May Lotito

Dying of ponderosa trees have been in the news for years. The species is adapted to arid and high elevation regions in western US. It depends on natural fires to recycle nutrients and to suppress competitions. Part of the reasons for their decline is fire management in the past decades to disrupt low intensity burns so that less fire resistant needle-leaf such as firs and junipers are growing under to compete for water, building up fuel load and making fire events more extreme. Eventually the ponderosas weaken and die off to pest attacks. Oregon State University has an article on the proper managements to restore the health of ponderosa forest here:
https://extension.oregonstate.edu/forests/fire/restoring-ponderosa-pine-forests-dry-side-oregon

In some of southern range of ponderosa such as Texas Davis Mountains, weather has a major impact as long term droughts and higher temperatures are shifting the ecosystem towards shrubland and grassland. The ponderosas forests are not coming back. I don't know if oaks can fill in their place or not. Bur oaks, for example, are fire and drought resistant and part of the tall grass prairies in Midwestern US.

Grains are high in calorie density compared to root crops which make them important staples. Different regions grow certain types of grains that are more suitable to local temperature and rainfall patterns. Wheat can grow in colder climate with dryland farming. Corn, sorghum and rice are C4 plants so they are productive in hot and high light environments. Rice is indispensable in feeding people in hot humid regions because the flooded paddies are anaerobic to maintain soil fertility for repeated cropping.

I like to grow winter rye mainly as cover crop. They offer some greens for chickens and protect the soil from wind erosion. In late spring I cut some down to plant my garden and let some go to seed. So far I just let my chickens have the grains but I am considering cooking the berries too. I haven't eaten rye before except store rye bread.

I had some issues the last time I grew rye as a crop instead of cover crop. After the ryes were done, the soil looked quite depleted and sat baking in summer drought. The harvest timing and probably allelopathic effect make growing a following ground cover difficult. I sow less densely this year, allowing other weeds to grow in between. They can take over the space when the rye is gone.

I bought 2 starter Chinese chestnut seedlings 6 years ago and one has died. The other one has been growing slowly, forming multi branches as well. I suspect that it has to do with the location. That site used to be within the drip line of a big oak that was removed in 2019. The soil is very acidic and after years of letting the area grow wild, diversity is still very limited. Two pawpaws planted in the vicinity are only pencil sized while another tree of the same age planted near the garden is over 10 ft tall and bearing.

In the pictures I can see the background is a mixed deciduous forest but in the open area around the Chinese chestnuts are mostly goldenrods and conifer saplings. Conifers can tolerate more acidic and poor soil so it seems the spot is on the way of succession into a pine forest. Putting wood chips around the trees, especially ramial chips will give the chestnuts a boost.

Great list George! The leaves are also called cowboy's toilet paper.

Jay offered some very useful tips above that I followed and made several changes to my practices. Thanks Jay! So here comes the results two years later. My bamboo has reached 12 ft tall this year and I will have quite a few culms long enough for serious trellising eventually.

The most important thing she pointed out is that bamm being a heavy feeder. I used to think of bamboo growing wild everywhere since people are freaky out about it running out of control. Come to think of it, bamboo groves are found by river banks where soils are moist and fertile. So I did several things:
1. Add lime, wood ash/char/weed tea to increase fertility. Water in drought.
2.  Encourage chickens to shelter underneath with food and water.
3. Not pruning the winter killed culms, the canopy protects tender young shoots in spring. Let leaves decompose.

Last year the average height was 7-8 ft and the cold hardiness had improved as well. Many lower leaves stayed green when we hit -12F the past winter. This spring I have at least three times more shoots and the final height would be 10 to 12 feet. This variety is slender with a height to diameter ratio over 150, so the thickness only increases a bit to 1/2-3/4 inch. It branches out very low and for culms to be used as garden trellises, I need to rub off young shoots as soon as the sheaths fall off to get the lower portion smooth.

So far I am careful about creating a fertility island to keep it contained. Some runners did escape 10 ft away but they are easy to deal with.

I agree that variety matters, some are bred to be bigger and sweeter. But in my native acid soil with humid climate, soil conditions have a bigger impact on yield and quality. Here are some pictures to show the differences.

Goji berries are consumed dried, preferably sun dried, not fresh. The taste changes during drying. I heard people comparing it to cranberry, which is usually not eaten fresh either.

I used to dry and eat my home grown berries without a second thought, until in 2024, I had a bad crop. The berry bushes were sickly looking and attracting lots of stink bugs. The berries had black spots from bug feeding and wouldn't dry down properly. They basically rotted down under the sun: the surface turned sticky as if sugar oozed out and gnats came to them immediately. In comparison, healthy bushes produce berries that dry to a burgundy tone, never black nor gooey or bitter. The berries have high levels of complex sugars and antioxidants that give the rich sweet flavors. A food drier can not entirely replace this traditional process. Last year, I went on with soil amendments to somewhat mimic its natural habitat (increasing Ca, pH, boron and molybdenum) and the berries were back to what they should be.

The sun "curing" step is really important for the flavor of goji berry. Give it a try and see if you like the taste afterwards.

A little update 5 years later on the elderberry:

I rooted a cutting and planted in a different location. It died 3 years later, same problem.  I also cross pollinated black lace with black beauty but never planted the hybrid seeds. However, the original black beauty held on long enough for me to figure out what was wrong with the soil. It is growing back.

However, I lost a large fruiting mexican lime tree over the winter in 2025. It produced over 70 limes that year and the leaves looked yellow before over wintering indoors. Then it dropped all the leaves and the twigs died. Maybe I didn't keep up with potassium. There's a lot to learn growing fruit trees.

I bought a grafted Nikita's gift persimmon in 3 gal pot. After I got home and removed the bamboo stake, I found an exact same borer hole in the rootstock right down the center! Does it mean the tree is a goner in the near future? Now I am not sure if I should plant it in ground as it might die from weak roots. What's the best way to save the grafted top?