That's hideous! Thanks for the pictures. I've never seen crown gall in all its glory.
Porkpal, the gophers here love fig trees. A friend of mine who used to own a local nursery said they were accustomed to hearing complaints from customers about fig trees that died shortly after they were planted. It was always gopher damage. The trees would have no roots whatsoever left; just one little tooth-marked stump where the roots used to be. One tree actually was finished off by gophers only an hour after it was planted.
My gophers used to eat nothing but roses and bulbs, any bulbs but daffodils. After I started planting bulbs only in containers and planting the roses in cages, they ate hundreds and hundreds of my irises. They also like my abutilons, lavateras, and the occasional camellia. Needless to say, they love poppies and hollyhocks and other plants with a long taproot. One year I planted corn, grew it to a height of about 5 feet, and then watched as the stalks got shorter and shorter and finally disappeared into the ground.
As I become more selective in my planting habits, they become more desperate and undiscriminating. This year they've eaten all of my gazanias, which never seemed to appeal to them in the past.
