Early Blight Control on Tomato Step-by-Step

How to use a foliar spray of Neem Oil plus EZ Wet surfactant to prevent early blight from spreading in your vegetable garden.

Posted by Viragrow on Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Control Leaf Footed Plant Bug Now

Posted by Xtremehorticulture on Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Why Are My Tomatoes Not Ripening?

            This cool weather has caused some unusual plant problems we normally do not see in the hot desert. One reader contacted me to let me know that his tomatoes were not quite the size of a tennis ball, still green and didn’t seem to be growing anymore.

Tomato growth and fruit ripening slow during cool night temperatures

            Another reader told me his newly planted grapes were not growing. Both readers wanted to know what to do.

            The answer to both is to wait. Both of these plants love warm weather. In fact, grapes love the heat. Our nighttime temperatures have been in the 50s and 60s. Most plant growth occurs at night, not during the day. Tomato gets chilling injury at 45° F.

Be patient. It will get hot. Tomatoes will ripen. Grapes will grow an inch every 1 to 2 days when temperatures are above 100° F. All we need are warm night temperatures.

Shade Reduces the Flowering of Pomegranates

Q. I'm not getting a very big crop of pomegranates this year. They are about 6 years old. We have a large ash tree in the yard which throws some shade but the pomegranates both get morning sun.  I heard they don't require much water so I was worried they were getting too much. Then the Homeowners Association switched from grass to desert landscaping this past year.

Flowering of pomegranates requires the tree to be in full sunlight

A. To produce fruit, pomegranate need at least six hours of sunlight but does best in full sun. As shade increases on pomegranate, the number of flowers and fruits decrease. Switching from lawns to desert landscaping reduces the overall amount of water pomegranates are receiving. This will affect overall growth, flowering and fruit production.

Pomegranates produce flowers on new growth. If you are getting lots of new growth and there is enough sunlight there is no reason you should not be getting lots of flowers at that age. The key will be the number of flowers it's producing. If the tree is not producing flowers of course it can't produce fruit.

To stimulate flower production they need the same amount of water as other fruit trees. This plant is very drought tolerant but it needs water if it is to be productive. The amount of water depends on its size. The frequency of watering is the same regardless of size.

A six-year-old pomegranate should be at least 4 or 5 feet across. Its height depends on how it is pruned. An indicator it is getting plenty of water is the density of the canopy. Your pomegranate tree or bush should be dense enough you would have trouble seeing through it.

If you are not seeing much new growth and the canopy is not dense, this is usually an indication it's not getting enough water. Of course production increases if fertilizers are applied as well.

Surface wood mulches help retain water in the soil and improved growth and production of these plants.

Grapes like the Heat, Grow Slowly during Cold Nights

Q. My newly planted grapes aren't really growing fast and are a bit more yellow than dark green. I am wondering if I need to water more. I am only watering two times a week or water less. Or if I need to add something to the soil? Or do nothing and stop worrying?

A. Grapes love the heat. It is probably just not warm enough. Watering twice a week is right when temperatures are beginning to warm.

Apply about five gallons each time you water newly planted grapes. Put a steel stake next to them or a piece of rebar and tie them tightly to it so they are straight. Use the stretchable green nursery tape. Do not use wires.

If you are planning to trellis these grapes, remove all leaves along the trunk except the new growth at the tip. You do not want side shoots to develop along the trunk unless you are growing it in a tree form.

Grapes grow slowly during cool weather

The leaf yellowing could be caused by cool nighttime temperatures or a lack of nitrogen fertilizer. Apply nitrogen fertilizer once a month to the soil around the trees and water it in. Do not apply closer than about 12 inches to the plant or you could burn them or worse.

I see from the pictures you sent you have a lot of rock mulch surrounding your fruit trees and vegetables. Our soils have horribly low amounts of organic content, some of the lowest on the planet.

Grapes, all fruit trees and vegetables including strawberries do not like rock mulch at all. This will be a problem in the future. They like “organic” soils, not rock or mineral soils. The small amount of wood chips you have spread a few inches around your plants will not help them at all.

Wood surface mulches need to be at least 3-4 inches deep and a distance of at least three feet from their trunks. Keep wood mulches several inches away from the trunks of young trees and vines.

Gopher Control Includes Several Alternatives

Q. I live in Sandy Valley and will be building some raised bed planters in my backyard. I have seen gopher mounds all over the property and wondering what is the best way to get rid of them before I start this project. One neighbor says they are so prevalent on the north end of the valley they ignore them altogether.

Gophers make pretty big holes and you can find fresh soil pushed from the excavation.

A. Gophers are tough to control. The options are to kill them, exclude them from desirable plants or catch and relocate them. When gophers have other food sources in the neighborhood using repellent plants in your garden might work since your neighbor’s plants will then seem more delectable.

            When gophers find a food source, they make more gophers. Your raised beds will encourage them to set up a base camp, living quarters and a dining commons. The bottom line is they are attracted to your water and the soft, juicy succulent plants you are growing.

There are baits and poisons you can use but you’ll have to be very careful not to poison other animals in the process. Your best option is probably to exclude them from your growing area with a wire mesh barrier. You would need to move all your susceptible production into raised beds and place wire mesh at the bottom of the bed before filling it with garden soil.

It is best to read through this for your options. http://cesonoma.ucanr.edu/files/27165.pdf

Jujube Good Choice for Desert Production, Not Hachiya Persimmon

Fruit of one variety of jujube

Q. I just bought a new house with big yard at Summerlin. I am Asian and there are three trees I want to plant most but I don’t have any experience; Jujube, Hachiya persimmon and white saucer peach. I read some of your articles and decide to ask your advice before I take the action.

A. Jujube, or Chinese date, grows extremely well in our climate and you will have a lot of success growing it here.

The biggest problem is its invasiveness. Jujube suckers from its roots in new locations wherever there is water. These can be distances of 5 to 20 feet away from the mother plant. Over time, you could have a forest of jujube from a single plant. Just keep the suckers eliminated when you see them.

Sadly, Hachiya persimmon does not perform as well here as Fuyu and other persimmons. We have trouble getting good fruit retention (fruit staying on the tree) after the fruit has set. Plenty of blossoms but the fruit drops when it gets about ½ inch in diameter and the tree produces only a few fruit. I would suggest trying different varieties of persimmons such as Fuyu, Giant Fuyu, Coffeecake, and others).

The white, flat peaches perform very well here with a very high sugar content and excellent flavor. I would suggest donut peaches such as “Stark Saturn” or “Sweet Bagel” varieties. These peaches may also be called saucer or peento peach.

If you keep your trees healthy by planting with plenty of compost mixed in the soil at planting time and covering the soil surface with wood mulch you will have fewer problems. You can always email me with specific questions.

Salt Damage to Peppers Can Be Managed through Irrigation

Q. We are small farmers owning 2 acres of land in India, We have just seen your opinion on RO water for horticulture crops. We are growing roses and colour capsicum under poly greenhouse cultivation. Our ground water electrical conductivity level (salinity) is too bad that it comes to 1.8. So our plants came to death condition. We heard about reverse osmosis system and fixed it to our farm. By this system leaves shrinkage and nutrient deficiency had risen. So we are pleasing to suggest your idea about it. We are looking for your grateful suggestion.

A. Pepper plants are very tolerant of this level of salinity. It only becomes a problem if we let the soil becomes excessively dry or if the drainage of the soil is very poor and the water drains slowly. Improve the drainage of the soil and irrigate so that the soil never dries to less than 60% of its water content. With a little bit of experience, you can determine this just using your hands and feeling the moisture content by squeezing it and using your fingers.

The kind of salts that you have in the soil will dictate if you were to use soil additives such as gypsum or not to help flush the salts from the soil. Sending a soil sample to a soils laboratory to determine which salts are present would be very helpful.

Generally speaking we start to see yield reduction in pepper at about 1.5 dS/m (mmhos/cm). You are close to that threshold at 1.8. I think you would only need to dilute your irrigation water maybe 20% with RO water to get below this threshold.

New Mexico's advice on salt damage to peppers

Another option is to water with your irrigation water and then flush salts using an irrigation cycle using water with lower salts. Use these in an irrigation cycle of salts/low salts/salts/low salts/etc.

Monitor your drainage water for salt content. Monitoring your drainage water and recording it regularly will help you with managing salts (flushing, etc.)

Two types of salt damage occurs to plants; one is due to total salts (EC) and the other is due to the type of salts (specific ion effect). Particularly damaging are sodium, chloride and boron. If these salts are involved then this might mean a very different problem than just salts in general.

What to do?

• If it is possible, determine which salts are present and not just the level of salinity (1.8). 
• When irrigating never let the soil or substrate dry out too much. 
• With high salts you should be irrigating frequently with a smaller volume of water. This prevents the salts from becoming too concentrated. 
• If you can over irrigate and flush salts from your soils make sure you over irrigate by about 20% to keep salts moving through your soil profile and maintain a steady state of salts and prevent the buildup of salts.

Depending on the type of salts in your irrigation water you will see different nutrient deficiencies.

Note: This question was from farmers in India. Potable water, water in the Las Vegas Valley coming from the tap, is close to this level of salinity or salts. This is because a large percentage of this water comes from the Colorado River unless you are on well water. Salt levels of our native soils here in the Las Vegas Valley are 25 times this level. Water management is very important to control salinity.

Relocating Oleander Requires Drastic Measures.

Q. I dug up some standard sized oleanders from my neighbor’s yard. They were healthy for years and some were 8 to 9 feet tall. I transplanted them about six weeks ago and used transplanting fluid every 6 to 7 days. I also watered them every few days. The leaves are all dry and crinkled so I pull them off. They are dead now and just look like sticks. But I see new growth coming from the base. My husband tells me to pull them out and buy some new ones. Will these make it?

A. When you dig up plants that are this old you can only get about 10% of their root system. With a

Oleander will sucker from the base if it is cut back. When relocating an older Oleander you should cut them back to make up for the lost roots.

very small percentage of the root system they will have considerable die back. If they make it at all, they will do exactly what you've described and that is to regrow from the base.

If you want to keep them, it is best to just cut them off with a few inches above the ground and let them regrow from the base. Just keep the soil around the roots watering about once a week now and twice a week when it gets really hot.

They will survive and I would be surprised if anything grows from the stems that are taller. The transplanting fluid was not necessary. They would've done what they're doing right now with or without it.

In the future when you move plants that have been in the ground for more than two or three years the success rate is pretty low unless you have a history of doing it successfully.

Be Careful of Misdiagnosis of Sooty Canker

Q. Our flowering plums have been infected by what was diagnosed as “sooty canker” disease.

Sooty canker on Apple

They were treated by arborists but the blight continues. Infected limbs were cut until one of the trees needed to be removed entirely. I am advised this blight has become epidemic in Las Vegas Valley. Is there a solution to cure or at least treatment for sooty canker?

A. Be careful on any diagnosis of sooty canker. There are a lot of natural things that can look like it and if you've never seen it before or don't have much experience around it, it can be easily misdiagnosed.

Sooty canker on poplar

Sooty canker disease causes limb dieback and the bark of the dead limb to peel away revealing a black, sooty powder on the wood. When you take your finger and rub against this black powder it will come off on your finger and look just like soot from inside your chimney.

There are other natural black “powders” on limbs which will also rub off on your finger. But sooty canker is jet black on your finger and unmistakable once you see it. I will post a picture of sooty canker on my finger on my blog so you can see what I’m talking about.

Beginning of sooty canker on Mulberry

I disagree, it is not an epidemic in Las Vegas. It attacks a small number of trees every year at about the same rate for the past 30 years. Many trees can become infected but we see it most frequently on Mulberry and Poplar (cottonwood) and occasionally on Ash and Elm.

I don’t remember seeing it on truly desert trees such as Mesquite, Acacia or Palo Verde.

It can be spread easily on pruning equipment if the equipment is not disinfected between cuts and between trees. 

Be very careful when this is diagnosed. If a limb is dead, it is dead and must be removed. We don't want to be removing limbs with the wrong diagnosis.

Control Blight of Tomatoes Now!

Control Blight of Tomatoes Now!: Tomato early blight developing on lower leaves. Leaves first yellow, develop spots, wither die and progress through the plant. Early Bli...

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Get Rid of Springtails by Mopping Up

Q. I was told by the Nevada Department of Agriculture the tiny insect I found jumping around in my bathroom were springtails. I have read they are very hard to kill which I finding out after I had an exterminator try to get rid of them.

A. Insecticides are not a good choice for controlling springtails. It usually requires several repeat applications of traditional household insecticides and they will return if the source of the problem is not corrected.

What are springtails?

Springtails are tiny jumping insects, about 1/16 inch long, that are found in cooler times of the year where there is standing water. I have seen them here outside in grass that is kept too wet or where there is a water leak.

Because they are such good jumpers they are sometimes confused with leafhoppers outside the home and fleas inside the home. They are neither.

Inside the house they can multiply where the flooring is kept constantly moist. They feed live off of mold and fungi that grow where there is shallow, standing water or very wet soils. If the area is kept dry and cleaned up they will disappear.

Save your money. Don’t apply pesticides. Fix the area so it stays dry and sanitize it.

Prevent Roaches from Mulches Entering the Home

Q. I know you recommend bark mulches around trees to help in water retention. However, there are negatives to consider such as cockroaches, bugs, etc.  I encounter lots of cockroaches in the ground when I have excavated in certain areas of our yard.

Untreated wood chip mulch including pine needles and leaves

A. I encourage the use of wood mulches more than bark mulches. Bark mulches seldom decompose much and add very little value to the soil. They are purely decorative. Wood mulches decompose easily in moist soils and add a lot of value to desert soils.

Benefits of wood chip mulch

You are absolutely right. Insects such as cockroaches are scavengers. Like many insects they like two things; water and a food source. This is why you frequently see tons of them inside irrigation boxes.

They feed on plants and animal life that have died and help in its decomposition. Feeding on dead and animal life helps return organic life back to the soil.

Cockroaches do not discriminate between dead plant or animal life whether it is inside the home or outside the home. They will enter the home if given the opportunity.

Using a foundation spray

Using a foundation spray or pesticide around the perimeter of the home and in valve boxes helps to keep them from entering our home. This is an insecticide spray barrier applied to the outside of the home at soil level and 12 inches above the soil. A good time to make this application is when temperatures begin to cool in the fall.

 It also helps if you keep wood mulches away from the foundation of the home. There is no reason you need to apply wood mulches up to the foundation.

Pruning Fruit Trees in Late Spring

Q. I have added some fruit trees such as Asian pear, peach and apricot to my yard. When is the best time for pruning these trees?

A. The pruning of fruit trees is done for two separate reasons; establishing the architecture or structure of the tree and encourage the production of high quality fruit. There is even a third reason that is not talked about very often and that is helping to keep trees smaller.

Winter pruning establishes the architecture of the tree. The most productive branches are at 45° angles.

Prune at the Time of Planting. When purchasing a tree and its structure needs improvement, you should prune for improved structure immediately after planting and not wait until the end of the growing season.

Prune in Winter Months. With established trees, major improvements to the architecture of an established tree that require a pruning saw or loppers should be done in the winter months. For deciduous fruit trees, it is much easier to see the architecture of the tree when the leaves are gone. Smaller changes in its structure requiring a hand pruners could be done anytime.

Summer Pruning. I encourage summer pruning during the month of April and early May in our climate. Summer pruning focuses on removing aggressive vertical growth that has grown since spring. Sometimes we refer to this growth as “suckers” or “watersprouts”.

Strong vertical growth can be removed very early in the season by pulling downward. This is called summer pruning and helps to reduce interior shading of the tree and improves fruit quality and production. It also helps to dwarf a tree by robbing it of its new growth.

Summer pruning is used to reduce the interior shading of fruit trees which decreases production and helps keep the size of fruit trees smaller. It is also used to take away the future growth potential of a tree. When a tree is pushing new growth it is making an investment in the future. The tree is using stored food reserves for pushing new growth. That tree will recover the food reserves it used and more after its new growth has matured.

Strong vertical growth is seldom fruitful in the short run. Strong vertical growth is used by the tree to gain height. This type of growth should be removed and is easy to do. Pulling downward on immature watersprouts will remove them cleanly and efficiently without using a pruning shears. If you wait too long this growth can no longer be removed by pulling. It must be cut off. This leaves stubs that will sprout in the future.

Raggedy Roses Probably Damage from Thrips

Q. My yellow roses were beautiful the first time they bloomed before Easter. However, the flowers aren’t pretty any more after they open. The flower looks burned on the edges of the petals. I haven't seen bugs on the flowers. Otherwise the plant looks healthy to me.

A. Your roses, from the sound of it, are probably infested with Western flower thrips. These are very small insects that are nearly impossible to see unless you use a magnifying glass and inspect the flowers very closely. They are also difficult to control.

Posting in pictures by Colorado MasterGardeners
Thrips damage on lots of things in Canada

Thrips are poor fliers and so stay close to the plants they feed upon. They have mouthparts that shred tender plant parts such as flower petals and flower buds before or after they open. The flower petals appear damaged and with streaks of brown.

Soap and water sprays are somewhat effective but the best to spray for controlling this insect contains Spinosad.

Dormant sprays of horticultural oil during the winter and applied before the plants start growing will also help. I would alternate sprays between an insecticidal soap such as Safer's and Spinosad sprays until you get some control.

How to Grow Moringa in the Las Vegas Valley

Q. I planted a Moringa tree for its health benefits. I understand it is native to the tropics. Can you tell me how to grow it in this climate?

A. You know that Moringa will be killed back to the ground every time we have a hard freeze. For this reason, we have to manage it similar to bougainvillea. Moringa grows on its own roots so we don’t have to worry about suckers developing from a rootstock like we do with most tender citrus.

Moringa is one of those plants touted for its health benefits. It is native to tropical and subtropical South Asia and has spread to Africa, South East Asia and more recently Latin America where the leaves and pods are used in cooking. Most recently it has been labeled a “superfood” by the media.

Moringa is also called the horseradish tree, drumstick tree or malungay. It will grow here but it has to be managed differently than in the tropics. Establishment of the tree by cuttings or trunk cuttings is quite common in the tropics. Establishment in our desert soils is similar to any fruit tree by using compost to amend the soil during the time of planting. This is a tree I would mulch with wood chips, not rock mulch.

Marine got can be started from seed very easily. Start them the same way you would start tomato seeds or any other tropical seed. They require warmth, above 70° F moisture and good drainage. Start them as early in the season as possible so that you get enough growth on them before you put them out.

Moringa or Mulungay in the Philippines this tropical tree easily suckers when cut back. Moca Farmily Farm in the Philippines.

Growth rates of this tree are extremely rapid and you can expect 6 or more feet of growth during the first year if it’s given enough water. This is a large tree in the wild and it will want to have one central trunk.

You should discourage this central trunk by cutting it close to the ground after it gets about 2 to 3 feet tall. This pruning cut will encourage suckering from the base of the tree which is what you want. You should probably grow it as a shrub, not a tree in our climate.

Let it get damaged in the first light freeze of the winter. After the freeze has passed, cut the plant to the ground and protect it during very cold weather.

You can do this by throwing a blanket over it and preventing the blanket from blowing away during high winds. Remove the blanket during warm daytime temperatures. Fertilize it with your favorite high nitrogen fertilizer that promotes leaf and stem growth. 

How to Move a Joshua Tree

Q. I am lucky to have a Joshua tree that is about 3ft tall and I am thinking about moving it now that it has been five or six years in the ground. Am I going to be successful in moving it or do you think I will kill it?

Joshua tree that was planted and still small enough
 to move without much difficulty.

A. Joshua trees are difficult to move from the wild but much easier when it has been planted once and watered with drip irrigation. It should move okay.

Your major precautions are to make sure its new home drains water easily and not to overwater it after planting. I would avoid moving it when it is hot but you could move it now during the spring or fall months.

Dig the hole where it will be planted ahead of time. Fill this hole with water and make sure it drains in a few hours. Amend the soil taken from the hole with about 25% compost and use it for backfilling the hole after planting.

Add a handful or two of a high phosphorus fertilizer to this soil mix to encourage rooting. It will be important to stake the tree the first season after planting to keep the roots from moving during establishment.

Take as much of the root system as possible when you move it to its new home. There will be far less shock to the plant and better establishment if the roots are disturbed as little as possible.

Moving a much larger Joshua tree with very little root system.

Most of the roots will be close to the drip emitters or source of water and within about 12 inches of
the soil surface. When you move it, take as much of the soil around the roots as possible and plant it with this “root ball”.

Make a mental note of the north side of the tree. Orient it the same direction as it was previously. Stake it after planting for one growing season.

Do not water too often. You can overwater it by giving it more water in a single watering but do not give it water more than every three weeks.

Late Application of Iron Fails to Cure Yellowing

Kerex iron application made to the soil after growth has already begun will result in yellow leaves on the older leaves while the new leaves coming out after the application will be green.

Q. I have a Burgundy plum tree that is 3 years old. The leaves became yellow in March so I applied Kerex iron to the soil when I first noticed the problem. Now the new leaves do not show any yellow in them but older leaves are still yellow so I do not think it is an iron problem.

A. Iron does not move once inside the plant. It is still an iron issue. You said the NEW leaves do not show any yellow. That means your KeRex application in March worked for the leaves which grew after your application.

Iron does not move around inside the tree once the plant takes it up, it only goes into the new growth after the application is made.We say that iron is immobile once inside the plant. It is not like nitrogen which can move from older leaves to newer leaves. Iron cannot do this. Iron can only be transported into new growth. Growth before the application will still stay yellow.

Correcting the problem. The only way to correct yellow of older leaves is with iron spray applied to the leaves. This is why SOIL applications of iron are so important to make in January before growth occurs.

An example of an iron product that can be used for foliar applications, or sprayed on the leaves. Spraying the leaves with an iron solution is the only way to correct yellowing once it is already started. Make sure you use a wetting agent mixed with the iron spray.

EZ Wet is one example of a high quality wetting agent that does not contain
any personal care products and made entirely from yucca extract.

It is not too hot too late to spray iron on the leaves. It may take four or five sprays a couple of days apart to get all the yellow leaves completely green.

Any iron product, labeled as a spray applied to the foliage of fruit trees will work. However, I would strongly suggest that any water mixed with this iron fertilizer should be distilled water so that the pH is close to neutral (pH of 7).

Alternatively, you can adjust the tap water close to neutral using vinegar or another mild acid as well.

You should add a wetting agent to the spray as well. This helps the iron penetrate the leaf surface and enter the inside the leaf. Otherwise the spray is not as effective. Some people use liquid detergents with good success. I worry a little bit about the other personal care products in liquid detergents so I would encourage you to use a commercial wetting agent.

If you are still unsure how to do this, you can read more about how to do this on my blog or email me at extremehort@aol.com

Fertilizer Injectors Have Advantages and Disadvantages

Q. I know of fertilizer systems which friends have linked to their home yard watering systems. These can be adjusted as to the quantity of fertilizer added to the water. However, it seems this might be quite a bit of fertilizer applied to the plants. Yet, a neighbor is very enthusiastic about the benefits. Can you advise me on this subject?

Simple fertilizer injector using a stock tank of a fertilizer dissolved in water. Here we are preparing the stock solution to be injected into the irrigation line using the Venturi effect. In Kosovo.

A. These fertilizer systems have different methods of injecting fertilizer into the water. They range in different prices based upon how precise they can deliver fertilizer. Collectively we call them fertilizer injectors. They can be adjusted so they deliver a very tiny amount of fertilizer or deliver a lot of fertilizer at one time and then turned off until needed again.

The fertilizer was injected into the irrigation line and was applied with overhead drip irrigation using micro sprays. This is seedling production in a greenhouse in Kosovo. Benches were created using bales of straw.

Background. Fertilizer injectors were designed primarily for agriculture and commercial horticulture use where one type of plant is grown or plants grown with similar water and fertilizer requirements. Their primary purpose was to save the cost in applying fertilizer.

Several types of injectors are available for home landscapes in a range of prices. The primary difference in these injectors is their level of precision. Most inexpensive homeowner fertilizer injectors operate on the "venturi effect". The venturi effect pulls a concentrated fertilizer solution from a bucket or small tank into a stream of water. This stream of water might be in a hose or an irrigation line. The principle of the venturi effect  is used in some automated pool cleaners, wine aerators, recoilless rifles and in the pressure regulator for scuba gear.

You can watch how the Venturi effect works in irrigation lines in this video from Jain Irrigation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGlZLwvI6PY

The venturi effect causes concentrated fertilizer solution to mix into the stream of irrigation water. You can operate your injector to apply fertilizer continuously or periodically on a fixed schedule; once a month; once every three months, spring and summer, etc. If you put fertilizer in the injector, it will fertilize. If you don't, it won't.

Advantages and Disadvantages. The primary advantage to the homeowner is less labor which saves time. Some may argue it also saves the homeowner money and the landscape looks better. Both are arguable but I don’t think anyone can argue it is not a timesaver. I will go into more detail on my blog.

The primary disadvantage for homeowners is that all plants which receive water at the same time also receive the same kind of fertilizer. When fertilizing plants by hand, you have the option of giving them different types of fertilizers, not all the same kind.

Plants which receive more water also receive more fertilizer and the reverse is true. The application of fertilizer in precise amounts should also require a very efficient irrigation system. These go hand in hand.

In short, make your decision based upon the saving of time and labor. All of the other points are arguable and may or may not apply. 

Operating Your System. Leaving water with fertilizer in it in your irrigation lines for more than a few days can lead to algal, fungal and bacterial growth. It is best to apply fertilizer and allow fresh water to clean the irrigation lines after the fertilizer has been applied. Make sure there is a screen filter downstream of your fertilizer injector to prevent plugging of your drip emitters.

New Product for Lowering Soil Alkalinity (pH)

This was a very interesting product. When a few ounces were mixed with tap water it dropped the pH of the water to 3.1. We do not have that many good options for lowering soil pH. The sulfur we get now is coarse and takes years to break down.This product breaks down quickly with applied water. It gets me wondering about our acid-loving plants like azaleas, rhododendrons, hydraneas, camelias and the like. I also wondered about southern highbush blueberries and their potential here if we could find a suitable product to lower soil pH. It might also help plants that struggle with iron problems like photinia, bottlebrush and mock orange. It might be worth a try!

Viragrow Delivers! : New Product for Lowering Soil Alkalinity (pH): Have you wanted to grow southern highbush blueberries in the Mojave desert but the soil pH was too high? How about azaleas and rhododendron...