Xtremehorticulture

Xtremehorticulture of the Desert

Independence Nectarine Fruit Damaged

1 Comment / nectarine fruit scarred, scarred fruit, thrips /

Q. I have a Independence Nectarine tree which I have been nurturing for two years now. This is the first year I have had fruit!  Of the nectarines I kept I am seeing something on them that looks like dried droplets of sap. It is not sticky to the touch but I have 2 nectarines that do not have it.  Are you able to determine if I have some sort of blight with the fruit? Will I just need to take this plant out? A. This type of sap, with all the scarring you see on the fruit as well, is caused by small puncture wounds to the skin of the fruit. When the skin is punctured on immature fruit, the sap oozes out of the hole and dries. Sometimes this dried sap looks like little squigglies coming from the skin.             The holes in the skin are caused by insects called thrips. These insects feed on the sap by pushing their long skinny mouth part, called a stylet, through the skin and rupturing it.             In wetter climates these punctures wounds can cause the fruit to rot due to infections. Here in our hot, dry climate the rotting doesn’t occur as often.             To keep your nectarine fruit tree from blemishes and scarring, you must apply protective sprays to the fruit early in the season. The most effective organic spray contains Spinosad. You don’t want to spray Spinosad or any chemical over and over again or you can end up with some problems.             You want to use two or three different sprays in rotation with Spinosad. Other organic sprays you could use in rotation with Spinosad include Neem oil, pyrethrum and insecticidal soap.             Remember that organic sprays do not last very long and may not cure a really bad problem that is underway. These chemicals are more effective when they are used to protect fruits when you see small numbers of pests.

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Warty Growths on Limbs Tree Solved

1 Comment / carob, disease, disorder, warts on limbs /

Recently some pictures were sent to me of some warty growths found on the limbs off crepe myrtle. But the tree did not look like crepe myrtle. And I did not recognize the warty growths. Read on to find out what was going on….. Q.I suspect this condition is related to a previous question about similar bumps on quince trees. I noticed these on my neighbor’s crape myrtle. You can see that the bumps cover not only the large, old trunk but are also all along the smaller branches. And these bumps are HARD! When you pick at them with a fingernail, they don’t budge. Crape myrtle is not usually susceptible to scale. But I don’t know what else it could be. A. This isn’t the same as the brown bumps on quince trees. Those were hard scale insects. These bumps are part of the wood itself. Crepe myrtle has some very characteristic leaves and flowers. This isn’t crepe myrtle. I have to admit that I was stumped. I sent some pictures to Andrea Meckley, the plant person, and she thought it looked like carob tree with a really big problem. Mature carob tree in Las Vegas with warty growth on limbs So I began doing some digging on carob. Carob grows well in the Las Vegas climate. We lost I think all of them in the Valley when we had a 50 year low temperature during the winter of 1989 to 1990. Temperatures in the North West part of the Valley dropped to about 2°F and even killed bermudagrass. We lost quite a few African sumac as well as the carob trees, many of our palm trees were damaged at hotels and around town. We lost a beautiful pine tree called Roxburghii pine. Remaining pines in the warmer parts of the city lost branches down to the trunk, but the trunk survived and to re-sprouted new growth. Those pines are still there across from Desert Springs Hospital on Maryland Parkway. If anyone is interested I will post some of those pictures of the survival of that pine. African sumac was replanted in town. Even though carob tree is a very good choice for our climate, it never regained any popularity. primarily because it is slow growing most likely. But it is relatively pest free just about everywhere in the world and a very interesting plant. Carob tree is a complicated tree sexually. Carob trees can exist as separate male and female trees or male and female flowers on the same tree. The scent from the male flowers is said to resemble the smell of semen so some might consider that offensive. It is grown commercially for the pods and seed which is ground and used as a substitute for cocoa. Unlike cocoa, carob does not contain the stimulant theobromine. There are different varieties of carob used for commercial production. As carob gets more mature it develops these warty growths near where the flowers are produced. This is normal. More on carob tree later. Thanks to Mindy for all the pictures!

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Japanese Blueberry Top Dieback Part II

Leave a Comment / japanese blueberry top dieback /

Q. The trunk/branches of the bad trees appear like they’re peeling. The limbs are very brittle so I don’t think they’ll recover. Could I, for example, simply cut the top 12” of the trunk and save the rest of the tree? Japanese blueberry with dead top I’m trying to understand why these specifically would get sunburned and not the others. Are you suggesting that if the top of the tree didn’t have enough leaves to provide shade to the trunk from the sun, this would occur? If that’s the case, even if I were to cut the dry part of the trunk off, I don’t know how I would keep it from occurring again…aside from attaching an umbrella to the tree!:-) I also attached a better photo of the trees directly adjacent to them (6 total trees, 4 are thriving/2 appear to be dying). These were all planted at the same time and it’s interesting that the two on the end (which are having problems) never grew as tall as the other 3. Dead top of the Japanese blueberry A. Yes, it appears to be sunburn. Just cut it off but this is exactly what can happen to a tree in a death spiral. It gets sunburn perhaps because the tree trunk was not shaded by enough canopy.  The sunburn causes the top to dieback which opens I more to sunburn. Borers come in and causes the tree to dieback more, sometimes killing it. You have no choice but to remove the dead part. Sometimes painting the exposed area of the tree with diluted white latex paint can help. It helps to lower the surface temperature of the limbs and reduces sunburn.  Sometimes just attaching some burlap loosely over the area and tying it in to it does not blow off can help until there is new growth that covers the area. Burlap added for some temporary shade Plants like Japanese blueberry, Podocarpus and others (often in the rose family or Prunus genus) gets sunburn due to very thin and tender bark. Hope that helps.

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Japanese Blueberry Tops are Dying Part I.

Leave a Comment / borers, dieback, disease, Las Vegas /

Q. I’m having a problem with my Japanese blueberries. Some are fine and the two on the end appear to be drying out but only towards the top? Do you have any idea what’s causing this? The soil is not dry and they all get the same amount of irrigation. Japanese blueberries tops dying back A. I would guess that something caused a problem on the trunk or large limbs at the bottom where it has turned brown. I am guessing it might be borers or some other critter that mechanically damaged the trunk/limbs. It is possible it could be sunburn as well particularly if they were open enough to allow direct sunlight on those branches/trunk for extended periods of time. I think we can rule out diseases in our climate except for the possibility of sunburn (non pathological disease). Look at the area of trunk/large limbs just in the foot above the healthy areas and let me know if you see peeling bark, discoloration or other types of abnormalities. If it is borers (the most likely), there is nothing you can do to raise it from the dead but you can protect it with a soil drench once a year using Feri-Lome’s soil drench. It contains an insecticide that should give you about one year of control from what I am hearing.

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Get Ready for the Leaffooted Plant Bug Invasion

2 Comments / almonds, flat legs, leaf legs, pistachios, pomegranate, red bugs, ugly bugs, weird legs /

Q. What is the best attack for these pesty, scarey looking creatures.  We had them last year.  Haven’t seen them yet this season.  Is there something to keep them away? A. This first part I am explaining will be a bit late for you now but prevention should start during the winter months when they can be seen in the landscape as overwintering adults ready to lay eggs in the spring. I have seen adults on bottlebrush in home landscapes in southern Nevada and I am sure they are probably overwintering on a number of evergreen plants in winter months. Since these insects can fly  as adults they will move from plant to plant for sources of food.  This means that they will come into your yard from neighbors as well all during the growing season. So just because you control them once during the season you will have them again as long as there is food in your yard for them to eat. What do we know about leaffooted plant bug? They like to feed on pomegranates, almonds, pistachios, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, corn, peach, nectarine and I am sure some others. They are closely related to stinkbugs and squash bugs, feed and reproduce like them and can be confused with them because they look kind of similar. They overwinter from year to year in the landscapes. It takes about 50 or 60 days to produce adults from eggs laid in the spring. They feed with a long hypodermic needle-like mouth that is inserted into soft plant tissue like leaves and fruit. Their feeding early when fruit is developing can cause threads of sap to stick out of the fruit. Their feeding causes misshapen fruit or causes fruits or nuts to drop off of the tree. Their feeding can also cause diseases to enter the fruit. How to Control Them They are difficult to control because they hide unless they are swarming and reproducing near the fruit. Take Down pyrethrin based garden spray Hard or conventional pesticides such as Sevin or synthetic pyrethrins are the most effective for rapid kill. These can be found as ingredients in some common vegetable or fruit sprays in nurseries or garden centers. These same ingredients are used commercially where leaffooted plant bug is active. These types of chemicals leave behind a residual on plants that offer some protection for a number of days after they are applied. They also present some safety concerns for homeowners when used without caution in home landscapes so make sure you read the label thoroughly if you choose to go this route. Organic control is more difficult because these chemicals are short-lived and don’t leave behind much of a residual. You will not control this pest without more work on your part when using organic methods. That is the tradeoff when using organic methods. With conventional pesticides like Sevin a few passes during fruit set and development will give you some good control. Organic methods may require more inspection of the tree and fruit on your part and spraying more frequently. Soap sprays like Safers insecticidal soap will give good control if the spray lands on the insects. It leaves no residual once sprayed. Oils like Neem have been reported to give good control. Other oils include horticultural oils and canola oil. Organic sprays like Bt will not work on this insect. Spinosad has not been reported to work on this insect either. Another possibility is pyrethrin sprays which may give you good knockdown when sprayed on them directly.   A common mistake is to think that just because they organic sprays they will not hurt anything except the enemy insect. This is not true. Organic sprays will kill many different insects, good and bad. So directing the sprays at the enemy insects is important. It is also important to spray very early in the morning or near sundown. Spray when there is no wind and cover both the upper and lower sides of the leaves. Do not use one spray over and over. Use several sprays in rotation with each other so you do not end up with an explosion in the population of insects not controlled or building up insect immunity to the spray.

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Centurylink.net Problems in Emails

Leave a Comment / centurylink.net, email, email rejections /

Just a warning for people who send me emails using centurylink.net….I had several of my return emails rejected by this provider. So if you sent me emails using an email address with centurylink.net after your user name and I never responded…well….maybe it got rejected. Please use a different email address when communicating with me. Thanks. Bob Morris aka ‘Extremehort’

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Bay Laurel Good Choice for Chain Link Privacy

2 Comments / plant selection, privacy, vine for chain link fence /

Q. I would like to plant an “evergreen” vine/screening plant along a chain link fence to block the neighbor’s yapping dogs (little dogs). Bay Laurel recently planted   That area is quite shady, as there is a row of pine trees (25+ feet tall) 10′ in front of the fence. Currently the lowest limbs are about 7′ off the ground; I can prune them higher if need be.  These trees were planted too close together, so they are “wimpy”… too crowded/too much shade. If the “screening plant” could be something edible (even edible flowers) that would be even better.  I’m going to plant Goji berries farther down the fence line where there is full sun… I don’t think that they would do well in this area (about 60′ long).  I live in Pahrump so the winters get below freezing… thanks for any suggestions that you may have! Bay Laurel Andrea Meckley, CH [email protected] April 4, 2014 Bay Laurel 24 inch box after one year I suggest a shrub called Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis) column form over a vine for this situation.   This hardy evergreen is low-maintenance and you can use the bay leaves in cooking.    Don’t trim the width and when it grows to the limbs of the pine trees, top trim and it will bush out more.  Not a fast grower.     An alternative plant suggestion is Vinca Vine (Vinca minor) which is an aggressive, never get rid of vine that will accept the shade and can be weaved in the chain-link fence as it grows. So space plants depending on size of plant installed and patience level. Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis): Description:  Upright shrub or tree Mature size: 20 feet high x 20 feet wide Water use: medium water user-water as a tree Sun exposure preferred:  Shade to full sun-North, east or west facing will all work Origin:  Mediterranean Uses:  Screen, shade, leaves for cooking Bay Laurel in standard tree form Flower color and season:  Spring yellow clusters sometimes Evergreen

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Leafcutter Bee Perfect Circles Now Seen on Plants

1 Comment / circles cut in leaves, how to stop damage from, leaf cutter bee, leafcutter bee, what are, what causes /

Leafcutter bee damage to bottle tree. Q. My recently planted Carolina jasmine vine and rose bush are being shredded by cutter bees!! I’ve been told there is no insecticide to kill or deter them. Is this so? Both of these plants are adjacent to other plants but the others are not affected. I’m at wits end seeing perfect circles in the leaves! Also, why would you WANT cutter bees? A. Leafcutter bees can be pretty destructive to the appearance of many plants. They are pretty selective in the plants they choose. Other plants affected besides your Carolina jasmine and roses include bougainvillea, grape leaves, basil and other leafy herbs, photinia and ash leaves. Leafcutter bee damage to grape leaves.             Part of the female leafcutter bee’s life cycle is to cut circles out of soft, thin, smooth leaves and use them to build nests for their young. The nests are constructed of individual cells, each with a ball of nectar, pollen and one egg.             They build these nests in cracks and crevices and holes that vary from about 1/4 inch to 3/8 inch across and deep enough to construct individual cells for their young. They also build nests in the stems of some pithy ornamentals like roses. Leafcutter bee nesting box made from a solid block of wood with 3/8 holes drilled in it. Used to increase the population of leafcutter bees in a landscape. Putting soda straws in the holes and removing them in about March reduces the population of bees.             A frequent recommendation among Rosarians is to seal pruning cuts in roses with Elmer’s glue, a safeguard against leafcutter bees nesting in rose canes.             Leafcutter bees are important pollinators of commercial crops and were introduced into the United States from Europe. They have been used in Nevada for pollinating alfalfa primarily.             The bee is slightly smaller than a honey bee and won’t sting unless highly provoked or injured. Because they are such prized pollinators of urban vegetable crops, I encourage people to live with the damage they create or drape affected plants with cheesecloth to keep them away.             If you want to reduce their populations, another method to control damage, you can put out bee boxes, which are blocks of wood drilled with holes large enough to accommodate a portion of a soda straw. The females deposit their eggs inside the soda straws. You can dispose of the straws when they are full but before the young bees emerge.             Using insecticides is highly discouraged and it doesn’t prevent the damage anyway.

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Concord Grapes Ravaged by Skeletonizers

1 Comment / grape leaf eaten, grape leaf skeletonized, grape leaf skeletonizer pictures /

Q. Over the past two days, my two Concord grape vines have been completely defoliated by a larva-like worm.  It is yellow in color with black bands around the body and a wider blue band at each end of the body. Is the vine infected and needs to be removed or can the grape vines be saved? The damage is done, but is there a preventative action I should have taken? A. This is the grape leaf skeletonizer, a dark blue black moth that lays its eggs on the underside of grape leaves. They usually begin laying eggs around April and that’s when control measures need to begin. Grape leaf skeletonizer adult. A blue black moth.             The egg hatches and out comes a larva, fitting your description. This worm or larva begins to skeletonize, or nearly defoliate the grape leaves leaving behind the veins of the leaf. Hence the name, grape leaf skeletonizer. Grape leaf skeletonizer larva or worm eating the surface of a grape leaf. This is not my picture but I can’t find who sent it to me so my apologies to whomever it was.             Control is pretty simple and effective with organic pesticides containing Bt or Spinosad. Sprays should be applied in April prior to egg-laying or just after.             If you follow my blog via my newsletter or my tweets on twitter, I announce when to make these applications like these ahead of time. Otherwise, just mark your next years’ calendar and make this application some time in the first two weeks of April, depending on the weather.             Make sure you spray the undersides of the leaves, not just the tops. The spray will work now as long as the larvae, or the worms, present. It doesn’t work on the adult moths. Your grape vine will put on new leaves to replace the damaged one so just be patient.

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