Dr. Heather Vallier

Dr. Heather Vallier
AKA: The Goo Girl = )

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Necessity is the Mother of invention . . . Gopher Goo is born. Gophers Beware!!

In the spring of 2009 my Cambria home was to be on the Spring Garden tour. The usual turn out is over 300 people, and since I have helped put it on I know that is a conservative estimate. I had waited many years for this opportunity and was poised and ready, the garden vital and strong and basically done to my exacting standards. One thing I was known for and it was true in this garden was the host of different plants I was able to grow . . . literally bananas and ginger in the same garden with natives and antique paper roses. We live in gopher country, and tropicals and roses are favored gopher food. All preventative measures were taken; the beds were lined with Stainless Steel mesh, regular examinations were done for new activity on the outside of this mesh, and so far so good in getting these plants nearly mature and full sized.

As I was tidying up one day in the garden I heard a sound . . . a chewing sound coming from the tropical garden. A "chewing-under-ground sound" that could only mean one thing . . . a gopher had come over the wire and had invaded the banana bed! And in fact that is exactly what was happening, the gopher was eating the banana as I stood there listening. How could this be happening?!? Right before the tour my biggest red banana was going to die, probably within a day or two. Half the root system was gone already I learned upon inspection, and the hole was a small vertical burrow, with no way to trap in it even if I could do that in time to save it.

From the center of the yard I stood listening to the gopher chewing away, and got mad. Really mad. MAD!! My heart raced and my blood boiled and I am sure there was steam out my ears, but all I heard was that awful chewing of my beloved banana tree. Just then wonderful inspiration came to me and I realized I had the solution to this problem right inside the house! I am a plant doctor and had been working with Cal Poly, SLO to develop and trial an irrigation product based on a starch soil amendment. What if this Starchy, gooey gel could fill up the gopher hole and drive the gopher out by displacement? I had nothing to lose by trying this, it would help the plant not dry out at the very least, and the gopher would get gooey too!

In to the lab and back out to the yard in a flash with a large cup of the starch granules, I poured it down the gopher hole and added water to expand the granules (300-500 times their original size is the claim). With in a very few minutes it filled up the hole to the top, and right in front of it came a very frantic gopher. A very large, very frantic gopher, who could not figure out what had happened to his hole and his tasty afternoon snack which was now covered with gooey starch and out of his reach. He popped out of the hole covered in goo and then tried to run back in as his hole was closing behind him, completely on the run now and clearly frightened. I put the cup over his head and called for my son to "re-locate" him. Both my son and I were pretty impressed at how fast and effective it was. The gopher was literally stuck to the inside, and we were happily AMAZED.

In a flash of inspiration the gopher problem was solved, the banana was saved, and Gopher Goo was born. I had invented a GREEN gopher control option. "Got a gopher? Go for Goo!!"