The baskets will not be a problem for the roots and will give the roots the protection when the tree is small enough to be killed by a few hungry gophers. A longer range solution I think is to become proficient as a gopher catcher but like womans work it is never over. Al

Well, the advertisment says they are made of galvenized metal, so they might last a while underground and perhaps cause root problems down the line. Just a guess, because I have no experience with gophers or gopher guards.

yes! thank you. i now have 2 of those smaller, more blue-gray ones, and i think you're right -- that's the brevifolia. i seem to remember seeing it labelled as such at the place i go to look at plants [for sale]. humm.. i guess DARTMOUTH was wrong about the name?? i dunno. anyway, thank you very much for your reply. the little guy seems to be doing fine. i think one more leaf started getting brown at its base, and i quickly pulled it off.. there's weird little brown splotches on the bases of the lowest leaves on it, but they're not really soft. they're on the thin part right next to the stem, you know? the white part. i think they're fine. the stem seems just fine, and that's what counts, right.. i guess i should not have watered it directly after transplanting. oh well. i've been RACKING up my succulent collection creating boxes, pots, and a bed full of them, preparing for the heat. i suppose it's not transplant time, but i make sure they don't get TOO cold. since the frosts have stopped, the nights have been around 40 degrees lately, and my plants don't seem to mind too much. i mean the ones inside are making flowers right now, heh.. the ones outside are just continuing to look healthy. i'm keeping them as dry as i can stand (watering's too much fun!). i'll send photos and MORE QUESTIONS sooooooooon. thanks again, paul

I did want to point out some chemistry issues here, though. Well, there were reasons we got rid of galvanized pipes: https://americanvintagehome.com/advice-for-older-homes/need-swap-galvanized-pipes/ They rust away. And of course, you're drinking what leaches into the water from that. It can be problematic, as in the case of Flint, Michigan, where the original piping had lead in it, if the pH of the water changes (which was the problem in Flint). Copper is much better, as is our modern PVC. But of course, copper can have its own impurities if not made well, and it's expensive beyond all belief these days. I would tend to agree that the zinc leaching is not of concern. It's the steel as it decays. Carbon steel tends to be what's used in most mesh. It's nice and cheap. It also contains the following: chromium, molybdenum and nickel. Chromium can be...problematic...at some valence charges in very tiny amounts (to phrase that more definitively, don't screw around with any amount of chromium, period). The molybdenum is at high percentage and could be problematic during the leaching process, but fortunately isn't super toxic and the mass of the steel low enough not to be an issue. Nickel won't be a problem. The zinc here doesn't bother me in the slightest. Zinc does leach in soils at about the same speed as phosphorus (so slowly, but it does leach). It will slowly disperse and become a non-issue, but would be locally toxic if it did build up. As always, it's the dose that makes the poison and zinc will happily block the absorption of other minerals. But that's not going to happen for the above reasons. And, of course, we do use them in cisterns due to the pH and ions present not being notably hard on steel. Water is not soil so the comparison really shouldn't be made here, as some sources have repeatedly told me on other items. Even so, galvanized tanks often don't look good after only a few decades and have quite a lot of rust apparent. But PVC is hard to cast or seal in that size, so our options are limited. My opinion is actually fairly neutral on these things; I use metal spikes, but probably wouldn't use a metal mesh on the philosophy that nobody needs a new tetanus shot the next time they put a hand through it and cut themselves. (Sidenote: My doctor recommends that I renew that every eight years since I garden, minimum, so I do it every 6). Even the metal spikes rust through the pretty thick paint jobs, so I figure everything goes eventually and you're going to get everything in it in your soil.