Shaun Overton

My property in the Chihuahua desert of West Texas has a few isolated mesquite trees. I am planning to severely prune them this winter to help them grow up. There appears to be small lichen colonies near the trees. There isn’t much else under the trees.

Can you recommend some ground covers for me to try? Specifically, I’m worried about the Mesquite roots poisoning them and I’m wondering if anybody’s had success that I haven’t heard about.

Jd Gonzalez wrote:Elk, Javelina and...drug mules!

😂

Thank you everyone for the support. I've been able to get started and decided to make an Instagram channel to document my progress. What do you think so far?

I'm located within the Rio Grande valley of far West Texas. I'm specifically in southeast Hudspeth County.

Tamarisk is a major invasive species in this area. If you go down into the valley and the riverbed, Tamarisk has completely out-competed the native mesquite and local fauna. Up on my property , which is about 6 miles north of the river, I have small stands of tamarisk in my washes and a major canyon.

I don't mind it so much in the canyon because at least something is growing down there. The flash floods are so violent that I have a bank about 60 yards wide with only gravel. Nothing can withstand the force of the flooding, but the tamarisk does okay on the lower banks. My only complaint in that area is that the tamarisk thorns scratch every last bit of paint off my truck when I drive by.

Tamarisk is also growing in my washes. The flooding in the washes is not nearly as severe, which gives me a lot of growing opportunities and is the center of my project.

Tamarisk root structure goes as deep as mesquite. And whereas mesquite is allelopathic, the saltcedar poisons its competitors by concentrating salts from well under the subsurface in its leaf litter.

At least with mesquite, the the surrounding toxins eventually dissipate and break down. Once you have concentrated salts in your soil, you're talking about a very long-term project to get rid of those. I really don't see an argument for tamarisk unless it's the only thing that will grow. The salt pan restoration idea is a good example.

My soil is pretty good other than high pH and no nitrogen. For me, at least, it's a pest.

The short summary is that tamarisk may make your soil salinity worse.

Melissa Ferrin wrote:Definitely second Brad Lancasters, work--volume two of his book is the book you need for water harvesting earthworks. Geoff Lawton used to have a computer-animated video of using gabions in washes, I can't find it now, maybe he took it down as he has so many videos now. I live in a semi-arid region of southern Mexico, and I've also visited your region of Texas, and I think gabion would work well.
The main purpose of starting at the top of your land is that the goal is slow, spread, and sink water. You need to be very careful starting lower in the landscape as you may accidentally exasperate erosion. If you have not already done so, study Brad's books.
I love the idea of collecting pecans and just seeing what sprouts and what survives. Don't overlook mesquite which is also a useful tree, and Brad Lancaster is also involved in a group called Desert Harvesters which shares a lot of information about useful SW plants.

I like gabions, but the nearest large rocks are over a mile away. The wash is a mix of sand and gravel. I don't see how I could fill the gabions in any kind of timely manner without a screener, which I don't have. The remoteness of the property means that 1) I have to maximize my time on site, which is max 1-2 weeks per year at this phase and 2) it's very difficult to bring extras like a screener.  Getting an excavation company to even show up took something of an act of God. I'm open to suggestions, though!

Casie Becker wrote:I'm in Central Texas and everywhere squirrels can dig I am working on uprooting Pecan seedlings.   Are you sure you need pioneer trees at all?  If you can make a trip to Central Texas in late September you could easily gather thousands of pecans from all over parks and street trees.  Drop these into holes just a few inches deep and see what sprouts.  https://permies.com/t/560/14353/Reforestation-Growing-trees-arid-barren#729846  This man has been documenting his progress with this approach for years.  If nothing else it could be a low risk addition to your current plans.  The young trees are easy to identify and grow fast.

I grew up with a mesquite tree in the front yard.  They can be beautiful trees that cast a lovely dappled summer shade that doesn't stop other plants from thriving.  They also become very brittle in winter and shed super hard thorns that will punch right through the soles of shoes and tires of equipment.  Once you have one established it won't be easy to get rid of.  The one in our yard is nearly 200 years old by now and last I saw is still going strong.   Outside of the thorns I think they are pretty close to the perfect tree.  Just be sure you can live with the thorns before you commit.

I'm not at all convinced that I need pioneers 😄 That's why I'm asking. It seems almost certain that I'll never be able to get rid of them with that much water around.

I'll need them in other parts of the property where water is far more precious. But I think they're going to be a nuisance or worse if they're near the wash.

Thanks for the link. I actually have 70 lbs of in-shell pecans that sat in my garage through the winter. They may not be perfectly stratified, but they should mostly germinate.

Is the idea behind the guilds partially to obscure the tasty sapling from critters? Pecans take sooooo long to establish. It only takes one hungry deer or cow to set me back years. The extension agent suggested that I build cages, but that's nearly $30 per planting site.

Do you have any suggestions for avoiding the cages? I have enough nuts to plant 30 nuts per circle if that means I might get lucky. What do you think?

If that's viable, I might start some saplings and then follow through with overseeding as a backup plan.

Yep! Adding sandbags throughout the wash will be one of my projects while the front loader operator works.

Wichita is the most common variety in West Texas. I think that's mostly what's in New Mexico, too.

I plan to start native seedlings and graft later. I care more about minimizing inputs than maximizing returns.

Thank you for the seed referral.

I bought 320 acres about 5 miles north of the Rio Grande. If you check out the property on Google Maps, you'll notice a large wash running north to south, which then dog legs to the west.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/hWHHdfzVqdt5fqxAA

That wash is the reason I purchased the property. It's just shy of 40 acres and has substantial water, but not so much that it comes as a tidal wave. The total drainage area above the property is about 1,200 acres. I think you can tell from the drone footage that the banks range from about 1 foot deep to almost completely flat.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aH_8t00OpFw5GeycFTzzwez5bB9Id1Fo/view?usp=drivesdk

I hired an excavation company to help with earthworks. There's just no way I can do that myself. I know that normally you start at the highest points of a property, but I have a limited budget and eve more limited time to spend on this. That and there's so much water that passes through, I want to start in the best spot. The best spot IMHO is the wash.

My original idea was to build L shaped swales in the wash. The water would hit the swale - the long part of the L - and then start to backflood. The little part of the L would follow the bank so that once full, the water in the swale can run around without washing it out. Based on the drone footage, what do you think my risk of a washout is?

The alternative is to trench. I know that will work, but I also think it would take forever. That and I don't want to worry about snapping my ankle in the future when I walk across the valley.

Regardless of the method, every rain event should be soaking in 3+ feet of water because of the 1,200 acre catchment area. Soil surveys expect water infiltration rates of 6 to 18 inches per hour through the sandy loam. With our monsoon rains, I think each water catchment will recharge the groundwater with 15+ feet annually, which is probably close to the depth to bedrock.

My ultimate goal is commercial. This area isn't terribly far from Las Cruces, some of the best producing pecan orchards in the world. I'd love to be able to make pecans a primary source of income.

I believe that establishing pioneers will be essential for 1) building organic matter and 2) establishing fodder for the wildlife to distract them from the pecans.

My concerns with using pioneers like western honey mesquite and honey locust is the invasiveness. Somewhat nearby in the Quitman Arroyo is completely overwhelmed with mesquite. With the abundance of groundwater, I'm worried that I'll get overwhelmed with the pioneers. How does the transition work from the pioneers to the cash crop trees?

Thanks for your input!