Xtremehorticulture

Xtremehorticulture of the Desert

Transplanting Lemon Tree a Matter of Age

Leave a Comment / lemon tree, root loss compensation, transplanting /

Q. A lemon tree was growing in my neighbor’s yard. I dug it up and transplanted it into a large pot. I am not sure what type of lemon it is. It did well for about a week, then suddenly all the leaves went limp. The plant doesn’t appear to be dying, but the leaves remain limp and hanging. What gives? I’ve never seen this before. A. Move plants to a new location during the cooler times of the year; usually in October or February. When moving any kind of tree from one location to another, I recommend removing about one quarter to one third of the tree’s canopy to compensate for the loss of roots. I would also recommend staking the plant (so the roots can’t move) until it grows new roots. Establishing it again may take a year or two of staking depending on the size of the plant. It should go without mentioning, amend the soil for a distance of about three times the size of its roots and to a depth of at least 18 inches. Keep everything wet! Compensating the top growth for the loss of roots can be a challenge. Sometimes older fronds are pruned from the base of the plant and not the top. Just depends. Root loss is a matter of age; the older the tree or how long its been in the ground can be the difference between life and death. Also the time of year. Fall trees moved have both the fall and spring to recover. Sometimes leaves are removed from the bottom and not the top as was done before moving this cycad. Remove the entire frond to the trunk. Don’t leaves stubs. Leaf loss usually occurs as the temperatures get warmer and the weather is windy. If you are successful in moving the plant, there should be no losses. It should take off when it gets warmer. If you don’t remove enough of the top canopy, then part of the plant will die to compensate for lost roots. When not enough of the top is removed and the plant is moved or the plant does not get enough water, new growth of the tree or shrub occurs at the base of the tree and the top dies. When moving any kind of plant, do it as quickly as possible. Have the hole predug, the amendments and stakes ready.

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Early Summer: Too Late to Plant?

Leave a Comment / desert, planting, transplanting /

Q. I was going to plant some Cypress trees a month ago but was called away on a family matter. Is it too late to plant cypress trees and a few fruit trees this time of year or should i hold off till next year? A. Now is not the best time to plant in our hot desert climate. It should be done in early spring or even better, mid fall when temperatures are beginning to cool off.             It should be okay to plant now but make sure to dig the hole, and amend the soil going into it, before planting. Water the hole thoroughly and transfer the plant into the hole as quickly as possible to minimize transplant shock. As you are adding amended soil back into the hole, make sure everything in the hole is wet.             Put a basin around the plant and fill it for three consecutive days before turning it over to the irrigation system. Little known fact: The most important roots during planting, feeder roots, are small and delicate and can die within 10 to 15 seconds when exposed to the outside air. The more that die, the more “shock” the plant has and recover time is longer.

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All Plants Moved to a New Location Suffer from Some Sort of Transplant Shock

Leave a Comment / recovery time, Transplant shock, transplanting /

Q. In early February I moved a small Ruby Red Grapefruit tree into a half barrel full of prepared soil. I made sure the roots did not dry out when I moved it. I pruned the top back best I could.  What leaves were still on eventually fell off. It is slow to put on new growth compared to my other citrus trees. Ruby red grapefruit moved to a container, transplanted, with the top cut back to compensate for root loss during transplanting.New growth will occur first on existing buds. If the tree must form new buds because they were all removed when they were pruned, the tree will take longer to recover. Ruby red grapefruit stem cut with a thumbnail and shows that the stem is still alive and healthy because it is green under the “bark”. A. Your tree is experiencing “transplant shock”. No matter how careful we are when moving a plant, roots get torn, they dry out, and the roots must readjust to their new environment. Sometimes these adjustments are minor. Sometimes they are major. Minor adjustments may be so short in time that the tree seems like it needed no recovery time at all. Major adjustments take longer to recover. During major adjustments or recovery time, the tree does not grow at all but just sits there seemingly like in frozen animation. The tree is alive, but it isn’t growing. You can see that it is still alive by doing what you did with your thumbnail. This is because the tree must make other adjustments to the damage that you can’t see.             Once moved, the new plant must take some time to ‘repair’ these torn and damaged roots first before it can resume normal growth again. Sometimes we say that the tree is reestablishing its “root to shoot ratio”. If these adjustments are minor, transplant shock is hardly noticeable. If these adjustments are major, it can cause long delays in resumption of new growth or the plant can die.             How quickly the tree recovers depends on how it was pruned after moving it. Shearing the entire plant causes the tree to recover more slowly. This is because all of the buds for a quick growth response are removed when the plant is sheared. Selectively removing branches aids the plant and recovering more quickly.This is because buds that will grow quickly are left remaining on the tree.             Most likely your tree will recover soon. Keep it out of intense sunlight until you see signs of recovery. Then move it back into full sun. Make sure the tree is staked so the roots don’t move so that they must reestablish again. Keep the soil moist but not wet to minimize root rot. Sometimes we panic and water too often thinking we are trying to help the tree. This can actually cause problems. Here’s how to minimize transplant shock. 1.         Move as much and as many of the roots as possible. Moving all of the roots is not possible when transplanting established trees. 2.         Cut back the top. By pruning the top back we readjust the root to shoot ratio in a positive way and encourage the top to grow back more quickly. 3.         Amend the new soil around the roots to be as similar to the old soil, or better, as possible. 4.         Stake the new tree. Keep the roots from moving around too much in the new soil. Stake the plant so the roots do not move. The top can move but the roots should not for one growing season. 5.         Add phosphorus fertilizer to the new hole. Phosphorus fertilizer helps routes to grow and establish in their new soil. 6.         Keep the soil moist but do not keep it wet. Roots need air to breathe. Add enough water to the soil to keep it moist but not overly wet which drives out the air around the roots. 7.         Wait. New root growth it takes a while. Be patient. As soon as roots become established in the soil, the top of the tree will show signs of growth.

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Moving 20 Year Old Roses to a New Location

Leave a Comment / establishing roses, transplanting /

Q. I have some beautiful rose bushes that are about 20 years old which have lovely big blooms and smell lovely. I would like to move them to different place in the garden as some have died and the locations are not very attractive.  What and when and how should I do this?  A. If the roses have been in the ground for that long, your chances of moving them successfully will be slim. However, if you want to try to do so then actually your best time to move them is in the fall, from the end of September to about the middle of October. Spring is the second best time. Moving them in the fall gives them two seasons of mild growth, fall and spring, to recover rather than just one, spring. Spring can be a very temperamental month here with it going into some high temperatures early on. If you were to move them in the spring then I would move roses in early to mid-January since they produce new growth so early. Be sure to predig the new hole to accommodate the new plant and not much deeper. Amend the soil coming from the hole with good quality compost in about a 50% by volume of soil. In other words, equal volumes of soil and compost. Add a starter fertilizer high in phosphorus such as triple superphosphate or bone meal. You can also use a good quality fertilizer such as Miracle Gro or Peters. Use their formulation that is high in phosphorus, higher than the other numbers. Mix all of the ingredients together and plant in this amended soil. Triple Super Phosphate, 17 to 23% phosphorus depending on the source. Prune the roses back no less than about 12 inches above the graft (dogleg). You can prune them back leaving more wood than this but they should be cut back substantially to compensate for excavating through a well-established root system. Sever the root system of the established roses with a very sharp shovel; hopefully in one cut if possible. Go all the around the plant twice about 12 inches (radius) from the trunk. When cutting with the shovel the second time around, begin to lift the rose gently while undercutting the rose. If at all possible move as much of the roots WITH soil as possible. Lift the rose with the shovel on to some old carpet or thick cloth. Move the rose by lifting the plant by the ends of the carpet/cloth. Place the rose into the new hole and begin filling the hole without delay. Use the amended soil and remove air pockets by adding water to the hole as you add amended soil. Settle the soil in the hole with water, not your feet. Lift the plant in the hole so that it is planted at the same depth it was in the old hole. Construct a basin around the hole to serve as a source of water retention and water with a hose twice a week for the first two weeks. Cover the basin with wood mulch two to four inches deep. Stake the rose to keep the roots from moving and leave it in place for one growing season. I use 3/8 rebar that is 24 inches long pounded into the soil immediately next to the plant and tie the plant to it with green nursery tape. If you are in an area prone to rabbit damage, encircle the plant with a cylinder of chicken wire.

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Plants Need to be Placed in Outside Environments with Care

Leave a Comment / acclimatization, plant acclimation, reduce transplant shock, time of year for planting, transplanting /

Q. Last Christmas a friend bought for me a tiny pine tree about 6″ tall. It is now 2′ tall and I need to transplant it. When is the best time of year to do this?   A. It is April and getting too late now. I would wait and plant it some time between mid-September and mid-October as temperatures are cooling. However, if you run the risk of losing it, plant it now.             You don’t mention how you were growing it. If you were growing it inside, not outside, you will need to gradually bring it into the outside environment or it could go into shock. This is called plant acclimatization and requires about three weeks inside a garage or outside shade shelter and then planting it.

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Saguaro Leaning and How to Correct It

7 Comments / cactus, staking saquaro, transplanting /

Q. I have a saguaro cactus with three big arms growing from it leaning toward the west. On the east is my house and shading the cactus from the morning sun. I also have been watering on the house side of the saguaro, the up slope side, and letting the water run downhill into the roots.  I water about 3 or 4 times a year and water very slowly. Do you have any suggestions about either stopping the continued leaning or how to straighten the cactus to upright?  Those two large saguaros have been in my yard for 17 years. Saguaro leaning due to shade from the house most likely A. These Sonoran desert monsters are top heavy. The root system of the saguaro is fairly shallow but expansive. This extensive but shallow root system can give this top-heavy cactus quite a bit of support under native desert conditions. But they have been known to blow over in high winds. These cacti, like most, are opportunists and take shallow water from the soil before it evaporates or taken by neighboring plants. Most of the roots away from the trunk can be found at depths less than 12 inches. Watering deeply around these plants is probably a waste of water. We put these plants in artificial desert landscapes and put them on drip emitters or run water close to the trunk. This can lead to a very small but dense root system close to the trunk. The roots don’t have to grow far from the trunk for water and so doesn’t help to stabilize the plant as the top gets bigger. Saguaro normally does not need to be staked when transplanted but here is one method that protects the trunk Your cactus could be leaning either because of the shade from the house or it might be leaning due to poor root support or both. If it is leaning and there is danger it will fall over then you will have to support it. In the meantime, we create a more expansive root system by placing enough other desert plants close to this plant so that the irrigations from these other plants can help the saguaro extend its root system further from the trunk. We could sprinkle irrigate the area around the saguaro, simulating desert rainfall. But sprinkler irrigation can lead to weed invasion in the landscape and weed control problems. From the pictures you sent, obviously your watering regime has given your saguaro some good growth but it sounds like the water is concentrated close to the trunk. I will post the pictures of your saguaro on my blog for others to see. Another possibility that could contribute to the leaning is how it was planted. If a hole was dug just large enough for the transplanted roots, and the soil was not conditioned properly, then this will encourage the plant to grow roots close to the trunk as well. All cacti grow better in amended soils than in straight desert soils or sand. Always amend soils for cacti at planting time. What can you do now? If the plant is leaning due to the house there is not much you can do. To give it better support put irrigation water at greater distances from the plant and use shallower irrigations. Like I said, giving saguaro deep watering is not going to help but getting its roots to grow wider might. If the soil is not loosened, it is best to loosen the soil surrounding the plant where you are watering to encourage growth at distances that will support top growth.

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Planting Ocotillos So They Don’t Die

Leave a Comment / no sign of life, not growing, ocotillo planting, transplanting, Young apple tree dead in rock mulch /

Q. Ocotillos, the most beautiful plant in Nevada. I have tried twice to grow this and not even one sign of life in 5 years. Now I’m trying at a different home.  I wonder where am I failing?             The soil is mostly poor in Henderson and sandy. I have lots of sun but I avoid western afternoon sun. I also have an area with partial shade. Is this a failure to properly fertilize?  Watering?  A local nursery indicates I’m doing it correctly but it is a tricky plant. (Now they tell me).        A. These ARE tricky plants and not easy to transplant if you are not familiar in dealing with desert plants and cacti. It is also possible to pick up dead plants from the nursery. When they have no growth on them it is very difficult to tell if they are living or not.             One method you can use is the thumbnail method. You can use your thumbnail and scrape a small layer of bark from the stem. It should be green under it and scrape away fairly easily. If it does not, or it is brown under it, then it very well could be dead.             If you want to know if the plant is at all alive, check in several places including near the base closest to where the soil would be and look for green as well. When planting it, make sure it is securely staked into the soil so the roots do not move.             Water around the base of the plant no more frequently than about once every two weeks during the summer. These plants are easily propagated or started as cuttings, stem pieces cut and planted directly into the soil. The trick is not to water so often the stem rots and dies.             I attached a pamphlet on how to establish ocotillo from the Tucson Cactus Society. I am not a big proponent of wetting the canes but the Tucson cactus society is. www.tucsoncactus.org/pdf_files/TCSS_Ocotillo_Planting.pdf Planting Ocotillo –

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