Iron shortages in plants are notorious for yellow foliage. Try applying an iron chelate to the soil when growth is first starting.
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.
Planting seeds during the heat requires that you visit your raised bed and check your seed (and new seedlings) at least twice a day — early morning and late afternoon. No need to keep the soil wet and soggy, but the seed should be swollen with water.
Tree roots are lazy. They grow best where water is easiest to get. And tree roots absolutely love fertilizer.
Gardeners can remove small amounts from trees and shrubs any time during the year, but this is the time of year when you can take large amounts of wood from trees, shrubs and plants.
Without flowering it’s impossible for a fruit tree to produce fruit. If the tree flowered in previous years but not this year, then it is either something you did that contributed to its lack of flowering or something inherent to those varieties of fruit trees.
Roses do not need daily watering, even during the hottest days. If the soil was prepared correctly at planting time and the soil surface covered in wood chips, they should get watered — at the most during the hottest times — every other day.
An infrequent desert rain is not a problem. But when irrigation water is applied over and over to a soil that is normally dry, these soils shift, collapse and chemically change. In urban landscapes, this can be potentially destructive.
If rabbits ate the trunk of a tree in a complete circle around the trunk, it’s a goner. Let it sucker from the bottom and start a new tree from the suckers.
Q: Around town and in my neighborhood, many midlife trees are dying. In beautiful large trees, there are dead branches and sometimes just a fully dead tree. Some trees are planted in gravel and some in a yard. Do you notice that also?
Q: If I prune my old oleanders this fall, will they bloom this coming spring?
Q: A combination of overwatering and this heat caused my 9-year-old dwarf pomegranate leaves to yellow and drop on about a third of the plant. I turned off the water and hand watered it with small amounts of water. The only thing I did differently was to give the plants a small dose of Miracle-Gro in the spring. Any suggestions?
Q: Could you provide me with a copy of the mulch trial you conducted on fruit trees several years ago? You randomly applied mulch to different fruit trees and grew some without mulch and had some remarkable results.
Q: I was hoping to put up a nice strong wind and sun block on the west and southwest corner of our front yard, approximately 20 feet each way. Could you give me some suggestions?
Q: My husband went out a couple of weeks ago and picked up a Pink Lady apple. I it planted they way you recommended and I have mulched the ground except for the 6 inches next to the trunk. I have it securely staked and I am watering by hand every day. What’s next? Food? Or what to make it do well?
Question: I know garlic will keep four to six months in cooler climates. Because I don’t have a root cellar, what are my options for storing garlic?
