by Larry Williams | Jul 15, 2021
Q. One of my two fig trees has produced a few figs. The other one, which is the largest and healthiest tree, has never had a fig on it. Both where planted six years ago. Why is it not producing?
Mature fig tree with fruit. Photo credit: Larry Williams
A. It may be a matter of age and being overly vigorous. When a fruit tree is younger, it puts most of its energy into producing leaves and shoots. Until the plant becomes mature and slows down in the production of leaves and shoots, it will produce few to no fruit. It may take a year or two more for your tree to slowly and gradually switch from producing mostly leaves and shoots to producing and maturing some fruit. Patience is needed.
Be careful to not overdo it in fertilizing and/or pruning your fig tree. Too much fertilizer, especially nitrogen, or severely pruning the tree will result in the tree becoming overly vigorous at the expense of setting and maturing fruit. This includes fertilizer that the tree may pull up from a nearby lawn area. A tree’s roots will grow outward two to three times beyond its branch spread into adjacent lawn areas.
The end result of being heavy handed with fertilizing and/or overdoing it in pruning is the same – it forces the plant to become overly vigorous in producing leaves and shoots at the expense of producing and maturing fruit.
In addition, the following is taken from an Extension publication on figs and includes the most common reasons for lack of fruiting, in order of importance.
- Young, vigorous plants and over-fertilized plants will often produce fruit that drops off before maturing. If plants are excessively vigorous, stop fertilizing them. Quite often, three of four years may pass before the plant matures a crop because figs have a long juvenile period before producing edible quality fruit.
- Dry, hot periods that occur before ripening can cause poor fruit quality. If this is the case, mulching and supplemental watering during dry spells will reduce the problem.
- The variety Celeste will often drop fruit prematurely in hot weather regardless of the quality of plant care. However, it is still a good variety to grow.
- An infestation of root-knot nematodes can intensify the problem when conditions are as described in item 2.
- You could have a fig tree that requires cross-pollination by a special wasp. This is a rare problem. If this is the case, then it will never set a good crop. The best way to resolve this is to replace the plant with a rooted shoot of a neighbor’s plant you know produces a good crop each year.
by Mary Salinas | Jul 15, 2021
Brown-eyed Susan makes a nice addition to a pollinator garden. This one is visited by a scoliid wasp, a parasitoid of soil-inhabiting scarab beetle larvae. Photo credit: Mary Salinas, UF/IFAS Extension.
Black-eyed Susan, Rudbeckia hirta, has been a very popular garden perennial for generations. Fewer gardeners have experience with, or even heard of its’ close relative, brown-eyed Susan, Rudbeckia triloba. So, what is the difference between them?
- Brown-eyed Susan has more numerous flowers and generally flowers for a longer period in spring, summer, and fall.
- Black-eyed Susan has bigger flowers and bigger leaves.
- Both species are perennial, but the brown-eyed Susan tends to die out sooner after a few years. The good news is that both readily spread through seed to replace older plants.
Brown-eyed Susan. Photo credit: Mary Salinas, UF/IFAS Extension.
Brown-eyed Susan is native to the eastern and central United States and, although native to Florida, it has only been vouchered in the wild in 5 counties in Florida. Gardeners can find seed and plants readily online and at a few native plant nurseries. It is best to try to source wildflower seed from plants grown in the same region. Brown-eyed Susan seed from plants grown in Nebraska or Michigan may not be as well adapted to the Florida environment as locally grown seed.
If you want to add this pollinator attracting perennial to your garden, choose a spot that is sunny or partly sunny. Although it prefers moist soil, brown eyed Susan adapts to most soil types and is drought tolerant after establishment.
by Stephen Greer | Jul 1, 2021
Photo Courtesy: Stephen Greer
Lawn areas come in all sizes and shapes. Some are large open expanses providing long views and others are smaller versions surrounded by shrubs and trees creating a more private and secluded setting. There are a number of reasons for reducing the size of a lawn with some coming into play with your decisions. A home lawn is often an important part of the landscape that provides a place to play outdoors from picnicking, tossing the ball to taking a quite stroll.
Maintaining a healthy lawn is important to an overall performance of this part of the landscape. Several factors are involved in the success in keeping a strong and resilient lawn. Understanding the needs of a grass to remain healthy involve soil testing to address soil pH and nutrient needs plus water challenges. Misuse of fertilizer and over irrigation can be costly to you and to the overall health of the lawn. These decisions can lead to reducing lawn size to managing cost or removing underused areas.
There are big benefits to reducing your lawn from saving time in mowing, trimming and other manicuring needs to saving energy costs involving the lawn mower not to mention reducing pollution from the mower or weed eater. The reduced amounts of pesticides needed to manage weeds and disease to the lawn saves time and money.
Another way to look at the reducing the size of our lawn is there will be more space for expanding plant beds and potential tree placement. These settings increase the opportunities for a more biodiverse landscape providing shelter, protection and food options for birds and other wildlife.
Photo Courtesy: Stephen Greer
The lawn can serve as a transition space that leads from one garden room space to another, while still offering a location to bring the lawn chair out to enjoy all that is around your lawn. Lawns and the landscape are ever changing spaces, especially as your trees and shrubs grow and mature to sizes that can directly impact the lawn performance. Often levels of shade will diminish edges and other areas of the lawn. This often will define the reduction of the lawn size moving going forward. Just remember that lawns and landscapes occupy a three-dimensional space involving the horizontal, vertical and overhead spaces. Just look around and think about what is best for you, your family and the setting.Are you more interested in developing other parts of the landscape? With many of us spending more time at home over the last year plus it gave time to think about the outdoor areas. Growing our own vegetables may be a new or expanding part of the landscape with the use of raised beds or interplanting into the existing landscape. Gardening can assist in reducing stress while at the same time providing that fresh tomato, lettuce, herbs and other fun healthy produce.
What ever your decisions are enjoy the lawn and landscape. For additional information, contact your local University of Florida IFAS Extension office located in your county.
by Julie McConnell | Jun 3, 2021
If you are looking for an interesting native plant that attracts wildlife and makes a statement, look no further than Weeping Yaupon Holly Ilex vomitoria ‘Pendula’. The weeping growth habit with olive green leaves and white bark are attractive year-round. A bonus are the showy bright red berries that attract birds in the fall and winter. It is a cultivar of Yaupon Holly Ilex vomitoria which is tolerant of variable light and soil conditions making it a very adaptable plant.
Weeping Yaupon is a small evergreen tree that grows 15-30 feet tall with a mature width of 6-12 feet. Once established it has a high tolerance to drought conditions and is also able to sustain salt spray making it a good fit for coastal landscapes.
For more information visit https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/ST312
by Pat Williams | May 27, 2021
Our Gardening in the Panhandle blogs cover many horticultural topics concerning yards, however let us not forget about properties that contain a body of water (pond, lake, retention or detention basin, stream, river or Gulf of Mexico). Out of the nine Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ principles, five directly deal with water quality. Those principles are #2 Water Efficiently, #3 Fertilize Appropriately, #6 Manage Yard Pests Responsibly, #8 Prevent Stormwater Runoff, and #9 Protect the Waterfront. An easy argument can be made that the remaining four principles (#1 Right Plant, Right Place, #4 Mulch, #5 Attract Wildlife, and #7 Recycle) can also impact water quality on your properties.
Photo Credit: University of Florida/IFAS Extension
The quickest and easiest way to start improving water quality is setting up a maintenance-free zone along your shore. At minimum, you should keep all chemicals 10′ away from the water’s edge and increase that distance as your slope becomes steeper. Chemicals include all fertilizers (#3) and any pesticides/herbicides (#6) meant for the landscape (there are times when situations arise where treatment of the water is warranted). If you must fertilize up slope, make sure to reduce irrigation (#2) to about 25% of normal the first time which keeps the fertilizer from dissolving and running down your slope’s surface (#9).
Cascades Park in Tallahassee, FL.
If possible replace turfgrass with a no mow zone containing plants adapted for shorelines to prevent applications of fertilizer and chemicals. Plants (#1) other than turfgrass will have deeper roots, stabilize the bank better and absorb more chemicals before entering the water. These taller plants in turn can become habitats (#5) for birds and other specimens which can increase your ecosystem’s biodiversity. Some properties have collection swales or low lying areas where water pools and then flows into the water. It is best to understand how water flows through the property and reduce chemicals in those areas too (#8).
Heavy rains caused water levels to raise around this pond and decomposing leaf litter added a film over the pond.
As gardeners, we tend to compost our leaves and yard debris (#7) plus use mulch (#4) to reduce water loss from our soils. Keep mulches and compost piles away from flood zones and when possible keep leaves from washing into your water as they can create films on the surface. Never allow grass clippings to land on water surfaces as they will add nutrients when tissue decays.
As Florida continues to grow, we all must play an important role in keeping our water clean and safe for us, animals, birds, and aquatic life. If you have questions on improving your water quality, please contact your local county Extension Agent or Water Regional Specialized Agent (RSA). For additional information visit these other sites.
Protecting Florida’s Water Resources: https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/care/florida-friendly-landscapes/floridas-water-resources.html
Living on Water’s Edge: http://www.sarasota.wateratlas.usf.edu/upload/documents/LivingontheWatersEdgeFreshwater.pdf
Urban Fertilizer Ordinances in the Context of Environmental Horticulture and Water Quality Extension Programs: Frequently Asked Questions: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/AE534
by Sheila Dunning | May 6, 2021
Some very exciting things have come from all the computer time that COVID-19 forced upon the University of Florida technology specialists – new updated websites. If you haven’t searched for UF publications or Florida-Friendly Landscaping advice in a while, you will be pleasantly surprised at what is available.
UF/IFAS has had a long history of providing electronic access to publications, beginning in the early 1990s when it began producing handbooks of documents on CD-ROMS. By the mid-90s the Florida Agricultural Information Retrieval System (FAIRS) website went online. In 1998, the name was changed to Extension Data Information Source (EDIS) to reflect changes in its scope and function. EDIS became the single source for all Extension publications and was also adapted to permit Extension units to print documents on an as-needed basis. More recently in 2006, the UF/IFAS Solutions for Your Life web initiative has brought EDIS publications together with other valuable web resources. Now, after 25 years as a valuable online resource from UF/IFAS, the EDIS website has been rebranded as Ask IFAS. The new site is modern, mobile-friendly and will make Extension publications even easier to find. There are many new features including videos and two Ask IFAS specific indexes: Experts and Topics. The new indexes enable users to find contact information for specific agents and specialists by their name or department. Information by individual topics is easier to search also. Ask IFAS carries on EDIS’ role as a comprehensive, single-source repository of all current UF/IFAS numbered peer-reviewed publications. Each year, visitors to the EDIS website access one of over 6,500 publication titles more than 17.5 million times.
The deactivated_site website will soon be taken down. But, the nine principles, plant database and recorded useful information has been updated and posted on the Florida-Friendly Landscaping site. 
https://ffl.ifas.ufl.edu/. Information is organized by specific user groups, such as Home Landscapes, Community Landscape and Landscape Professionals. By utilizing the appropriate category, individuals can submit questions, join webinars and locate Florida-Friendly Certified Professionals. Okaloosa and Bay counties have individuals that have completed the required training. The criteria for earning Florida-Friendly status for residential or commercial landscapes is outlined on the website as well. All nine principles provide tips on ways to apply practical techniques in any landscape. Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ in a Minute is a one-minute radio show that shares practical tips on Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ based on University of Florida horticultural research. The show airs twice every weekday and all shows are supported with helpful online links for more information. Shows are recorded for any time viewing at a later date. Finally, the Florida-Friendly Plant Guide can be tailored by zip code and the app for your phone is free to download. https://ffl.ifas.ufl.edu/resources/apps/. There is even a toxic plant and butterfly garden app.
