The second episode in this podcast discusses the practical side of irrigating desert landscape plants.

Use Part 1 as the first step in understanding how to irrigate plants in the desert. Understand the difference between xeric and mesic plants and why its important to water them differently.

I have a chef friend was looking for a small quantity of Meyer lemons. This is February 11 and he realizes it’s at the end of the season for Meyer lemons but he only needs 50-100 fruit. Does anyone have them and would they like to sell them for a fair price to this chef? This is Meyers lemon. Notice the fruit is round and when it’s fully mature oftentimes it develops an orange Jewish yellow color on the rind. It is not a true lemon like Lisbon or Bonanza but a hybrid that contains some orange genetics as well as lemon.It has a distinctive flavor different from true lemons.But it still tastes like a lemon. This begs a question. I have a twitter account. It is located at #Xtremehort On this twitter account I post infrequently but I let people know if there is a pest problem or danger to growing fruit and vegetables in southern Nevada. I am wondering if I should also offer my twitter account to chefs and local producers so they can connect. Any thoughts on this? I would love to hear your thoughts at any of my email addresses: [email protected]; [email protected] and [email protected]

If you are reading this blog post you probably live in the desert. I don’t know, but maybe you wondered if it was different growing plants in the desert versus other locations. Maybe you know it’s different but your curious about my thoughts. Or maybe you know it’s different but you want to get my “take on it”. Yes, growing plants in the desert is different than growing plants in other locations. I have lived in the upper Midwest, in arid Northern Colorado,the more arid Salt Lake city area and finally in the Mojave Desert. Yes, when I moved here it was dramatically different from the other locations I have grown plants. Let’s handle each category, how it differs from conventional gardening, separately. I will put them in the order I think they are significantly different from each other. Desert Soil That’s my left foot in that picture in a raw desert soil in North Las Vegas, Nevada, in the Eastern Mojave Desert that has never been under cultivation. In other words, it has never had water applied to it to grow anything outside of natural rainfall. As far as desert soils go, I have lived and worked in Central Asia (Afghanistan, Tajikistan) since 2005. I am familiar with desert soils in the Middle East, North Africa and south Africa as well as locations in our Southwestern deserts. This is my take on desert soils. The Mojave (Mohave) Desert is a very harsh environment to grow plants. It is harsher than Colorado, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Northern Africa, most of Arizona, New Mexico, West Texas and beyond. It is the MOON! This area is about 10 feet wide. I put as many trenches in this 10 foot wide area as I could space together. Then I flooded it with water using hoses. The water ran all night long to fill these trenches and wet that soil. I then had to wait for the soil to dry enough so it was workable with a tractor.There were 10 of these areas about 100 feet long. The first thing I look at in a desert soil is its color. Is it a light tan color like the picture or is it significantly darker brown. The second thing I use to get a handle on what I have to do with it is how hard it is to put a shovel in that soil. If I have to jump on the shovel and it barely goes in the ground or if the shovel goes in with less work. The color and how easily I get a shovel in tells me roughly its organic content. This is the gasoline driven walk behind trencher I used to cut those trenches in the picture above. It would’ve taken me days to try to use a pick on that soil and not nearly as effective. How to Fix This Soil? Water and organics. First you have to soften the soil with water then add compost to it or some other form of organics so that it stays “fluffy”. After waiting about five days for the soil to become dry enough so that it could be worked with the tractor, I filled the trenches with compost and put a thick layer of compost on top of the soil as well. Besides filling the trenches with compost to about 30 inches deep, a thick layer of compost was applied to the surface of the damp soil. The soil was dry enough for compaction not to be a problem but it still had some moisture in it, not enough to grow plants but a heck of a lot more moisture in it than it had under a hot desert sun with no rainfall. A series of different tractor attachments were used for deep cultivation of this soil, intermediate cultivation and finally seedbed preparation. Mark compost was added to the surface of the soil dependent on soil color. I wanted the soil to be a medium brown the first year we grew vegetables in it. The disc plow was used for nearly the final soil preparation and final mixing of the compost with the soil. That mixing wasn’t good enough for me. The final stage of soil preparation was mixing the compost to thoroughly with the soil with a Rototiller.We weren’t done. The raised beds needed to be shaped on both sides and a walkway created between the two raised beds. Two raised beds were created in this 10 foot wide area with the walkway in the center 18 to 24 inches wide. The walkway was created with a manure shovel and lots of work throwing the soil on both of the raised beds. The natural slope 45° slope of the soil in the raised bed kept the raised bed in place. The raised beds were leveled with a landscape rake. The raised beds were 3 1/2 feet wide not counting the slope. Drip tubing was installed on the raised beds. It was never the film drip tubing with emitters spaced every 12 inches and emitting 9/10 of a gallon per hour in each emitter. Emitters of the drip tubing on one bed were triangulated for better water distribution to the bed.spacing of the drip tubing allowed for planting on either side of the bed. Close spacing like onion and garoic would be 4 to 6 inches apart while broccoli and caulifower would be spaced 24 inches apart. Adding adding compost to Rod desert soil takes about three years before you see fabulous production. The first year has good production, the second year better production and the third year the production is fabulous in most amended desert soils. Walla Walla onion produced in this amended desert soil three years later. Garlic trials conducted in amended desert soil.When building this irrigation system, PVC pipe was used in the footer and header and painted to prevent becoming brittle from the sun. You could also build footers and headers from blank polyethylene pipe. Some of the

Q. I love the California look of lots of succulents planted in the yard and in pots on the patio. We moved into our new home late last summer and I placed some potted succulents around the pool area. Most of them burned and died because of the intense sun. What succulents survive in direct sun here in Las Vegas? I’d like to plant some in the ground as well as grow some in pots.  A. This is a two-part question; what is a succulent and how to change a harsh desert climate into one that’s favorable to grow succulents 12 months of the year.             The category of succulents is huge. Succulents have some plant part which can store water when water is not available. Cacti are a type of succulent. But there are succulents which are not cacti. The succulents you like are probably the “fleshy” succulents. These types of succulents grow best in dry climates that are cooler than our Mojave Desert climate. Low humidity is not a problem. It’s the intense sunlight, high temperatures and poor soils that create problems for them. Mediterranean climates, warm or even hot in the summer while wet in the winter, typically favor fleshy succulents. Coastal southern California is a warm Mediterranean climate but the interior valleys are part of the Mojave Desert and, just like ours, fleshy succulents won’t do well there.             Your first selection criterion is the winter low temperature. If it does not survive in winter freezes then replant in the spring every time there is a winter freeze. There will be winters it doesn’t freeze and other winters it might freeze two or three years in a row. There are areas in landscape that are warmer than others called microclimates. There are also microclimates in communities within the valley that are warmer than others. It is good to remember because as you have found out ornamental succulents will struggle to perform in our desert climate during our intense heat and sunlight. Even some cacti that come from milder climates struggle in the Mojave Desert. A second point to remember, all plants perform better in the heat and dryness of a desert climate if they are healthy. This means that even cacti and other succulents which are not cacti will be healthier if the soil is amended with compost before they are planted. I know it does not sound logical but I have found that in many of our desert soils in the Mojave Desert there just is not enough organics in the soil to promote strong health and good growth of cacti and other ornamental succulents             The exposure to direct sunlight can be a problem for most succulents in our Mojave desert climate. This is not the case in gentler, more Mediterranean climates like coastal Southern California. We can still grow in the Mojave Desert many of the same plants provided they withstand our winter freezing temperatures and are planted in different locations than you would plant in coastal Southern California.             Some favorite succulents to plant include Aloe Vera, Hearts and Flowers (Aptenia), Hen and Chicks and others. What most people do not understand is they are missing some very important succulents in the groups that we think of mostly as cacti: agave and yucca. These two groups of plants are full of species that are cacti and others that are true succulents. Remember the following when selecting succulents and where to plant them: 1.         They may freeze. Sometimes we have freezing temperatures and other times we may not. If the succulents you pick are tender to freezing temperatures you will lose them some years. Expect that and buy more and replant in late spring. 2.         Provide protection from late afternoon intense desert sunlight. Some succulents require more light than others. If they produce flowers that you like then they need more sunlight. Those succulents that don’t produce any important flowers can be planted on the east side in partial shade. Most succulents can handle early morning sunlight until about 10 AM and they should be in partial sun the rest of the morning and in the shadows late afternoon. 3.         Amend the soil with compost at planting time. Good drainage is important to these plants so the soil must drain water. Adding compost as a soil amendment improves drainage (soil structure) and provides plant nutrients for growth. Succulents will be happier planted in amended soils. 4.         Water succulents in the morning. Most small succulents need irrigations every day during the heat of the summer. Water them with a valve used for irrigating lawns, annual flowers or vegetable beds. Larger succulents like many of the yucca and agave can be watered more like small to medium sized shrubs. Size makes a difference!

Join me in this Desert Horticulture Podcast where I discuss the possibility of branch die back due to Verticillium wilt in Desert Willow, different soil amendments that can be added to soil mixes and your garden, and planting/management differences between Desert Museum Palo Verde and crepe myrtle. All this and more on this episode of Desert Horticulture.

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