Cool, wet spring not good for apricots

Was this an “off” year for your apricots? Maybe the taste wasn’t as good as previous years, or this was their first year and you were disappointed in the flavor. Let’s explore some reasons why.

The first is variety selection. What’s your favorite apple? Granny Smith? Fuji? Pink Lady? If you have a favorite apple, then most likely you know it by its varietal name.

But when you select an apricot, seldom are you given a choice. It’s an apricot. Sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s not.

Apricots have varieties but, unlike apples, they are seldom marketed this way. In fact, one of the best “apricots,” Flavor Delight, isn’t even an apricot. It looks like an apricot, but it is a cross between an apricot and a plum. Consumers don’t know it by name so it is sold along with other apricots or it may be mixed in with other apricots.

Sometimes fruit varieties are grown in climates where they cannot attain their true potential. For instance, Gravenstein apple, a variety of apple originally from Denmark, performs best in the cooler climates of Denmark, Austria and in the United States — Sonoma County, California, in particular.

Gravenstein would perform well on the East Coast growing in a climate similar to where it is grown in Europe. The tree will grow in the hot desert, but hot desert climates do not allow the fruit to reach its optimum flavor and texture. However, because of the cool, wet spring, this year might be an exception.

Sometimes variations in the climate, abnormal weather conditions, make a variety perform better or worse. Apricots growing during this past cool, wet spring did not have the best flavor. Their sugar content was low because of the cool, cloudy weather.

High-quality apricots require hot weather. Contrary to our spring, a hot spring means high-quality apricots.

This information is nothing new to grape growers, those growing wine grapes in particular. Wine grapes — and even table grapes — are quite particular about climate and weather.

Some years produce a better quality grape while other years do not. The quality of the grape directly impacts the quality of a wine. Garbage in, garbage out.

The best fruit is grown in your backyard. However, selecting the right variety, based on the climate and having the right weather conditions, makes the difference between “good” fruit and “knock your socks off” fruit.

Q: What causes some rose flowers to look so bad? The flowers never open and they look diseased. My other roses are fine.

A: This question came in about a month ago, prior to all this rain. At the time, this was likely damage from Western flower thrips. They attack the flowers even before they open.

These insects are extremely small, poor fliers and very difficult to see. They prefer some varieties of roses over others. You can see these tiny bugs if you look very carefully at the flower petals. A magnifying glass helps.

Thrips are controlled with multiple spray applications that contain Spinosad as the active ingredient. Spray repeatedly when flowers begin forming but never exceed the rate stated on the label.

Unfortunately, once thrips are present in the garden, using insecticides to control them is going to be an annual event. Try insecticidal soap or Neem oil as well, but Spinosad will be the backbone of your spray program.

With this wet, cloudy weather, powdery mildew disease also has been a problem for roses, even when it has not been a problem in the past. This fungal disease leaves a white powder on the surface of the leaves and causes leaves and flowers to shrivel.

Powdery mildew disease favors some roses over others. This is a good year to find out which ones are hardest hit and make a mental note for the future. The disease disappears when wet weather disappears but, in the meantime, fungicides for roses are your best alternative to keep it from spreading.

Q: My peaches are starting to turn from green to ripe. The birds have found them. How do I prevent bird damage to my peaches?

A: Birds normally damage peach fruit when they are starting to ripen. If there is not much for them to eat, they may go after green fruit but that is less common.

The best way I found to avoid bird damage is to pick peaches slightly before they are ready. Once bird damage is seen and the fruit is close to ripe, begin harvesting.

Peaches that have turned from green will continue ripening off of the tree if held at room temperature. They don’t need the tree to do this.

Separate the peaches that have been damaged from those that have not been damaged because damaged peaches will ripen faster and are more likely to rot.

Also, don’t stack soft fruit like peaches on top of each other or their weight will damage the fruit as they mature and soften.

Q: Our HOA removed turf last May to conserve water, and we are gradually replacing the older, nondesert plants with plants more appropriate for the desert. We have a lot of mature trees in the landscape we are trying to convert.

The first season after conversion, we watered short periods of time, three times a day, every day during the summer. Our plants didn’t do well. We now understand irrigations should be less often but longer periods of time. How do we do this?

A: Irrigation after a conversion from turfgrass to a desert landscape is tricky. Certainly, daily irrigations three times a day are questionable. Except for any remaining lawn or flowerbeds, irrigations should not exceed three times a week during the summer months. At a bare minimum, irrigation changes revolve around two basic concepts.

First concept. Small plants should be watered more often with less water applied during an irrigation. Large plants should be watered less often with more water applied during an irrigation.

The second concept is related. Small plants should be irrigated separately from large plants.

To make the necessary changes needed to an irrigation system after a conversion could be expensive if done correctly. Individuals and HOAs want the lowest possible cost. I think you can see the conflict.

Even if the decision was made to spend more money on the conversion, how many companies know how to do it correctly? What kind of assurance do you have this money is well spent?

The second option is to do what you have done; make changes you feel are appropriate for the best possible price. Monitor plant health during the next season, increase the amount of water applied to plants that seem to be struggling and make the appropriate changes to the irrigation system.

With a large mixed landscape and an irrigation system not designed or installed the best way, it can be difficult to find a “happy medium” for watering everything. If small plants are irrigated at the same time as large trees, the only option is to irrigate frequently with small amounts of water followed by an occasional deep watering.

Ideally, large plants are the ones to deep water. However, deep watering small plants occasionally should not damage them. The only monkey wrench in this plan would be heavy clay soils, if they are present, and the use of rock mulch.

It is important someone from the HOA is involved weekly in irrigation decisions after the transition, particularly during the summer months. Landscape companies want to set the clocks to prevent problems. You want to set the clocks to conserve water. These two ways of irrigating don’t always mesh very well together.

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.