Pvc glue plugging an irrigation bubbler after a repair Q. A few years ago I had a bubbler system installed to water my trees for my desert landscaping. They did not do a good great job. It has gotten plugged a few times and the trees do not get enough water. I have gone through four trees and maybe another. Would you give me some names of trees that are truly drought resistant? A. I hesitate giving you suggestions on plants because that is a highly subjective decision and secondly without a reliable irrigation system nothing will work in our desert except maybe Joshua trees. Besides, in our desert there are no ornamental and shade trees that will survive or look good without a good irrigation system. Y filter for drip irrigation  Salt accumulation on a drip emitter  Make sure your irrigation system has a 150 to 200 mesh filter installed somewhere before the water reaches the emitters. This will reduce plugging. Make sure that when you or anyone repairs a drip system that they DO NOT use a pipe cutting device that rips the piping. So do not use a hacksaw or other pipe cutter that uses teeth to rip at the pipe. This will leave pipe debris in the lines that will (guaranteed) plug your emitters. PVC cutter that does not leave debris in the pipes Use only a cutting device that has an unserrated knife edge that cuts the piping. Use pipe cutters instead. They are more expensive but will actually work quite well. I don’t care how careful you think you are, don’t use devices that rip or shred on any part of a drip system. Once you have a reliable irrigation system then you can plant some good stuff.

Dog urine damage leaves a dark green edge around the damaged brown spot caused by the urine Most likely there is a popup sprinkler in the center of that green patch surrounded by bare soil. It is most likely a two inch popup when a four inch is needed in tall fescue Q. My lawn was sodded with tall fescue lawn grass a few years back and this past fall noticed I still have two problems. The pictures attached. The first are five to ten inch circles which are brown in the center with very dark green grass around it. The second are areas around the edge where there is a patch of dark green grass and then 10-15 inches of bare ground around it. I am really hoping you can provide an explanation and solution to resolve these. A. The third picture, brown ten inch circles with dark green on the outside, looks like damage from a urinating dog. Urine results in a small round brown area where the grass is darker green around the dead spot. Readers can see these pictures by following my blog at http://www.xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com/ Popup sprinklers need clearance over the grass if they are going to cover the lawn area evenly The urine is too high in salts (urea, a salt high in nitrogen) and burns the immediate area around where it is applied. As the urea moves into the surrounding soil it becomes more dilute, reducing the burning, and then acts like a fertilizer high in nitrogen. Nitrogen fertilizers turn grass a dark green. The other picture with 10 to 15 inches of bare ground around a green area, looks like the sprinkler head is in the center of that small green area next to the curb. If that is the case, I am guessing the popup is not “popping” high enough. Make sure it pops up all the way and is not getting blocked. Make sure your irrigation sprinklers are 4 inch and not 2 inch popups. Two inch popups do not pop up high enough to spray evenly above the top of a grass mowed at two inches in height. The grass height interferes with the water spray. Pressure regulator Also check your water pressure. It should be in the 40 to 50 psi range for most popups. If it is a lot higher than this, then your sprinklers are probably “fogging” and not delivering the right sized droplets to get even coverage over the lawn. Install a pressure regulator to drop the water pressure in the appropriate range recommended by the irrigation manufacturer for the sprinklers and nozzles. Your tall fescue does not look very luxurious in general. It would improve from some good lawn management practices. Tall fescue is best if mowed no shorter than 1½ inch, and 2 inches is even better. Use a mulching mower and return the clippings to the lawn; don’t bag them and leave them for the garbage. Roots of turfgrass grow easily into holes punched in the lawn by an aerifier Try aerating the lawn any time of the year and follow this with an application of a good quality lawn fertilizer. If you are returning the clippings to the lawn then fertilize Labor Day, Memorial Day and 4th of July. Be sure you also make an application around Thanksgiving to keep your lawn dark green through the winter months.

 Armenian Cucumber  Q. I live in Las Vegas and want to grow baby cucumbers for pickling. I tried to grow some last Spring but was not successful. I didn’t realize until the plants were about 1ft tall that I was supposed to thin them out. I did thin them but it may have been too late. The plants looked good and grew well but when they began to flower, the little tiny cucumbers got very dry and hard and shriveled up. The pot was getting full sun most of the afternoon so my husband built an open lattice over the top for some light shade. As the later part of June approached the plants were not looking good and I gave them up, with the intention of trying again, maybe in the fall when it’s cooler? I was so looking forward to growing and pickling my own. A. Cucumbers have a fairly narrow time for production here as it gets too hot, from about late March or early April to about June. They can suffer from chilling damage if temperatures get below about 50F. You can plant again in September since they have a fairly short production time, about 60 days. Soils should be well composted and fertilized before planting. No lack of water for these plants or you will have problems. Soils must be kept moist so cover the soil with straw mulch or other mulch you can till or spade in afterwards. You will have less waste if you trellis them rather than letting them lay on the soil. In the warm times you will pick three times a week. The easiest to grow is Armenian cucumber but will not make very good pickles. Others to try for pickles might be Eureka and Valispik. Other vegetables and even fruit make great pickles as well.

Q. A friend of a friend has two fig trees that produce just the best figs I have ever tasted. So I am planning on taking cuttings and eventually planting them in my big back yard with full southern exposure. However we do not know what variety they are, so is there an easy way of identifying them and knowing whether they are self-pollinating, i.e. whether I need to plant two of these trees? A. All of the figs I have tested here in our climate do well with very few problems. It is just a matter of your preference in taste. Normally, the darker colored figs such as black mission or brown Turkey have a stronger flavor. The yellow or white figs are milder in flavor. The biggest mistake when growing figs here in our climate is not watering them with enough water during each irrigation. They are oasis plants, not desert plants. One of our “white” figs, perhaps ‘Desert King’ Nearly all figs are self-fertile so there’s no need to have more than one. There are so many different varieties of figs it would be very difficult to identify which fig it might be. However, if you send me a picture of the fresh fruit so that I can see outside fruit color and color inside the fruit (cut open) I might be able to narrow it down for you. Also, let me know if it was purchased through a local nursery since they typically carry the more common varieties. This also helps narrow it down. Follow my blog and I will give you some step by step instructions on how to propagate figs and grapes as well in the near future.

Q. Do I have a bug problem? Spots in various areas of the lawn. I water enough.  Lawn suffering from a lack of water. Brown areas are undefined and kind of run into each other. Pattern of damage is related to the irrigation pattern. A. So if you believe you water enough let’s go ahead and eliminate the possibility that you underwatering, overwatering, and getting even water coverage over the entire lawn through a properly designed and installed irrigation system. That system should have what is called head-to-head coverage (water from one sprinkler should be throwing water all the way to the neighboring sprinkler) and a pressure regulator should be on the system so that water pressure at the sprinklers is not excessive. This helps prevent misting due to excessive water pressure. This is the lawn disease called “summer patch”. It has a definite pattern to it. Kind of horseshoe-shaped or the brown damage has a green patch in the center.  Can you see the pattern? Brown spots from watering problems usually occur in the same spots year after years and do not “move around” in the lawn. These spots are usually either next to the irrigation heads, halfway between heads or along the edges of an irregularly shaped lawn.   So now that we have eliminated those problems since you water enough let’s move on to “bugs”. “Bugs” will usually include either insects or diseases. In tall fescue, the most commonly planted lawn grass for homeowners here in our valley, this is the time of year for disease problems. The most common lawn disease right now is summer patch and often accompanies our “summer monsoon” season. Here is “summer patch” when you look at a bunch of the running together. We say the pattern has “coalesced” resulting in tufts of green grass growing in among the damage. The spots start out as brown patches about 8 to 12 inches in diameter and frequently shaped like a partial circle or horseshoe. As this disease advances these brown spots blend together, if there are enough of them, into a wiggly or “snake” pattern of brown, dead grass. If you look at the green grass in amongst the dead grass, the green grass will be in circles about six to eight inches in diameter. Make sure you are watering a few hours before sunrise, giving the lawn a chance to dry out as the sun comes up. Mow at 2 to 2 ½ inches in height. You can apply a fungicide that includes summer patch disease on the label and follow label directions.  

 Pruning cut healing with the cambium and wood “rolling” over the damaged area. Q. Short story, we had a horse get out of their corral while we were out of the house today for probably 4-5 hours. While out, he ate most of the bark of 60% of the trunk of one of our pear trees. The tree has quite a bit of fruit on it right now, we are more concerned with saving the tree than this years crop. Suggestions or ideas on anything you would suggest we should do would be very much appreciated. We live out near the orchard in the northwest, the “exposed” part is a direct west sunlight direction. A. Long answer. The good part of this is that your tree, provided it is healthy, will probably survive. I have had fruit trees with that much damage to the trunk survive in the past. Your horse probably ate all the way down to the wood. This means that the tissue which transports food from the leaves to the roots is gone in that area as well as the tissue which transports water from the roots to the leaves. With 40% intact on the trunk the tree may struggle but it should still survive. I would recommend that you mulch the ground around the trunk with wood mulch which you can obtain free from our orchard. Saturate the ground around the trunk of the tree with water 2 to 3 times each week. Clean the wound created by the horse with a sharp, sterile knife, cleaning the jagged edges of the damaged bark so that it is smooth. You do not need to paint the wound with anything. Just let it go after you have traced the wound with your knife. Make sure you fertilize the tree next January and each January while it is trying to heal. Enjoy the fruit. But next year thin the fruit out why it is the size of the silver dollar so there is only one fruit per cluster.

Q. I am interested in planting various fruit trees in my backyard. One that I am curious about is growing blueberries in our region. Do you know how they do here? Would you have any recommendations? I did not realize the varieties of blueberry plants that are out there! In my search I also came across pink lemonade blueberries, I am definitely interested, but I do not want to put forth the effort if they will not be a productive plant in our area. A. This is the case where your gardening skills are going to be challenged. They are definitely not suited to our climate and definitely not suited to our soils. So let’s give it a try! This means we have to modify the climate they are in as much as possible and also the soils. Pick a microclimate in your landscape that will be as cool as possible yet still provide 6 to 8 hours of sunlight everyday and out of strong winds. This would most likely be an east or north side of a landscape that avoids late afternoon direct sunlight. Find a location or create a location that is protected from prevailing strong winds. Next, modify the soil. Blend anywhere from half to 2/3 of the existing soil with a good quality compost. To this mix, and sulfur that is as finely ground as you can find or in a liquid form. If you are not opposed to it, and aluminum sulfate to help lower the alkalinity. Water the soil thoroughly and let it drain several times before planting. Use only southern high bush blueberries in the planting holes and space them according to the directions. Stake the plants securely in the soil the first season of growth. You will need pollenizers so make sure you get the correct blueberries together for good fruit set. Drip irrigation can be used or you can flood the area with water from bubblers. Cover the planting area with 3 to 4 inches of wood mulch, keeping the mulch away about 6 inches from stems that enter the soil. Grow them for one season and see how they do. If you see signs of leaf scorching on the edges you might to put 30% shade cloth over the top of them to help them a bit from intense sunlight. Every year you should be adding compost and acidifying the soil with finely ground sulfur or aluminum sulfate plus a good fertilizer and a soil applied iron chelate containing EDDHA. This is done in the spring before you see new growth. This should help get you started.

Q. I live in Arizona and don’t know much about plants and gardening. I do have aspirations to do more. I’m loving your blog and working on reading back posts. I would like to get your recommendations on what kind of tree to plant. I have a rental property where the entrance to the property is plantless and has a small gravel landscape. I’ve included a picture of the property with boxes around where I’d like to do something. There is no water source. I would like to plant a tree or maybe bushes in front to add color and make it more appealing. Since there is no water source it would need to have low water needs. Something without thorns is ideal because there are children. However because kids climb trees maybe thorns are good to prevent them from climbing and stressing the tree. What would you recommend? A. You will have a rough time without a source of water and it is doomed to fail or look horrible. Plant quality is directly related to the amount of water it receives. Our research has shown even a 25% decrease in water will lead to unacceptable plant quality. In the desert you have to have a source of water for urban plants particularly on a rental property. Once you have water established then let me know where you are and your elevation and I can forward some recommendations.

Q. I bought 3 cacti about 8 years ago and don’t know their variety. Most tall cacti I see around town are very old Saguaros. The biggest one towers over the cactus garden at nearly 12′ high growing over a foot per year! Can you identify them? Also the photos show problems that I hope are cosmetic. By the way, I have never wrapped them to protect from the frost and now they are just too big to reach. Do you know how tall this kind of cactus get in Las Vegas?  Cactus with blemishes. Not that it is on older pads and stems, not the newer ones indicating that it was probably caused awhile ago and the newer growth appears to be fine.  A. For identification of cacti I would get hold of the local cactus and succulent society in Las Vegas. I am not a huge fan of wrapping saguaros during the winter. I believe this causes more damage than it does good particularly if we have a wet winter. Note that the discoloration occurs on some older pads and stems while the newer growth doesn’t have it. Whatever it was happened at one point in time and is not affecting it anymore. I’ve seen them wrapped in burlap here and personally believe this is a mistake. One wet winter when they were unwrapped they were covered in surface blemishes, perhaps bacterial necrosis from having wet burlap in continuous contact with the plants surface. A certain amount of scabbing or blemishes are going to occur and all plants and should not be a problem if the plant is healthy enough to contain them. You might want to consult http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/diseases/az1124  for more information.

Canna Lily ‘Tropicana’ picture obtained from http://www.brighterblooms.com/   Q. Dead-heading canna lilies seems to work but results in the stalk getting very high and less stable as the flowers become smaller. At times I’ll cut the stalk off at it’s base if the leaves start to lose color or get wind-tattered but the plant may get really thinned out especially as winter approaches. Is there a best way to dead-head canna to get maximum flowers? A. It sounds as if you’re doing it correctly. As the individual flowers fade or are spent, twist them off of the flower stalk.  Some flowers will be smaller than others.  Dead-heading flowers doesn’t necessarily mean the flowers remaining on the stalk will get a lot bigger.  It does conserve energy for the entire plant so the number of flowers or the relative size will increase overall and help conserve energy for growth and flower production in future years.  You were still going to see a difference in flowers size among the flowers on a single stalk.  As the flower numbers in size and no longer serve you, then remove the entire stock at its base. By the way, canna lilies very well in our desert climate and add a touch of a tropical feeling to any landscape design.