Q. I have a mature palm tree that dropped seeds onto my lawn. Now I have hundreds of palm shoots growing out of the grass. I’ve tried weed and feed products, but they don’t kill them.  Can you give me any suggestions? Poem seedling pulled from the soil after germinating A. Palm seeds can live in dry soil for a long time. When they finally get water, they all germinate at once. Keep your lawn thick and dense by mowing high, watered regularly and fertilize it four times a year. Seeds that fall into it have less chance of getting established.             Try mowing palm seedlings. If the seeds come from a palm that doesn’t sucker from the base, there is a good chance that mowing will kill the palm seedlings. Many palms have a single, central bud at the top of its trunk and once it’s killed or removed the palm dies.             I know the task is daunting, but palm seedlings pull from the soil easiest immediately after an irrigation and when they are about 12 inches tall. try this tool to remove palm seedlings             As a last resort, try lawn weed killers that contain dicamba (Banvel) or triclopyr (Garlon) as part of the ingredients on the label. Both these weed killers control weeds that become woody. Use the highest rate permissible on the label. Mow the lawn first and then apply the weed killer.

Q. I took a three-week vacation in February and when I returned my 25-year-old fig tree had been eaten all the way around the trunk about 18 inches off the ground. I put Elmer’ s glue and tree wrap on to save and it leafed out and produced great figs. What will happen to this tree? What should I do? A. If rabbits ate the trunk of this tree in a complete circle around the trunk, it’s a goner. Let it sucker from the bottom and start a new tree from the suckers. The suckers will produce a main crop of figs next year and in two years it will be back in production. Winter rabbit damage             Rabbits usually go for smaller diameter wood during the wintertime when there’s nothing else to eat. Where rabbits are problem, remove the limbs from about 2 feet off the ground and protect the trunk with chicken wire. Use a 3-foot-long piece of chicken wire that is 2 feet in width and encircle the trunk with it. This helps keep the rabbits at bay. Chicken surrounding new fruit trees when rabbits are a problem is good winter protection.             How soon the tree will die depends on how deeply the rabbit ate. There are two thin cylinders of “wood” just under the bark responsible for taking water up the tree, called the xylem, and the other for moving sugars from leaves to theroots for storage, phloem. If the rabbit ate through both completely, the tree will die next year. If the rabbit ate only the outer cylinder, then it will take about three or four years to die.             Figs are usually grown on their own roots so suckers growing from the trunk or roots will be true to the type of fig tree. The suckers will produce fruit identical to the fruit you’ve been harvesting for 25 years. Select one to three of the strongest suckers and remove the others. These suckers will form the new tree and they will grow rapidly because of the surviving extensive root system.

Q. I’ve planted peas and though some of the plants are close to each other they have wildly different results.  Some of the peas were doing very well while others not as well. Same bag of peas, same plant date, same watering and same mulching.  Why the vastly different results? A. Classic soil or irrigation problem if they are new seed and all the same but some are doing well and others are not. Try amending the soil so consistently and looking closely at how the water is distributed to the plants. Poor drainage and cold soil is the kiss of death to peas. The reason for improved varieties of vegetables available from vegetable seed producers is consistent results. Make sure your seed comes from a reliable source and the variety is a reliable variety.             I’m assuming you know that late spring is not the time of year for peas. They were on their way out a month ago or are really suffering with high temperatures. Peas are winter crops and should be planted in November through early spring, provided the soil is warm enough. Pull them when planting warm season vegetables. Unfortunately, they are usually producing well when replacing them with summer vegetables.

Q. What can I do to increase the vegetable production in my raised beds? A. Add Compost Annually Improve the soil with a high-quality compost once a year, plant at the right time of year, plant the correct distances apart, follow rotation principles by planting in different spots each year, and fertilize regularly. Each early spring or fall, add a 1-inch layer of quality compost to the growing area and mix it into the soil 8 to 10 inches deep. When you’re finished, the soil should be firm, not fluffy, and easy to dig with a garden trowel. Two Books to Get              Mel Bartholomew’s book on Square FootGardening is a good start for understanding planting distances to improve production in raised beds and Dr. Wittwer’s publication from Nevada Cooperative Extension is a good primer for growing vegetables in the desert. Rotate Your Vegetables             Rotate, or move vegetables to new locations each time you plant. This rotation should last 3 to 5 years before you grow vegetables in the same exact locations. In raised beds, this can be as simple as growing tomatoes and peppers at one end of the bed, the next year the other end and then in the middle. Use Recommended Varieties I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked to people who have grown vegetables from seed they purchased at the local hardware store. Those seed can be hit and miss unless you know what you are buying. If you want good quality vegetables, pay a little extra money and buy better quality seed of varieties that you know will work here. If You Take, You Gotta Give             If you take from the garden, you must give back to it. Fertilize the garden lightly every month as you are harvesting. This can be as mineral fertilizer, organic fertilizers or compost.

Q. My newly installed Penta bedding plants are dying, and the leaves are turning yellow. They are getting plenty of water. Any ideas what is causing them to die so fast? A. What are Pentas? Pentas, sometimes called Star Clusters, are summer annuals grown as bedding plants for their color. The same as any other bedding plants, they don’t like unamended desert soils, bad quality landscape soils or desert landscapes. They abhor rock but grow best in soil amended with good quality compost each time they are planted. Penta bedding plants are from hot, tropical Africa so they like the heat, must be planted in soils with good drainage and fertilized every six weeks because they love rich soils. They don’t grow well in cool or cold desert soils or planted without a good soil amendment. In fact, they suffer badly when temperatures dip to 40° F in the spring or fall so plant them only when you are confident temperatures are warm and getting hotter. Always Amend Soil for Bedding Plants             My guess is the soil used for growing the Pentas was poor quality to begin with or a poor quality soil amendment was added to it. If a poor quality soil or amendment was used, water drainage will cause root rot which will cause yellowing of the plants. If they were planted in February or March, they might have been damaged by cool or cold weather which can also cause yellowing.              Soil Pro is a bagged very rich compost available from viragrow in North Las Vegas. If the soil is amended with this compost no fertilizer will be needed for the planting season.             Add enough good quality compost or soil amendment so that the soil is dark brown, and you can dig in the soil with a garden trowel easily. While amending soil for planting, throw in some 16 – 20 – 0 or comparable organic fertilizers to get their roots off to a good start and the plants established quickly. Bedding Plants like Moist Soil             Irrigate bedding plants like vegetable transplants; daily after they are established and twice a day during the two weeks of establishment. If this is a permanent bed for bedding plants, use half inch drip tubing about 12 inches apart for watering rather than the skinny laser tubing which tends to plug. Water with drip irrigation anytime. When using overhead sprinkler irrigation, water between 3 and 5 AM to minimize disease problems and water loss due to wind. Rich Compost Doesn’t Need Added Fertilizer             If you use a rich, high quality compost then additional fertilizer won’t be needed for the first couple of months. After that, lightly fertilize bedding plants monthly with a high nitrogen fertilizer such as ammonium sulfate or blood meal. If a good compost is used as a soil amendment, then there are lots of nutrients in the soil already.

Q. We brought this fig from Southern California to Pahrump, Nevada, where it’s colder. I tried to protect it through the winter, but I had to cut it back this spring because it froze to the ground. Four or five suckers are now growing from the base of this tree. Can I still get fruit? A. Pahrump has a colder climate than Las Vegas so expect figs to freeze to the ground after a cold winter but regrow from the base.  Grafted Vs on Their Own Roots Plants that freeze to the ground each winter, whether it’s in Pahrump or Las Vegas, should be grown on their own roots, not grafted onto a special rootstock. If grown on their own roots, then sucker growth will produce fruit the following year.Many times pomegranates are on their own roots. And in Nevada there is not yet a reason to buy grapes that have been grafted. That may change in the future. Briba Vs Main Crop Here is a mixture of breed the and main crop figs on the same branch             Expect fruit from figs each year that they freeze to the ground . That’s because fruit is produced on new growth as well as last year’s growth. Figs that freeze to the ground will not produce an early (Briba) crop but will produce a later crop (main crop) on new growth. Keep the Suckers             When the majority of suckers are 18 inches tall, remove weak suckers at the ground and leave 5 to 6 strong suckers growing outward. Fertilize the plant once at the beginning of the season and irrigate so that the soil is wet 18 inches deep. If you want fruit, furnish the plant with at least four drip emitters, 12 – 18 inches from the trunk and cover the soil with woodchips. Fig trees that don’t freeze back and get larger require more emitters than that.

Plant Wet             Most questions I’m getting now revolve around irrigating landscape trees. I think my message about planting in wet soil, and keeping plant roots wet during planting, has gotten through to most people.             Whenever planting anything in our amended desert soil, make sure the soil is muddy while planting. The soil should stay wet for the first couple of days while these plants are getting established. If you must, build a doughnut from the extra soil taken from the planting holes to hold the water so it stays close to the plant. Water the Rootball the First Year             When landscape trees are first planted, landscape workers typically install several drip emitters close to the trunk. This is good. Get to know the make of these emitters and how much water they deliver in gallons or liters per hour. These drip emitters are oftentimes color-coded to indicate from the manufacturer how much water they deliver.Hand water trees and shrubs with a hose the first couple of weeks after planting.  Movie Emitters Away the Second Year           During the second year of growth, move drip emitters to about 12 inches from the trunk, and 12 – 18 inches apart. As trees and large shrubs get bigger, add additional drip emitters so that at least half the area under the plant canopy receives water. Change Irrigation Time on the Clock after 30 Days             Landscapers set the irrigation clock to water daily or every other day after planting. That’s good for the first week, but after that give the plants enough water so they can last at least two days without irrigating. This means you might need to increase the number of minutes on the clock for some stations.             I use a 4-foot-long skinny piece of rebar to determine how many minutes to water. After an irrigation, push the rebar into the soil to judge how deep irrigation water drained. Water young trees and shrubs 18 – 24 inches deep, medium-sized shrubs 12 – 18 inches deep and small shrubs 12 inches deep. If the water did not drain deep enough, add minutes until it does.

Q. We’ve had a nice asparagus season and now my wife and I are in our annual discussion about when to stop harvesting the spears. Asparagus can be harvested by snapping the spears which leaves the broken ends above ground. A. Asparagus season here usually lasts about 6 to 8 weeks in early spring but if the spears are bigger around than your pinky finger, then go ahead and harvest these larger ones. But not the little ones. Let them grow to their full height to rebuild the harvest for next year. Asparagus spears begin to fern out if allowed to grow             When asparagus harvest is over, the spears are allowed to “fern” and grow to their full height, about five and a half feet tall. These mature ferns are green and rebuild the roots or crown for the next spring harvest. These mature ferns are cut and removed when the New Year begins and before the early spring harvest.

Q. I opened my fig fruits and there are ants inside and the fruit is rotting from the inside out. A. Fig fruits have a small roundish opening on the bottom called the “eye”. Sometimes this eye is open and sometimes it’s closed depending on the variety of the fig. Figs that have “open” eyes allow entry of insects inside the fruit which can cause problems like premature softening, an off taste or souring of the fruit. Fig fruits that have “closed eyes” have fewer problems for home growers than those with “open eyes”. “Eyes” of the fig. The fig on the left has an open “eye” while the one on the right is closed. The open “eye” can allow insects to crawl inside the fruit, like the dried fruit beetle which can cause “souring” of the fruit.             Ants have been exploring your fig tree and now have found the “open eye “ of your fruit. As this fruit becomes sweeter, the ants have more reason to visit it. Ants carry plant diseases with them from fruit to fruit. They can transfer bacteria or fungi that cause fruit rotting to the inside of your figs.             Either exclude or kill the ants by applying an insecticide or physically block them from getting to the fruit. Look at products such as Tanglefoot and eliminate routes the ants might use to reach the fruit. Once they find a way around an obstacle, they all will know how to do it in a short period of time.

Q. Half of my twisted myrtles on the east side of my house are dead-looking with brown leaves. The same plants on the west side of the house are not showing the same condition. I checked the soil water levels with my water meter and they are plenty wet. Do you know what is wrong? A. The plant is probably the ‘Boetica’ twisted myrtle. It’s native to the Mediterranean region where soils are a little bit “richer” than our Mojave Desert soils but should do well with occasional irrigation and good soil drainage. Think Rosemary, olive trees, star jasmine, Italian cypress, grapes, Spanish dagger, Bay Laurel and roses. These are not a true “desert plant” but will handle drier locations in the landscape during summer months. In fact, they like heat and sun a lot.             I’m telling you this because irrigation and soil drainage, rather than exposure to sunlight, is extremely important to these plants. These plants do not like wet soils but prefer soils that drain well and are dry after irrigations. If soils are wet because of irrigation or poor drainage,  Mediterranean plants like this one will die from “root rot”. If using a soil moisture meter, irrigate again after the gauge registers about “five” after dropping from “10” immediately after an irrigation.