Dear Neil: I live in a part of Texas where I can grow Meyer lemon outdoors. I protect it when it gets really cold. It has produced fruit regularly each year. My peach tree is about 30 feet away. The lemon is covered in bees, but the peach has none. The peach has only borne one fruit in recent years. You can see them blooming in my photos. Why the difference?
A: Peach flowers (at least of the common fruit-producing varieties) typically have light pink blooms with five petals. This looks like one of the double-flowering ornamental types. They do bear fruit occasionally, but that’s not why we usually grow them. And they require a second peach variety somewhere nearby for best pollination. I’m not an expert on this specific topic, but I wonder if bees are put off by peach flowers with a lot of extra petals? Entry may be difficult for them.
Dear Neil: I learned to garden by watching my grandfather. He used to tie his tomato stems to a heavy stake with strips of cloth. He removed all the side branches and kept his plants very tidy. Is that a better way to raise tomatoes than the cages we see today?
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A: Vegetable specialists recommend caging tomatoes for several good reasons. First, it keeps developing fruit off the ground so pillbugs and other chewing pests can’t get to them as easily. The side branches, often called “suckers,” also produce fruit, and they act to shade all of the fruit as it matures. That reduces sunscald and cracking. You can also wrap cages with frost cloth anytime that it’s cold, and in the spring when it’s windy. The wrap reduces insect populations and keeps the young plants growing in slightly warmer conditions. But to be effective, your cages need to be 4 or 5 feet tall and 18 or 20 inches in diameter. Concrete reinforcing wire works perfectly if you can find a hardware store that will sell you partial rolls.
Dear Neil: My arborists (recognized national company) are recommending that my oak trees be fertilized even though they are in great shape. Is that a good suggestion?
A: I would think so. We don’t necessarily apply fertilizer just to get a sick tree well again. We want to keep them healthy and vigorous, and proper nourishment is an important part of that process. (Sounds like what a doctor would say to us, doesn’t it!)
Dear Neil: We had a mild winter all things considered. Should I adjust my fertilizer schedule at all? I normally feed my St. Augustine three times.
A: This year’s winter wasn’t that unusual. We had one really cold spell. (That was enough, at least by my measure.) We had late cool spells into the spring, so things slowed down a little bit. Life is good. Keep your schedule as you have had it. Three feedings per year would be good for St. Augustine. One in early April as the grass gears up to grow. One in early June, before it turns hot (to try to avoid gray leaf spot that is accelerated by application of nitrogen in summer) and one in early September.
Dear Neil: I bought two trees and some shrubs a week ago. They looked a little wilted when I got them home, and now all the trees’ leaves are brown and crisp. I assume I did that damage while transporting them home, but will they come back?
A: That’s windburn, and hopefully they will start their growing season over again. It does cause them quite a setback, however. Plants with exposed leaves must either be put inside trucks or closed trailers, or wrapped in big pieces of nursery shade fabric, sheets, or other protective material for the trip home from the nursery. You simply cannot drive slowly enough to prevent that kind of damage — I know from my own stubbornness. Keep your damaged plants moist and apply a high-nitrogen plant food to give them a boost. Their roots are fine. It’s just the top growth that got burned.
Dear Neil: For years we have had liriope around all our flowerbeds as well as half our backyard where grass won’t grow. In the past five years the liriope will come out, but after a couple of months it turns yellow and the leaves die. Some comes back the next year, but the cycle is repeated. Any suggestions?
A: I wonder if you might be experiencing liriope leaf and crown rot caused by the soil-borne fungus Phytophthora palmivora. Some may recognize Phytophthora as being the cause of seedling loss called “damping off” where the stems die at ground level soon after germination. Liriope leaves rot right at the soil line, and it’s most common in spring and early summer following cool, moist springs. I have experienced this with the liriope cultivar “Silvery Sunproof.” The disease started at one end of my planting and worked its way to the other end. Green selections are also hit by it, although in my experience, less often. I also lost a bed of dwarf mondograss to it. I have not seen it bother regular mondograss. LSU has the best write-up on the disease and dealing with it. Google “Louisiana Plant Pathology Leaf and Crown Rot of Liriope” and you should find a fact sheet by E.J. Butler. This is a bothersome disease. If that’s what you have, good luck with it.
Have a question you’d like Neil to consider? Mail it to him in care of this newspaper or e-mail him at mailbag@sperrygardens.com. Neil regrets that he cannot reply to questions individually.