Xtremehorticulture

Xtremehorticulture of the Desert

Fertilize Fruit Trees Organically or Not Organically. Your choice.

2 Comments / fertilizing fruit trees, fruit tree feeding, organic fertilizer, when to fertilize fruit trees /

Q. Can I start feeding my fruit trees now or should I wait until spring? A. It is best to wait a couple of weeks, toward the end of January, before new growth sets in and up through about March for a single application.             A convenient method of application are fertilizer spikes which can be pounded into wet soil about a foot from the tree using the plastic cap that is usually sold with them. You pay for that convenience and lower mess. Fertilizer spikes have the added advantage of releasing nutrients slower than a handful of fertilizer.               You can use GOOD compost if you want but good compost contains about 1 to 2% nitrogen compared to traditional fertilizers which can be 20% or more. So you have to use much more compost compared to a fertilizer.             Don’t forget your single iron application also in January. Use the EDDHA form of iron chelate and follow label directions. It contains about 6% iron but is not an organic source.              For organic gardeners blood meal can be used as a nitrogen source as well as iron but has about a 30:1 ratio of iron compared to EDDHA so you need to use a lot more compared to the chelate. Blood meal has about 0.2% iron in it.             You can mix the blood meal with the compost if you like. Compost, although not labeled as a fertilizer, is a complete source of plant nutrients. Adding blood meal to it enhances the uptake of iron and compost helps to lower soil pH also helping to make the iron more available to the plant.             Alternatively you can make one application in January or half in January and half after you harvest.              If citrus or other winter tender fruit trees nothing after June to keep succulent growth at a minimum before winter.

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Solutions for Home Avocado Production in Las Vegas?

Leave a Comment / can you grow avocado in las vegas, cold hardy avocados, freezing, frost protection for avocado /

Q. I have started two avocado trees with the intent of having them available to my son if and when he buys a home in the Las Vegas area.  I went on-line and doubt that this is going to be possible unless he is willing to nurse them religiously.  Do you have any suggestions? Do you know if a myrtle variety the wax flower can be grown here?  I know it is native to Australia and some varieties are hardy to 25 degrees. A. I would suggest that you take a look at my blog located at http://xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com/ and search the word avocado in the search box near the top. I’ve talked quite a bit about this plant and growing in Las Vegas in this blog.              I do not really recommend it for our climate unless you want to grow it more as a curiosity. Avocado trees do not survive much below freezing. In December this past month we had two solid days that never really broke freezing in some parts of the valley.  Protecting avocados from frost from Univ of Calif Ventura County Extension               They are much too large for a greenhouse. Your son would be much better off trying some citrus rather than an avocado. And even with citrus here are some parts of the valley which will be too cold for any citrus to survive for more than about five years.             If you really want to give your son a reliable fruit tree for our climate he would be better off with pomegranate, pistachio, apricot, peach or almond.             If you still want to move ahead with your avocado then make sure you put it in a window that will give it full sun for at least six hours every day. Turn the container 180 degrees every week to prevent the plant from leaning in one direction toward the sun and growing at an angle.             If you do not have this kind of window Then you will need to supplement The avocado seedling with extra light. If you do not supplement with extra light, the small avocado seedling will become tall, thin and spindly.             You can use fluorescent lights a few inches from the plant on a timer with about 16 hours of light each day. This will work while the seedling is still small but eventually it will have to be planted outside.             There are parts of the valley which have a better chance of growing avocado than others. Locations downtown surrounded by a lot of cement are usually much warmer than outside the city. These locations should be in places where it is not windy. But even in these locations when the avocado tree gets larger it will be damaged.             There is the dwarf avocado called ‘Little Cado’ that you might be able to obtain from an online source that he could use in a container. The container would need to be protected when there is danger of frost.   More about ‘Little Cado’ for containers             I have never heard of a variety of Crape myrtle called wax myrtle. But then again there are a lot of things I’ve never heard of. There is a woody plant native to the US called wax myrtle and it should do well in most parts of the valley. That is the problem with using common names. If you have a scientific name for the plant I might be able to tell you more.

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Sunburn on Plants a Major Desert Problem

Leave a Comment / dieback, plant damage, privet yellowing /

Q. I have three 3-tier privets in the front of my house. One of them, showing in the two attached pictures, seems to have trouble at the top tier, which grew yellowish and small leafs, while the bottom two tiers grow normally. The top part of the trunk close to the sickly tier shows darker color.  Nursery people told me that the troubled shrub got too much sun and needs more water. But I have watered the shrubs (all three of them next to each other) with the same amount and same frequency. To tell me just the top tier of one shrub needs more water does not make much sense to me, right? My question is: why only the top tier turn sickly yellow while others are growing normally? and what can I do to protect it from dying?  Thanks. A. Thank you for the pictures. I agree with you. I do not believe it is water….directly, or can be improved by giving it more water. The problems is located on the branches or foliage showing the damage. We can eliminate an irrigation problem for exactly the reason you said and the foliage on the same side but below the damaged area is in much better condition. If the entire plant on that side had shown that kind of damage then I might be inclined to include a plugged emitter or not enough water to be a possible source of the problem.                Whenever we see damage to a plant and it is localized like yours is then the usual problem is located on the branches or stems supporting the problem area OR on the foliage itself. Now, what I know because of my experience in the desert and you don’t know is that there are very few insect or disease problems on Ligustrum or privet. Most of the problems are sun related because it is not a true desert plant that can thrive in our environment easily. It does require a bit of pampering.                My guess is that the stems supported the leaves or foliage has been damaged…mechanically. Mechanically just means that some outside force was at work to create the damage as opposed to a disease. Insects, such as borers, can also create mechanical damage by chewing or gnawing but I don’t think this is from insects since this plant does not have a history of that kind of problem here. That is my head knowledge telling me by deduction, not anything I can see.                Here is a nice website that talks about privet problems but we currently don’t have very many of the problems listed as they do in California.  http://homeguides.sfgate.com/privet-hedge-problems-43811.html             The author does say this,  Twig Kill Repeated shearing keeps privets neat and compact, but also forces branching until the surface of the shrub is a thick mass of branches and twigs. Sudden cold snaps in winter, dry windy weather, or drought might kill small or weak branches. If the twigs at the end of a few branches die back, the branches themselves may be lost and the resulting open spot will have to fill in with growth from other branches. Twig kill might necessitate careful hand trimming rather than shearing to ensure that new branching expands into the void. We do have one though that they don’t list…sunburn.             The side damaged is toward the sun. I can’t see all of the plant but it does appear the sides away from the sun are healthier. If some over-aggressive shearing was done and opened up the top tier too much, it could open the inside branches to sunburn from our intense sunlight. That happens to a number of plants here whereas it milder climates it does not. I have seen that happen here to Podocarpus when an over aggressive gardener got carried away and pruned too much out. I will post that on my blog next week. One way to tell is to bend some of the branches on the top tier to find out if they are supple or stiff from sun damage. They might even snap if they have been damaged.  Sunburn on Podocarpus after pruning and subsequent dieback.             What to do? The damaged area could grow back but it will be slowly. You would live with this damage until you see some new growth “sprouts” coming from the inside branches. Many plants respond this way to damage, but not all. In the case of privet, the growth is slow, not rapid. Once this growth appears you can start to prune back the damaged stems to allow for this new growth to occur. This might take a couple of seasons.             Another thing I would recommend if you don’t have it is to use several inches of wood mulch at the base of these plants. They definitely do NOT like rock mulch if that is what you have. Another less likely possibility is damage from mites to the foliage but I think this is less likely. I would say the higher probability is sunburn damage to the stems. From Reader – Thank for prompt and informative reply.  Your suggestion about aggressive pruning and western sun burn might be part of the reason which I will try to correct in the future.  I did add 3-4″ organic mulch at the base of the plant and I’ll do more in early spring when I begin fertilizing plants around my house.  In  the spring , I added iron chalets with regular shrub fertilizer, and mix some manure in the mulch. It seemed to work pretty well.  Thank you again,

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Suggested Reading for Desert Gardeners

1 Comment / Uncategorized /

Q. I happened upon your blog the other day.  I am curious if you’d have any info on education programs on site for learning to build gardens and grow food on desert land.  I study permaculture and green design in the Northwest and would like to eventually acquire some desert land to transform. A. Horticulture in the desert is very different from other types of horticulture. I started in Wisconsin, through Colorado, Minnesota, Utah, Nevada and now in the tropics. It is taking me time to figure out the tropical side. Those that practice horticulture in wetter, temperate, more hospitable climates and never experienced it in the desert may think that it is all the same but it is not. I don’t know of any education programs online for studying it but knowing the basic principles helps. Those never change but how to apply them does.             I would start with some books you can get from practitioners in Arizona and Nevada on gardening. You can subscribe to the Yahoo discussion group, desert horticulture and pose some questions or just eavesdrop. There is a lot to learn and I wish there was an easy way to do it but it will take just getting started and do it. Here are some books you might look at. A word of caution. I have not looked at any of these so I would see what others have said about them. Perhaps other readers have their favorites. If you do, please comment!  George Brookbank’s books out of Tucson AZ Linn Mills and Dick Posts book out of Nevada Good sources of how to grow things in the desert from Cooperative Extension in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas (make sure it is WEST Texas). California has not yet recognized that desert horticulture is different 🙂

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Backyard Orchard Weed Control? I like fire.

Leave a Comment / bermugrass contol, carpet for weed control, fire for weed control, flamer, orchard weed control, propane torch /

Q. My backyard is planted with a 20 tree fruit orchard similar to a small scale UNR orchard or Dave Wilson backyard orchard. I have added many truckloads of the free mulch from the orchard over the past 3 years, which has broken down and made the soil much better. The problem is last year I got overrun with bermuda grass. I put cardboard down, more mulch down, and the grass just came up through it. Do you have any tips on getting rid of it naturally? Is there any type of green mulch I could plant in the spring that would choke it out? What do you guys do at the orchard to keep the weeds out? A. Boy you do really have a stand of bermudagrass. Because it is so dense and so much of it you might want to consider managing the Bermuda instead of trying to get rid of it. Bermudagrass has a very high requirement for sunlight, more than other grasses. You might want to consider mowing it, weed whacking it or burning it instead and manage it as a stand of grass that will never be erradicated. Of course it will never be a good solid stand of grass without irrigation and I am not suggesting that.             Organic controls include burning it down with organic chemicals. Vinegars with high acetic acid levels will help burn it back. Of course it will come right back since the roots and rhizomes, stolons are not controlled.             I have not had much luck with the standard vinegars since the acetic acid level is too low, around 5% or so. They do not cause much plant damage when I have used vinegar made from coconut or palm even at some higher values.  Vinegars with higher acetic acid content are available from retailers on the internet but be careful using these products. At this level of acidity they are very caustic. You must use all plastic or stainless steel sprayers or they will corrode quickly. Vinegar is expensive.             One method I have used at a small farm out of state is fire. I have used a propane and fire torch   Red Dragon Propane Flame Weeder  with great success. This is a great price since I paid about $119 for this same torch last year.             You must be VERY careful with this since you are hauling around a propane tank, rubber hose that is pressurized and a fire torch. You get the picture. I would burn it down. Be sure to mow it first or cut it back to reduce the potential for fire. It does not cause much smoke so it should not cause much alarm in the neighborhood. If you find that it is a little too flammable then wet the grass with a hose before you torch it. This will cause more smoke but the fire is more controllable. With a potential of 400,000 BTU’s it will kill wet grass. Torches of lesser capacity may not. Have someone on guard with a hose in case it does catch fire but it most likely will not.             The next thing I would do is find some old carpet. Natural fiber backing is best but synthetic backings will work. Cut it in squares about one yard square. Cut a slit to the center and cut a hole out of the center for the trunk. Lay the carpet on top of the grass and it will shade it and kill it. You can use the torch right up to the edge or the carpet. You can cover the carpet with wood mulch and it will look better.             Carpet allows water and air to get to the soil and roots of the trees. Putting plastic down does not. I have a problem with newspaper as well. I tried newspaper and it didn’t work well for me. The carpet basically smothers the grass while still letting the soil “breathe”. It will work better than a weed barrier but it will not last as long. There are some chemicals in the carpet that will be released as it degrades. That is the tradeoff.             You can also use about four inches of wood mulch over the grass. I would mow it down as low as you can before spring and lay the mulch on top. The grass will come through the mulch and then you must spray the grass as soon as you see it so it does not get to the light. Once it gets a few inches exposed to light you wont start starving out the roots. The idea is to provide shade with the mulch, eliminate new growth as you see it so it cannot emerge and rebuild itself on top of the mulch.             I hope this helps. But I like fire.

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November Weather for the UNCE Orchard, North Las Vegas, Nevada.

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Notice that during the month of November we had virtually no freezing temperatures in one of the colder parts of the valley. Rainfall for the month was significant with over 1 1/2 inches. Remember that rainfall can be very isolated in southern Nevada with rain falling in some parts while not in others and the amount can vary significantly across the valley. Winds did not seem significant enough to cause much damage to plants. Located at the UNCE Orchard in North Las Vegas near the intersection of North Decatur and Horse Drive. The Watchdog 2900ET weather station is located near the northwest corner of the south orchard, approximately 2.5 meters above ground, at the top of the tree canopy.  Reported by Mike Barrett.

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