Q. Can you tell me where I can purchase a Moringa tree to grow in Vegas? This is one of our Moringa (Mallinggay) trees at our farm in the Philippines. It is harvested for its leaves for use in cooking some local dishes. It is now cut back and suckering profusely. A. Moringa is a tropical tree that freezes to the ground during the winters we get below freezing temperatures. Most of the attention given to growing Moringa is on leaf production. Winter freezing for this tree in our climate is not critical because it can sucker from its base each spring. Moringa or Malunggay leaves used for cooking. Note: there is a growing interest in many places in “food forests” and the health benefits of Moringa. At our Moca Farm in the Philippines we have about 20 Moringa trees, called locally Mallunggay. We use the leaves as a condiment and cooking ingredient for many local dishes. Moringa cut back for harvesting leaves. This tree suckers nicely from cut stumps making harvesting easier.            I don’t know any place locally where you can buy one. There are several people in Las Vegas with success growing Moringa in their yards. The tree is easy to propagate from stem cuttings if you know someone who will permit you to take cuttings. We use 2 and 3-inch diameter stem cuttings from our existing Moringa trees (Malunggay in Tagalog) on our farm in the Philippines. The seed is also sold online from nurseries located in subtropical and tropical climates.            In Las Vegas, I would use thumb diameter cuttings taken in spring and grow them in a protected location in containers until leaves are seen. The following year replant them into their final location. Otherwise, start the tree from seed which can be purchased online. Note: After this was published in the local newspaper, one reader sent me a note and said she would get seed from her Moringa tree and provide it to whoever wants it. If you are interested. Let me know and I will get you in touch with her.

Roses are relatively easy to grow in the desert and provide lots of flowers IF you pick the right variety, plant them in a good spot and care for them correctly. Learn how in this podcast.

HOA’s have a presiding Board that looks after community costs and instigates rules. If you want to lower community costs, here is what to do.

Roses Hate Las Vegas Summers             It’s summer. This is the time of year when garden roses struggle. Summer is their “winter”. As the temperatures get hot, roses stop flowering and the leaf edges turn brown and scorch. The month and week it stops flowering depends on their “landscape exposure” (which magnetic direction they are facing in the landscape), how the soil was amended where it was planted, the variety planted and its overall health. If roses are not taken care of properly they will look pretty scraggly during the summer months in Las Vegas. This rose has some salt issues due to a lack of water to flush the salts from the soil and a lack of good soil preparation for good drainage. Rose Family Plants Don’t Like Rock             Some plants don’t grow well in rock and roses are one of them. Nearly all landscape plants in the Rose Family (think Photinia, pyracantha, strawberry, Carolina cherry laurel, and most of our favorite fruit trees) like soil improvement and a moist environment when planted in desert soils. The number of native Mojave Desert plants in the Rose Family is very limited. That tells you something about the desert environment and the Rose Family. This landscape photinia lost its leaves during the winter mostly because of its poor health. Plants in the Rose Family need soil improvement at the time of planting and surrounded by organic mulch, not rock.  Roses Like Amended Soil  The most favorable environment for garden roses in the desert is soil amended with compost at planting, six hours or more of morning sun, organic mulch on the soil surface (like woodchips) and moist soil. Garden roses will NOT do well the first year after planting if put in the wrong location, the soil is amended poorly and not watered correctly. They will begin failing in 3 to 5 years if surrounded by rock. Apply Fertilizers to Roses             Applying the right kind of fertilizer at the right time is only part of the success equation. Applying a rose fertilizer once in the spring is adequate, three times during the growing season is better and it can get complicated from there with fertilizer favorites and soil amendments if you are a rose enthusiast. Select Roses that Like the Desert             Some roses perform better in the hot desert than others. Consult Cooperative Extension or the Weeks Roses wholesale website for suggested recommendedvarieties for the desert when buying or replacing. Roses last 20 years or more if properly selected, planted and maintained.

Q. My son gave me a small coconut tree in a pot for Mother’s Day. I waited about 2 weeks before I planted it in a bigger pot. I’ve put it on the patio that faces west so it’s hot in that location. How can I help this coconut thrive in the desert? A palm is a nice Mothers Day gift but you cant keep it unless you are in south Florida or live in the tropics. A. You can’t. This isn’t the tropics. It can handle our heat but not our cold temperatures.  It can’t thrive here even if it survives the freezing temperatures of our winter. The biggest problem it faces, besides surviving the winter, are the cool spring and fall months. Extended periods of cold below 45° F causes permanent damage to a coconut palm. This coconut fell from a palm into this water in the Philippines. It germinates easily if temps are warm enough.             Coconut palm is truly one of the tropical palm trees. You will find coconut palms in Hawaii and southern Florida but it’s even too cool for coconut palms in Southern California so we seldom see them there.

Q. I have 50-pound sacks of 16-16-16 fertilizer in plastic bags. Somehow moisture got in the bags and the granules are wet enough that the fertilizer doesn’t drop through the spreader anymore. I live in a wet climate. What can I do to dry this fertilizer out? Granular fertilizers like this Arizonas Best Citrus Fertilizer will last for years as long as it stays dry. A. All sorts of scenarios are dancing through my head. Dry fertilizers in bags are meant to stay dry. If dry granular fertilizers stay dry, they are never hard to use. Getting wet is the one thing that can ruin a dry fertilizer specifically designed for use in spreaders that rely on some sort of a hopper (where you pour the dry fertilizer) for spreading it. Fertilizer spreaders like this rotary spreader can handle a little bit of moisture in granular fertilizers, at least better than a drop spreader can. Its not as precise as a drop sgreader but can get the job done well if you are careful how you apply it. Drop Spreaders are for Lawns             Drop spreaders rely on specifically sized granules so it’s settings can be adjusted properly for a precise application rate. They are usually used for applying fertilizers to lawns. You have lost the drop spreader application option for that fertilizer. Chalk it up to “lessons learned” and buy a different bag of lawn fertilizer. This time get a “true” lawn fertilizer like a 21-7-14 and not 16-16-16. The “ideal” lawn fertilizer contains less phosphorus like 21–7–14 with half of its nitrogen (the first number) available in a slow release form. Sometimes granular fertilizers are blended together with other fertilizers to get a fertilizer with the right numbers on the bag. Here is 21-0-0, aka, ammonium sulfate, which is 100% soluble in water. It has 21% nitrogen in the fertilizer bag. The rest is sulfur, hydrogen and oxygen (79%). No Weed n Feed and Chunks             As long as this fertilizer was not a “Weed N Feed”,  use it for other landscape plants, as a compost starter or even in a raised vegetable garden. In desert climates, spread the moist fertilizer out and use the sun to dry it. After drying, the fertilizer will dry into “chunks” that must be broken small enough to be used. Breaking it apart also creates some powder. You could still use a rotary spreader provided the fertilizer granules are dried and broken small enough to use its hopper or even apply it by hand.  This 16-16-16 is a complete, all-purpose fertilizer with nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Use it once a season but no more than that because of the high phosphorus content. Soluble Fertilizers Dissolve Quickly             Fertilizers like 16–16–16 are made by mixing two or three fertilizers, with similar sized granules, together. The nitrogen granules in this fertilizer is probably the first to dissolve when it becomes moist . The dissolving of these nitrogen granules “glues” the other granules together into “chunks”. Breaking these chunks apart creates a white powder. You can use this powder to make a liquid fertilizer. Another example of a lawn fertilizer because it has a low phosphorus content (middle number). It would be better if the last number, potassium, was a bit higher.             Use no more than 1 to 1½ tablespoons of this powder dissolved in each gallon of water. This solution of water and fertilizer can be used to spray the leaves. This “liquid fertilizer” can also be poured safely on the soil very close to the plants. The remaining granular fertilizer can be used just like any 16-16-16 fertilizer. It won’t be 16-16-16 anymore but it will be a fertilizer probably high in phosphorus and potassium. Traditionally water soluble fertilizers (intended to dissolve in water first) are made to be put in water but they should still be dry until they are used. This water soluble fertilizer made by Grow More is called “Super Bloomer” because it has a large amount of phosphorus (middle number) to promote flowering and rooting.             Don’t throw this bag out. Use the fertilizer in it. It’s just going to take a little bit of work to get into a usable form.

Q. This is the second year for my Santa Rosa plum.  I attached some garden trowels to some of the main branches to open – up the tree to a vase shape.  Is this a good idea? Weights work good for opening up or spreading open a fruit tree like this Santa Rosa plum growing in Las Vegas. Limb spreaders are faster. A. Somehow I feel like this was a setup. Yes! If you follow me long enough you know I like to see flower and fruiting plants without their branches growing at 45° above horizontal.  Many types of plum have  narrow crotch angles and their canopy needs to grow more openly. Some trees grow upright even if they aren’t supposed to like pears, many plums, Asian pears and their ornamental counterparts. Good crotch angles form a “U” when they are strongly attached to a limb or trunk. Weak crotch angels form a “V” when the angle is too weak and the limb will split when it gets some weight on it. The branch in the back is growing straight up. No, no, no. Get rid of it now! (and that little one in front, too!)             Branches growing at 45° angles produce an optimum balance between growth and flower or fruit production. Branches growing horizontally or downward may flower well but don’t grow fast. Branches growing nearly upright (vertical) grow very rapidly but they are slow to flower. The tree intends for this type of growth to give it height. Some trees grow extremely upright (most pears for instance) and the limbs should be spread apart and pruned to outward growth in mid to late spring to slow it down and improve flowering or fruiting. When young trees or young growth grows too close together and upright, use a limb spreader to push the branches apart for one season of growth.             Plants don’t care if their limbs are spread to 45° by weights or another method. I prefer to use “limb spreaders” of different lengths (4, 8, 12 and 18 inches). They are faster and less adjustment is needed. You can make them with forked ends out of  one-inch wood lath and even wooden paint stirrers. They should be strong enough to hold branches apart and not break while doing it. Limb spreaders have a crotch on both ends to help keep the small limb from sliding out. I made this one and it also has a wire brad with the tip cut off to grab the limb better. I now make them without the nail in the crotch. They hold just as well.             Be careful spreading limbs apart early in the season when they easily split if bent too far. After the new growth in the spring is an inch or two is the perfect time to bend limbs to their proper angle and either a hang weights, use limb spreaders and prune to outside growth to open the canopy wider. After one season of growth in this position they can be removed.

Q. How can I get rid of spurge in my vegetable garden?  I have been hoeing it and hand pulling it just about every day, but it appears to be getting ahead of me this year.  I do not use any chemicals in my garden, so that is not an option. A. Shade. Spurge hates shade.  What is Spurge? Spurge is a pernicious weed; it hugs close to the ground when it grows and germinates rapidly from seed it produces in less than 30 days during summer months. It can also grow new roots if it is hoed and left on top of wet garden soil. It must be removed after hoeing since this plant produces seed continuously. Pepper with horse bedding for mulch.            Its strengths are how much seed it produces, how fast the seed germinates and its ability to root in moist soil once it’s been hoed. But its big weakness is shade. By that I mean it doesn’t take much to shade it out. If the garden space is full of plants and producing a lot of shade, spurge has a difficult time.            There are several types of spurge, but I think yours is prostrate or creeping spurge that hugs the ground and makes a tiny drop of white latex when the stem is broken. And of course, lots of seed! Weeds in onions controlled with horse bedding as mulch Control Most Weeds with Mulch            Weeds rob watered light. That’s also their weakness. So, use a surface mulch (½ inch deep) thick enough to shade the soil to defeat it. The application of anything deep enough to keep light from getting to the seed will keep it from growing.  Horse bedding is nice as a mulch because it decomposes quickly when its wet.            Apply this surface mulch after planting or the after the seed is up. Garden mulch includes horse bedding, straw, paper (sheets, strips or shredded), cardboard, or anything else that blocks light from reaching the seed.            Apply this surface mulch early in the season and hoe the soil surface before you put it down. Spurge seed produced during August and later will not germinate until next year. But any older seed still lying on the soil will germinate if it gets water and light. By the way, most annual weeds like spurge (and many others) hate mulch.

Q. The fruit from my nectarine had a lot of “sores”; spots with tiny “bubbles” of hardened fluid. Yesterday, early evening, I sprayed the tree with “soapy water” in hopes of improving the problem. A. Your nectarine fruit has damage from Western Flower Thrips (WFT). That’s one of the reasons I don’t plant too many of them. WFT are hard to control without spraying frequently and soapy water alone won’t do it.  Spraying with Spinosad insecticides weekly until harvest, starting after the flower petals have dropped, has given the best control for me.            I alternate Spinosad with Neem oil, and soap and water sprays so WFT don’t build resistance to it so easily. Peaches are easier to grow without spraying as much because of their fuzzy skin. View my posts on this on my blogPyrethrin Doesn’t Kill Thrips Fruit Scarring Can Be Prevented

Q. The class-action lawsuits against the weedkiller “Roundup” claims it can cause lymphoma. Nonetheless, nurseries and big box stores still carry it and even promote it. Isn’t there a safer weedkiller? I have been using “BurnOut” made by Bonide which is promoted as being pet and people safe. Why is it so hard to find? Roundup is carried by many so-called box stores and is still a popular home weed killer.  A. Products like “BurnOut” are not required to show “efficacy data” before entering the consumer market. “Efficacy data” demonstrates to the regulatory agency that it does what it says it does. It’s a form of consumer protection. There are other companies besides Bonide thatproduce products like these. EPA’s opinion on the safety of Glyphosate.            There is a list of ingredients considered “organic” and exempt from regulationby the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  Each state determines if these products should be sold or not through whatever regulatory agency is responsible. Efficacy data may or may not be required by a state.            “BurnOut” contains citric acid and clove oil as active ingredients. “Roundup” contains glyphosate as its active ingredient. “BurnOut” is a weedkiller that kills by contact. “Roundup” moves inside the plant and is therefore considered a systemic weedkiller. If you look at both labels, “Roundup” must demonstrate that it does what it says it does. This requires EPA registration. There is a federal registration number on the label showing it has met that requirement.            Citric acid and clove oil are considered “organic ingredients” and do not require the submission of efficacy data to the federal EPA. There is no federal EPA registration number on the “BurnOut” label. Also, PPE (Personal Protective Equipment such as gloves and eye/nose protection) is not required when using products like “BurnOut”. You must wear PPE when using “Roundup”. Why Not as Available?            My guess is that products such as “BurnOut”, as well as homemade weed killerrecipes promoted on the Internet, are “contact weed killers”. Whatever plants with leaves you spray, you kill. “Roundup” is a systemic weedkiller that mostly targets grasses but kills many other plants as well and kills the roots as well (systemic) so there is little to no regrowth of perennial weeds.            Why products like “BurnOut” are not found more? I think a lot of it has to do with the investment the company makes when developing these products, in many cases millions of dollars. I don’t believe Bonide does not have to invest as much money and show “efficacy data” when developing and marketing a product like “BurnOut”. I will handle this in more detail on my blog. Glyphosate vs Roundup vs Health