It’s difficult to find someone to prune several kinds of fruit trees. In fruit-producing areas, such skilled workers are easier to find.
Bob Morris
Bob Morris is a horticulture expert living in Las Vegas and professor emeritus for the University of Nevada. Visit his blog at xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com. Send questions to Extremehort@aol.com.
Wet spring weather is still causing havoc on tomatoes now and will affect grapes as we enter July and August.
Selecting a fruit tree that gives you improved tolerance to freezing winter temperatures may be a better idea in the long run
When it is young, a bottletree needs about 20 to 30 gallons each time it is watered. But the soil shouldn’t be continuously wet six days a week. The roots need a chance to breathe.
The three worst weeds to control in home landscapes are common Bermuda grass, nutgrass and palm seedlings. Controlling common Bermuda grass and nutgrass organically requires persistence — knocking them back as soon as they appear until they finally start surrendering around late summer.
Let’s focus on controlling Bermuda grass this fall. Common Bermuda grass is sometimes called “devil’s grass” by old-timers. All types of Bermuda grass, from common (the weed) to hybrid Bermuda (think golf course), like heat, sunlight and water but can invade when water is scarce and other plants struggle to shade the ground.
You can harvest fruit from tomato plants when it’s hot, but they won’t set fruit again from new growth until the temperature drops back into the mid-90s. Either pull the tomato plants when they’re done producing and plant new ones from seed or prune the old ones back and let them flower and fruit again when it’s cooler.
The most effective pest control measures for fruit, shade or ornamental trees during 2019 will be applied this December and January. Many gardeners consider the application of oils as an “organic” method of controlling future pests. In the purest sense, it is not organic. But applications of oils during the winter reduce the need for “hard pesticides” later.
Q: Is it too late to prune? We have artificial turf around the tree, but the borders are open for applying fertilizer. Is this good, or should we use fertilizer stakes too?
Early Saturday morning I saw water that dripped from the ends of hoses lying on the ground. The water had formed icicles at the ends of the hoses, and temperatures were not freezing during the night.
Q: I need confirmation of a problem with my grapes. A gardening Facebook group is certain my grape berries have thrip damage this year. I sent you a picture to confirm it or not.
Q: I read with interest your column in the Review-Journal on watering. Our small lawn seems to be dying in patches. We water four days a week for 20 minutes at 11 p.m. We regularly feed with Turf Builder Plus and Ironite. What should we do?
Lawns are getting toasted right now. This is a stressful time of year for plants, particularly those that are not truly desert plants. Temperatures are out of their “comfort zone” and they become susceptible to diseases because they are less capable of fighting through a problem.
Question: We have a crape myrtle tree in our southwest back yard. It gets plenty of water, and I fertilized it last month with some Miracle Grow flowering fertilizer. At the time, there were some burned edges on some of the leaves and some yellowing. Now it is really burned on the edges of all of the leaves with yellowing. HELP!
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