Xtremehorticulture

Xtremehorticulture of the Desert

Green Metallic June Beetle Flying Now

Leave a Comment / shiny green bug on figs, shiny green bug on fruit, What is eating my figs /

Q. We have a black mission fig tree and there is a large green bug that is eating the figs.  At first I thought the birds were eating the figs so I covered the tree with netting.  However, when I checked the tree today, I saw 4 or 5 large green bugs inside the netting eating the figs.  See the attached picture of one of the bugs.  What are these bugs, and how can they be controlled?  They are eating the figs right before the figs are ready to pick.  Any help would be greatly appreciated. Green metallic June beetle A. This can happen every single year on figs. This pest is the green metallic June beetle and they seem to love white figs more than dark figs. The immature form or larva of this beetle is the white grub we see eating the roots of plants like lantana and in compost piles feeding on decaying plant life. Here they are feasting on Kadota fig at the University Orchard when I was there. The larva feed on anything below ground soft that is living or recently dead. Green metallic June beetle on Kadota fig They will eat any soft fruit not just figs. They will go after ripe peaches or nectarines left on the tree if they are soft. The key is they must be soft fruit or they can’t eat them. Peaches you can pick them a little early and let them soften and ripen in the kitchen. You can’t do that with figs. They must be picked fully ripe so this is a problem with this fruit and this insect. This insect emerges over a period of a two or three weeks during the summer and then it is gone. You can wait it out or protect the fruit with a barrier of some sort. This could be bird netting or paper bags but I realize this sounds like a lot of work to protect them for two or three weeks. I usually just let them have them during this time period. It is not worth spraying anything. By the way, they love the sound of line trimmers and if you hold one up in the air they will fly a suicide mission directly into the ripping, flying fishing line. Disgusting.

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What to Do about Leggy Lantana

Leave a Comment / how to correct lantana growing badly, leggy, why are my lantana getting spindly, Why are my lantana turning yellow /

Q. Would you have any advice for me concerning my Lantanas?  They are sure leggy while the ones I see out on the highways are very thick.  Could it be lack of fertilizer or water?  I do give them a lot of water.  Also, my friend’s have half the plant’s leaves green and beautiful but about a third are yellow? This heat seems to make it difficult to keep things alive.  Lantana A. There are several things that complicate my response to you. It may or may not be simply a question of water. The factors you should consider which can cause plants to be leggy or the amount of full sun they receive, the variety of lantana planted, water and fertilizer. The two driving factors here are sunlight and the variety. If these plants are receiving different amounts of sunlight it will cause one to be leggy over another one. If they are different varieties, one may be leggy over another. If we put lantana in a semi-shaded area and give it a lot of nitrogen fertilizer and water, it will become leggy compared to the same plants grown in full sun and receiving the same fertilizer and the same water. When we grow plants in semi shade they will require less water and fertilizer than plants growing in full sun. They may grow fast in semi shade if fertilized with nitrogen fertilizers and given plenty of water but the distances between their leaves will be much greater, the leaves will be larger and thinner. They will also tend to lose their older leaves. Leaves attached to older parts of stems will turn yellow and fall from them. Herbs getting leggy because of too much shade and not enough water Plants grown in full sun tend to be more compact with shorter distances between leaves, smaller and thicker leaves and dark green if they are receiving enough nitrogen fertilizer. When nitrogen fertilizer in the soil is running low, leaf color will change to a lighter green and the older leaves will begin to yellow and may drop from the stems. What to do? You can manage these plants with some pruning and the type of fertilizer you are applying. Plants growing in full sun should receive the most fertilizer. Plants growing in semi shade should receive half the amount of those growing in full sun. Shift your fertilizer from a high nitrogen to a low nitrogen high phosphorus fertilizer. Fertilizers that are labeled for roses or tomatoes should be lower in nitrogen and higher in phosphorus and you could use these.  Remove the long leggy stems with a sharp pruning shears all the way to the base leaving about 1 inch of stem remaining for regrowth. If removing these long stems are not aesthetically pleasing, select two or three of the longest ones and cut them back first. In two or three weeks when new growth is occurring start removing a few more until you get the look you want.

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Why Are My Palm Fronds Brown?

Leave a Comment / companion plants for palms, what is causing fronds to turn brown, what to plant with palms, Why does my Palm have brown fronds /

Q.  I have had this palm for 10 years now.  It seems like every time I try to add additional water with a hose or bucket I lose more fronds. Every year I have to cut higher on the palm and get rid of the dead fronds. I don’t cut anything with green on it.   I tried driving a metal stake down 18 inches but did not pick up any visible moisture in 3 different places.   Any ideas on how I can go about this from a more scientific method? Readers palm tree with Aptenia A. I did not see a whole lot wrong with your palm in the picture. It is pretty normal for the fronds to begin to brown out and start to die once they hit horizontal. In our climate it is also pretty common to have some tip burn on the leaves along the fronds, particularly as they get older and drop closer to horizontal. I would guess a palm tree that size might require 10 or 15 gallons each time you water. Companion plant may be a problem. Looks like you’ve got Aptenia growing at the base of the palm. This plant is not complementary to a palm that has a deep root system. Aptenia has a very shallow root system. Trying to irrigate Aptenia and a palm at the same time does not work very well. If you are going to plant something at the base of a palm, you want to plant something that has a similar watering schedule. Irrigation is different. To keep Aptenia alive you have to irrigate probably daily. Palms do not like that. They like to be watered more deeply and less often. You can squeak by this year but next year I would replant at the base of the Palm with something that is more deep-rooted that can give you some color. By the way, Aptenia might not be a good selection anyway at that location. The flowers are small at that distance so you don’t get much impact from the color. Pick something with larger flowers and a deeper root system. Look at woody perennials that can give you season-long color in that spot. Woody perennials that are repeat bloomers and I can handle the direct sunlight in that location would be a good choice. Roses come to mind.

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Suckers from a Removed Peach Tree Should Not Be Encouraged

Leave a Comment / Can I grow up peach tree from suckers, will suckers from a peach tree produce good fruit /

Q. I had a old peach tree of about 30 years die, sadly. We cut it down and had it removed. Last year several suckers sprouted from below the ground. Different leaves so I know it is not peach. What are they?   Should I leave them alone and allow them to grow? Sucker growth from the rootstock of ornamental plum. Notice the different color of leaves from the rootstock versus the top of the tree which is red A. 30 year old peach tree is quite an accomplishment! They are normally very short-lived as far as fruit trees go. Peach is hit very hard by borers and starts to decline around 12 years of age or a bit older. A 20 year old tree is really getting up there in age. When you purchase a peach tree from a nursery or commercially they are grafted (budded) onto a rootstock or a second tree that is growing in the ground. This is because the rootstock part of the tree has certain attributes that the peach tree does not. This can be some tolerance of wet soils, soils containing a higher amount of clay than normal, some resistance to soil salts, diseases and nematodes. As far as peach goes, some even cause the top of the tree to be slightly smaller than it would if it grew on its own roots. There are a number of different rootstocks available for these purposes. This may be a “plum” rootstock that you are seeing. It will produce fruit that you will probably not enjoy. Remove it and plant a peach variety that appeals to you.

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What Is the Best Groundcover for Fruit Trees?

Leave a Comment / Can you plant between fruit trees, intercropping with fruit trees /

Q. What’s the best groundcover under fruit trees? A. It kind of depends on how much water costs. If water is expensive, a living groundcover might not be the best idea. Farmer intercropping with sesame between fruit trees in Tajikistan Also, living groundcovers like alfalfa or clovers don’t return as much nitrogen to the plant as people think. In fact, they usually compete with the plant for water and nutrients and don’t return the benefits that people think they should. In our arid and desert West, surface mulches are usually the best option. I like to see woodchips from local arborists or tree trimmers used around the base of the trees to a depth of 4 inches or more. I have seen some inter-cropping when fruit trees are young with things like melons planted beneath them. This way at least you can get double duty in food production from the water that’s being applied. Remember that intercropping increases the amount of care required because you are growing crops you have to tend. Fruit trees that may not require visits more than once every two or three weeks now have melons planted beneath them that require visits of 2 to 3 times per week. So if it were me, I would use a nonliving groundcover such as woodchips from local tree trimmers.

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Ornamental Pear Requires Deep Watering to Prevent Leaf Drop

Leave a Comment / why are the leaves of my ornamental pear turning brown, Why is my ornamental pear dropping leaves /

Q. We are renting and we have a tree in our front yard that is not that old.  We have been noticing that the leaves are turning a brown on the ends and not sure if it’s due to a watering issue, disease or pest problem.  I have enclosed pictures of the leaves and would appreciate any help so that we can correct the issue. A. From the pictures, it looks like may be an ornamental pear tree. The leaves that I could see certain appear to be browning due to a lack of water. Ornamental pear can do so-so in rock mulch but it doesn’t prefer it. My initial guess is the tree is not receiving enough water every time it is irrigated. What can be confusing is that we can see similar symptoms to trees that are also receiving too much water in this case I think it is not enough. I am assuming the tree is on drip irrigation and I am also assuming it is in a rock landscape. We can increase watering by increasing the number of drip emitters surrounding the tree and making sure that these emitters are 12 to 18 inches from the trunk. We can also increase the amount of water by increasing the number of minutes on the irrigation controller. The problem when we do this is that everything else that is watered will also get an increase in water when it may not be necessary. Also, this will increase your water bill perhaps unnecessarily. It is best to increase the number of emitters that way only this particular tree will get the increase in water. Another possibility (I don’t want you to do this) is to increase the number of days the tree is receiving water during the week. This is frequently not a good solution to a lack of water. Trees need to receive deep irrigations with lots of water, then arrest of a couple of days during the summer with no additional water, and then watered again deeply. You do not want to water trees daily if it is at all possible or unless they are in containers. In the meantime, take a hose and give that tree a lot of water at its base very slowly. Do this once a week and I think you will see an improvement in the number of leaves produced and the overall quality of the tree.

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Recommended Vines for a Very High Backyard Wall

Leave a Comment / Evergreen Vines for a very high wall /

Q. I’m looking for a vine to cover an extremely high backyard wall, approx. 10ft.  Backyard has southern exposure and the wall faces east.    I would prefer an evergreen. A. I don’t like to answer questions about recommended plantss for specific applications. So I handed this question off to Andrea Meckley who loves these kinds of questions. Bob Morris forwarded your question to me.  For an east facing wall, I suggest the following evergreen vines, 1.  Banks Rose (Rosa Banksea)-semi-evergreen      yellow or white flowers are nice yet produce debris in spring, needs maintenance once in a while with wayward limbs and suckers 2.  Firethorn  Pyracantha (Pyracantha ‘Graberi’)      red berries after spring white flowers may attract birds 3.  Star Jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides)      fragrant white spring flowers if you have a shady wall : 1.  Creeping Fig (Ficus pumilla)      no flower, may damage stucco when you remove it, no flower 2.  Algerian Ivy (Hedera canariensis)      VERY aggressive root system, may damage stucco when you remove it, no flower     All plants will need support to stay on wall.  One place for more information on above plants is SNWA.com under ‘plant search’.  Hope this helps with your decision.  Contact me with any other questions or comments. Andrea Meckley, Certified Horticulturist [email protected]

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Cutting down Cotton or Poplar Will Produce Suckers That Need to Be Controlled

1 Comment / how do you get rid of sprouts from trees, How to control suckers from trees /

Q. Is anything that can be done about cottonwood suckering from the roots after you cut the tree down, I poured stump killer onto it only to find later little cottonwood trees sprouting up around the stump and the lawn. A local expert said to pull out the sprouts until they start to go away. A. The basic idea of exhausting the root system by removing the suckers is correct. Nearly all of the poplars, including cottonwood, sucker from the roots when they are cut down. The mature tree acts like an energy sink for new growth. As long as the mother tree is alive, healthy and growing, it helps suppress growth from the roots. Once the mother tree is removed, the suppression of sucker growth is also removed. Suckers begin to grow from the roots as a survival mechanism for the tree. These suckers will not pull easily because they are coming from roots. The usual term by “know-it-alls” is to “exhaust” the energy reserves in the roots by constantly removing sucker growth. Lawn dandelion killer containing dicamba in the ingredients The tree “invests” stored energy into sucker growth in a last ditch attempt to survive after it is cut down. In Mother Nature, this usually works. In a home situation with a diligent homeowner, removal of these suckers slowly but surely, exhausts the energy supply in the roots until finally the entire tree, roots and all, expires. What to do? Remove the suckers as soon as you see them. This is no easy task even for the young at heart. Chemicals can help us remove or kill new sucker growth. By spending some money and purchasing products such as Glyphosate or a dandelion killer that contains dicamba or triclopyr in the ingredients makes this job much easier. I have been quite happy with my red Dragon flame weeder that is worked quite well If a lawn is present, dandelion killer that will also kill clover or tough to control lawn weeds would be a better choice than Glyphosate. If this is a desert landscape with rock mulch everywhere, then Glyphosate would be a good and possibly better choice. Another possibility is to use a propane flame weeder such as Red Dragon. It will not work in a lawn very well but in a desert landscape it works quite well to burn down sprouts rather than to kill them with chemicals. Spraying must be done when the sprouts are still young and immature to get good kill. They have to stay on top of this sucker growth and not let it get out of hand and spray probably once a month during the growing season as soon as new growth appears. 

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Summer Leaf Scorch and Leaf Drop Can Signal a Lack of Water

Leave a Comment / what is causing leaf drop with peach, what is causing leaves to turn brown with peach, What is causing leaves two yellow of citrus /

Q. All developing yellow leaves plus other things going on indicate some trouble is brewing. Are these problems related to watering, bugs or both or something else? Peach is notorious for borer problems. The scorching on the edges of peach leaves is a good indicator they are not getting enough water. They also will drop their leaves if water stressed. In the case of peach, I would look for borer problems in the limbs and interrupting the flow of water. The reason these apricot leaves were damaged could be from a while back since the surrounding leaves appear to be healthy. Citrus leaves will turn yellow from strong sunlight and a lack of water. This does not appear to be a fertilizer problem. A. In the pictures you sent I see some leaves of peach that have brown or scorched edges and some apricot leaves that look damaged. With the apricot, leaves that are surrounding the damaged leaves appear to be just fine. Your citrus leaves are yellowing as well. None of this appears to be a lack of iron or fertilizer. Most of this looks like a lack of water to the leaves. Look at the newest growth and compare it to the oldest growth. If the older leaves are damaged and the newer leaves are not, then this tells me the problem occurred earlier in the season. Healthy new growth tells me the problem has been corrected. If leaves have turned brown all over the tree or all over one limb and the new growth doesn’t look like it’s improving, then this tells me the problem is still going on and something needs to be done.  Water travels from roots to the tops. Reasons for a lack of water may not be because not enough water is applied. If water is not reaching the upper branches even though enough water was applied to the tree, it can be from damage to the roots, trunk or limbs. Damage to the trunk or limbs can also interrupt the flow of water to leaves. This becomes evident during the heat of the summer when the leaves require more water. Look for borer damage in the limbs, particularly to the peach. Borer damage usually occurs on the upper surfaces of major limbs that are exposed to bright sunlight. Apply wood chip surface mulches to the soil surface to cool the soil, reduce weed problems and slow the loss of water from the soil. 

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