Xtremehorticulture

Xtremehorticulture of the Desert

Prepare Your Lawn for the Summer Disease Problems

Leave a Comment / how to control lawn diseases, Las Vegas, prevent brown spots in lawns, tall fescue lawn disease /

If you have tall fescue for a lawn in southern Nevada, here are some tips to help prepare for the diseases that will threaten your lawn this summer. Having a lawn in good health, just like you being in good health, is the best protection against summer diseases like summer patch. This is summer patch on tall fescue. It used to be called “frogeye” patch or the more knowledgeable might call it Fusarium patch. The name “Fusarium patch” was thrown out several years ago when it was found not really a correct name for it. The disease starts as some brown areas that start dying in different spots. Then the brown spots coalesce or grow together into this patchwork of dead grass, frequently leaving behind a small clump of grass that is not affected. This gave it the “frogeye” name. You can access the fact sheet I wrote while at the University of Nevada here.  Otherwise you can find it here. Summer Patch fact sheet Prevention. An ounce of prevention… and that is true in this case. Get your fertilizer levels up and adequate. I believe the rates of fertilizer recommended for lawns is way too high. You can reduce that to 50% of what they recommend if you use a mulching mower (you dont bag the clippings it just falls back into the grass). You do need a good mulching mower or at least a mulching blade on your mower. Aerate. Aeration opens the soil up so the roots can “breathe”. This promotes a deeper root system, more heat tolerance and improved disease resistance. Ideally this should be done in about March but if you have not had it done before, do it now. There used to be a landscape maintenance service in Las Vegas that offered this service. Otherwise you will have to rent a gasoline driver aerator from places like Aherns or buy a hand operated aerator and do it by hand. If you go this route it is not hard to do. Just time consuming. Wet the lawn thoroughly and start plugging away. It is good to follow up this activity with a light application of a phosphorus fertilizer and water it in. The correct kind of aerator will leave soil cores behind that you will have to rake up and put in a compost heap. Adjust or correct your sprinklers. Any weakness in your lawn sprinklers you will see now that it is getting hot. Before when it was cool you could sail through this period. As it gets hotter the weak spots will show up as grey green areas between irrigations. (It is grey green because the grass is wilting because your irrigation system was inadequately designed and/or installed.) I don’t know HOW MANY times I have spoken to homeowners that assured me the “sprinkler system” was done right because they did it! My face or voice didnt show it but I was smiling inside. Occasionally, after a couple of questions, I will run into someone who did it right but that is far and few. This is typical of a lawn with a poorly designed or installed irrigation system.  No guarantees. I cannot guarantee success with this next approach but if I had a lawn this is what I would try. I would get or rent a compost spreader (a fertilizer spreader that you push should work as well) and purchase some high quality compost. Compost spreader If I were to send you somewhere in Las Vegas to get the compost, it would be at Viragrow. Get the compost with the finest texture they have so it will pass through the spreader. With this compost spreader I would spread about 1/4 inch of compost over the lawn and water it in thoroughly. I would do this once a month. Next year use this in place of buying a fertilizer. I think you will see a big change in the lawn’s health and appearance. There is a significant amount of research that points to disease reductions in lawns by topdressing with compost several times during the growing season. The Disease has Started If this is the case, you have no choice but to use a fungicide to prevent the spread of the disease. Fungicides will not cure the disease but it should stop it from going further. There are fungicides available at nurseries for you to use. Pick one that says it helps prevent summer patch disease or they make call it “frogeye” or fusarium patch disease.

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Stinkbugs Come in Different Colors

Leave a Comment / Las Vegas, stinkbugs, what is this bug /

Q. What is this bug? Have hundreds or them in my yard. Are they harmful to my plants (vegetable and flower). How do I get rid of them? A. This bug is one of the stinkbugs. I was trying to figure out which one because a few types of stinkbugs are predators (good guys) such as soldier bugs but most are not. I think this is a bad guy. Stinkbugs have mouth that is like a hypodermic needle that lies flat against their stomach. They move the mouthpart away from their body and can insert it into fruits, leaves, stems and other soft plant tissue and withdraw plant juices. The good guys insert their hypodermic mouth into soft bodied insects and kill them by taking out their body juices. When they feed on plant parts the plant part gets damaged. In the case of fruits and nuts they can cause early fruit or nut drop. They can also cause dimples to form in fruit like apples and pears. So unless you have a qualified entomologist like our state entomologist Jeff Knight in Carson City to see for sure otherwise watch them and inspect your trees to see if they are feeding there. You can get hold of Jeff Knight through the local Department of Agriculture office. In Las Vegas this office can be reached at 702-486-4690. Jeff will kill me but his email address is [email protected] I would send him some pictures. Real identification can take a very long time. Soap sprays and oils like Neem directed at them will kill them but will not leave much residue for future control. Otherwise you can use pyrethrin sprays or other sprays labeled for fruits and vegetables. They can be big pests if this is a bad one.

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You Don’t Need to Pick Up Grass Clippings if you Manage Your Lawn Correctly

Leave a Comment / dont bag it, how to use mulching mower, Las Vegas, mulching mowers, turfgrass clippings /

Q. The landscapers for our HOA are using mulching mowers on our grass. The cut grass often remains on top, browns and causes the grass under to brown out also. Should grass be mulched in our desert? The landscape foremen bagged the grass and took it away. Years ago in Las Vegas mulching mowers were nonexistent. Landscape maintenance companies bagged clippings and they were dumped into our landfills. A. Mulching mowers work good as long as not too much nitrogen fertilizer is applied, the mower blades are kept sharp, the mower is not operated at a speed that is too fast, and the mower is a true mulching mower and not a conventional mower modified with mulching blades.             True mulching mowers have a deck designed to provide a longer lift time after the grass blades are cut. A longer lift time allows the leaf blades more time to be cut or mulched properly. This extra time, combined with a sharp blade and a correct mowing speed, results in finely mulched turfgrass clippings.             This time of year fescue grass loves cool weather and grows very rapidly. If too much nitrogen is applied during cool weather, excessive growth results. Weekly mowing with a mulching mower cannot keep up with this rapid growth.             Either the lawn has to be mowed more often or less fertilizer should be applied.             Your landscapers need to cut back on fertilizer applications during cool weather and use about half the rate listed on the bag. Mulched grass clippings return a lot of fertilizer back to the lawn.             They also need to mow slower and not try to rush through a landscape. This allows the mulching blade to cut the blades more often and the mulched clippings will fall between the grass blades and never seen on the surface.             If they don’t balance mowing the their applications of fertilizers then they will need to pick up the clippings if they want to leave a landscape that you can walk through without tracking cut grass into residences.             One of the major reasons for introducing mulching mowers was to reduce the green waste entering our landfills. The educational program responsible for this was the “Don’t Bag It” program originating at Texas A and M University. You can read more about how mulching mowers and fertilizers interact with each other in a fact sheet I wrote years ago while Extension Specialist for the University of Nevada.  See the Fact Sheet here

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Oleander Freeze Damage Can Be Fixed By Cutting Plant Back

Leave a Comment / freeze damage, how to correct freeze damage in oleander, Las Vegas, oleander dieback /

Q. I have an oleander that suffered extensive freeze damage this past winter. It is still brown but coming back slowly. I would like to improve the looks of the bush without killing it. Should I prune the dead looking branches or just let it go Freezing damage to oleander. A. Prune the oleander back to about an inch or two of the soil surface. After this, apply fertilizer and water it deeply several times a week apart.             If it has been established for at least a couple of years it will grow back with a lot of vigor. Oleanders are very drought tolerant but to look nice they require quite a bit of water. This oleander in rock mulch was cut back to about six inches of the rock surface. It can be cut back further than that and it will sucker back up to its origninal height quickly due to its established root sytem.

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Stinkbugs Attack Residence and Car in Henderson Nevada

Leave a Comment / green stinkbug, henderson, insects do the cause damage, Las Vegas, masses of bugs, stinkbugs /

Q. We have thousands of these beetles in our trees here in Henderson. Yesterday they collected on a neighbor’s car by the thousands.  They sprayed them off. These bugs left imprints on the finish of their car that were unremovable. What are these bugs and what do we tell our pest control companies to do? Here stinkbugs become big nuisance for residents of Henderson, Nevada. Most stinkbugs cause plant damage. A few are actually beneficial. A. These are a type of stinkbug. I am not an expert on stinkbugs but it is one of several types that can be found here. Most stinkbugs cause damage to plants or become a nuisance as yours have done. Two more different types of stinkbugs reported by residents in Las Vegas. One for sure, the one above, was causing damage to a apricot leaves very early in the season.             Stinkbugs come in green and brown colors and in many different forms. Familiar relatives to stinkbugs are the squash bug and leaffooted plant bug, both very bad pests in squash and melons as well as pomegranates, pistachios and almonds. Squash bugs on the underside of a squash or melon leaf. They are a type of “stinkbug”.             There are a few stinkbugs that are good guys but not very many. In your case I think these are a nuisance but check your garden and landscape and see if they are feeding on important plants around your home. Leaffooted plant bug on pomegranate, another type of “stinkbug”.             Soap and water sprays applied directly to them at dusk is a good control measure which is relatively nontoxic to other insects as long as it is directed at the stinkbugs. You can buy Safers insecticidal soap at any nursery or garden center and it will be safe for plants listed on the label. Commercial insecticidal soaps are safer to use on plants than making your own from dishwashing liquid.             There are more toxic insecticides you can use as long as you don’t spray your fruits or vegetables with them. Be sure to read the labels of pesticides before buying and applying.

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Ocotillo Watering Should be Infrequent in Desert Landscapes

Leave a Comment / how much water does an ocotillo need, how to irrigate ocotillo, irrigate, Las Vegas, water /

Q. I have trouble with my Ocotillo.  They get beautiful green leaves that last about two to three weeks and then turn brown and fall off.  They are on my watering system.  Are they getting too much water? It is common for ocotillo to lose its leaves in the winter months like this one. But it should put on some new growth and new leaves in the spring. A. Ocotillo is a desert plant so it has special characteristics that allow it to survive when water is not available.             The first response ocotillo displays to a lack of water is to drop its leaves. Another reason it may drop its leaves is from the soil around its roots staying too wet. That makes diagnosis of leaf drop difficult. Ocotillo does not require alot of care in Las Vegas like Cathy and Bill’s ocotillo. Water and fertilize infrequently.             If ocotillo is put on a “normal” irrigation schedule used for most home landscape plants, it would most likely receive water too often. It would, ideally, be irrigated with agave and yucca in a landscape, not photinia and star jasmine for instance.             It can tolerate frequent watering ONLY if water drains from the soil quickly. If water in the soil drains easily then it might be able to handle the same irrigation frequency as photinia and star jasmine even though it would not be ideal for it.             It can probably handle an irrigation frequency of about once every two to three weeks in the summer but not more often than once a week.             In winter changed it to once every 4 to 6 weeks. When it with enough water to wet the soil at its base to a depth of about 18 inches. Three or four emitters spaced about 18 inches from an established plant would be adequate in most soils.             If you choose to water with a hose, filling a basin around the plant would make it easier to water. Watch for leaf discoloration or leaf drop to signal a time to rewater. Eventually this will help you anticipate a watering schedule for the plant.

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Lantana and Yellow Bells Should Not Be Dead from Winter Cold

Leave a Comment / cold damage, desert, freezing damage, lantana camara, Las Vegas, Tecoma stans /

Q. I have had Tecoma stans, Yellow bells, in the backyard as well as lantana for the past 3 or 4 summers. They do well but never winter over. When I dig them up to replant, the root structures seem to be healthy and alive. The tag on the plant says they are cold hardy. Is there anything I can do to help them winter over?  What is Yellow Bells? Picture of Yellow Bells from Arizona State University website What is lantana?  A. Are you thinking they are dead because the tops die back? It is seldom that I see these plants totally die out in the winter here. They do frequently die back to within a few inches of the soil surface during the winter.             They then can be cut back to about one inch from the ground in February and they come back like gangbusters in early spring with some water and fertilizer. Lantana cut back in the winter to about two inches in a rock mulch in Las Vegas.             If they are dead, I am wondering if they are not getting enough water during the winter months to keep the roots from dying out. Normally a watering schedule of about every ten days or so would be enough during the winter to keep them alive.             Otherwise try mulching over the tops of the plants with a few inches of wood mulch to keep the winter cold from damaging the roots. It is very rare these would die out in the winter here under normal landscape situations.

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Treat Now to Prevent Wormy Peaches

Leave a Comment / twig borer, wormy peaches /

Peach twig borer seen now flying in the Las Vegas valley. These small brown moths are very similar to the insects that produce wormy apples. Treat now and prevent that from happening later. This insect usually enters the fruit at the stem end or along the suture of the fruit. It feeds just under the skin. Usually you will see some “frass” or brown excrement at the entry point. In Nevada our experience has been that we don’t usually start catching this insect in our monitoring traps until around May. If you have had wormy fruit in the past, later in the season, it would be important to apply either Bt (Dipel® or Thuricide®) or spinosad) now to the entire tree or trees, paying particular attention to covering the fruit with the spray.  I add a surfactant (an additive that helps cover the fruit better) to the spray when mixing it in the sprayer. These organic pesticides will set up a protective barrier to this insect and keep it from getting inside the fruit. Follow label directions. Repeat applications as the label directs. A good website on peach twig borer can be found here: http://axp.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r602300611.html

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Fireblight Seen in the Las Vegas Valley in Late March

1 Comment / controlling fireblight, fireblight in las vegas /

Fireblight has been seen on Asian pear, European pear and apple in the Las Vegas valley. This may be leftover from infections last year. Please remove by pruning or cutting out infected shoots, branches or limbs. This should be done with sterilized pruning equipment. Sanitize equipment between each cut with alcohol, bleach or heat. If using bleach you must oil any metal parts afterwards. Cut at least 12 inches below lowest part of infected plant part. Sanitize your tools and hands between each time you cut. Remove infected plant parts and put immediately into plastic and do not compost it. Infected tissue is black and new growth often dies in hooked growth pattern as can be seen in front of my finger.

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Uneven Garlic Growth Probably Not Due to Cold Winter

Leave a Comment / why are my garlic bulbs small /

Q. Does a colder, harsher longer than usual winter affect the growing of garlic? I’ve noticed many of my plants are under-developed, or didn’t develop at all, while others have gigantic stalks! The underdeveloped ones could have been bad seed from last year’s harvest.  And other plants look like they are ready to harvest!  I have yet to dig down to inspect the bulb, and they are the first and earliest of my garlic to harvest. Size discrepancy in garlic can be due to size differences in the cloves used for planting, planting too close together and not rotating your crops. Use only the largest cloves for planting and consume the smaller ones. Make sure cloves are far enough apart to reduce competition. Do not continue to plant and replant garlic and onions in the same beds. A. In my opinion cold weather would not cause any reduction in growth or performance from a garlic clove unless the clove was damaged in some way. The only way to check that is to dig out some poor performing plants and look for a potential problem.               Was the clove too small to begin with? Was there a disease problem on the clove or plant that would cause the plant to perform poorly? Was there an insect problem causing damage to the clove or plant?               The size of the clove is related to plant size and how big your garlic bulb will grow. So if you are seeing differences in growth it would most likely be either a disease, insect or production problem. Bulb mites, onion maggot, nematodes, and some diseases. This can be true particularly if you save seed from year to year and are not careful in planting only the best cloves and make sure they are fully healed (callus over or treat with a fungicide) before planting. Get adequate room between vegetables so they don’t crowd each other. This is particularly true of root crops like onions, garlic, carrots, radishes, turnips, rutabagas, etc. Make sure you are rotating your vegetables so plants of the same families are not planted in the same spots year after year. It may sound dumb or unnecessary to inexperienced growers but this is vegetable production 101 and a common reason for losses in production in developing countries. Vegetables in the same plant families should not be repeatedly planted in the same spots year after year. You can or will develop disease and insect problems in those areas that will reduce plant growth and yield. This can lead to a buildup of disease or problems in those beds. Vegetables should be rotated from spot to spot in succeeding years to reduce the disease and insect potential in those spots. So for instance a bed used to grow garlic should not have anything planted in it from the allium family (onions, leeks, garlic, etc.) for at least three years. You can grow anything you want in those spots (tomatoes, melons, etc.) but not from the onion family. The year following that grow vegetables from the cucurbit (melon, cucumber, squash) family. The third year grow corn in that spot for instance. The next year you can go back to allium. Diseases like white rot can be a very severe problem that may do exactly what you are talking about and prevent good growth of garlic for decades in those spots once the disease is a problem there. White Rot Disease of Garlic Only use “certified” garlic cloves for seed. The plants used to produce disease and insect-free cloves are certified by an agency or company to be disease-free and you usually eliminate the risk of contaminating your beds. If you do choose to plant your own seed from garlic bulbs, each clove need to be inspected carefully for disease problems before you decide to plant it. Any blemish on the clove that could be disease-related disqualifies the clove for planting but it can be used for cooking since these diseases will never hurt an animal or human. So I don’t think cold caused the problem. I think it is related to a problem that developed during their growth.

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