Prune the mesquite tree's roots in October or November after days cool

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The new Desert Landscaping class is forming for fall. Sessions will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays beginning Sept. 13 and will last for eight weeks. You will learn how to turn your old or new landscape into a thing of beauty and usefulness and lower your water and electric bill. Pre-registering is a must so you can sign up through our master gardener hot line at 257-5555. The class will be taught at our Lindell Learning Center near Sahara Avenue and Jones Boulevard.

I am looking for community volunteers for our new rose test garden to be built next year at our new University home in Henderson. This is a very ambitious project and to pull it off we will need as much help as we can get. The Demonstration Rose Garden will be located at Windmill and Interstate 215 at our new facility under construction. You don't have to know much about roses, you will be taught. But you should have a burning love for roses because there will be lots of them. Call our master gardener hot line to find out more and sign up.

Want to try a new organic fertilizer? This is a new organic fish emulsion that I am testing in Las Vegas by a Nevada aquaculture company. It has been tested in Australia and I have been told the commercial grape growers would kill for it. If you want to test this for me, you must sign up with our master gardeners at 257-5555; you must be an active gardener; and you have to give me a report early next year on how you like it.

Question: One of our 5-year-old mesquite tree's roots have decided to invade the neighbor's yard toward his swimming pool. Would it be OK to sever the root about 6 feet from the base of the tree?

Answer: It would be OK to trim the root where you specified. Prune or cut it during this fall, October or November, after temperatures cool off a bit. Make sure after the cut that you let it air-dry for about 48 hours before any soil comes in contact with the wound. The wound will have compartmentalized the cut area and infections will not get back into the tree provided the newly cut area is not re-damaged. You can put a sealer on it if you want but it probably is not going to be necessary.

Q: When we landscaped our backyard here in Bullhead City about 10 years ago, we put in wrought iron fencing to allow for better ventilation since our yard is small. Yesterday, our new neighbors put a solid block wall on the other side of the wrought iron, leaving us with a south-facing wall (a very ugly one at that). Is there any kind of vine that will survive on that south-facing wall, using the wrought iron as a trellis?

A: You are warmer than Las Vegas but try looking at Desert Grape Ivy, Queen's Wreath, Trumpet Creeper, Cat's Claw, Lavender Orchid Vine, Yellow Orchid Vine, and Yellow Merremi. Just a note of caution for Las Vegas readers that these are intended for frost-free climates and some may get hit hard if there is any frost at all. So if you are in Las Vegas and thinking of getting some of these, then either don't if you can't afford to lose it or be prepared that it might be a temporary perennial vine. The Trumpet Creeper (misnomer, it should be called Trumpet Invader), Queens Wreath, and Cat's Claw are usually safe bets here, with Queens Wreath a potential problem in exposed areas.

Q: I was at your open house on Saturday and I asked you about figs. My neighbor has a purple fig tree that produces figs the size of a peach and he doesn't know its name. I have a mission and brown fig tree and the fruit are a lot smaller than the neighbor's. You mention that there are a couple of figs that are a lot bigger than the mission fig. So I'm hoping that I can get a couple names that I can go to the local nursery with.

A: Here are some recommended varieties of figs you might try. These have not all been tested here but I narrowed some down on information I had about different varieties and climates where they have been grown successfully. You won't find all of them in Las Vegas nurseries but you can always mail order some that you want to try. There are many, many different varieties.

Dark types are Black Mission, Brown Turkey, Celeste, Judy, and Len. Probably the most common light-skinned types are Kadota, Adriatic, Blanche, Conadria, Excel, Penachee, Tena, Genoa and Verte. The biggest fruit will probably come from Brown Turkey in the dark-fruited types and Conadria in the light-skinned types. So I don't think your Brown Turkey is getting everything it needs to get large fruit. The size of the fruit will depend on the health and condition of the tree. Of course, the fewer the number of fruits the larger each fruit will be.

I think your neighbor may have a Celeste fig from your description. If your fig is healthy and growing well (it should be very dense with large leaves), then try removing every other young fruit, or leaving one out of every three fruit, weekly during the production period. See if that gives you some larger fruit. Figs are shallow rooted so they need to be watered frequently, fed and mulched.

The following were some questions from one reader regarding the orchard and I thought you might be interested in these questions.

Q: Where does the orchard get its trees from?

A: We get many of our trees from Dave Wilson Nursery in California, a wholesale grower, because many are not available here yet. Otherwise we buy them locally from nurseries or they are donated when we see something we want to try.

Q: What time of year are they planted?

A: We plant in the spring because that's the time of year many are available. Fall is actually the best time to plant. This past summer we planted during the heat. It is a challenge then because they are under a lot of stress but they will make it. We deep water them with a hose during the heat while other times they are on bubblers. They are mulched as soon as they go into the ground.

Q: Do you use any soil amendments?

A: We always use amendments.

Currently we are using the composted dairy manure that I have mentioned before from Amargosa, Nev.

In the past, we have used bagged compost or soil amendments.

Q: How do you manage bird damage there?

A: We let the birds eat some and try to tolerate them. Otherwise we try and pick a bit early before the birds sense they are ripe.

There is a remote control airport near the Orchard.

There are reports that RC airplanes are good for chasing birds from orchards.

We may approach them next year for some help.

Q: How do you manage borers?

A: Borers are managed through good tree health and proper nutrition, mulching to reduce stress, appropriate irrigations and painting the trunk and lower limbs with diluted white latex paint, 50/50 with water.

We have lost just a few trees to borers. These have been peaches and apples mostly.

Most of them were stressed in some way in the past, which opened them up for borer attacks.

Q: I have some dwarf citrus. They have been in about four years. This year, the blood orange that has been growing well and looks healthy had lots of blossoms but I had one fruit! It dropped all its other fruit. They were as big as ping-pong balls.

A: My guess is lack of adequate pollination. This can be weather related or bee related.

Contrary to popular belief, citrus production is improved with bee activity even though many are self pollinated.

To encourage bees to settle in, I would build some native bee apartments.

They are easy to build out of a 4-by-4 cut 12 inches long with 3/8-inch holes drilled 2 inches deep.

Native bees will not interfere with honeybees.

Bob Morris is a horticulture specialist with the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension.