Q. My son has a lathe and does a lot of turning of bowls and other similar items. This creates a lot of wood dust. I was wondering if the wood dust can be used to fertilize or mulch the garden? I know you have said to use small chips for mulch. It seems to me that the dust should be good for something rather than throw this out. A. A variety of sized particles of wood is better for your soil, physically and chemically, than adding “sawdust” alone. As it decomposes it adds to the soil “organics” which can be good. It goes without saying that this is not plywood or particle board sawdust. This type of sawdust adds “glues” to your soil and is better off in a landfill. You can use it but be careful when using it. Adding sawdust to your soil can cause plants to become yellow from a lack of nitrogen as this sawdust decomposes. I would mix it with some high nitrogen fertilizer (high first number). Use a fertilizer high in nitrogen (the first number) such as a tomato or lawn fertilizer. Be careful of dumping large amounts of dust of any type on the soil surface in one location. It can alter the soil physically. This dumping can “suffocate” plant roots and change a soil’s physical property so that air exchange decreases. If there are various sizes of wood particles, then they are perfect (physically and chemically) to build up the organics of the soil as it decomposes. …
Q. Will this heat damage plants? A. Most likely not. If the plants have been in the ground for a few years, then they are acclimated or have become accustomed to it. The problems come from those plants recently planted or planted during the heat. Flowering plants need six to eight hours of sunlight every day. Non flowering plants can get by with less. Your choice, when they are planted, is whether these plants should get morning sun (primarily east or north sides) or afternoon sun (south or west sides). If they are growing successfully in a location you’ve chosen for them, then don’t move them.
Q. I have ‘Brown Turkey’ figs that are ten and twelve years old. This year the fruit is large, but as they are lightly purpling up, the skin has wrinkled, and the fruit is very dry within. Some were black, like smut, but mostly dry, and lumpy. A. Check the amount of water your figs are getting. Most figs should be watered twice a week right now. All fruit trees should not be short on water during its production of fruit. We are quickly approaching day/night temperatures (and wind) (mid June) that require watering figs three times a week. The higher temperatures demand more water for production to continue. Just don’t water any fruit trees more often than every other day. Many plant leaves close their stomates (most of the water lost is due to transpiration) during the night. But that is only part of the problem. Plant ET (evapo-transpiration) accounts for evaporation from the soil as well as transpiration mostly from plant leaves. Water management (water lost from its leaves as well as the soil surface) must account for both. This is why covering the soil with mulch of either rock or wood chips is so important. During the heat, covering the soil with two to three inches of mulch can give you at least one extra day of watering each week! The next irrigation occurs when water from the soil reaches about 50% (half) or leaf scorching and branch/twig death may occur. The water in the soil is like the gas tank of …
Do deserts have mulch? I believe they do. The soil that covers its surface can be quite different from soil at greater depths. It certainly the top one inch of soil is hard. This is why water trucks apply water to a disturbed desert soil when it is windy. Mulch is important to preserve desert soil. Without mulch, desert soil will blow the “topsoil” away!