Planting a Pineapple Guava

Back in March, before the “real remodel” was scheduled to start, we decided we needed to do something with the mud pit in the backyard. The mud pit was originally a piece of cement, but it didn’t drain properly, and the water was backing up, saturating my rug and providing mosquito habitat.

(Aww, look at the little puppy – this photo was from last fall, right after her spay and immediately before she and I embarked on our Boise saga.)

After some thought, instead of installing a French drain (at great expense) like a contractor recommended, we decided to simply remove the cement and plant a tree.

But we had a puppy. A puppy who love-love-love-loves mud! https://youtu.be/FWvkeUs4Qoc

So on one fine day earlier this spring, we went to our favorite nursery and bought a pineapple guava tree.

Plus a bunch of other stuff, lol.

Here we’re unloading in the alley. That mechanical lift is coming in handy again.

Tada! Partway there.

For some reason that I no longer remember, we decided not to put it into the ground and to put it into a big pot instead. I think John just wanted an excuse to go buy a big pot.

We slid the huge pot down from the truck bed on a little folded step stool, lol.

It is a beautiful one.

But John had a concern. We can get some pretty high winds in Tucson – not as frequently as Albuquerque but still they can be intense occasionally. John was afraid the wind would catch that top-heavy tree and roll that round pot right over.

So he came up with a clever idea to anchor the pot.

This is a heavy duty plant stand. But instead of putting the pot on the stand, he’s going to remove the top of the stand and put the pot into the stand.

He buried the stand, to anchor it.

Next step is to run irrigation. Instead of running it over the top of the pot, he decided to do it right, and run the water line up through the bottom of the pot. He drilled a second hole in the bottom of the pot, specifically for the irrigation line.

Now it’s time to put the tree in the pot! That white thing sticking out of the pot is the irrigation line, which he will trim to size and add a drip head to later.

John is meticulous. That pot – it’s gonna be level.

Here it goes.

Ok, now what? We had some discussion about how to get the plastic container off, and exactly what would happen and in what order – would friction or gravity win out, and when? We ended up cutting the bottom off the plastic tub while it was still hanging on the mechanical lift, and then cut the sides off after we had lowered it into the pot.

Whew, it worked.

John had a heck of a time removing the stake. Not only could he not pull it out, he could barely hammer it out even after inserting a bolt to hammer against.

When we were all done I pulled on a branch a bit too hard and it unexpectedly broke off, exposing a beetle larvae inside.

It has this issue on the back side of a leaf too – I don’t know if that’s the same problem or something different, or what it is or if it’s a big deal or not.

Obviously we should have looked at the tree more carefully before buying it. This nursery does not guarantee their plants. And we don’t want to go down and fight with them about it now, after all the effort it took getting it into the pot. John, ever the optimist, is hoping that if we just keep it well watered and healthy, it will fight off the infestation and thrive.

Meanwhile I have my eye on something I’d love to get next – this time from a different nursery.

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