke on me was that I thought this tree was unique to the area when later I realized that I drove past a grove of them when I turned off the freeway. I have been collecting seeds and this spring I will try rebecca's suggestion and plonk a bunch in soil. ( I have tried before but this year I'm serious.)

I have a pit greenhouse and do all my growing there, right up to when I sacrifice a tree to the outdoors. Though this summer all trees will live in a wire cage covered with shade cloth.

Only this summer did I figure out that I had to use chicken wire to protect seeds and seedlings in the hydroponic trays. As soon as I kept out the critters plant growth exploded . Next year, bigger trays, double the pots.

I'm lucky to get here once every six weeks so I set up goofy (borderline genius) solar powered  pumps to move water. They kinda work.
IMG_20161030_104924.jpg
I have a pit greenhouse
I have a pit greenhouse
 
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