nut trees for desert (not mac's) #xeriscape

4: web.apt`xeriscape/nut trees for desert (not mac's):
17: summary:
. I'm looking to grow cooking oil in the desert;
the healthiest is the mac nut (macadamia).
. avocados are heavy in palmitic fat;
and other nuts have a bit too much omega-6 .
. olives are difficult to process,
brazil nut fat is good only for selenium,
(the anti-cancer cysteine-bound form),
better to get that from brocolli and onions .
. so, what can I grow in the desert,
around Tucson AZ -- zone 12 ?

community gardens of tucson

news.apt/xeriscape/community gardens of tucson:
bill buckmaster radio
interviewing the community gardens of tucson (cg)
http://www.communitygardensoftucson.org/main/
. cg organizes gardens by accepting
free use of gardenable land
and then stocking it with tools
so that assigned people can rent it .
The land is usually lent to cg by a church, school
or private land owner
at no charge, for use as a garden space.
. a drip irrigation system is installed
to supply water to the plants.
A separate water meter is installed in the garden,
and the property owner is reimbursed
for all the water that is used.
each 3′ x 20′ garden plot is $15.00 per month;
This money pays for the water bills
and the irrigation equipment,
the bimonthly newsletter and a shed full of tools.
The gardener usually only needs to supply
plants/seeds and soil amendments.

ironwood tree planting in tucson

12.1: proj.apt`yard/tree#n.ironwood replanting:
. being soaked made it heavy
and more likely to traumatize the roots;
but, I was hoping things would stay in place
if dirt was around before the sleeve was removed .
. the instructions are very different from last year,
saying to pull the sleeve without dirt surrounding it,
and then use your finger to pull some roots loose!
I stayed with last year's advice .
. I cut across the bottom,
and then around the bottom,
then checked that the sleeve would pull up
before packing dirt around it;
but I packed it too tight,
and the whole plant would lift
as I was trying to pull the sleeve out;
so I wondered if I ripped away a layer of roots
as they fell with the soil .
. the instructions reminded me not to add
any supplements like peat moss,
and I notice this was very dark soil
like what was brought in for the privets;
I also added several cups of vitamixed garbage
a few weeks ago,
but that was a small percentage of
what the roots will be exposed to ...
. in short,
I wasn't sure how desert-like the soil was,
so, I arranged the tree to be higher than ground,
with a deep moat around it,
so it's easy to both soak and drain .
. it got a shower to help pack the dirt
around the new root ball,
along with filling the moat .
. it smelled like the root ball's bottom
was overly watered a lot,
but the tree looks good .

valley fever surrounded by disbelief fever

11.1: web.health/valley fever/unbelievable illness fells baseball pro's:

. johnny bench got valley fever:

. Johnny Bench played at a golf tournament fundraiser
hosted by Buck Owens in Bakersfield
on a windy day in the early 1970s.
He contracted Coccidiodomycosis
and started exhibiting respiratory distress
a few weeks later with the Cincinnati Reds.
The doctors out there
weren't familiar with Valley Fever,
and before the possibility of cocci
(and a simple treatment with antifungals) was suggested,
he had already undergone a lung biopsy to remove the lesion,
which was suspected at the time to be cancer.

--
. imagine that, an athlete with valley fever;
when I had that I could hardly walk,
every joint I used or walked on
quickly became inflamed .
. this site is for a woman who got the fungus in her brain .

. disseminated coccidioidomycosis (valley fever)
with meningitis, the form of cocci
most likely to end in death.
. It's contracted from inhaling a fungal spore
that lies in the soil found in California's central valley,
where I had been visiting my parents.

. it's also in az, and nevada
-- 98.9 fm radio 11.10

. Here and Now host Steve Goldstein
talks to Dr. Hans Einstein, a Valley Fever researcher,
and Dr. David Nix of the College of Parmacy at U of A
about Valley Fever in Arizona.
The doctors answer listener calls
and explain what is being done to alleviate
the suffering of valley residents.

comments to valley fever blog:

. I am sooooo tired all the time,
pain in my joints, and so on.
. I am wondering about your valley fever;
I have been sick with VF for almost 6 years now.
It is so hard to find other people
who have had this experience
or a doctor that understands your problems.

Conor Jackson of the Diamondbacks

I just read that he missed the last 5 months
of last season due to his contracting
"valley fever"
... an illness caused by breathing fungi
in desert soils in the Southwest.
I have never heard of "valley fever" before.
Valley fever. Hmmph.

D-backs trade Jackson for A's Demel June 15, 2010

Jackson, 28, was a solid piece of Arizona's
lineup from 2006-2008,
when he batted .292 and averaged 14 homers and 71 RBI.
He missed most of the 2009 season
with what was eventually diagnosed as Valley Fever,
a fungal infection that saps the body's energy.

smooth pigweed and nitrate poisoning

9.22: web.apt`garden/smooth pigweed:

. what intuition should call "(the pollen towers)
-- Amaranthus -- is not easy to name,
due to the confusion over many varieties:
Green Pigweed Amaranthus hybridis
www.santafebotanicalgarden.org
. a native of tropical America .
. those sites have differing pict's? ..
. here one shows my kind is smooth pigweed:

"(The first leaves of redroot and smooth pigweed
are rounded, whereas those of green pigweed
are tapered and slightly pinched toward the end. (Figure 1)
The upper stem of green pigweed is often less hairy
than that of redroot or smooth pigweed.
Redroot pigweed
has a relatively short, thick, compact inflorescence,
with the uppermost central spike
extending only a short distance above the
first branches of the panicle. (Figure 2a)
Green pigweed
has a longer and narrower terminal spike
with fewer but longer branches. (Figure 2b)
Smooth pigweed
has a very narrow, often lax, terminal spike
with numerous short lateral branches. (Figure 2c)

Figure 2c. Mature inflorescences of smooth pigweed.
(this is the kind around here)
. pigweed species occasionally accumulate nitrates
in the stem and branches in concentrations high enough
to poison livestock. [commonly eaten by humans too]
Infestations in silage corn
have been reported to cause
severe illness or death in cattle .).

[. vaguely recall from a china cancer study,
that the occasion for nitrates was a mineral deficiency:
here:

"(Plants require molybdenum to synthesize nitrate reductase,
a molybdoenzyme necessary for converting nitrates
from the soil to amino acids.
When soil molybdenum content is low,
plant conversion of nitrates to nitrosamines increases,
resulting in increased nitrosamine exposure
for those who consume the plants.
Adding molybdenum to the soil in the form of ammonium molybdenate
may help decrease the risk of gastroesophageal cancer
by limiting nitrosamine exposure.).]

tree.saw repair

proj.gear/tree.saw/repair:
2.14:
. see if saw fits bolts,
saw does fit new nadle,
bolt will fit saw but not handle it came with .
2.15: breaks again:
. the inside of the handle has a plastic support
that fits a slot in the blades meant for that handle,
and it does seem to be supporting the new tree.saw blade
... but later I would find that the support would break off .
2.15: reinforced:
. what the tree.saw was designed to have for stability
was a duel screw system rather than a tab&slot .
. so I drilled a hole in the adopted handle
and found a screw to fit from a bike light kit .

fences

8.27: proj.apt`yard/fence mend:

. there was a chair at the fence,

and it appeared that one could while on the chair,

grab a nearby tree and bend the fence down,

so I used wire to raise the fence by the tree .

. also mended parts of the reed fencing that had fallen away from

the wire fence it was attached to .

10.24: proj.apt`yard/mov thorns to north.easement`fence:

. use rake to clear dump area near house

to house thorns where they help fence,

and don't surprise yard users .

xeriscaping

4.18: tech.gear/garden/drip pipes:

. an efficient way to water plants with a drip

is finding a pipe that the hose (or nozzle)

could fit into,

then placing a pipe into the ground

next to each plant .

6.15: proj.apt`yard/stump pull/finale!:

. the last 2 stumps were pulled up,

and arranged with the recently-pulled others (by the fence for the alley) .

. it was tricky teasing the last stump away from nearby hackberry bush,

but that had been transplanted there only recently,

so I wasn't expecting too much root expansion .

-- there were a foot roots exposed though;

and, this is its second disturbance since being taken from the nursery:

it had been planted in what I later found was officially

future sidewalk space, so I had to move it yet again .

. I gave it a heavy watering overnight;

so, there would be plenty of fine filling around the exposed roots .

8.26: proj.apt`yard/water holes:

. to help get more of the hose dripping into the desired target plants,

the caliche bar was used to create a hole near the base of each plant,

and then the hose`nozzle is inserted into each hole .

8.25: mis.gear/pruner/snapped bolt,

. when things like this start binding up,

stop to clean and add some oil .

8.26: proj.gear/pruner/fix snapped bolt:

. the bolt was replaced with a smaller one,

lubed with dry waxy spray .

. it should be good for smaller branches .

-- a hand on each handle,

rather than both hands on one handle,

and an arm pit on the other handle .

10.4: apt`yard/trees not doing well:

. we can see from how well the hacks are doing,

that being in the irrigation streaming from the street run-off

is not the problem .

. now it occurs to me that I had neglected the trees for a while,

and became alarmed when the southern trees had become so dry

that all their leaves fell off .

. while the north trees faired well from run-off from co#north,

there was less from the south [it's also uphill from the south]

. I'm theorizing now that being that dry made it sickly

and prone to rot when watered later .

10.16: todo.apt/tree unhealthy needs to promote fungus:

Mycorrhizal Fungi are the Keys to Long-term Health

Trees and landscapes should be designed and installed to be sustainable -- to provide long-lasting beauty and utility through healthy growth that does not require unnecessary maintenance. However, as every arborist who has made an emergency call knows, this is often not the case. Replacement of poorly grown or improperly planted trees is commonplace. Most urban soils that support landscape trees remain in poor condition -- highly compacted and low in organic matter. The result is high plant mortality, higher rework ..

10.18: proj.apt`yard/tree#north.iron/weeded:

. wondering if the tree is yellowing due to

competition from the burmuda grass,

raked away all the mulch cover and tilled with a caliche bar

so then most of the nearby grass was easy to uproot .