Larry Gene, I completely disagree with your advice. Your anecdotal observations, which I assume to be of a few trees in a single soil and climate, will not stand up to even minimal research in the value of mulching trees. There has been substantive research on this subject and the advantages provided by mulching trees would not be considered by most of us as "overkill". I don't have any links handy to illustrate my point but I'm pretty sure one of the research savy members of this forum will follow with plenty. I have, however, established thousand of trees in hundreds of sites in the humid northeast,that unlike Portland, usually gets ample rainfall during the growing season. I'm also familiar with Portland type climates, having a sister on the coast just south of Oregon (I tend her orchard when I'm there). Where the redwoods have been cleared the soil does completely dry in summer- at least in the loamy first few feet. Big trees in the background completely suck out the reserves. I also was a commercial grower in N. CA years ago. I've had ample opportunity to observe the benefits of mulching plants, with direct comparisons on same sites. In SF, mulching is the only civic-minded method for establishing trees with their frequent droughts. But even if their water supply was constant and assured, a properly mulched tree will generally establish quicker than a tree that is even clear cultivated- let alone competing with weeds or grass.

I answered your rootstock question on the thread you started for it. I would not even try European plums because they often have delayed incompatibility which is no fun. But asians plums are fair game. Most of the varieties today have some native American plum in the cross and that helps the odds. Re: peaches, I find the key is the temperature at grafting time. I have been sitting on all my peach and apricot scions waiting for it to warm up to the 70's which is what is needed. Look at the weather forecast for the next week before grafting making sure there are several days in the 70's or low 80's. Also I coat the peach scions in Doc Farwells since they can take awhile to work and you want to keep the scion from drying out. Lastly I wrap aluminum foil on the graft union to keep the temp from getting too hot when the sun is hitting the graft. I also try to put the grafts on the north side for the same reason. Do twice as many grafts with peaches since the number of random misses seems to be higher. I usually put several backup chip buds in random locations which are forced only if the main graft did not take. With these methods I have managed to not lose any of the couple dozen peach varieties I have wanted to graft in the last few years. Scott

I don't think you will be all that successful growing Eucalyptus ficifolia in Florida, as it comes from southwest Australia, where the conditions are mediterranean in climate rather than subtropical or temperate. This tree is not well adapted to areas with hot humid summers and hot nights, nor does it take much freezing temperatures should you happen to live in northern or central Florida. This species is really only happy here in California within a narrow band of coastal strip where the conditions allow it to grow. It isn't grown in inland California where it freezes or gets too hot. If you really want to grow this, I'd suggest trying it from seed, as it isn't a tree that is commonly offered by any nurseries that I know of as a 1 gallon sized plant, but most often is only available as a 5 or 15 gallon sized tree.

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