Elizianne writes: We have read all your articles dealing with frangipani problems with great interest. Alas! There are no males in our household to oblige with the cheapest of fertilizers, so we have decided to go the Foska way. Our frangipani grow in the middle of rice fields and get plenty of sun, but we see very few flowers. We also have pet animals so is it alright for us to make little holes around the trees and bury the Foska instead of spreading it around the trees?
Remember that a little fertilizer on a monthly basis is better than the big bang treatment; however it seems from your email that the condition is rather long-standing, so I would give double the dose for the first time (about 100g per tree – usually 50g). It is unusual for pets to eat fertilizers (other than blood and bone which they adore) because of its objectionable smell and taste. You could water it well in at the time of application which makes consumption even less likely.
There isn’t much rain at this time of the year so you should be watering regularly anyway. After scattering (preferred method) or burying small quantities of Foskar at regular intervals around your Frangis, give them plenty of water so that the uptake of the nutrients is fast.
Do not place the fertilizer close to the trunk, as the fine, hair-like feeding roots are found at the ends of the roots. Frangis have a remarkably compact root system, so make your little interments about halfway between the trunk and the drip-line. (The drip-line is to be found at the outer edges of the leaf canopy.) Please let me know the results of all this effort.
APG writes about discouraging a bird from his garden: I am at my wits end with this annoying little (kedasih) bird that starts his high pitched repetitious squeek just before dawn every morning and goes on until around 7:30am. Sometimes it never stops and continues throughout the day. I am told they don’t like strong sunlight and start at twilight, so on cloudy days its NON STOP!!! I have tried using earplugs and the shrill sound goes right thru them.
He goes on to detail the methods (thus far unsuccessful) to drive this annoying bird away. I am not certain that my recommendations will be any more successful, but it is worth a try. The bird is a member of the cuckoo family and its common name in English is the violet-breasted cuckoo. Its call is not especially melodious as well as being repetitive and monotonous. Indeed – a colloquial English phrase for being driven insane is ‘It’s driving me cuckoo!’
In order of the least offensive first - (1) Try tying unwanted CDs or CD blanks to hang on strings from the branches of the tree/s the kedasih favors. The flash and glitter of these are said to be distasteful and frightening to birds. (2) Mount an eagle kite on a whippy stick so that it can move some just above said tree/s. If you can couple this with recorded sounds of an eagle’s harsh cries, so much the better.
(3) Buy some double-bunger fire-crackers and set them off at irregular intervals during the day. (This will also frighten away wanted birds, but preserving sanity is No: 1,) (4) Research the web for recipes for bird-lime. (The Italians at one time during quail season, used to catch a quail, put out its eyes, and tie it in the branches of a tree, whereupon its stuttering cries during the night would lure other migrating quail down to perch on the liberally limed branches. Hey Presto! Tomorrow’s lunch or dinner would await them the next morning.
If you do go to such lengths, you will also entrap wanted birds. These must be released and cleaned of the goo. As for the offender – wring its neck and leave the body there to molder as a deterrent to others. You will have to employ a variety of means as birds are canny critters and soon work out if you mean business or not.
An Australian friend of mine, a grape-grower and wine-maker used all kinds of methods to keep birds away from his ripening grapes near vintage time – including netting them! Early every morning at this time of year, he would take out his shotgun and shoot 2-3 birds (the bird population being in pest proportions).
His rationale was – ‘The bloody birds know if you mean business or not. All the gas guns, nets, and scarers, mean little unless they see a few stinking corpses around as well. Then they know that this bugger means it and tell their mates to keep away’. Strictly illegal of course, but he claimed that it did work. Good Luck!
Next week – Problems with tomatoes and other vegetables.
Please send all your gardening questions to
E-mail: gardendoctor08@yahoo.com
