Q. Back in January you had an article about Apricot trees and you mentioned cutting back excessively long growth over 18-24 inches when it is growing. I planted an apricot a couple of years ago and this year it is growing like crazy with many branches now exceeding 18 inches and still growing.  Would you recommend continuing to cut back excessively long growth and throughout the summer if necessary? A. When fruit trees are growing like crazy some of it can be part of their genetics and some can be caused by management. Some fruit trees are naturally more vigorous than others. Fruit trees are also affected by the type of rootstock they are grafted to. For example, the variety Katy apricot is much more vigorous than the variety Gold Kist when grown on on the same rootstock. Gold Kist is more restrained in its growth and tends to stay smaller. Young peach requiring summer pruning Growth is also be affected by management. Applying too much fertilizer or watering too often can produce excessive growth. Growth is good. Excessive growth is not because it has to be pruned out and that’s wasted energy by you and by the tree. Summer pruning is a dwarfing technique used to help restrain the growth of fruit trees. Fruit trees have stored energy held in reserve through the winter. Trees “invest” this stored energy into new growth in the spring. Vigorous trees invest more of this energy into growth than trees with restrained growth. Young fruit tree requiring summer pruning because of excessive new growth. Summer pruning only removes some of the new growth, not older wood. Summer pruning in our climate is done during the months of late March, April and perhaps the beginning of May depending on the weather and the type of tree and its growth. When summer pruning, new growth that is undesirable is removed from the trees after the tree has made its “investment” in this growth. This robs the tree of stored energy that might be used for excessive growth. Fruit tree restrained after summer pruning There are two types of pruning cuts. One is total removal of a new shoot (thinning cuts) and the other is cutting excessively long growth, shorter (heading cuts). Total removal of a new shoot opens the canopy of the tree and reduces excessive shading. Cutting long growth shorter creates three new shoots from a single cut. Three shoots created by one cut increases shade created by the canopy. Upright, vertical growth is usually not desirable in fruit trees. This kind of growth tends to produce lots of leaves and twigs and very little fruit. This type of growth should be totally removed with thinning cuts. This second type of cut, heading cut, also encourages the development of short shoots along the cut branch. These short shoots begin to flower and produce fruit often times during the next season. These short shoots are called “fruiting spurs”. Cutting back excessively long growth to about 18 inches restrains the tree and improves fruit production closer to the trunk. Heading cuts are made anywhere along a branch just above a bud that is pointed outward. The result of a heading cut (near my thumb) is seen next year when bud below the cut begin to grow. One cut can result in three to five new shoots. I refer to heading cuts sometimes as “thickening cuts”. What to do? Totally remove (thinning cut) new, long shoots that are 100% vertical. These shoots are sometimes called “water sprouts”. Shoots that grow vigorously and vertically upward are not good fruit producers. This type of growth normally produces all shoots and leaves, no flowers. Undesirable succulent new growth can be pulled from the tree and does not need to be cut if it is done early enough. Pulling new growth from trees, rather than cutting, reduces the amount of regrowth. New shoots that grow vertically downward are also poor fruit producers. These should be removed as well (thinning cut). The best fruit producers are shoots that grow upward at a 45° angle; halfway between vertical and horizontal. Remove these shoots only if they are crowding or crossing other shoots. If they are excessively long (24 inches or longer) cut them back along the shoot leaving behind about 12 to 18 inches of new growth. This single cut of an excessively long shoot restrains the size of the tree and helps produce side shoots or spurs that will eventually flower and fruit.

Q. Cherries are on my mind.  I know you have spoken of them before but I guess I did not have the ears to hear then.  Can you suggest the right kind?  Do I need two different varieties and if so, can I plant right now safely?  A. Cherries are hit and miss in this desert climate. In some places they produce very well and other places they set nearly no fruit at all. I think this has more to do with the setting than anything else.  Poor fruit set in Bing cherry growing in the desert. Growing suite cherries can be hit or miss. Good fruit set of cherries happens but usually in backyard locations where lawns or a pool is nearby. My personal observation is they set better in backyards where they are close to a lawn or a pool. I think this higher humidity may have something to do with it. They don’t seem to be particularly sensitive to chilling hours or the number of hours it gets cold during the winter. They flower very nicely every year but the problem is setting fruit from these flowers. I have not tried them but I am speculating that the so-called low chill varieties of cherries may have the same problems as traditional cherries such as Bing, Lambert and the like. You will get better fruit set with two cherries in your yard that help pollinate each other rather than relying on neighbors. There are low chill varieties of sweet cherries that have been released and promoted for our climate such as Minnie Royal and Royal Lee which pollinate each other. I have no experience with these low chill varieties so I don’t know how they will perform here. I tell people that all sweet cherries are hit and miss as I mentioned above. You can plant from container now without too many problems. Have the hole pre-dug, the soil amended with compost and plant it from the container into a wet planting hole as quickly as possible and have the water running with a hose at the same time you are putting soil back around the roots. This will help minimize transplant shock and setbacks.

The concept is simple. I tell this to those who come to my classes and demonstrations. There are two families; family A and family B. Both families each earn $30,000 a year. Family A has two children. Family B has 12 children. Which family can provide more food for their children? Hint: welfare is not involved. Italia, a seeded table grape that can be used for wine as well When plants have fewer “children” to nourish, each child as the potential for becoming bigger, healthier and stronger. Thinning a tree or vine to remove fruit is a form of pruning. Fruit is removed when they are very young so that the remaining fruit has enough time to get larger. The earlier you get it done while the berries are small, the greater the amount of food that will be transferred to the remaining berries. Grapes are thinned in two ways; small bunches are removed and the remaining bunches are “pruned” so that the berries that remain get larger. This is how to do it for table grapes. After the grapes of flower you will see the development of very tiny grapes at each of the flowers. Space the bunches of grapes so that they are about 12 inches apart along the vine. Look for bunches that are smaller or have not filled out well. Prune these inferior bunches from the vine with a pruning shears and compost them. Cut them off so that you do not leave any stub behind. Secondly, look at the remaining bunches of grapes. These bunches grow in a triangular shape with a lot more berries at the top of the triangle, closest to the vine, and fewer of them at the bottom of the triangle near the point. Divide the triangle along its length into three equal segments. Remove the bottom segment, or about one third of the bunch, by cutting with a pruning shears or pinching with your thumbnail. Yes it’s painful… To you…Not to them. There. You have reduced the size of this family so that the vine can provide more food and make the remaining berries larger.

You are probably thinking this rainy weather was a good thing. It is and it isn’t. Let’s talk about some of the problems this rain has created for us now and over the next month.             Expect an explosion of disease problems. Look for diseases on tomatoes, Asian pears, some European pairs like Bartlett and even some apples. Tomatoes sprawling on the ground frequently have a higher percentage of fruit that rot than those kept off the ground. One popular way around this is the use of tomato cages. ‘Early Girl’ tomato crowded in a tomato cage Tomato cages keep tomato vines from laying on the ground and suspend fruit in the air where they are less likely to rot. The bad thing about tomato cages is they force all growth into a dense, upright tangled mess. The center of this tangled mess, if left to grow without human intervention, is dark with very poor air movement. Tomato diseases love this environment particularly if it is wet and humid. Because of poor air movement and shade, the center of these plants tend to remain humid and dark. The beginning of Early Blight disease on tomato Plant diseases love moisture, shady areas and older leaves, particularly if the plants have not been fed. If tomato plants growing in cages are wet from overhead sprays or extended periods of rainy weather, diseases can be a big problem. Tomato plants grown in cages should have suckers removed from leaf crotches as they are growing. This thins the plant and the remaining leaves get more sunlight and better air circulation. Tomato fungicides should be applied before things get really bad.             I am predicting there will be an explosion of fireblight, a bacterial disease, on Asian pears, many European pairs and some apples. Asian pears are the most susceptible but look for it on European pairs like Bartlett and even some apples. You might see it also on pyracantha and ornamental pear. Fireblight in May             This virulent disease enters susceptible trees through the flowers, blown around during wet, rainy weather. Pears and apples were flowering when the first of these recent rains occurred. That was the clue that something was likely to occur this year. Blackening and hook commonly seen with a fireblight infection It takes time for fireblight to incubate inside the flowers and spread so signs of this disease will begin over the next couple of weeks. The first sign is the blackening and death of flowers and fruit and “hooking” of new growth. This disease spreads very rapidly and, if not controlled early, kills branches and possibly later, the entire tree. Advanced stage of a fireblight infection When symptoms are first seen use a sanitized pruning shears to remove the infected area 10 to 12 inches below where it is seen. Always sanitize pruning shears with alcohol, bleach or Pine-Sol after each cut. Bleach rusts steel so oil the shears soon after using it. Bag the infected plant parts and put them immediately in the trash. Do not compost it. It is normal to see mushrooms coming from wood mulch and newly planted lawns after rains. Mushrooms are a close relative to fungal diseases and are not inherently bad. Mushrooms are signs that decomposers are at work and feeding off of decaying wood. They are generally not safe to eat so knock them over with a rake when you see them and don’t worry that these indicate plant disease. Mushrooms popping up in wood mulch after rain

Q. I have an Oroblanco mini grapefruit along with other citrus growing in my backyard. All of them have flowered and set fruit except for this grapefruit. My friend has one of these too and hers has given her fruit. What do I do to get this finiky grapefruit to produce fruit? A. If your backyard does not get too cold then it should produce well for you. Citrus biggest problem here is winter cold damage, freezing back and late spring frosts that eliminate flowers and fruit. Grapefruit is one of the citrus that has the best potential for Las Vegas but Oroblanco is a grapefruit and pomello cross. It may be a bit more sensitive to winter cold and late freezes than traditional grapefruit like Marsh or Ruby Red.   Oroblanco is harvested in the fall when temperatures are dropping around October. It is this time it has its best color and flavor. It flowers in the spring. The tree should be loaded with flowers if there have been no freezing temperatures. About 2% of all the flowers will result in fruit. The rest of the flowers and young fruit are aborted by the tree. The flowers give way to fruit as long as freezing temperatures don’t kill the flowers or young fruit during spring months. Flowers and young fruit are extremely sensitive to any freezing temperatures while the tree itself is much more tolerant. The flowers or flower buds will be killed but you may see no damage to the tree. The other possibility is spring pruning. Citrus in general are seldom pruned unless it is needed. Excessive pruning in the spring can remove spring flowers before they come out. Pruning can also result in no flowers and no fruit. It is best to prune these trees just after harvest in October. Irregular watering can cause the tree to drop flowers and fruit. Use a surface wood chip mulch to help keep the soil moisture from fluctuating too much and fruit/flower drop.

If you are not aware of it, Pahrump, Nevaada, has its own Farmers Market by local gardeners. Please let others know about it. Send some pictures! Where is it? What are the times? Hours change 8:30-12 noon on the first Saturday in May.

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