Xtremehorticulture

Tree Stump Removal Can Leave Problems Behind

These pictures are all from the same plant or plans located where the African sumac was removed. This type of leaf discoloration can be from many different things including mineral deficiency, overwatering, damage from salts, chemical damage such as some weed killers. Q. I had an African sumac tree removed. I believe that the removal crew treated the stump with something to prevent the tree from regrowing. Now the xylosmas I planted in that spot have yellow or brown leaves. Is flushing the soil with water the best treatment? A. A common treatment to use on the stumps to prevent regrowth is applying potassium nitrate, a.k.a. saltpeter, one of the so-called “stump removers”. There is nothing poisonous to plants about the potassium or the nitrate. It’s the concentration of this chemical that does the job. It’s a salt. This is a stump remover marketed in Australia. It clearly shows that it’s made from potassium nitrate. Notice the fertilizer analysis on the right of the label. In light applications, it’s a fertilizer. When it’s applied in large amounts, it’s a plant killer because it is a fertilizer salt. http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxNjAw/z/7OAAAOSw-ndTnilN/$_35.JPG             Any salt applied in high concentrations will kill plants. It is not a good idea to apply table salt because this salt contains sodium and chloride, both poisonous to plants. But potassium nitrate is also a fertilizer. The dose makes the poison. This fertilizer is applied at a concentrated rate that kills.             As with all salts, they flush easily from soil if you run lots of water through it.             There are other chemicals besides salt used to control regrowth from stumps. These are specific weed killers or herbicides that are very good at killing woody plants. Hopefully, these chemicals were not used. This is a stump remover that uses a chemical herbicide instead of potassium nitrate. http://images.lowes.com/product/converted/071121/071121564207.jpg             The pictures you sent to me looks like some form of chemical damage. Hopefully, they used potassium nitrate and you can simply flush the soil with water several times. If herbicides were used, the soil might need to be replaced in that area.

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New Commercial Orchard in Downtown Las Vegas

Cart paths bordering the block of two-year-old fruit trees at Ahern Orchard A cart path through the One-year-old plum and plot block of fruit trees at the air Ahern orchard There is a new Orchard about 1 ½ miles from Las Vegas Blvd., in Las Vegas Nevada and located in the Mojave Desert. It has been called “historic” by some because there is nothing like it anywhere in the United States.   Grape trellising at the Ahern Orchard Of two-year-old grapevines The Ahern Orchard currently has a mixture of about 1600 fruit trees and 400 grapevines, both table and wine grapes. It will expand to over 3000 plants in 2018 after spring planting. It sits on private property, owned by Ahern Rentals, Inc. and fed water from two agricultural wells that have been in existence for decades.   First year fruit tree planting at the Ahern Orchard, 2016 The area where it’s located is historic as well, rich in pre-Las Vegas and Las Vegas history. The land was formerly horse and residential property. Before the 1960s, there were artesian springs in the vicinity where the Ahern Orchard is located. In-line drip tubing used for irrigating fruit trees in the rows I have been working as a consultant on this Orchard since it’s beginning starting February, 2016, with Lloyd Benson, a VP of Ahern, who is the visionary behind this Orchard.   Irrigation valve, filter, pressure regulator and flow indicator (Ecoriser) for a block of fruit trees using in-line drip irrigation tubing Fruit trees on the property include traditional peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots, apples, European and Asian Pears, figs, pomegranates, pistachios, quince, persimmons and jujube. Not so traditional are the interspecific and inter-generic hybrid fruit trees as well including pluots, plumcots, apriums and others. Complicating this mixture are over 80 varieties that spans a production season from mid-May to the end of December.   Delivery of woodchip mulch to use on the fruit tree rows The layout of the Orchard is with tree spacings 10 feet apart in rows with spacing between rows alternating between ten and 14 feet to accommodate management of fruit tree operations. Trees will be managed to a maximum height of 10 feet. Covering the surface of the soil in the rows are woodchips from local arborists, diverting this rich resource from landfills to beneficial use.   Irrigation pattern of the in-line drip tubing when the water is being applied to the row Trees were planted bareroot using a mixture of about 25% compost from Viragrow, Inc. and triple super phosphate (0-45-0). First year trees were painted with whitewash to protect them from sunburn. Many of the second-year trees were protected from sunburn using white, plastic tree guards.   Fruit tree planting holesAre marked with a mixture of compost and triple super phosphate. Grapevines are supported by either single or double high tension steel cordon wires together with “catch wires” to protect the fruit from sunburn. End posts and line posts are traditional vineyard posts. All fruit trees are drip irrigated using in-line drip irrigation tubing down tree rows on both sides of the trees. PVC headers and footers are located at the beginning and end of each row that connect all of the in-line drip irrigation tubing in a “closed loop”. This type of irrigation irrigates the entire row while keeping the spaces between rows dry. Fruit tree roots will “follow the water” and eventually spread their roots throughout the entire row. Grapevines are irrigated more traditionally with drip irrigation emitters, one on each side of a vine, with water supplied from polyethylene tubing. Currently we are involved with winter fruit tree pruning at the Ahern Orchard. Some grape pruning will be done now but “fine-tuning” the grapes with their final pruning will not occur until February.

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Soil in Containers Needs Periodic Replacement

Q. We have two citrus trees (Meyer lemon and Bearss lime) which we put in clay pots. The pots are deteriorating and the trees need to be transplanted into other pots. In the desert, what time of year is best to transplant these trees into new containers?   Fruit trees growing in containers should have the soil amended or replenished every 3 to 4 years. A. Put them into new pots in late Winter or at the beginning of Spring. In our Las Vegas climate around the end of February or so. Containerized plants need the soil in the container “refreshed”, or the plant repotted, every 3 to 4 years or they will begin to decline. Grapefruit tree in container             This is not difficult if the containers and plans are relatively small; the plant is gently eased from the container, the roots and soil around the edge of the root ball is shaved off, and the plant is put back in the container with fresh soil or container mix.             If these plants are large, refreshing the soil still needs to be done every few years. Perhaps the best way to do that is to auger vertical holes throughout the root ball inside the container and fill them with a new container soil or soil mix.             Yes, this damages plant roots but the soil mix needs to be refreshed.

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Rabbits Best If Excluded from Herb Beds

Q. I plan on planting an herb garden in the spring but have rabbits in the neighborhood. Which herbs would be most rabbit resident? You can see the chicken wire on the outside of these vegetable beds. The chicken wire is supported with posts about 6 feet apart. A. The University of Arizona has a publication on rabbit and deer resistant plants but they are all landscape plants, not vegetables and herbs.             I have been growing vegetables and herbs near the desert for about twenty years. I have both jackrabbits and desert cottontails to fight with. The most effective way of controlling these plants from both of these varmints is a 2-foot-tall, 1 inch hexagon chicken wire as fencing around the beds. In other words, exclude them from the growing area.  Basil growing in raised beds surrounded by chicken wire for rabbit protection.             Barry the bottom edge of the fencing about an inch below the dirt so they can’t get their nose under it. I keep fencing pretty tight. I have seen baby cottontails squeeze through the 1-inch hexagon holes at a dead run when they are very young. Sometimes these young bunnies hide in these beds, get fat and can’t get out.             Personally, I would not rely on a list of so-called rabbit resistant plants unless there are lots of other plants for these varmints to choose from. I have found that if they get hungry, they will eat things they normally wouldn’t.             Rabbit resistant plants work as long as rabbits have food alternatives. So, what you’re doing is forcing rabbits to go to your neighbors and avoid yours because they don’t like yours as much.

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What Makes Dime-Sized Holes in the Ground?

Q. Three years ago when we redid the back yard, they brought in “landscape sand” to make mounds. For the past couple of years something has been digging out the sand in a couple of areas to the point it is covering the rock mulch as you can see in the photos. I am in the yard a lot and never see any activity so it must be happening at night.(tunnels are a little smaller than a dime), Any ideas on what this is? A. I don’t think the holes are due to scorpions like the bark scorpion. To my knowledge, they are not known to create holes in the ground. Holes smaller than a dime might because by several critters: cicada digger wasps, aka cicada killer June beetles Birds pecking at the ground feeding on insects Earthworms I’m not an expert at this but those be some of my guesses. Maybe someone else has ideas.

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USDA Support for New Farmers and Ranchers

WASHINGTON, Nov. 24, 2017 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) today announced $17.7 million in available funding to support the delivery of education, mentoring, and technical assistance programs that help beginning farmers and ranchers in the U.S. and its territories. Funding is made through NIFA’s Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP), authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill. The deadline for applications is Feb. 1, 2018, at 5 p.m. Eastern time. See the funding opportunity for details.

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Ants Not Good Guys in Fruit Production

Q. I searched your blog but could not discover if ants are good pollinators or not. I know bees are. I have over 2 acres in Sandy Valley and have seen 6 to 8 different types of ants scurrying about the property. Are ants beneficial or will they become a problem for fruit trees I am planting?  Ants and aphids living and working together on apricot. The aphids suck plant juices and release sugary excrement. The ants use this sugary excrement as a food source and take it back to their nest in the ground. Ants move aphids to new locations in the tree or neighboring trees that are touching to expand their “herd” of aphids. A. The best pollinators for fruit trees, hands-down, are honeybees. More specifically Italian honeybees, the type that produce honey collected by beekeepers. They are workhorses when it comes to pollinating fruit trees and vegetable gardens. Female leaf cutter bees cut nearly perfect circles in the leaves of many plants including grapes and fruit trees. These leaf circles are used by the bees for raising their young.Leaf cutter bees are good pollinators of late season flowering plants.             Other types of bees, solitary bees like the leafcutter which cuts near perfect circles in the leaves of roses, grapes and basil, are strong workers later in the year and important pollinators for late spring and summer bloomers like alfalfa and clover. Rosemary is a good winter and early spring flowering plant to encourage pollinators for spring pollination of fruit trees.             Ants don’t contribute anything to pollination of fruit trees in my opinion. I consider them mostly nuisance insects that contribute to insect problems in fruit trees in a secondary way. How? They love aphids and will defend them to their death against anything or anyone that threatens aphid populations.   This short video is taken at our family farm in the Philippines. It shows Weaver ants, that create their nests in the canopies of trees, protecting some scale insects they have moved and are now farming on the branches of tropical fruit trees. Ants do the same thing in temperate environments but most of our ants have nests in the ground.             In fact, ants distribute aphids throughout a fruit tree canopy similar to how we move cattle to new pastures. Aphids are common in the spring of the year feeding on new growth of fruit trees. Their feeding causes leaves to become sticky, roll and curl. Ants move mother aphids around to increase populations and their own food supply for subterranean nests.             While feeding on plant leaf juices, aphids drip sugary excrement that ants use for food inside their colony. Next time you find an aphid problem in fruit trees, look at the ground nearby. You will see an “ant mound”, an opening to a subterranean ant nest. There is a good reason for their close association to aphids.             For this reason, I don’t like ants in orchards and I make a point of eliminating ant colonies when I see them near fruit trees. Several methods can be used to eliminate them but I find ant baits, taken back inside colony, to be among the most effective. Seldom are ants beneficial when growing plants for human food.

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Can’t Get My Trashcan Compost Started

Q. I’m composting in plastic trash cans with holes. It’s taking a very long time to make compost despite adding carbon to my grass clippings and kitchen waste. I water and turn it every few days. What am I doing wrong?  Compost piles need to be a certain size for them to be efficient enough to generate the heat needed for weed free and pathogen free compost. A. Compost ingredients are divided into two categories; “brown” ingredients which are loaded with carbon, and “green” ingredients which have much more nitrogen in them. Typical “brown” ingredients might be things like shredded paper, cardboard, sawdust and pulverized woodchips. Commercial composts generate high enough temperatures to kill all weed seeds and human and plant pathogens. Compost thermometers like this one are used to measure the compost temperature before turning it. Turning it cools the compost, aerates it and mixes microorganisms on the cooler surface back into the entire mix.             Typical “green” ingredients can be scraps from fruits and vegetables, green parts of plants including leaves and soft stems. Brown and green ingredients must be in proper balance to achieve a ratio of carbon to nitrogen between 20:1 to 40:1. Machines like this compost turner move down a row of compost called a windrow and mixes it by turning it over thus aerating it.             Composting is controlled “rotting” of a mixture of these ingredients. Brown and green ingredients are finely shredded and mixed together, some water is added, a small amount of soil or fresh compost and it is turned, or aerated, when the center of the compost gets hot. If heat isn’t produced by a compost pile, then one of the necessary ingredients is missing or in short supply.             Ideally, microorganisms from soil or fresh compost feast on moist carbon and nitrogen found in the compost ingredients, heat is produced and the entire mixture “rots” in a few months if these “rotting” microorganisms also get air. Air is provided by turning this mixture periodically or injecting air into the pile.             Commercial composters turn large compost piles when temperatures are about 160°F toward the center of the pile. These high temperatures are needed to destroy human and plant pathogens and weed seeds.             Small amounts of compost are more difficult to start than large piles because of our desert environment. In our desert environment, place small composters like trash cans out of the wind and protect them from the sun.             Make sure microorganisms are in the mixture. Add a couple scoops of fresh compost or a pound of garden soil to this mixture. Add extra nitrogen such as high nitrogen fertilizer or blood meal if you think too much “brown” ingredients are in the mixture.

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Summer Water Needs of Lantana, Honeysuckle and Oleander

Q. How much water does oleander, lantana and honeysuckle need during summer months?    Lantana’s are always a favorite with desert residents because of their low level of maintenance and reliability for color. A. Whenever talking irrigation, two important considerations should be made; how much water to apply and how often to apply it. How often refers to which valve or station they are on. How much water refers to the minutes of operation of that station AND the size and number of drip emitters around each plant. Oleander is famous for being “drought tolerant”. That has nothing to do with its water use. For its footprint in the landscape, it has very high water use and it’s needed in order for it to stay and look good. Otherwise, when not given enough water, even though it survives and considered drought tolerant, it can look pretty shabby.             Deeper rooted plants like oleander should be watered less often (but with more water) than shallower rooted plants like lantana and honeysuckle. Ideally, oleander should be on a station (valve) that waters other trees and large shrubs not desert adapted. The lantana and honeysuckle would be fine on the same valve.             Next is size. Larger plants should receive more water spread over a larger area than smaller plants. Some oleanders get quite large while others, petite are dwarf varieties, would do fine with a smaller amount.             Larger oleanders should probably get somewhere around 15 gallons or so each time they are watered. Smaller, petite oleander probably between five and 10 gallons. If using drip irrigation, the size of the drip emitters used (gallons per hour) depends on the minutes allocated for that station.             Lantana needs one or 2 gallons every time it’s watered. The honeysuckle, probably 3 to 4. If watered the same number of minutes, double the number or size of the emitters used on the honeysuckle.

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