water – Page 2 – Xtremehorticulture

Loss of Pine Limbs May Be Light or Water

Leave a Comment / Light, Pine tree, water / xtremehorticulture

Q. I have a large pine tree in a natural area losing limbs from the bottom up. It’s needles are browning and dropping. I don’t water the tree much at all, but I have a water channel flowing 3 feet away on one side of the tree. The channel is mostly filled with moving water and is about 1 foot wide. A. It’s probably either water or light issue. Not enough light because trees are planted too close together will also cause lower limbs to die and drop. Sometimes light is not considered. Pine trees planted four to six feet apart are too close together and lower limbs will die as they age. An open canopy pine tree signaling that maybe the tree was either not receiving enough water OR it cannot get the applied water to the needles due to trunk damage. My guess is that it’s water related; not enough. An easy way to find out is to put a sprinkler on the end of a hose and give the tree one to two hours of water once every three weeks to a month. I would use a non-oscillating sprinkler and adjust it to about 8 feet wide. Use a four foot long piece of rebar to adjust how many minutes to water. Hose-end sprinkler. There are two ways that I use to tell if a pine tree isn’t getting enough water; 1) I look at the amount of new growth and 2) its canopy density. On well-watered, fertilized smaller pine trees to about 20 feet tall, I like to see about 18 inches of new growth and a solid canopy density. On older well-watered pine trees 40 to 60 feet tall the growth will be a lesser amount, perhaps 8 to 12 inches, but the trees still have a dense canopy. If growth is 2 to 4 inches when the pine tree is older then growth is not enough. Measure growth at the end of May after spring growth is finished. Pine trees with drought problems usually grow 2 to 4 inches in length each year. This small amount of growth translates into a very open canopy. Because pine trees can have other problems as well such as borers and woodpeckers (sapsuckers), I inspect the trunk for this kind of damage as well. A tree trunk with extensive damage by borers or woodpeckers may also show signs of drought. Pine trees with only a few inches of new growth each year and an open canopy usually suggests drought.

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Tomatoes With Black Bottoms Now Being Seen

Leave a Comment / blossm end rot, calcium sprays, eggplant blossom end rot, how to control, irrigate, pepper blossom end rot, tomato blossom end rot, water, what do do / xtremehorticulture

Those of you who were lucky enough to get your tomatoes planted the first part of March have already tasted your home grown tomatoes. Quite a few of you have discovered tomatoes with black bottoms. What do you do? This problem, called blossom end rot, is seen every year here on tomatoes and sometimes peppers and eggplant. No one really knows the exact cause for this physiological “disease” but scientists agree it probably comes from mineral imbalances inside the fruit. The mineral usually associated with blossom end rot is a lack of calcium. Blossom end rot of tomato On the East coast, in acidic soils, the recommendation is to “lime” the soils or add calcium carbonate to the soil so the plant does not “run out” of calcium. But calcium sprays applied to tomatoes do not cure the problem. Blossom end rot of pepper, frequently confused with sunscald This is odd because calcium sprays such as calcium chloride applied to the fruit of apple and pear trees cure their calcium deficiencies, namely “bitter pit” and “corky spot”, and work in southern Nevada. Corky spot of Keiffer pear, corrected with calcium sprays applied to the fruit Until scientists understand blossom end rot better, we are stuck with the same old recommendations that I am going to repeat here and can be found elsewhere. Don’t waste your money on calcium sprays. They don’t work. Focus your energy on mulching vegetable beds to prevent water stress in the plants. Monitor your irrigations so that plants do not become water stressed.

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Ocotillo Watering Should be Infrequent in Desert Landscapes

Leave a Comment / how much water does an ocotillo need, how to irrigate ocotillo, irrigate, Las Vegas, water / xtremehorticulture

Q. I have trouble with my Ocotillo. They get beautiful green leaves that last about two to three weeks and then turn brown and fall off. They are on my watering system. Are they getting too much water? It is common for ocotillo to lose its leaves in the winter months like this one. But it should put on some new growth and new leaves in the spring. A. Ocotillo is a desert plant so it has special characteristics that allow it to survive when water is not available. The first response ocotillo displays to a lack of water is to drop its leaves. Another reason it may drop its leaves is from the soil around its roots staying too wet. That makes diagnosis of leaf drop difficult. Ocotillo does not require alot of care in Las Vegas like Cathy and Bill’s ocotillo. Water and fertilize infrequently. If ocotillo is put on a “normal” irrigation schedule used for most home landscape plants, it would most likely receive water too often. It would, ideally, be irrigated with agave and yucca in a landscape, not photinia and star jasmine for instance. It can tolerate frequent watering ONLY if water drains from the soil quickly. If water in the soil drains easily then it might be able to handle the same irrigation frequency as photinia and star jasmine even though it would not be ideal for it. It can probably handle an irrigation frequency of about once every two to three weeks in the summer but not more often than once a week. In winter changed it to once every 4 to 6 weeks. When it with enough water to wet the soil at its base to a depth of about 18 inches. Three or four emitters spaced about 18 inches from an established plant would be adequate in most soils. If you choose to water with a hose, filling a basin around the plant would make it easier to water. Watch for leaf discoloration or leaf drop to signal a time to rewater. Eventually this will help you anticipate a watering schedule for the plant.

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Cat Claw Vine Beautiful in the Desert But Not Elsewhere!

3 Comments / fertilize, invasive cat claw vine, mulching, water / xtremehorticulture

Q. I planted six cat claw vines two summers ago in full sun. They are on a drip system and I hope to wean them from regular water once the area is covered. I believe you mentioned to avoid mulching cat claw vine. Of course I had already done this and the plants are struggling. A. Cat claw vine is a very vigorous tropical and semi tropical vine that is one of those rare plants that does well in the tropics and the desert. If the mulch is staying wet and in contact with the plant then this might be a problem. Claw Claw in Arizona Cat claw vine is considered a pest in much of the southeastern US, from Florida to central Texas. I would not plant this vine in wet climates. It does like to grow along waterways and it would probably be invasive if it escaped along the Colorado River or any of our surface waterways in our lower elevations of southern Nevada. Not so in the desert where we can restrict its growth with drip irrigation.It is a beautiful vine, it is aggressive and nearly pest free. It may die to the ground during cold winters or just drop its leaves when it gets below freezing. This vine may have some trouble getting established on south-facing walls during summer months. But once they cover the wall they will do a good job shading it and reducing the reflected heat and glare from that wall. It will do well in rock mulch provided it gets adequate water and the soil was composted at the time of planting. I would not allow it to climb on stucco or house siding as it may cause some minor damage. When it does climb on these surfaces, pull it off, cut it back and let it regrow a different direction. This vine should be fine growing along the ground or allowed to climb cinder block walls. In your particular case I would pull mulch away from the trunk at least a foot until the plant gets firmly established. Fertilize once a year in the early spring to push new growth. It loves the heat so fertilizing lightly during summer months will not hurt it. As it gets older it tends to get woody at the base revealing wood stems. To reinvigorate it cut off one of the older stems and let it regrow with new leaves to cover bare areas. You can cut it back to the ground in late winter after it has been established a few years. The underground tubers will send up new shoots that will start the vine all over again.

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Controlling Growth of Shrubs More Than Water and Fertilizer

Leave a Comment / fertilizer, irrigation, orchard pruning, plants too large, size control, slow growth, water / xtremehorticulture

Q. You have always have stated to prune shrubs and trees when they are dormant, but it seems mine do not go dormant in the winter. They continue to grow even though they get water only once a week. I halved their fertilizer application but they continue to grow larger than I want them to. Why do they grow when they should be dormant and when should I prune them to slow their growth and spread? A. Shrubs desire to reach their mature size. Keeping them smaller than this will require more maintenance than selecting one that is the size you need. Select shrubs by determining the size you need and finding one that fits that size at maturity. Dormancy here is not the same as dormancy in Minnesota. Dormancy here, in some cases for some plants, means that they may stop growing as much, not that they stop growing at all. Just depends on the plant and its location. Where the plant is located in the landscape also dictates its level of dormancy. Very warm microclimates in the yard may mean that some plants never totally shut down during the winter while in colder spots they do. Hot south and west facing walls with little winter wind are the warmest locations. Cutting back on water and fertilizer will help but they do not act like an “on and off switch” for plants. Think of fertilizer and water more like a “rheostat” where it can increase and decrease growth but not totally shut it down. At some point though, turning down the water and fertilizer will damage the plant. The real solution is to match plant mature size to the site. Focus your pruning on older growth and remove it from deep inside the canopy leaving the younger growth still flourishing. Prune in the winter months. Avoid trimming on the edge of the canopy whenever you can. Hide your cuts if at all possible. They should not be obvious. This will help keep them smaller.

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