Xtremehorticulture

Volunteer Squash? Get Rid of it

Q. I had a volunteer plant in my flowerbed last summer. It looked like a squash plant, had very tiny white flowers, and grew hugely. I finally cut it down because it produced no fruit and shaded everything for several feet around. Perhaps if I left it vine I would get some fruit from it. Squash leaves can be the source of many different types of harmful insects. A. I wouldn’t waste my time with a volunteer squash/pumpkin/melon vine. When a plant is growing where it shouldn’t be, it is a weed and should be removed if you value its neighbors. Squash and all their relatives such as pumpkins and melon many times hybridize or cross pollinate among themselves. The seed they produce is a blend between the two parents. 99% of the time it will not be an improvement over the parents as far as eating quality. By letting it grow their it’s just a source of harmful insects that will infest the other plants because they are “dirty” unless they are cared for in a garden setting.

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Big Plants Use More Water than Little Plants

Q. My wife believes 30 ft. pine trees do not need watering because they absorb water from the air. I ask you because the pine needles are turning brown Is she correct? A. She is not correct. As any tree or plant gets bigger its demand for water increases. They do not take water from the air. Just the opposite. They lose water to the air in a process called transpiration, the same as any other tree, needled or with broad leaves.

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Sago Palm Yellowing

Q. We have multiple sago palms in our yard and they have all done well for over 10 years. This year all the sago palms are turning yellow (pics below). Especially the largest one. We have not changed any of the fertilizer or care routine and the watering is the same as the previous summers. For some reason this year they seem to be really suffering. Reading online some websites say too much water, others say not enough, some say too much sun, others say not enough fertilizer or too much!  Basically I have no idea where to begin… 😐⁉️We love our sago palms and love the dark green evergreen foliage (they normally have) please help us save these beautiful plants.  A. It is  hard to begin. If they are healthy and growing in good soil they can handle a lot of sun and adversity. If the soil has been depleted (surrounded by rock mulch for instance) they can get quite yellow.  If the roots are drowning and the soil stays wet they can yellow. If they have root diseases (too much water, poor soils or depleted soil) they can yellow. I would nurse them along until October and dig them up, amend the soil, inspect the roots and check for rotting roots, correct the soil/watering problem and replant them. The yellowing created by a lack of fertilizer or the right kind of fertilizer is different from this kind of yellowing. This appears to be stress related. I think it is soil depletion which can be corrected by adding organics back to the soil. Use about a one inch layer of compost applied to the soil around them and water it in. You might also try adding wood chips, not bark, to the soil surface after the compost application.

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