planting – Page 2 – Xtremehorticulture

Best Time to Plant Trees and Shrubs Is for the Fall

Proper method for planting large trees: hole is at least three times the width of the root ball, stakes are pounded into the solid soil at the bottom, tree trunk is allowed to flex without moving the roots. Q. My son and I are thinking of landscaping his front yard in December. Will plants and trees survive when planted that time of year? This Orchard planting the holes were dug and the soil amended before the trees arrived. The hole was much wider than the roots but not much deeper. Soil was amended with compost. Basins were constructed around each tree for hand watering over the next two weeks. A. Plant all through the winter. Is it the best time to plant? No. The best times to plant are reserved for the fall and spring months. In the Las Vegas climate it is best from late September to mid-November. Good advice! The second-best time for planting is during the spring months of mid-February to the end of April. The absolute worst time to plant is just before and during the hot summer months. In our climate this is from May through the early part of September. Add water to the planting hole at the same time you backfill around the roots of the tree or shrub. This helps to remove air pockets and secures the plant roots in the soil. Sometimes staking is not needed when this is done correctly. Make sure that the holes for planting are at least three times the diameter of the container and not much deeper than this unless there are drainage problems. In a few soils that have layers of caliche there are. But if your neighbors have landscape plants that are doing well then you probably don’t have a problem. During planting make sure you are watering the amended soil around the roots WHILE you are planting. After planting water these plants by hand for three consecutive days to make sure you have removed air pockets around the roots. Construct a basin around the plants and hand water them for the first two weeks before turning them over to drip irrigation.

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Saguaro Leaning is Usually an Irrigation Problem

Leave a Comment / cactus, giant, irrigation, Las Vegas, Mohave Desert, Mojave Desert, nevada, planting / xtremehorticulture

Q. Our saguaro is about 10 years old. In the last year or so four arms have popped out mostly on one side. Now the saguaro is beginning to lean and we have propped it up. What do you suggest we do? Even though this picture is not from the submitter I wanted to post it for my friends who are viewing from other countries or part of the USA. Saguaro is not native to the Mojave Desert but to the Sonoran to our south. Even though they can be a bit sensitive to the Mojave winter cold they have done quite well in the lower elevations of southern Nevada. If people will stop putting burlap coats on it for the winter….. A. I would guess your irrigation is too close to the trunk. This concentrates the roots there and doesn’t allow root development further from the trunk for support. In the wild, saguaros roots are about 30 inches deep near the trunk and spread a distance equal to its height at depths averaging only about 10 inches. This matting of shallow roots spreading from the trunk is important in keeping the cactus erect. I would prop it up as you are doing and immobilize the base so it cannot move. Then I would apply water at increasing distances from the trunk. These should be shallow and infrequent irrigations at distances from the trunk equal to at least half of its height. You can do this by planting other desert plants that require similar types of irrigations in these areas. Water supplied to these plants will help to irrigate the saguaro. You can also do this by handwatering in these areas once a month with a spray nozzle.

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Pick Fruit and Check for Circling Roots When Repotting Lemon

Leave a Comment / citrus, container, desert, girdling roots, Las Vegas, Mohave Desert, Mojave Desert, nevada, planting, pot bound, potbound, replanting / xtremehorticulture

Q. I purchased a lovely Meyer Lemon tree in a one gallon pot in middle of the spring. It already had 6 lemons on it. I have the original fruit, have new fruit growing, and still am getting blossoms. Should I transplant it now into a larger pot or wait until after the fruit ripens and is used? A. Remove any mature lemons from the tree. Lemons should not remain on the tree longer than about late December and possibly early January at the very latest. Check for circling roots in the container before planting. This is early enough you might be able to correct it. Leaving lemons on the tree can disrupt the flowering fruiting cycle for the next season. If you are planning on putting it in the ground then I would just wait until you have that spot prepared if it is this spring. If you are planting this fall then you might want to repot it into a larger container and wait for fall planting. When circling roots get to be this far along they can no longer be corrected. If you do repot, check the roots for circling inside the container. This is a common problem in nursery grown trees, called “potbound”, sold in containers. Planting a tree with roots circling in the container and not trying to fix this problem before planting can lead to some serious problems down the road.

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Bulbs Forming on Top of Garlic

Leave a Comment / bulbil, cloves, planting, propagation, topsetting, walking onion / xtremehorticulture

Q. My garlic planted last year has a small bulb forming at the top of a few of the plants. From what I read about this type of plant the garlic is formed from the bulb at the top. Do they reproduce underground for future plantings? Bulbils forming on top of hardneck garlic at UNCE orchard A. We do find some garlic producing these small bulbs at the tops of the plants. They are sometimes referred to as bulblets or bulbils depending on who you talk to. These plants will also produce bulbs which can be used for planting the following year. In the same family of vegetables there are onions which do the same thing. These are called “walking onions”. The flower at the top of the flower stalk, or scape, does not produce seed but produces miniature bulbs instead. These bulbils are capable of reproducing the mother plant. They are called “walking onions” because the weight of the bulbils bends the scape over to the ground. If the soil is wet, these bulbils grow into new plants just inches from the mother plant. This new growth gives the perception that these onions are “walking” or moving from one location to another. These types of plants can be self-seeding by dropping the bulbils into the garden and starting new plants perpetually. Most garlic that produces bulbils are hardnecked types of garlic or sometimes referred to as “topsetting” garlic. They are called hardnecked because the flower stalk is very rigid compared to the “softneck” varieties which can actually be braided. So to answer your question, yes you can plant these bulbils and they will produce new plants. It is good to remember that the size of the clove or bulbil you plant will impact the size of the bulb you produce. The larger the clove or bulbil, the larger the bulb.

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Be Careful How Close You Plant Figs to Walls

Leave a Comment / now big, planting, pruning figs / xtremehorticulture

Q. We planted a very small fig tree next to our wall 11 years ago and now it is taking over the whole backyard, I heard the roots can do considerable damage to our plumbing and wall. 20 year old Fig in winter showing form to keep it small and productive A. If the trunk is closer than about several feet I might worry but otherwise I would not unless it is getting its water from your neighbor’s yard. If it is getting a lot of water from your neighbor, then this will pose a problem to your wall in the future. Always water on the side of a plant away from a wall or foundation. It will not be a problem to water on one side of the plant while not watering on the other. Plant roots will grow where there is water and not grow or grow poorly where there is none or it is limited. Whenever possible, try to keep soil within 3 feet of a wall or foundation as dry as possible. This helps to reduce problems with roots and corrosion of cement by soil salts. As a safety precaution you can cut the tree roots on the side toward the wall. Leave the roots exposed to heal a few days and then you can bury them again. Figs in particular can handle severe pruning.

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When to Transplant Fruit Trees?

Leave a Comment / citrus, desert, fruit trees, grapefruit, planting, time of year / xtremehorticulture

Q. With this unusually mild LV winter, when is the best time to transplant dwarf grapefruit trees? A. By transplant I take it to mean you are moving a grapefruit from one location to another location. Planting or transplanting can be done now. You will have more success if the tree has not been in the ground more than three years. You will have even more success if the tree has been watered by drip irrigation in a fairly small basin or area next to the tree. You will have even more success if the tree was root pruned last fall around mid to late September. Roots of M111 on 12 yo Anna apple. We remove fruit trees from the orchard as we learn about them and then move on to those varieties we have not explored. Root systems can get large quickly and make it no longer feasible to relocate older fruit trees to new areas after about three years in the ground Root pruning just means you went around the entire tree with a shovel and severed the roots in the approximate location where you are planning to dig and transport it. Given all that, prepare your hole for planting first before you move the tree. Dig deep enough to accommodate the root ball but not much deeper. It is more important to dig it wide than it is to dig it deep. Get your soil amended and add some phosphorus to the soil. Move your tree as quickly as possible to its new location and try to orient it in a similar orientation, north to south, as it was in the old location. Backfill around the tree. During planting, run a hose in the hole at the same time you backfill to remove air pockets. Drive a stake next to the tree and into the bottom of the hole into solid ground. This stake will immobilize the roots if tied to the tree tightly. I usually use rebar pounded into the soil next to the tree after it has been planted. I wrap the tree and rebar together with green nursery tape to immobilize roots. This leaves the top to move in the wind. The trees should be planted the same depth as it was when it was removed from the soil. No deeper and no shallower. If you have rabbits, protect it with one inch chicken wire after planting. Mulch the soil around the tree with wood mulch keeping the mulch away from the trunk a foot. After one season of growth, remove the stake.

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