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. Our goal is to provide answers that suit the specific lifestyle wherever someone lives in Arizona.
Q: I have a Parry’s agave in my yard as well as a soaptree yucca. Both are sending up giant stalks out of the middle of the plant. People tell me that I need to cut off the stalks right now or the plants will die. Is that true?
A. The soaptree yucca will not die whether you cut off the flowering stalk or not. So go ahead and enjoy its blooms.
But your entire agave will die once it has finished flowering whether you cut off the stalk or not. That’s because the agave has put all of its energy into producing the stalk that comes out of the center of this rosette-shaped plant. This is generally true of most agaves. But on the plus side, agaves produce little “pups” or baby agaves that surround the central plant. You can dig up those pups and plant them elsewhere or allow them to grow up into mature agaves.
The length of life for an agave depends on what kind of an agave it is and what the soil and climate are like in your yard. Some varieties are called “century plants,” but they rarely, if ever, live that long.
Q: I live in the Rita Ranch area, and someone planted a mesquite in my front yard about 15 feet away from the house? Is that too close to my home? Will the roots of the tree get into my water or sewage pipes?
A: Fifteen feet is probably far enough away from your home to avoid any problems with roots invading your plumbing. One way to keep the roots of the tree from spreading out to find new water sources is to be sure to water frequently and deeply. If you do that, you probably won’t have any problems.
If you’re worried about the location of a tree, you can also have a tree or landscape company install a root barrier between your tree and the hardscape elements or plumbing that you want to protect. Then, as the tree grows and its roots spread out, they will be deflected away from your sidewalk, fence or building. These barriers can be installed when you plant a tree or even afterward.
Tree companies tell us that tree roots don’t really “look” for plumbing lines underground; what they do is exploit existing leaks. Roots in the soil keep growing and if they detect a water source, like moisture from leak, they then follow it to the break in the pipe and breach it. Then you can have plumbing problems due to roots inside pipes.
Q: I am trying to help a friend find the cleanout for her drainage system. The problem is that she wants to drain her swimming pool, and the city wants her to run the old pool water out through the cleanout. But my friend had a bunch of river rocks dumped into her yard, and she seems to have covered up this outlet. How can I find it now? The house is in a subdivision, built about 10 or 11 years ago.
A: You can do a search online with Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department for sanitary sewer connection records, using the friend’s address: 1.usa.gov/1bZVpsl
If that process doesn’t work, try calling the agency with your questions. Since the home is relatively new, it shouldn’t be too hard to get help from the county on this issue.
