Q.. I am writing you to find out how often should I be watering my trees and shrubs. The weather got hot so quickly that I’m really not sure when to water. I have a California Pepper Tree, 2 palm trees (a canary date and a Mediterranean fan ) and 5 Japanese boxwood shrubs.  Any help you can give me is appreciated . A. There are two questions that need answering: how many minutes to water each time and secondly how often. https://wateruseitwisely.com/100-ways-to-conserve/landscape-watering-guide/plant/ The number of gallons of water given to a plant depends on its size; small trees are watered 18 inches deep, medium-size trees 24 inches deep and large trees 36 inches deep. Establishing the Number of Minutes The number of minutes depends on the soil you have and how big the tree is. Small trees are watered 18 inches deep. Medium-size trees are watered 24 inches deep. Large trees are watered 36 inches deep. Always apply the water to wet the soil at least half of the area under the tree’s canopy. Small trees are less than 20 feet tall. Medium-size trees are 20 to 35 feet tall. Large trees are above 35 feet tall. Your soil and how big the tree is so I can tell you the number of minutes. You have to figure that out for yourself. To do that I use a 3/8 inch diameter rebar 4 feet long. If the water didn’t go deep enough, water more minutes until you get there. A 4 foot length of three-eighths inch rebar I use for measuring how deep water penetrates in the soil after an irrigation. Right after I irrigate I push this rebar into the soil in three locations, where the soil is wet, as deep as I can. The rebar pushes in easily if the soil is wet. When the water doesn’t go any deeper and the soil isn’t wet anymore it’s hard to push. Watering How Many Times A Week Each time I water I use the number of minutes it takes to get the water to that depth. That doesn’t change. What changes is how many times I water each week. This is for non-desert plants.For desert plants water less often but give them the same amount of water as I mentioned above. Winter months every 10 days or more Starting February 1 every seven days About mid April twice a week About June 1 three times a week In the wintertime I water to that depth about every 10 days or longer. About February 1 I start watering once a week. Around the middle of April I water twice a week. Around 1 June I start watering three times a week. If it gets really hot I might water four times a week. A 3 to 4 inch layer of woodchips or rock helps keep the soil wet. I only use rock with trees that come from the Southwest deserts. All the rest of the trees I use woodchips. By the way, none of the plants you mentioned in your question are desert plants.

Summer watering restrictions begin May 1   Summer is almost here and it’s time to turn up the heat on saving water! Beginning May 1, seasonal watering restrictions allow watering up to six days a week and prohibit landscape irrigation on Sundays, as well as between the hours of 11 a.m. and 7 p.m., when water can be lost to intense heat and high winds. Water your landscape in the early morning hours before sunrise to reduce evaporation. While watering is permitted up to six days a week through Aug. 31, just because you CAN doesn’t mean you need to. Adjust watering gradually as temperatures increase; plants on drip need water less often than sprinklers on grass. Find more watering tips.

I am sure you are all aware of the closures of large packers due to COVID-19 outbreaks, and the ripple effects this is having throughout the industry.  The loss of processing capacity is causing a backlog of animals, for pork producers in particular.  Here in Iowa and in other Midwest states, producers are looking at having to euthanize market-weight animals due to lack of processing.  Our small plants here are booked out for months, and farmers are selling off hogs at next-to-nothing to anyone willing to drive up and buy one.  Iowa Pork Producers and Iowa Dept. of Ag are doing everything we can to find outlets, including processing for food banks, but it’s just nowhere near enough. Those of you in other areas of the country: who has room to buy and process hogs??  Every one of these hogs that we can find shackle space for is one less that has to be wasted, and can instead go to keeping our communities fed.  If your facility-alone or together with your near neighbors- have the ability to take on some of these hogs, you will be able to purchase them for next-to-nothing, and I believe that Pork Producers will even help to arrange transportation.  If you are interested, please reach out to Drew Mogler, Public Policy Director for Iowa Pork Producers, at (515) 225-7675, or [email protected].  My thanks to all of you for considering this- Dr. Polking Bureau Chief Meat and Poultry Inspection Bureau Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship

April 24, 2020 The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced $9.5 million awarded to 11 collaborative, multi-state projects to enhance the competitiveness of U.S. specialty crops. The funding is made possible through the Specialty Crop Multi-State Program (SCMP), reauthorized by the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018 (Farm Bill). SCMP strengthens food safety; seeks new ways to address plant pests, disease and other crop-specific issues; and increases marketing opportunities for specialty crops—fruits, vegetables, tree nuts and dried fruits to horticulture and nursery crops, including floriculture. Funds are awarded competitively to state departments of agriculture and entities in nonparticipating states within any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Projects funded through SCMP involve at least two partners located in different states.  Examples of this year’s projects include: The Arizona Department of Agriculture’s collaboration with University of Arizona and University of California Cooperative Extension to advance commercial mushroom production by increasing the use of local agricultural/industrial wastes as production substrates and increasing nutritional value of resulting mushrooms grown on modified substrates and environmental conditions. The California Department of Food and Agriculture’s collaboration with the University of California, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, USDA Agricultural Research Service, University of Minnesota and the Organic Center to evaluate the food safety impacts of sheep grazing cover crops, compared to tilled termination of cover crops and winter fallow, before spinach and cucumber. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ collaboration with the University of Florida, the Pennsylvania State University, and the USDA-ARS to study disease resistance and diversity to improve lettuce cultivars against bacterial leaf spot (BLS) through breeding, genetics, and study of the BLS-lettuce interaction. A full list of grant recipients and their project descriptions is available on the SCMP Awarded Grants page of the Agricultural Marketing Service website.  To learn more about AMS grant funding to enhance and strengthen agricultural systems, visit Agricultural Marketing Service: Grants. For more information, please contact Martin Rosier at [email protected]

I follow a thread for small scale meat processors (NMPAN) where some of them received their SBA Loan for their employees when they applied. This is what one of them is doing with it and how they responded to the pandemic. I was one of the few out there who successfully applied for a SBA Payroll Protection Plan loan.  I received a check this week, and the first thing I did was announce to my staff that I am paying a $3/hr. hazard pay supplement over the next 8 weeks.   The second thing I did was to call the 2 employees who were on leave -they were isolating at home because they felt they had risk conditions and couldn’t risk going out – and told them they would receive a regular paycheck over those eight weeks.  So I am torn – I need to incentivize people to keep working, since we are under incredible demand for our services.  I have changed my processing services to eliminate the unproductive fussy stuff, and allow me to increase throughput by 20-25%, and try and meet demand.  Even with that, I am now scheduling in August.   But I do not want to put people at risk, so we are wearing masks, sanitizing doorknobs and contact surfaces like crazy, and constantly reminding employees to go straight home, don’t hang out!   I will likely process in the range of 1,000 beef and 3,000 hogs this year.  That is like nothing, compared to the big meat plants that are being forced to shut down.  But in the weeks and months ahead, as shortages increase, we are going to find that this truly is an essential service.  People generally come together during hard times.  But food shortages will drive us apart, so I am doing what I can.   I am also hoping to set a good example of how community-based agriculture can work, so in the years ahead, perhaps we will re-think neo-liberal capitalism, and create a system that treats people well.  Tyson and Cargill and JBS and the rest are literally killing people in their plants by their work practices.  I don’t want to take this analogy too far, but I feel a little bit like those doctors and nurses who keep going into the emergency rooms knowing they are risking excessive exposure, but they can’t leave the patients.   I am fielding e-mails and calls all day long from producers trying hard to get processing services anywhere they can.  I hate telling them they have to wait 4 months.  I don’t think that there is a right answer to this question – we each have to answer it for ourselves.  I have told every one of my employees that I will hold their job if they self-quarantine. Joe Cloud of T&E Meats Buy Local Whenever Possible

Q. I have two bay laurel trees planted in a narrow bed behind my swimming pool. They were planted there for about 7 years, and in the last couple of years, the leaves have developed brown borders and spots. There doesn’t seem to be excessive leaf drop, but the leaves don’t look healthy to me. Bay Laurel tree will be healthiest surrounded by woodchip mulch A. Sounds like an irrigation or soil issue if it’s affecting all the leaves on the tree.  Irrigation or Soil Problem I would guess it’s drought (not enough water) or the soil was kept too wet for a long period of time. Both give brown borders (scorch) to the leaves. My guess is that the trees need water applied to a larger area underneath their canopy. This will result in more water applied to that area.             Judging from the pictures you sent, this is not a true disease problem. Bay Laurel Planted from 24 Inch Box Add More Emitters for More Water             As trees get older and larger, their water requirement increases and the number of emitters placed under the canopy also must increase. By increasing the number of emitters under the tree, or increasing the size of emitters or both, provides more water during the same number of minutes. Don’t just increase the number of minutes on the controller. That results in all the irrigated plants getting more water. Bay Laurel can be pruned Don’t Water Too Often             A word of caution. If the soil is overly wet for weeks at a time, then it can cause the same look. When the soil is overly wet it causes root rot and the tree looks like it is not getting enough water (it’s not getting enough water because the roots rotted!). Leaves Tell You the Past             Whenever you look at old leaves, it tells you about its past problems. The new growth tells you how the tree is doing NOW! If you agree with me that it is probably a lack of water, flood the area under the trees with a sprinkler and look at the new growth in a couple of weeks. If the new growth looks strong, add more drip emitters under the tree canopies. After adding the emitters, refresh the top of the soil with a 3-inch layer of woodchips.

Q. I bought the trees and soils you recommended. I am curious if my Golden Lead Ball tree will produce “balls” this first year? Can you point out where to look on the branch, or is it obvious when it happens? A. Most likely it will not flower or “ball” for about six years, when it gets old enough. Many native desert trees like Golden Ball Lead Tree are like that. They are slow to flower but when they do start, it is perpetual every year. Yellow or Gold Balls Are Flowers             These “balls” are its flowers. All flowers are considered “modified leaves”. They always emerge from new growth and from the same places where leaves are formed. In some plants, the plant does not know if its new growth will become leaves or flowers until it figures out its status for that growing season. But these “balls” emerge from new leafy growth when its ready.             Early in its life is the time to start building a tree’s structure. You can do this with a couple of well-placed pruning cuts so the scaffold limbs originate at the right height and location.             Golden BallLead Tree is a very hardy small desert tree native to the Chihuahuan desert inareas of south Texas and northern Chihuahua (Mexico). Water it twice a week to about 18 inches deep to get them established. New growth is your signal that the tree is establishing. If you want to “push” its growth, then water deep once a week during the summer. If you want to slow it down, don’t water as often.             Established desert trees signal they need water when their leaf canopy starts to thin out. Water them 18 inches from the trunk to the edge of their canopy as they get bigger. Give them enough water to wet the roots to 18 inches deep. Watering them along with other trees in the landscape works for the first couple of years but they will grow very fast like that.

Q. I want to grow some desert flowering plants like Desert Marigold in my landscape. In the past, when I attempted to transplant them from seedlings, they did not make it. Is there a technique to transplanting or am I better off planting the seeds directly into the soil? Opuntia (nopal) cactus flower A. Once established, desert plants are difficult to move.  If you sow seed into the landscape, get them to grow and then try to move them to a new location, then that is probably why the died. It’s hard to harvest enough roots when moving desert plants to a new location. Start Wildflowers from Seed in Containers             You are better off starting plants from seed in containers and then moving them into the landscape once they have solid growth. Kind of the same as starting tomato or basil transplants from seed but without watering as often. If you do move them to a new location, take lots of roots with the plant and cut the top back to reduce its need for water!             Desert marigold is native to the Mojave Desert and can be grown from seed easily provided they are watered less often and the soil growing them doesn’t hold water. Wet or damp conditions kill new plants or the germinating seed. Spread twice as many seeds as you need on top of a well-draining, coarse gravelly or sandy soil in the spring and cover the seed lightly with a thin sheet of sand. Cactus soil works well.             Use small plastic or peat containers to start them but 8-ounce paper cups work as well provided you make sure they drain water easily. Don’t use rocks in the bottom of the cup but make sure there are holes that allow water to easily drain. Starting Wildflowers Seed in the Landscape             In the landscape, rake the seed lightly into the soil with a garden rake. Lightly apply a sand layer. After you’re done, water with a spray nozzle so the seed gets wet and the sandy sheet tucks them in. Then fight the urge to sprinkle them daily, or even every other day, until you see growth appear. Warning about Collecting Seed             Remember, don’t collect seed or plants from public lands. Secondly, get permission from landowners in writing when collecting seed or plants from privately owned land.