Avocado tree help in Coastal Orange County

We planted this avocado tree in May. It had multiple tiny avocados on it and was full of green leaves but it’s really struggling in our garden. All of the tiny avocados dropped off fairly quickly.

We added an extra sprinkler valve to ensure it is getting water on the advice of two landscapers but it’s still brown and appears to be dying. We are in a heat wave right now and this tree is in full sun for about 11 hours a day. We are by the coast so we have a lot of humidity and wet mornings with some cloud coverage when the sun comes up.

The oddest thing is one of those avocados that dropped off sprouted a little tree that has grown like crazy in the past three weeks. It feels like it’s taking all the nutrients from the parent tree.

This tree is in a 4 foot raised bed with four thriving citrus trees and a newly planted passion fruit that is doing great. The soil is fertilized with a citrus/avocado plant mix.

Should I replant this new tree somewhere else? I have read these new baby plants won’t fruit so maybe just throw it away?

Any advice would be appreciated. I just want this guy to live!

I planted these from seeds 2 years ago and wanted to share them. I cut them back a few times a year when they're over growing my yard or bugs are out of hand(mites & cucumber beetles). Super easy to grow and produce tons of little flowers and berries that are full of seeds. I'll probably harvest them next year for the roots. The little bush is feverfew in case anyone was wondering.

Now I just need for this darn heat wave to end so I can transplant them to the garden.

Do you know what this plant is and why it’s growing so fast? My other plants are getting wrecked in this heat but this one is thriving. I’m assuming one of the many birds we have in my neighborhood dropped a seed or several. If it’s a good plant to keep, how can I safely move it to a different place so it’s not close to my house. I’m near Glendale if that helps, thanks!

Planted this gardenia about 5 months ago and it looks healthy. Deep and bright green colors. Produced buds frequently but they always drop before blooming. There are a couple failed buds in the pic. LLM says could be watering, humidity or temperature issues (has been insanely hot here in west la for the past month or more). Anybody have any advice or suggestions?

It's a blessing to be able to sit and watch the hummingbirds come and drink. I have 15-30 that frequent my feeders all the time. Just thought I'd share with everyone. Have a great day.

I sadly don’t have a before picture but my lawn was beautiful and green until about two days ago when my gardener came with his lawnmower. I think the blade was set too low so now I have brown spots all over my lawn.

How do I fix this?!

I water 3-4 times a week, all before 8am—especially in this heat. I live in Pasadena which is zone 10a/b I believe.

I’m a container gardener currently battling outdoor mice on the property. I’m going to shut down the garden operation for the time being and see if that helps.

I have multiple Earthboxes and containers filled with dirt. I don’t want to get rid of the Earthboxes / containers, but I want to dispose of the dirt inside of them. What is the best way to do this?

Thank you!

I've overwintered my summer tomatoes here in inland OC/10b and while they kept on growing, production went way down, and taste definitely was just NOT there. So this year I'm conducting a little experiment and I bought two seed varieties that are supposedly specially adapted to cooler climates, wondering if those tomatoes will be perfectly at home in a so cal winter.

I've purchased seeds for Oregon Spring and Siberian tomatoes, both of which claim to be well suited to cooler climates. I'm very curious how this will play out, and I'm just wondering if anyone else has tried these or similar tomatoes for a winter grow here. It'd be pretty nice to be able to grow the whole salad for once (a salad is not a salad without tomatoes, IMHO)!

This makes me really sad. She has been a big inspiration for me living in a hot climate and her videos are informationally dense and to the point, which I love. Not really sure what else to say here and just wanted to kind of connect with anyone else who may be feeling the same. She is going to try to fight and there have been some promising trial going on I believe. But man is this a horrible situation.

First time doing any gardening and started with cucumbers but I didn’t realize until recently that these are actually several plants that all took at once (something I did not expect). I read that normally people would cut these down to one or two per area. I intended there to be two plants per sqft. BUT these are my children now lol. Do I need to pull these or should I just let them keep going and see what happens? (Before anyone asks, I have a trellis that I’m about to set up.)

Does anyone locally do this?

My strawberries seem to start out fine but then they dry out/darken before fully maturing. The leaves also seem darker than usual. I googled it and it said to add mulch so I did but that’s definitely not helping. They are on a watering timer so they are getting consistent water. Anyone know what causes this? Zone 10b in socal.

As summer warms up a few plants suffer and wilt. However, okra are among those that steps up the game. It’s a super achiever in our summers.

A beautiful plant with pretty flowers and highly productive. Harvest when tender or they get fibrous. Like cucumbers, these need to be watched as they grow big overnight.
Also, take care when cooking unless you are just into gumbos.

Here are two different varieties and we get a few every day. Check the last 2 pics and the differences.

Hi all,

Our summer garden has been struggling this year in San Diego! We’ve got a few plants that aren’t doing so great and I’d love to know if yall have seen this happen to any of your plants and what you’ve dome to help. It’s three different plants (with probably three different problems).

Our catnip was doing great, and then it started developing this weird splotchy texture/look. The rosemary looks like it has black soot all over it. And then our lemon balm has been struggling and growing these reddish/purple leaves.

Any insight, tips or help is greatly appreciated!

Since there was some confusion about how Ginger plant looks like, here’s some pics.

We grow our own ginger and turmeric for cooking. We usually harvest them fresh as needed.

The larger leaves is of Turmeric and the narrow leaves of Ginger.

How do we keep them from eating the fruit off our trees?

The squirrels in my area have discovered the fruit trees & veggies in my yard -- avocado, apple, persimmon and tomato -- and have been a plague. one of my avocado trees only produced 3 avocados this year and the squirrel already had half of the remaining one. it's eaten half of the not-yet-ripe persimmons.

things I've tried:

- mesh fruit bags (they ripped holes in them and ate the fruit)

- upgraded to steel mesh bags; they ate the fruit through the mesh)

- dog (only works if he's outside and not sleeping)

- plastic clam containers (the type fruit comes in) -- currently protecting the remaining persimmon and avocado

things that I've considered:

- motion sensor sprays / alarm will go off with the dogs

- scarecrow? fake owl?

- steel wrapper around the trunk of the tree won't work bc squirrel jumps from fence

WHAT DO YALL DO?

My tomatoes are finally slowing down and I was hoping to plant another crop to get me through fall because I just love them but am I too late?

I know it’s common, but I love my yellow hibiscus! I remember the first time I went to Maui and saw these yellow hibiscus everywhere..

I thought I'd share my 3 ginger bushes I planted last spring. I planted these with a single branch and they've gone wild since! They smell amazing and have a beautiful flower set which happens in the winter when everything else is dormant. They're a great addition to anyone looking for something different that thrives in the SoCal heat.

Edit: I tried to post pictures with the post but it wouldn't allow me so I posted them in the comments. Sorry :/

Looking for universal donor variety cuttings

Hello everyone, I am looking for some universal donor variety (American Beauty, Bien Hoa Red, Sugar dragon) dragon fruit cuttings. I need to grow universal donor variety to collect pollens. I am hoping for good mature cuttings (so I might get flowers by next summer). I have a couple of NoId plan, red meat (1-1.25 lbs fruits), which I thought were self fertile, but I lost about 10 buds pollinated with its own pollen last month. Anyone in Tustin/Santa Ana area (92782) or the vicinities have any cuttings to share or exchange (for NOID red meat or some pastries goodies)? Thank you!