Q. I remember you said to apply fertilizer to a lawn around Thanksgiving. But during that time it was cold and the fertilizer bag says to water frequently. A. Fertilizing is different from seeding. I recommend fertilizing tall fescue with a high nitrogen fertilizer around Thanksgiving. This helps keep the lawn green through the winter months. Once the fertilizer is applied, it should be watered in with a single, normal irrigation. If you haven’t done it yet, it may not be too late. Pick a warm, winter day and apply a high nitrogen fertilizer.             Weekly waterings after that will be adequate to move the fertilizer into the soil and made available to plant roots. High nitrogen fertilizer applied just before cold weather helps keep lawn grasses green and better looking for a longer time into the winter.             Watering once a week after you apply a fertilizer is adequate for fertilizer but not adequate for seed. This is not time to seed the lawn. That has to be done when temperatures are still relatively warm but not too hot; usually from September 15 through October 15 or thereabouts.

Q. I have some problems with my lawn and I sent you some pictures. I am a recent transplant here from Chicago and I am not sure how to manage this lawn and get it flush, green and thicker. The lawn has bare spots and the tree in the center of the lawn has roots on the surface of the soil. How should I repair this lawn? How do you manage a lawn here? Is this lawn savable? Was the tree planted too shallow? What is this green net in the lawn I found? I remember you said to apply fertilizer to a lawn around Thanksgiving. But during that time it was cold and the fertilizer bag says to water frequently.         A. Thanks for sending the pictures. That really helps a lot. Yes, your grass is savable but there are some important things that you need to check out before we can proceed. I hope you understand the importance of water and if water is not applied appropriately it doesn’t matter what you are trying to grow, it will not do well. The first thing you must do is check the irrigation system. These are the things that your irrigation system should do for your lawn if it is going to be successful here.             From the look of the lawn it appears to be tall fescue. Make sure the irrigation sprinklers, pop-ups, rise 4 inches above the lawn. Some pop-up sprinklers are 2 inch, 3 inch and 4 inch. With tall fescue it is important that these are 4 inch since the lawn will be mowed at 2 inches or higher. 2 inch pop-ups are not adequate and you must replace them with 4 inch pop-ups. The pop-ups operate on a spring. You have to pull will pop up with your hands to measure the height or turn the irrigation system on. Head to head coverage             Next, when the irrigation system is on the water from one sprinkler should be thrown all the way to a neighboring sprinkler to get head to head coverage. 100% coverage or head-to-head is very important for sprinkler system to operate efficiently in the desert. Thirdly, when the sprinkler system is operating you should see droplets coming from the sprinkler and it should not be fogging or misting. If you see fogging or misting the from the sprinklers this is an indication that the pressure of the system is most likely too high. Pressure regulator             A pressure regulator would then be installed on your irrigation system to lower the pressure within the manufacturer’s suggested operating pressure which is usually somewhere around 40 or 45 PSI. Or you can replace the nozzles of the sprinkler pop-ups with pressure regulated nozzles. This may be a less expensive option for you since the nozzles are relatively inexpensive. The nozzle unscrews from the top of the pop-up. If the pressure of your system is 60 or 70 PSI you will definitely see some fogging if these are the older type nozzles. You should make sure that the nozzles are matched. This means that they all come from the same manufacturer with the same specifications or model.             The pop-ups should be spaced such that the water from one sprinkler should be thrown far enough so that it hits the neighboring sprinkler. This is head-to-head coverage or 100% coverage. Making sure you have 100% coverage will give you better uniformity in the application of the water to your lawn. Small triangular piece of lawn in upper right that makes the lawn difficult to irrigate without water running into the street, over watering the lawn or under watering the small triangular piece             I noticed on one of the pictures there is a small, triangular space as a part of the lawn. This will always be a problem for you since water cannot be applied efficiently and evenly to a small, oddly shaped space. The best shapes for lawns are square or rectangular since water use thrown by sprinklers in straight lines and distances varying from 10 to 18 feet depending upon the nozzle.             As part of your maintenance program you should be checking to make sure the nozzles are not plugged and clear the grass around the nozzle. I would strongly suggest that you not let someone convince you to cut the lawn short around the nozzles instead of replacing them. Yes, this is an easy temporary and inexpensive fix to the problem that tall fescue must not be cut shorter than 1 1/2 inches or you will see weed invasion of your lawn in these areas. The principal weed that will invade your lawn in these damaged spots will be common bermudagrass. Depressions in lawn around sprinkler due to a line trimmer instead of replacing the two inch popup with a four inch popup             Now the tree. The tree was not planted too shallow. This is an older tree. Because I could only see the trunk I could not determine what kind of tree it is but from the picture this is a tree which tends to have roots that grow toward the top of the soil. Or, the tree has never been irrigated deeply and so has grown its roots on the top of the soil where most of the water has been applied. Or, it can be a combination of the type of tree and shallow irrigations. Some trees are notorious for having shallow roots. The next question is whether the roots could be removed. This would be difficult to answer without knowing what type tree but it might be possible. Differences in texture between a coarse textured tall fescue like K31 and turf type tall fescue. The Kentucky 31 tall fescue was seeded into the finer textured fescue to save money, from an old slide of mine.             It is also possible if the tree creates a lot of dense shade underneath it that the lawn will begin to thin due to a lack

Q. I have a Meyer lemon in a container that still has lemons on it. They are not totally ripe. What trimming should be done and what time of year? A. You should remove all the lemons by the end of December even if you don’t think they are ripe yet. If you let them stay on too long they can interfere with next season’s production and the fruit might get a bit pithy if left on too long.             After removing the fruit you can prune the tree if it is needed. Citrus does not require much pruning. You would prune for size control, remove crossing or damaged branches, opening the canopy for a bit more light penetration inside and maintain limbs that are at good fruiting angles. Remove branches going straight up, straight down, too close together or overly vigorous. I hope this helps.

Q. I haven’t pruned my roses back yet because there are still blooms. Should I wait awhile? How far back should I trim; 1/3 or 1/2?  I have two favorite bushes that are 4-5 feet tall with very thick canes. How severely should these be cut back? Strong growth from the base can mean the rootstock has taken over A. You could wait a bit on the roses if you want. Wait until total leaf drop and then prune. If they do not drop their leaves, then pull the leaves off sometime in late December or very early January and do your pruning.             Depending on how warm the microclimate is in your yard try to prune before you see any new growth early in 2012. This could be a bit tricky because in warm microclimates they might hold their blooms and leaves or continue blooming well into December and even January.              I would not wait past the first or possibly second week of January to get it done. If there are still flowers and leaves, harvest and enjoy them inside. Most garden roses have some scent to them, unlike greenhouse roses. If the leaves have not dropped, pull or cut them off before pruning.             Make sure this strong growth is not coming from the rootstock. This is frequently the case on homeowner’s roses. The top of the plant dies back and they see this very vigorous growth coming from the base of the plant and oftentimes growing straight up. The dead growth is removed and the strong growth is permitted to remain. This is growth from the rootstock.             You should still have a bud union (look for a “dogleg”) on the stem coming from the ground. If this bud union was lost (the rootstock grew and replaced or overpowered the top of the plant) then replace the plant. Nevada rose             The homeowner sees this strong growth and thinks “WOW, I am going to preserve this cane because it is doing so well!” The rose used for the rootstock will also produce flowers so there is even less incentive to cut it off. You can leave it on but it will have inferior blooms to hybridized roses and very vigorous growth harder to control.             How far to cut back depends on the vigor of the plant, the type of rose and where you want to see the flowers produced. If you think the plant does not have the rootstock taking over then cut back about two feet below where you want your flowers produced. You may have to modify this if the canes are enormous.             Select four to five major canes growing outward in different directions that you want to keep and remove the rest making clean, fresh cuts. Sharpen and sanitize your pruners before pruning. The local Rosarians usually have a rose pruning class in January so I will keep posted as soon as I hear of one.

Flavor King pluot from the UNCE Orchard             What are pluots, plumcots and apriums? Technically they are called “interspecific hybrids”. Let’s break that down. Most people know what hybrids are. They know them as a new class of vehicles. These hybrid vehicles are a cross between a traditional gasoline or petroleum fueled vehicle and an one that gets its power from a source of energy other than petroleum such as, in these cases, electricity.             Hybrids occur in plants. These can be crosses which occur in nature or selectively done by hand by plant breeders. When we take two plants that don’t normally breed with each other we can get a new generation in that some of the offspring are superior to the parent plants. These superior traits can be in the how they grow, how they look or how or what they produce. These superior offspring we say have “hybrid vigor”. Orchard volunteers assisting with fruit evaluations at Zaiger Genetics with Tom Spellman from Dave Wilson Nursery who coordinated the event             Most crosses found in nature occur between plants of the same species. So when a plum crosses with another plum this can be fairly common and is between plants of the same species; plums. The seed or offspring will have traits from both plum parents. But if a plum crosses with a plant like an apricot, a totally different species, then it is called an “interspecific” cross (cross between two totally different species). This rarely happens in nature. This type of cross is manipulated by people like plant breeders or hybridizers. Floyd Zaiger with Tom Spellman describing the operations at Zaiger Genetics             Floyd Zaiger, a plant breeder and founder of Zaiger Genetics in Modesto, California, is one of a few pioneers in plant breeding involving fruit trees. He was responsible, by creating interspecific crosses between apricots, plums, peaches and nectarines, to create fruits never before seen on the planet. These fruits include what we now call pluot, aprium, plumcot, nectaplum, peacotum and others. Donut pluot, a cross that has not yet made it  to the marketplace.             According to Floyd Zaiger out of about 5,000 crosses that he must do by hand, perhaps one of these crosses will be accepted for marketing as a new type of fruit tree, an interspecific hybrid. This is why there is a royalty charge, usually a couple of dollars, when buying these interspecific crosses. These royalties are returns on investments (ROI) in the 5,000 crosses that were “invested” in a successful cross. A small price to pay for this wonderful fruit. When a person propagates one of these crosses illegally it prevents these royalties from coming back and supporting new research which will lead to new introductions. Rumor has it that China now has over 10,000 acres of “stolen” Zaiger Genetics plant material. Their common name usually tells you what was used in the cross; plum, apricot, nectarine or peach. We can thank people like Floyd Zaiger for giving us these new, wonderful fruits to enjoy. Many do very well in our hot, dry desert. Tom Spellman from Dave Wilson Nursery which owns the marketing rights for Zaiger Genetic’s new introductions, coordinates the orchard volunteer tour of their facility every year. Thank you Tom and Floyd for some wonderful experiences and a great wealth of information! Thanks to Dave Wilson for the following information. I thought it might be a quick reference when thinking about these interspecific hybrids. Pluot® is an “interspecific” – a complex hybrid of apricot and plum. The complex, intense flavor of both the Aprium® and the Pluot® is unique to interspecifics, much like a blend of fruit juices where the mixture is an improvement over any of the separate ingredients. Additionally, the sugar content of interspecifics is much higher than in standard plums or apricots, yielding fruit of incomparable sweetness. Pluots® have predominantly plum parentage and smooth skins like plums. Pluot® and Aprium® are registered trademarks of Zaiger Genetics of Modesto, California Dapple Dandy Pluot® Creamy white and red-fleshed freestone with wonderful plum-apricot flavor. Skin greenish-yellow with red spots, turning to a maroon and yellow dapple. August harvest in Central Calif. 4-500 hours. Pollenized by Flavor Supreme Pluot®, Santa Rosa or Burgundy Plum. Pat. No. 9254. (Zaiger) Emerald Drop Pluot® Medium to large size with green skin and yellow-orange flesh. Prolonged harvest: early-picked fruit is firm, yet juicy sweet. Left to hang, fruit turns greenish-yellow with honey-like orange flesh. Upright tree sets heavy crops once established. Harvest mid-July to late August. Estimated chill requirement: 400 hours or less. Tested as 7HC165. Pollinizer required. Pat. No. 14599 (Zaiger) Flavor Finale Pluot® Medium-to-large sized Pluot® with purplish-red skin and amber-red flesh. Exceptional complex flavor. Harvest begins in Early September and fruit is edible well into October. Upright tree sets large crops. 500 hours. Pollinizer required. (Zaiger) Flavor Grenade Pluot® Elongated green fruit with a red blush. Crisp texture and explosive flavor. Taste-test winner. Hangs on the tree for 4 to 6 weeks. Pollinize with a Japanese plum. Estimated chilling requirement: 400 to 500 hours. Patent No. 12097. (Zaiger) Flavor King Pluot® Unique plum-apricot hybrid. Remarkable, spicy bouquet and flavor. Reddish-purple skin, sweet red flesh. Harvest mid August in Central Calif. Naturally small tree. Estimated chill requirement: 400 hours or less. Pollenized by Flavor Supreme, Santa Rosa or Late Santa Rosa. Pat. No. 8026. (Zaiger) Flavor Queen Pluot® Greenish-yellow skin, amber-orange flesh. Prolonged harvest: mid-July thru August. 5-600 hours. Pollinized by plum or other Pluot®, (Dapple Dandy Pluot® or Burgundy Plum) but not Flavor King. Pat. No. 7420. (Zaiger) Flavor Supreme Pluot® Plum-apricot hybrid with sweet, richly flavored, firm red flesh. Greenish-maroon mottled skin. June harvest in Central California, about two weeks before Santa Rosa. 5-600 hours. Pollinized by Santa Rosa, Late Santa Rosa, or other Pluot®. (Zaiger) Flavorich Pluot® Large, dark purple-skinned fruits with firm, very sweet, yellow-orange flesh. Harvest begins late August/early September in Central California, 2-3 weeks after Flavor King Pluot®. Vigorous, upright tree. Originated from a cross of

I know most people dont sharpen, adjust or sanitize their equipment but plants are alive. You are cutting into living tissue. Would you like it if your doctor didn’t have sharp or didn’t sanitize his/her equipment? You are now a plant surgeon. Sharpen, adjust and sanitize your equipment before pruning. If a plant is obviously diseased, sanitize before moving to the next plant. Do these three steps at the beginning of each new day pruning. Pruners should be the bypass-type, not the anvil-type. Bypass pruners cut by passing the sharpened flat blade past a bar. The other type, called an anvil pruning shears, is not preferred. An anvil type pruner cuts by pushing a sharp blade through a stem by pushing against the opposite side of the stem with a bar. The anvil type is not prefereed by reasoning that this pushing of the bar against the stem damages the stem where it is being cut. Hand shears and loppers. Recommended brand names include Corona, Felco and Fiskars. Sharpen. Sharpen one side of the blade only (the beveled side) holding the stone at a consistent angle and running it along the beveled edge as you slide it across the bevel. If you are not comfortable using a stone then you might consider something like an Accusharp Gardensharp tool designed for pruning shears. These can be purchased for $10 or less and are much easier to use. Make sure you buy one for garden shears NOT the one for scissors or it will ruin your pruner’s blade. It sharpens only ONE side of the blade unlike the one for scissors which sharpens BOTH sides of the blade. http://www.accusharp.com/products/index.html  If you are doing alot of trees you might have to stop and “put an edge” on the blade (just a two or three slides across the blade). Adjustment and Lubricate. An adjustment nut that holds the pruners together is tightened or loosened to allow for easy opening and closing of the shears and lopper. Too loose and the shears or loppers tears the branch. Too tight and it creates early fatigue of the person pruning. Use a wrench to tighten the bolt until the blades move with some very slight resistance. You may need to tighten this nut a few times during the course of a day’s work so carry the wrench with you. Sanitize. Alcohol is sprayed or wiped on the cutting blades of the hand shears and lopper. You can use bleach but be sure to oil the equipment after its use or it will corrode the metal. I sometimes just use alcohol in spray bottle. A chef friend had no alcohol when we were pruning his fruit trees so he used Absolut vodka. Now you are ready to prune.

Pruning Cuts. There are only two types of pruning cuts; thinning cuts and heading cuts. Thinning cuts are made where two branches or sems come together. No stub is left after the cut is made. Thinning cuts are made anywhere where two branches come together. The thinning cut totally removes one of the branches without leaving a stub. Thinning cuts result in a less dense canopy and less regrowth since terminal buds of the remaining stems remain after the cuts. New growth easily grows from the remaining terminal buds which helps minimize growth from side or lateral buds. Heading cut – removal somewhere along the stem just above a bud Heading cuts are made anywhere along a branch NOT at a location where two branches come together. Heading cuts result in several new branches at buds growing immediately below the cut since the terminal bud is removed. Heading cuts are used to shorten the past season’s growth to increase a branches girth. Heading cuts encourage the development of short shoots that support fruit called spurs in fruit trees that grow fruit on spurs. If you do not cut back too severely and you make the cuts at the right time of year (around July or August) you may be able to get spur producing fruit trees to produce fruit a year or so earlier. This growth resulted from a heading cut. Once the terminal bud was removed the side or lateral buds grew to replace it, fighting to see which might take over and dominate the new growth. The buds closest to the cut usually grow more erect (more straight up) than buds lower than this one. The lower buds tend to not grow as erect as the one closest to the removed terminal bud (the cut). 45 degree angles above horizontal are the best angles for fruit production. Here limb spreaders are used to push the limbs into a 45 degree angle. The most productive branches for fruit growth and development are at 45 degree angles above horizontal and should be preserved whenever possible. Branches are less productive as they are grow more vertically (more upright or downward). By the way, a branch that is at a 45 degree angle can be directed to be more upright and its growth will actually speed up (at the expense of fruit production, the energy goes to growth rather than fruit) and branches directed to be more horizontal will have slower growth (you can actually slow down its growth but it will still not put its energy into fruit production).