Q. I would like to grow my own rhubarb. Could you tell me where I can find the plant or the bulb, and when would be a good season to start? Not my picture of rhubarb but I figured some readers have never seen it. From Wikipedia By Dieter Weber (User:Uellue) – own work, photo taken in a private garden in Kiel, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=743387  A. Rhubarb can be grown in our climate but it is commonly grown in more northerly states including the Midwest, upper Midwest, Pacific Northwest and New England. It is less commonly found in warmer climates. So, it can be tricky to grow here.             It is technically classified as an herbaceous perennial which means it’s large leaves and fleshy petioles comes from underground rhizomes, much like iris, artichokes and asparagus. All the top growth freezes back to the ground with the first hard frost. If it doesn’t freeze back in our climate, cut it to the ground in late winter. Rhubarb rhizome for showing growth from  http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/propagating             Seeds are available but start it from a good-sized rhizome instead. They are a bit pricey. Order them online from a reliable seed company.             Rhubarb will struggle in our heat. There are complaints from people that it doesn’t taste the same when grown in cool climates. Probably true. Grow it on the north or east side of a building and keep it out of late, hot afternoon sunlight. It needs plenty of sunlight in the morning, but not the afternoon.             Amend the soil with quality compost at the time of planting. Mix compost with your existing landscape soil at a rate of 1:1 by volume or use a bagged, commercial soil planting mix amended with compost.             Never cover the soil with rock mulch or plastic but use 2 to 3 inches of wood chips instead. Fertilize it with compost or a lawn fertilizer in late December to mid-January. It comes out of the ground early.             The leaves are toxic so cut off the leaves and compost them. The leaf stems or petioles are what people eat provided it’s cooked with a lot of sugar. 

Q. I have some stick sized trees growing very well. Some are about 12″ to 18″ tall. The leaves are around the bottom of the stick and none at the top. Should I cut the stick off down to the leaves? A. Yes, if you think it’s dead cut it back to the leaves. When new shoots begin to grow taller than 1 foot, remove all but one if you want a single stemmed tree. If you want a multi-trunked tree remove all but three or five, and leave an odd number growing. If you can prune it with a hand shears then prune any time of year.             Lightly fertilize it every couple months to push new growth. If this tree is tender to winter freezing temperatures, don’t fertilize after an August 1.

Q. Is Miracle grow all it’s made to be?  I haven’t seen any results yet after I sprayed it on my plants. A. If your plants are in great shape to begin with you won’t see any results from MiracleGro fertilizer applied to the leaves or any other product for that matter. Applying a liquid fertilizer to the leaves gets fertilizer inside the plant faster so results, if there are any, will be seen sooner than applying a fertilizer to the soil. That’s the primary reason for using it. Peters is an alternative for Miracle Gro. It has an outstanding commercial reputation among greenhouse growers. i don’t know how good the homeowner product is.              I used several types of powdered, fertilizers mixed with water and applied to the leaves because I’m curious about them. These include MiracleGro, Peters, and Grow More. Honestly, I have never seen much difference in any of them. If I were to lean toward a product in that group it would probably be Grow More because it’s the least expensive. Grow More has a very good line of water soluble fertilizers that are not as expensive and have a great reputation particularly among marjuana producers.             There are steps I would recommend when using any of these products to get the best results. Use distilled water. The effectiveness of liquid fertilizers has a lot to do with the quality of the water used. Our tap water is alkaline. Our tap water can cause problems with foliar fertilizers.             Add a spray surfactant to the spray mix before applying it. Spray surfactant is a fancy term telling you to add something to the mix to help the fertilizer get inside the leaf. The leaf is covered with waxes and using a spray surfactant helps the fertilizer get inside. Use distilled water rather than tap water if your tap water has a bad reputation or has some pH problems like it does in Las Vegas. Distilled water has a ph of 7 and wont have problems with micronutrients become unavailable.             You can buy commercial spray surfactants called “wetting agents” or use a high-quality soap such as a liquid Castile type. Use about 1 tablespoon in a gallon of spray mix.             Spray this mixture on the leaves, both front and back, only until the surface of the leaf is moist. No more than this. EZ wet is a very gentle wetting agent/surfactant  that helps fertilizer nutrients move inside the leaves. Liquid Castile soaps are also good. Stay away from dishwashing liquids because they are hard on plants and have personal care products in them now.             Use it all up. Don’t store this spray solution. Make a new batch for the next time you spray. 

Q. Do brown branches denote “deadness” on a tree in the spring or can they be brought back somehow? Dead branch in purple leaf Plum that will not come back because it is truly dead. Italian cypress with brown branches that appeared dad but are still alive. Nothing will grow from these brown branches anymore even though they are alive. A. Brown does not always mean a branch is dead. Some tree branches are more brittle than others. For instance, fig, persimmon and pomegranate branches can be quite brittle compared to apple and peach.             The usual method I use to see if a branch is dead is to bend it. Many branches of trees may look brown and dead but are quite supple when bent. Supple and bending denotes it’s still alive. Other trees have branches which are alive but can snap easily when bent. In cases like this I scrape the bark with my thumbnail or a knife to see if the wood is green under its “brownness”.             Remember, some plants are slow to leaf out in the spring. Wait for new growth and prune out whatever might be dead. I sometimes get confused as well when winter or early spring pruning.

Q. I have a 6-8 yr. old ash that has this white powdery looking substance on the newer growth. Can you tell me what it is and how to eliminate it. Photo attached. Unknown white cottony insect at base of new ash growth. Another image of white cottony insect at base of new growth on ash A. I have to admit I put this on a back burner because I wasn’t quite sure what was going on. I have seen this on vegetables and herbs but never on the new growth of ornamental trees. It is most likely an insect problem. These insects are feeding on the soft, succulent new growth. If you touch this white fluffy substance on these shoots I think you will see these insects beneath it. The problem I had was what to call these insects. At first I thought it was woolly Apple aphid which makes a lot of sense in the cool time of the year when there is new growth. But what troubled me was that I have never seen woolly Apple aphid in Las Vegas before. I have seen it in other cooler climates. See some pictures of Wally apple aphid Secondly, the pattern that they are feeding in does not typically fit woolly Apple aphid. They don’t usually feed all along the new growth. They are typically clustered at the bottom of the new growth. Until you tell me differently, I am going to stick with woolly Apple aphid or another kind of insect that feeds on the sap of newer, soft, succulent growth. They are easy to control or even ignore. You could take a hose and a nozzle and knock them off with a powerful, directed spray on the foliage. If you want to be more aggressive, you could use a soap and water mixture and do the same thing with a hose and applicator. If they really bother you, you could nuke them by applying the Bayer insecticide for trees and shrubs and apply it to the soil surrounding the roots. In my opinion that is overkill. See if they continued to be a problem or not. Aphids typically become less of a problem as temperatures get hotter.

Q. How do you stop Gambel’s quail from eating apricot tree leaves? They never touched my 3-year-old tree until near the end of the last growing season then they swarmed the tree and chewed at everything that was green. These little fish poops ate all melon plant sprouts yesterday as well. I tried hanging CD’s, strips of tin foil to no avail. Bird pecked peaches at the Orchard A. About the only thing I can suggest is giving them an alternative to munch on or cage them out using bird netting. I am sure there are lots of suggestions from people like spraying garlic, hanging pie tins or DVD’s to scare them but in my experience these tricks do not work for very long or not at all. Electronic bird scaring device used at the Orchard. It would work for about two weeks. After that, the birds got used to it.             Birds in general can be a real problem, particularly to the fruit. The other option is to let them eat the leaves and let the tree replace what is lost. Once you get past spring, hopefully, they will move on to other more tender leaves at your neighbors.

Q. We are growing the Celebrity variety of tomatoes in our garden here in Las Vegas and decided to cover them this year with a mesh tarp for shade because the sun has scorched them in the past.  However, we noticed the vines are growing but the tomatoes are not very big and they are not ripening like they usually do.  Are they supposed to have complete sun? What do you suggest? Providing too much shade causes poor growth and reduced fruit or flower production or none! 30% shade vs 60% shade. A. The amount of shade that you provide to tomatoes is critical for continued production of fruit. Shade cloth is typically categorized by the percent of shade that it provides. For flowering plants you should provide no more than 30 to 40% shade or they may stop flowering and setting fruit. Plants that do not flower can handle more shade, up to about 50 or 60%.             You didn’t tell me what percent shade you are giving tomatoes but I suspect it’s too much. Light shade, 20 to 40%, is hard to find locally. Usually you have to order light shade for crops. You can provide shade by also using lathe instead of shade cloth.             In northern climates we used to use snow fence. To get 50% shade, remove every other lathe from a solid ceiling of lathe. To get 25% shade, remove two and leave one. Chain-link fence with PVC slats gives you about 75% shade. I think you get the picture.

Q. You mentioned that citrus trees are often grafted. Are full size trees grafted like dwarf trees? Do I need to remove anything? The trees are about five feet tall. Will I have more success getting fruit from full size trees? Remove suckers like these from the base of small trees as soon as you see them.This fruit tree is watered with drip irrigation from in-line tubing. Wood chip mulch is covering the soil.The tree was planted bare root and painted with white wash to prevent sunburn. A. All citrus bought from a nursery are grafted, full size trees as well as trees sold as dwarf or semi dwarf. Seldom are they grown on their own roots for a variety of reasons. The most common is because of our cold winter climate and protecting the rootstock from freezing. Some of this benefit from freezing is passed on to the rest of the tree. Root stock dogleg on grafted fruit tree.             Fruit produced from dwarf trees can be the same size as standard size trees if the tree is managed properly. If you look at the bottom of the tree you will see a “dogleg” where the top tree was grafted to the to the roots of a different tree. You will see this dogleg on many ornamental trees as well.             Anything growing from below this “dogleg” (on the rootstock) should be removed as soon as you see new growth. Young trees frequently “sucker” from this rootstock and these suckers must be removed. Pulling them off rather than cutting them is better. As the tree gets older, it frequently stops suckering as much.             Enjoy what you can. Citrus is “iffy” in our climate. Some years you will have fruit, other years you will not. Some years they may freeze to the ground and other years sail through the winter without damage. 

Q. I am trying to grow an avocado tree.  I have it in a container and it’s now 22 inches tall.  When is the best time to transplant and what is the best way to take care of it in our desert? A. As you are probably aware, avocados are “iffy” in the Las Vegas climate. Probably a little worse than citrus regarding surviving winter cold. It depends on which avocado you are growing.              With that said, I would put the container in a protected area away from extreme cold during the coldest part of this coming winter. Around the first week of March, I would plant it in the ground. Make sure you amend the soil and do not fertilize it after August 1. http://xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com/2014/01/solutions-for-home-avocado-production.htm lhttp://xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com/2016/03/avocados-for-cold-desert.html

Q. I’m considering watering my little lemon tree every day during the summer months. Is this good or bad? The tree dropped two-thirds of it’s leaves a month after planting. That was three months ago. It has stabilized, and I currently water it every other day on a slow drip. (4 gallons per watering) Should I water every day in June, July, and August because of the 100+ temps? A. I have noticed some problems with citrus the first year after planting from containers into the soil. There was a lot of relief yellowing, leaf scorch, leaf drop and some dieback. This happened even though there was wood chip mulch at their base. Once small amounts of water were applied daily they did quite a bit better during the summer. You will not have a problem watering every day if the soil drains water quickly. You will have a problem watering daily if the soil holds water for a long time. You might see some advantage to watering with small amounts of water every day. I see that sometimes on very young citrus but only for the first year after planting. I’m sorry to say, “it just depends…”. If you have not done it, try applying 3 to 4 inches of wood chips around the bottom of the tree and you should be able to water every other day with no problems even on the hottest days.