Desert Blooms

Southwest Yard and Garden by Dr. Marisa Thompson Reprint from December 2017 In most cases, a few inches of snow doesn’t mean we can skip a winter irrigation event entirely. Two cups of snow scooped up from the front yard at the NMSU Agricultural Science Center at Los Lunas on January 3rd melted down to a little over 1/3 cup of water. Photo credit M. Thompson. Question: I'm wondering what the frequency of winter watering should be and the best time of day or night to have the water come on? -           Rob M., Las Cruces, New Mexico Answer: It seems #itscomplicated is a hashtag I could use every week. Knowing how much water to apply in your landscape is hard enough in the summertime when demands are high, but it can be even more difficult to know the right amount of water needed when many plants are bare, and it can be easy to forget. Most plants need less water in colder months. This is partly because dormant pla...

Southwest Yard & Garden By Dr. Marisa Thompson Dormant peach trees in February 2019 at the NMSU Agricultural Science Center at Los Lunas. Late frosts after budbreak nipped almost all of the blooms in these trees this year. Photo credit M. Thompson. Question: I’m trying to decide which fruit tree varieties will produce well in my yard, and many of them list a specific number of required chill hours. Where do I find out how many chill hours we get in Roswell? -           Question submitted via Chaves County Extension Agent Troy Thompson Answer: Many gardeners know that certain seeds need to be cold stratified before they can break dormancy and germinate. This makes sense on a survival level because seeds that drop at the end of the growing season might germinate and grow in the fall or winter and not stand a chance in the cold. Some seeds require other environmental triggers or a combination of factors to break dormancy, ...

Southwest Yard and Garden By Dr. Marisa Thompson & Dr. Carol Sutherland Reprint from November 2017 Mesquite girdler. (photo credit: Dr. Salvador Vitanza, previously with TexasAgriLife, El Paso, TX) Question: Our mesquite trees are experiencing what appears to be a girdler bug attack. This is the first time we have experienced this. How harmful are they, and what can be done to rid these pests? -           Jack D., Doña Ana County, NM Answer: In order to answer your question, I enlisted the help of NMSU Extension Horticulture Specialist and NM State Entomologist, Dr. Carol Sutherland. Here is her response: Yep. The culprit here is a type of long-horned beetle known as the “mesquite girdler” ( Oncideres rhodosticta ). Adults are about a half-inch long and are several shades of dark gray, with do...