- (Focus Area) Yard & Garden
Help for the Home Gardener from the Help Desk of the
UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County
Identifying a Mayten Garden Tree
Client's Request: Hello Master Gardeners, could you identify this tree for me? I moved from the Midwest (Minnesota) a couple of years ago and am learning the names of the trees and plants in the Bay Area that I am not familiar with. I live in a townhouse development in Walnut Creek and we have several trees of the variety pictured below in our complex. Thank you.
Help Desk Response: Thank you for contacting the UC Master Gardener Help Desk asking about the identification of a tree planted in your development. Your photographs were helpful.
The tree is aMayten tree (Maytenus boaria) ). It is native to Chile which also has a Mediterranean climates similar to ours here in California.
This website has information about the tree and could be helpful in identifying other trees in California. https://selectree.calpoly.edu/tree-detail/maytenus-boaria
Good luck in learning about the plants in this area.
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County (smt)
Notes: Contra Costa MG's Help Desk is available almost year-round to answer your gardening questions. Except for a few holidays (e.g., last 2 weeks December), we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 2380 Bisso Lane, Concord, CA 94520. We can also be reached via telephone: (925) 608-6683, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/. MGCC Blogs can be found at http://ccmg.ignore.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Biog.
Advice for the Home Gardener from the Help Desk of the
UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County
MGCC Help Desk Response: Thank you for contacting the UC Master Gardener Program Help Desk with a question about overwintering Gerbera Daisies. Gerberas are perennial plants but are often treated as annuals. They need regular deep water and do best in rich, well-drained soil. They should be fertilized monthly during the bloom period. They do well in full sun, but in hot areas such as most of East County, they need partial shade. If you have a nice clump of them, you must be doing something right!
They should overwinter in the ground just fine in East County. According to Sunset Western Garden Book, they can be grown as perennials in zones that get even colder than your Zone 9. As long as the soil drains well and doesn't become waterlogged when it rains, your gerberas should be OK.
Mulch is almost always a good idea. It protects the soil and helps maintain even moisture levels. Just make sure you keep the mulch a couple of inches away from the plants' stems to avoid rotting.
Please let us know if you have more questions.
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County (SEH)
Notes: Contra Costa MG's Help Desk is available almost year-round to answer your gardening questions. Except for a few holidays (e.g., last 2 weeks December), we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 2380 Bisso Lane, Concord, CA 94520. We can also be reached via telephone: (925) 608-6683, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/. MGCC Blogs can be found at http://ccmg.ignore.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Biog.
UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County
Client's Request: Hi Master Gardeners, I live in Oakley and have had a worm bin in the backyard for several years. I recently noticed some other creatures in the worm bin that look like some kind of larvae, but they do move around. There are many of these in the bin, probably a hundred or so. I have enclosed two pictures of them, one in the worm bin and one in a glass jar. Are you able to tell me what they are and if they are harmful? There don't seem to be very many worms left in the bin, which used to have many worms. Thank you for your help.
in worm bin -1-
in worm bin -2-
Master Gardeners' Help Desk: Thank you for contacting the UC Master Gardener Program Help Desk with a question about strange creatures in your worm bin. And thank you for sending photos of them, making it easy to identify them. They are the larvae of the black soldier fly (BSF).
https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=27407.
Notes: Contra Costa MG's Help Desk is available almost year-round to answer your gardening questions. Except for a few holidays (e.g., last 2 weeks December), we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 2380 Bisso Lane, Concord, CA 94520. We can also be reached via telephone: (925) 608-6683, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/. MGCC Blogs can be found at http://ccmg.ignore.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Biog.
Help for the Home Gardener from the Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County
Help Desk Response: Thank you for contacting the UC Master Gardener Help Desk with your question about the large bugs on your pomegranate tree. You're right, they are leaf-footed bugs. Your photos are helpful and show adults on your pomegranate fruit.
The following website has useful information about these bugs and how to manage them:
http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74168.html
The adults can cause small blemishes on the surface of the pomegranates, with brown spots inside the fruit. The adults are common now because the fruits are getting close to harvest time. As noted in the website, insecticides are usually not warranted but they can be used if an infestation is particularly severe. If your infestation reaches a level at which you conclude you need to apply an insecticide, you'll find recommendations about the type of insecticide to use and when to apply it in the attached document. You will want to be cautious about the use of insecticides if you want to consume the fruit. If you do apply a pesticide, make sure that you follow the instructions on the label regarding the time period to wait between applying the pesticide and harvesting the fruit. Also, wash the fruit before eating it. Additionally, keep in mind that spraying with insecticides may be harmful to bees and other beneficial insects.
Control of the bugs using more physical measures may be helpful. You can get the nymphs and adults out of the tree by shaking the branches or by using a stream of water from the nozzle on the hose. You can squash the bugs once they are on the ground. Because some adults may fly away, you'll want to repeat this process every week or so. You may also be able to pick the bugs off the plants by hand and crush them, wearing gloves to avoid the odor of the bugs.
As you'll see on the website, the adult leaf-footed bugs can overwinter and then re-emerge in the spring to lay eggs. Each adult female can lay up to 200 eggs over a two-month period in the spring. Given this life cycle trait, a good management approach is to try to eliminate places where the insects can overwinter. In your fall cleanup, you will want to remove all the fruit from the tree and clean up debris below the tree to help remove overwintering populations. The adults also overwinter under woodpiles so if you maintain a woodpile you might want to inspect it carefully to remove any of the insects you can locate. In the springtime, the adults feed on weedy plants, so eliminating or mowing woody plants in the vicinity of your pomegranates can also be a good strategy for reducing populations.
Good luck with you pomegranate tree.
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County (SMT)
Note:s Contra Costa MG's Help Desk is available almost year-round to answer your gardening questions. Except for a few holidays (e.g., last 2 weeks December), we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 2380 Bisso Lane, Concord, CA 94520. We can also be reached via telephone: (925) 608-6683, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/. MGCC Blogs can be found at http://ccmg.ignore.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Biog.
Advice for the Home Gardener from the
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener
Program of Contra Costa County
Client's Request: I have some sandbags that we filled at a City facility. A few of them have broken open, and I wonder if the sand is bad for the soil. I suspect if the sand is from an ocean beach, it is possible it could contain too much salt. How can I tell if it is OK for my garden? If it is OK, I may break open some remaining bags and set a few pavers in it.
Help Desk Response: Thank you for contacting the UC Master Gardener Program Help Desk with your questions about using sand in your garden.
Presuming that you have clay soil like most of us do in Contra Costa County, the addition of sand to your soil will not be beneficial for soil health and in fact can harm your plants. The reason for this all relates to the soil texture. Soil texture is the relative proportions of sand, silt and clay particles. Sand particles are the largest (can be seen with the naked eye), silt particles are in between in size and clay particles are very small. The relative compositions of these three particles determines your soil texture class. If you wanted to determine your soil texture you can do a simple feel method to give you an idea. There is a link below on how to do this and an even more extensive link on soil texture from Colorado State.
https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/edu/?cid=nrcs142p2_054311
http://culter.colorado.edu/~kittel/SoilChar(&RibbonTest)_handout.pdf
Whether you have sand, silt or clay soil, will affect the size of the pores within the soil. Soil pores are the spaces between particles that hold water and oxygen. Sand, because it is a larger molecule, has large pores. Clay, because it is a smaller molecule, has tiny microscopic pores. The pores are where water or oxygen is available to the plants. Generally, sandy soils have larger pore size, hence they feel lighter when you are working with them. Larger pores hold less water and nutrients but have better aeration (more oxygen). This is typically appreciated as these soils usually have good drainage. Water that is applied rapidly moves through the topsoil and into the deeper layers. Clay soils, on the other hand, have very small microscopic pores. These pores hold water longer, hold onto nutrients but have limited aeration. This is why these soils are typically called heavy. Because these pores are very small, water cannot drain as well and clay soils typically have poor drainage.
The problem with mixing a small amount of sand into clay soil is that you create an even heavier soil than clay alone and it has even smaller pore sizes. This is because the large spaces between sand molecules are then filled with tiny clay particles. This results in a mixture that resembles concrete. In this mixture there is little to no water or oxygen available for plants to use and their roots may not be able to penetrate at all. You can avoid this problem by incorporating 50% sand into a clay soil, however that would mean removing half the topsoil in your garden and replacing it with sand, which is not recommended or practical. There is a great summary of the problem of adding sand to clay soils below. If you did need to improve your clay soil in some way, the recommendation would be to add organic material such as compost and mulch. The link below provides guidance on how to manage clay soil in the home garden.
https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/403/2015/03/soil-amendments-2.pdf
https://vric.ucdavis.edu/pdf/soil_managingclay.pdf
So, given that information about adding sand to our native clay soils, you did ask about whether you could do that and put pavers in it. If you were creating a walking path, it might not matter to you if your soil underneath those pavers had poor texture and would not support the growth of plants. It is worth considering that development of this very heavy soil mixture, similar to concrete, under the pavers may lead to water runoff during heavy rain which then needs to be absorbed by adjacent areas. It also may limit the growth of larger perennial plants, such as trees and shrubs, in that vicinity depending on how much of their root zone would be affected.
In looking at the Contra Costa County Sandbag program website, there is no indication where the sand comes from. Therefore, I cannot be sure what its salt content is. Too much salt is not ideal for plants, but adding the sand to your native soil would already be detrimental to your garden. If you do choose to add the sand to your garden, you might call the city to see where they sourced the sand. Conversely, you could rinse the sand before using it and dispose of the water in an area separate from your garden in case it was excessively salty.
https://www.contracosta.ca.gov/5976/Sandbags
I hope this helps answer your questions. Happy Gardening!
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County (SES)
Note: Contra Costa MG's Help Desk is available almost year-round to answer your gardening questions. Except for a few holidays (e.g., last 2 weeks December), we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 2380 Bisso Lane, Concord, CA 94520. We can also be reached via telephone: (925) 608-6683, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/. MGCC Blogs can be found at http://ccmg.ignore.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Biog.
