Red Flame Table Grapes Do Well In The Mojave Desert

Red flame table grapes grown by reader in Las Vegas

Q. My Red Flame grapes are terrific this year. I think some at the end of the bunches have turned into raisons from the heat. Is there a way to prevent this? When will the vine need fertilizer? By the way I used dollar store garland hanging from the grape arbor and from my fig trees and I've avoided 99% of bird problems this year, what a relief!

A. Red Flame table grapes do well here. Because of our heat we do get uneven ripening of the berries in a single bunch. When a bunch is ready to pick you may have a variation in berries from a few raisins to some berries that are still green.

You can reduce this to some extent by reducing the amount of water the vines are getting when the berries begin to turn color in the bunches, about 3 to 4 weeks before harvest.

Dwarf Coyote Bush Planted In Small Landscape Area

Probably dwarf coyote bush

planted in a small landscape area

Q. Please look at the attached image if two 'Desert Broom' or Coyote shrubs that I bought in October 2009. Note that they are very low to the ground, less than one foot high. I am trying to obtain more of them as they do well in our yard where many other shrubs fail. The original nursery doesn’t remember them and do not know what they are from the picture. Do you have any thoughts as to where I can get eight more of these. I have been to every nursery in the area without luck.

A. My first comment to you is that you will be very sorry you purchased those plants and planted them there. Unrestrained, they are going to grow 10 to 12 feet in diameter in that space were you have about 3 feet available to them and planted 2 feet apart. They do appear to be one of the dwarf coyote bush. Probably Twin Peaks. I would not leave those plants there. Twin Peaks dwarf coyote bush will reach about 2 feet tall and 10 to 12 feet wide or more. Buy some alternative plants that will fit in the spaces that you have and repeat this plant in multiple places through the yard to give your design a feeling of continuity.

Brown Spots Emerge In Fescue Lawn In Midsummer

The lawn with brown and dead spots

Q. I need your assistance. Below photo depicts the present condition of my backyard. It has patches of dry or dead grass. I don't know what caused the problem. Is there some way to revive the grass without going to the extreme of re-sodding? And what shall I do to prevent this in the future?

A. Thanks for the picture. The picture helps and it doesn’t help. It would have helped if I saw something in the picture that gave me a clue. But there is nothing in the picture that is distinctive to me. It would be interesting to know if those dead spots were in any kind of pattern in relation to your irrigation heads.

I did notice in the picture that whatever caused the damage appears to be gone. The grass around the dead areas seem to be thriving. This would tend to eliminate irrigation as a problem unless you changed your irrigation schedule. If these dead spots occur in the same spots year after year it is usually associated with irrigation. I tend to think it is either insect or disease problems from your picture.

Lawn with poor irrigation overlap
from sprinklers

Let me just point out some weaknesses in the design that might contribute to the current problem. I tend to discourage homeowners from designing a turfgrass area in other than straight lines. I know this might be somewhat boring but water from sprinkler heads is thrown in straight lines. Irregular lines or curving lines tend to cause those areas inside the curves to be under watered or the areas outside the curves, and no longer in the turfgrass, to be overwatered.

I noticed in your picture that most of the damage is closest to the non turfgrass area while the solid turf area is less damaged. Another point, those areas of the turfgrass closest to rock mulch, sidewalks or patios in full sun tend to use more water than those areas deep inside the turf area. These areas, close to bare ground or rock mulch, tend to be warmer and more prone to insect attacks than others. Insect damage that is fresh tends to cause the grass on the edge of the damaged area to pull up freely from the lawn. If the insect damage is long gone, then fresh grass will no longer pull up easily.

Summer patch disease on tall fescue

Lawn diseases can also cause patterns like this. Unless a sample is sent to a qualified plant pathologist or we have seen the disease many times before it is a shot in the dark as to which disease it might be. From your picture, it is not a disease pattern I recognize as common to all our area.

Since the problem is gone, there is probably no need to apply an insecticide or fungicide. At this point leave the dead grass alone and do not rake it up or you will open the soil surface to invasion by weeds. Around the end of September through mid October rake up the dead grass and broadcast the same seed or nearly the same seed in the dead areas and mulch the surface with top dressing and fertilizer. I hope this helps.

Young Apple Tree In Rock Mulch Dies In Midsummer

Apple tree planted in rock mulch

Q. I've attached a picture of what was once a beautiful, thriving golden delicious apple tree. Within one week this is what the tree looks like! Its a young tree as you can see, I didn't plant it myself I purchased my home last July and it had just recently been planted. I picked about 10 apples from it just 2 weeks ago. Can you tell from the picture what could have caused it to dry up and die like this, especially so fast? I planted some other fruit trees that are seemingly doing very well and want to protect them from whatever caused this to happen. Thank you for any help and/or insight you can provide.

A. Because the entire tree died from top to bottom we can be relatively certain the problem was at the very bottom of the tree, in the trunk or the roots. The most common reasons are watering too much or too little, planting the tree too deeply, and leaving mulch piled around the trunk when it is young.

First, manually run the irrigation cycle and make sure that water is getting to the tree. If that cycle is operating normally and other plants on that cycle seem to be doing fine then we can probably eliminate watering. But you must check this first since this is the easiest one to eliminate.

Next, let’s eliminate planting too deeply and problems with the rock mulch. Get something to kneel on and pull the rock mulch away from the trunk. With your fingernail or a penknife cut into the part of the trunk, just barely beneath outer bark, that was covered with mulch. Make the same cut into the trunk just above the bark or make one long cut to include both.

The color of the trunk just under the bark should be identical in color in both spots; white not brown. If the color just under the bark that was covered with mulch is brown, then the tree died from collar rot due to the mulch in contact with a young trunk. Never put mulch, whether it is wood or rock, directly against the trunk for the first four growing seasons. Keep its six inches away from the trunk until it is older.

Lastly with the mulch pulled away from the trunk and still on your knees, dig the soil away from the trunk until you find the first roots. These first roots should be no deeper than about ½ inch below the soil. If roots coming from the trunk are deeper than this and soil has been placed around the trunk and the part of the trunk covered by the soil was brown, then it died of collar rot because it was planted too deeply, a common mistake.

Always plant all trees and shrubs with no more than ½ inch of soil covering the roots and make sure the tree is staked the first growing season.

Follow up to this discussion:

Thank you for this very helpful response. I did exactly as you said and it seems to be collar rot because the (rock) mulch was planted right up to the trunk and when I checked the bark was not only brown but dried out. I've moved back the mulch on all of my other trees. Thank you again.

African Sumac Has Problems

Q. I have an African sumac in my backyard that has leaves which turn brown and fall off. I have one in my front yard that does not do that. The one in the back is close to grass which gets 5 minutes of water three times a day. The one in the front is in a rock landscape and gets a lot less water. Is this natural for them or is it getting too much water or not enough fertilizer? The backyard one is on the east side and the one in the front faces west which is very hot. The one in the back is about 15 years old and about 35 feet tall and wide. Any help would be great.

A. Sometimes they can get so dense that internal shading of the canopy will cause leaves to die and drop. These are fairly messy trees due to leaf drop and dropping of their berries. If the tree in the drier landscape is more open and the tree in the back is more dense then internal shading of the canopy can be the reason.

            Other reasons might include pest problems such as aphids which can cause the leaves to be sticky or shiny and leaf drop if there are in large numbers. If the leaves are sticky, try spraying with repeat applications of soap and water or insecticidal soaps. Aphids should disappear during hot weather but reappear again during cool weather. You may also see a lot of ant activity that are working off of the aphids sugary honeydew droppings.

            You can try to open up the canopy with some branch removal (thinning of the canopy by selective limb removal) and admit more light inside the canopy. This however will probably cause some suckering on the limbs if too many limbs are removed.  You can do some light removal of small branches now.  Remove the entire small branch.

            Another possibility could be overwatering. If the tree is watered too often it is possible to develop root rots and lead drop will occur and usually branch dieback.

Japanese Privet Does Not Like Dry Feet

Readers plant appears to be Japanese privet which
does not like dry soils

Q. I have four bushes like the one shown. They were planted about six years ago and have never done very well. Each year around this time they look as shown. Can you advise and suggest anything?

A. From the looks it appears to be Japanese privet which must have soil around its roots that does not go dry. It will not do well in rock landscapes. They do well in a turfgrass landscape. This might be a case of the wrong plant in that location. You would have to increase the frequency of the watering and improve the soil in that location.

This is what Japanese privet will do in a rock landscape
with drip irrigation - drop its leaves on some branches
along with branch dieback

            The amount might also have to be increased but since I dont know the amount I would suggest increasing the frequency to about three times a week. The amount depends on the size of the plant but a three foot tall plant might require five gallons or so each watering. A ten foot plant might require perhaps 20-30 gallons at each watering.

Tomato Cracking May or May Not Be Your Fault



Radial cracks on an heirloom tomato from the orchard

Q. I have this problem. Our tomatoes develop cracks at times usually about half way to maturity.  They also rot on the bottom.

A. Tomato cracking can be from the variety of tomato you are growing or it can be how you are managing your irrigations or a combination of both.  Rotting of the bottom of the fruit can be caused by irregular irrigations.

Heirloom tomatoes with longitudinal
cracks (top right and top left) from irregular watering

            Some varieties of tomatoes, particularly heirloom types, are subject to what are called radial cracks.  These are concentric, circular cracks around the top of the fruit.  These might be reduced by growing them under light shade probably know more than about 30%.

            Cracks along the length of the fruit can be a particular problem after a heavy rain. Sometimes when the tomato fruit is near maturity very wet soil can result in a lot of water taken up by the plant with lots of it sent to the fruits. The fruit swells and cracks due to excess water taken in by the fruits and the skin.

Blossom end rot on tomato, picture submitted by reader

            Use a mulch on the soil surface to help keep the soil more evenly moist. This can result in less cracking to the fruits because the soil is kept more evenly moist. This can be straw, shredded or even sheets of newspaper or landscape fabric cut into strips.  As I said, tomatoes will do better if they have some light shade when they are growing.



What's Happening In The Orchard In July: Limb Damage and Wormy Peaches and Nectarines





Fruit Tree Limb Split Due to Heavy Fruit Load

Limb Damage Due To A Heavy Crop Load.  Too much fruit on a single limb and the weight can cause the limb to separate from the trunk.  We get it at the orchard if we do not thin the fruit enough on the limb or if the limb has a poor attachment to the trunk.  Make sure that limbs which support fruit are attached to the trunk at about a 45 degree angle.  Peaches should be thinned so that the fruit is about 4 to 6 inches apart along the limb.  Summer pruning, talked about here on this blog, will help to keep fruit loads more manageable and cause less damage to the tree.  During summer pruning, usually around April and May, excessively long branches on peaches and nectarines are pruned back so they are no longer than about 18 inches.  This helps to distribute the crop load for the next year which is born on the wood which is produced this year.

Flagging in new growth at the top of a peach tree

Wormy Peaches, Nectarines And Even Almonds. Peach twig borer in the adult stage is a brown month about 1/2 inch long.  After eggs are laid by the adult moths, worms or larva enter soft fruit usually near the stem end.  When they enter near the stem end they leave behind some brown excrement that looks a little bit like wet, dark brown would grindings. 

CloseUp Of DieBack Of A Young Peach Stem Due
To Peach Twig Borer

But earlier in the season when there is no fruit they attack something else that is soft and tender - - newly growing shoots.  They bore into the soft ends of the shoot where they tunnel and cause the newly growing tip to die back as you see in the picture.  Later in the season when there is soft fruit they attack the fruit instead.

It is important to get these insects under control very early in the season.  There can be several generations each growing season and their numbers are not additive but multiply at very high rates so their numbers increase rapidly.  

Peach Twig Borer Larva in Almond Husk

These little guys will also attack almonds.  They get into the husk where it is essentially just like the fruit of a peach.  They can get inside where the nut is located and cause damage there as well.

We use pheromone traps to begin to identifying when they are flying and add a very high density so that we get some mating disruption.  Then we usually use either sprays of Bt or spinosad.

For more information see the University of California IPM online web site at
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r602300611.html

Roses Can Be A Good Landscape Plant For The Hot Desert

Roses Should Never Be Grown
In Rock Mulch

Q. I read your column and have a question. I have two rose plants both have very dried blossoms on them. WHAT should I do?  Cut them back 1/3, fertilize, or leave it alone until the weather cools?  The heat has “mummified” the roses that did bloom. All on the branches. We lived in Hawaii for many years, and I am uncertain how to grow roses here...Hawaii so much easier!

A. Roses do surprisingly well here in our desert.  We have two rose societys here in the valley with some very avid rose growers, some with hundreds of roses in their yards.  The best time of year for roses is in the spring in the fall, months from February to May and then later when it’s cooler again beginning about mid September into mid December. 

If they are planted in front of a wall with reflected heat (west and south facing walls) they will do well all winter long.  The worst time of the year for roses, and the time when they struggle the most, is June through August.  The flowers do exactly as you are talking about.  They will bloom and the flowers shrivel up and die very quickly in our heat and lack of humidity. 

Never grow roses in a rock mulch here always use a wood mulch.  The best wood mulches are chipped or shredded landscape plants that arborists normally take to the landfill. 

Roses growing in Las Vegas in wood mulch

Roses do great on drip irrigation.  Use two, 3 gallon per hour emitters per rose plant and irrigate for 1 hour.  That will deliver 6 gallons of water.  In the heat of the summer irrigate three times a week if you are using wood mulch.  Go to twice a week in mid or late September, once a week in mid to late October, and once every 10 days after the leaves drop.  Repeat this in reverse in the spring as the temperature gets hotter starting with once a week on February 1.

Fertilize in January with a slow-release rose fertilizer plus a soil-applied iron chelate applied under the wood mulch next to the emitters.  The fertilizer stakes work great and are not as messy.  The best soil applied iron chelate is going to be one which contains the chelate EDDHA. 

I know that Plant World Nursery on Charleston carries this iron chelate but it is always expensive.  So does Grow Well on Nellis.  You only need a small amount per rose plant.  I would fertilize a second time, two weeks before the second crop in the fall comes on. 

What should you do now?  Remove any of the flowers that if mollified and cut off any dead or dying branch is and leave it alone until after leaf drop in late December.  Do your pruning at this time.

Privet Not Doing Well

Q. I have four bushes like the one shown. They were planted about six years ago and have never done very well. Each year around this time they look as shown. Can you advise suggest anything?

Reader's suspected Japanese privet

A. From the looks it appears to be Japanese privet which must have soil around its roots that does not go dry. It will not do well in rock landscapes. They do well in a turfgrass landscape. This might be a case of the wrong plant in that location. You would have to increase the frequency of the watering and improve the soil in that location.

Leaf tip burn on readers privet

The amount might also have to be increased but since I dont know the amount I would suggest increasing the frequency to about three times a week. The amount depends on the size of the plant but a three foot tall plant might require five gallons or so each watering. A ten foot plant might require perhaps 20-30 gallons at each watering.

African Sumac And Leaf Drop

 Q. I have an African sumac in my backyard that has leaves which turn brown and fall off.  I have one in my front yard that does not do that.  The one in the back is close to grass which gets 5 minutes of water three times a day.  The one in the front is in a rock landscape and gets a lot less water.  Is this a natural for them or is it getting too much water or not enough fertilizer?  The backyard one is on the east side and the one in the front faces west which is very hot.  The one in the back is about 15 years old and about 35 feet tall and wide.  Any help would be great.

A. Sometimes they can get so dense that internal shading of the canopy will cause leaves to die and drop. These are fairly messy trees due to leaf drop and dropping of their berries. If the tree in the drier landscape is more open and the tree in the back is more dense then this can be the reason.

Other reasons might include pest problems such as aphids which can cause the leaves to be sticky or shiny and leaf drop if there are in large numbers.  If the leaves are sticky, try spraying with repeat applications of soap and water or insecticidal soaps.  Aphids should disappear during hot weather but reappear again during cool weather.  You may also see a lot of ant activity that are working off of the aphids sugary honeydew droppings.

You can try to open up the canopy with some branch removal (thinning of the canopy by selective limb removal) and admit more light inside the canopy. This however will probably cause some suckering on the limbs if too many limbs are removed.

Another possibility could be overwatering. If the tree is watered too often it is possible to develop root rots and lead drop will occur and usually branch dieback. 

My Lawn Needs Help Doggone It!

Dog urine damage. You can tell because it is darker
green around the dead spot due to the extra nitrogen
in the urine.

Q. I have some grass in my backyard.  I installed sod when I first moved to this house and 7 years of having two dogs and three kids have done its damage. I have large patches of dead spots and the live spots are not looking so good either. Haha. The problem with reseeding or sodding is that one of my dogs is still 7 months old and would tear it up as it happens. I was thinking of getting some Zoysia grass or something like that.  What brands do you think do well here?   My other option is artificial grass and that is a bit pricey right now.

A. If dogs or a dog is tough on your lawn then there isnt much you can do about keeping a lawn looking good. Even zoysia grass, as tough as it is, will have problems with dogs and kids who play outside alot and roughhouse.

El Toro zoysiagrass

Artificial grass has its drawbacks. Number one are the temperatures it can generate even on a moderately warm 95F day. Surface temperatures of artificial grass can climb to well over 150F on a modestly warm day, midday in full sun. Artificial grasses need to be kept clean since small surface debris does not decompose as it does in a lawn.

If you do elect to use artificial grass make sure it is in the shade. If you elect to use a natural grass you might want to consider Kentucky 31 tall fescue. I normally do not recommend this grass for most lawns because of its coarse texture. It is not a pretty grass to look at but it is tougher than just about any other cool season grass. It can be reseeded easily in spring and fall months. But it is a water hog.

Try rotating your pet into different parts of the lawn at different times so that grass which has been beat up pretty bad has a few weeks to recuperate before fido is let on that patch again. When fido has been rotated off of a patch then fertilize it, aerate it and push some new growth to get it to recover as fast as it can.

Baked Apples on the Tree in July

Apple baked on the readers tree and now rotting

Q. Aloha, Bob. I have this problem. Our Apple and tomato crop has been developing brown areas usually on their bottoms. I am attaching three photos so that you see what I am writing about. Our apples seem okay except for the brown spots but, our tomatoes also develop cracks at times, usually about half way to maturity. Can you help? If it's any help to you, we live in the northwest part of the valley two blocks from the Santa Fe Station Casino.

Apples on the readers tree

A. The apples on the tree looked like Anna.  Is that correct?  This is high temperature damage to the fruit.  They basically cooked on the tree.  I have had this same problem with Anna apples at the Orchard. Cut the apples open and look inside the core to make sure that there were seeds developing and check to see what stage of development they were.  When an apple fruit is mature the seeds will be dark brown with maybe the pointed tip still white.  I just want to make sure that the fruit was mature and that you had pollination for fruit development.  If there are seeds present, then it makes it more conclusive that it is due mostly to high temperatures.



Anna apple with high temperature damage
at the UNCE Orchard

I want to add that you did a great job thinning your apples at the right time to get that size.

Apple fruit at beginning stages
of sunburn

Apple at advanced stages
of sunburn

If this is Anna apple they are pretty good at handling high temp stress.  They mature early and you can often times get them off the tree before the hot weather can do substantial damage.  I typically do not like apple trees which have fruit that matures at the peak of our summer temps.  I usually prefer apple trees that produce fruit late, such as mid September through November. 

I also like apple trees that produce enough leaf cover or canopy to shade the fruit and not have it exposed directly to sunlight.  Exposed fruit can be damaged by sunscald, a different problem but related to high light intensity that produces a lot of surface heat on the fruit and causes the fruit to discolor on the side exposed to the sun. 

I think producing its fruit in November is one reason Pink Lady apple does so well in our climate besides just having a wonderful balance of sugars and acidity and a great flavor profile of sweetness and acidity.

I am thinking, again if this is an Anna, that it might be due to a long cool spring and summer we had followed by the onslaught a very high temps, very quickly when the fruit was maturing.  Again, if this is an Anna, I don’t think you’ll see this again in future years unless we have a repeat of these weather conditions.

Mason Bees Probably Not the Best Choice for Desert Pollination





Bee boxes made for leafcutter bees at The Orchard

Q. Do we have mason bees in las vegas? My yard is 50ft x 25ft. do you think it’s a good or bad idea having a mason bee house?

Circular holes cut on the leaf magin of a bottle tree leaf.

Leaf cutter bee house and bee entering hole

A. We don’t really have Mason bees or Orchard bees that I know of. We rely mostly on leafcutter bees as a wild source of bees for pollination. I have sat in the orchard for about one hour a few years ago during full bloom and counted bees visiting flowers on a peach trees. The leafcutters are smaller in size so they are easier to distinguish from Italian honey bees. We have ten hives of Italian honey bees in the orchard. My best estimate was that about 25% of our pollination on that tree was due to leafcutter bees.

I think you would waste your money in bringing some in. I think they might die in this climate. You can make your own leafcutter bee house by drilling holes in a 4x4 or 6x6 (better) or a tree stump with a 3/8 inch bit to a depth as deep as you can. Five inches is best but at least 3 inches. The female bees will lay their eggs in these long tunnels created with your drill bit. The State Entomologist in Nevada claims that the longer tunnels will favor the creation of more female bees since the eggs of males are laid the first three inches or so of the tunnel. The deeper the hole, the more eggs that turn into females will be laid. Shallow holes will still provide for the production of bees but male bees will be favored. As we all know, male bees are not as productive workers as females.







Basil damaged by leafcutter bee

You might keep in mind that leafcutter bees will make some damage to some leaves around your yard or garden but that's okay. They will grow back. Leafcutter bees favor leaves that are smooth and fairly delicate such as bougainvillea, roses, grapes, basil and the like. They take these leaves and use them to stuff the tunnels where they pack their eggs. The leaf stuffings provide protection for the eggs and food for them to eat as they emerge in a month or so.

Twisted and Distorted Tomato Roots May Be Nematodes

Nematode damage to roots

Q. I recently pulled up the remains of my tomato plants and found the roots disfigured but I could not see any of these worms on the roots.  I planted tomatoes that had a VFN designation on the label and thought they were resistant to nematodes.  Are these the remains of nematodes? 

A. Nematodes are microscopic worms so you would not be able to see them with your naked eye. Just because they have the label nematode resistant (N of VFN) doesn’t mean you can’t get them. It just means that the plants can resist infestations but are not immune to them.

            From your picture it does look like a nematode attack. You should remember that it is extremely important that you not grow the vegetables of the same family in the same spot year after year. You rotate the locations of where you plant vegetables each year. This will help in keeping diseases and nematode populations from building in certain locations. However, nematodes are a different problem. Some guidelines for control are available in this publication from Clemson University.

             Regarding reducing nematode problems there are a few things you can do and one is solarizing your soil. I have sent to you a document on soil solarization which can be seen on my blog. This technique will help reduce the population of nematodes but not eliminate them. Continue to use vegetables with an N designation on their label or seed packet.

            You can plant cover crops such as cover crops that have been shown to suppress nematodes include annual ryegrass, wheat, barley, oats, sorghum and sudangrass.

            Another technique is to keep your crops outgrowing the nematode attack by keeping them well fertilized and healthy. So far there is not much else you can do to eliminate them once the soil is infested except fumigating the soil, another topic.

Transplanting Joshua Tree Success - Now Will It Live?

Joshua's old home on Eastern Avenue.
Water was cut off five years prior.

Q. I am sending some pictures of a Joshua tree that I transplanted. It survived in its old location off of Eastern Avenue for five years after the water was shut off. It also survived with its trunk buried with about a foot of soil. I am adding it to my drip system but I need to optimize my watering so the tree has its best chance at survival. I amended the planting hole with sulfur and bone meal. I watered it deeply every three to four weeks by hand. Now I have drippers that are watering for one hour every four days.  In addition I frequently wet the top portion of the plant up to 5 times a week in hot weather to keep it from drying out.

A. These are tough to transplant and this tree was abused and still survived. It shows you how well adapted these plants are to our desert environment if they are not watered too often and carefully relocated.

Joshua lifted with engine hoist
and seatbelts by reader

            The key will be watering with lots of water but not very often or you may rot the trunk and any roots that might grow. I would suggest watering about every two weeks with about ten to twenty gallons in a depression around the trunk.

            After the plant shows signs of new growth then the frequency of your watering will dictate how it looks and grows. If you want a Joshua tree with limbs that are long, kind of spindly and solid green then continue watering every two weeks during the summer. I have a hard time aesthetically liking this in appearance I guess because they do not look this way in nature.

Old soil level just below orange belt.
Roots covered with burlap.

            If you want a Joshua tree with a tuft of green growth at the ends of the branches and the rest of the limb brown (more like you see in nature) then don’t put it on drip irrigation. After signs of new growth, begin watering seasonally by hand with a large volume of water around its base. What I mean by seasonally is water deeply perhaps once or twice in the spring, once during the summer and once during the winter. At some future date you may elect to eliminate the summer watering if you want more brown on the limbs.

Joshua in its new desert landscape.

            Make sure it is staked securely in the soil so the trunk at soil level does not move for one growing season. This plant will respond to a new location if you use soil that has been amended with compost or other soil improvements.

            Wetting any part of the aboveground tree with water like spraying it with a hose or mister is a waste of time, not needed and may prove to be detrimental to the plant.

Maybe Green Manure Crops Might NOT Be the Best Idea in the Desert

Q. I have a 1/2 acre on the east side of the valley ( Las Vegas), the lot is divided in quadrants with the house in one, a barn in another, yard/parking in the third, and the fourth is my chicken run. I was researching the idea of putting an orchard in that area and your work in NLV keeps popping up, but I can't find your list of trees or an article on your high density planting techniques. I know the soil needs improving so I am currently trying green manuring with buckwheat and soybeans. I figure that one way or the other my chickens will like it. Any help you can point me towards I would appreciate.

A. If you will go to my blog Xtremehorticulture of the Desert and in the search engine type "recommended fruit trees" you will see my recommended fruit tree list posted twice; once as a downloadable pdf document and the other posted in its entirety.

This past year the only nursery to carry my recommended fruit trees was Plant World Nursery on Charleston Blvd. Any of their fruit trees with a hanger or tag from Dave Wilson Nursery, a large commercial grower of fruit trees, is from my list. A local producer sold my recommended fruit trees to the public as bareroot trees but will not be doing that this fall. Anyone want to take it on? Contact me.

The idea of high density planting is not mine but adapted from Dave Wilson Nursery out of the Modesto, California area.You can find more information on concept of multiple trees planted in a single hole at davewilsonnursery.com, along with a lot of great information on growing fruit trees.

I produced some YouTube videos on growing fruit trees which can be found by typing "UNCE orchard" at the YouTube video website, another resource. Here is a sample on controlling the size of fruit trees.

Green manure crops are plants that can be started from seed which will either capture low amounts of nitrogen that exist in the soil or capture nitrogen from the air and return it to the soil. They also decompose and add organic matter.

I have mixed feelings about using green manure crops in the desert. Although they are tremendously beneficial to our soils and highly advantageous in most areas of the country, they may or may not make sense when using them in the desert depending on your situation.

The principle reason is water use. A secondary reason is the time that green manure crops take out of production. And thirdly is their cost. Green manure crops take time for the seed to germinate and the plants to grow to a size where they can be beneficial when turned back into the soil. Normally plants are allowed to get to a juvenile or early mature stage before they are turned back into the soil. This takes time, perhaps 5 to 6 weeks or longer which is time taken away from your production.

If you have plenty of space and the cost of water is not a concern then this makes a lot of sense. But if your space is limited and water is costly then this will probably not make a lot of sense for you. It may make more sense to concentrate your space and water into making compost.

Seed can be very expensive so look for inexpensive seed locally that you can use rather than to have it shipped in from some other location in the country. This also helps to lower your carbon expenditures for your small farm or garden.

A very good green manure crop that is inexpensive is annual rye grass. This is the same inexpensive rye that is used for overseeding Bermudagrass in the fall. Grasses, and in particular annual ryegrass, are fast to germinate when temperatures are at least 60° F. You can even speed up its germination by soaking the seed for 24 hours before planting it. The seed must then be carefully dried so that it is dry to the touch but not overly dried or the seed may be ruined.

Legumes harvest nitrogen from the air primarily and are not that terribly good at taking residual nitrogen from the soil. But they are an excellent choice for poor soils if you can get the seed inexpensively.

Annual grasses are wonderful at finding nitrogen in the soil that vegetable crops miss and they take this nitrogen and bioaccumulate it or, in other words, put it into its own plant tissue. The grass is watered and allowed to get about 6 to 10 inches tall and then turned into the soil just before it produces a seedhead. This nitrogen in the plant tissue is then slowly released as the rye plant decomposes in the soil.

However, using a green manure crop in a mixed planting where you are combining an orchard with chickens or other fowl makes a lot of sense provided these animals do not ruin in your production. I could see how you might be able to have a small orchard and, using the existing water required to irrigate your fruit trees, grow some green manure crops for soil improvement and that would also double as food for your fowl.

Keep your costs low by growing winter and summer green manure crops from seed that are inexpensive and that will do well in our climate. Some manure crops for our area might include annual ryegreass, timothy, wheat, oats, alfalfa, peas and Kentucky 31 tall fescue. But if you use tall fescue be sure to turn it into the soil while it is still young.

Just about any inexpensive seed will work if you know the germination temperature of the seed. Don't use bermudagrass. Recommended green manure crops from other climates may or may not work well here and it may be difficult to find inexpensive seed.

 

Tuesday, July 2, Todo at The Orchard

Orchard todo

One of our "white" figs

There is lots to pick but please pick up fallen fruit under the trees before picking fruit or doing anything else in the orchard. Once it gets stepped on it is much, much harder to pick up. It is extremely important to keep a clean orchard floor. Use one of the small rakes in the tool shed to rake the fruit to the aisle and then follow that by picking the fruit up from the center of the aisle rather than bending down and picking the fruit up from under the canopy.

The yellow or "white" figs are coming in now and need to be checked. Figs are nonclimacteric fruit so will not ripen once picked. They must be picked when fully ripe and the neck begins to collapse.

We have lots of peaches coming in right now so please pick and get them in the cooler before the birds hammer them.

Jobs will be posted on yellow postit notes in the office with the number of volunteers needed on the note. Dont forget to sign in and sign out!

Tuesday todo
• Irrigate. We are irrigation three times a week now.

Todo List on Postit Notes in the Orchard office

• Pick up fallen fruit. This helps keeps some damaging insects from getting to damaging numbers.
• Check figs
• Pick Anna apple at 18/1 (Row 18 is along the south fence)
• Red Haven peaches fully ripe and must be picked now
• Mid Pride peaches are coming in and should be picked now
• Stark Saturn (donut peaches) should be picked
• Double Delight nectarines should be picked. Badly scarred and suitable for juice, jelly, jams, etc.
• Evaluate the following: La Feliciana peach; Babcock peach; Double Jewel peach
• Change pheremone traps and put new pheremones in

Ironite May or May Not Turn Bottlebrush Green Again

Bottlebrush yellowing in rock mulch

Q. I have several miniature bottle brush plants, some of which are a very pale or faded green as compared to the others.  The red "brush" that is the flower seems pale as well.  Do you think "ironite" will take care of that? I used a liquid concentrate of iron and soil acidifier and that seems to have helped a lot.

A. Ironite may or may not take care of it. It may be a bit more of a deep-seated problem than just the iron alone and the Ironite may give the plant a temporary fix. Ironite relies on this product to increase soil acidity so that the iron in Ironite can be used by the plant. This will sometimes work depending on the situation but it is a “Band-Aid” approach to fixing the problem.

            Because Ironite works only “fairly often” I hesitate to recommend it for that reason. It usually works best on woody plants when applied in late winter or early to mid spring. Applications this time of the year of any product that adds iron to the soil may or may not work. At this time of the year you should focus on getting iron directly into the foliage. This requires spraying iron directly on the plant along with something that helps move the iron inside the foliage.

            You might try some multiple applications of iron sprays at this time of year combined with a liquid detergent or surfactant. The surfactant would be a liquid spreader/sticker combined with the iron spray.

Spreader Sticker Example

            You may be able to substitute a teaspoon of Ivory liquid per gallon of spray solution. This may require perhaps five or six applications about a week apart to get some re-greening. This varies from plant to plant. Some plants re-green easily while others are more difficult to re-green. Do this ONLY when air temperatures are cool and there is a chance of some leaf burning on some plants so don’t apply it hog wild.

            More of a long term fix is focused on improving the soil with amendments and the use of organic fertilizers. A better source of iron but more expensive would be iron 138 applied in late winter. I know that Plant World Nursery and Grow Well have carried it in the past. This is expensive but it goes a long way and requires only one small application of a few ounces per year in the early spring.

            You might consider fertilizer sources such as Miracle Gro, Peters or Osmocote applied a few weeks after growth resumes in the spring. These are good quality fertilizers which are not organic.

One of the iron 138 products

            Try your Ironite first but I think it may be a crap shoot at this time of year. The liquid foliar iron can be just about any liquid iron and does not have to be the expensive138 form. The 138 iron is really works best if applied to the soil more than a foliar spray.

Weather Has Profound Affect on Bees and Summer Squash Development



Readers yellow squash with fruit turning oranage and dying

Q. I have had great success growing both yellow and green squash in my garden for the past five or six years.  Last month I harvested about ten nice pieces, but in the past couple of weeks they have all been turning very hard and the yellow pieces have turned dark and almost orange.  I have attached a couple of pictures of both the fruit and the plants.  Please let me know if you any suggestions.

A. Your summer squash looks nice.  You will get more blemish free fruits with twice to three times a week sprays of insecticidal soaps including spraying the undersides of the leaves. The lack of squash development is due to poor pollination most likely due to cool weather and poor bee activity.

Readers yellow summer squash when it is producing

            You can attract more bees to the area by planting plants that bees love and flower at the times your vegetable garden needs pollination. Bee loving plants include many of the herbs which are allowed to flower. These might include rosemary, basil, lavender, oregano and thyme to name a few.

            Woody ornamental plants typically flower for short periods of time but there are some like Texas Ranger, brooms like Scotch broom, lantana, verbena, and others. Go to your nursery and see what is in bloom, particularly reds, purples, pinks and start planting.

Companions Need Proper Spacing

Q. Can peppers and tomatoes be planted next to each other? I printed a companion list off the internet that says “Yes”. An Ortho vegetable book I got from the library says tomatoes can't be planted near peppers because they are in the same family. I have a yellow bell pepper plant next to a Heatwave tomato plant and although it has 2 peppers on it, it's not growing in height. Just bushier than when I bought it. My banana pepper plant is tall and thin and every time it gets blossoms, they die and fall off. It was hiding under a pear tomato (I had no idea the tomato plants would get that huge!) so I moved it out and into the sun. Still nothing.

A. Companion planting can mean different things to different people. Yes, you can plant vegetables in the same family next to each other typically with no problems. These two are in the nightshade family. It is recommended however to rotate your vegetables so that vegetables of the same family are not grown in the same location year after year.

Not rotating the spots where you grow your vegetables can lead to a buildup of soil problems primarily diseases. Get to know which vegetables are in different families and try to group them so that you rotate them in different locations. I posted the families for vegetables on my blogspot.

Make sure that you follow recommended spacings for your plants. Tomatoes can vary in size tremendously due to whether they are determinate or indeterminate and their genetic potential (crossbreeding that was done). If they are too close together they will hinder in each other’s production.

Make sure you follow the spacing on the seed packet or if you bought them as transplants look the variety name up on the Internet for spacing. Usually transplant tags will give you the correct the spacing.

Sometimes Iris Need To Grow Up Before Blooming

Q. Last fall, I planted about 2 dozen iris corms. I followed the directions explicitly. All the plants appear to be healthy, growing green and straight but no blooms!! I was advised that they need greater sun exposure. I had planted them in an interior courtyard that has sun and shade. Some of my plants were in a planter so I moved them to a southern exposure but they haven't bloomed. I have the same problem with some day lilies I purchased in LV, green, healthy, lots of leaves but no flowers.

A. Two thoughts come to mind. In many cases iris need a year to get established before they will bloom. Much depends on the size of the rhizome that was planted and how it was planted.

Sometimes late spring freezes can interrupt a flowering cycle as well. Give them another year to get established and my guess they will bloom nicely. Try not to overfertilize them or they may tend to be juvenile and grow leaves with no or few flowers. Fertilize them after blooming rather than before.