Xtremehorticulture

Xtremehorticulture of the Desert

Fertilizer and Water Improves Nut Yield in Stone Pines

Leave a Comment / fertilizer, irrigation, pine nuts /

Mineral fertilization and irrigation effects on fruiting and growth in stone pine (Pinus pinea L.) crop V. Loewe A. Alvarez M. Balzarini C. Delard R. Navarro-Cerrillo3 Subscribe to ResearchGate and read the entire text here What is already known on this subject? This is the first study on fertilization and irrigation in an adult intensive P. pinea plantation, providing a first management proposal for the species. What are the new findings? Fertilization enhanced fruit production (›82.3%) and vegetative growth while irrigation enhanced only fruiting. Best fruit production was recorded in fertilized and irrigated plots (›60%). What is the expected impact on horticulture? Pine nuts can be produced in orchards applying horticulture techniques as in other fruit crops, improving production quality and quantity, overcoming the traditional view as a non-timber forest product (NTFP). Summary Introduction  – Stone pine (Pinus pinea L.) is a species of economic interest for its pine nuts. Despite this market, cones are harvested mostly from natural forests. Advances in semi-intensive or intensive management for cultivating it as a fruit tree have been scarce. Fruit development is characterized by a 3-year cycle since pollination to harvesting, making nutritional and hydric management highly challenging. Materials and methods – We studied the main and interaction effects of fertilization and irrigation on growth and fruiting by a factorial design laid out in an adult stone pine plantation located in central Chile. Results and discussion – Mineral fertilization had an effect one year later on height growth (+23.5% increase) and one-year-old conelet production (+82.3% increase). After two consecutive years of mineral fertilization, significant positive impacts on diameter growth, height growth and one-year-old conelet production were observed. Irrigation enhanced fruiting but did not impact growth significantly. The highest conelet number was observed in the fertilized and irrigated experimental plots. Conclusion  Both cultural practices, applied either individually or combined, are efficient techniques to enhance fruit production of the stone pine. ve). This research accessed from North Carolina State University’s AgriFoodGateway

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When to Apply Fertilizer and What Kind Explained

Leave a Comment / applying, fertilizer, timing /

Q. When during the year should you start and stop fertilizing landscape plants and what kind of fertilizer is best for them all? It seems to me that with acid loving plants, cacti, palms, roses, fruit trees and annual flowers they might all require different kinds of fertilizers and different times to apply them. A. You could go crazy trying to follow all the different rules when fertilizing for different types of plants. Keep it simple. Let me give you a few simple rules to follow when applying fertilizers. This is an easy fertilizer for homeowners because it tells them what it’s for. It has 10% nitrogen, 5% phosphorus in the form of P205 and 10% potassium in the form of K2O. But it should really tell us that it’s primarily for frond and stem growth (nitrogen), half as much for roots and flower production (phosphorus, we don’t want much of that anyway) and a similar amount of potassium as nitrogen. What other plants would this be good for besides palms?             If plants are winter tender, in other words they might get hurt or die when temperatures dip below freezing, stop fertilizing these plants in July. Our citrus trees fall into this category.             Lawns, bedding plants, such as annual flowers, and vegetables should be lightly fertilized once a month. Lawns that are expected to remain dark green during the winter should have fertilizer applied around Thanksgiving before freezing weather. This is 21% nitrogen in the form of ammonium sulfate. There is no number for on this label but it also delivers about 20% sulfur as a fertilizer as well. Some people are very negative about ammonium sulfate but the plant doesn’t really care where the nitrogen is coming from. We should pay attention to any contaminants, such as heavy metals, that might be in this bag of fertilizer.             For light fertilizer applications, reduce the amount applied to half the rate recommended on the bag or container. Light applications of fertilizer can be applied every month and immediately watered in if applied early in the morning. Get in the habit of applying fertilizers early in the morning or late in the day.             The most highly prized landscape plants should be fertilized three or four times during the year; January/February, April/May and September/October. These include plants like roses, gardenias, and Jasmine for instance. Again, use half rates when applying fertilizers. Has a lot of phosphorus in it. The numbers tell us that. This fertilizer would be used for new plants that need to create a lot of new roots and those that flower or produce seed. Marijuana producers use this type of fertilizer when the plant is getting older and is close to flowering and producing seeds.             Most landscape plants are fertilized only once, just before new growth begins in late January or early February. This includes all landscape trees including palm trees.             Which fertilizer to use? You can get by with 2 or 3 fertilizers in your arsenal. That’s all. Fertilizers have three numbers separated by hyphens somewhere on their label. They represent three different plant nutrients; nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and in that order.             When growing plants that are primarily important because of their leaves and stems, the first number, or nitrogen, should be the highest. The middle number, phosphorus, should be about one fourth of the value of the first number. The last number, or potassium should be somewhere in between the first and second number. Obviously then when growing roses, fertilizers with a high middle number are important for good flower production. Be careful of adding high phosphorus fertilizers over and over because phosphorus will begin to accumulate in soils unlike nitrogen and potassium.             When growing plants valued for their flowers or fruit, then the second number or phosphorus becomes critical. It needs to be the highest. When fertilizing these plants, the second number should be highest while the first and third numbers lower. Exact numbers are not critical but the ratio of these three, or their proportions contained in the fertilizer, is more important             To be healthy, plants need more nutrients than supplied by only these three numbers. But these three numbers represent nutrients needed in massive amounts by plants. The other important nutrients are supplied by the soil. For this reason, I frequently mention the application of compost. A compost application, once a year to landscape plants, would be extremely beneficial.

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Apricot and Apple Tree Growing Poorly

1 Comment / Apple, apricot, fertilizer, sparse growth /

Q. My apple and apricot trees have small leaves and not much new growth. The few dark green leaves are almost dead. I fertilized the plant in the prescribed periods and watered the plant as in previous years. The apple tree made flowers but few fruits. The apricot had lots of apricots and dropped some earlier but few green leaves. Apricot tree sparse and not filling in properly. Having a tree with the canopy this open can lead to borer problems if it doesn’t already have them. Apple tree is sparse. The same thing applies to Apple trees. They need enough water and a big enough basin to water the roots, nutrients which we supply through rich compost or fertilizers, and a surface mulch which decomposes to enrich the soil. A. Thanks for the pictures. I think the problems are a combination of water, fertilizer and soil. As you know, the trees should be thick and dense this time of year. They are not because, I think, they lack these three ingredients. Water Your trees are about 8 to 10 feet tall and would need about 20 to 30 gallons of water every other day during the hot summer months. As trees get older and larger, they need more water. That works out to about 75 to 100 gallons each week.             There is a basin at the bottom of the tree that is maybe 3 feet in diameter. Increase the size of that basin to about 6 feet in diameter or 3 feet from the trunk in all directions. That will accommodate more water and spread it about a foot beyond the basin. Compost or fertilizer             Spread about 1 cubic foot of good quality compost in the basin away from the trunk before you water it again. This compost should have a high nutrient content such as Viragrow’s. Many do not.             After rebuilding the basin in a six-foot diameter around the tree and applying compost, fill the basin with a hose or sprinkler on the end of a hose. Fill the basin twice. Mulch             Cover the soil in the basin with woodchips from local trees if you can find them. If you can’t find any, use straw 4 to 6 inches deep until you can find some woodchips.             Increase the amount of water to the tree by covering that soil with about one – two inches of water flooding the basin. Water the tree three – four times per week using this basin and flooding technique. You should see new growth starting in about 7 to 10 days.

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When to Fertilize Lawns

Leave a Comment / fertilizer, lawn, turfgrass /

Q. When is it time to start fertilizing lawns again? Lawns can be beautiful but they need regular feeding. The light green color of this lawn is an indicator it needs an application of nitrogen fertilizer. That nitrogen fertilizer will turn that light green lawn into a dark green lawn in a matter of a couple days. A. It depends on whether the lawn is fescue, only Bermudagrass or Bermudagrass overseeded in Fall to maintain green winter color. Fescue lawns and overseeded Bermudagrass lawns are fertilized the same during winter months. Ammonium sulfate fertilizer contains only nitrogen that the plants need when their color is not dark enough. The sulfur in the sulfate is also important for plants but in the case of light green color, all that’s lacking is nitrogen.3 to 5 pounds of this fertilizer spread evenly over 1000 ft.² of lawn and watered in will turn the color a deep green instead of light green.             Fescue and overseeded Bermudagrass should have been fertilized last Thanksgiving to maintain dark green color through winter. If this fertilizer application was missed and temperatures get cold, the lawn can turn brown when it gets very cold or just light green if it does not.             The next fertilizer application to fescue lawns would be when air temperatures enter the 60s. Fertilize Bermudagrass that was not overseeded when temperatures enter the 80s. Once or twice a year add a better quality fertilizer to the lawn like this one. It has a little bit of phosphorus, the middle number. Lawns don’t need a lot of phosphorus because we don’t grow them for their flowers and fruit. I would like to see the potassium, the last number, higher than this but this is a good lawn fertilizer.             Established lawns require fertilizers containing high nitrogen, and occasionally an application of iron, for dark green color. However, they will perform best if this fertilizer contains also low levels of phosphorus and moderate to high levels of potassium.             For this reason, fertilizers similar to 21-7-14 or 10-5-10 are frequently recommended for lawns. Some people use only high nitrogen fertilizer such as 21-0-0 and omit phosphorus and potassium.             I think this is a mistake and a good lawn fertilizer should be applied at least once during the growing season. Instead, experiment and try fertilizing with only half the amount of fertilizer recommended on the bag. This is all that is usually needed if you are not bagging lawn clippings but mulching them back into the lawn using the mower.

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Use Compost in Place of Fertilizer

1 Comment / compost, fertilizer /

Sudan grass without compost (above) and with compost applied (below) growing in Amargosa Valley, Nevada. Composts can provide alot of benefits to plants including much needed nutrients that improve color and growth. Q. If I make my own compost, can I use it instead of commercial fertilizers for grass, plants, trees, shrubs? A. Yes you can. But please be aware that homemade compost is not consistent in fertilizer content and quality. This is because of variability of different ingredients used to make the compost. The ingredients used to make compost directly impact the nutrients found in compost made from it. However, compost is universally good, whether it’s commercial or homemade, when added to soils as a soil amendment. Spreading compost on vegetable plots between palm trees for soil improvement and fertilizer content.             When using compost as a substitute for fertilizer, it is important to know its carbon to nitrogen ratio (C:N), in other words how much nitrogen fertilizer it contains. The nitrogen content of a compost is critical. High nitrogen content (low carbon to nitrogen ratio) makes compost “hot” and less of it should be used. If compost has a high carbon to nitrogen ratio (low nitrogen content), then more of it should be applied when substituting it for fertilizer. When applying compost to lawns a compost drum spreader is used to apply it evenly.             Commercial composts aim for a carbon to nitrogen ratio close to 20:1 or twenty times more carbon than nitrogen. As this ratio increases to 40:1, the nitrogen fertilizer content decreases. At a ratio more than 40:1, the compost is still valuable but it’s value is greater as a soil amendment rather than fertilizer. When applied to fruit or landscape trees, compost can be applied in a circle around the trunk so that it doesn’t damage the tree. It is then watered in.             The carbon to nitrogen ratio in homemade compost is managed through what is added to the compost mix before composting. “Woody” additions to compost like wood chips, sawdust and shredded newspaper (sometimes referred to as the “brown” component) increase the carbon to nitrogen ratio. Compost piles have ingredients that are shredded, water is added to help it all “rot” and  the pile is turned when the temperature inside the pile gets hot, around 160F. Manures are usually used to get the nitrogen content high enough for rotting to begin.             Additions of grass clippings, leaves of trees and shrubs, and vegetable scraps (referred to as the “green” component) lowers the carbon to nitrogen ratio and make it more valuable as a fertilizer.             Animal manure (think of it as a concentrated “green” component) is high in nitrogen and added to get the carbon to nitrogen ratio low and improve fertilizer content. If lots of different components are mixed together in the right proportions, green components are balanced with brown components, homemade compost has all the nutrients needed by plants.             The short answer is “yes”. But substituting a homemade compost for a fertilizer application varies from batch to batch depending on what was used to make the compost.

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Some Compost Can Be Used as a Fertilizer

Leave a Comment / compost, fertilizer /

Q. If I make my own compost, can I use it instead of commercial fertilizers for grass, plants, trees, shrubs? Some composts, if they are rich enough in nutrients, can be used like a fertilizer. A. Yes you can. But please be aware that homemade compost is not consistent in fertilizer content and quality. This is because of variability of different nutrients in ingredients used to make the compost. However, compost is universally good, whether it’s commercial or homemade, when added to soils as a soil amendment. This is the fertilizer content of a compost supplied by a company I consult with. This particular compost contains a large amount of fertilizer for each cubic yard of compost. This compost would make an excellent fertilizer for plants. Other composts may not contain as much fertilizer as this one.             When using compost as a substitute for fertilizer, it is important to know its carbon to nitrogen ratio, in other words how much nitrogen fertilizer it contains. The nitrogen content of a compost is critical. High nitrogen content (low carbon to nitrogen ratio) makes compost “hot” and less of it should be used. If compost has a high carbon to nitrogen ratio (low nitrogen content), then more of it should be applied when substituting it for fertilizer When applying compost as a fertilizer for plants, it is important to keep the fertilizer away from the trunk of trees and the stems of soft, succulent plants. This type of application is okay for woody plants but vegetables and annual flowers should have the compost mixed with the soil before planting because of the high salt content from the fertilizer salts.             Commercial composts aim for a carbon to nitrogen ratio close to 20:1 or twenty times more carbon than nitrogen. As this ratio increases to 40:1, the nitrogen fertilizer content decreases. At a ratio more than 40:1, the compost is still valuable but it’s value is greater as a soil amendment rather than fertilizer.             The carbon to nitrogen ratio in homemade compost is managed through what is added to the compost mix before composting. “Woody” additions to compost like wood chips, sawdust and shredded newspaper (sometimes referred to as the “brown” component) increase the carbon to nitrogen ratio.             Additions of grass clippings, leaves of trees and shrubs, and vegetable scraps (referred to as the “green” component) lowers the carbon to nitrogen ratio and make it more valuable as a fertilizer.             Animal manure (think of it as a concentrated “green” component) is high in nitrogen and added to get the carbon to nitrogen ratio low and improve fertilizer content. If lots of different components are mixed together in the right proportions, green components are balanced with brown components, homemade compost has all the nutrients needed by plants.             The short answer is “yes”. But substituting a homemade compost for a fertilizer application varies from batch to batch depending on what was used to make the compost.

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Problem With Chitalpa after Deep Root Feeding

12 Comments / applying fertilizer to trees, damage from deep root fertilizing, fertilization, fertilizer, how to fertilize large trees /

Q. We are having a major problem with one of our two chitalpa trees after they were fertilized. We were told by professionals that these are desert trees and don’t require a lot of water and the watering schedule has not changed for 2-1/2 years. They are on drip irrigation with each tree receiving 5 gallons of water a day scheduled at 2 AM, 6 AM and 10 PM. We had a tree service company do a deep root feeding on May 14th because one tree looked sickly while the other one was healthy. After fertilizer was applied the healthy one now has leaves that are brown, curled up and falling off. The tree service came back out and suggested to water the tree for an hour for two consecutive days just in case the fertilizer put the tree into a shock. We did that with no change in the trees except for new shoots growing from the trunk of the damaged one. The tree service doesn’t know the problem. Should we plan on replacing this tree in the near future or will it come back next year? Chitalpa not the readers Chitalpa not the readers Chitalpa not the readers A. Desert trees need water just like regular trees but their main claim to fame is that they need irrigations less often.  Let’s explore what happened. First of all, 5 gallons of water a day is not enough water unless they are very small trees, perhaps no more than 5 feet tall. Secondly, there is no reason to apply the water at three different times when using drip emitters. Drip emitters apply water very slowly so the entire amount of water can be applied at one time with no problems. I think you may have been a bit misled when you purchased these trees. Many people, including professionals, do not understand the relationship between the water use of desert trees and the level of acceptability these trees have when different amounts of water is applied. Chitalpa with limb dieback, probably watering issue, not the readers Just because trees are so-called desert trees does not mean that they can get by with very little water. Chitalpa is a desert-adapted tree, not really a true desert tree like some of the acacias and palo verdes. I do think your damaged tree resulted from the fertilizer application to the soil. I don’t think there was enough water present in the soil to dilute the fertilizer enough to keep the roots from getting damaged after the application. Secondly, I believe the soil water taken up by the roots was so high in fertilizer salts that the leaves were damaged and the severely damaged ones fell from the tree. What can you do? Flood the area under the tree with water once a week for the next three weeks. After this, go back to normal irrigations using your irrigation system. I would look closely at the possibility that you may not be applying enough water during an irrigation. More about deep root fertilizer applications If you suspect this might be the case, either increase the number of minutes so that more water is applied or add more drip emitters under the canopy if you suspect there are not enough. You will increase the amount of water either way. The key consideration is whether you are applying enough water under the entire canopy or not. If you suspect you are not, then the only solution is to add more emitters. What will happen to the tree? Because of leaf drop you may have some branch die back and lose some limbs. Let the tree continue to grow this summer and fall and don’t do any pruning until this winter. This winter see if you can do some corrective pruning to improve the shape of the tree. If the tree has been to severely damaged due to die back, then you might consider replacing it. I don’t think you can make that determination for another month or two.

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Worm Exodus Due to Environmental Irritation

Leave a Comment / chemicals, fertilizer, landscape, pesticides, why worms leaving the lawn, worm escaping, worms dying, worms leaving /

Q. In the last 10 days we have experienced a major worm exodus out of our yard onto the sidewalk. I recently applied a lawn fertilizer with no pesticides in it. One of these die-offs was after a heavy watering and one was after no water for 2 days. Is this normal this time of year? A. It is hard to pinpoint the reason why worms did a death march out of your lawn but the usual reasons are because they can’t get enough air or some irritant is applied to the lawn. A lack of air usually occurs because the soil is kept too wet, like right after a heavy rain, or is compacted from traffic or heavy equipment. This can be corrected by aerating the lawn once a year. It is possible that a heavy application of fertilizer might irritate them enough so they would leave. Most fertilizers are salts.  If the soil becomes salinized this could be enough of an irritant for earthworms to try an evacuation. Quick release fertilizers (these are the most inexpensive types) easily dissolves in water so fertilizer salts are released into the earthworm environment very quickly. Next time apply a fertilizer that has half of its nitrogen in a “slow release” form. This releases the nitrogen more slowly, as well as the salt content, and is easier on your worms. It is also a better fertilizer for your lawn. Slow release fertilizers encourages moderate growth and is applied less often. Quick release fertilizers tend to “jolt” the grass into rapid growth and then disappears quickly.

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Bamboo Damaged Just After Winter

Leave a Comment / fertilizer, how to prune, how to recover, winter cold, winter damage /

Q. Do you have any advice on what I can do to green up these bamboo planted in rock mulch? Give them iron perhaps? Bamboo from reader just after winter cold. A. I hesitated a bit because I was not sure which bamboo this was so I am guessing it is golden bamboo, a runner. The new leaves will come in this spring and cover most of the damaged ones. Otherwise you are left to removing the leaves by hand if it is unsightly. Come back? Fertilizer and water. An option is to cut them back and let them regrow with new shoots. The running bamboo grows from rhizomes or runners underground. Clumping bamboo grow like an iris and the clump just keeps getting larger. These can handle pruning but I would not top them. I would selectively cut out stems at the ground level where you don’t want them. Hope this helps.

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