Xtremehorticulture

Xtremehorticulture of the Desert

Poor Growth of Lantana Due to Grubs

1 Comment / dying back, grubs feeding on roots, worms on roots /

Q. This season our Lantana has done poorly. For each plant we dig up there appears a bunch of grubs. What’s going on? A. Nice detective work! I would not have guessed this was the problem if you had just sent me a picture of a dying lantana. These guys are decomposers normally and people will find them in their compost piles. Green june beetle which attacks soft fruit like figs But these critters will also feed on small, living roots. In large numbers they can cause alot of damage or even death. In small numbers and feeding on roots the plant might appear normal with no apparent damage. The dose makes the poison! One of the chafers or June bugs they are sometimes called These are the immature of one of the scarab beetles such as June beetles, metallic June beetles, dung beetles and rose chafers which we have here. Another one that attacks lawn grasses is the “white grub” or sometimes just called “grubs”. One very famous and devastating scarab is the Japanese beetle which we have not yet seen in southern Nevada.  When you find these immature larva feeding in one localized area around a living plant it is a very good sign they are feeding on it. They are fairly easy to kill with insecticides such as the conventional insecticide Sevin used as a soil drench or organically using a treatment of bacterial spores. It is marketed under different trade names but if you look in the insect control section of your favorite nursery or garden center you should be able to find it. Frequently the bacterial spores are referred to as “milky spore” insecticide. There are also nematode good guys that you can apply. I am not sure it is carried in Las Vegas but certainly over the internet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarabaeidae

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Grape Not Producing Fruit and Leaves Mottled

Leave a Comment / no fruit on grape /

Q. My grapes which are about 20 years old and produced grapes last year. I added 4″ of mulch dirt and feed with Fruit and Nut fertilizer in spring. There were no grapes this year and the leaves look mottled. A. From your pictures the leaves look pretty normal with a little bit of wind damage. I suspect that the grapes were either not pruned correctly so that fruit was produced from last years growth (spur or cane pruning) or there might not be enough light. You will need at least 6 hours of full sun to produce much. Less than this will result in very weak fruit production or no fruit production. If light is a problem it will only get worse as the tree gets larger. This is plum, not grape, but demonstrates the tearing damage that wind creates particularly on soft new growth. Lack of light usually results in leaves that are larger than normal and thin, frail leaves easily damaged in wind. If growth from the previous year was totally removed during pruning you will have no fruit production as well.

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Privet Dieback Due to Irrigation

Leave a Comment / branch dead, brown leaves, Japanese privet, leaf drop, privet, Texas privet, twigs dead /

Q. We have had these trees in our backyard for 15 years.  All of a sudden, one has a bare spot. What might this be? I enclosed a picture. Not readers but demonstrates dieback in privet due to infrequent or shallow irrigations A. From your picture the plant looks like Japanese or Texas privet. Privets are notorious for looking pretty bad, leaf drop and twig dieback when they are not kept moist. They usually do nicely in lawns or when surrounded by other plants with a similar water requirement. Typically they do not do well in rock mulch and if the soil becomes too dry. So I usually recommend that the rock mulch environment is enhanced with wood mulch or that other plants are included around the base of the plant that require more frequent watering.

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Reason Why You Plunge Harvested Fruit into Cold Water

Leave a Comment / climacteric, fruit bird damage, harvesting fruit, postharvest, when to harvest /

Q. I wrote to you about ripening my plums after I picked them from the tree. I did what you told me to do. Why did you tell me to plunge the fruit into cold water after harvesting? A. Plums will finish ripening very nicely at room temperature after they are picked. We pick them early, when still hard, and do not let them ripen fully on the tree to avoid most of the damage caused by birds. Stark Saturn peach with bird damage Birds will usually begin “tasting” fruit when they are close to harvest. When we start to see bird damage and the fruit is close to harvest, it is a good indicator that the fruit could be harvested and they will continue to “ripen” off of the tree. These types of fruit are called “climacteric” since they continue to ripen after harvest. Examples of climacteric fruit are most of the stone fruits like peach, nectarine, plum and plum relatives like pluots. Cherries, even though they are stone fruit, will not continue to ripen after harvest. The speed at which these fruits ripen depends on the fruit temperature; warmer temperatures cause faster ripening. When you harvest fruit in the heat of the summer, the fruit will have a lot of excessive heat. This extra heat is from the environment as well as the fruit’s respiration or burning of sugars. We call this heat, “field heat”. It can be very destructive to fruit harvested in the field if it is not removed very soon after harvest or prevented. For this reason we try to get the temperature of the fruit lowered as quickly as possible soon after harvesting. You do not want to just put it in the fridge or it will stop ripening.             One way to do this is just plunge the fruit into icy water to remove the field heat and get it closer to room temperature. After it cools to room temperature, you can let the fruit continue to ripen.

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Eggplant Production in the Fall and Winter

Leave a Comment / eggplant winter, fall production eggplant /

Q. Will my eggplant plant continue to produce through the fall and winter? A. They will produce all the way until later in the fall but produce fruit more slowly.  Young or immature eggplant in juvenile or growth stage with no flowering. As it reaches maturity it will flower. Although eggplants will keep growing and flowering, they are more productive if cut back and allowed to regrow during late summer. Cut plants to about 8 to 12 inches in early August, cutting them at a crotch and allowing them to regrow. When you do this it is like giving them a kick in the pants to grow. Their root system is oversized for their top (root to shoot ratio) and they will shift their growth to a more juvenile stage and put on more top growth. When the growth of the top of the plant begins to slow (more favorable root to shoot ratio) then will flower again. Pruning them now removes plant parts that are infested or have alot of damage. This will mean you need to fertilize after pruning and keep the soil moist to force them to regrow. The second crop will be ready to harvest in about six weeks after cutting back. In some parts of the country eggplants are sometimes trellised and sheared for increased yield and quality later in the season. The ideal temperatures for eggplant will be 70 to 80F during the day and night time temperatures between 65 to 70F. Very few locations will give those exact types of temperatures. Obviously they will do well in temperatures higher and lower than this. Fruit abortion begins at about 95F with some varieties even though the plant itself can handle heat. As temperatures get lower than ideal in the fall, eggplant will still set fruit but fruit set is not as reliable and the development of fruit is slower. Eggplant is generally considered more sensitive to cooler temperatures than its cousins, tomatoes and peppers. Flowers will consistently set fruit down to 60 F night time temperatures. Night time temperatures below 60 F will mean fewer fruit will be set as temperatures get lower. Eggplants begin to get chilling injury at temperatures below 50 F. Staking may be necessary if plants get big and full of fruit. Fruit touching the ground will tend to spoil. Harvest fruit when they are one third full size. Over mature fruit will be spongy, the seeds begin to harden and the fruit surface becomes dull rather than shiny. Fruit can be snapped off of the plant but they will keep longer if they are cut at the spiny stem. Leave the “cap” attached. Mulching plants will help to set fruit and improve fruit quality.

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Someone Looking for Local Food

Leave a Comment / local food /

Inquiry by a reader to me: Thank you ! !, .. so much for your valuable information More folks should know about your resource ! ! I am 71 and a recent widower and living with my daughter don’t have access to do any gardening even so would love to So Here goes my inquiry : Are there any local Gardeners  that have more than enough from there labor ( harvest ) Whether tomatoes  / or any produce / Herbs .. they would share or Sell ? I live in the NW of LV  Cheyenne & Grand Canyon Rd My PH. No. is (number withheld by me) P.S. You are Treasure secret to  well kept A Thankful recipient of your E mail’s(Name withheld by me) [email protected]

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Shake Your Tomato Plants!

Leave a Comment / fruit set tomato, tomato not producing fruit /

We hit a spell of cool weather the past few days. Whenever you get this kind of weather during a hot spell, go out and lightly shake your tomato, pepper and eggplants for about 10 seconds each. Tomatoes in particular have trouble setting fruit when temperatures are above 95F. They set during the cooler weather of spring and then stop setting when it is hot. When we get this cool weather they may go ahead and set if they get visits from bees or if the flowers are disturbed. Shaking the plant releases the pollen that bees normally help release by their invasive visits to the flowers. Even if you have no bees around, shaking the plants may be enough to help them set fruit while it is cool. They will stop again when it gets hot but you may get a few to set now if they are disturbed.

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Water Suspected for Splitting Pomegranates

Leave a Comment / fruit splitting, pomegranate fruit splitting /

Q. I wrote to you a few weeks ago regarding splitting pomegranates. Our Homeowners Association switched from grass to desert landscaping. The drip systems were increased to include new plants and older bushes and a new system was added around our older trees. Our water bill for that period was much higher than normal. Is it possible that overwatering in the heat caused the seeds to grow faster, splitting the fruits? I had a good crop last year. Pomegranate fruit split up the side A. The splitting of any fruits, whether pomegranate or tomato, is nearly always associated with irrigation or rain. The most commonly held belief is that it is due to irregular irrigation patterns; overly dry periods followed by an irrigation. It is thought that when the plant has a lack of water the “skin” of the fruit begins to become inflexible and the plant matures the fruit earlier than normal in “hopes” that it can reproduce by hastening seed development and maturity. Then when an abundance of water is present around the roots, the plant takes up this water and it is transported to the fruit. The fruit, now with an inflexible “skin” can no longer expand like it could when it was immature, and splits. Another belief is that rainwater is absorbed through the “skin” of some soft fruit, like cherries or tomato, when it is nearly mature and this absorption of water causes the fruit to split.             Regardless of the reason, fruit splitting is reduced with more regular watering, watering at the appropriate times to prevent the soil from becoming overly dry and the use of surface mulches, particularly wood mulch.

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African Sumac With Curled Leaves

Leave a Comment / African sumac distorted leaves, African sumac leaf drop, sticky leaves /

Q. New growth on my African sumac has curled leaves and it looks like aphids or something is attacking them. I thought sumacs were desert trees and didn’t a have a lot of issues so I’m surprised by this development. A. African sumac does get aphid problems. Aphids are more of a problem during cool weather and the problem usually disappears with the heat.  But aphids will hang around during the heat and cause problems as well. A good indicator of aphids is the presence of ants.             If the aphid problem is bad enough you may see leaf yellowing and leaf drop, sticky or glossy leaf surfaces. The stickiness is aphid excrement which is sugary and attracts the ants.             Soap and water sprays will get them under control if applied every few days. Soapy sprays do not hang around very long.             Or you can use a systemic insecticide applied to the soil around the base of the tree and watered in. The poison moves up the tree to the leaves and poisons the aphids. This may be safer to use and more environmentally friendly than spraying the entire tree with a pesticide.             Remember that African sumac is a very messy tree with lots of leaf drop. If you don’t want a mess, you might not want African sumac.

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Preventing Olive From Dropping Flowers

2 Comments / olive flowers, olive fruit, preventing, prevention /

Q. I have an older olive tree that is very messy. Is there a way to prevent it from blooming in the spring and dropping all its yellow flowers? It also sheds a lot of leaves only during the spring but all year-round. Is there any way to prevent that also? A. The only consistent way to eliminate or reduce flowering is to spray an olive tree with an appropriate chemical before it blooms. In the past, the most effective timing has been in mid to late February or March using a chemical called Maintain. It needs to be applied by a commercial applicator. Olive flowers. Some chemicals must be sprayed when the flowers are open to get good fruit drop.             Commercial applicators have access to other chemicals as well but they usually are not as effective as Maintain. The less effective chemicals are sprayed at the time the olive tree is blooming. These are primarily aimed at fruit elimination, not flower elimination.             These other chemicals cause the flowers to abort after they are open. It should be obvious if the chemical has to be applied when the flowers are open, it will not do much to eliminate flowers or reduce the release of pollen.             This is an important question to ask a commercial applicator: when does your chemical need to be applied? If the response is during bloom, then this is not the right chemical to use to eliminate flowers.             There are two very different products available to homeowners which might be useful to some as a spray. One is fairly effective at eliminating flowers. The other does not do much to the flowers but is fairly good at eliminating fruit.             When you go to your favorite nursery or garden center, look for sprays that eliminate fruit from trees. Read the label. If the label says it must be sprayed when the flowers are open, it will not be effective as a “flower eliminator”.             The other spray has a label which tells you to apply it just before the flowers are open. This spray has a much better chance of eliminating the flowers. Again, read the label.             Regarding leaf drop, olive is evergreen so some shedding is normal since it drops leaves primarily as it puts on new growth. But some leaf drop will occur season-long.             Excessive leaf drop is not normal. The primary reason for excessive leaf drop throughout the canopy would be lack of enough water. When there is not enough water, then it is normal for a plant to drop leaves to reduce its need for water.             Make sure your water sources are not plugged, restricted or the clock has not been changed for some reason. Make sure olive trees received enough water during irrigation. You might have to add emitters.             If the leaf drop is coming from only one or two branches, this is also not normal and could be a sign of disease and you will need to investigate this further.

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