greg mosser

for the most part, ants will not harm fruit trees at all, and do lots of beneficial things. unless you see actual damage or an issue of some sort, killing ant colonies is likely do more harm than good.

extra-floral nectaries (places where nectar is made, outside of flowers) aren’t too uncommon in the plant world. plants and insects co-evolved in all sorts of fancy ways, and plants making extra bug-food is one of them. i expect it’s something like that.

i doubt there’s much to worry about there. certainly not enough to pour vinegar in the root zone of your trees.

i have both apples and pears (and a number of other things) with grafts i’ve done as high as 6 feet. no real problems to speak of.

a high graft, especially early on, before there’s enough growth up above to give the lower trunk some shade, might encourage more attempted lateral growth from the rootstock, but new grafts need a little upkeep anyway. i might have more reservations if it was a really dwarfing rootstock, but a semi-standard like m-111 that’s known to be pretty vigorous, i wouldn’t worry about at all.

pansy flowers are edible! that’s always worth some extra points!

alright, i’ll throw my vote in with the cherry camp on that one.

Hi Ronaldo, it would probably help if you put your general location in, so it would show up on your posts. i think i remember that you’re somewhere tropical, in which case it’s likely not thimbleberry, and most of our temperate guesses won’t be right. it looks like half a dozen things i know, but that are unlikely to be in your area. i’d be asking various locals if it’s edible before going too far down the route of eating.

my recollection is that the peels of those trifoliate oranges are amazingly aromatic. if you or someone in your community has the ability to distill essential oils, that would be the most efficient way to use them. i could imagine a tiny drop of that in an artisan drink could be a sort of magic ingredient.

my guess without more close-ups is the first is persimmon, the second could be apple.

they were just eating and growing up! there’s safety in numbers, these were likely all siblings, from eggs all laid by one female…moth? wasp? hard to tell right off, larvae can look very similar. i have hazel sawflies (technically wasps) that do the same thing here. when they all disappear at once it usually means they went somewhere (usually the ground) to pupate more safely.