Xtremehorticulture

Xtremehorticulture of the Desert

Mastic Tree Problems

Leave a Comment / growth, leaf change, mastic, newly planted, pistache, Pistachio /

Q. Can you tell from the attached pictures what might be happening to our mastic tree? Mastic tree. A. My guess is that the new growth is filling a “hole” made when the plant became a shrub. Mastic is a Mediterranean tree or shrub that grows slowly and naturally as a bush, to about 20 tall by 20 feet width. It requires, at the least, annual pruning when it is young to shape it into a single or multitrunked tree. It is best used as a background tree or shrub and not a smaller version of the larger Chinese pistache. It is not as pretty. It lacks fall color, tends to be shrubby, and smaller, but does have red ornamental nuts when they are young and before they ripen around August.             If this plant were mine and I wanted a small tree instead of being shrubby, as it tends to be, I would start to prune it in the winter or late fall months. Make a decision whether you want it as a single or multi trunk tree and make the appropriate cuts.  I would expose the trunk or trunks of this tree up to my knees by starting at the bottom of the tree. I would eliminate any growth below my knees and keep any upright growth. If I saw any suckers at the base, I would eliminate them. While it’s young, I would eliminate any growth growing downward or horizontal. I would concentrate most of my pruning efforts on keeping any upright growth to make it look like a tree and give it some height.             Water it like you would an olive tree. It is mesic in its water use. It will attract the leaf footed plant bug. Shearing this tree with hedge trimmer is a mistake. Fertilize this tree once or maybe twice lightly with a standard landscape fertilizer such as 16-16-16.

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Sap Coming from Small Fruit Trees Usually Borers

Leave a Comment / fruit trees, landscape trees, newly planted, ornamentals, sun damage, sunburn /

Q. I have some newly planted peach and nectarine trees with sap coming from them. They don’t look healthy. Sap oozing from newly planted fruit trees nearly always borers. A. Borers are most likely the problem. On small, newly planted fruit trees it doesn’t take many borers to kill the trees. They usually “attack” the south or west sides of a trunk or the limb of a tree. That’s where there is sun damage. Painting these trunks and limbs with white latex paint lowers the surface temperature about 4 or 5 degrees. It may be enough in some cases. But shade is better. Borers will usually start to damage the hot side of a tree, either west or south.             The sun plays a role also. Direct sunlight on the trunk of a thin barked fruit tree can be a problem. The “smell” of sunburned and dying or dead limbs and trunks attracts female borers that are looking to lay their eggs, scientists believe. When limbs and trunks of newly planted fruit trees have sun damage, then borers are more likely to be found. This is a locust tree. Borers “smell” or find their way to the sun damaged areas of any tree. Here the top of the branches have been damaged by the sun. The bottom of branches out of sunlight are undamaged.             What to do?  Shade the young tree from Western and Southerly direct sunlight. Paint the trunk with diluted white latex paint. As a last ditch effort, drench the soil around the tree after it flowers (if possible) with a borer systemic insecticide and don’t eat the fruit for at least 12 months after the application. Which came first? Here sun damage eventually led to borer damage.

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If Fruit Trees are Planted Correctly They Can Take the Heat

Leave a Comment / borers, newly planted, planting, sun damage /

 Dig the hole three times WIDER than needed. Plant in a wet hole. Amend or mix that soil or bring in different soil. The planting hole is dug three times wider than you need it. Amend or mix the soil with about 20 to 30% of a very good compost. Mix in a good compost when planting. Stake all fruit trees. Make sure the trunk cant move when you are finished. Stake fruit trees, all of them, so the trunk can’t move. Protect the fruit trees from rabbits with chicken wire for the first three to four years if you live near a golf course or an open desert. Put at least two inches of mulch (wood chips that rot) on top of the soil. Three inches is better. Keep it 6 to 12 inches away from the trunk until the tree is six years old. These are wood chips from whole entire trees, not bags of wood bark. Water every other day or every third day, wide and deep.

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Poor Canopy Development in Newly Planted Large Tree Could Be Lack of Water

1 Comment / borers, lack of water, large tree, locust, newly planted, poor growth, sunburn /

Q. I think I this might be a pink locust tree. I’m seeing a lot of dead branches. The tree was planted last Fall. Should I give it some fertilizer to help it push out new growth? A. The tree looks a little skimpy on the foliage side but I don’t see anything from this distance that gives me much overall concern. Check to make sure it was not planted too deep. Some landscapers are notorious for digging a hole barely large enough for the root ball. This can also be part of the problem. I tell people now if they buy a large tree from a nursery, hire some people and dig the hole before they deliver the tree and buy good amendment for the backfill while they are at it. A thin canopy like that can also mean a lack of water. The lack of water would be on the quantity applied at each irrigation, not on the frequency of irrigation. Right now that trees should get by easily receiving water twice a week. But I would guess a tree that size would require the same amount of water as about half of the box that it came in. So if that was a 24 inch box I would guess it would need 20 to 30 gallons each time it was irrigated. Apply some good fertilizer and take a hose and soak it after you made sure it was not planted too deep. Do that about once a week for the next month and see what happens.   Sunburn on locust followed by death of that side of the tree. When the bark was pulled off, borers damage was seen. If this is an Idaho or Black locust like Purple Robe, they are very susceptible to sun damage to the trunk. Once the trunk gets damaged they frequently are attacked by borers. As a precaution it might be a good idea to give it a soil drench with Merit insecticide as a precaution. The same insecticide can be found in Ferti-lome’s tree and shrub systemic insect drench. I know Viragrow has a pretty good price on it if they still have the small containers.  If at all possible you want that tree to develop lower scaffold limbs to help shade the trunk.The canopy could use some light pruning. Remove crossed branches or branches growing on top of each other or too close together. You can do that now if you don’t remove too much or wait until this winter.

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