Feel free to leave or remove the shoots on ponytail palms
Q: Our ponytail palms are developing suckers along their trunks. Do we remove them or allow them to grow?
A:
Mild winters have allowed many ponytail palms to grow full size, which is about 20-plus feet tall locally. We should recognize this plant is not a true palm but in a group with agaves and other succulents. It produces a massive trunk that does periodically sprout shoots. These growths become more plentiful if there is an injury, such as from cold to the main shoot. Feel free to leave or remove the shoots. Too many will likely produce a very congested plant, but a few might develop trunks with attractive branchlike portions.
Q: We have flowering Drift roses we feel should be pruned. Do we need to do the pruning and remove the blooms?
A:
Don’t rush to remove late winter blooms from Drift roses, which are used as ground covers or container plants. Instead, enjoy the blooms and then decide if pruning is needed. The only reason to do trimming would be to remove old flower heads or cause branching, which could give denser plants with additional blooms. If pruning is needed, the roses can be trimmed to about 8-10 inches high. Do use this occasion also to remove dead or declining shoots.
Q: We have added a new viburnum hedge with small plants. When do we prune and fertilize the plants? A:
Pruning is important to produce a dense and wellformed hedge. An emailed photo shows your plants
about 18 inches tall. This would be the time to allow about a foot of growth and then remove the top four inches of the main shoots. Apply a slow-release landscape fertilizer after the trimming and again in May and early October. Continue the pruning every time the hedge grows another foot high until it reaches the desired size. Start forming the shape of the hedge too. Good-looking hedges should be more narrow at the top than at the base. It should have a flat or rounded topped pyramidal appearance after pruning.
Q: Each year, I try to grow beets from seed and sometimes I am more successful than others. Do you have ideas that would make me more successful?
A:
Join the crowd of frustrated beet growers. First, we have to recognize that
we are sowing capsules with more than one seed inside, so expect clusters of beet plants to sprout. Next, ensure the soil is fairly fine and free of clumps of matter that would prevent the seeds from growing. Cover the sown seeds about a quarter to one-half inch deep. Keep soil sown to beets moist and the seed should sprout in about a week during warmish weather. Then continue to keep the soil moist and weed-free. Fertilize with a general vegetable garden product monthly. At some time, the planting is likely to need thinning. These young beet greens are edible and could be added to salads. Beets love the cool weather but will need protection from a freeze. You should have beetroots ready to eat in about 90 days with good growing conditions.
Q: I have recently purchased a raised bed. How much soil should I add to grow vegetables?
A:
Congratulations on starting a spring garden in a compact and easy to plant raised bed. You may be limited by the depth of the bed but most vegetables need eight to twelve inch deep soils to grow adequate root systems. Plants that grow tall and wide like tomatoes need the deeper soils Figure the amount of soil needed by multiplying the length by the width by the depth of the bed in feet. This gives you the cubic feet of soil needed. Then find potting soil to fill the bed within an inch of the top. Since potting soils are often sold by quarts of soil in the bag, you need about 30 quarts of soil for each cubic foot of bed calculated.
Q: I am sure you have
answered this question many times, but when is the best time to prune crape myrtles?
A:
If you have to and feel you must, complete crape myrtle trimming early this month. Many gardeners are not pruning their plants at all. At least most that do, have stopped the heavy pruning that turned these graceful shrubs and small trees into sticks. The best pruning jobs remove the old seed heads back to stems about the size of a finger, eliminate shoots sprouting from the base and thin out small or competing branches. Certainly there is no need to preform the hacking and whacking that has been termed ‘crape murder’.
Q: My grapefruit tree has what appears to be black soot on the branches and leaves. Is it dying?
A: Your tree is not a goner but it is home to insect pests. Most likely scale insects are sucking juices from the foliage and stems which produce excreta to support the growth of the sooty mold fungus. You can obtain control of both problems by applying a horticultural oil spray available from your local garden center. Follow label instructions and do a good job of covering the leaves and stems with the spray. The scale insects and sooty mold should slough off over a period of weeks.