An upcoming academic partnership will provide free bilingual gardening seminars for residents of Southern Nevada.
The University of Nevada Cooperative Extension is bringing in four faculty members from the University of Sonora in Hermosillo, Mexico, as experts for a series of seminars I will be conducting on growing nopal cactus as a fresh vegetable and for their fruits.
One of the faculty members joining us specializes in recipes made from nopales and nopalitos. Cactuses are a great source of fiber and have been shown to help lower cholesterol. We have been growing nopal cactus from Hermosillo at the Master Gardeners' Orchard since 2004.
The free seminars, set for Monday through Aug. 25, will focus on growing these cactuses in Southern Nevada backyards. Sessions will be provided in Spanish and English and will be held in the afternoons and evenings during that entire week at the extension's Lifelong Learning Center, 8050 S. Maryland Parkway, near Windmill Lane and the Las Vegas Beltway. For a session agenda, call me at 222-3130. Individuals who speak Spanish can talk with Martha Barajas at the same number.
Also, a general wine appreciation seminar is set for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Aug. 25 at the Lifelong Learning Center. The seminar will include how and where wine grapes are grown, how wine is made and how to taste wines. There will be a fee to cover the costs of wines and references.
For more information on any of these classes, e-mail me at morrisr@unce.unr.edu or call 222-3130.
Question: I had my property landscaped back in March, including three flowering plum trees. I noticed that the leaves were being eaten by something, but saw no visible signs of bugs. I went and bought an insecticide. That seemed to slow it down, but these trees are barely growing. They are very stick-like with only leaves at the top. Are these types of trees slow growers or what? When can I expect to see them take off?
Answer: Flowering plums, and even fruiting plums, display wind damage that looks a lot like insect damage. To put it another way, there is very little insect damage on plum tree leaves compared to wind damage. If a plum tree is in a spot where there is a fair amount of wind, it is normal to see holes in the leaves and the leaves with ragged edges.
It also is common for landscape trees not to grow very much the first season they are planted, particularly if they are planted in the late spring. If the trees are over-sized for the containers -- in other words, you buy a tree that looks really big compared to the others in the same sized containers -- you may get trees that will not perform well in the landscape.
I do not know what the conditions of the trees were when they were chosen for you, but it is always best to get a smaller or moderate-sized tree that displays lots of new growth when picking landscape plants. Stay away from plants that are larger than the other plants in the same-sized containers. This can mean they were grown too long in the container and are root-bound. Chances are these trees will never perform well in the landscape.
That being said, you should start to see an increase in plant growth as soon as the weather cools off this fall. On this particular tree, it is safe to apply a fall fertilizer to stimulate the growth before winter sets in. You would do this in late September and October.
This is not safe to do for all landscape plants, as it may make some plants that are not winter-hardy here more susceptible to freezing temperatures. I doubt if an insecticide is necessary.
Q: After the cold winter, my bougainvillea looked dead. In March, I cut it all back, and very soon after that, it started sprouting. However, the leaves are extremely pale green. A neighbor suggested I feed it some iron, which I did, following directions on the concentrate. That didn't help. We have an in-line fertilizer system, so the plant is being fertilized. It has been beautiful every other year, so I think its location is OK. It is on the east side of the house settled from wind somewhat by a bay window.
A: My guess is that it is still an iron problem. Some iron products perform better than others. If you used the wrong product you may get no results. Make sure the iron product that you use, if it is applied to the soil, contains iron in the form of EDDHA in the ingredients.
Soil-applied iron should be applied in late winter or early spring. If it is applied in the summertime, you may see no results. Best results from foliar or leaf sprays containing iron are when the plant is actively growing during the spring and early summer.
If you spray liquid iron on the leaves, there are a number of different products that will work. Foliar sprays should be done early in the morning or late in the day and may require multiple applications about a week apart to get them to work. If you make a foliar application, include a wetting agent that you can buy at your local nursery or supply house, or the product may not be able to enter the leaf and help it to re-green.
This iron problem in your bougainvillea may be complicated if you are growing this plant in a rock mulch.
Q: Several months ago, I e-mailed you about a landscaper filling my six planter boxes with sand. Little by little, I have cleared four planters completely and now have roses in them. I have been removing sand from the two larger boxes to the point of being close to the queen palm roots. I discovered the palms are not planted in a hole in the ground, but merely were placed in the planter box (three bricks high) and then filled in with sand.
I am pretty sure I must somehow lift them (thank heavens they are not large queen palms) and get the sand off as best I can. Must I then dig a hole inside the planter to put the roots into the ground?
I realize I might lose them anyway after all this, but I have put a lot of effort into trying to save them. Much of my yard is impossible to dig into. In one large planter box, I have come across a very sizeable boulder.
A: You have two choices, as I see it. The first one is to do exactly what you are thinking of doing, and that is to completely dig out the palm trees and re-work the soil in the box and under it to make it more suitable for plants. The boulder is a big problem, but if it could be removed, it would help in your excavation project.
The second is to try to work with what you have. If the soil beneath the sand drains adequately, you might be able to plant smaller plants.
If you have gardening questions, call the master gardener hot line at 257-5555 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, or contact Bob Morris by e-mail at extremehort@aol.com.
Bob Morris is an associate professor with the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension.
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