Xtremehorticulture

Xtremehorticulture of the Desert

Brown Spines on Agave stricta

Leave a Comment / Growing agaves /

Q. A quick question about a newly planted Agave stricta. Within 2 weeks of planting the spines have begun turning brown from the tips down. Do these plants generally brown out in the cold or is this one dying? It is a 15 gal plant – purchased from a local cactus nursery. It had some brown on a few stems shen purchased, but not like this. It was planted according to the instructions from the nursery with a sand/soil mix at bottom and sand around the perimeter. Click here to see what Agave stricta looks like A. I had to look up that particular agave because I did not know it. There is some information about it at the San Marcos nursery website http://www.smgrowers.com/products/plants/plantdisplay.asp?plant_id=84 It is found growing in southeastern Mexico in its native habitat at about 5000 feet from what I could find. San Marcos nursery says it will handle temperatures down to at least 20° F. This is for Agave stricta ‘Nana’ so I am wondering if this is what you have or not. A. stricta is confused with A. striata a lot because they look almost identical. This particular cactus may benefit if it’s not placed in a location where it receives very hot direct sunlight in the afternoon. It sounds like it is a little bit delicate perhaps because of where it grows and its elevation. Click here to see what Agave striata looks like I am thinking you may have one of two or three things going on with yours. I don’t think it’s temperature. If this cactus was growing in a shaded or semi shaded area and then placed into an area that receives a lot of direct sunlight in the late afternoon it’s possible that it could be sun damage. How you planted this cactus sounds fine but if you are watering it too often, even with good drainage, this could also cause problems. When water is scarce it relies on internal storage of water. During the summer I would not water it more than every three weeks if you are planning to push some growth. If you’re happy with that size, you can water it less often than that. It is also possible that the soil mix that was used could have been a little too saline. Flush the soil with several gallons of water a few times to remove any excess salts if you think this might be a problem. But I do not think it is a temperature damage but more likely to be sun damage or damage from irrigation. During the winter you should be able to water only once or twice during the entire winter. Further thinking, it is POSSIBLE it could be a salinity problem. There are soil mixes out there that use sands with lots of salts in them and they are not washed sands. Wash plenty of water through the soil where you planted a couple of times a few weeks apart to reduce salt problems. Now is a good time to do that because temperatures are cold and tolerance to lots of water in the soil is much higher in plants during cool or colder weather.

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Acacia longifolia Tolerance to Cold in the Mojave Desert

1 Comment / cold tolerant, freeze tolerant /

Q. Would Acacia longifolia do okay in the Las Vegas area? A. San Marcos Growers reports cold hardiness down to 20F so it will take temperatures similar to Myers lemon, a fairly cold hardy citrus. Click for A. longifolia at San Marcos Growers  It is possible it might have dieback during some extremely cold winters but it should re-sprout easily from its base once it has established for one season. Like any Acacia I worry a little bit about allergies from its pollen. It is a rather large plant usually grown as a shrub but I think you could train it into a small tree fairly easily. It should handle our soils with little problems just make sure that you amend the soil at the time of planting with compost. Anyone with experience with this plant?

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Planting Vegetables from Seed in January

Leave a Comment / cool season vegetables, Starting vegetables from seed /

I have seen garden editors right that there is very little to do in January. How wrong! This is a very busy time of the year for vegetable production. In our cold desert climate with warm days and cold nights some of the best vegetables of the year are produced. Cool and cold winter temperatures slow growth of plants which concentrates flavors and reduces bitterness in many of our cool season vegetables. Germination from seed. As long as temperatures are warm enough during the day, seed germination of cool season vegetables may take longer but they will germinate if the soil is warm enough. Loose, dark, fluffy soils are warmer than heavy soils. Work in enough compost so that the soils are no longer compacted. Warm air during the day must be able to enter the soil through loose pores to warm it. Select vegetable seed of known varieties that have performed well in the past or have been recommended to you by others who are good gardeners. Don’t use varieties of seed that are unknown to you unless you just want an experience and don’t care about the end result. Know the temperature of your soil. This is important because diseases that are dormant in the soil may affect some vegetable varieties if the soil temperature is borderline for them. Beans are a good example and may fail due to root diseases if planted in soils that are too cold.   Use this soil temperature guide for vegetables Prepare the area to be planted with seed with a high phosphorus fertilizer of your choice. Triple super phosphate is a good choice for conventional gardeners. Bone meal, bat guano, mushroom compost are good choices for organic gardeners. Cover soils to be planted with clear or black plastic to warm the soil. I prefer clear plastic. Cover the soil with plastic two or three days before planting. Pin the edges of the plastic to the soil. Cover the edges of the plastic with soil so the wind does not lift the plastic. Just before planting cut slits in the plastic where seed is to be placed and leave the plastic on the soil surface until plants have germinated or longer. Pre-germination of vegetable seed initiates seed germination. Pre-germinating the seed is wetting the seed long enough for a long enough period so the seed absorbs water. This is the first step in germination. The seed is kept in water at room temperature for 6 to 12 hours. The seed is then removed from the water and the surface dried in the air or with paper towels. The seed should be planted as soon as it is dry enough to plant. Planting depth of seed is related to its size. Very tiny seeds are placed on the surface and covered lightly with soil. Larger seed are planted in the soil to a depth twice its diameter.

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Fruit Tree Pruning Workshop in Twentynine Palms January 9

Leave a Comment / 29 palms, twenty-nine palms, twentynine palms pruning class 2016 /

On Saturday, January 9, 2016, I will be at the Twenty-Nine Palms Inn in Twenty-Nine Palms, California, to present a fruit tree pruning workshop. I will also be discussing how to apply fertilizers and what kind and pest control operations that should be performed this time of year. The workshop will begin promptly at 9 AM. I will bring along some fertilizers for fruit trees and EDDHA iron chelates from Viragrow in Las Vegas for those interested. Contact me if you need me to bring along anything else that might not be available locally. Fruit tree workshop presented last year at the Twentynine Palms Inn

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Fan Palms Yellowing and Browning

Leave a Comment / palms with brown leaves, what is causing fronds to turn brown, Yellowing of palms /

Q. I have three mature California fan palms, aged at least twenty years, planted quite close to each other and located in Mesquite, Nevada. Two or three years ago, one showed signs of early leaf browning and soon died. Now leaves of others are quite yellow but stems and new growth at the top of the tree is green. I’m afraid they are going the same way as the one that died! Disease? Yellowing palm leaves of the reader A. I do not think the yellowing and scorching is directly related to disease. I think it is primarily a soil or plant nutrient problem that will not be solved simply by adding fertilizers. Irrigation might be part of the problem IF the trees are watered too often. In your particular case, I think several things may be going on at once. I’m a big proponent of soil improvement when planting anything in our desert soils. In Mojave Desert soils, and soils brought in as fill around homes in housing developments, soil improvement at the time of planting is an absolute must even if you are planting cactus. Desert soils are usually very low in organic matter like this soil. The light tan color of the soil is an indicator of a very low percent of organics in the soil. If your soil is tan colored or very light brown, there is zero organic matter in that soil. Palms are typically planted without much consideration for any kind of soil improvement. They are planted in tiny holes, the roots surrounded with very little if any improved soil. Once planted, the soil surrounding the plant is covered with rock mulch. In this type of soil environment roots suffocate and die over time. If they don’t die in the first couple of years, they have a great deal of difficulty taking up the proper nutrients from the soil even if fertilizers are applied. They become unhealthy. The plants react to this poor soil environment by turning yellow. It’s not a disease caused by disease organisms directly but the plant color indicates they are in poor health. To correct this problem, add organic material to the soil surrounding the roots and improve water drainage and movement of air into the soil. Until this is done, you will see very little improvement to these plants just by adding fertilizer. In the past we used a technique called “vertical mulching”. It is no longer talked about much anymore but it was effective. Vertical mulching created vertical holes to a depth of 2 to 3 feet around the plant in the root area. These vertical holes were filled with improved soil. Read about vertical mulching here Vertical holes were created using a high-pressure watering device or a post hole digger. Pull back the rock mulch where you are going to create vertical holes a foot or two from the trunk. Create the holes using a post hole digger or water from a high-pressure nozzle to a depth of 2 to 3 feet. Be careful of irrigation lines. Fill these holes with a 50-50 mixture of the soil you took out of the hole mixed with compost, minus any rocks larger than a golf ball. Create a minimum of four holes around these trees. Use these spots in the future to add fertilizer once a year. Apply more compost on the surface to further improve soil at the surface and put back the rock mulch. Make sure plastic is not on the soil surface surrounding the plants and under any mulch. Plastic on the soil surface can create similar problems.

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What To Do To Fruit Trees in January

2 Comments / How to fertilize fruit trees, How to prune fruit trees, pest control in fruit trees, what to do in January /

Class in 29 Palms in 2014 What should you be doing with your fruit trees now? Finish your fruit tree pruning before February 1 Fertilizing fruit trees Controlling pests Thanks to Viragrow for letting me use pictures of their products. Fruit tree pruning. I gave several classes on fruit tree pruning in December. I will be giving is in Twentynine Palms, California, on Saturday, January 9 beginning at 9 AM at the Twentynine Palms Inn. You can read about it on their blog soon or on my blog. The major topics I covered included size control and improving fruit production. I divide fruit tree pruning into two operations for those just learning how to prune fruit trees; first of all control the size of the tree and establish its general architecture or structure and secondly prune to improve fruit production. Fertilize fruit trees in our climate any time in January before the first week in February or before the signs of new growth if you are not in our climate. If you are late by a couple of weeks you can still do it. Use conventional fertilizers or compost.  Use any fertilizer that is designated as a fruit tree fertilizer. In a pinch, you can substitute a rose fertilizer. Follow the label directions.  If you were in my class, I would show you how to “read” a tree to determine how much fertilizer to apply. If you don’t know, follow established guidelines that you trust. You can apply it on top of mulch or pull the mulch back and put it on top of the soil, then replacing the mulch.  Make sure that you water it in enough to get the fertilizer in contact with wet soil. That last statement, in wet soil, is very important. Fertilizer cannot move to the roots if it is not in contact with water.  Example of a dormant oil available from Viragrow Be careful how much phosphorus, the middle number, you apply. Phosphorus can hang around in soils a long time and it can build up concentrations if you aren’t careful. Apply it only once during a growing season. Controlling pests. Applying a dormant oil at least once, if not twice, during the winter is a very important preventive pest control application. It is aimed at aphids, scale insects, spider mites and a few other general pests that might appear this coming growing season.  It is primarily aimed at “suffocating” these insects so it is important to apply it on a warm day with no wind. It is best applied by high pressure pesticide application equipment. However if you are using a backpack sprayer or other pressurized sprayer keep the pressure as high as you can during the application. This will help the oil cover as much surface as possible without leaving any gaps.  Solo backpack sprayer Low-pressure equipment or hose and sprayers “spit” out the oil which makes for a very uneven application and wastes a lot of the dormant oil. Dormant oils for homeowners are nearly always lightweight summer oils that are much less dangerous to plants than some of the winter oils applied in decades past. Don’t spray unless you have a problem or you had a problem last year and you’re trying to get a jump ahead.  Mature leaf footed plant bug A prominent pest on fruit and vegetables last year was the leaf footed plant bug.Your landscape right now. Look for the adults that will be ready to lay eggs on your plants as soon as it is warm and they have some surface area.  They will most likely hangout right now on broadleaf evergreen trees such as bottlebrush. They can see you coming and will move away from you as you approach the tree or plant.  The adults have wings so they will be flying in from neighbors when temperatures start to warm up. Sprays that contain pyrethrin or the synthetic pyrethrins are a good choice on these critters.  As a last resort, Sevin insecticide will control them but use that conventional insecticide when you have exhausted other possibilities such as oils, soap sprays and pyrethrin products. I have a lot more information but you have to start asking questions if you want it.

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Be Careful of Wildflower Seed in Primitive Areas

2 Comments / wildflower seeds for the desert, Wildflower seeds for the Southwest /

Q. Our family owns an unimproved lot at about 8500 feet in southern Utah. A combination of heavy snowfall, strong winds and disease resulted in blow down of dead and live trees. We are planning to clear the area to reduce the potential of fire and then seed native plants and wildflowers seeds. I cannot find any appropriate seed available to do this. A. There are seed packets available locally and online labeled as wildflowers. But these are generic wildflowers and not all native to our area. You are right to be looking for seed appropriate to your area. Generic types of wildflower seeds should not be used for seeding near semi-primitive or primitive areas. Introducing plants that are not native will result in future problems. Some non-native plants can invade undeveloped areas and “choke out” native plants. This results in multiple, successive future problems for other plants and animals relying on native plants. Check out this document online from the Utah Native Plant Society regarding sources for native seeds. http://www.unps.org/index.html?PAGES/cohortlist.html. Also download the document from the University of Nevada titled “Living with Fire” which aims at reducing the fire potential for homes located. In the Lake Tahoe area of Northern Nevada but has information appropriate to your situation. https://www.unce.unr.edu/publications/files/nr/2006/SP0611.pdf Talk with your local Forest Ranger and decide which of these seed choices would be appropriate for your location. If you have trouble downloading these documents, contact me and I can help you. When you are ready to seed, seed right into the snow as it is disappearing in the spring. The water and warming soils will help the seeds to germinate.S

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Does Newtown Pippin Apple Produce Good Flavor in the Desert?

Leave a Comment / clark county, Fruit tree evaluations, Las Vegas, Mohave Desert, which fruit trees are best for Southern Nevada /

Q. How has the Yellow Newtown Pippin apple performed in our climate. I would love to have one if the quality is good here. A. I published a list of recommended fruit varieties for our climate and made available on my blog. These are fruit tree varieties I have evaluated over a minimum of five years of fruit production. It can be misleading to recommend a variety when it has produced for only one or two seasons. http://xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com/2011/10/recommended-fruit-trees-for-southern.html I am not concerned so much whether this variety of apple tree will grow here or not. It will. My main concern is the quality of the fruit it produces in our climate and soils. Just because you like Macintosh apple you purchased from a local grocery store does not mean that a Macintosh apple grown here will taste the same. There are numerous potential problems with a Newtown apple grown in the desert. Only time will tell. Yellow Newtown Pippin has not had a long enough performance history in our climate to recommend it for the general public. It ripens a little bit before Granny Smith and a month or so before Pink Lady and this is a good time for apples to ripen in our climate. However, other influences such as our soils and climate while it was growing will impact its quality. Download a copy of my recommended fruit tree list Extra reading about the Newtown Pippin and Yellow Newtown Pippin apples https://www.slowfoodusa.org/ark-item/newtown-pippin-apple http://www.orangepippin.com/apples/newtown-pippin http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/05/dining/it-s-crunch-time-for-the-venerable-pippin.html?pagewanted=all

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Firewood and Pine Trees. A New Deadly Combination in Southern Nevada?

Leave a Comment / Mediterranean pine engraver beetle in firewood in southern Nevada /

The following is a Release from the U.S. Forest Service and Nevada Division of Forestry regarding a new pest found in firewood in southern Nevada. This pest will leave the firewood and may attack pine trees in southern Nevada, in particular Mondale and Aleppo pines. From the sound of it, infested firewood was brought in from California into southern Nevada. If you think you have purchased some of this wood please contact the Nevada Division of Forestry for more information about what to do. Goto Nevada Division of Forestry Contact Information in Las Vegas Goto Mediterranean Pine Engraver Information from USFS I was alerted by Jeff Knight from NDA that the Mediterranean pine engraver, Orthotomicus erosus (Wollaston), has been positively identified from two locations in southern Nevada. One site was near Blue Diamond and the other was a firewood distributor in Las Vegas.  The identification was confirmed by Jim LaBonte of the Oregon Dept. of Agriculture.  The beetles were trapped in Lindgren funnels with ethanol and alpha pinene as lures.  This represents the first record of this beetle in the U.S. outside of California.  The beetle appears to very aggressively attack stressed trees and rarely attack healthy trees.  The suspected host near Blue diamond is Pinus monophylla, no suspect in for the Las Vegas site yet.  Attached is the USFS Pest Alert for the beetle.  Further investigation of these sites will take place in early Jan. to determine possible hosts and entrance into Nevada. At this time NDA will not pursue any regulatory/quarantine actions, but will be working on educational information on the insect. More information about the Mediterranean Pine engraver beetle

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Freeze Protection Using White Breathable Fabric

Leave a Comment / frost blankets, Frost protection, row crop covers /

Q. We use a white, breathable fabric for some of our tender desert plants when there’s a chance of freezing temperatures.  We’re at a 3000 foot elevation on the eastern slope of the Spring Mountain Range and temperatures can be 8° F more or less than those reported at McCarren International Airport. We go by the plant description temperatures and for 30 degree forecasts we cover those that could be damaged down to 20 F degrees. Can the fabric be left on continuously for long periods of time even though nighttime temps are higher than 32 degrees if it’s anticipated that in a week or two or more temperatures will drop again below freezing?  Some folks who sell this product say it can be left on all winter but I thought I had better check with you. Row crop cover used for cold protection for vegetable row crops  A. Yes you can leave it on! This is a major advantage with these types of products specifically made for protecting plants from light freezes. They are called by several different names including crop covers, floating row covers, frost blankets and floating row crop covers. Some background on these products will help you understand them. These covers are flexible, nearly transparent, extremely lightweight and made from fabrics that are typically spun or woven. They “breathe” allowing light, rain and air movement through them but still capture heat coming from the ground. They transmit so much light that there shading effect on plants is only somewhere around 15 to 20%. They gained fame primarily in commercial vegetable production about 30 years ago for two distinct reasons; protection of vegetables from light frosts and earlier production. When left on permanently during cool weather, they can raise air temperatures under the fabric about 5 to 6° F which causes vegetables to grow faster which in turn means they can be harvested earlier. Besides protecting young tender plants from freezing temperatures and growing faster, they also provide another valuable advantage; insect protection. In organic production they are a valuable asset to leafy greens that can be damaged from wind, intense sunlight or chewing insects.             Row crop covers are placed over new seedlings or transplants and kept from blowing away with metal staples and a soil covering the edges. They are also used as a covering for low tunnels used in vegetable production. 

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