- Author: Steve I Morse
Advice for the Home Gardener
from the UC Master Gardener Program
of Contra Costa County
Client's Request: Hello. We would like to plant a shade tree in our backyard in mid-County. We have a fairly shallow well… and am assuming a high water table although we don't have any wet, boggy areas. We have two semi-dwarf orange trees s that we never water and they are productive and sweet. Can you recommend links for some shade trees in these conditions .... such as Crape Myrtle, deciduous Magnolia, and Japanese Maples? Thank You.
MGCC Help Desk Response: Thank you for contacting the UC Master Gardener Program Help Desk with a question about tree selection. You didn't say how deep your well is, but the water table is probably deep enough that it won't impact trees in your landscape. Tree roots are generally found in the top 1 to 3 feet of soil, with only some sinker roots possibly venturing deeper. Trees don't usually have tap roots past the seedling stage, but rather grow roots that extend well past the dripline (outer edge of the tree's canopy).
If you have good drainage in your soil, any tree suited for your climate should be fine. To test your drainage, dig a hole about a foot deep. Fill it with water and allow it to drain completely. Immediately refill the hole and measure the depth of the water with a ruler. Fifteen minutes later, measure the drop in water in inches, and multiply by 4 to calculate how much water drains in an hour. Ideally, you should have 1 to 6 inches drainage per hour.
The trees you specifically asked about were Crape Myrtle, deciduous Magnolia and Japanese maple. Crape Myrtles (Lagerstroemia spp.) do well in mid-county. They need full sun and seem to appreciate our hot summers. There are many varieties to choose from. This link is to an article from the Sonoma County Master Gardeners about growing Crape Myrtles: http://sonomamg.ucanr.edu/Plant_of_the_Month/Lagerstroemia_spp_Crepe_Myrtle/.
Deciduous Magnolia may not be a good choice. According to Sunset Western Garden Book, deciduous magnolias with saucer flowers do poorly in hot and dry areas. Deciduous magnolias with star flowers seem to do better, but are very slow-growing, and the variety called Star Magnolia (Magnolia stellata) stays quite small and is usually grown as a shrub.
Japanese maples (Acer palmatum) do best in cool climates and will need partial shade and protection from hot, dry wind in the hotter areas of the County. Morning sun and afternoon shade is best. The varieties with green leaves do better with more sun exposure than the varieties with red leaves or those with lacier leaves.
You might also consider Chinese pistache (Pistacia chinesis). It is well suited for our climate and makes a good shade tree. This link is to another article from the Sonoma Master gardeners: http://sonomamg.ucanr.edu/Plant_of_the_Month/Chinese_Pistache/.
For other ideas, this link is to a searchable database where you can select aspects you want such as shade tree, deciduous, maximum height, etc. https://selectree.calpoly.edu/about. They have good descriptions of the trees, along with photographs.
If after you perform a drainage test you find you have poor drainage (less than 1 inch per hour), contact us again and we will research those trees more suitable for a boggier area. Don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
I hope this information is helpful and you find a good shade tree for your yard!
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.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Biog.
Subject: Control of Anthracnose on Sycamore Trees
Advice for the Home Gardener from the Help Desk of the
UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County
MGCC Help Desk Response to Sprays for Control of Anthracnose on Sycamores: Thank you for contacting the UC Master Gardener Program Help Desk with your question about treating anthracnose on Sycamore trees. You have done a lot of research on this problem, so I am not sure we can tell you anything you do not already know. Sycamore, full-grown in suburbia is a large tree, and were a common tree planted usually several decades ago, but smaller lots and today's suburbia limit their planting these days. While they are often prized for their majesty (and heigh 60-100') they can e a problem from dropping branches, debris from leaves and branches, and anthracnose, especially if planted to close to a house and other trees.
As you know, anthracnose is a fungal disease which can cause unsightly changes to Sycamore trees. The effects on the tree can be brown spots on infected leaves to distortion of branches, cankers and dieback. Unless signs consistently occur every year, trees are usually not seriously harmed; they just may not be aesthetically pleasing. The fungi survive over winter on infected leaves and twigs or dead leaf litter under the trees. Rain in the spring splashes the fungus onto new growth and starts the infection cycle again. Infections are worse in years with heavy spring rain than those with dry springs. The best management mechanism is to remove infected twigs, branches, nd leafs during the fall or winter to decrease the re-infection of the trees in the spring. If there is a wet spring, spraying new growth with fungicides can be protective: however, University of California does not recommend fungicide applications for trees other than ash. I believe you have already reviewed this document but the UC web link to the Integrative Pest Management (IPM) on anthracnose is below. http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7420.html
I reviewed the pesticide labels of the two products we discussed - Agri-Fos and Reliant. If there is a difference in the products, it was not apparent to me. It does appear that Agri-Fos is not labeled for use on sycamores for anthracnose and Reliant is allowed to be used as a foliar spray and as an injection into the tree trunk in sycamores for anthracnose. Why these products, with the same active ingredient in the same concentration, are labeled differently is not apparent to me. So, we forwarded this part of your question onto our local Urban IPM advisor to see if he can provide clarification on this…. And we heard back from our Urban IPM Coordinator. Here is his response:
“Product registrants can seek wide or narrow spectrum labels, depending on targeted markets, costs, and efficacy information. In this case, the manufacturers of Reliant have included sycamore anthracnose while the manufacturers of Agri-Fos have not. It seems that Reliant is an older product that is registered for use against a very wide range of agricultural pathogens, so maybe it was cost-effective to include anthracnose. It's also likely that the inert ingredients of these two products are different. Agri-Fos, for instance, is usually injected or otherwise introduced internally, while Reliant is sprayed.
The more important consideration here is that phosphonates (active ingredients in both these products) are not considered effective sprays as per the UC IPM 'Anthracnose'
Pest Note: http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7420.html
I think the last paragraph is the most important for this discussion, that phosphonates are not considered effective sprays against anthracnose."
Finally, as we discussed on the phone, you may try consulting another certified arborist to see what their recommendations for management would be. We cannot recommend a specific company, but would recommend you find a certified arborist through the following website. https://www.treesaregood.org/findanarborist
Best of luck and we will let you know if we find out more Please do not hesitate to contact the Help Desk again if you have more questions.
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County (SEH/SES)
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.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Blog.
Advice for the Home Gardener from the
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardeners
Program of Contra Costa County
Master Gardeners' Help Desk Request: I recently moved into a home in Clayton and am very fortunate to have inherited many beautiful perennials! One, in particular, has stumped me and I was hoping you would be able to help me identify it. I have attached a few pictures.
Along with identifying the plant, I am also curious as to seasonal care. It is obvious the flowers are finished. It is also very large and many have fallen to the ground (the plant isn't able to support itself). Should I cut it way back, deadhead the flowers, etc.?
Growing up in the Midwest, I don't have any experience with perennials in this climate! I am enjoying reading up and learning about the plants in my new yard. I appreciate your time and help on this endeavor!
Response from the MGCC Help Desk: Thank you for contacting the UC Master Gardener Program Help Desk about your unknown perennial. Any plant identification done from a picture must be considered tentative, however, I think that this plant is a Lepechinia sp., and I suspect it is Lepechinia hastata.
Originally looking at your pictures, the plant looks like a salvia. It has broad thick leaves, with well-defined veins. However, most salvias flower on a single stalk and the flowers do not branch as you get to the top of the plant. This branching of the flowers is very prominent in your pictures as is the calyx (the cup that holds the flower on the plant). Lepechinia sp. have very similar leaves to salvias, but can have these branching flowers and a very prominent calyx.
They are in the same family as salvias and are so similar, they are frequently referred to as the false sage or the pitcher sage. There are Lepechinia sp. which are native to California but these seem to have a more drooping carriage. With the upright flowers on your plant, it likely is Lepechinia hastata, a variety that possibly was native to Mexico or Hawaii.
According to the Sunset Western Garden Book, Lepechinia sp. can grow up to 6 feet tall and wide. They require almost no summer water except under the hottest conditions and deer are rarely interested in them. It was difficult to find any clear advice about caring for this plant as it seems to require almost no care. It likes well-draining soil and does not want to be soggy.
A few nurseries recommend deadheading the plant or cutting it back after blooming so it seems reasonable to clean up the parts of your plant that have fallen down. In areas that are warm enough, it might continue to produce some flowers year-round.
Hope this helps.
Best of luck with your new garden
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County (SES)
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.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
Gardener's Request: We just moved into a 30-year-old house in the East Bay hills, and we expect to stay here a long time. We have numerous oaks and Bay trees on the property. We've heard from neighbors that we should get those trees reviewed by a trained arborist familiar with Sudden Oak Death (SOD), e.g. identification, disposal, and potential danger to other trees in your neighborhood. Can you please recommend sources?
MGCC Help Desk Response: Thank you for contacting the UC Master Gardener Program Help Desk with your questions about your oak tree and how to identify sudden oak death (SOD). The links below include information on identification, disposal, and potential danger to other trees in your neighborhood.
Accurate disease diagnosis can be difficult because the symptoms caused by SOD (Phytophthora ramorum) are very similar to those caused by other fungi, insects, or adverse environmental conditions. The only way to confirm a P. ramorum infection is to take a sample and analyze the affected plant tissue in a certified laboratory. Several of the links include guidance on laboratories.
External symptoms of SOD canker development can include the bleeding of a thick, sticky sap. It oozes out of the bark, not from a crack or hole, typically smells like the inside of a wine barrel and is a deep burgundy but can vary in color from nearly black to an amber-orange. This brochure, A Homeowner's Guide to Sudden Oak Death, has a good image of the sap on a coast live oak:
http://www.suddenoakdeath.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Homeowners-Guide-to-Sudden-Oak-Death.pdf
California bay trees are the primary carrier of SOD fungus. You should see symptoms of infection on the leaves if they are infected. SOD shows as leaf spots and usually brown tips surrounded by a yellow halo: https://nature.berkeley.edu/garbelotto/downloads/sod_diagnostic_report_final.pdf
The recommendation is to remove bays within 30' of susceptible oaks. http://nature.berkeley.edu/garbelottowp/?p=1063.
Here are some local contacts with local links for more information and possible tests of your trees:
The SOD Blitz Project informs and educates the community about Sudden Oak Death, gets locals involved in detecting the disease, and produce detailed local maps of disease distribution. The map can then be used to identify those areas where the infestation may be mild enough to justify proactive management:
http://nature.berkeley.edu/garbelottowp/?page_id=148.
California Oak Mortality Task Force for information and how to find arborists they have trained to identify and sample for SOD infection:http://www.suddenoakdeath.org/
Contra Costa County
Department of Agriculture
2380 Bisso Lane
Concord, CA 94520
Phone: 925-608-6600
And, finally, here is the link to the UC Pest Note with even more detailed information about SOD:
http://ipm.ignore.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74151.html
Best of luck to you!
Regards,
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County (SLH)
Note: apologies... an earlier posted version required a minor editorial change for clarity.
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.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Biog.
Advice from the Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program
for Contra Costa County
When to Remove Garden Monterey Pines
Client's Request:I live in El Sobrante near the San Pablo Reservoir. On August 8th PG&E had a tree crew come to prune trees away from the power lines. They did a rather drastic prune on our very large Monterey pine tree (which to this point has been very healthy with no signs of beetles or any other issues). The tree was large when we moved in ~30 years ago and was topped some time before that. It has been pruned by PG&E tree crews a number of times over the years but never to this extent.
About 2 weeks ago we started noticing a few small bits of what we think is dried pitch on the ground at the base of the tree. I didn't think too much of this as I assumed that it was falling from the cuts up high and I have not seen any sign of bugs. However, as you can see from the pictures taken on Sept 20th, there is quite a bit and now (starting about a week ago) some oozing of white/reddish pitch from the large roots. It does not look like there is anything coming from the trunk as high as I can see. The fresh cuts were dripping pitch, but it looks clear.
Is this in response to the prune or is there a problem that I cannot see? Your thoughts and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
MGCC Help Desk Response: Thank you for contacting the UC Masters Gardener Program Help Desk with your question about the pitch oozing from the roots of your Monterey pine. And thank you very much for the photos. They are very helpful.
From the photos, I believe that the pitch you are seeing is the result of a bark beetle, most likely the red turpentine beetle, and not from the direct pruning cuts.
Bark beetles in general cause their damage when adults bore into the inner bark of trees where they lay their eggs. After the eggs hatch, the resulting larvae mine galleries that branch out from the egg-laying gallery. These larval mines are very narrow at first but increase in diameter as the larvae grow. All of this boring activity can start a flow of tree sap from pitch tubes. That flow may be accompanied by a sawdust-like frass. The sap and frass are the materials that you are seeing on the top of your roots.
Red turpentine beetles in particular are quite common in landscape Monterey pines. The pinkish to white pitch tubes on the lower trunk of standing trees are also characteristic of red turpentine beetles.
Healthy pines can generally tolerate a minor attack from a few beetles. Trees most likely to show signs of damage are those that are stressed by injuries or that may be declining due to old age. That means that you may be seeing signs of damage now due to a combination of the extensive pruning (or any other damage that may have occurred) and its age. Monterey pines generally live to only 45 to 50 years in inland climates.
Unfortunately, except for general cultural practices that improve tree vigor, little can be done to control most bark beetles once trees have been attacked. Because the beetles are under the bark, insecticides are rarely successful. You may want to monitor the tree for small entrance holes in the bark and increasing damage overall. If the main trunk is extensively attacked by bark beetles, the entire tree may have to be removed.
For more information on bark beetles, see http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7421.html
Please let us know if you have further questions or would like additional information.
Good luck with your tree!
| HOrTCOCO Editor's add-on comments…Living in the same house and garden for the last 50 plus years, bought on a VA guaranteed loan, and coming new with bare dirt (mostly rock known as Martinez Massive Sandstone) and a tree (Fruitless Mulberry and an already dying lightly seeded front lawn and all the rest bare dirt and about 1/3 of it bare slopes (supposedly covered with erosion control plants), I soon planted on the slopes over 100 Monterey Pine seedlings at about 10 cents each irrigated with their own dripper. They grew fairly well but starting around 20 plus years the drippers each were at least half gone from squirrels and other problems including a few bark beetles. The neighborhood kids liked the jungle effect. By year 30 the bark beetles were having a steady impact every year, notably probably weakened from several drougths which basically set them up for bark beetle attacks. Meanwhile it should be noticed that many home owners in the subdivision had also planted Monterey Pines (inexpensive, but found to be too large, not being properly maintained or watered, etc.) and most were suffering the same problems mainly because of the beetles and not maintaining proper irrigation. One time during the later years I wasn't out in my garden much during the winter months because of weather was home and the largest Monterey (50ft) turned from green to brown in 30 days. My adjacent neighbor was not appreciative of the brown (large) Monterey adjacent to the fence and his house and managed to get the Fire District to send me a warning letter over the possible situation. Within the next 30 days I hired an “arborist” (and his family) who proceeded to cut and remove the 23 Monterey Pines remaining (ranging in size from 12” to 30” trunk diameter). One of the larger Pines completely broke off about head high during the “removal”, luckily the “arborists” weren't on site… I'm still thinking about that. I'm still here and I'm still looking at the back hill and the one lonely pine that survives, but that turns out to be a Japanese Black Pine a neighbor gave me when I also planted all the Montereys. |
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County (ECS)
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.edu/HortCoCo/. You can also subscribe to the Blog.
