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As more gardeners face rising temperatures and increasing drought, it’s good to know that some edible plants love that weather. Thanks to a comment from Nina in our discussion about xeriscapes, we are going to learn about a delicious berry called agarita.  Ripe agarita berries (Clarence A. Rechenthin @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database) Public Domain Said to taste like a cross between strawberry and raspberry, this fruit of the desert has a lot to offer home gardeners. It is also popular with songbirds, and the spiny branches provide a haven to quail and many small mammals, improving biodiversity in your landscape. Agarita description Agarita (Mahonia trifoliolata) is a member of the barberry family. Like other evergreen barberries, this shrub tends to grow 3-6 feet tall and wide, though it can grow taller under the right conditions. The gray-blue-green leaves look (and feel) similar to holly with spines on the tips. The wood and fragrant flowers are bright yellow. Honeybees love using those flowers to make high-quality honey. The fruit is a pea-sized red berry often used to make jellies, syrups, and wine. .jpg) Agarita flowers (Dave Whitinger, All Things Plants) CC BY-SA 3.0 How to grow agarita Native to coastal south Texas, Arizona, and northern Mexico, agarita grows best in open, rocky areas with well-drained clay, loam, limestone, or caliche. According to Webster, caliche is “a mineral deposit of gravel sand, and nitrates, found especially in dry areas of South America.” We’ll learn more about that another day. Agarita is grown from seed. Those seeds require 2-3 months of cold stratification to germinate so that you can plant them in summer for a spring appearance. You can also start new agarita plants with sprouts that emerge from existing plants. Your agarita can be grown in full sun or light shade. Caring for agarita Agarita needs very little water. In fact, it doesn’t need much of anything. Once established, agarita makes an excellent hedge or thicket. Like Oregon grape, these spiny shrubs make excellent defensive plants.  Agarita leaves look worse than they feel (Stan Shebs) CC BY-SA 3.0 Agarita pests and diseases
Agarita has very few problems. The roots contain alkaloids that inhibit fungi, and It even thwarts deer! Leaf spots and rusts can occur, and agarita is an intermediate host for stem rust, which can cause significant problems for barley, oats, rye, and wheat, so plan accordingly. Try growing agarita in your landscape for some refreshing summer fruit. Have you ever seen two fruits growing together from the same stem?  Twin cherries (Jiaqian AirplaneFan) CC BY 3.0 Twinning commonly occurs among stone fruits but is also seen in apples, pears, kiwifruit, coconuts, and zucchini. You may even see fruit quadrupling. But it is better to prevent fruit doubling.  Golden zucchini twinning (Jonathunder) CC BY-SA 3.0 What does twinning look like? Conjoined fruits may share a little or a lot of one side. Those shared areas may be small, leaving the two fruits primarily separate. Or, they can share the entire length of the fruit. Either way, when these fruits are separated, they rot more quickly. .JPG) Twin lychees (B.navez) CC BY-SA 4.0  Coconut twinning (Didier Descouens) CC BY-SA 4.0. What causes twinning? Twinning is the result of environmental stresses. The fertilization of a single ovary usually results in one fruit. Frost damage can injure fruit buds before we even see them. Later in the season, heat and water stress can interfere with carpel formation. Carpels are the female reproductive parts of a flower (ovary, stigma, and style). This damage can result in flowers with multiple carpels that grow into conjoined fruits. Irregular irrigation and insufficient chill hours can cause twinning, too. .jpg) Conjoined mangos (Eliran t) CC BY-SA 4.0 How can twinning be prevented?
Select fruit tree varieties suited to your USDA Hardiness Zone and microclimate. Pay special attention to the number of chill hours required to produce fruit. As always, install your trees at the proper depth since healthy trees can protect themselves in many cases. Regular spring and summer irrigation and winter protection will also help prevent twinning. Twinned fruit should be removed as part of your normal fruit thinning as these fruits are more prone to pest and disease problems. If you end up with mature twinned fruit, take a photo and eat it. New Pest Alert! Are you seeing masses of red or red and black bugs in your garden? .jpg) Mediterranean Red Bug (Katja Schulz) CC BY 2.0 First seen in the U.S. in 2009, Mediterranean red bugs, or simply red bugs, have become a problem. Easily mistaken for boxelder and milkweed bugs, red bugs are something else altogether. Mediterranean red bug description Mature Mediterranean red bugs (Scantius aegyptius) are only 1/3 of an inch long. The head, legs, and antennae are black. The body is red with a distinct hourglass-like shape and dots on either side of the back. Nymphs are red. The black markings become more pronounced after each molt. Several lookalike bugs impact our gardens differently:
Damage caused by red bugs
Scientists are still learning about which plants are vulnerable to red bugs. Because these bugs eat knotweed and malva, you may be tempted to let them slide. That can backfire in the long run if we learn that many other annual plants and their seeds are vulnerable in a year or two. These bugs are extremely prolific, and the balance of controls between pests and beneficial insects (among other things) can be very delicate and easily disrupted. I think we can agree that there has been enough of that already. If you see a red bug, try to catch it and contact your local County Extension Office. |
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