Growing a hosta in Arizona
martyd215
14 years ago
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petzold6596
14 years agonjohnson333_centurytel_net
14 years agoRelated Discussions
Arizona Soil Issues? - Plants Won't Grow
Comments (11)I second the advice to get a soil test. It is relatively inexpensive, gives you a lot of information and comes back fairly quickly. You can get it through your U of A extension service, I think it is probably still up on Campbell. Until you do that, you're really feeling your way around in the dark. You should also let them know about your specific issues, there might be extra testing they can do for some common chemicals. Burning in and of itself should do no harm, only add to the alkalinity of the soil, but who knows what they used to suppress the fire...? No idea if that would affect it or no. Your soil will cake up if you are working wet clay, a big no-no. The mulch and compost is great for softening the soil and make it more moisture retentive, so checking it wouldn't be a big deal, and even then you can just scratch a little back. Mulching is *huge* in desert gardening, be it organic or even rock - anything to aid in cooling the roots, especially of non-desert plants of the type you're planting. I'm guessing you're saying that your soil is a mixture of sand and clay and not that you're mixing the two - that would = cement, and could be a part of the problem. Have you seen any of your plants growing well in your neighborhood? Also, longer term residents might be able to tell you if something happened on your site. But from your description, my best bet is that the holes that you're making in the caliche may not be sufficient to let the roots spread out; you might want to dig one of the dead plants out and see if it stretched out beyond the original root ball, or did they run into caliche immediately? You also want to test your drainage - caliche tends to form in sheets and if you had to get thru one, there is a good chance of another below it. Anywho, "they" now say that it's much more important to make a wider hole than a deep one, for the root spread problem precisely. BTW, I wouldn't waste my time asking folks at Lowe's for plant advice, although they put a few through some master gardener classes, few have the experience to do much more than scratch the surface of gardening. And steer manure... well.... unless it's really well composted, you're adding a lot of salt to an already salty soil. I saw an ad on Craig's list for horse manure today, you might think about that or the city of Tucson used to make compost out of their clippings and give it away. Hope this is helpful, best of luck to you!...See MoreGrowing corn in north central Arizona (4000ft elevation)
Comments (1)I would try your question in either the Arizona forum or the vegetable forum here on Gardenweb. I hope you find the answers you need....See MoreA low growing weed in Phoenix, Arizona
Comments (12)Bob, thanks for the better photos. I did browse photos on several of the Wildflower sites for Arizona, and didn't find a match. If you don't get a response here, you can get an ID by sending a note to the University of Arizona Herbarium. They have more than 420,000 specimens for reference, and part of their mission is to provide the public with plant identification services, free of charge. They would appreciate good photos of the flowers and leaves. They also ask for location (i.e. residential Phoenix), cultivation status (i.e. volunteer in yard), flower color, size, leaf arrangement etc. I would send the email request to the Herbarium Director, Shelley McMahon, at mcmahonm@Arizona.edu, and ask her for forward it to the appropriate person for response. There are also additional resources available at their site: University of Arizona Herbarium. This approach works well for any state, since they all have herbariums. Those herbariums are typically funded by government grants, so all should have free identification services. For example, if you search for Arkansas Herbariums, you may find there are about 8 in existence. Some are in State offices, and others are at Universities. When there are multiple choices, I usually choose the one that has the most herbarium specimens on hand (suggests that their resources will be good). Once you determine species, please post back here....See MoreHosta in arizona?
Comments (18)Well you definitely got me wondering looking at the pictures in the Hosta library, but the thing is they were bought several years apart. I got Rainbows End last year through Hallsons and I picked up Cherry Berry about 3or 4 years ago at a local nursery. I know plants do get labeled wrong, but both these would have had to been mislabeled years apart. There is no chance I mixed up the tags since they are in different areas and the CB tag has been on it since it was planted. I put the tags in when they are planted to keep track. Some of my older (10 yr or so) plants I had to go back and figure it out. I still am not exactly sure between my Blue Angel and Blue Mammoth, but CB and RE are labeled from the places they came from. Interesting to see how they will mature....See MoreBrandon Brock
8 years agoBrandon Brock
8 years agoMeoshee Jones
3 years agoj_yamnitz
last yearHU-696983029
8 months ago
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