Xtremehorticulture

Xtremehorticulture of the Desert

Containers for Vegetable Gardening Offer Options

Leave a Comment / container, vegetables /

Q. We are planting a family vegetable garden. Would a container/raised bed do well in this environment? We’re used to summers in Colorado, and wondering if there are specific tomato, cucumber, pepper, and lettuce varieties that do well here? Will root crops like carrots and radishes do well in containers? The west side of our house gets late afternoon shade from the neighbor’s house, and that is the only space we have. Would this be okay? When is the best time to plant? Soon? A. I sent a vegetable growers Bible written by Dr. Sylvan Wittwer when he was growing vegetables in southern Nevada. Anyone interested who wants a copy can ask me for it and I will email it to you. It contains a planting calendar. He is a traditional gardener and not organic. Substitute organic alternatives if you want to use a different soil, fertilizer, or pesticide. Container vegetable gardening offer several alternatives when growing vegetables. When possible, use older varieties that are known successes until you get the hang of growing vegetables in this climate. When using raised beds, use compact varieties that produce fruit quickly and then throw them out and replant. Plant cautiously any new varieties. They sound cute. That’s a marketing gimmick. Sometimes they perform well in the desert and sometimes they don’t. Plant new varieties for three years in a row before calling them a “desert success”. Want to try some root crops like radishes or beets? If planting a “viny” plant, let the “vines” sprawl. The roots are important to the plant, not the “vines”. Keep weeds under control. Weeds breed bugs. Bugs eat plants or spread diseases. “The success of a garden equals the time your shadow passes over it.” Inspect and walk it at least daily. Strawberries, yellow peppers, and herbs are just a few of the suggestions. I like containers. Double pot them so they don’t get so hot when the sun shines on the outer walls. Use five to fifteen gallon nursery containers and fill them with your favorite soil to within one inch of the top rim. Put a three-inch layer of gravel in the bottom of the outer pot to keep them from lodging. If you are using tap water, filling these containers within one inch of the top will have some water coming out the bottom. This helps remove salts when you irrigate.

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Colder than Normal Spring Weather and Tomatoes

Leave a Comment / Cherry, cold spring weather, grape, pear, plastic, tomatoes /

Q. We read your early spring article in the RJ on tomatoes and planted 6 plants in mid-March.  We planted a mix of ‘Sweet 100s’, ‘Champion’ and another plum tomato.  We have been watering, using Miracle Gro for tomatoes and watching them closely.  The plants appear stunted.  We have them in cages, and they have only grown a short distance up the cage. Any suggestions? The smaller tomatoes, pear, cherry and grapes are always a sure thing in Las Vegas. The larger tomato is ‘Black from Tula’, an heirloom type. When the spring season is long and cooler, tomatoes do better. A. Planting dates for tomatoes in our climate can range from mid-February to mid-March. Watch the weather and use your weather app on your phone. It’s been cold lately. Wait for temperatures to warm up a bit. Tomatoes are a “warm season” crop, and they prefer soil and air temperatures a bit warmer than our spring provides at times. Our spring temperatures have been erratic. Low soil temperatures can slow tomato growth even if the air temperatures are high.  Its short stature gives this away as a determinate type of tomato.             About a week before you are to plant tomatoes, cover the soil with clear plastic and seal the edges. This is so the warm temperatures under the plastic don’t “leak out”. Warm the soil temperature to at least 65 F in the top few inches. I would slit the plastic and plant at that temperature. A soil thermometer stuck in the soil an inch or two deep helps you to check it. Tomatoes can be started a bit earlier if the soil is covered with plastic and there is good weather.             Raised beds in full sun warm up much faster in the spring than those raised beds in the shadow of a wall or home. Have two raised beds: one for early production in the spring and another for later production.

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Leaf Roll in Apricot

Leave a Comment / leaf roll, problems with limbs, selecting trees from the nursery /

‘Katy’ apricot with leaf roll. Q. I planted apple and apricot bare root trees in February of last year. My apricot seems to have leaf roll last year. My apple leaves had some red on the upper surfaces of the leaves. I am deep watering these trees and they both have bark mulch. The trees look healthy otherwise and were planted as specified when they were picked up. Both trees were painted with the 50/50 mix of white paint as specified.” A. Some leaf abnormalities always exist. Plants aren’t perfect! Whenever planting “bareroot” it is always best to keep the roots wet. It only takes about 20 to 30 seconds for those very small roots, called “feeder roots”, to die from a lack of water. It is a mistake to let any roots, die. Whenever there is root death of a plant, there can also be “transplant shock” or failure to grow at first. It just sits there. Make sure the roots are kept wet after planting. This does not mean watering every day! A citrus with rolling leaves.             Secondly, its okay to buy plants with branches that are too low. It is easier to remove branches than put them back! Our desert sun can be intense, particularly when its shining in full glory on the West and South sides of a tree. Painting the trunk with white latex paint, mixed half and half with water so it goes farther, gives you only about 5 or 6 degrees of cooling below the trunks surface temperature. When the sun is full bore for ten or fifteen minutes on the trunk of a fruit tree, that can be devastating with or without tree paint! It is important to keep the direct sunlight shaded on the trunk or limbs of a tree until it can provide its own shade. Peach with scaffold limbs too high off the ground. This limits the fruit production from the tree. Limbs don’t move up once they grow. It is easier to remove limbs than “glue” them back on once they are lost.             Fruit trees will be much better off when they get bigger and provide their own shade.

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Tropical Plants Can Be Fun to Grow in the Desert

Leave a Comment / bananas, molasses, Philippine farm /

Q. A couple of years ago I sent you pictures of my ‘Cavendish’ banana. I continue to overwinter the plants in the garage, cutting the leaves back and providing a little water once a month. I put them outside when the night temperatures reach 50 degrees. I separated the mother plant from the biggest baby this spring as I moved them outside, and now another baby has developed and is bigger than the mother. No bananas yet, but the plants are pretty and fun to grow. Tropical plants like bananas can be fun to grow in Las Vegas. Just protect them from the cold winters. Growing plants that don’t belong here take more time, effort and money but can be fun. A.  Bananas are a lot of fun to grow. Some varieties, like the plain old ‘Cavendish’ variety can get 8 to ten feet tall and 4 feet wide. ‘Dwarf Cavendish’ are about the same size! The reason ‘Cavendish’ and ‘Grand Nain’ (Chiquita) bananas were successfully exported is because of their long keeping quality and acceptable flavor. There are other bananas that are sweeter, but their keeping quality is not as long. The smaller types, usually denoted as “Dwarf”, are usually better for containers when moving them into a garage during freezing winters. No, this is not a grocery store type of banana but a variety grown usually in the Philippines called ‘Lakatan’.             The usual temperature for getting chilling damage when growing in the spring is around 50F. During the winter many can handle near freezing temperatures better which is why many types survive the cold of garages. The low temperature of the garage negates their need for light and reduces their water use. Just make sure when you water, water until water comes out of the bottom of the container. You don’t want salt build up which will happen with tap water originating from the Colorado River. This is a smaller banana given to our Farm in the Philippines. Very sweet! We have lots of bananas on the farm.             Bananas are what we consider “herbaceous perennials” meaning they don’t develop any wood, they are called “trees” because of their size and main trunk. They develop flowers from the newest growth when they get to a certain genetic size and height. From these flowers, fruit (called bananas and usually seedless) develop. Another term we call this type of seedless fruit are “parthenocarpic” because of its lack of seeds. Bananas are what we consider as herbaceous perennials which means they grow again from suckers from their rhizomes once they flower and fruit.             Bananas are started from suckers taken from the mother plant. Suckers are removed when they are small and replanted in a new location or allowed to grow in the same spot when the mother plant is removed. The mother plant, after the fruit has been harvested, is cut down and composted. At our farm in the Philippines the mother plant harvested, chopped, mixed with molasses, and used for animal feed. This is a molasses truck. We get molasses from a truck like this and mix it with chopped tropical plants for animal feed. This molasses is not for human consumption.

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Transplanting Lemon Tree a Matter of Age

Leave a Comment / lemon tree, root loss compensation, transplanting /

Q. A lemon tree was growing in my neighbor’s yard. I dug it up and transplanted it into a large pot. I am not sure what type of lemon it is. It did well for about a week, then suddenly all the leaves went limp. The plant doesn’t appear to be dying, but the leaves remain limp and hanging. What gives? I’ve never seen this before. A. Move plants to a new location during the cooler times of the year; usually in October or February. When moving any kind of tree from one location to another, I recommend removing about one quarter to one third of the tree’s canopy to compensate for the loss of roots. I would also recommend staking the plant (so the roots can’t move) until it grows new roots. Establishing it again may take a year or two of staking depending on the size of the plant. It should go without mentioning, amend the soil for a distance of about three times the size of its roots and to a depth of at least 18 inches. Keep everything wet! Compensating the top growth for the loss of roots can be a challenge. Sometimes older fronds are pruned from the base of the plant and not the top. Just depends. Root loss is a matter of age; the older the tree or how long its been in the ground can be the difference between life and death. Also the time of year. Fall trees moved have both the fall and spring to recover. Sometimes leaves are removed from the bottom and not the top as was done before moving this cycad. Remove the entire frond to the trunk. Don’t leaves stubs. Leaf loss usually occurs as the temperatures get warmer and the weather is windy. If you are successful in moving the plant, there should be no losses. It should take off when it gets warmer. If you don’t remove enough of the top canopy, then part of the plant will die to compensate for lost roots. When not enough of the top is removed and the plant is moved or the plant does not get enough water, new growth of the tree or shrub occurs at the base of the tree and the top dies. When moving any kind of plant, do it as quickly as possible. Have the hole predug, the amendments and stakes ready.

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Palm Fronds Falling From Mexican Fan Palm. Wrong!

Leave a Comment / California fan palm, fronds /

Q. I see palm trees with the fronds falling off all around our Sun City McDonald Ranch as on our daily walks. Was wondering if this is part of the palm’s life cycle or is it a disease problem? Palm fronds falling were thought to be from the Mexican fan palm. Not really. A. Some palms have fronds that drop from the tree and other palms that don’t. The usual dropping of fronds may or may not be typical to some palm trees like the Mexican fan palm. It depends. Mexican fan palms flowering.             It’s a genetic issue. Seed production in palms is from the wind, not from bees or flies. There can be a lot of genetic variability when starting plants from seed. In other words, there is a lot of variation in palms because they are started from seed. There is such a thing as “seeded varieties” (some lawn grasses) but for the most part not in palms.   Mostly California fan palms near a lagoon in 29 Palms.             The palms you have a picture of are generally Mexican fan palms. Mexican fan palms are typically started from seed. Mexican fan palms are famous (mistakenly) for “self-skinning”. There is a lot of variability in that feature of Mexican fan palms. What you are seeing is genetic variability in these palms because of the seeds.             Palm fronds separate from the trunk because of rotting (rotting diseases) but this does not happen as often with California fan palms. These typically have a fatter trunk that holds on to the palm fronds and may form a “skirt” of old dead fronds that cling to the trunk. So, we call fan palms with a fatter trunk “California fan palm” and those with a skinny trunk Mexican fan palm.

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Is the Western Fence Lizard Vegetarian or Omnivorous?

Leave a Comment / carnivore, lizard, vegetarian /

Q. Will the Western fence lizards that took up residence in our yard 2 or 3 years ago and ate our tomatoes. Or has it been something else?  They really keep ants down. Thoughts? Western fence lizard and meal. From https://www.ocregister.com/2010/06/19/lizards-in-your-yard-are-a-good-thing/ A. My understanding is that the Western fence lizard is mostly a meat eater (ants, roaches, spiders) and not a vegetarian (your tomatoes), but I could be wrong. I thought it would be damage easy to recognize such as rats or rabbits (omnivorous and gnawing damage, my first thought) or birds like the boat-tailed grackle (vegetarian and pecking damage). Gnawing on tomato not from the Western fence lizard.             Sometimes fruit like tomatoes will ripen ahead of time if they are damaged first. I would rely on the fact tomatoes are climacteric fruit (they will ripen off of the vine and kept at room temperature for a few days) and avoid the problem and harvest them while they are still green but starting to ripen. The fruit turns from a darker green to a lighter green as part of the ripening process. If this is an “animal” problem, they are sensing ripening fruit and either smell this or see it. Bird damage on grapes             This may not be an “animal” problem at all. It might be best to stay ahead of the problem instead of trying to figure it out.

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Calcium Deficiency of Tomato and Blossom End Rot

Leave a Comment / bitter pit, blossom end rot, Calcium deficiency, corky spot, eggplant, pepper, tomato /

Q. I wanted to ask about a strange occurrence in my tomato garden. Not all, but some of my tomatoes when they ripen, have these black spots only at the bottom of the tomato crop. I just wanted to reach out and see if you could tell me about what causes or could be causing the discoloration? Blossom end rot of tomato Blossom end rot of pepper A. That is normally a physiological problem on tomatoes, peppers and some eggplant this time of year called blossom end rot. Some scientists claim it is caused by an imbalance of calcium in some of the fruit when soils are cooler. Sometimes calcium sprays can fix it. Some varieties of tomatoes show this problem more than others. This imbalance of calcium in other plants is called “bitter pit” in susceptible apples like ‘Mutsu’ and “corky spot” in susceptible pears like ‘Comice’. Bitter pit of ‘Pink Lady’ apple Corky spot of  ‘Comice’ pear             Apples and pears take regular leaf sprays of calcium as a temporary fix in them. The easiest way to fix this problem in tomatoes is to use a less susceptible variety to blossom end rot. Otherwise, it may take several sprays of a liquid calcium spray (such as calcium chloride or calcium sulfate mixed in water) to fix it. The fruit is okay to eat, it just looks odd.

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Sucker Control Under a Wall

Leave a Comment / palm seedling, root barrier, Suckers /

Q. My neighbor’s tree is sending out suckers that go under my cinder block wall and come out in my planter. I try to pull them out and spray them with weed killer, but to no avail. Is there anything I can do to keep them from coming up? I have the same problem in the front yard but it’s the neighbor’s palm trees and seeds. They root in the front yard. Anything I can do to kill them too? Palm seedlings A. Actually, these are two separate problems. The palm seedling cure is the easiest to fix. When palm seedlings are about 8 to 12 inches tall, pull them out. It works best in wet soil after irrigation. Palm seedlings will die if the bud in the top of the plant, the terminal bud, is removed or killed but it leaves the rest of the plant which can be unsightly. There are sprays that will kill the plant. They are sold as woody brush killers, but they must be sprayed only on the problem areas.             The first problem requires more work on your part. There is no spray, but you will have to remove the planter, remove or cut the roots that are suckering, and put in a physical “root barrier” and then put everything back.

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White Fuzzy Problem Solved

Leave a Comment / leafhoppers, pierce's disease, plant hoppers /

Q. What are those “white fuzzies” on the stems of tomato, peppers, beans, and even outdoor landscape plants? White fuzzies (as I call them) are egg masses from insects closely resembling tiny cicadas. A.  These are “plant or leaf hopper” egg masses. Thanks to everyone who responded. Planthoppers and leaf hoppers are basically the same insect. The female lays her eggs on the surface and then covers them with a whitish waxy fuzz. You never see immatures because they drop to the ground from the eggs, much like cicadas. You only see weak winged adults like the grape leafhopper.  Unconfirmed Eutypa dieback (Pierces disease) on table grapes. The only times they cause plant problems are when there are lots of them (grape leafhoppers) or when they send viruses and bacteria such as those that cause Pierce’s Disease.             When these immature forms hatch from these eggs, they even look like very tiny cicadas. If you did see the immature forms from without the help of a magnifier, you might mistake them for flies. Once in the soil, they feed on plant roots until they are adults and need to reproduce. In the case of Eutypa dieback, these insects transmit this disease by feeding on the roots.

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