The weather has been kind of crazy this spring and summer so far. We had late freezes then unexpectedly hot weather and now cool again. It is still a good time to plant so don't let the weather stop you. If you are going to plant when the temperature is over 100, then you better be a good gardener.
One reader e-mailed me that Nevada organic compost is available in small quantities at the Star Nursery on Wynn Road. Bring your own buckets. Just remember, a good compost should have no ammonia or vinegar smell to it. If it does, don't get it.
Question: A friend recently gave me a bag of coffee grounds from Starbucks and by the time I received it and opened it, I found that there was some mold. Is the mold okay to add to the soil or should I toss it into the trash bin?
Answer: The mold will not be a problem.
This is the beginning of the natural breakdown process of the coffee grounds and this breakdown will release more nutrients to the plants.
Coffee grounds have enough nitrogen for all the micro-organisms to break it down easily and not harm plants.
Once mixed in the soil, little critters will begin eating the mold and larger little critters will eat the smaller little critters, earthworms will move in and all sorts of animal and plant life will benefit in what is being released, as well as the plants.
Q: I have been planting desert adapted shrubs into my new garden. What sort of ratio should I mix the Nevada organic compost to the native soil?
A: I have used the Nevada organic compost as high as 50 percent with tomatoes. Hotels in the area have tried it on interior palms with no detrimental effects, and I had one homeowner use it as high as 75 percent.
I would probably recommend that you mix it somewhere around one part compost to three or four parts soil.
Dig it in deep at the time of planting.
I recently used it with our strawberry test trials at our research site in North Las Vegas with good success.
Q: Would you be so kind as to explain the basics of watering outdoor plants in containers? I have two clay pots with flowers in them and am forever at a loss as to tell whether they need more water or not. Kindly use the KISS principle as my desire to successfully garden is not matched by an accompanying green thumb.
A: The simplest way is to buy a water meter from the nursery for about $8 and leave it in the container and use it for estimating when to water.
If you use the same soil in the containers, you can use 1 meter to gauge when to water all the containers of the same size.
Different sized containers will be watered differently, the smaller ones more often.
The meter will register wet when wet and dry when dry. You water it before it registers dry, about halfway in between the two. Also, the container must drain and not be closed unless you use a pot in a pot container, a smaller pot inside a larger one.
If you are using one container inside a larger container then the inside container must drain into the larger one. Put gravel in the bottom of the larger container to a depth so that the smaller one can rest on top of it without sinking. Then you can use coarse mulch to surround the smaller pot, filling the void between the two pots.
You should always water so that some water comes out of the bottom of the container to flush salts. Our municipal water carries a lot of salts compared to many other communities since it is derived from the Colorado River. This will require that you check periodically that you are not building up water in the larger pot, if it does not drain. It is always best, though, to have both pots drain.
Q: I have a dwarf peach tree. It is giving fruits for the first time. The birds are having a good time eating the fruits. In ten days, the birds ruin about one third of those fruits. Please tell me what can I do.
A: Birds are tough to control. Here are your options:
You can pick the fruit before they are ripe and let them ripen on the kitchen counter. If you pick them when they turn color but are still hard, most birds will leave them alone at this stage. This is provided the fruits are types that will ripen off of the tree. All stone fruits, except cherries, will.
You can net the tree with bird netting. The netting must go tight to the ground or they will go under the netting to get at the fruit.
You can try some devices that use noise to scare the birds. We are testing some of these devices at the orchard now. So far for us, streamers have not worked, CDs hung in the trees have not worked, scarecrows have not worked, tinsel from Christmas has not worked and our presence shouting curses has not worked. They are not easily intimidated. I will keep you updated in my column about how the noisemaker works.
Q: I mixed in some manure around my rose bushes, thinking it would be helpful for the roses, but it looks to me like the roses are not as big and healthy like they use to look. What should I do?
A: My guess is that the manure was not fully composted when you got it and put it down. My guess is that the salt levels were too high for your plants.
You will need to water the area thoroughly and deeply several times over the next couple of weeks to flush salts out of the root area. Salt damage might look like yellowing leaves, stunted growth and scorched leaves.
Another thing that can happen to compost that is not aerated properly is that it can become toxic to plants. The tell-tale sign again is an ammonia or vinegar smell.
Q: I watered my gazanias once a week, if that, during the winter season. They were green and flourished, flowered, etc. I added new plants to the area and now I am watering according to instructions. My mature gazanias are pale in color, lifeless, and do not bloom much. Is the problem too much water? How often should I water?
A: There are a lot of things that could be causing the yellowing. Usually with underwatering you would see some browning of the edges of the leaves or what we call scorching. Yellowing can also be caused by overwatering or poor drainage or both.
However, gazanias do not have a deep root system so they will require rather frequent watering in the summer months, perhaps once a day if you have sandy soils with good drainage.
I think you have to solve the watering problem first. Either get yourself an inexpensive water meter from the nursery, about $8, and use that to establish when to water or you can use the feel method if you have some gardening experience.
With the feel method you dig down into the soil with a hand trowel around the root area, about six inches deep, pick up a small handful of soil and squeeze it into a clump. If the soil sticks together in a clump after bouncing it lightly in your hand, you will not need to water. If the clump falls apart after a couple of light bounces, then it is time to water. A general rule of thumb is you need to water five times as often in the summer as you do in the winter.
The next is soil modification. Gazanias can handle our desert soils but they like it better if the soil is richer. Don't be afraid to add lots of compost, not mulch, into the soil at the time of planting. Mulch goes on top of the soil after planting.
When you plant in our soils, you want to add a starter fertilizer, something high in phosphorus, in the backfill soil. Make sure the water is filling the hole as you are adding the backfill around the roots. This helps get rid of the air pockets.
After you are done, add an inch or two of mulch to the soil surface to keep the soil moist between waterings and keep the weeds in check. Handwater daily for the first week before turning it over to your irrigation system.
If these are on drip, you cannot give the plants enough water if the irrigation clock is set for just a few minutes. The drip emitters should be on for at least 30 minutes. Each of your gazanias should get about one gallon of water each time the emitters come on. So if this is a one gallon per hour emitter it needs to be on for one hour. If it is a two gallon per hour emitter then 30 minutes, etc.
Bob Morris is a horticulture specialist with the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension.
Archived Editions| Advertising | Contact The Staff
