December 2013 – Page 3 – Xtremehorticulture

Pictures are Classic Rabbit Damage to Vegetables

Q. Would you help me solve what varmint has gobbled down the vegetables in my two raised vegetable gardens? I have a fence and bird net around each but the culprits keep getting in. Thought you maybe could figure it out from the way the vegetables are chewed. A. That sure looks like rabbit damage to me from the pictures you sent to me. I will post them on my blog so all can see them. They are very good at lifting fencing with their noses and pushing it up and getting in and out. Rabbit fencing has to be tacked down to the ground tightly or buried for good control. My experience with plastic fencing and rabbits is that they chew right through it. This is after I contacted the manufacturer years ago on plastic fencing and he reassured me that it would keep rabbits out. Wrong! They just chewed straight through it. Also, if there is any gap in the fencing AT ALL, they will squeeze or push their way through particularly if they are hungry or your veggies are appetizing which yours is perfect rabbit food. If you have not done this I would strongly suggest chicken wire surrounding the growing area. This is metal chicken wire with 1 inch hexagonal openings. You will also find that baby rabbits will be able to go through this 1 inch opening the first couple of months after they are born. After that, they are too big. The fencing MUST be buried a couple inches deep all around the perimeter. The fencing must have NO openings at all. If they are overlapped, overlap them about a foot and join them together with wires so they cannot be pushed open. The fencing needs to be at least two feet high and supported with metal stakes so that it cannot be bent to the ground. I usually use a top wire that goes from stake to stake to support the top of the fencing and keep it upright. I hope this helps but this is pretty classic rabbit damage. They will be there early in the morning and disappear just after sunup.

Pictures are Classic Rabbit Damage to Vegetables Read More »

Avocado Very Iffy in Cold Desert

1 Comment / avocado dropping leaves, avocado growing mojave desert, avocado selection, dwarf avocado, freeze damage / xtremehorticulture

Q. I ordered an avocado tree online and followed the directions for care. I understood it was compatible with the Las Vegas climate but it kept loosing leaves. New leaves would grow but I finally gave up on it. Just for fun, I presoaked a pit from a fresh avocado and I planted it outside and it’s doing well. Now that the weather is cooling down, should I leave it in the ground or transplant it to a pot and bring it inside? What do you recommend I do with it in the spring? Would it ever bear fruit? Super Avocado weighing in at over 2 lbs. (Photo courtesy Rare Fruit Society of the Philippines) A. A lot of people would really love to grow avocados here but they are very “iffy” in our climate. For the most part, I would discourage most gardeners from planting them. If you could get it to survive here it would bear fruit. The usual reason for dropping leaves is a watering problem; going from dry to wet and back again. If you are going to experiment with an avocado I would suggest putting down a 4 to 6 inch layer of wood mulch around the trees but keep the mulch a foot away from the trunk in the first five years. I think you will see a big difference. Avocados of Zimbabwe on display at local fair in Harare If you just HAVE to grow an avocado tree, focus on the more cold hardy types such as the variety ‘Mexicola”. Find a warm spot in the yard out of the wind. Store bought avocado fruit, such as Hass or Fuerte, are not cold hardy varieties. These would be destined as houseplants or grown in greenhouses. Avocados are really big trees. Another possibility is to try a dwarf avocado and put it in a container. There is one true dwarf avocado called ‘Wurtz’ or marketed sometimes as ‘Little Cado’. This variety does not tolerate any freezing temperatures at all so you must move it into a spot that will not freeze at the first hint of a frost. If you just want to play around and experiment then by all means do that. Just remember that avocados are typically not tolerant of our winter cold.

Avocado Very Iffy in Cold Desert Read More »

Moving Fruit Trees from Containers to the Ground

Leave a Comment / best time to transplant, moving fruit trees from containers, replanting / xtremehorticulture

Q. I have seven fruit trees, including some citrus, I planted in half whiskey barrels about 3 years ago. They all have had fruit the past two years. I want to transplant them into the ground in order to get more fruit. Is it best to transplant them in the fall or early spring? A. Fall is always the best time to plant things that are not winter tender. So in the case of fruit trees like apple, pear, peach, nectarine, apricot, etc. it is best from mid-September to about mid-October. It is a bit late now for fall planting unless you know the spot is protected from wind and a warm microclimate. These are places with a lot of heat from reflecting walls such as south or west facing. In the case of winter tender trees like your citrus, it is best to plant them in the spring, about mid-January through about mid-March. It does not mean you cannot plant them other times but dates outside of these planting “windows” are more stressful to the plants. It then just depends on weather conditions, the microclimate and your skills as a gardener.

Moving Fruit Trees from Containers to the Ground Read More »

Pomegranate: Tree or Bush?

Leave a Comment / pruning pomegrante, removing suckers, training to tree form / xtremehorticulture

Q. I have a pomegranate plant that I started two years ago. It is about four feet tall now and looks like it wants to be a bush. Can I trim all the little branches off except the biggest one and try to make it a tree? Red Silk pomegranate second year after planting at the UNCE Orchard. Suckers can be removed and trained to a tree form. A. Pomegranates can be trained as a bush, which they normally want to be anyway, or they can be trained into single or multiple trunked trees. I prefer them as a multitrunked tree myself. I usually pick three to five of the largest stems coming from the ground and remove the rest below ground level. Each winter I remove any new sucker growth from the base and just retain these three to five oldest stems. Fifteen year old pomegranate trained to multi trunk tree form and kept at 7 ft (2.5m) height. Fruits produced are fewer but larger and more marketable. It is important to remove these suckers below ground level. Do not just simply cut the suckers off at soil level. Pull soil away from the suckers and remove them from the mother plant. This should not be more than a few inches below the soil level. Suckers can be removed anytime of the year but removal during the winter months is most common. If you continue to remove suckers for the next five years they will stop producing suckers or the number of suckers will decrease significantly over this time. The multi-trunk tree will have little to no sucker removal and you can just prune the tops each winter. If you do not remove these suckers at least annually then you will have sucker development for many more years to come.

Pomegranate: Tree or Bush? Read More »