Xtremehorticulture

Xtremehorticulture of the Desert

Japanese Blueberry Tops are Dying Part I.

Leave a Comment / borers, dieback, disease, Las Vegas /

Q. I’m having a problem with my Japanese blueberries. Some are fine and the two on the end appear to be drying out but only towards the top? Do you have any idea what’s causing this? The soil is not dry and they all get the same amount of irrigation. Japanese blueberries tops dying back A. I would guess that something caused a problem on the trunk or large limbs at the bottom where it has turned brown. I am guessing it might be borers or some other critter that mechanically damaged the trunk/limbs. It is possible it could be sunburn as well particularly if they were open enough to allow direct sunlight on those branches/trunk for extended periods of time. I think we can rule out diseases in our climate except for the possibility of sunburn (non pathological disease). Look at the area of trunk/large limbs just in the foot above the healthy areas and let me know if you see peeling bark, discoloration or other types of abnormalities. If it is borers (the most likely), there is nothing you can do to raise it from the dead but you can protect it with a soil drench once a year using Feri-Lome’s soil drench. It contains an insecticide that should give you about one year of control from what I am hearing.

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Prepare Your Lawn for the Summer Disease Problems

Leave a Comment / how to control lawn diseases, Las Vegas, prevent brown spots in lawns, tall fescue lawn disease /

If you have tall fescue for a lawn in southern Nevada, here are some tips to help prepare for the diseases that will threaten your lawn this summer. Having a lawn in good health, just like you being in good health, is the best protection against summer diseases like summer patch. This is summer patch on tall fescue. It used to be called “frogeye” patch or the more knowledgeable might call it Fusarium patch. The name “Fusarium patch” was thrown out several years ago when it was found not really a correct name for it. The disease starts as some brown areas that start dying in different spots. Then the brown spots coalesce or grow together into this patchwork of dead grass, frequently leaving behind a small clump of grass that is not affected. This gave it the “frogeye” name. You can access the fact sheet I wrote while at the University of Nevada here.  Otherwise you can find it here. Summer Patch fact sheet Prevention. An ounce of prevention… and that is true in this case. Get your fertilizer levels up and adequate. I believe the rates of fertilizer recommended for lawns is way too high. You can reduce that to 50% of what they recommend if you use a mulching mower (you dont bag the clippings it just falls back into the grass). You do need a good mulching mower or at least a mulching blade on your mower. Aerate. Aeration opens the soil up so the roots can “breathe”. This promotes a deeper root system, more heat tolerance and improved disease resistance. Ideally this should be done in about March but if you have not had it done before, do it now. There used to be a landscape maintenance service in Las Vegas that offered this service. Otherwise you will have to rent a gasoline driver aerator from places like Aherns or buy a hand operated aerator and do it by hand. If you go this route it is not hard to do. Just time consuming. Wet the lawn thoroughly and start plugging away. It is good to follow up this activity with a light application of a phosphorus fertilizer and water it in. The correct kind of aerator will leave soil cores behind that you will have to rake up and put in a compost heap. Adjust or correct your sprinklers. Any weakness in your lawn sprinklers you will see now that it is getting hot. Before when it was cool you could sail through this period. As it gets hotter the weak spots will show up as grey green areas between irrigations. (It is grey green because the grass is wilting because your irrigation system was inadequately designed and/or installed.) I don’t know HOW MANY times I have spoken to homeowners that assured me the “sprinkler system” was done right because they did it! My face or voice didnt show it but I was smiling inside. Occasionally, after a couple of questions, I will run into someone who did it right but that is far and few. This is typical of a lawn with a poorly designed or installed irrigation system.  No guarantees. I cannot guarantee success with this next approach but if I had a lawn this is what I would try. I would get or rent a compost spreader (a fertilizer spreader that you push should work as well) and purchase some high quality compost. Compost spreader If I were to send you somewhere in Las Vegas to get the compost, it would be at Viragrow. Get the compost with the finest texture they have so it will pass through the spreader. With this compost spreader I would spread about 1/4 inch of compost over the lawn and water it in thoroughly. I would do this once a month. Next year use this in place of buying a fertilizer. I think you will see a big change in the lawn’s health and appearance. There is a significant amount of research that points to disease reductions in lawns by topdressing with compost several times during the growing season. The Disease has Started If this is the case, you have no choice but to use a fungicide to prevent the spread of the disease. Fungicides will not cure the disease but it should stop it from going further. There are fungicides available at nurseries for you to use. Pick one that says it helps prevent summer patch disease or they make call it “frogeye” or fusarium patch disease.

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Stinkbugs Come in Different Colors

Leave a Comment / Las Vegas, stinkbugs, what is this bug /

Q. What is this bug? Have hundreds or them in my yard. Are they harmful to my plants (vegetable and flower). How do I get rid of them? A. This bug is one of the stinkbugs. I was trying to figure out which one because a few types of stinkbugs are predators (good guys) such as soldier bugs but most are not. I think this is a bad guy. Stinkbugs have mouth that is like a hypodermic needle that lies flat against their stomach. They move the mouthpart away from their body and can insert it into fruits, leaves, stems and other soft plant tissue and withdraw plant juices. The good guys insert their hypodermic mouth into soft bodied insects and kill them by taking out their body juices. When they feed on plant parts the plant part gets damaged. In the case of fruits and nuts they can cause early fruit or nut drop. They can also cause dimples to form in fruit like apples and pears. So unless you have a qualified entomologist like our state entomologist Jeff Knight in Carson City to see for sure otherwise watch them and inspect your trees to see if they are feeding there. You can get hold of Jeff Knight through the local Department of Agriculture office. In Las Vegas this office can be reached at 702-486-4690. Jeff will kill me but his email address is [email protected] I would send him some pictures. Real identification can take a very long time. Soap sprays and oils like Neem directed at them will kill them but will not leave much residue for future control. Otherwise you can use pyrethrin sprays or other sprays labeled for fruits and vegetables. They can be big pests if this is a bad one.

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You Don’t Need to Pick Up Grass Clippings if you Manage Your Lawn Correctly

Leave a Comment / dont bag it, how to use mulching mower, Las Vegas, mulching mowers, turfgrass clippings /

Q. The landscapers for our HOA are using mulching mowers on our grass. The cut grass often remains on top, browns and causes the grass under to brown out also. Should grass be mulched in our desert? The landscape foremen bagged the grass and took it away. Years ago in Las Vegas mulching mowers were nonexistent. Landscape maintenance companies bagged clippings and they were dumped into our landfills. A. Mulching mowers work good as long as not too much nitrogen fertilizer is applied, the mower blades are kept sharp, the mower is not operated at a speed that is too fast, and the mower is a true mulching mower and not a conventional mower modified with mulching blades.             True mulching mowers have a deck designed to provide a longer lift time after the grass blades are cut. A longer lift time allows the leaf blades more time to be cut or mulched properly. This extra time, combined with a sharp blade and a correct mowing speed, results in finely mulched turfgrass clippings.             This time of year fescue grass loves cool weather and grows very rapidly. If too much nitrogen is applied during cool weather, excessive growth results. Weekly mowing with a mulching mower cannot keep up with this rapid growth.             Either the lawn has to be mowed more often or less fertilizer should be applied.             Your landscapers need to cut back on fertilizer applications during cool weather and use about half the rate listed on the bag. Mulched grass clippings return a lot of fertilizer back to the lawn.             They also need to mow slower and not try to rush through a landscape. This allows the mulching blade to cut the blades more often and the mulched clippings will fall between the grass blades and never seen on the surface.             If they don’t balance mowing the their applications of fertilizers then they will need to pick up the clippings if they want to leave a landscape that you can walk through without tracking cut grass into residences.             One of the major reasons for introducing mulching mowers was to reduce the green waste entering our landfills. The educational program responsible for this was the “Don’t Bag It” program originating at Texas A and M University. You can read more about how mulching mowers and fertilizers interact with each other in a fact sheet I wrote years ago while Extension Specialist for the University of Nevada.  See the Fact Sheet here

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Oleander Freeze Damage Can Be Fixed By Cutting Plant Back

Leave a Comment / freeze damage, how to correct freeze damage in oleander, Las Vegas, oleander dieback /

Q. I have an oleander that suffered extensive freeze damage this past winter. It is still brown but coming back slowly. I would like to improve the looks of the bush without killing it. Should I prune the dead looking branches or just let it go Freezing damage to oleander. A. Prune the oleander back to about an inch or two of the soil surface. After this, apply fertilizer and water it deeply several times a week apart.             If it has been established for at least a couple of years it will grow back with a lot of vigor. Oleanders are very drought tolerant but to look nice they require quite a bit of water. This oleander in rock mulch was cut back to about six inches of the rock surface. It can be cut back further than that and it will sucker back up to its origninal height quickly due to its established root sytem.

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Stinkbugs Attack Residence and Car in Henderson Nevada

Leave a Comment / green stinkbug, henderson, insects do the cause damage, Las Vegas, masses of bugs, stinkbugs /

Q. We have thousands of these beetles in our trees here in Henderson. Yesterday they collected on a neighbor’s car by the thousands.  They sprayed them off. These bugs left imprints on the finish of their car that were unremovable. What are these bugs and what do we tell our pest control companies to do? Here stinkbugs become big nuisance for residents of Henderson, Nevada. Most stinkbugs cause plant damage. A few are actually beneficial. A. These are a type of stinkbug. I am not an expert on stinkbugs but it is one of several types that can be found here. Most stinkbugs cause damage to plants or become a nuisance as yours have done. Two more different types of stinkbugs reported by residents in Las Vegas. One for sure, the one above, was causing damage to a apricot leaves very early in the season.             Stinkbugs come in green and brown colors and in many different forms. Familiar relatives to stinkbugs are the squash bug and leaffooted plant bug, both very bad pests in squash and melons as well as pomegranates, pistachios and almonds. Squash bugs on the underside of a squash or melon leaf. They are a type of “stinkbug”.             There are a few stinkbugs that are good guys but not very many. In your case I think these are a nuisance but check your garden and landscape and see if they are feeding on important plants around your home. Leaffooted plant bug on pomegranate, another type of “stinkbug”.             Soap and water sprays applied directly to them at dusk is a good control measure which is relatively nontoxic to other insects as long as it is directed at the stinkbugs. You can buy Safers insecticidal soap at any nursery or garden center and it will be safe for plants listed on the label. Commercial insecticidal soaps are safer to use on plants than making your own from dishwashing liquid.             There are more toxic insecticides you can use as long as you don’t spray your fruits or vegetables with them. Be sure to read the labels of pesticides before buying and applying.

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Ocotillo Watering Should be Infrequent in Desert Landscapes

Leave a Comment / how much water does an ocotillo need, how to irrigate ocotillo, irrigate, Las Vegas, water /

Q. I have trouble with my Ocotillo.  They get beautiful green leaves that last about two to three weeks and then turn brown and fall off.  They are on my watering system.  Are they getting too much water? It is common for ocotillo to lose its leaves in the winter months like this one. But it should put on some new growth and new leaves in the spring. A. Ocotillo is a desert plant so it has special characteristics that allow it to survive when water is not available.             The first response ocotillo displays to a lack of water is to drop its leaves. Another reason it may drop its leaves is from the soil around its roots staying too wet. That makes diagnosis of leaf drop difficult. Ocotillo does not require alot of care in Las Vegas like Cathy and Bill’s ocotillo. Water and fertilize infrequently.             If ocotillo is put on a “normal” irrigation schedule used for most home landscape plants, it would most likely receive water too often. It would, ideally, be irrigated with agave and yucca in a landscape, not photinia and star jasmine for instance.             It can tolerate frequent watering ONLY if water drains from the soil quickly. If water in the soil drains easily then it might be able to handle the same irrigation frequency as photinia and star jasmine even though it would not be ideal for it.             It can probably handle an irrigation frequency of about once every two to three weeks in the summer but not more often than once a week.             In winter changed it to once every 4 to 6 weeks. When it with enough water to wet the soil at its base to a depth of about 18 inches. Three or four emitters spaced about 18 inches from an established plant would be adequate in most soils.             If you choose to water with a hose, filling a basin around the plant would make it easier to water. Watch for leaf discoloration or leaf drop to signal a time to rewater. Eventually this will help you anticipate a watering schedule for the plant.

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Lantana and Yellow Bells Should Not Be Dead from Winter Cold

Leave a Comment / cold damage, desert, freezing damage, lantana camara, Las Vegas, Tecoma stans /

Q. I have had Tecoma stans, Yellow bells, in the backyard as well as lantana for the past 3 or 4 summers. They do well but never winter over. When I dig them up to replant, the root structures seem to be healthy and alive. The tag on the plant says they are cold hardy. Is there anything I can do to help them winter over?  What is Yellow Bells? Picture of Yellow Bells from Arizona State University website What is lantana?  A. Are you thinking they are dead because the tops die back? It is seldom that I see these plants totally die out in the winter here. They do frequently die back to within a few inches of the soil surface during the winter.             They then can be cut back to about one inch from the ground in February and they come back like gangbusters in early spring with some water and fertilizer. Lantana cut back in the winter to about two inches in a rock mulch in Las Vegas.             If they are dead, I am wondering if they are not getting enough water during the winter months to keep the roots from dying out. Normally a watering schedule of about every ten days or so would be enough during the winter to keep them alive.             Otherwise try mulching over the tops of the plants with a few inches of wood mulch to keep the winter cold from damaging the roots. It is very rare these would die out in the winter here under normal landscape situations.

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Japanese Blueberry With Orange Leaves a Sign of Leaf Death

Leave a Comment / drought, japanese blueberry, Las Vegas, leaf death, leaf pigments /

Q. My water accidently turned off for two weeks and my Japanese Blueberries are all orange. I do see new growth on the edge of the branches. Is the tree shedding old leaves? Did the cold snap in November cause this? Orange leaves on Japanese blueberry as they are dying and falling off. A. The orange color is the color of the natural pigments in the leaf as the leaf dies, its green chlorophyll disappears and leaves behind these orange or reddish pigments. These colors are typical of anthocyanins and related biochemicals. It is hard to say “after the fact” on something like this. All you can really say is that the leaves have died and will fall off. Now the question is whether “the death” went further than this or not. So you would normally take hold of the branches with dying leaves and bend them. If they are supple and the leaves drop then it was a recent “trauma” to the plant and you cannot be sure yet if the death is going further or not until you see new growth. You can be pre-emptive and cut these branches back and force new growth or wait, your call. The fact you are seeing new growth is very positive. You realize that Japanese blueberry is not the best choice for a carefree landscape in Las Vegas. It is best planted in a part of the yard protected from late afternoon sun and it will definitely not do well in a rock landscape.

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Will PawPaw Fruit Trees Grow in the Desert?

2 Comments / desert, how to grow, Las Vegas, paw paw /

Q. Do you know if paw paw trees will grow here? If so, what type of conditions (partial shade, full sun etc) and what type of soil amendments?  A. I have wondered the same thing myself. I have never tried them here in our desert but there are some pawpaws out there I would like to try. I have been told by Dave Wilson Nursey that they will struggle here but that just gets me more interested in trying them. I think if you have the right exposure, modified the soil and mulched them, they have a chance. These are the conditions I would try to meet if you decide to give it a go: They are very sensitive to full sunlight and requires filtered sun when young. Once established they can handle more sun but not OUR sun. Plant on the east side of the home landscape. Amend the soil with good compost to a depth of 18 inches. Amend the soil with AT LEAST 50% good compost. Acidify the soil with very fine sulfur or aluminum sulfate to help keep the soil pH acidic. They can have a pretty good taproot. Provide plenty of water just like you would any normal fruit tree but like any fruit tree do not water daily. Mulch the trees with wood mulch to a depth of three to four inches and keep it away from the trunk the first four years. Apply fertilizer twice a year; once in early spring and again in the fall. They can tolerate very cold winter temperatures. Also they do not set fruit very well so you may have to hand pollinate the flowers to aid them in fruit set and get more fruit on the tree. Some good information on pawpaws can be found at Kentucky State University where the national repository is located. Kentucky State University website for repository 

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