Q.  I live in the Anthem community in Henderson NV at 2900 feet and have a large variety of plants watered with drip emitters. I typically fertilize three time a year with a local nursery product. I also apply EDDHA iron chelate as needed if a shrub shows signs of yellowing. Comments? One fertilizer application in the spring of each year is enough for most landscape plants. Some exceptions are lawns, vegetables, annual flowers and specialty shrubs like roses. A.  Mineral fertilizers for home landscapes are all the same, whether you get them from a local nursery or not. I select a mineral fertilizer based upon price and the three numbers on the outside of the bag. This is called a “starter fertilizer”. Why? Because the middle number, phosphorus, responsible for helping new roots to grow is highest. Phosphorus also helps promote flowering so it is also used as a rose fertilizer and tomato fertilizer. The last of the three numbers, potassium, should always be high. The first number, nitrogen, encourages growth and greening of the plant and disappears with watering. The middle number, phosphorus, encourages flowering, rooting and sticks around in the soil longer after an application. If there is any fertilizer needed by plants later in the year it’s the first number, nitrogen. Blood meal, fertilizer made from the blood of animals, is high in nitrogen; usually 12%. It also has iron in it but the numbers quoted for this fertilizer when sold as a mineral fertilizer is 12-0-0.  It is not “organic” unless it carries the organic label. Even though it is made from blood, it is not considered an “organic” fertilizer. One application of fertilizer in the early spring of each year is all that is required for most landscape plants. Exceptions are lawns, vegetables, and “show plants”, like roses that produce a show of flowers to enjoy. Even fruit trees grow well with one application of fertilizer in the spring of each year. Winter tender plants, like most citrus and bougainvillea, are fertilized only once in the early spring, avoiding fertilizer applications after the middle of summer. All that being said, it’s always best to repeat applications of fertilizer in small amounts all through the growing season. It’s not necessary, but according to research it’s best. this is the selling point made for fertilizer injectors like EZ Flo. EZ Flo fertilizer injectors are not really fertilizer vernri type fertilizer injectors rather than the very expensive but very exact fertilizer injectors. Theas types of injectors are exact enough for most homeowners but may not be exact enough for commercial greenhouse growers who need more precise application of chemicals to the irrigation water. For plants that like continuous feeding such as vegetables and “show plants”, I like to use rich compost as a fertilizer in the beginning of the year and then follow up with very light nitrogen applications the remainder of the year when needed.

Q. I moved here a year ago and have yet to figure out what my palm tree needs to thrive.  It gets plenty of water. I located and uncovered the drippers to make sure it was getting enough water and even moved some plants away from it so it got more water. Palms endure the heat. Some not so much the wind but they love the heat. They also love water. I consider palms to be “oasis” plants. When you find fan palms growing in the desert they are near surface water like here in Warm Springs, Nevada, or near an oasis. Mark my words. When you see palms growing in the desert I will bet you $10 you will also find water. A. Palm trees growing in the desert are “oasis plants”; they need to grow near water but not in it. They like to be surrounded by other plants that also need water. A big mistake to make with palm trees is to grow them alone, out in the middle of nowhere, and surround them with rock. Growing them alone, in full sun, and surrounding them with rock is asking for a multitude of different problems. Many palms are quite large. They may be cute when they are small but when they get larger…watch out! A second problem with most palms is their mature size. They are cute to look at when small, but all the palms get larger as they get older. Their growing size forces homeowners to pay more for pruning, and possibly removal, as these trees get larger. Mediterranean fan palm and Windmill palm look similar except the Windmill palm is much slower growing and doesn’t get wider like the MFP does. This is because it “suckers” from its base. It can get quite wide if it is not controlled as this one is. Probably the two palms that are the best choices for smaller residential lands  capes are the Windmill Palm and Mediterranean Fan Palm. The Mediterranean Fan Palm can be put into hot windy locations but requires pruning as it gets older. The pruning mostly focuses on keeping it from getting wider. The second choice is the slow-growing Windmill Palm. Windmill Palm should be placed on the East or north side of a landscape out of the wind. Both should be surrounded by other plants and woodchips rather than rock. This is a windmill palm. Lets see it in five years when the organics in the soil are gone and the rock has impacted the landscape of this “oasis” plant.

Q. I live in Summerlin in Las Vegas and have a small vegetable garden that I started this year. My first season has been erratic. I had four tomato plants; one of them gave a good amount of tomatoes other three just one or two through out the whole season. Pepper plant had no peppers. I had six bell pepper plants and got two bell peppers out of it. Out of two eggplant plants,  I got one small eggplant. I have a Myers Lemon tree that was planted 18 months ago and there is one lemon on it. My old tree at my old house used to be full of lemons. What may be the reason for this? Bill Stillman and his pomegranate windbreak in Bullhead City, AZ. You dont want to stop the wind, just slow it down. A. Once the soil has “settled down” in your garden and starting to get productive then it’s a matter of using the right vegetable varieties. I have attached a vegetable primer for growing vegetables in the desert written by Dr. Sylvan Wittwer who was a vegetable specialist at Michigan State University until his retirement. He lived in Logandale, Nevada for about 8 years and he wrote about his vegetable production there. I consider it to be probably the best source of vegetable growing information in southern Nevada. He recommend some old-fashioned varieties that are traditional standbys and I would suggest that you stick with those first.  As you introduce other varieties into your garden stick with some of the tried and true varieties that Dr. Wittwer recommends in this publication and introduce newer ones slowly and see how they do. Be careful about using seed from Lowe’s and home Depot unless you know the variety. Don’t assume that anything will grow here. It won’t. Some produce better than others here and some don’t produce much of anything in the desert. Selecting the right varieties are important! As far as your lemon tree goes it really is very dependent on the location of the tree in the yard, the microclimate that it’s in and spring weather. You might have had an exceptional spot at your old house. The most devastating weather factor for gardens and fruit trees is wind. If you have wind affecting your garden and your fruit trees then good luck with quality and production. It will be erratic at best and very dependent on the weather.  The best food is produced on the leeward side (side on the opposite side from the prevailing wind) . The circles represent zones of influence by the windbreak. the inner oval is five times the windbreaks height. This is the strongest “zone of influence’ impacted by the windbreak. The second outside half oval is 20 times its height. This area is still influenced but not as strongly. The best vegetables and fruit are produced on the leeward side of a windbreak or at least something that slows the wind down considerably. Consider chain length fence and PVC slats or temporary fencing such as reed mats that can help slow the wind down if yours is a windy location. Use screens that are about 20% porous to the wind.  Remember the importance of pollinators and plant things in your yard like Rosemary for instance or lavender or even a bird bath full of clean water that will attract pollinators all through the growing season. Plants that bloom all the time, like this rosemary, is a good choice to attract pollinators during bloom time. Incorporate these near your fruit and vegetable gardens. Fruit trees take a couple of years to get going so have some patience in the meantime.

Q. Which varieties of grapes are the best to grow in the Las Vegas valley? Zinfandel, one of the warm weather wine grapes, does very well in the desert. Zinfandel grape juice is not just for wine. It makes a wonderful and tasty jelly or juice. A. The best choices, or varieties, for grape growing in southern Nevada are those grapes which prefer to grow in hot weather. Recognize that grapes are grown for fresh eating (often times seedless) and those grown for their juice, such as wine grapes. Some examples of table grapes that grow well in hot weather include Thompson Seedless, Flame, Concord, Fantasy and Black Monuka. Others may also be a good choice, but these should get you started.             Juice or wine grapes that can be grown for their juice for making wine or jelly include Zinfandel, Muscats, Syrahs, Grenache, Barberra, and many others. I would be very careful growing the so-called “cool season grapes” such as the Cabernets, Pinots, Gewurztraminer, Merlot, and others. That being said, I have had good luck growing a few of the so-called cool weather grapes such as Pinot Noir.             Bottomline, check to see if they are warm season grapes or not. If they are, your chances of success are better than the cool season grapes.

Q. Last spring I planted two Early Girl tomatoes. In the middle of July, I cut them back to about 8 inches and they come back and give me a second crop in the fall. They usually die in the middle of December but not this year! Should I replant this spring with new plants? Tomato fruit the day after a hard freeze. Tomato fruit are damaged at temperatures around 45F, an effect on tropical fruit called chilling injury. These temperatures were at freezing,,,below 32F for just 30 minutes. A. Not necessary to replant. Tomatoes are a perennial crop that can get several years old in the tropics and are still productive. They will continue to be as productive as young plants if pruned back again this spring like you did before. The big advantage of existing plants is in their established root system. They don’t have to expend energy to reestablish roots. This means the tops will grow faster and be productive. Tomatoes prefer temperatures from about 65°F to 95°F. It’s just cold for these warm weather vegetables right now. Chilling Injury Chilling injury can happen to some tropical plants when temperatures drop below 45 to 50F. Think banana in a refrigerator. They dont freeze but they dont like it and the tissues are damaged. For banana, it turns brown. Never put tomatoes in the fridge unless you have to. They will get chilling injury. Not as as obvious as banana but it damages the fruit. Generally speaking, fruit is more sensitive to chilling injury than the plant but chilling injury can damage some plants.  How to Prune Tomato Clean and sanitize your garden shears and cut them back to about 8 inches again in late February or early March. Cut them about a quarter inch above a leaf. You can do it anytime you are confident temperatures are starting to warm up again. Add fresh compost, water and fertilizer, if needed, to get them back on track and flowering.

This is a nursery I visited in Kosovo but they are all much the same. There you can find plants that can be planted in many different places in the yard. It is your decision to find one that will grow into the right size, survive the winter cold, locate it in the right spot (shade, sun, wind?) and take care of it. Your Nursery Visit There are many plants to choose from when landscaping your home. But which will perform best? How and where should they be grown in your yard? Landscape plants can be chosen from your local nurseries and garden centers which, for the most part, grow well in our desert environment. Your job is to choose the right size plant, put them in the best location, and amend the soil where they are growing. Pick the right soil amendment such as this rich compost from Viragrow. This compost, because it is loaded with plant nutrients, is mixed with the soil about 25%. This compost contains about $150 of plant nutrients. Landscape plants planted with this compost in the soil surrounding the roots probably wont need any fertilizer for two years. Make Two Trips This may take two trips. The first is just to gather information, take this information home and investigate your choices. Your second trip is to purchase the plants and proper soil amendments. Select plants that have a winter cold tolerance you can live with. This cactus had freeze damage one winter in Las Vegas. Very winter hardy plants, like the one behind it, can handle lower winter temperatures than the cactus that was damaged. Winter Hardiness Your first selection criterion is winter hardiness. This information can be found online. Major trees and shrubs important to your landscape should withstand temperatures to 20°F during the winter months for their long-term health and survivability. Plants that can be lost or damaged in the landscape should tolerate winter temperatures to 25°F. If you want to experiment and have some fun with plants, select plants that don’t handle any freezing temperatures at all. If the mature height was researched on this tree before planting, maybe it would not be chosen to shade the house. Avoid later cost and disappointment. Pick plants that are the right size for its location. Plant Size You can reasonably reduce the size of a plant to about two thirds of its mature height and width. This takes work and expense on your part as it gets older. It’s best to choose a plant that’s closer to the right size at the very beginning. Microclimates Another factor is landscape location. Some plants tolerate the hotter Western and Southern exposures. Plants that perform best in these hot, dry, and isolated locations frequently originate from hot, desert climates in the southwestern US (Chihuahuan, Sonoran, Mojave and Great Basin deserts). Other plants will struggle in these locations and should be planted in Eastern or Northern exposures. Again, online research helps you in this decision. Some plants can handle rock mulch while others may struggle. This hawthorne is a poor choice when covering the soil with rock. It will stay green for a few years because of the soil amendment added at planting but eventually the “organics” in that soil “run out” and the plant turns yellow. Rock or Woodchips? Some plants grow well for many years surrounded by rock. Others may grow there okay for a few years and then begin to suffer. Plants from places like the East Coast, Asia or tropical areas should be surrounded by woodchips rather than rock for long-term health and well-being. Research Three Plants Select three plants for each location before you do your online research. Online databases from the Southern Nevada water Authority and Arizona State University are good places to start. You can always contact me for more help if you need it.

Q. Two years ago I had grape bunches that were shriveling up in the middle of summer while they were still green. I think it was a disease, but it spread and killed off nearly all my grape bunches. How can I prevent this in the future? Grape diseases can be divided into two main groups; those that attack the fruit and those that attack the vines. This is a bunch rot disease of grapes in Las Vegas. The link is only for Botrytis bunchrot disease. There are several kinds. A. Grapes don’t typically get borers, but they can get diseases that attack the bunches or young stems. Another disease attacks the new growth. The other problem commonly found on grapes growing in the desert is damage from our intense sunlight. This was unofficially diagnosed as Eutypa disease on table grapes, a trunk disease of grapes.             The most common diseases of grape bunches are the so-called powdery and downy mildews. You will not see them, but the disease is flourishing, invisible, right under your nose. This might be a problem later with grapes when there is snow or rain falling on the new growing vines in the spring. It will cause the bunches, all of a sudden, to die green. During February and March, hope for dry weather when grapes are first starting to grow. If this kind of weather is present then, it’s a good idea to spray a fungicide two or three times during the growing season to prevent bunch diseases like these from becoming a problem. Spray the first dose when bunches are small to protect them from infection. The usual fungicides for homeowners are copper fungicides like Bordeaux. And for heaven sakes, when you are pruning, sanitize your pruning shears Damage to the bunches or older stems from intense sunlight is not a big problem if grape stems and fruit are grown in the shade of their own leaves. About the only chemical protectants you can spray as a homeowner are the copper based fungicides, Bordeaux probably leading the group. Remember, fungicides like Bordeaux are protectants and much more effective at protecting new growth from infections. Watch for wet or rainy weather during new growth. If this happens, it is much more likely a disease will occur. Spray with Bordeaux mix after new growth has started and then again as the berries start to enlarge.

  ‘Flame’ table grape growing in Las Vegas. How do those grape berries get so big in the grocery store? Yes, its true they sometimes use hormone sprays to increase their size but you can do it naturally. Whether you are growing wine grapes or table grapes, it is important to “thin” the fruit to get larger or more flavorful berries. In table grapes the result is larger berries. In most wine grapes, the berries will not necessarily get larger (berry size is ultimately regulated by genetics) but they will get more flavorful. Here is how. Fewer Bunches Make Larger Berries “Balance the fruit load.” It is important in wine grapes as well as table grapes. That is a common moniker but what does it mean? It means to reduce the total number of bunches growing in each vine. The minerals taken up by the roots are divided up into fewer bunches and consequently fewer berries. Figure one good sized bunch every 6 to 8 inches. Reduce Bunch Size This is done by “pinching” or removing the bottom of the bunch when very young. Sound familiar? You do the same thing to peaches, plums and apples. Then it is called “thinning”. The concept is the same. Fewer “mouths to feed” results in larger fruit. The same is true in grape berries. If you reduce the number of bunches AND remove the bottom third of each bunch, the remaining individual berries get larger. Pinching or removing the bottom third of the grape cluster results in fewer berries and the remaining berries can get larger. Variety Determines Results The ultimate berry size is governed by its genetics. The variety ‘Italia’ is a seeded white grape that grows well in the desert and can be used for fresh eating or making wine. It can get very large berries. While the variety ‘Pinot Noir’ doesn’t seem to get a much larger berry size by thinning but the flavor is more flavorful!

Q. I have a grape, with dark colored fruit, growing on my established trellis. It’s already pruned. What should I do to it now? Fantasy table grape growing in Las Vegas. A. Of course your grape plant will need water and fertilizer when it starts growing in March. I would apply the fertilizer the first week of March and begin watering weekly during February. As new growth appears, you should already be watering once a week and have any fertilizer applied. to help push new growth. Which fertilizer to use? Any fertilizer used for fruit trees will work. It’s applied where the water is delivered to the plant but at least 12 inches away from its trunk. I prefer using a rich compost as a fertilizer instead, but it must be watered beyond any surface mulch so it comes in contact with the moist soil underneath it. Whether you apply compost or mineral fertilizers to help new grape growth push, do it just before new growth appears for best results. Grapes grow better in the hot desert if there is “plant litter” (surface mulch) on top of the soil where they receive their water. This surface mulch of 3 to 4 inches deep helps keep the soil surrounding their roots moist and cool. Woodchips from landscape trees make an ideal surface mulch for grapes and fruit trees because they easily rot and decompose into the soil. Wood, whether its from “forests” or urban forests is a valuable and rare commodity in the desert. Here woodchips are being dropped at the Ahern Orchard in Las Vegas to be used for soil enhancement around fruit trees and grapes. It’s helpful to determine if your grape should be “spur pruned” or “cane pruned”. Bunches of grapes are always produced along last year’s growth. The difference when pruning different types of grapes is where the fruit is produced along this new growth. Spur pruned grapes produce their bunches at the base of last year’s growth. Cane pruned grapes produce their bunches from buds further out from this. Buds that produce grape bunches further out, when spur pruned short, are void of grape bunches. Pay attention to your variety of grape and whether it prefers spur or cane pruning. Grapes and fruit trees grow much better and with fewer problems when NOT grown in bare soil but the soil covered in woodchip mulch. Simplest way is to delay pruning until you see grape bunches starting to form. I know it can be heart-wrenching, just like thinning peach trees, but removing extra bunches will make each of the berries in the grape clusters larger. When it’s an unknown grape variety I’m not sure about, I look for old grape clusters, remnants, produced last season. (I will take a few shots of this and insert later. I dont have any shots of this yet.) These can be subtle differences and not obvious to the casual observer. Count back the number of bumps or “buds” where these remnants were attached to older growth. Do this in several locations and get an “average” distance from where it grew. This tells you where you can safely prune last years growth and how much can be removed. Doing this can insinuate if a grape should be spur pruned or cane pruned in the future.

             Spur pruning of grape delayed until just before new growth occurs. Whether you are growing wine grapes or table grapes, it’s a good idea in our climate to delay the final pruning until you are confident freezing, dry and windy weather has passed. The reason for this is to minimize fruit loss because of cold, windy and dry late winter and early spring weather. If you get eager and make your final pruning early, it’s possible that cold, dry windy weather later might eliminate some or all the fruit you intended to keep. If grape pruning seems a bit daunting, go ahead and prune last years growth long (canes) even if your grape should be spur pruned. As the time approaches for new growth to occur, finish pruning with a second cutting of last years growth to the proper length. This avoids potential losses from the cold and dry winds that can sometimes happen in the desert. All grape bunches come from buds on last year’s growth. In this way, fruit is produced much like fruit is produced by peaches and nectarines. But this is where the similarity stops. Some grape bunches (Zinfandel, Syrah and Muscat for instance) grow from buds very close to where last year’s growth began. These types of grapes are “spur pruned”; leaving less than an inch of growth remaining from last year. Leave the canes a bit long and finish pruning when fruit clusters appear to “balance the load”. Other varieties of grapes (Thompson seedless and Concord grapes for instance), their bunches grow from buds several inches further out along last year’s growth. These types of grapes are “cane pruned” because last year’s growth is left longer; 6 to 10 inches in length. This allows the unproductive buds to grow without producing any fruit. Grape bunches appearing in early May in Las Vegas.             I delay pruning grapes in our cold desert climate as late as I can. Sometimes even after new growth is well underway. Delaying the pruning this long delays the chance of fruit loss because of freezes and cold drying winds. In the Las Vegas Valley, final pruning may be delayed until late February up until the first week in March. If you want to be doubly sure and a bit lazy about it, delay final pruning until fruit bunches show you where to prune. This might be as late as mid to late April or early May! You can delay the final pruning of grapes until you actually see fruit clusters (bunches) appearing. Doing this can help balance the load of fruit and make larger berries in the clusters.             This doesn’t mean you can’t do some pruning earlier. Just be careful and not remove too much of last year’s growth. It’s okay to leave last year’s growth about 12 inches long and cut it shorter than this when you are confident new growth is about to begin or later.