Event puts cactus in spotlight

Come and join me, some of our volunteers and Slow Food Las Vegas on Sunday and eat a cactus! The University of Nevada Cooperative Extension will have a Tres de Mayo celebration from 1-4 p.m. at the Lifelong Learning Center, 8050 Paradise Road, Suite 100.

We will prepare some delicious dishes from nopal cactus for you to sample. You also will learn how to care for this type of cactus and harvest a fresh vegetable from this plant, as well as receive recipes and a pad for planting at home.

When harvested young, the vegetable’s taste will remind you of asparagus and green beans. Nopals can be used in a variety of ways and has been said to help lower cholesterol and high blood pressure and be an excellent source of fiber.

There is a $10 fee for the program to help defray costs.

Send your intent to come at info@slowfoodlv.org or call Marilyn at 604-3165.

Q: I have a two-year-old potted dwarf nectarine that started to leaf out at the end of February into March. By April it had lost all its flowers and leaves. In trying to turn it around I noticed it deteriorating.

I have repotted it and tried to flush out any salts by letting the water run out continuously through the bottom for about two to three minutes. Today, I used my thumbnail and scraped back a small section of a branch. I could see some green on one of the stems. It appears the tree is still alive. I would like to save the tree if at all possible. Any ideas?

A: Not much can be determined of the cause for the leaf drop that occurred. The tree must have gone through some sort of trauma for that to happen. This might be underwatering, overwatering, high concentrations of a fertilizer either sprayed or applied to the soil, weed killer drift from spraying weeds, etc.

Once the leaves are lost, the tree has to initiate new buds and new leaves if there are no buds left on the tree. It might take a couple of weeks of warm weather to initiate new buds and new growth. In the meantime, you might get some dieback in the tree where new growth is emerging.

All you can do at this point is make sure you do not under or overwater until new growth comes out. In a pot you can determine how wet the soil is by lifting it after you water and then again every day or two until the pot seems much lighter.

You also can use an inexpensive houseplant water meter to help you estimate when to water. Another method is to stick a pencil into the soil and feel it after you take it out of the container to see if it is moist.

Regardless, you should water until applied water comes out of the bottom of the container at each watering to keep salts moving through the container soil and not build up and damage the plant. Then all you can do is wait.

Q: I have a large carob tree that is doing well but is getting very bushy. This is an evergreen tree. How and when is the best time to trim this tree?

A: Carob has been used in ancient times for flour and as a beverage. It is thought that this is the plant referred to in the Bible when John the Baptist fed off of the ground or milled seeds of the “locust tree.” The pods and hard seed looks similar to locust seeds and pods.

The seed of carob also was used as a measure of weight and the word “carat” or “karat” (as in diamonds and gold) is thought to arise from the weight of the carob seed.

They do nicely here. Generally, the best time to prune ornamental flowering trees is just after flowering. This gives the plant time to initiate new growth and set flowers for the next season.

In fruit trees, we generally prune during the winter trying to respect where fruit is being produced and not cutting off these locations. In the winter, the structure of trees that drop their foliage is easier to see, making it easier to prune.

Carob is a little different. If we are trying to respect the carob pods because we want to harvest them or desire them as an ornamental feature, then it is relatively easy because of where they are produced.

Pods of the carob tree are produced from the trunk or large limbs, which makes pruning fairly easy. You just have to leave the short shoots rising from these locations alone. If you do not want the flowers or fruit, then remove these short shoots.

When flowers and fruit arise from the trunk or large limbs, it is referred to as cauliflory. There aren’t that many plants that do that in our climate. Keeping this in mind, you could prune anytime but avoid the heat of the summer.

Bob Morris is an associate professor with the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. Direct gardening questions to the master gardener hot line at 257-5555 or contact Morris by e-mail at morrisr@unce.unr.edu.