Xtremehorticulture

Xtremehorticulture of the Desert

What You Need for Your Vegetables Now

Leave a Comment / todo, what to do to vegetables in March april /

It’s the end of the season for cool season, winter vegetables now after mid-March. Warm season vegetables should be going in the ground now if they haven’t already. In protected hot microclimates it should have been sooner. Here is what you need to do now in our hot, desert climate. Warm season vegetables include tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and your squashes, cucumbers and melons. When you buy your vegetable transplants, get small ones. A good size is about six to eight inches tall and bushy. While you are at it, buy some compost, a starter fertilizer, some Dipel or Thuricide and insecticidal soap. Mix the compost with your garden soil when planting the transplants. After planting, sprinkle the starter fertilizer around the base of the plant and water it in. Don’t fertilize again until you see fruit setting. Lightly fertilize all vegetables once a month.   Spray plants with soap sprays twice a week. The soap sprays are more effective if you spray under the leaves, not just on top. With squash you might have to cut or pinch off the lower leaves so you can spray under the other plant leaves. Spray soaps early in the morning or late in the day as the sun is setting and bees have gone home. Alternate soap sprays with Neem if you like Neem oil or other botanical oils. When seedlings are starting to pop out of the ground, protect them with a Dipel or Thuricide spray or dust applied to the soil immediately around them. This helps protect against cutworms from damaging your new plants. After watering the plants you have to apply it again. Amend the soil at the time of planting, spray regularly for pests, fertilize lightly once a month and you will have a better harvest.

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Cat Claw Vine Beautiful in the Desert But Not Elsewhere!

3 Comments / fertilize, invasive cat claw vine, mulching, water /

Q. I planted six cat claw vines two summers ago in full sun. They are on a drip system and I hope to wean them from regular water once the area is covered. I believe you mentioned to avoid mulching cat claw vine.  Of course I had already done this and the plants are struggling. A. Cat claw vine is a very vigorous tropical and semi tropical vine that is one of those rare plants that does well in the tropics and the desert. If the mulch is staying wet and in contact with the plant then this might be a problem.  Claw Claw in Arizona             Cat claw vine is considered a pest in much of the southeastern US, from Florida to central Texas. I would not plant this vine in wet climates.             It does like to grow along waterways and it would probably be invasive if it escaped along the Colorado River or any of our surface waterways in our lower elevations of southern Nevada.             Not so in the desert where we can restrict its growth with drip irrigation.It is a beautiful vine, it is aggressive and nearly pest free. It may die to the ground during cold winters or just drop its leaves when it gets below freezing.             This vine may have some trouble getting established on south-facing walls during summer months. But once they cover the wall they will do a good job shading it and reducing the reflected heat and glare from that wall.             It will do well in rock mulch provided it gets adequate water and the soil was composted at the time of planting. I would not allow it to climb on stucco or house siding as it may cause some minor damage.             When it does climb on these surfaces, pull it off, cut it back and let it regrow a different direction. This vine should be fine growing along the ground or allowed to climb cinder block walls.             In your particular case I would pull mulch away from the trunk at least a foot until the plant gets firmly established. Fertilize once a year in the early spring to push new growth.             It loves the heat so fertilizing lightly during summer months will not hurt it. As it gets older it tends to get woody at the base revealing wood stems. To reinvigorate it cut off one of the older stems and let it regrow with new leaves to cover bare areas.             You can cut it back to the ground in late winter after it has been established a few years. The underground tubers will send up new shoots that will start the vine all over again.

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Spanish Dagger Yucca Ready to Fall Over!

Leave a Comment / why is my yucca leaning falling over, yucca falling over /

Q. Our Spanish dagger yucca was doing great but it’s leaning badly now. Is this normal? A. I think this plant has been getting watered too frequently, the soil is staying wet and not draining.              Normally the trunk has some pretty good taper when water is much less often and so it will stand upright when it goes through these periodic wet and extended dry cycles. When it grows slowly due to infrequent watering the trunk does not get spindly and fall over.             In wetter climates this has been a problem with this plant when it gets about 5 feet tall. When water is present all the time it will take advantage of the excess water and grow as much as it can in length and not in girth. It gets top heavy and topples over.             It wants to reproduce and it does not care if it is upright or laying on the ground to do that. In fact, it is possible it could root from the trunk into the soil as it is lying there. This plant can root from trunk cuttings when propagating it.             If you don’t like it lying on the ground then cut it off close to soil level and leave those “pups”  at the base to grow into a clump or you can divide them in the fall, or even now, if you are quick about it.

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Majestic Beauty Leaves Browning on the Edges May Be Drip Problem

Leave a Comment / 24 inch box tree, how much to water, leaf dying, leaves browing, newly planted tree, scorching /

Q. The edges of the leaves on my Majestic Beauty are getting brown and crispy. Is that salt burn? They get watered twice each week for 20 minutes and each plant has two emitters. Leaf burn on Majestic Beauty from the reader. A. Whenever you see burning or scorching on the edges of leaves or on the leaf tip it is a sign that the plant is not getting enough water or there are toxic or excessive salts in the soil. However, knowing the number of emitters and how long they deliver water (20 minutes) does not tell me how much water is being applied. Drip emitters are variable in their output depending on the type of emitter. All delivered amounts for drip irrigation are in gallons per hour. Drip emitter at the end of 1/4 inch tubing releasing water at the base of a tree The most common drip emitters cannot deliver more than 5 gallons per hour. So if there were two, five gallon per hour emitters present, the most water that plant would get in 20 minutes is about three gallons. I don’t know the size of this plant but that is not much water in one application to a tree.             Other reasons the plant may not be getting enough water is that the water is applied incorrectly, roots are damaged so the plant can’t take up enough water, the plant trunk is damaged so not enough water moves up the trunk or damaged stems. If amendments heavy in salts were used at planting time these salts can compete for water with the plant causing leaves to scorch or the types of salts present were or are toxic. This time of year (March) watering twice a week is not too often provided the soil is draining adequately and not staying wet between irrigations. I would visually inspect the tree for damage to the trunk and limbs. Move the drip emitters away from the trunk about a foot to 18 inches and add an extra emitter. Four drip emitters were installed on this newly planted and staked tree with rock mulch. The emitters should be placed on the outside of the the rootball and not next to the trunk. If these drip emitters were five gallon per hour emitters and the irrigation was run for one hour then this tree would get 20 gallons each time it is watered which is about right for a 24 inch boxed tree. and place them in triangulation around the trunk. In the meantime flood the area around the tree once a week for three weeks with a hose so you can flush excessive salts and solve the lack of water which solves A and B and F and may help in G Most likely the roots were not damaged unless the water was not draining

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Rootspread of Landscape Trees in the Desert Controlled by Water

Leave a Comment / desert soils, how far do roots grow, rootspread and water /

Q. If I have very mature shrubs (over 5 years) like  abelias etc. and keep it shaped to about 3’x3′. Will the “mature’ root system stay within the canopy for watering purposes or extend out due to age and need more water? A. The roots will stay where the water is and go not much further. You can contain the roots of trees and shrubs just with the placement of water provided the soil around it is dry. This is the wetted pattern of a plant growing on a slope during the winter months. I took the picture to show you how applied water follows the laws of gravity. The wetted pattern only shows a portion of the soil actually wetted by the drip emitter. The actual wetted area the roots can use extends probably a foot beyond this surface wet spot in all directions, further on the down slope side. Always put drip emitters UPSLOPE of a shrub planted on a slope so the water moves downslope through the root system. But you should try to water at least about half of the area under a plant’s canopy. If plants are isolated from other water sources in the desert, roots will stay close to the water source and not go much further. The wetted surface of the soil gives you a much smaller idea of the true spread of the roots.

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Kaki May Not Give HIgh Quality Persimmon Fruit in the Desert

Leave a Comment / budding persimmon, grafting persimmon, kaki a good choice for rootstock, persimmon selection for the desert /

Q. When will be a good time to transplant a Kaki persimmon tree and will it do well in Las Vegas? A. I am curious why you want to use the kaki species of persimmon. It is considered to have inferior fruit to improved varieties of persimmon. It will do as good as the other persimmon. All persimmon are not a desert tree so it will need to be planted in a spot less damaging than for cactus and other desert suitable plants. East side or north sides are best. Keep it away from reflected heat and light. Soil should be heavily enriched with compost at planting and a wood surface mulch should be used 4 to 6 inches deep keeping it away from touching the trunk. Kaki is used for rootstock for other better varieties of persimmon. Fuyu, Giant fuyu, Chocolate, etc have superior fruit. I contacted my friend Tom Spellman from Dave Wilson Nursery for his comments. Comment from Tom Spellman at Dave Wilson Nursery. Bob, Kaki is a common term used for persimmon. D. kaki is used as a rootstock as well as D. lotus. All growers in the United States choose to use lotus as it is much easier to bud onto and, contrary to some opinion, much more comparable and long lived. We have experimented with kaki rootstock several times and the bud stand is never good enough to even begin to make a profit. You know how persimmon does in the Nevada desert. You must protect it from the most extreme heat and sunburn.

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Systemic Insecticides Applied to Fruit Trees Does Not Make Sense to Me

Leave a Comment / are insecticides poisonous, bayer advanced insect control, fruit safe to eat, systemic insecticide on fruit tree /

I am very concerned about an insecticide I applied to my lemon and pomegranate tree…. Q. Your newspaper column really caught my eye and I am very concerned about the coming fruit on my Meyer lemon and pomegranate tree. I was having a problem with something eating my lemon and went to nursery to purchase the dormant oil to ward off insects. The nurseryman told me I was too late to apply it and must apply Bayers Advanced Insect Control at this time of the year.  So the same day, February 25, 2012, I applied 1 oz. to the lemon tree and 2 oz. to the pomegranate tree. I believe this is a systemic insect control as it is only applied once a year and the nursery man had said it goes up through the stems.  I am very upset as it appears we will have a good crop of lemons this year as well as pomegranates and I will be afraid to eat any. These are both young trees.   A. This particular insecticide is a soil applied conventional, systemic insecticide. Systemic means that the plant can take up this insecticide, transport it through the trunk and limbs to branches where it provides protection from insect attacks. It is labeled as an application for controlling insects on FRUIT BEARING fruit trees. The federal government has approved its use for these purposes.  Now for my opinion. I would never use a systemic insecticide of plants that produce food regardless of who or what approved it. This, to me, just does not make any sense at all. Personally I would not knowingly eat fruit produced from trees  that have been treated with this type of a product. Use on landscape or ornamental trees is a different situation.

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No Flowers on Peach Tree Could be Due to Overzealous Winter Pruning

Leave a Comment / how to prune peach tree, why no flowers on peach tree /

Q. Of my 5 peach trees only two blossomed thus far, the other 3 have started or well on their way to leaf out.  I presume I’ll not get peaches from them this year.  Any idea why they would leaf out and not blossom? A. My guess is that you may have over pruned your peach tree. If you prune off all of last years growth, you eliminated your flowers and fruit. On three of your trees you removed this growth. On two you did not. Those two are flowering. The other three cannot flower because the flowering wood was pruned off. You did not tell me how old the trees were. I assume they are fairly young. Peaches flower laterally along last years growth. This growth is typicially reddish brown. Peaches flower laterally (along the sides) of last years growth. Last years growth is usually much brighter red than wood which is older. My hand shows you both types of growth. The reddish growth above my middle finger is last years wood. You can also see this growth starting just under my thumb and also below the bottom of my hand. Look at the buds along this wood. Along the length of this reddish growth you see multiple buds in the same spot. These are called collateral buds. In peach, pointed lateral buds are usually leaf buds. Fatter, rounder lateral buds are usually flower buds. Typically peach trees blossom before there is much leaf growth. If blossoms never appeared and these trees are not young trees then the wood supporting the flowers were either pruned out this winter or the flower buds suffered from cold damage and died.              Peach trees can flower at a fairly young age so I would think you would see at least a few flowers if they were very young and no pruned out.             If they flower but do not set fruit this can be due to a late freeze. Most peaches are self-fertile and do not require a pollinator.

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Come Chat With Me!

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I will be at Viragrow every Monday and Friday through March for those who want to chat with me about current horticulture problems. Or bring in your own horticulture discovery and work with me to find a solution. Viragrow is commitment to successful southern Nevada horticulture and I appreciate this community support. Come in any Monday or Friday, 9 to 3, during March. [email protected] Sponsored by Viragrow, Inc. Viragrow, Inc. 1100 East Dehli St. North Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (702) 399 3868

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Aphids on the Loose in Your Landscape and Garden

Leave a Comment / how to control aphids, plant lice /

Aphids overwinter on all sorts of plants in your yard and attacking plants primarily in the spring. As soon as temperatures warm up these “mother” aphids start looking for places to feed and populate. They don’t need a mate to do this. They can just give birth to living young directly and bypass the mating rituals. If you look close on newly emerging “soft” tissue of plants you will most likely find them. Ladybird beetles (ladybugs) and green lacewings help but in sufficient numbers they can get out of control. Aphids have populated this soft, succulent flower stalk of red yucca. The adult was probably overwintering in the leaf crevices of the plant, When the flower stalk emerged she began feeding and giving birth. This is red yucca with an emerging flower stalk, taken about a week ago. If the mother aphid overwinters out of the cold in the leaf crevices this insect can “catch a ride” on this emerging plant part where tissue is soft and succulent. From there it is much easier feeding than on those tough old leathery leaves. Aphid mother and young Leaf curling on plum and aphids feeding along the new, soft stem growth. Aphids feeding and reproducing on young pomegranate fruit. Aphids feeding and reproducing on rose flower buds. Insecticidal soaps work very well on aphids. No reason for hard pesticides. It may take a few applications but you will reduce their numbers significantly. Control ants too. They tend to move them about on different plant parts. Spray the undersides of leaves as well as the tops.

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