Hi harvestman, no I'm not over watering or over fertilizing. In fact so far this year I'm hardly watering at all. Some years we get a lot more rain than others and we get monsoon rains practically every summer. During the monsoons our typically low humidity can jump to 100% for weeks at a time if we get back to back monsoons. In such years we can have massive whitefly infestations. With all the rain we have been having this year I have gnats in my potted trees. This is the first year I have had a gnat problem and as I said I have not been watering. I have already purchased the Tanglefoot. I have tried ant baits before that did not seem to help much. Is there an ant bait you recommend?

Joe: Why couldn't it have been a tom and 2 days earlier on the last day of turkey season, just my luck! I did give your idea consideration. Thomis: She should be stuffed with corn and milo, she has been eating the grain the chickens kicked out of the pens on both sides of her for 2 days now. Harvestman: Thanks for your comment, "I just wish they ate squirrels. I about laughed myself out of the chair. The squirrel population here is low enough that they are still adorable. The turkey population in our county (highest in the state) however is so high that other states come here to get birds to transplant to their own states.

Our family recently moved out to 12 acres and have 18 fruit trees planted by previous owner. Hoping to gain as much knowledge and insight as possible as my family becomes better educated. We haven't sprayed anything at this point and hope we can manage to get some production this year. My original post was made in Texas Gardening sub-thread: http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/3739820/m=23/fruit-peach-trees-pest-and-care-help

Spinosad works great on the borers too! I've used the sprinkle bait kind applied at the base of the tree in the heat of summer (after scraping all the mulch away from the tree trunk). The only problem I've heard about for using spinosad is that a lot of pest develop a resistance to it in only 2 years - which is a big problem. The spinosad product called 'Come and Get It' is the only "organic" option for fire ant control and it is based on spinosad. I use Amdro around the perimeter of the yard and spinosad for the actual veggie beds and so far I don't notice any resistance being built up but time will tell. I have trouble getting Surround to actually stick to the leaves in an even coat. I don't have a sprayer with an agitator so I dropped a few glass marbles down into the tank and just shake it all the time while spraying. It does seem to have an effect and organic peach growers swear by it so I'll keep using it. The north side of my yard is lined with giant white oaks and their acorns are the type that sprout soon after dropping off the tree - so squirrels have learned to eat them right away instead of storing them. Luckily the acorns are dropping in sinc with most of my fruit ripening so the tree rats are busy with nuts and tend to ignore the fruit 20 feet away. Speaking of fruit trees - I cannot recommend highly enough the dwarf everbearing mulberries offered in catalogs and sometimes local nurseries (I bought one from BB's in Sanford). Most are a form of Morus nigra which is not completely happy with our heat and humidity so I wouldn't consider it a long lived tree to plant outdoors but in a large pot on the patio it continually produces fruit. I keep mine in the greenhouse for the winter and I get a large cereal bowl full of berries for a few weeks starting this time of year and continue to first frost. They tend to bloom one month and fruit the next over and over. They are not the absolute best tasting mulberry but they are very good. Almost every cutting taken will root and most of them will bear fruit while tiny. Cute little trees.