Growing great plants even in your heat! Good job. Be proud. in response to your q: Tomatoes I don't see how you could cage the tomatoes now, so just let them sprawl if you can't get in there to tie to them to the stake anymore. Splitting might be uneven watering or just genetically programmed in the plants. When I've grown split prone cherry types I try to pick when orange to ripen inside & especially before a rain. Peppers Don't cut off the peppers: let them ripen. P plants are smaller like that, so look fine. Cukes They will grow up & over the trellis okay, so don't cut vines off. You can lift vines to find the cukes to harvest. Squash Yours is a small space just 1 squash plant that can be 15'+ in length & width, so removing others would work. Alternatively you can cut vine leaving just one squash on each vine. Also could build a trellis to let them climb up & attach squash to trellis with a pantyhose or tshirt sling. Trellis ideas: http://athomeinthenorthwestblog.com/2012/04/garden-trellis-tutorial.html http://www.digginfood.com/2010/05/vegetable-trellis-round-up/ This one would need something sturdier like wood to go across (squash can grow up & over the support you create) http://oregonkaisers.blogspot.com/2010/05/pea-trellis-tutorial.html In 100 degree heat you need mulch for all the plants (except lavender & go light around the rosemary) Ideas: -If you can purchase a bag of compost it would be better than the wood chips. -Loose straw from a feed store. They sweep up & throw away at the end of every day. One around our place puts in a separate dumpster & you can pull it out. -@ least 10 layers of newspapers overlapping, then topped with a bit of whatever you have (can also shred the newspaper 1st, spread, water it, then cover a bit to keep weighted down -dried grass clippings (no herbicides used) - Do you have friends with lawns if you don't have one? -used coffee grounds or teabags (coffee shops nearby?) -any garden clippings or vegetable waste chopped & dried 1st -leaves make great mulch if you have any nearby trees dropping leaves in the dry hot weather. Yesterday, while walking in Seattle we saw lots of dried bamboo leaves on the sidewalk from a hedge & spread quite a ways, so would have been a garbage bag full if raked up.

Pine plantations & reforestation in this area typically starts with a fairly dense planting density. Proper management would require a couple of thinnings at multi-decade intervals until only 1/3 of the trees were left. By thinning, the health of the remaining trees is vastly improved and allows them to continue to grow without changing the telephone pole characteristic of the forest. That forest looks about the right age and density to be ready for another cut. That forest is Red Pine...it works with White Pine too but they don't self prune quite as well as Red Pine and cast a lot more shade so the undergrowth can be a bit spartan.

I don't know about that variety but my Alphonso arrived Dec 2014 with a few leaves like that and it is not yet to the top of my 6' fence, though I have lightly pruned just one or two branches at the top, twice--but it has spread sideways a fair bit. But then I live in a ridiculously cold climate to be growing mangoes and I'm sure I get far fewer growth flushes than in their native climate. Seems to me you've got a good start there. One thing to know: you'll get a single limb growing from a single leaf node, but when you have a circle of leaves you get a cluster of new branches starting and they grow outward from there. They start out reddish on rubbery stems (not for more than a day or so on those stems, get to it fast if you're trying to redirect any direction of growth there), then light green leaves, then dark green leaves on solid wood. Mine just started pushing out a growth flush after last week's 100F+ heat wave here in northern California. Here, let me show you a few pictures of mine. Jan. 10, 2015, with a first circular spray of branches starting to sprout like yours did, (with Christmas lights for warmth with nothing but that one straight-up whip to wrap them around) and just now. Birdnetting at the bottom is to try to discourage the cottontails that show up. Seems to work. The squirrels still think the latex in the sap smells bad and they haven't gone near the tree once. My pomegranates, apples, peaches, cherries, plums, figs, they're all over those, but not the mango.

A lot of good suggestions, I think they would all work if you are patient. One thing to keep in mind is the roots are close to being "established" and no matter what you do they will be able to help the tree make a quick recovery vs bringing in a new tree and having it go through that establishment period again. Here is what I have done with fast growing species and it has worked quite well. 1) Cut 1 before growing season and then tie the "new leader" to the old leader stub with non girdling green tape to bend/straighten it. Let it grow through the season and harden off in this position. 2) make Cut 2 eliminating the stub left from the old leader (I have done it in the fall but there could be risks in doing this, I'm not sure when it's best for pruning oaks.) Not sure if this is by the book but it has worked great for me :) Good luck!