This is a link to a KNPR facilitated article regarding small farm supplying of meat products in lieu of closure of the large suppliers like JBS,  Tyson Foods, Hormel, and Smithfield. Local Meat Producers article This is a list of “local” farms near the Las Vegas area. Some of these raise their own animals and process them. Article by USDA on small scale producers locally. Know the Nevada laws on buying meat from local suppliers (NRS 583). Opinion piece on the broken supply chain for meat during the pandemic. In Las Vegas, don’t forget Larrys Great Western Meats, although they are not a producer they will cut and wrap meat. Like your old fashioned butcher. We live in a state that has lots of “cow/calf” operations. These animals are shipped out of state to “fatten them up” for processing. Usually with corn. In Nevada they are mostly range cattle. Know the difference between “corn fed” and other types of feeding operations.

Q. With the leaves off, I got a good look at our apricot tree and found two limbs with bark severely damaged. It looks like the bark is completely gone down to the wood underneath.  What, if anything, can be done to salvage these limbs?  A. Bark easily lifted from tree limbs or the trunk no longer protect anything that’s alive. Plant parts below this bark is dead, whether killed by borers or intense sunlight. Dead is dead. Unlike how animals heal, the living wood surrounding this dead area must “roll” back on top this dead area and cover it. Limbs were removed from this peach tree due to borer damage and the trunk is healing by “rolling over” where limbs were removed.             If the damaged area is more than half of the way around the limb then considers removing it. If the damaged area is half or less, remove the loose bark and encourage it to heal properly through irrigation and fertilizers.             Removing loose bark covering this dead wood helps the plant heal faster and new growth to roll over it. Healing is a waiting game. Healing is faster if the tree is getting adequate amounts of fertilizer and water. You won’t get it to heal faster by giving it excessive amounts of water and fertilizer. This purple leaf plum had borer damage, heavy, in a major limb facing the sun. That limb died but the tree is still alive. To get it to heal fast, make sure it has adequate water, remove weeds (and grass) growing near it and fertilize twice a year (half in the spring and half in the fall). Make it healthy and encourage it to heal.             Take a sharp, sanitized knife and remove all loose bark down to fresh wood. Remove all the loose bark and slightly cut into the living wood surrounding this dead area. You will not harm the tree by cutting into the living wood if the knife is sanitized and it will heal faster. Borer damaged areas are “skinned down” to living wood with a sharp, sanitized knife and then let it heal.              Sanitizing the knife, just like the surgeon’s scalpel, will keep serious disease problems from entering the tree that might slow down the healing or worsen the tree. The tree will heal quickly if it is healthy. But this knife must be sanitized with alcohol or a good household sanitizer before cutting away at it.             It is possible that apricot, unlike many peach and nectarine, will sucker or show new growth below this damaged area. If the limb must be removed, select a sucker growing in a good direction to fill the vacancy left by removing the limb. If the limb remains, remove the suckers and let the wound heal.

Q. Can you tell me where I can purchase a Moringa tree to grow in Vegas? This is one of our Moringa (Mallinggay) trees at our farm in the Philippines. It is harvested for its leaves for use in cooking some local dishes. It is now cut back and suckering profusely. A. Moringa is a tropical tree that freezes to the ground during the winters we get below freezing temperatures. Most of the attention given to growing Moringa is on leaf production. Winter freezing for this tree in our climate is not critical because it can sucker from its base each spring. Moringa or Malunggay leaves used for cooking. Note: there is a growing interest in many places in “food forests” and the health benefits of Moringa. At our Moca Farm in the Philippines we have about 20 Moringa trees, called locally Mallunggay. We use the leaves as a condiment and cooking ingredient for many local dishes. Moringa cut back for harvesting leaves. This tree suckers nicely from cut stumps making harvesting easier.            I don’t know any place locally where you can buy one. There are several people in Las Vegas with success growing Moringa in their yards. The tree is easy to propagate from stem cuttings if you know someone who will permit you to take cuttings. We use 2 and 3-inch diameter stem cuttings from our existing Moringa trees (Malunggay in Tagalog) on our farm in the Philippines. The seed is also sold online from nurseries located in subtropical and tropical climates.            In Las Vegas, I would use thumb diameter cuttings taken in spring and grow them in a protected location in containers until leaves are seen. The following year replant them into their final location. Otherwise, start the tree from seed which can be purchased online. Note: After this was published in the local newspaper, one reader sent me a note and said she would get seed from her Moringa tree and provide it to whoever wants it. If you are interested. Let me know and I will get you in touch with her.

Roses are relatively easy to grow in the desert and provide lots of flowers IF you pick the right variety, plant them in a good spot and care for them correctly. Learn how in this podcast.

HOA’s have a presiding Board that looks after community costs and instigates rules. If you want to lower community costs, here is what to do.

Roses Hate Las Vegas Summers             It’s summer. This is the time of year when garden roses struggle. Summer is their “winter”. As the temperatures get hot, roses stop flowering and the leaf edges turn brown and scorch. The month and week it stops flowering depends on their “landscape exposure” (which magnetic direction they are facing in the landscape), how the soil was amended where it was planted, the variety planted and its overall health. If roses are not taken care of properly they will look pretty scraggly during the summer months in Las Vegas. This rose has some salt issues due to a lack of water to flush the salts from the soil and a lack of good soil preparation for good drainage. Rose Family Plants Don’t Like Rock             Some plants don’t grow well in rock and roses are one of them. Nearly all landscape plants in the Rose Family (think Photinia, pyracantha, strawberry, Carolina cherry laurel, and most of our favorite fruit trees) like soil improvement and a moist environment when planted in desert soils. The number of native Mojave Desert plants in the Rose Family is very limited. That tells you something about the desert environment and the Rose Family. This landscape photinia lost its leaves during the winter mostly because of its poor health. Plants in the Rose Family need soil improvement at the time of planting and surrounded by organic mulch, not rock.  Roses Like Amended Soil  The most favorable environment for garden roses in the desert is soil amended with compost at planting, six hours or more of morning sun, organic mulch on the soil surface (like woodchips) and moist soil. Garden roses will NOT do well the first year after planting if put in the wrong location, the soil is amended poorly and not watered correctly. They will begin failing in 3 to 5 years if surrounded by rock. Apply Fertilizers to Roses             Applying the right kind of fertilizer at the right time is only part of the success equation. Applying a rose fertilizer once in the spring is adequate, three times during the growing season is better and it can get complicated from there with fertilizer favorites and soil amendments if you are a rose enthusiast. Select Roses that Like the Desert             Some roses perform better in the hot desert than others. Consult Cooperative Extension or the Weeks Roses wholesale website for suggested recommendedvarieties for the desert when buying or replacing. Roses last 20 years or more if properly selected, planted and maintained.

Q. My son gave me a small coconut tree in a pot for Mother’s Day. I waited about 2 weeks before I planted it in a bigger pot. I’ve put it on the patio that faces west so it’s hot in that location. How can I help this coconut thrive in the desert? A palm is a nice Mothers Day gift but you cant keep it unless you are in south Florida or live in the tropics. A. You can’t. This isn’t the tropics. It can handle our heat but not our cold temperatures.  It can’t thrive here even if it survives the freezing temperatures of our winter. The biggest problem it faces, besides surviving the winter, are the cool spring and fall months. Extended periods of cold below 45° F causes permanent damage to a coconut palm. This coconut fell from a palm into this water in the Philippines. It germinates easily if temps are warm enough.             Coconut palm is truly one of the tropical palm trees. You will find coconut palms in Hawaii and southern Florida but it’s even too cool for coconut palms in Southern California so we seldom see them there.

Q. I have 50-pound sacks of 16-16-16 fertilizer in plastic bags. Somehow moisture got in the bags and the granules are wet enough that the fertilizer doesn’t drop through the spreader anymore. I live in a wet climate. What can I do to dry this fertilizer out? Granular fertilizers like this Arizonas Best Citrus Fertilizer will last for years as long as it stays dry. A. All sorts of scenarios are dancing through my head. Dry fertilizers in bags are meant to stay dry. If dry granular fertilizers stay dry, they are never hard to use. Getting wet is the one thing that can ruin a dry fertilizer specifically designed for use in spreaders that rely on some sort of a hopper (where you pour the dry fertilizer) for spreading it. Fertilizer spreaders like this rotary spreader can handle a little bit of moisture in granular fertilizers, at least better than a drop spreader can. Its not as precise as a drop sgreader but can get the job done well if you are careful how you apply it. Drop Spreaders are for Lawns             Drop spreaders rely on specifically sized granules so it’s settings can be adjusted properly for a precise application rate. They are usually used for applying fertilizers to lawns. You have lost the drop spreader application option for that fertilizer. Chalk it up to “lessons learned” and buy a different bag of lawn fertilizer. This time get a “true” lawn fertilizer like a 21-7-14 and not 16-16-16. The “ideal” lawn fertilizer contains less phosphorus like 21–7–14 with half of its nitrogen (the first number) available in a slow release form. Sometimes granular fertilizers are blended together with other fertilizers to get a fertilizer with the right numbers on the bag. Here is 21-0-0, aka, ammonium sulfate, which is 100% soluble in water. It has 21% nitrogen in the fertilizer bag. The rest is sulfur, hydrogen and oxygen (79%). No Weed n Feed and Chunks             As long as this fertilizer was not a “Weed N Feed”,  use it for other landscape plants, as a compost starter or even in a raised vegetable garden. In desert climates, spread the moist fertilizer out and use the sun to dry it. After drying, the fertilizer will dry into “chunks” that must be broken small enough to be used. Breaking it apart also creates some powder. You could still use a rotary spreader provided the fertilizer granules are dried and broken small enough to use its hopper or even apply it by hand.  This 16-16-16 is a complete, all-purpose fertilizer with nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Use it once a season but no more than that because of the high phosphorus content. Soluble Fertilizers Dissolve Quickly             Fertilizers like 16–16–16 are made by mixing two or three fertilizers, with similar sized granules, together. The nitrogen granules in this fertilizer is probably the first to dissolve when it becomes moist . The dissolving of these nitrogen granules “glues” the other granules together into “chunks”. Breaking these chunks apart creates a white powder. You can use this powder to make a liquid fertilizer. Another example of a lawn fertilizer because it has a low phosphorus content (middle number). It would be better if the last number, potassium, was a bit higher.             Use no more than 1 to 1½ tablespoons of this powder dissolved in each gallon of water. This solution of water and fertilizer can be used to spray the leaves. This “liquid fertilizer” can also be poured safely on the soil very close to the plants. The remaining granular fertilizer can be used just like any 16-16-16 fertilizer. It won’t be 16-16-16 anymore but it will be a fertilizer probably high in phosphorus and potassium. Traditionally water soluble fertilizers (intended to dissolve in water first) are made to be put in water but they should still be dry until they are used. This water soluble fertilizer made by Grow More is called “Super Bloomer” because it has a large amount of phosphorus (middle number) to promote flowering and rooting.             Don’t throw this bag out. Use the fertilizer in it. It’s just going to take a little bit of work to get into a usable form.

Q. This is the second year for my Santa Rosa plum.  I attached some garden trowels to some of the main branches to open – up the tree to a vase shape.  Is this a good idea? Weights work good for opening up or spreading open a fruit tree like this Santa Rosa plum growing in Las Vegas. Limb spreaders are faster. A. Somehow I feel like this was a setup. Yes! If you follow me long enough you know I like to see flower and fruiting plants without their branches growing at 45° above horizontal.  Many types of plum have  narrow crotch angles and their canopy needs to grow more openly. Some trees grow upright even if they aren’t supposed to like pears, many plums, Asian pears and their ornamental counterparts. Good crotch angles form a “U” when they are strongly attached to a limb or trunk. Weak crotch angels form a “V” when the angle is too weak and the limb will split when it gets some weight on it. The branch in the back is growing straight up. No, no, no. Get rid of it now! (and that little one in front, too!)             Branches growing at 45° angles produce an optimum balance between growth and flower or fruit production. Branches growing horizontally or downward may flower well but don’t grow fast. Branches growing nearly upright (vertical) grow very rapidly but they are slow to flower. The tree intends for this type of growth to give it height. Some trees grow extremely upright (most pears for instance) and the limbs should be spread apart and pruned to outward growth in mid to late spring to slow it down and improve flowering or fruiting. When young trees or young growth grows too close together and upright, use a limb spreader to push the branches apart for one season of growth.             Plants don’t care if their limbs are spread to 45° by weights or another method. I prefer to use “limb spreaders” of different lengths (4, 8, 12 and 18 inches). They are faster and less adjustment is needed. You can make them with forked ends out of  one-inch wood lath and even wooden paint stirrers. They should be strong enough to hold branches apart and not break while doing it. Limb spreaders have a crotch on both ends to help keep the small limb from sliding out. I made this one and it also has a wire brad with the tip cut off to grab the limb better. I now make them without the nail in the crotch. They hold just as well.             Be careful spreading limbs apart early in the season when they easily split if bent too far. After the new growth in the spring is an inch or two is the perfect time to bend limbs to their proper angle and either a hang weights, use limb spreaders and prune to outside growth to open the canopy wider. After one season of growth in this position they can be removed.