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Posted

I am trying to get my palms planted but have a major gopher problem. On approximately 8 acres of irrigated land, I was able to trap 109 gophers in a 5 week period during the springtime. I will continue to do this as the rains start and gopher season begins but from my missed catches in the spring, I would estimate at least another 50 gophers out there now. In the meantime I need to get some palms in the ground and am planning on making baskets to protect the roots.  I have 1/2"x 1/2" hardware cloth and was thinking of making the baskets 24" diameter with a bottom and  either extending the basket 6" above ground or making a cover?  Since I am planting mostly 15 gallon plants (including a couple Bismarkias) I believe the oversized baskets would allow plenty of uninhibited root growth. Any recommendations / thoughts on this is appreciated.

  • Like 1
Posted

The three yards around the perimeter of my garden are not tended, and thus my garden is completely exposed to gopher incursion.  I have lost several valuable palms to this pest; including a Howea with 14 inches of true trunk.   Now, I never plant anything that I truly care about without these baskets.  This company also offers the stainless steel fabric by the roll, so that one can make a basket of any size. 

https://gopherslimited.com/products/stainless-steel-gopher-basket-25-gallon-case-3/

JimC,  Welcome to Palmtalk !  :)

 

 

 

 

  • Like 2
  • Upvote 2

San Francisco, California

Posted

I will say there are palms that are candy to gophers and others that seem to be ok in a gopher inhabited environment. The slope on my hill is constantly being infested and I have lost palms almost overnight once the pest finds them. I lost a beautiful Bismarkia after taking great care to line the hole it was planted in with a wire mesh. It took a couple of years but the palm lost the battle. I found it laying on its side with the roots completely chewed off . The next is Howea F. I had an abundance of these palms as I was selling seed to a large Kentia farm and took quite a few nice palms in trade. I planted them on the hill while they were just beginning to trunk after full sun hardening off. The gophers took out every one even while trapping many gophers in the process. The gophers were too quick to destroy the palms , about 5 of them . They left the Trachycarpus , Brahea A. , Brahea E. , Butia O. , Sabal , Phoenix , Syagrus and others that are still growing there. Gophers seem to have favorites. I do the best I can without having nuclear weapons or bombs ( picture Bill Murray in Caddyshack!) . Both neighbors on either side of me never trap gophers so they are always invading my hill. I had even , about 20 years ago , used poison . The poison worked but it is illegal to use now ….for good reason. Harry

  • Like 1
Posted

I happen live in Gopher mega-city where there are probably 1,000 gophers per acre or more.  If palms are Candy to Gophers as @Harry’s Palms, which no doubt is true the only thing to lure them away or encourage pocket gophers from not eating certain plants is to make sure there are weeds nearby that gophers like more.  I have found that so long as I have a yard full of dandelions the gophers stay there and only rarely get into my garden or other plants I don't want them eating.  I know this sounds insane, perhaps lazy it trapping but it works.  I used to trap dozens of gophers per day, but that was pretty much all I did only to discover that over several months of perpetual trapping I had killed all the dumb gophers leaving behind to populate the smart ones. 

The smart gophers then got into my garden, palms and even fruit trees causing terror.   So breed the dumb gophers and manipulate them with control, they will never figure it out.

  • Like 3
Posted

Invite predators to your property. Hawks, fox, coyotes and bobcats will help control the gophers and other rodents.

gophergetter.thumb.jpg.96ba9655fce637de5f257ba2fd6b18db.jpg

  • Like 2

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