Our new 1.4 acre property is ridden with gophers, rabbits and voles. It's part of the package when you buy property on the edge of wilderness.

We have an entire vineyard to plant, figs, and many other fruit trees.

Procedure is to dig the hole. Fill with water to check for intrusion into gopher tunnels. Plug any tunnel with huge rocks. Insert gopher basket into hole with 6" above ground. Put plant into basket and add soil and vitamin B1/water. Make sure drip system works and circulates around plant.

Voles/Rabbits: Make 24" high tube of gopher wire and put around basket to prevent voles or rabbits from eating tender new tree trunk and leaves.

What you see is a LSU Gold fig tree beginning it's life in-ground on a steep slope.  It is well protected at the moment, and will be monitored for any pest invasion outside it's cage.   Climate is what the fig craves! It will be watered long, deep and spaced to send it's roots deep.

This LSU Gold is over one year old, was planted late March 2013, and is doin' fine!

The hillside is so steep, and decomposed granite is so slippery, I bought a cool hiking staff online.  It gives me a third leg going up and down the planting slopes.



The slope is steep, and there is drip irrigation, but to stop the dirt from sliding, we use anything we can!

I've got the juicy fruit gum, the gopher bait, but it's tough finding those active tunnels.  Next job is to buy about 20 baby gopher snakes and let them loose!

Suzi

Suzi,

Congrats on your new home and property! BTW, I have some pads which will be available to send out next week. If you still want them tell me, I just need shipping covered or you can pick them up as well.

I can give 1 pad of each of the following;

Opuntia sp. Jeronimo M.V.
Large orange fruit with orange interior. Excellent honeydew melon taste. Soft small seeds. Moderate production.

Opuntia sp. P.V. Spineless #1
Upright vigorous grower, growing near the ocean in SoCal. Fruit is Yellow/Red Medium/Large. Unfortunately, I was unable to taste any of the ripe fruit. The fruit is readily consumed by the local wild life, where as many other Opuntia sp. are left behind.

Opuntia sp: Torrance PCH#1
Large red fruit with red interior. Excellent sweet flavor with subtle watermelon taste. Soft small seeds that can be broken down by teeth. Low spreading growth habit. Fruit resistant to rotting due to moisture/humidity. Fruit holds on plant for months through the winter, while maintaining great eating qualities. Production moderate to low.

Congratulations on your new home Suzi.   Burrowing rodents and other critters are an occupational hazard for growers in many parts of the country.   But not to worry. There is  a solution.

http://www.rodenator.com/

They are available to rent as well.

Ha!  I know and love the Rodenator, but... the deal is... Rock city!!  We put that thing on go, we will blow rocks down the hill, kill the neighbors rooster, donkeys and horses, destroy their home, and my neighbors will be really mad.

If we had flat land, that would be a great solution, and I checked.  They will not sell to rocky hills.  The thing works great on flat lands, but not on rocky hillsides.

I do have a lot of juicy fruit gum to put into the tunnels, once I figure out where they are.  JD is as confused as me.  They are legion, and we only find the tunnel when we fill up a hole JD digs with water, and the whole thing collapses into a tunnel that you can never fill with water.  And there is never an end. 

I have poison, and I intend to use it!

Suzi

Will make for an excellent Watership Down-ish-for-gophers story, Suzi!

Best of luck.  Wont the poison be taken up by your fig trees and get in to the fruit?

Bob, the fruit is pure.  The poison is ingested by the enemies of the fruit.  If I had a dog or a cat, I'd nix the poison, but our desire to travel nixes pets.  We have no pets.  We got kids, and been there done that.  They produce, as they should, grandchildren, who storm the place with so much energy, and love the skeleton of the rabbit the coyotes got.  We bought a learning center for the grand kids, and a graveyard to the varmints.

Suzi

We I am in the same boat you are. Everything stands a waits for you to put somthing out that looks like food. I am in the middle of no where and love it. But this is the hardest place to grow anything. I have rats, gophers, snakes, deer and even saw a mountain lion a week ago. I have to keep my chickens in a fort. Plants covered up at all times. I dig a hole about 2 feet down and put wire around my trees. This keeps the critters form dig or walking in. life is good. Good luck may the force be with you.

Zone 8
Southwest TX

Our big job is to buy a bunch of baby gopher snakes, and kiss them as we let them go.  Right?

Suzi

mongoose?  The only thing about snakes is that they also eat quail eggs.   We had a corn snake around here last summer but no quail.  This year the quail are back.  So far no snake.

No matter what you use or do there is likely to be a down side.   You just have to pick a fix that you're willing to live with.

have you heard the quail laugh? "ha ha, you stupid idiot."  over and over they sing.  Not a fan of quail.  Would love their eggs.

Suzi