Xtremehorticulture

Xtremehorticulture of the Desert

March Todo List in the Orchard

Leave a Comment / definition horticulture desert, Mohave Desert, Mojave Desert, orchard calendar, vegetables, what to do to fruit trees in march /

 Sweet corn at the orchard March Todo List Plant sweet in at least three rows for wind pollination. Plant seed one foot apart and enough room between rows so you can harvest ears. Keep out of strong winds. Contessa sweet onions after harvest at the orchard Dig and replant onion transplants or plant transplants ordered. Be sure to use a high phosphorus fertilizer and compost at the time of planting. We can grow both Short and Long Day onions. Try Candy, Big Daddy, Texas Super Sweet, Red Candy, Walla Walla, Sterling. A good place to order online is Dixondale Farms in Texas http://www.dixondalefarms.com/      Harvest asparagus every 2 to 3 days. Store spears upright to prevent curving of the spears. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, melons, cucumbers to be planted March 15. Protect from wind and strong sunlight for two weeks. Early March. Prune table grapes. Spray to prevent thrips damage on nectarine fruits. Prepare bottles for putting on fruit trees for harvesting fruit in bottles. Select early producing varieties and put the bottles upside down so they drain and in the shade of the canopy on the north side. Growing fruit in bottles partially covered with aluminum foil to prevent heat buildup  Weed vegetable plots. Cutworm control on newly emerged seedlings. Spray Bt (Dipel or Thuricide) or Spinosad over newly applied vegetables and the soil surrounding the plants. Prune palms to get them out of the way of the vegetable plots. Harvest green almonds toward the end of the month and into April. Thin apricots when dime sized. Thin peaches when nickel sized. Harvest snow peas Fix irrigation leaks Almonds harvested green. This size and smaller can be used.

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Lilac Pruning and Selection for the Desert

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Q. My daughter has just moved into a house that has old growth lilacs and we need to know how to prune them without causing too much stress on the plants.  Do you have any ideas? A. By the way, Persian lilacs grow and bloom better here than the common lilac and are very showy. However, the lilac variety “Lavender Lady” requires less chilling and blooms very well here. These are not plants for rock landscapes but should be in the high water use zones and the soil should be amended well at planting and covered with organic mulch.             For good-looking lilacs always start pruning at the bottom of the shrub. At the bottom, identify the two or three largest stems coming from the base. Remove them with clean cuts close to the ground. I can’t see the shrub but several smaller stems should remain that supports flowering for next year.             What you are trying to accomplish with many woody shrubs is to renew the shrub with new growth on a constant basis. You do this by removal of the largest stems close to the ground. This should cause smaller and newer growth to originate from the base keeping the shrub green, juvenile and full of flowers and leaves from top to bottom.             Every couple of years, repeat this type of pruning; remove the largest stems at the base. If done correctly, this will keep the shrubs renewed and looking good. This is all you need to do unless you have some crossed or broken branches at the top that you need to remove.             Don’t forget to fertilize the with a good quality fertilizer made for woody plants. Fertilize plants whenever you take anything from them (pruning) or they give you something (flowering). So when you’re pruning or they bloom for you, you need to give back to them lightly in the form of a fertilizer. You can use fertilizer stakes. Put fertilizers close to the emitters or their source of water. Do this in late January through March and make light applications right after they finish blooming. I hope this helps.

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Using Ficus as a Hedge/Screen Around a Pool in Phoenix

Leave a Comment / cold damage, definition horticulture desert, ficus nitida, freeze damage, heat, pool screen, privacy, screening /

You scared me for a minute. I’m in Las Vegas so when I saw your Ficus mentioned I was concerned. I am less concerned with it in the Phoenix area but the pool area puts it in a different twist and you still have to worry about freezing damage.             But I am going to copy this to my good friend Terry Mikel who was your Extension Specialist in Maricopa County with the main office in Phoenix. He is better at answering this one and I will post his answer. He is in retirement but I am SURE he will come out of hiding on this one! Q. I live in Glendale Arizona. I have a 45ft section of 6 foot brick wall that I would like to plant Ficus nitida along. There is a 4 foot width between the wall and a plaster underground swimming pool. No problem watering the hedge?  But will this plant seek the pool water and cause a problem. I am not worried about frost. I want a 10 foot hedge when done. A. Your thoughts about having a hedge sound good.  Ficus microcarpa sub species/or cultivar ‘Nitida’ can fit the situation; its clean (no real messes). evergreen and makes a dense wall of foliage.             I have to use the term ‘can’ with a couple caveats.  1. This plant can grow to a very large size.  Frosts every few years help keep them in check.  And pruning can, to a certain degree keep them in check.  But, frosts and pruning will be a continuous battle against their genetics: it wants to be a 60′ tall and 80′ wide tree. 2. This species of Ficus will after time develop huge surface roots that will lift, push or barge anything in their path.  It’s their genetics and watering will have little, if any affect so the wall to the one side and any pool decking on the other side will be vulnerable to the large lifting roots.             Your one concern about them ‘seeking’ water is a commonly misunderstood trait of any plant. . . Plants do not search out water, period.  Plants send out roots randomly in all directions and roots that run into a water source will proliferate.             Pool sides, if sound will be the same a rock in nature, the roots will try to grow up, under, or around any solid object.             If, and this is a big if there is the slightest oozing leak from the pool’s wall  and a root meanders there then it will grow and proliferate in response.  That’s where the issue of roots and pools becomes a problem.             Personally, the Ficus is overused and most people who grow them quickly tire of all the problems with them.  If anyone who knew much about them would warn folks against using them except for large evergreen tree.             Your setting is a little bit of a challenge. You might think about something much less vigorous with fewer potential problems and some have blooms (a potential ‘mess’ issue). Look at: citrus, Hop Seed Bush (Dodonea), Xylosma (both common and botanical name), Arizona Rosewood (or any in that genus of Vauquelinia), one of the many different blooming colors of Arizona Yellow Bells (Tecoma and various species and varieties), Petite Oleanders have been used in that setting for generations.             Every person’s ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’ vary. Check with your water department and pick up some of the nice booklets about planning and plants for the landscape. These were produced by the Arizona Municipal Water Users’ Association, more lovingly called AMWUA to be distributed in the different communities.             Another resource might be going to the Mountain States Wholesale Nursery (MSWN.com) site for a truly complete list of plants that are well adapted in the lower Sonoran desert. They also produce some for the higher deserts but their main goal is for lower deserts. . Respectfully, Terry H. Mikel

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Were You Ever Called a Manipulator?

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Horticulture is the manipulation of plants to get them to do what we want them to do. A basic horticultural premise that I operate from is the concept that as we deviate in our plant selection further and further from those plants which are desert adapted, the more time, energy and money we must devote to their care. There is nothing wrong with that. But it becomes a problem when we don’t realize it and we expect any plant that we put in our soil to behave the same way as any other plant. We also don’t realize that these “out of place” plants require more of our time, energy and money to perform well. Faculty from the University of Sonora (USON) in Hermosillo visiting our nopal plantings at the UNCE Orchard Then Maybe You Should Take Up Horticulture! Growing nopal cactus here requires much less effort than growing tomatoes, a tropical plant. Much more care is required of that tomato plant to get it to do what we want it to do than it does to grow that cactus. The problem becomes “What exactly does that tomato require to get it to perform to its maximum?” The cactus will perform to its maximum, growing and fresh vegetable and fruits, with less expenditure of time, energy and money. Horticulture is simply the manipulation of plant traits (characteristics like size, shape, leaf and flower color, etc.) for hobby, profit or curiosity. The other sciences of growing plants like agriculture and botany, are less focused on plant manipulation than in horticulture. Those of us who call ourselves horticulturists enjoy or make money from our abilities to manipulate plants, getting them to do what we want them to do. To learn this requires patience, a basic understanding of plants, soils, weather and climate, water and irrigation, careful observation of plants, and acquired skills. Because of this, frequently horticulture is considered an “art” or skill as much as a science. But good horticulturists can get plants to do what no other plant scientist can and that is to respond to our needs and wants. Asht Region in Northern Tajikistan. Looks like southern Nevada! Our climate is considered a desert climate. Deserts have been defined as those climates with ten inches or less rainfall each year. Arid climates are more general in nature and typically meaning that they are incapable of supporting some form of agriculture without supplemental irrigation. Because we live in the middle elevations of the Mojave Desert (2000 foot elevation) and we have distinctive seasons, our climate could be considered a temperate desert climate. We enjoy many different types of landscape plants that originate from various climates all over the world; cold northern climates, hot tropical climates, wet Marine type climates, Mediterranean climates, and others. When we select plants that originate from climates that are different from ours, these plants may behave differently when planted here and the management of them must reflect these differences and compensate for them. –Bob Morris

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