Q. Can I start feeding my fruit
trees now or should I wait until spring?
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Solutions for Home Avocado Production in Las Vegas?
Q. I have started two avocado
trees with the intent of having them available to my son if and when he buys a
home in the Las Vegas area. I went on-line and doubt that this is going
to be possible unless he is willing to nurse them religiously. Do you
have any suggestions? Do you know if a myrtle variety the wax flower can
be grown here? I know it is native to Australia and some varieties are hardy
to 25 degrees.
A. I would suggest that you take a look at my blog located at http://xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com/
and search the word avocado in the
search box near the top. I’ve talked quite a bit about this plant and growing
in Las Vegas in this blog.
I do not really
recommend it for our climate unless you want to grow it more as a curiosity.
Avocado trees do not survive much below freezing. In December this past month
we had two solid days that never really broke freezing in some parts of the
valley.
They are much too
large for a greenhouse. Your son would be much better off trying some citrus
rather than an avocado. And even with citrus here are some parts of the valley
which will be too cold for any citrus to survive for more than about five years.
If you really
want to give your son a reliable fruit tree for our climate he would be better
off with pomegranate, pistachio, apricot, peach or almond.
If you still want
to move ahead with your avocado then make sure you put it in a window that will
give it full sun for at least six hours every day. Turn the container 180
degrees every week to prevent the plant from leaning in one direction toward
the sun and growing at an angle.
If you do not
have this kind of window Then you will need to supplement The avocado seedling
with extra light. If you do not supplement with extra light, the small avocado
seedling will become tall, thin and spindly.
You can use
fluorescent lights a few inches from the plant on a timer with about 16 hours
of light each day. This will work while the seedling is still small but
eventually it will have to be planted outside.
There are parts
of the valley which have a better chance of growing avocado than others. Locations
downtown surrounded by a lot of cement are usually much warmer than outside the
city. These locations should be in places where it is not windy. But even in
these locations when the avocado tree gets larger it will be damaged.
There is the
dwarf avocado called ‘Little Cado’ that you might be able to obtain from an
online source that he could use in a container. The container would need to be
protected when there is danger of frost.
I have never
heard of a variety of Crape myrtle called wax myrtle. But then again there are
a lot of things I’ve never heard of. There is a woody plant native to the US
called wax myrtle and it should do well in most parts of the valley. That is
the problem with using common names. If you have a scientific name for the
plant I might be able to tell you more.
Sunburn on Plants a Major Desert Problem
Q. I have three 3-tier privets in the front of my house.
One of them, showing in the two attached pictures, seems to have trouble at the
top tier, which grew yellowish and small leafs, while the bottom two tiers grow
normally. The top part of the trunk close to the sickly tier shows darker
color. Nursery people told me that the
troubled shrub got too much sun and needs more water. But I have watered the
shrubs (all three of them next to each other) with the same amount and same
frequency. To tell me just the top tier of one shrub needs more water does not
make much sense to me, right?
My question is: why only the top tier turn sickly yellow
while others are growing normally? and what can I do to protect it from
dying? Thanks.
Suggested Reading for Desert Gardeners
Q. I happened upon your blog the other day. I am curious if you'd have any info on
education programs on site for learning to build gardens and grow food on
desert land. I study permaculture and
green design in the Northwest and would like to eventually acquire some desert
land to transform.
Backyard Orchard Weed Control? I like fire.
Q. My backyard is planted with a 20 tree fruit orchard similar to
a small scale UNR orchard or Dave Wilson backyard orchard. I have added many truckloads
of the free mulch from the orchard over the past 3 years, which has broken down
and made the soil much better. The problem is last year I got overrun with
bermuda grass. I put cardboard down, more mulch down, and the grass just came
up through it. Do you have any tips on getting rid of it naturally? Is there
any type of green mulch I could plant in the spring that would choke it out?
What do you guys do at the orchard to keep the weeds out?