Xtremehorticulture

Xtremehorticulture of the Desert

Potted Meyer Lemon Flower Drop

1 Comment / container trees, desert, fertilizer, flower drop, freeze damage, fruit drop, irrigation, Las Vegas, Meyer lemon, Mohave Desert, Mojave Desert, nevada /

Q. You helped me before with my Meyer Lemon, so I hope you have an answer for this one. My tree is in a huge pot. It is about 4 years old.             Last Spring, it had massive flowers (yum) and a lot of little green buds followed. Then every single one of those buds turned black and dropped off.  Not one remained. I want to figure out why and change what I am doing so this never happens again.             The plant is fertilized with granular fertilizer 2x a year — early spring and late summer. It gets moisture and hasn’t dried out.  However the leaves could look more beautifully green. Sometimes, some of them curl and are not quite bright green.             I do not know if the two issues are related, but I sure hope you have a suggestion. A. Sounds like you had post bloom fruit drop. Fruit drop can also occur during summer months and just before harvest. The usual reasons for post bloom fruit drop is usually some sort of stress.             Four years is getting up there for being in the same pot without repotting. You might consider repotting and adding some new soil to the mix. Meyer lemon flowers             I know you said it had adequate water but if it went through just a few hours of drought during or just after pollination, fruit drop may occur. If we have some freezing weather during or just after flowering, that can cause the fruit to abort too.We had some on January 6 and 8 in parts of the valley.             When watering, make sure about 20% of the water that you apply runs out the bottom of the container each time you water. This is important for flushing salts from the soil.             Another possibility in containers is overheating them. If in direct sunlight and the outside of the container gets too hot and transmits this heat to the soil, this can cause stress and cause fruit drop.             Proper fertilization is important. Over fertilizing fruit trees, excess nitrogen, can cause fruit drop. And finally less commonly some insects such as scale or mealybug infestations can cause fruit drop as well.             What to do? Make sure your container, the soil volume, is big enough to handle wide swings in temperature and water. Monitor both closely. You might find a houseplant moisture meter to be helpful.              Keep the outside of a plant container out of the hot sun. Double potting a container is  helpful to keep the soil temperature down. Watch for freezing temperatures at bloom time and cover the plant.             Water the soil just before the heat of the day. Wet soil heats up more slowly than dry soil. If we have any frost during bloom it will affect fruit production.

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Central Growth Bright Yellow in Palm

2 Comments / chlorosis, fertilizer, nutrition /

Q. Hello, I’m hoping you might offer a suggestion for a sick/ugly palm tree.  I have a Mexican fan palm in my back yard in Mesquite that was planted from a 24″ box nearly five years ago (in December, by the way).  About this time last year, it developed what I called the “bald man” look, with the top fronds curving down much earlier than normal, leaving only the emerging (newly opened or unopened) fronds sticking up.  When they emerged, they were a uniform yellow color – the older fronds’ color is fine, except for the curved stalk.  When summer came this year, it returned to normal and looked great all summer.  Now, it is doing the same thing again this year.  Coincidentally, last year and this year were the only times it’s produced the strands of seeds/berries.  If it’s going to look terrible during the cooler months (which is when we are at this home), I’m probably going to have it removed and replaced with something else.  Before I take that drastic step, I thought I’d see if perhaps you could offer suggestions to “cure” this problem.I thought I’d write for your advice and include a photo.  I’d appreciate any suggestions you can make. A. That sort of yellowing in the growing point of the palm is usually a sign that the central bud is going to die. Once the bud dies of a single trunk palm, the palm dies. The fact that it was yellow and recovered kind of surprises me. It is usually an indicator that the central bud is diseased. This is a queen palm with new, immature fronds coming from the central bud. On another note, Palm trees should never be planted during late fall or the winter months. They usually have a higher mortality if planted during this time of the year. The best time to plant them is when there is good weather for a couple of months after they have been planted. Typically palm trees do quite well when planted during the summer months. If you want to try something, you can use a fungicide poured over the top of the central Bud to see if you can arrest the problem. Another possible problem could be nutritional. I would apply some iron chelate around the base of the tree and water it in now. Another palm, one of the date palms, with the central fronds coming from the bud yellowing. Another possible problem might be keeping the soil too wet or the soil might not be draining water very well. Soils that hold too much water can cause this type of yellowing as well. Even another possibility might be that the palm was planted too deeply. If the palm was planted more deeply than it was growing in a nursery then you can develop yellowing like this as well. Make sure the soil drains easily. If the palm may have been planted too deeply or is in a low spot in the yard, you might have to move it somewhere else where the water does not accumulate. Thirdly, apply a landscape fertilizer in the spring or late winter along with an iron chelate. The iron chelate should contain EDDHA as the chelate in the ingredients.

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Controlling Growth of Shrubs More Than Water and Fertilizer

Leave a Comment / fertilizer, irrigation, orchard pruning, plants too large, size control, slow growth, water /

Q. You have always have stated to prune shrubs and trees when they are dormant, but it seems mine do not go dormant in the winter.  They continue to grow even though they get water only once a week.  I halved their fertilizer application but they continue to grow larger than I want them to. Why do they grow when they should be dormant and when should I prune them to slow their growth and spread? A. Shrubs desire to reach their mature size. Keeping them smaller than this will require more maintenance than selecting one that is the size you need. Select shrubs by determining the size you need and finding one that fits that size at maturity.             Dormancy here is not the same as dormancy in Minnesota. Dormancy here, in some cases for some plants, means that they may stop growing as much, not that they stop growing at all. Just depends on the plant and its location.             Where the plant is located in the landscape also dictates its level of dormancy. Very warm microclimates in the yard may mean that some plants never totally shut down during the winter while in colder spots they do. Hot south and west facing walls with little winter wind are the warmest locations.             Cutting back on water and fertilizer will help but they do not act like an “on and off switch” for plants. Think of fertilizer and water more like a “rheostat” where it can increase and decrease growth but not totally shut it down. At some point though, turning down the water and fertilizer will damage the plant. The real solution is to match plant mature size to the site.                 Focus your pruning on older growth and remove it from deep inside the canopy leaving the younger growth still flourishing. Prune in the winter months. Avoid trimming on the edge of the canopy whenever you can. Hide your cuts if at all possible. They should not be obvious. This will help keep them smaller.

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Yellowing in Palms Can Be Lots of Different Things

Leave a Comment / cold damage, fertilizer, freeze damage, iron, nutrient /

This is California fan palm with cold damage from temperatures in the low 20’s or high teens F Q. We have a fan palm where the palms are turning yellow and I’m assuming dying. One or two would be acceptable but we are have 5 and 6 that are going bad. A. Let’s cover some ideas about why your palms could have yellow fronds. These are the main reasons: older fronds are dying from natural causes and should be removed; fronds were damaged during winter freezes; too much water applied too often or too little water; palms planted too deeply; palms planted in heavy soil that doesn’t drain well; palms planted with pure sand around the rootball; fertilizer problems such as iron, manganese or zinc. Not totally sure on this one but it was probably light cold damage on this date palm during the  winter in low 20’s Palms should be planted with the soil taken from the hole plus 50% compost and a starter fertilizer high in phosphorus added. Palms should NOT be planted with their root ball surrounded by pure sand in the planting hole which is commonly done in Las Vegas. The idea of doing that is absolutely crazy. Palms are high water users even though they tolerate high temperatures and our desert climate. Different types of palms require different amounts of water. The larger the palm, the more water it will require. Some of the highest water users will be date palm with their huge canopy spread. The amount of water will vary but most fan palms would be happy receiving about 20 gallons every time they are irrigated. This is Queen palm, not a good palm for the hot desert and probably lack of soil preparation or watering too often or both One of the common problems is irrigating palm trees with small amounts of water, like ten or fifteen minutes of drip irrigation, daily or even twice a day. Watering like this can fill the soil with water and suffocate the roots causing them to rot, diseased or both. So if you are irrigating your palms daily, don’t do that anymore! During the heat of the summer they can be irrigated two or three times a week, using 20 gallons each time you irrigate but the soil must freely drain the water away from the tree. In the wintertime you might be dropping your irrigation to 20 gallons every 10 days or perhaps even as long as two weeks. Sometimes the soil lacks certain types of minerals that palm trees need. Deficiencies like iron and manganese usually appears as a discoloration in the fronds at the center the canopy, the most recent growth. This can range from light green to nearly yellow. If these inner fronds are yellowing then we can usually narrow this to watering too often, poor drainage or a lack of minor elements such as iron. Center fronds, youngest, demonstrating yellow growth which could be due to watering issues, soil issues or possibly disease Next February when you make your annual application of fertilizer use a complete fertilizer such as a Miracle Gro, Rapid Gro, or Peters. You can also use fertilizer stakes. Make sure it is well balanced and try to select a fertilizer with the three numbers the same or close to the same value like a 16-16-16 or 10-10-10. Add an iron chelate that contains the EDDHA chelate in the ingredients. Let’s see if that works along with irrigating with a large volume of water but doing it less often. Cold damage on palms usually results in the older fronds turning a bronze color first and then browning later as they die. General rule of thumb is if more than half of the frond has turned brown, remove it. The new fronds at the center of the palm should be healthy and green when they emerge in mid-spring. If your soil is heavy and holds water a long time then plant on a mound 2 to 3 feet high and 6 to 8 feet across so the water drains away from the roots.

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