Hello again to all our friends. It has been far too long since we have written our supposably monthly newsletter. We are excited start up writing to all of you again in 2025. So far this year the weather has been beautiful. We are having sunny days and cool nights which makes for great weather to work outside.
Of course, we would love to see more grey rainy days in the forecast, but for now we will enjoy the blue skies. The rain we did get in the fall and early winter has made the grass and other plants green up all the hills and the grove. Despite hours of weeding in the grove every day, the weeds are winning and blanket the ground. A great thing about this is that our soil is well covered and not exposed to the sun, which keeps the
ground moist even with our lack of rain. We have a very happy herd as they enjoy the green grass in the pasture. It is so wonderful to have such a dedicated team of weed
abetment. They work from the moment we let them out in the morning and never complain. |
Over the past year, we noticed some of our trees were struggling. We changed up the watering schedule, added some more fertilizer, and tried some other things to revive the trees. However, more trees across the grove started to struggle. It took us a few months until we discovered the problem. Voles. Voles are also known as Meadow Mice and are little
rodents that love to munch on roots and tree bark. The mulch we had spread around the base of each tree turned out to be the perfect protective cover for the voles as they chewed at the bark. As soon as we discovered that these guys were causing harm to our trees, we went to work researching and finding a solution to protect the grove. We pulled back mulch from every tree in the grove and dug around the vole holes to collapse them. Our dog Benny also spent hours sniffing
around the grove and digging up holes, looking for the rodent who created them. We also put out traps to catch the creatures. Between all of these actions, we think the number of voles in the grove is going down. And talking with a biologist from the UC Extension, we were told there was a rodent explosion in California. It is speculated the rodents themselves will slow the population growth because the land can't support them all. But sadly, they have left behind very depleted avocado trees. The trees harmed by the voles lost leaves, and
with the heat wave in September, those poor bare branches were scorched by the sun. We are starting to see some buds on the branches and hopefully we will be telling you all about the new growth in a future newsletter. But for now, our crop will be smaller because of the voles. |
Introducing Luna and other new plantings-- To end on a happy note, we have planted a new variety of avocado: Luna. We applied for the trees and have planted about 45 of them. They will start giving us fruit in a few years. It is another dark-skinned variety with great oil content. It is exciting to have them on the farm. We also planted one Levens avocado tree and one
Maluma. We will see how they grow as well as quality of flavor. We love to try all kinds of avocados and see which ones fit into the farm. |
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