Some call this egg bind--but no matter what you call it, it is usually caused by a mineral deficiency. 5 mgs of Boron dissolved in 1 gallon of water and served as the only drinking water will solve this condition unless it is a genetic abnormality. Boron tells the body where to utilize calcium properly. Most layer feeds are rich in calcium and vitamin D, vitamin K and magnesium but very little boron. These vitamins/minerals control the bodies absorbs and utilization of calcium within their systems. Boron also lowers cholesterol levels in their eggs when use at 5 mgs/gallon water. Do not increase this level of boron for it will have an opposite effect decreasing egg production and increasing cholesterol levels. I use boron supplementation during the winter and early spring in my laying hens for this is the most stressful period for them.

I live about 60 miles southwest of New Orleans. Nothing we have planted is over three years in the ground. The best for me, so far has been my citrus. This year will not be good because of a late frost at bud time. Valencia, blood orange, tangerine, Ruby Red grapefruit and Louisiana Sweet produced heavily. The Owari and Brown Select Satsumas have not grown enough to produce well. Meyer and Lisbon lemons are doing well (planted next to the south side of the house). I spray when I see white flies. There has been a bit of leaf minor damage, but that will be less of a problem as the trees grow. I planted an American and a Fuyu persimon. The American is growing slowly, the Fuyu has died three times in the same spot. The next Fuyu I buy will go in another spot. No bugs were noticed, they just dried up (after looking lush and beautiful) and died. No spraying on them. The muscadines are growing beautifully and quickly. I may have a monster to tame with pruning. The Cowart is loaded with fruit I hope to get some before the animals get them all. The other varieties are Carlos (for wine), Summit, and Fry. One vine makes all the muscadine I can use, if the animals would leave them alone. I had 2 Fry and 2 Cowart at my last house. The only problems so far, with no spraying, is a few aphids. The peaches are a different story. The 2 Florida King, which ripened first, gave us enough fruit to eat and preserve. The other 3, LaPeche and La Festival, ripened later and were beset by bugs and squirrels. It also started raining every day, so I couldn't effectively spray. We lost all those peaches, except a couple we picked still too green to enjoy. Peaches look like they will be a lot of work, but we love them. We planted 3 apple trees (Anna, Dorsett Golden, and Ein Sheimer). Two died (I think because of root damage from hurricanes Katrina and Rita. One bent the trees to the ground from the North, the other bent the trees to the ground from the South.) and of course I didn't mark which was which. I was going to mark them later and then after the tags fell off, I was going to identify them from the fruit. I think I may try to replace them. I had 2 fruit on the remaining tree, but something wanted them more than me and was willing to eat them green. Not much bug problems yet, but then no fruit. The pears are growing well and I have some fruit on the Keiffer. The Pineapple and Orient are growing well, but no fruit yet. They are young trees. Had one banch with fireblight, which I removed. It has not returned, yet. Figs normally do well down here, but I'm having trouble getting them established. Most froze back to the ground or had major limb damage from the last frost we had. All the trees were sprouted and some had breba crops. Now we have a few fruit on the LSU Gold and the Ventura, but as they ripen the birds get them. My neighbor has 2 well established trees, but I looked at them yesterday and all the ripe ones were split from the rain. I don't think he is even picking any. I tried growing pawpaw, the seedling died and the grafted Mango variety died to the root. The root is coming back and is doing okay as I am now shading it. I thought planting them between my shed and my neighbors shed would be shade enough, but they got direct, middle of the day sun and were fried. I plan to try another grafted pawpaw in the future. I have a wild mulberry. It grows very fast and produces a ton of fruit. This year we had tent catepillars (after the fruit was gone). I sprayed the tree once for a scale infestation. I need to trim some branches, but overall a no care tree. I have 2 jujubes (Li and Lang). No pests, no problems. We have fruit this year for the first time. I sure hope I like them. I have never tasted them before. The biggest problem has been root suckers. I mow most of them and cut by hand the ones close to the trunk. I planted some wild cherry trees, but a rabbit ate the bark of and killed them. I will try again. I planted some banana trees a couple of months ago. So far, so good. I planted two Cherry of the Rio Grand and a Strawberry Guava. The goats ate them to the ground, but one of each is coming back. They are very small. I have two English walnuts. I thought they would never break dormancy, but finally did and started growing like gangbusters. Then something (Junebugs?) ate all the leaves off. I sprayed, but it has been raining every day so I don't know if I did any good. They are sprouting again. I have two pecan trees (Sumner and Elliot). They are finally starting to grow. I hope to try a few in about 5 or 6 more years. I have 3 loquats. They produced one year and then I pruned drastically to correct a shape issue. Just a few this year, but should be great next year. No bug problems, except a few leaves were chewed on the edges. I guess the bugs needed something after the walnut leaves were gone. I have (had) 5 plum trees (Methley, Santa Rosa, and Bruce). Several died and yes, I didn't mark the varieties. They seem to have problems with mosses and lichen growing on the trunk and need to be sprayed a couple of times a year. I've used copper and lime/sulphur. Both seem to work. No fruit to speak of yet. The couple we had were small. They may be getting too much shade from an oak tree. I have one seedless concord. It is very slow growing (at least compared to the muscadine) and has not produced any fruit yet.

Many trees are infected by many different disease and most of the time those disease really do no harm, they are simply there. For example the Acers (Maples) get Black Tar Spot and even in years when it is very noticeable it is not going to kill the trees, at least it has not in the hundreds of years that species has been infected with it. While it is a good idea to know what diseases affect many trees it is not always necessary to "do something" about them, except maybe make the soil the tree grows in into a good, healthy soil so the tree can grow strong and heatlhy and be better able to handle that disease.

Hello Folks: The amount of fruit that one can expect from a container fruit tree varies greatly on a wide range of factors. However, there are definitely some trees that are better suited for container growing than others. Here are my experiences: 1. Makok sapodilla: This is the king of my containerized bunch. It currently has over 200 fruits that will weigh around 3 ounces each, that is (3*200)/16=37.5 lbs of fruit in a 30 gallon pot. I have not taken an official count yet, but it already produced a boat load last year in a 12 gallon pot. 2. Seedling Limequat: For sure a good producer (most citrus are). My tree is in a 12 gallon pot and I've picked around 150 full size limes this year and it probably still has around 50 or so. I have not taken an official count of the Limes, but I'll probably do it next year, although is hard because this tree flowers and matures fruits throughout the year. 3. Barbados Cherries: I have two of these fruit trees and I love them. My Florida Sweet (12 gallon pot) fruited around eight times (from April to November) probably totaling 400 fruits or so. Definitely all of the vitamin C you could ever need for the year! 4. Seedling Toledo Mango: This guy is in an 18 gallon pot and he produced 27 mangos (variety very small, around three or four ounces per fruit). The tree is very large for the pot, but it has not massively flowered yet. The most it has had is five flower spikes. I'm hoping for a nice production this spring, maybe more like 100 mangos or so. 5. Pineapples: All a pineapple plant needs is a 5 gallon pot, lots of sun, some water and good fertilization and it will produce just as well as if it was in the ground. I have some potted pineapple plants sprinkled around the yard and they fruit every year with minimal care. You just have to make sure that they don't freeze in the winter and they stay growing constantly during the summer, you will get fruit. Considering the amount of care, the size of the plant, and how easy it is to get the planting material, pineapples probably give you the most fruit per quantity of effort/cost. 6. Tamarind, Avocado, Surinam cherry, no fruit yet, but some may come in the future. The tamarind had one fruit this year, but dropped it about two months ago. Bananas are too large and vigorous to properly fruit in containers that are manageable by a single person.