My Top Choices in Fruit Trees for an Edible Landscape

I have been tracking how fruit trees have been performing at our Orchard in North Las Vegas for fruit quality and how good they would be dual purpose; ornamental and fruit production. Here are my choices for an edible fruit tree landscape.

Almonds in bloom

Almond. Garden Prince or All-in-One. Both are smaller trees than a standard almond and self fruitful, you dont need a pollinator tree. Garden Prince has a slight edge because its flowers have a purple tinge rather than all white. The nuts are fabulous in size and taste. Try using them as green almonds in salads.



Peach. Red Baron. On a five point scale (there are only a handful of trees that EVER make five points at our Orchard) this is a solid 4,0. What puts this tree "over the top" are its flowers. They are are a gorgeous almost neon red/orange.

Red Baron peach

Nectarine. Arctic Star. I don't care to grow apricots that much in the Orchard because of the potential scarring of the fruit by the Western Flower Thrips but this fruit scores a 5.0! OMG. It is hands above the other nectarines in the Orchard. We spray with Spinosad (an organic pesticide) to keep the flower thrips at bay and the Mario Batali chefs come out to pick it for sorbet. Try this with fresh mint sometime. Brix will hit over 20. Thin so fruits are four inches apart.

Wonderful pomegranate not quite ripe

Pomegranate. Wonderful. Wonderful has beautiful fruit color and aril (seed) color and it is a lovely plant if pruned into a single or multiple stem tree, not a shrub. There are other pomegranates to consider for the quality of the fruit but if you wait till Halloween to pick the fruit or later you will not be disappointed. Put the fruit in the fridge an extra week or two. Try it and let me know how you like it. Make sure you thin the fruit so that only one fruit arises from a single location. This will give you cannonball sized fruits on older wood.

Jujube 'Contorted'

Jujube. Contorted. Remember this is for ornamental value as well as fruit. So when the leaves drop in the winter the branches have this beautiful contorted form and the fruit is great as well. Remember, Jujube will sucker ten to fifteen feet away or closer to the mother plant. Anywhere there is water it will sucker. There are not lots of these suckers so take a sharp shovel and sever the suckers from the mother plant in the fall and replant them or use them for decoration.

'Pink Lady' apple

Apple. Pink Lady on M111. Another 5.0! Martha Stewart said of this fruit from our Orchard grown in the Mojave Desert "It is the best apple I have ever had!" This tree will stay pretty small if you keep it under control by winter pruning. We have kept it at 6 1/2 feet for 17 years. The fruit exposed to sunlight will turn red by early to mid November with Brix levels hitting 20! Thin to one fruit per cluster. If extremely heavy set, then thin by removing some fruit too close together so spurs have no fruit.

'Sensaton Red Bartlett' pear

Pear. Sensation Red Bartlett. The color of the fruit in the fall when it is ripening are a great red color and the flavor is phenomenal. When you grow European pears in the desert expect they will not be perfectly smooth skinned. That is what distinguishes a desert European pear from the tame pears of the Northwest and other locales. Thin to one fruit per fruit cluster.


Asian Pear. Chojiro. If you spend some time thinning Asian pears there is no reason you cant get the same size and flavor you could if it were growing in Japan. Thin to one to two fruit per branch very early for some very sizable Asian pear fruits.

'Fuyu' persimmon

Plum. Weeping Santa Rosa. We actually removed the weeping Santa Rosa plums from the orchard a few years ago because the weeping branches were getting in the way of harvest BUT the weeping form is beautiful and Santa Rosa plum is a very reliable and delicious soft plum for the desert.

Persimmon. Fuyu. Fuyu persimmon is nonastringent so you can eat them when they are still very firm and orange in color OR you can leave them on longer and let them turn bright red, like Christmas ornaments, after leaf drop.

A large fig at the orchard

Fig. Yellow, Kadota; Dark, Black Mission. Figs make a beautiful landscape tree and can be cut back in the winter to just about any size you want. Save the wood for grilling and smoking. It is great used with chicken.

Gold Kist Apricot on Nemaguard a Great Choice for Home Landscape

Q. Before I plant my apricot tree this spring, I would like to know how much space I should allocate for it. Does a Blenheim apricot lend itself to close pruning?



Gold Kist apricot on Nemaguard rootstock kept at 6 1/2 feet
for the past 17 years with very little pruning each year

A. The size of an apricot tree depends on the variety and what roots it is growing on. An apricot on its own roots can be quite large, over 20 feet tall and quite a bit more. When a variety is grafted onto a rootstock there is usually some dwarfing that goes along with that. Although in the case of apricots the rootstock is not usually chosen for its dwarfing characteristics.

The amount of space you allocate for your apricot depends on how you manage it. We keep all of our apricots at the orchard at 6 ½ feet in about 7 feet wide all of their lives. This size control is mostly done by pruning. You can do this with any apricot but some stay naturally small more than others.

An excellent selection is Gold Kist apricot grafted on Nemaguard rootstock.  This apricot on this rootstock stays naturally small and provides very high quality fruit.

Rhubarb a Real Challenge to Grow in the Hot Desert

Q. We had a cattle ranch in Glade Park, Colorado, at a 7,000 foot elevation and had a terrific stand of rhubarb that was estimated to be 50+ years old.  We sold the ranch in 2010 and transplanted some starts eventually to Mesquite, Nevada. We have seven starts now and none has produced any usable product.  Some of the starts grew a leaf about the size of a Frisbee but grew no higher than ground level.  The rest of the starts grew a single stock of about 4" high.  Now, the starts looked dormant. Is there anything we should do other than fertilize and water?

Compost pile at the orchard using horse manure

A. We also tried to grow rhubarb at our orchard. We did not have much success. Admittedly, we did not do a very good or thorough job in managing the plants so I was not ready to throw in the towel. The common agreement among gardeners and horticulturists is that rhubarb is out of it’s appropriate climate in the hot desert. This is very true. The common explanation is that the plant doesn’t have enough chill hours or our just too hot climate.

Compost added to plots in the second year
before tilling it in

Just because this is the common agreement does not mean that it is necessarily true. We have grown things at the orchard which are not supposed to grow here. There are some management techniques that we can try to see if we can get it to grow here. There is no guarantee that if we can get it to grow in the hot desert and in our soils or what the quality of the product might be if it is successful.

So the first thing to do is soil improvement. This would mean lots of additional compost added to the soil along with the right fertilizers. So make sure that any compost you use is the highest quality you can find.  This means make it yourself. If you can’t make it yourself, then purchase one that comes in bags that has a good reputation.

Don’t be afraid to add lots of it, over 50% of the blend in the backfill using a native Mojave Desert soil.  Mixed with your garden soil add a high phosphate starter fertilizer. I would also add a good quality iron chelate. This should get your garden soil up to speed. Garden soils amended from desert soils can take a couple of years of growing to get up to prime.

Hoophouse with 30% shade. It does not look like enough
shade but it is about right for flowering/fruiting vegetables

The next thing I would do is try to put it in an area that is not excessively windy and does not have a lot of reflected light or heat. The north or east side of the building would be ideal. I would try it first without any shade over it. If the leaves are scorching during the heat of the summer and the plant seems stunted I would put some shade cloth over the plant.

Do not use more than 30 or 40% shade when purchasing a shade cloth. With leafy crops such as leafy vegetables or rhubarb could go higher but certainly never go into the 60 or 70 percent shade level.

Fall and Early Spring Are Great Times to Plant Fruit Trees

Q. Is there a link on your blog that I am missing with all your fruit tree recommendations? How long will it be before a bareroot fruit tree produces fruit? Should I still be planting fruit trees in January if I am buying something at a local nursery?

My blog with the search engine you can use to find things

A. On my blog at Xtremehorticulture of the Desert there is a search engine at the top of the page. It says, “Search This Blog” with a long box under it. To the right of the box it says “Search”. Enter the words “fruit tree recommendations” in the box of the search engine and click “Search”. That should bring up my recommended fruit tree list.

If you can find the variety of fruit tree you want at a local nursery then please buy it. Our local businesses can use your help. However if you cannot find a variety of fruit that you feel will give you the quality of fruit that you want then you might consider buying a bareroot selection.

Arrival of bareroot fruit trees to the orchard in January from
Dave Wilson Nursery

The reasons the Orchard is involved in selling fruit trees are two reasons. First, local nurseries did not have an extensive supply of fruit trees we recommended. Secondly, none handled any bareroot trees. Bareroot plants grow more quickly when planted, will overtake a container plant in growth or production and are less expensive.

On the downside for the nursery, there are more plant deaths by homeowners because they do not handle or plant bareroot plants correctly which leads to unhappy customers. Plus nurseries have better profit margins on container plants than bareroot materials.

Bareroot trees come into production at about the same time as container plants because the bareroot plants “catch up” to container plants quickly and have less overall shock if handled correctly.

When a tree comes into fruiting or production depends on the type of fruit tree. Peaches and nectarines come into production about the earliest. Trees that produce fruit on spurs, like apricots, plums, apples and pears, are usually a year or more later. You can plant in January here, no problem.

My Pomegranate is Splitting; Should I Pick?

Q. My pomegranate fruit is splitting (early October), should I pick them now or wait until November?

This pomegranate has great color and is splitting.
Time to get it off the tree before it splits more and birds
and bugs get into it.

A. As far as your pomegranate goes, anytime they begin to split and as close to their harvest time it is a good idea to get them of the tree. A number of birds, insects and diseases will take advantage of the pomegranate fruit once it is split. Depending on the variety, harvesting can occur from September through November.

Early Leaf Drop (October) in Modesto Ash

Q. My 18 year old Modesto ash tree has been dropping green leaves for maybe 2 months now.  Unlike my other 2 Modesto ash trees that had entire branches die last summer and the dead leaves wouldn't even blow off. Any ideas?

Limb dieback for unknown reasons in Modesto ash

A. There could be a number of reasons for early leaf drop off but if your tree seems healthy and has been growing well then I would ignore it. Just make sure that it is getting deeply watered if it is in a rock landscape. Fertilize it once in January or February; there is no need to fertilize it more than that.

Probably the biggest problem is putting ash trees in rock landscapes. Modesto ash has problems of its own here in our valley so you may experience limb dieback at some point in its life. I do not recommend it for our valley anymore because of this.

Large ash tree in a lawn. You must overwater the lawn
so that large trees like these get enough water.

Also remember that as ash trees get larger they require more water. The amount of water required is not a simple doubling of the amount as the tree doubles in size. For trees, the amount of water the required is much more complicated than a lawn.

Order Your Bareroot Fruit Trees Now!

            The deadline for ordering bare root fruit trees for a January or February delivery date will be in about two weeks. They will be ordered from my recommended fruit tree list. This list can be obtained by emailing me at Extremehort@aol.com or here on my blog.

RLLM

Recommended Fruit Trees For Southern Nevada for Downloading

Here is a version that you can read, print or download.
RLLM

Open publication - Free publishing - More demonstration

Will Feeding Ourselves Be the Crime of the Century in Wisconsin and Elsewhere?

Wisconsin: No Right to Produce or Eat Food

NONAIS.org
Tuesday, September 27, 2011

In scary legal news a Wisconsin judge had gone completely loopy declaring that citizens have no right to produce or eat the foods of their own choice.

In response to a request from the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, the judge issued a clarification of his decision last week regarding his assessment of the constitutionality of food rights. The judge expanded on his original statement that such constitutional issues are “wholly without merit.”

He explained that the FTCLDF arguments were “extremely underdeveloped.” As an example, he said the plaintiffs’ use of the Roe v Wade abortion rights case as a precedent does “not explain why a woman’s right to have an abortion translates to a right to consume unpasteurized milk…This court is unwilling to declare that there is a fundamental right to consume the food of one’s choice without first being presented with significantly more developed arguments on both sides of the issue.” Gee, I thought they both had to do with the right to decide what to do with your own body.

As if to show how pissed he was at being questioned, he said his decision translates further that “no, Plaintiffs to not have a fundamental right to own and use a dairy cow or a dairy herd;

“no, Plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to consume the milk from their own cow;”

And in a kind of exclamation point, he added this to his list of no-nos: “no, Plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to produce and consume the foods of their choice…”

You have to wonder if maybe even the regulators are getting a tad uncomfortable with the rulings coming from the nation’s judiciary on food rights. Many of these individuals, biased as they are against raw milk, dabble in farming to some extent, or grew up on farms. This judge has gone way beyond what many of them have come to assume–that everyone has the right to own a cow and consume its milk Even in places that ban raw milk sales, there’s nearly always a provision in state law that anyone who owns a cow has the right to consume its milk.

It seems Judge Fiedler is saying it’s not a “fundamental right,” but rather a right granted us by the state.
-The Complete Patient

The original judgement can be seen here. To quote from the main points:

1) no, Plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to own and use a dairy cow or a dairy herd;

2) no, Plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to consume the milk from their own cow;
3) no, Plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to board their cow at the farm of a farmer;
4) no, the Zinniker Plaintiffs’ private contract does not fall outside the scope of the State’s police power;
5) no, Plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to produce and consume foods of their choice

A FOOD CHAIN RADIO RELEASE FROM METROFARM.COM

Across the nation armed government SWAT teams arrest private citizens for buying and selling fresh whole foods from each other. This leads us to ask…

Will feeding ourselves be the crime of the century?

This Saturday at 9am Pacific, the Food Chain Radio show with Michael Olson hosts Mali McGee from the Milk Mama Goat Farm for a conversation about private food clubs.

Topics include how private citizens are organizing to feed each other; why government is raiding these private food systems with armed SWAT teams; and how Mali’s milch goats inspired one county to recognize the right of people to grow and eat their own food.

Listen on your radio, computer or IPOD: Food Chain Radio

Order Your Bare Root Fruit Trees Now for January 2012 Delivery

The UNCE Orchard is taking orders for fruit trees to be delivered in January. These will be bare root fruit trees selected from our list of recommended fruit trees for our valley. Please email me at Extremehort@aol.com for more information.

Fruit trees will include peaches, plums, apples, pears, almonds, pluots, and others. We will only be ordering from our list of recommended trees due to ordering restrictions that varieties must be ordered in multiples of fives. All trees will be shipped from Dave Wilson Nursery.

Chill Hours May Not Be As Important As We Think When Selecting Some Fruit Trees

Q. I am in the process of ordering a couple fruit trees online. What are the chill hours for Sun City Anthem in Henderson?  I thought it was 300 hours or less. A couple of apricot trees you have recommended have been 400 and 500 hours (Blenheim and Royal Rosa) and I am wondering if that is too many chill hours of my area.

Apricots grown at the UNCE Orchard

A. Chill hours are the number of hours at low temperatures during our winters so that the tree “recognizes” that winter has arrived. It can be important in commercial production but in home orchards it seems to be less important on some types of fruit trees.

            On peaches and apricots in particular we have not seen a big impact from a lack of chill hours in our area. We have varieties in the 800 to 900 hour range that have done well.

            I would be most concerned with how the fruit develops in our climate. The recommendations on my list have all proven themselves for a decade at the orchard. I do not release names of those varieties that have a track record of only a couple of years. They remain under test even if they show extremely good potential.

            One variety of peach has been recommended by volunteers at the orchard because of some good qualities in the first year of production. This is way too soon to tell. I prefer at least five years of good production. I hope this helps.

Tree Dieback after Converting Lawn to Desert Landscaping

Q. I am writing because of a problem I have with my 20 year old, long needled pine (I forgot the name). The needles are 6-7 inches long and fluffy.

Long needles of chir pine

            When I converted my lawn to drip, the pine began to turn brown in several areas.  I added more and more drippers. After four years, this poor pine, once a beautiful, fluffy tree, is now in serious trouble.

Dieback of large tree after converting lawn
to desert landscaping

            Many small branches and a few medium sized ones have died back. Every spring, it has rallied and I think it will be okay but, by the end of the summer, it looks very sad. Is there anything more I can do to save this tree?
A. I am guessing you have Chir pine. This pine is beautiful and does very well here provided it gets enough water and at the right times. When they are growing in a lawn their roots can extend long distances from the trunk and in home yards typically close to the soil surface.

            If they were growing in a turfgrass landscape converted to desert (drip) they frequently do not get enough water after the conversion. They first suffer needle drop resulting in a thinned canopy, needle tips brown, growth slows and then limb dieback begins. I think this is what is happening to your tree all due to the conversion resulting in the big trees not getting enough water.

            The water previously supplied by watering the lawn is frequently substituted with six to eight drip emitters placed fairly close to the trunk. You will need to provide more water to the tree and in many more locations to compensate.

            These are big trees and big trees require lots of water even if they are considered lower in their water use than perhaps other large trees. There is no research to tell us how much water this tree will require during an irrigation but I would assume it would probably be in the 100 gallon range or more per irrigation, evenly distributed over its root system.

            I personally don’t think trees that get over 20 feet tall should be on drip but on bubblers with a basin (depression or moat) surrounding the trunk. This depression should be large enough to hold enough water to keep the tree in good health and penetrate to a depth of 24 inches after an irrigation.

            Some people have suggested using inline drip irrigation in concentric rings around the trunk. Perhaps. But devices do not apply water, people do and people must make the decision about how much to apply and where to apply it. Drip irrigation can be deceiving because it takes hours to irrigate instead of the minutes we are used to when we water a lawn.

            Another possible approach would be to plant other plants heavily under the dripline of the tree for additional water. No one likes to do this because you have to fight with tree roots to plant.

            To save the tree you need to be proactive now. Apply water under the canopy to a depth of about 24 inches during each irrigation. Couple this with an application of fertilizer next February. You will not see improvement at this time of year from applying more water as most trees are going into dormancy. With properly placed, deep irrigations you should see a change next year during the growing season. You should see a big change in 2013.

            As it sounds to me, if you do not change your irrigation system and how you are watering you will lose the tree. We have lost MANY trees in this valley when landscapes are converted to desert landscapes principally because the irrigation system supplied to established large trees is under engineered. Most do not understand this or will not do it right because it is “too expensive”.

Autumn Blaze Maple Not a Good Choice for Las Vegas

 

Q. I enclosed pictures of a little sapling from North Carolina I bought on line March 2010 several months ago all the leaves turned brown on their edges only. Now the complete tree is burned to a crisp all over. It’s not too much water/or not enough. We live in Sun City Summerlin.

A. Thank you for knowing and remembering what plant bought and its name.  This helps me a lot in tracking and learning about this plant before I responded.  Autumn Blaze maple was hybridized by an Illinois nursery in the 1980s.  In the Midwest or other suitable climates such as the east coast or Pacific Northwest, it will grow to a height of 60 feet and 40 feet wide.  It is called Autumn Blaze caused of its splendid red and orange fall colors that can be seen in those parts of the country and I’m sure this is why you selected it. 

This is a case where you have chosen a tree which is just not suitable for our soils or our climate.  This particular maple tree is a hybrid between silver maple and red maple, both of which struggle in our alkaline, saline soils and extremely high temperatures.  A tree with these two parents in its lineage doesn’t have much of a fighting chance in our desert environment. 

The pictures you sent me show that it is already struggling here which is evidenced by its scorching leaves.  You might be able to give it a fighting chance for a couple of years by heavily amending the soil at planting time with compost and leaching the soil water making sure that the soil drains easily. 

You would secondly mulch around the tree with wood mulch, not bark mulch and of course no rock mulch. With adequate amounts of water and organic amendments you might get a tree that is healthy enough to withstand our environment for a few years. 

Readers Autumn Blaze mape tree planted in Las Vegas

Both parents of this tree are highly susceptible to iron chlorosis and would need treatment for this problem even if you could get it healthy.  I’m sorry to give you the bad news but this is a tree which should not be grown here.

Lawn Brown Patches May Be Summer Patch aka Fusarium

Pictures from reader concerning the brown patches
in her lawn

Q. I have some brown patches in the grass in my yard.  The sprinklers are working fine and the recent rains haven't made any difference.  This area was nice and green until about three weeks ago.  I'm hoping you may have some idea what is causing this and what I might do to resolve the problem.  The rest of the yard is fine.

A. Your lawn has, from the pictures you sent, what appears to be summer patch disease. This disease used to be called Fusarium patch in the old days. Some management techniques that you can try include mowing the lawn a bit shorter during the heat of the summer. 

            If you fertilize your lawn during the summer make sure you use half the amount recommended on the bag or less. Fertilize in the early morning hours only and make sure it is watered in immediately after the application. Foliar applications would be even better.

            Avoid watering the lawn anytime between late afternoon and early evening and about 2:00 AM. You can water any time after 2:00 AM but try to get it done before sunrise.

            Otherwise you will need to apply fungicides to your lawn that have been approved for controlling summer patch or Fusarium diseases. You can find this out by reading the label. Fungicides are best in preventing diseases from spreading not curing them after the disease has ravaged the lawn. Mark your calendar for next year and apply a fungicide anytime you see summer monsoons predicted.

Grape Leafhopper Damage or Fleabeetle Damage

Picture of grape demon from reader

Q. These critters have devastated one of my grape vines. Here is a picture. Thousands of little sucking holes ruin the leaves and thus the vine. They are about 1/4th inch long and may also fly. What are they and how can I defend against them for next year?

Grape leafhopper damage see the yellow speckling
from feeding damage and black poop spots

A. The picture was a bit blurry but appears to be grape leafhopper. However the description of the damage sounds like grape flea beetle. If leafhoppers the insects are small, maybe ¼ inch long. In their mature stage they can jump short distances. There can literally be thousands of them on a grapevine many of them jumping when you walk by the vine landing on your face and clothes. Very irritating.

Grape fleabeetle damage leaves holes in the leaves

            They can be curtailed by applying an organic biological control of Spinosad in early May and again mid-May when the nymphs or immature forms are present. It will control the nymphs but does not do much to the adults. If you get it applied early enough this will reduce the population when the adults mature. Make sure you spray the underside of the leaves as well as the tops.

            If these are grape flea beetles then they should be gone in about two weeks and a pesticide is usually not necessary as the damage is not long term.

Junipers Not Ideal Choice for Desert Landscapes and May Have Some Problems

Pictures of carpet juniper with needle drop from reader

Q. Please advise and diagnose how to resolve a problem I have with my juniper bushes. I hope my pictures help.

A. From your pictures the juniper appears to be one of the very low-growing carpet junipers, not sure which one but perhaps green carpet juniper. These carpet junipers can be confusing and can be from several species. Which juniper is important as some junipers are more heat tolerant than others.

            J. horizontalis has among its cultivars probably one of the better heat tolerant rug-type junipers.  Regardless, junipers will do better in this climate if not put into extremely hot environments and surrounded by rock. They usually can handle some of the poorer soils that you can develop in rock landscapes at least for a few years if not more.

            Probably the biggest problems will include not enough water or not watering frequently enough, salt problems and spider mite infestations. Watering too frequently (daily) can cause root rot and death of the plant.

            Make sure there is at least one day between deep waterings during the heat of the summer. One plant will probably require around five to ten gallons per watering. You can determine this by checking your drip emitters for the gallonage per hour and adjusting this amount through the number of emitters per plants multiplied by the fraction of the hour that it remains on during one irrigation.

            Spider mites are a problem on junipers. They are not insects but are more closely related to spiders. They are very small and not seen easily with the naked eye. Their feeding results in speckling or yellow spots on needles. Some needles may turn brown and drop off.

Two-spotted spider mite

            With heavy infestations, fine webbing may be seen on the plant. If not controlled, spider mites can kill junipers. Most spider mites increase in numbers during hot, dry weather.

            Naturally occurring enemies of mites will usually suppress mite populations. Since insecticide use kills these enemies as well as mites, insecticides should be avoided unless absolutely necessary. Miticides, labeled specifically for mite control, are less harmful to these natural enemies. Mites can be removed with a strong spray of soap and water, if applied on a regular basis.



Webbing due to spider mites

            To determine how many mites are present hold a white sheet of paper under a branch and slap it on the paper. The mites knocked off on to the paper will be seen crawling around as tiny spots the size of this period. If dozens of mites are seen crawling on the paper it is time to do something.

            Pesticides labeled for homeowner use against spider mites include insecticidal soaps like Safer Insecticidal Soap or Ortho’s Systemic Insect Killer. As with any pesticide, read and follow all label directions and precautions before using.

Woody Suckers in Lawn Can Be Eliminated

Picture of weed from reader which I could not identify

Q.  Can you identify and tell us how to kill forever a noxious weed that is single stem, upright, red thorns every few inches. I hope the picture I sent is good enough. Roots are woody and thick to 1 inch in diameter.  Roots run across and under my son's entire lawn and fairly deep.  Suckers keep coming up.  I would love to kill it forever without digging up the whole lawn. 

A. I couldn’t tell from the picture. The description doesn’t sound familiar but it sounds like a woody plant that suckers from the roots. I am assuming they are coming from a woody plant close by, a neighbor’s yard perhaps.

            Any lawn weed killer that has dicamba or Banvel in the ingredients will work. This can be applied directly to the lawn without hurting the grass but will damage or kill woody plants and weeds that are not grasses. This will require multiple applications to keep killing new sprouts as they appear.

            You will see more suckers as you use this product and it may seem like it stimulated their growth but it has not. It has caused them to sucker more below ground due to the death of the existing suckers above ground.

            Repeat applications will exhaust the reserve of woody growth under the lawn until they finally stop coming up. But you must stay on top of them with this weed killer for at least one season.

Amaryllis Survives Las Vegas in the Ground

Amaryllis of readers

Q. I was wondering when is the best time to transplant the Amaryllis plants, now or in the spring?  They bloomed beautifully this past summer, but seem to me to be getting a bit pot bound (which I know often promotes blooming in some plants).  I intend to transplant them to larger pots sitting next to them.  I also wonder if regular potting soil is best or if there are other things I should add that would help them and when and how often they need to be fertilized and what type of fertilizer to use.  I top them off with mulch.

A. As far as your Amaryllis is concerned they do quite nicely here if planted on the eastside of your landscape and in some light shade. They do not need to be in containers but can be planted in improved landscape soils.  Good quality compost is best. 

            If they are planted into a desert landscape make sure they are planted in one of the high water use areas so they get enough water often enough. They can last in a landscape five years or more without digging them up.  Cut back on your water to them during November and December and early January.  They need a rest period before blooming again. Fertilize them monthly with a week of fertilizer solution as soon as growth begins. Any rose type fertilizer or fertilizers for flowering plants will work.

Treadle Pumps When Water for Irrigation is Near But Unavailable

What are treadle pumps?

Do you have water available to you with less than a 20 foot vertical lift and no electricity? Then this foot-powered piston pump might be the answer. The treadle pump works off of human leg power (similar to walking, a treadmill or Stairmaster). By simply walking using this device human power can be used to lift water from shallow wells or storage devices for irrigation purposes.

Here are two short videos demonstrating a treadle pump and hand pump that I taped at an Ag Fair in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Too expensive? How about a bamboo treadle pump?


Paul Polak from IDE on Treadle Pumps

Buy Your Fruit Trees, Vegetable Transplants and Seeds in Arizona

Of course this is a bit of tongue-in-cheek for residents outside of Arizona but Arizona's law that allows its residents to buy fruit trees, vegetable transplants and seeds for personal use to be tax exempt makes alot of sense. It is food on your table (hopefully). If you are an Arizona resident, print this out and take it with you the next time you go to buy fruit trees, vegetable transplants or seeds at an Arizona garden center.

ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE

ARIZONA TRANSACTION PRIVILEGE TAX RULING

TPR 93-12

This substantive policy statement is advisory only. A substantive policy statement does not include internal procedural documents that only affect the internal procedures of the agency and does not impose additional requirements or penalties on regulated parties or include confidential information or rules made in accordance with the Arizona administrative procedure act. If you believe that this substantive policy statement does impose additional requirements or penalties on regulated parties you may petition the agency under Arizona Revised Statutes § 41-1033 for a review of the statement.

ISSUE:

Sales of seeds and plants.

APPLICABLE LAW:

Arizona Revised Statutes (A.R.S.) § 42-1310.01.A.35 provides an exemption from the transaction privilege tax under the retail classification for the gross proceeds of sales or gross income from sales of seeds, seedlings, roots, bulbs, cuttings and other propagative material to persons who use those items to commercially produce agricultural, horticultural, viticultural or floricultural crops in this state.

A.R.S. § 42-1310.01.A.15 provides an exemption from the transaction privilege tax under the retail classification for the gross proceeds of sales or gross income from sales of food.

A.R.S. § 42-1381.3 defines "food" to mean any food item intended for human consumption which is intended for home consumption as defined by rules and regulations adopted by the department pursuant to A.R.S. § 42-1387.

A.R.S. § 42-1387.B.3 provides that the department shall include, in the definition of food, seeds and plants used to grow food for personal consumption.

A.R.S. § 42-1301 defines "person" or "company" to include an individual, firm, partnership, joint venture, association, corporation, estate or trust, this state, a county, city, town, district other than a school district, or other political subdivision and any other group or combination acting as a unit, and the plural as well as the singular number.

RULING:

Retail sales of seeds or plants to commercial producers of plants, flowers or food crops in this state are exempt from transaction privilege tax under A.R.S. § 42-1310.01.A.35.

If seeds or plants, which were purchased for commercial production, are taken from inventory and used by the producer for a noncommercial purpose, the seeds or plants are subject to the use tax. For example: seeds are purchased to grow commercial sod. The producer uses a portion of the seed in landscaping the company's own property. The cost of the seed used by the producer is subject to the use tax.

Sales of seeds and plants to individuals to grow food for personal consumption are exempt from tax under A.R.S. § 42-1310.01.A.15. For example, the sale of an orange tree to an individual for growing fruit for his own consumption is exempt under this provision.

Sales of seeds and plants to persons for non-commercial use are subject to transaction privilege tax if the plants or seeds are not used to grow food for personal consumption. For example, the sale of flower seeds and decorative plants to an individual or to a company for home or business landscaping is taxable.

Harold Scott, Acting Director

Signed March 15, 1993

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/12news/consumer/articles/2011/10/05/20111005Tree-sales-tax-exemption-10062011.html#ixzz1aD9gPFsl