NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665
January 13, 2000
Ron Smith, Extension Horticulturist
North Dakota State University
Q: Help! My Christmas cactus is limp. I've tried watering and not watering it, and nothing seems to make any difference. Any ideas? Maybe I should toss it. (Gettysburg, S.D., e-mail)
A: Unfortunately, when the plant does not respond to either regime, then it is either root rot or a vascular disease of some sort. Toss it and start anew.
Q: I am not a gardener as I live in an apartment, but I do have a few indoor plants. About eight years ago I brought home from Florida a miniature orange tree that bears fruit about the size of a walnut. I have had good luck with the tree indoors, and it has produced as many as 100 oranges in one season. Two years ago I cut it back rather severely because it was getting too big, and this year it again had 96 oranges. It measures about 30 inches tall by about 30 inches across. I have started more than a dozen new trees from the seeds taken from an orange, but none of them would bear fruit. (Fargo, N.D.)
A: Generally, fruit trees--especially citrus trees--will not bear fruit until they are mature. This means that your trees are enjoying an extended juvenility before settling down and bearing a "family" of fruit. You can hasten this maturing process by not being so good to the trees. Hold back on the fertilizer and water a little, and keep the trees in the same pots to encourage root binding. A couple of months of this benign maltreatment should get those juveniles to produce some fruit.
Q: I am wondering about an evergreen which grows on the lawn of some apartments in town. These trees are about 7 feet tall, almost egg shaped, with dense foliage. Could they be arborvitae? (Cando, N.D.)
A: Based on the sample you sent, that is what the trees are--arborvitaes.
Q: My garden is made up of heavy soil, mostly clay which gets hard to work with. I have sawdust available. If I spread this on the garden and rototilled it in this spring, would it help or hinder the soil? (Moorhead, Minn.)
A: Sawdust is an excellent soil conditioner. I've used it several times in my career as a horticulturist. The first time I used it, the sawdust was as fresh and white as the snow that is presently outside. Within a month, the plants were chlorotic. Being just a 15-year-old at the time, I didn't know what was happening. The extension agent came out and told me the planting needed extra nitrogen because the sawdust was too fresh. I applied urea, and that took care of it. The two other times I have since used it, the sawdust had weathered somewhat, so there was no nitrogen tie-up.
This advice is assuming, of course, that the sawdust has come from untreated lumber. If the lumber has been pressure-treated with a wood preservative, I do not suggest using it.
###
Do you have a gardening or houseplant question? Write to Hortiscope, Box 5051, NDSU Extension Service, Fargo, ND 58105 or e-mail to Ron Smith at ronsmith@ndsuext.nodak.edu.
Source: Ron Smith (701) 231-8161
ronsmith@ndsuext.nodak.edu
Editor: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136