Q. We planted a fig tree two years ago in the Anthem/Henderson area. We’ve had few purple figs in the last two years. Unfortunately they don’t grow any bigger than inch in diameter, they’re dry/not moist and taste like like cotton. A. Most likely the tree is not getting enough water or not watered frequently enough. Water requirement varies with the size of the tree but a tree about ten feet tall might require about 30- 45 gallons at every watering. The amount of water during each watering does not change so don’t change the number of minutes. Instead change the frequency of watering or the number of times per week you are watering. This time of year we are watering three times a week. The tree will benefit from a four inch layer of wood mulch applied to the soil under the canopy. To deliver this amount of water if it is not on drip you will require a four inch basin constructed around the trunk about four feet in diameter. Try this first but I have not a seen a fig growing here yet that has not performed well provided it is getting enough water.

Red flame table grapes grown by reader in Las Vegas Q. My Red Flame grapes are terrific this year. I think some at the end of the bunches have turned into raisons from the heat. Is there a way to prevent this? When will the vine need fertilizer? By the way I used dollar store garland hanging from the grape arbor and from my fig trees and I’ve avoided 99% of bird problems this year, what a relief! A. Red Flame table grapes do well here. Because of our heat we do get uneven ripening of the berries in a single bunch. When a bunch is ready to pick you may have a variation in berries from a few raisins to some berries that are still green. You can reduce this to some extent by reducing the amount of water the vines are getting when the berries begin to turn color in the bunches, about 3 to 4 weeks before harvest.

Probably dwarf coyote bush planted in a small landscape area Q. Please look at the attached image if two ‘Desert Broom’ or Coyote shrubs that I bought in October 2009. Note that they are very low to the ground, less than one foot high. I am trying to obtain more of them as they do well in our yard where many other shrubs fail. The original nursery doesn’t remember them and do not know what they are from the picture. Do you have any thoughts as to where I can get eight more of these. I have been to every nursery in the area without luck. A. My first comment to you is that you will be very sorry you purchased those plants and planted them there. Unrestrained, they are going to grow 10 to 12 feet in diameter in that space were you have about 3 feet available to them and planted 2 feet apart. They do appear to be one of the dwarf coyote bush. Probably Twin Peaks. I would not leave those plants there. Twin Peaks dwarf coyote bush will reach about 2 feet tall and 10 to 12 feet wide or more. Buy some alternative plants that will fit in the spaces that you have and repeat this plant in multiple places through the yard to give your design a feeling of continuity.

The lawn with brown and dead spots Q. I need your assistance. Below photo depicts the present condition of my backyard. It has patches of dry or dead grass. I don’t know what caused the problem. Is there some way to revive the grass without going to the extreme of re-sodding? And what shall I do to prevent this in the future? A. Thanks for the picture. The picture helps and it doesn’t help. It would have helped if I saw something in the picture that gave me a clue. But there is nothing in the picture that is distinctive to me. It would be interesting to know if those dead spots were in any kind of pattern in relation to your irrigation heads. I did notice in the picture that whatever caused the damage appears to be gone. The grass around the dead areas seem to be thriving. This would tend to eliminate irrigation as a problem unless you changed your irrigation schedule. If these dead spots occur in the same spots year after year it is usually associated with irrigation. I tend to think it is either insect or disease problems from your picture. Lawn with poor irrigation overlap from sprinklers Let me just point out some weaknesses in the design that might contribute to the current problem. I tend to discourage homeowners from designing a turfgrass area in other than straight lines. I know this might be somewhat boring but water from sprinkler heads is thrown in straight lines. Irregular lines or curving lines tend to cause those areas inside the curves to be under watered or the areas outside the curves, and no longer in the turfgrass, to be overwatered. I noticed in your picture that most of the damage is closest to the non turfgrass area while the solid turf area is less damaged. Another point, those areas of the turfgrass closest to rock mulch, sidewalks or patios in full sun tend to use more water than those areas deep inside the turf area. These areas, close to bare ground or rock mulch, tend to be warmer and more prone to insect attacks than others. Insect damage that is fresh tends to cause the grass on the edge of the damaged area to pull up freely from the lawn. If the insect damage is long gone, then fresh grass will no longer pull up easily. Summer patch disease on tall fescue Lawn diseases can also cause patterns like this. Unless a sample is sent to a qualified plant pathologist or we have seen the disease many times before it is a shot in the dark as to which disease it might be. From your picture, it is not a disease pattern I recognize as common to all our area. Since the problem is gone, there is probably no need to apply an insecticide or fungicide. At this point leave the dead grass alone and do not rake it up or you will open the soil surface to invasion by weeds. Around the end of September through mid October rake up the dead grass and broadcast the same seed or nearly the same seed in the dead areas and mulch the surface with top dressing and fertilizer. I hope this helps.

Q. I have an African sumac in my backyard that has leaves which turn brown and fall off. I have one in my front yard that does not do that. The one in the back is close to grass which gets 5 minutes of water three times a day. The one in the front is in a rock landscape and gets a lot less water. Is this natural for them or is it getting too much water or not enough fertilizer? The backyard one is on the east side and the one in the front faces west which is very hot. The one in the back is about 15 years old and about 35 feet tall and wide. Any help would be great. A. Sometimes they can get so dense that internal shading of the canopy will cause leaves to die and drop. These are fairly messy trees due to leaf drop and dropping of their berries. If the tree in the drier landscape is more open and the tree in the back is more dense then internal shading of the canopy can be the reason.             Other reasons might include pest problems such as aphids which can cause the leaves to be sticky or shiny and leaf drop if there are in large numbers. If the leaves are sticky, try spraying with repeat applications of soap and water or insecticidal soaps. Aphids should disappear during hot weather but reappear again during cool weather. You may also see a lot of ant activity that are working off of the aphids sugary honeydew droppings.             You can try to open up the canopy with some branch removal (thinning of the canopy by selective limb removal) and admit more light inside the canopy. This however will probably cause some suckering on the limbs if too many limbs are removed.  You can do some light removal of small branches now.  Remove the entire small branch.             Another possibility could be overwatering. If the tree is watered too often it is possible to develop root rots and lead drop will occur and usually branch dieback.

Readers plant appears to be Japanese privet which does not like dry soils Q. I have four bushes like the one shown. They were planted about six years ago and have never done very well. Each year around this time they look as shown. Can you advise and suggest anything? A. From the looks it appears to be Japanese privet which must have soil around its roots that does not go dry. It will not do well in rock landscapes. They do well in a turfgrass landscape. This might be a case of the wrong plant in that location. You would have to increase the frequency of the watering and improve the soil in that location. This is what Japanese privet will do in a rock landscape with drip irrigation – drop its leaves on some branches along with branch dieback             The amount might also have to be increased but since I dont know the amount I would suggest increasing the frequency to about three times a week. The amount depends on the size of the plant but a three foot tall plant might require five gallons or so each watering. A ten foot plant might require perhaps 20-30 gallons at each watering.

 Radial cracks on an heirloom tomato from the orchard Q. I have this problem. Our tomatoes develop cracks at times usually about half way to maturity.  They also rot on the bottom. A. Tomato cracking can be from the variety of tomato you are growing or it can be how you are managing your irrigations or a combination of both.  Rotting of the bottom of the fruit can be caused by irregular irrigations. Heirloom tomatoes with longitudinal cracks (top right and top left) from irregular watering             Some varieties of tomatoes, particularly heirloom types, are subject to what are called radial cracks.  These are concentric, circular cracks around the top of the fruit.  These might be reduced by growing them under light shade probably know more than about 30%.             Cracks along the length of the fruit can be a particular problem after a heavy rain. Sometimes when the tomato fruit is near maturity very wet soil can result in a lot of water taken up by the plant with lots of it sent to the fruits. The fruit swells and cracks due to excess water taken in by the fruits and the skin. Blossom end rot on tomato, picture submitted by reader             Use a mulch on the soil surface to help keep the soil more evenly moist. This can result in less cracking to the fruits because the soil is kept more evenly moist. This can be straw, shredded or even sheets of newspaper or landscape fabric cut into strips.  As I said, tomatoes will do better if they have some light shade when they are growing. 

  Fruit Tree Limb Split Due to Heavy Fruit Load Limb Damage Due To A Heavy Crop Load.  Too much fruit on a single limb and the weight can cause the limb to separate from the trunk.  We get it at the orchard if we do not thin the fruit enough on the limb or if the limb has a poor attachment to the trunk.  Make sure that limbs which support fruit are attached to the trunk at about a 45 degree angle.  Peaches should be thinned so that the fruit is about 4 to 6 inches apart along the limb.  Summer pruning, talked about here on this blog, will help to keep fruit loads more manageable and cause less damage to the tree.  During summer pruning, usually around April and May, excessively long branches on peaches and nectarines are pruned back so they are no longer than about 18 inches.  This helps to distribute the crop load for the next year which is born on the wood which is produced this year. Flagging in new growth at the top of a peach tree Wormy Peaches, Nectarines And Even Almonds. Peach twig borer in the adult stage is a brown month about 1/2 inch long.  After eggs are laid by the adult moths, worms or larva enter soft fruit usually near the stem end.  When they enter near the stem end they leave behind some brown excrement that looks a little bit like wet, dark brown would grindings.  CloseUp Of DieBack Of A Young Peach Stem Due To Peach Twig Borer But earlier in the season when there is no fruit they attack something else that is soft and tender – – newly growing shoots.  They bore into the soft ends of the shoot where they tunnel and cause the newly growing tip to die back as you see in the picture.  Later in the season when there is soft fruit they attack the fruit instead. It is important to get these insects under control very early in the season.  There can be several generations each growing season and their numbers are not additive but multiply at very high rates so their numbers increase rapidly.   Peach Twig Borer Larva in Almond Husk These little guys will also attack almonds.  They get into the husk where it is essentially just like the fruit of a peach.  They can get inside where the nut is located and cause damage there as well. We use pheromone traps to begin to identifying when they are flying and add a very high density so that we get some mating disruption.  Then we usually use either sprays of Bt or spinosad. For more information see the University of California IPM online web site at http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r602300611.html

Roses Should Never Be Grown In Rock Mulch Q. I read your column and have a question. I have two rose plants both have very dried blossoms on them. WHAT should I do?  Cut them back 1/3, fertilize, or leave it alone until the weather cools?  The heat has “mummified” the roses that did bloom. All on the branches. We lived in Hawaii for many years, and I am uncertain how to grow roses here…Hawaii so much easier! A. Roses do surprisingly well here in our desert.  We have two rose societys here in the valley with some very avid rose growers, some with hundreds of roses in their yards.  The best time of year for roses is in the spring in the fall, months from February to May and then later when it’s cooler again beginning about mid September into mid December.  If they are planted in front of a wall with reflected heat (west and south facing walls) they will do well all winter long.  The worst time of the year for roses, and the time when they struggle the most, is June through August.  The flowers do exactly as you are talking about.  They will bloom and the flowers shrivel up and die very quickly in our heat and lack of humidity.  Never grow roses in a rock mulch here always use a wood mulch.  The best wood mulches are chipped or shredded landscape plants that arborists normally take to the landfill.  Roses growing in Las Vegas in wood mulch Roses do great on drip irrigation.  Use two, 3 gallon per hour emitters per rose plant and irrigate for 1 hour.  That will deliver 6 gallons of water.  In the heat of the summer irrigate three times a week if you are using wood mulch.  Go to twice a week in mid or late September, once a week in mid to late October, and once every 10 days after the leaves drop.  Repeat this in reverse in the spring as the temperature gets hotter starting with once a week on February 1. Fertilize in January with a slow-release rose fertilizer plus a soil-applied iron chelate applied under the wood mulch next to the emitters.  The fertilizer stakes work great and are not as messy.  The best soil applied iron chelate is going to be one which contains the chelate EDDHA.  I know that Plant World Nursery on Charleston carries this iron chelate but it is always expensive.  So does Grow Well on Nellis.  You only need a small amount per rose plant.  I would fertilize a second time, two weeks before the second crop in the fall comes on.  What should you do now?  Remove any of the flowers that if mollified and cut off any dead or dying branch is and leave it alone until after leaf drop in late December.  Do your pruning at this time.