Arrived today from Just Fruits and Exotics. I planted this where the Cot N Candy Aprium used to be. There were already 42 x 0.8 GPH emitters spaced six inches apart surrounding the dead Cot N Candy so I left those in place for this tree. I also gave it a good watering after it was planted.

Images in order:

• The box that it came in.
• Really well packed
• Unpacked
• Good root structure and the root ball was still wet from the plastic that had been sealed around the pot.
• In the ground
• In the ground with irrigation ring
• Triple emitter ring. 42 x 0.8 GPH for a total of 33.6 GPH

Metrics:

• Height (inches only): 3'3.5"
• Girth (inches only): 1.8"

Sprayed with 3 Fluid Ounces per gallon of Pyrethrin mixed with 1 Fluid Ounce per gallon of Neem Oil. Purpose of this is to combat the influx of Glassy Winged Sharpshooters that have suddenly been observed and also to hopefully suppress Peach Borers.

First bud

Metrics:

• First Bud: ✔

I'm super impressed with the vigor of growth on this tree.

This has to be the fastest growing whip I've ever bought.

In twelve days the first bud has grown into a six-inch branch. That's half-an-inch of growth per day.

Still rapid growth.

Continuous healthy growth.

I feel that the growth has slowed a bit but that's subjective as I haven't been measuring.

Seems to be struggling a bit in the sun.

This image is at 5pm and even though it's in shade it's still struggling as you can see from the brown leaves.

Too beat up by sun not to put shade cloth over it.

Even with shade cloth it's not doing well.

Looks like the Izu scion has died. The good news is that the Virginiana rootstock is still alive and looking healthy which is what I really wanted. Hopefully the rootstock will grow and I can create a new tree from this.

The Izu Scion has died and I cut that back today. Rootstock still alive and will be used for grafting.

It took a while to find the end of this irrigation line under the mulch so documenting it here next to these trees.

• 50" east of White Pakistan Mulberry
• 60" west of Izu Persimmon
• 76" north of south wall where Flavor/Summer Delight Apriums and Spice Zee Nectaplum are.

Metrics:

• Leaf Shed Start: ✔

Today I ran the venturi injector fertigation system functionally for the first time. I added three pints of Yellow Jacket Flowable Sulphur and 0.625 pints (because that's all that was left in the bottle) of Foliage Pro in a bucket and then filled it with water for a total of four gallons of liquid. I then ran the irrigation for around 70 minutes to inject all the liquid and then for another 20 minutes to flush out the lines.

In earlier tests (previous day) I determined that the flow rate is cut to about 37% of normal rate when running via the injector and the injector will pull around 6 GPH of water out of the container. (I mention water here because the flow rate will probably slow down with fertilizer.)

I've started trying to measure the pH of what I add to the soil. I discovered that Foliage Pro has a pH of 3.5 which is far more acidic than what I was expecting and I am wondering if part of the reason that this works well in the soil is because it's lowering the pH of my soil in addition to adding nutrients?

I had no idea what to expect when opening the container of Flowable Sulphur. It's a thick white creamy liquid. My guess is that it is just highly ground elemental sulphur mixed with water. It probably needs constant agitation to remain mixed in the container (I shook it well before pouring) as I discovered that once I had mixed it for fertigation it settled out very quickly and required frequent mixing during the irrigation process. I tried to measure the pH of the raw Flowable Sulphur but because of its creamy color it was impossible to determine on the litmus paper.

Once the water, sulphur and foliage pro were mixed together the total pH of the bucket was 6. I believe that the increased acidity in the soil will come from the microbes breaking down the sulphur and turning it into sulphuric acid.

The images in order:

• My first iteration of the venturi setup. It's going to change from my learnings. I'll put the valve for the timer at the beginning of the piping.
• A bucket of mostly sulphur and some Foliage Pro being fed in.
• My control emitter. I use this so check what's coming through the system and into the drip lines. I check that it's clear first and then changes color to the sulphur and then runs clear after I've flushed the lines.
• The pressure before the venturi is 62 PSI.
• After the venturi it's 28 PSI. The venturi is a half-inch mazzei injector. The piping is three-quarters of an inch that leads in and out of the injector.
• The solution when it was almost done. It was tricky getting it out of the bottom. I am going to try and change this so that I have a feed container with a hole at the bottom (lowest point) with a mesh filter that's on a stand. This current setup is too cumbersome and requires too much intervention.

All leaves dead now so call this as leaf shed end.

Metrics:

• Leaf Shed End: ✔

Spread 50 lbs of Arizona's Best Soil Sulfur at the bases of these trees.

Mixed one pint of Yellow Jacket Flowable Sulfur with around 5 gallons of water and distributed among the trees tagged on this note. The trees in the east orchard got this via the Venturi injector and the others as part of my cleaning out the buckets I was working with.

I've been struggling to get my Venturi system setup to distribute the liquid sulfur and phosphates through the drip irrigation so I've decided to do it manually for now. My gorilla cart is waterproof (i.e. doesn't leak) and holds around 50 to 70 gallons of liquid. Today I mixed in 5 pints of Link P31 (8-31-5) Nitrogen/Phosphates with the balance of the Yellow Jacket Flowable Sulfur I had left (about 2 gallons). I also added two-fifths of a tablespoon of Borax powder to add the Boron that had been identified as deficient in that part of the orchard. I topped up the gorilla card with water and pulled it around the orchard and used a bucket to disperse the mixture. There's suppose to be rain tonight which was the reason for the timing of doing it today. If it doesn't rain then I'll soak that area with a garden sprinkler tomorrow.

This provides this part of the orchard (subtropical + south of subtropical) which is 1,000 square feed with the following:

• 0.5 pounds of Nitrogen
• 2 pounds of Phosphate
• 0.02 pounds of Boron

• The height has changed by -2'5.5" over the last 430 days.
• The girth has changed by 0" over the last 430 days.

I was convinced at one point that this was dead (it still might be) but the fact that none of Lauren's root stock of the same type have come out of dormancy gives me hope that this is just a late sleeper.

Metrics:

• Height (inches only): 10"
• Girth (inches only): 1.8"

Finally came out of dormancy. One of the last (if not the last) tree to come out of dormancy.

Metrics:

• First Bud: ✔

Looking healthy. No growth from the main trunk but this sucker is doing well.

Looking healthy.

• The height has changed by 1'2" over the last 252 days.

Turns out that the part of the trunk that has the girth mark on it is dead so don't have a girth today and I cut away that part of the trunk.

Metrics:

• Height (inches only): 2'

Metrics:

• Leaf Shed Start: ✔

Metrics:

• Leaf Shed End: ✔

Added around one cup of ammonium sulfate to each of the trees tagged in this note.

Spread 320 pounds of Arizona's Best Ammonium Sulfate around yard. Includes all trees tagged on this note which is about 95% of the trees in the orchard.

First buds.

Metrics:

• First Bud: ✔

Sprayed with Southern Ag Chelated Liquid Iron diluted at the recommended rate of 1 tablespoon with 1 gallon of water.

Sprayed with Southern Ag Chelated Liquid Iron diluted at the recommended rate of 1 tablespoon with 1 gallon of water.

Sprayed with Southern Ag Chelated Liquid Iron diluted at the recommended rate of 1 tablespoon with 1 gallon of water.

Some of these got a very light spray as they'd just been sprayed a couple of days earlier.

Sprayed with Southern Ag Chelated Liquid Iron diluted at the recommended rate of 1 tablespoon with 1 gallon of water.

Noticed today that this tiny tree has lost all its leaves and looks completely dead so marking as dead today.