Relocating Palo Verde trees not a simple task

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Honeybees are hard at work right now on our early blooming peaches and pluots at the Master Gardeners Orchard. Not only are the honeybees active, but our native bees and even moths are on the go, as well. If you are like me, you probably have a fascination about bees. Have you ever thought about keeping bees as a hobby or even a business?

A one-day class, an introduction to beekeeping in Southern Nevada, will cover the basics of honeybee biology, necessary equipment, honey production and more. The class is set for March 25 on the UNLV campus. No prior experience is necessary.

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Question: We moved a 20-foot Palo Verde tree from one location to another. What do we need to do to make sure it doesn't die? What are the do's and don'ts of caring for this tree?

Answer: Palo Verde could be a bit difficult to move successfully. They have a sensitive root system, particularly if it was a large one like yours. About the only way I know that you could move it was with a tree spade. A commercial type often used is called a Vermeer tree spade.

Most of your problems will be irrigation during the first year of establishment. Palo Verde is sensitive to overwatering, so be careful that you don't have standing water after irrigating. Make sure the soil dries between irrigations. You might want to use an inexpensive soil moisture meter you can buy at a local nursery. They are not that expensive and you can just leave it in the ground in the irrigation basin.

Hopefully, you constructed an irrigation basin around the tree and are watering by hose to get it established. After getting it established, you could use drip irrigation. On a 20-foot tree like that, I would be guessing you would need about five or six emitters placed over the root ball and another ring of them about 2 feet from the inner ring out toward the drip line.

Actually, an irrigation bubbler would be easier to flood the planting basin around the tree to a depth of about 2 to 4 inches of water in the basin. During establishment in the spring, you will want to do this probably once or twice a week. You could go longer if you mulched the soil surface in the basin.

I would not fertilize during the first year at all if the tree had been fertilized years prior to the move. Fertilizer will just push top growth and you want root growth right now. Palo Verde produces its own nitrogen fertilizer in its roots with symbiotic bacteria, and nitrogen fertilizer will just slow down these bacteria from getting established in the new roots. After establishment, you can fertilize again to help produce a dense canopy.

Q: When and how much do you prune pampas grass? When do you cut the plumes? If and when do you cut the stalk that comes out of desert spoon?

A: Landscapers in town cut or shear pampas grass because that's how they approach all plants needing pruning, whether they should be sheared or not. Most grasses should not be sheared. Older brown grass shoots and leaves should be removed by hand. This can be done any time during the year.

Plumes used for floral arrangements and decorating should be cut as soon as they have fully emerged. They can be used in dried arrangements immediately after harvesting or hung upside down to dry and used later. Plumes brought indoors will shed. This shedding can be prevented by spraying mature plumes with hair spray.

To obtain good growth and plume production, pampas grass should be fertilized with a complete fertilizer about four times each year, much like your lawn, and you can use the same fertilizer.

New leaves will arise from below ground rhizomes in the spring. Before growth begins, prune away any brown leaves and dead materials that accumulates at the base of plants. It is advisable to protect your arms, hands and legs. The leaf blades will cut through unprotected parts of the body.

If a great deal of browning has occurred, the entire plant can be rejuvenated by cutting it back to within 2 feet of ground level with lopping shears or chain saw.

Q: Our dwarf bottlebrush looked fantastic last year. Since the cold weather, some of the plants look very rangy. My question is should they be trimmed back, and when should they be fertilized?

A: It probably got nipped by some cold weather. If it drops to about the mid-20s, it will brown and lose some leaves. At about 20 degrees, you would probably lose it. It does not like rock mulch very much and will get yellow in a couple of years if it isn't mulched with wood or organic mulch.

These plants can get up to 3 to maybe 5 feet in the dwarf form, so it should come out just fine this spring if it didn't get too cold for it. Fertilize it and you can do some light pruning after it finishes flowering.

Q: In one of your columns, you mentioned a lawn fertilizer with the ratio 21-7-14. I can't seem to locate this particular item in any nursery or garden centers. Do you know where I can get this product? Or can you suggest an appropriate substitute?

A: I hate to give specific numbers like that since you would have to find that product exactly with those numbers. What is most important to you is that the first number is high, the middle number is low and the last number is in between. They represent nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, in that order. So it could be a 20-5-10, 16-6-10, 18-5-12, etc. Avoid fertilizers that have a high second number or are missing one of these three numbers.

Secondly, what is important is that the nitrogen should be "slow release" and stated on the label somewhere, but it does not have to be to be effective. It is just better for your lawn to have slow release nitrogen (first number). Keep the middle number low.

Lastly, if there is some iron in the bag, that would be great, as well, but it doesn't have to be there. This also is a great general purpose fertilizer for trees and shrubs.

Q: I am trying to grow avocados. They are about 3 feet tall now. I started them out inside and I moved them outside in the balmy spring weather and they really liked it. I moved them inside because they can't handle the wind and heat. I know they don't grow here and that is why I want to grow them. Which is more critical, the low light from indoors and safety from the elements, or would it be better to put them in an outside, shady, protected microclimate in my yard and chance them suffering?

A: They would be better off outside in a protected area unless you can provide an atrium. Avocados will grow in the desert if you can protect them the first year from too much sun by using shade cloth until they can establish a canopy. The branches need to be shaded by the leaves or they will burn. Whitewash exposed limbs and trunk. Fruit needs to be protected from the sun as well when they start bearing, and use organic fertilizers such as compost. You will need lots of leaves and a full canopy for protection of fruit.

There are examples growing in Phoenix, Palm Springs and the Imperial Valley. A huge problem here is winter cold. There are differences in avocados in their cold tolerance. I would stick with Mexican race avocados, such as Duke, Ganter, Gottfried, Mexicola, Northrop, Puebla or Zutano, which are more cold-tolerant, and make sure they are in a protected location, mulched and do not dry out. There are some Mexican/Guatemalan types that also could be tried, including Bacon, Fuerte, Hess, Hayes, Lula, Rincon, and Susan.

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