Peaches are a lot easier to protect than figs. Figs must be picked when they are ripe. Peaches will ripen off the tree.
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.
There are two types of cracking of tomatoes, longitudinal cracks and radial cracking. Radial cracking is mostly a varietal issue.
Nitrogen causes stem growth as well as dark green leaf color. Adding only an iron fertilizer or chelate causes the new growth to become green but does not stimulate new growth that much.
Phone apps are good for predicting a possible freeze, but nothing replaces verification that an actual freeze happened. Maximum/minimum thermometers are a good bench check against your phone app or the National Weather Service predictions.
Once a landscape design is finished, the amount of water it needs is fixed. You won’t be able to change the amount it needs, by much, without removing plants or changing them.
It common for the chitalpa tree to partially defoliate in the summer.
Desert willow can look shaggy during the winter because of the brown seedpods that hang from the tree. The seedpods provide a good supply of birdseed for various desert birds during the fall and winter months.
Adding woodchips to the soil as an amendment has gained popularity largely because of social media. Woodchips applied to the soil surface as a mulch is OK, but mixing these into the soil can lead to problems if you aren’t careful.
Horticulture expert Bob Morris answers readers’ questions.
Q: You mentioned controlling borers with chemicals, but can borers in trees be controlled without using chemicals?
Q: Can you give some tips on how to survive this latest bout of heat? Is it simply too hot right now for plants? Is shade cloth the answer?
Let’s talk about wind damage. If you didn’t sustain wind damage to your landscape, you are extremely lucky. It was fortunate these high winds occurred early in the season, and many trees were not yet full of leaves. If it had been a few weeks later, the damage would have been worse.
Question: I’m replacing my red yuccas that have grown too large for a 3-foot area. They are in full sun. They spill over into the walkway where my grandchildren have been getting stabbed by the leaves. Can tree roses handle that location?
Question: I had a 3-year-old mesquite tree in my front yard that just blew over in the wind today. The landscapers planted it in the grass without a drip system. I was told watering the lawn would be enough for the tree. Today, the landscapers told me it fell because of the roots being at the surface. Do you recommend putting in the drip line for a new tree?
Question: My mother’s mimosa tree was fine May 24. Something has attacked it. I attached before-and-after photos, with close-ups of a couple of damaged areas.
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