Each year, thousands of Arizona residents email or call Rosie Romero’s radio show with questions about everything from preventing fires in their chimneys to getting rid of tree roots invading their sewer system. His goal is to provide answers that suit the specific lifestyle wherever someone lives in Arizona.
QUESTION: I have baby Mexican fan palms growing among the rocks around my house. Can I dig them up and transplant them somewhere else in my yard?
ANSWER: Mexican — sometimes called Washingtonia — fan palms are prolific seed producers and their seedlings can easily be transplanted. In fact, palms generally are one of the easiest things to move around in your yard. They do, of course, get to be 30 to 40 feet tall and can require extensive pruning; so you want to pick the right spot for their new home. Actually, they like to be moved when it’s warm; so the hotter the better. Now might not be the right time to put them into the ground. However, if you have seedlings, you might plant them in pots first so they can get established. Then you can move them to a permanent location later in warmer weather.
Q: I have a beautiful Texas ebony tree; it’s very large and has a lot of thick foliage. Short of getting a chainsaw and cutting it down, how can I discourage the doves from roosting there and making a big mess under the tree?
A: Sometimes lighting up the tree with strings of lights can get them to go away. You can also discourage them from landing on the tree by spreading branches with a sticky bird repellent that comes in a non-drying form. You can try squirting water on them. The good news is that doves are fairly temporary and won’t be around much now that winter is arriving. Probably thinning out the tree and opening up the canopy some more will help as well. But the Texas ebony is indeed very thick and abundant in foliage, and it will probably always be a great place for birds to build their nests.
Q: We have a relatively flat roof on our house that is covered with foam but that needs to have an elastomeric coating put over the foam every few years. But if I have solar panels installed on the roof, how do I maintain that covering that lies under the panels? How can they spread the coating on the foam?
A: Solar companies generally install the panels on a system of brackets so that the panels are elevated above the roof. The panels are also tilted to take advantage of the angle of the sunshine. That means that the elastomeric coating for your foam roof can probably be wet- mopped under the panel structure.
Q: What seems to be a woodpecker with stripes on its back keeps attacking my 4-year-old mesquite. It keeps pecking holes into the bark. Is that going to harm my tree?
A: That sounds like our old friend the Gila woodpecker. It can do a lot of damage by pecking through the bark to stimulate the flow of sap which it feeds on. It makes one hole and then moves about a quarter-inch away to do it again. A lot of people think that these holes are insect holes, but actually, they are holes made by birds. You don’t want these holes to girdle an entire branch of the tree. So wrap those affected branches with burlap to prevent more damage. Woodpeckers can also cause damage to hybrid palo verdes and actually strip the bark off the trees at times.
