• With recent rain, it’s prime time for weeds and bugs!
• Tricks on getting rid of bugs around your home.
• Discussing weed control methods, with regards to heat and other options for pre-emergents.
• Dealing with spurge? We talk through a few options on controlling it.

Callers:

• Matt – How does he know when pomegranate fruit is ripe?

Recommendation – It’s a ways yet and usually close to halloween. Mid to late October and we don’t know any real tricks, so just pick one around that time.

• Harry – He needs to trim his bottlebrush tree and wants to know the best time and method to take care of it.

Recommendation – If it’s dead branches, they can be done anytime. He mentioned that he is blind, so he’ll just need to snap each branch to determine which to remove. Listen for the details.

Letter From a Listener:

• Mary Lynn – She sent us a picture of a flower and no one in her neighborhood knows what it is?

Recommendation – Jay says it’s a rain lilly! They come in several colors & bloom with rain and mild temperatures. It’s a bulb and someone probably forgot it was there.

Caller:

• Steve – He has a fig tree that looks pretty rough in his backyard. Most of the leaves are gone and wants to know if it can be saved or if he should replant?

Recommendation – They are usually pretty resilient & like lots of water. Jay would give it a good fertilization and a good watering (through the rest of the summer and fall) It will go dormant this winter and if it comes back in the fall, he could be good to go. Otherwise, replace it before the summer.

Letter From a Listener:

• Emily – How long do you nurse a fruit tree when it starts looking rough?

Recommendation – After 60 years, it is probably time to replace it….She got plenty of life out of it.  Jay talks about adding trees as the older ones die off. That way, you’ll have an easier transition once the older fruit tree dies.

Caller:

• Sue – She has agave snout weasel and is losing plants. What can she do?

Recommendation – This is the time that snout weasel’s start showing their damage and usually when we see the damage, it’s too late.  If you have agave, just treat all of them in June, July. Listen to be sure you have the details!

• He planted several trees around his yard and grass keeps coming in very thick around the base of the trees and he can’t seem to get rid of it. What can he do?

Recommendation – He can spray it with a glyphosate product. Just be careful not to get any of the treatment on the leaves of the trees.  Use cardboard of plastic as a guard when your spraying around the base.

Callers:

• How do you get rid of mistletoe in his mesquite tree?

Recommendation – It is a parasite, so the only way to remove it is to prune it out. It attaches itself to the vascular system of the tree, so you can’t poison it without potentially damaging the tree.

• Glen – He has bark beetles doing damage to his trees and wants to know how to get rid of them?

Recommendation – They are several products, like spinosad, that he can use. It’s organic and won’t be dangerous to the wildlife in the tree.  We discuss bark beetles and their acitivies in general.

• Dave – What’s causing his agave leaves to die?

Recommendation – It’s the agave snout weasel we were talking about earlier.  The grubs eat the roots and usually when you see the results, it’s too late. We would treat the ground before he plants a new one.

Reach Jay during the week at Harper’s Nursery & Landscaping Company in Scottsdale!