Xtremehorticulture

Xtremehorticulture of the Desert

Something’s Eating My Basil and It’s Not Me!

Leave a Comment / eating basil, pesticide /

Q. Sir ,this picture shows my  chewed “genovese ” basil ,if you enlarge the picture you will see small insects resembling those who ate the leaves of the vine . What can I do without poisoning my basil? Thanks for your answer. Luciano’s Genovese basil with damage Regards ,Luciano A. I enlarged the picture gradually up to 800% but still could not make it out. The feeding looks more like a larger pest such as root weevils or caterpillar (larvae of moth) to me. Smaller insects would be more likely holes throughout the leaf rather than on the edges of the leaves.  Soap and water sprays have to come in contact with the insect.             Organic types like Bt (Dipel or Thuricide) or Spinosad will focus a lot on the caterpillar types and give you some overnight protection if done at dusk and would be a good first effort. Follow label directions. If this does not work then I would move toward one of the pyrethrum or pyrethroid products with vegetables or herbs on the label. Check the ingredients for these products.             Sevin might also work but apply only at dusk since it is lethal to bees which will be visiting basil a lot unless you keep the flowers clipped off. Spinosad also is tough on bees so use it only at dusk.

Something’s Eating My Basil and It’s Not Me! Read More »

Avocados High Risk in Las Vegas Area But If You HAVE to Plant One….

4 Comments / avocado growing mojave desert, cold tolerant, freeze tolerant, selection, varieties /

Q. Do you have recommendations/suggestions for new avocado and lime tree plantings for Las Vegas? I currently have a Meyer lemon tree which is doing great. A. I don’t like to recommend lime or avocado for this climate, particularly avocado, unless you have a very warm spot in the landscape that can give off a lot of winter warmth and protection from winter winds.             These plants are very tender during the winter here and the chances of losing them due to winter cold is extremely high. That being said, if you decide to move ahead with a lime then any of the limes would be a good choice depending on your preference. Rangpur and red limes, although cold hardy, are not limes at all but could be used as a substitute. To my knowledge there is little difference in the true limes abilities to make it through the cold here so that would not be a consideration.             As far as the avocado goes, I would select a smaller selection to give it a better chance of surviving. Make sure the rootstock is also cold tolerant or you could lose the roots while the top did not freeze. Here are some recommended cold hardy varieties from a Texas website: http://toptropicals.com/html/toptropicals/articles/fruit/varieties_avocado.htm Cold hardy varieties: Brazos Belle: Produces medium-large, purple-black long fruit. Season: October-November. Fantastic: Produces green, paper thin skin, supposedly the most most cold hardy of all. The fruit has a creamy texture. Joey: Selected by Joey Ricers in Uvalde, Texas (just outside of San-Antonio). Produces medium size, egg shaped purple-black fruit. It has excellent flavor. Heavy bearer. Season: September-October. Lila: Produces medium size, green fruit. Season: September-October. Don’t confuse this variety with Lula, which is popular Florida variety and commonly used for rootstock. (Lula is cold hardy to 25F) Poncho: Produces medium to large green fruit. Cold hardy to 15F

Avocados High Risk in Las Vegas Area But If You HAVE to Plant One…. Read More »

Pepper Tree Losing Its Leaves and Apricot Dropping Its Fruits

Leave a Comment / California pepper tree, fruit drop, leaf drop /

This is normal fruit drop in apricot. The fruit was mature and ready to be picked and a good wind came along and blew them off of the tree during the night. Q. Our Pepper tree is losing it’s leaves and they are dropping like crazy. Can you tell me what I can do or is this normal this time of year? Also the fruit is dropping off apricot tree. A. Leaf and fruit drop can be from very similar causes, usually some form of stress. This stress can come from temperature extremes, irrigation and soil moisture extremes or wildly fluctuating soil moistures. Unlike leaves, for fruit to stay on the plant or tree the flower needs to be pollinated and the environment should be fruit-friendly.             Even though flowers are modified forms of leaves for fruit to develop then it must include the transfer of pollen from male parts of a flower to female parts of the flower. During this transfer it is best done by insects like bees in those trees and plants requiring pollination by insects (most fruit trees and vegetables).             During pollination (which can cover a period of a couple of weeks in cool weather because the flowers don’t all open at once) it is best if the weather is friendly to pollinators (good temperatures, good humidity and normal winds) as well as pollination. So when the flowers are open you hope for warm weather free from rain and storms. When these conditions vary further and further from ideal then the amount of fruit set may be diminished. Early almond drop in May due to lack of pollination. The yellow almonds have not been pollinated so no nut has formed and the whole nut drops from the tree two months before harvest.             Temperatures after fruit set can play a big factor as well. If temperatures drop really low after fruit set then this can cause fruit to drop early. Some fruit can start to develop from the flower even though it is not pollinated but this fruit will drop from the tree, usually turning yellow first before dropping. The bees may have missed this flower but the flower starts forming the fruit anyway.             Without pollination many fruits cannot develop more than just its juvenile stage and then drop. The fruit tree thins itself in this manner but not enough for our pleasure. This can be normal but should not be all of the fruit. This is called “June drop” which happens in our climate earlier, sometime in late April or early May usually. Plum fruits, if they do not get pollinated, will grow for awhile but eventually yellow and drop from the tree early while pollinated fruit (green here) will continue on to maturity.             In the case of your apricot see if it is natural thinning; small fruit yellow and drop. There should still be some fruit remaining. By the way some apricots do need pollinator trees. I do not know what variety you have but Tomcot, Perfection and Rival are three that might need a pollinator. If it set in previous years then it is a problem that occurred this year such as late freeze, poor conditions for pollination when the flowers were open, irregular watering and some others. Hopefully it is just June drop and you still have plenty of fruit left.             With your California pepper it is most likely irregular or having a streak of hot weather that the plants were not prepared for. Make sure if you get hit with hot weather out of the norm to run them through an irrigation cycle ahead of schedule.

Pepper Tree Losing Its Leaves and Apricot Dropping Its Fruits Read More »

Plum Tree Loses Its Leaves After Planting

Leave a Comment / drops its leaves, reduce transplant shock /

Q. We recently had our back yard landscaped. We had a plum tree planted in the one corner. It did okay for a few days and then it lost all it’s leaves!!! It was getting water. A few sprouts from the base are coming up but nothing else. Is it dead or just been shocked from the transplant? A. I will have to speak in generalities since I have so little to go from.  Usually when a tree is planted and it loses all of its leaves very quickly it is due to some sort of shock.              These shocks can come from leaving the black plastic container in full sunlight for a day where the sun can cook the outside temperature of the container and a portion of the soil in the container to 170° F in our climate; missing an irrigation in the container when it needs it can cause leaf drop in a matter of days; planting a landscape tree from a container into hot or very dry soil can cause root dieback and leaf drop; growing a tree in partial shade and moving it to full sun can cause leaf drop; planting the tree too deeply may cause leaf drop; planting the tree too shallow with the roots exposed can cause leaf drop; putting fertilizer too close to the trunk or roots can cause leaf drop; and there are probably more that I can’t think of right now.              All of these can be termed transplant shock.  The more careful you are in planting trees and shrubs the less shock the plant will have.  If the tree has lost its leaves during severe summer heat than the prognosis is not good and you will probably have severe dieback.              It will be your call as to whether you want to keep the tree or not.  If your growth is coming beneath the graft or dogleg on the trunk at the bottom and pull the plant out and replace it.  Here is how to minimize transplant shock.  •           Have the whole pre dug before you bring the plant home from the nursery. •           Plant the tree or shrub immediately when you get home. •           Never plant into a hot hole or dry hole. •           Plant in the early morning hours not during the day when it is hot or windy. •           Remove the plant from the container and get it into the hole is quickly as possible. •           Never remove the plant from a container by pulling on the stem and the yanking it out. •           Immediately stake the plant after planting making sure the state is driven soundly into the hard soil beneath the planting hole •           Make sure you plant the tree or shrub the same depth that it was in the container. •           Dig the hole deep enough to accommodate the root ball of the plant and no deeper.  Taking the hole wide is better than taking a deep. •           Water the plant in the hole immediately after planting and use a hose for the first week of watering, not the drip system or irrigation system for the initial watering.

Plum Tree Loses Its Leaves After Planting Read More »

My Beautiful Italian Cypress Was Butchered By A Tree Service

1 Comment / bad haircut, bad pruning, growing back /

Q. HELP! My 25 year old beautiful Italian Cypress have been butchered by a tree service hired only to top them. How can I save these once beautiful trees. I am sick. I have been hosing them down every morning and deep watering them also.They have many brown areas that have been chopped to the limbs. There is a lot of green but, they do not look well. I can take a picture and send it if it will help garner some advice. Overwatering or overfertilizing or both can cause excessive growth and “floppiness” A. You can send me a picture but frequent water may in fact be hurting the tree. Go back to deeper (12 to 18 inches deep) watering occasionally. Right now perhaps not any more often than once a week at the most.             You can also try to apply some fertilizer lightly, one application only. It does you no good to fertilize over and over. It will put on new growth mostly now and slow down as the summer is concluding.             If the landscape company has cut back the stems into bare wood it is very possible it may not recover. If it does recover because they did not cut too deeply the recovery will be slow. Unfortunately this is a problem when they prune with hedge shears which is ridiculous.              Frequent watering may cause some succulent growth to occur which will not be sturdy and this growth will be “floppy”.             I wish I had better news but you will have to wait and see how the plant responds. But in the meantime water and fertilize normally; water once a week and fertilize once or maybe twice this season. That’s all you can do. Let me know how it turns out.

My Beautiful Italian Cypress Was Butchered By A Tree Service Read More »

Living Windbreaks Use Water – A Major Concern in the Desert

1 Comment / desert landscaping, wind control, windbreaks /

Q. We just moved from Las Vegas to Pahrump We bought a home on an acre of land – I’d send a picture but – to be honest  – its just bare high-desert land As far as we know Pahrump is considered Zone13 (Sunset). We would like your advice on trees for wind barriers. We have been told by locals that there are several pine trees that would make a good wind barrier. Judging by the look of the town, most properties have planted the pines around the perimeter of their properties. After reading SNWA desert planting ideas and other high-desert websites, we thought we would start with the pines and then layer from there (inward) For example:pines fruit or other shade trees large bushes or grasses edible and low bushes finally, low growing plants.  We want to encourage birds, hummingbirds and butterflies and we will add raised beds for veggies. Could you give us your advice on the types of pines and other trees that would grow in this area. Could you please comment on the layering plan or give us some indication which direction we should head? A. I would refer you to a fact sheet I wrote a couple of years ago which can be found at http://www.unce.unr.edu/publications/files/ho/2006/fs0688.pdf It basically says that the windbreak will affect an area downwind equal to about five times its height. Windbreaks need to be multilayered when possible with a combination of trees and shrubs. A variety of plants, not just one kind, is more desirable. The biggest mistake I see done in Pahrump is putting a big line of trees right on the border of their property. It just does not make any sense to me. If they need a fence there is a lot of things you can build that don’t require water. If it is a windbreak then it is too far from the living area to be very effective. You need to answer the questions where does the wind come from that you are trying to stop. What time of year is it a problem. Design your outside living area first. Then go ahead and place your plant materials for screening, visual barriers and windbreaks. Windbreaks integrated into your landscape can use smaller plants. Remember big plants use more water than little plants and if you put a whole bunch of trees on the perimeter of the property what good does that do except use up a bunch of water unnecessarily. Plants need to be concentrated near living areas and they need to be part of the outside living area, usually defining the “walls” and “ceilings” of these spaces. Fences on the perimeter of the property may be expensive at the beginning but they are lower maintenance and use less water than a living fence on the perimeter. In the fact sheet I purposely stay away from recommending plant materials. There are plenty of places that can recommend plants for your area including your local garden club, nursery and extension office. The extension office in Pahrump has a great little garden area that demonstrates some plants for the area. They have lists as well. Basic recommendations for trees for the desert are to keep them in scale with the house and property, and put them where they will do the most good and you can appreciate them. Every plant you put in the ground should have a good reason for being there. This is the desert and water is precious. I hope this helps a little. this is a big topic to cover.

Living Windbreaks Use Water – A Major Concern in the Desert Read More »