Category Archives: plant care

fertilizing, Master Gardener's, organic fertilizers, plant care, soil

Soil Testing & Monterey Bay Master Gardener’s

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Master Gardeners rock. I was inspired by the fabulous gardens that I saw on their 2010 Masters Garden Tour and even wrote a column about some of them. Attending the Smart Gardening Fair when it was sponsored by the Monterey Bay Master Gardeners at Skypark in Scotts Valley was always an educational experience. I also read the informative newsletters available on their website. So it was with the same enthusiasm that I attended  the quarterly Monterey Bay Master Gardener meeting earlier this month.

Held at the University of California Cooperative Extension office in Watsonville and open to the public, the meeting lived up the the Master Gardener slogan to "Cultivate Knowledge... by extending research-based horticultural information". The speaker was Cliff Low, owner of Perry Laboratory in Watsonville. If you have ever wondered why your hedge is languishing despite your exquisite care you may need his services.

The lab provides horticultural advising and testing of soil, irrigation water and plant tissue. Cliff works with grape growers in the wine industry, strawberry and cut flower growers and organic farmers as well as home owners and landscape professionals. He can provide fertilizer recommendation for conventional or organic amendments based on soil tests for basic fertility, micronutrients, salinity and alkalinity.

Cliff combines his formal education with real-life solutions and shared some interesting tidbits of his horticultural  knowledge. Grapes, for instance, are prone to zinc and boron deficiencies and may need foliar feeding of these micronutrients. Excess sodium usually only occurs in clay soils. Mediterranean plants thrive in low phosphorus and slightly acidic soils.

I also learned that rose growers for the cut flower industry in this area now use coconut coir as a growing medium. Coir, which is the hair of the coconut shell, is also being used by gardeners as a substitute for peat moss. Although peat moss has natural anti-microbial properties, it is harvested from rapidly depleting peat lands and is not sustainable. Coir has similar properties to peat as a soil amendment and the high potassium chloride in coconuts may guard against garden pests as it does in coconut trees. The down side is the cost of shipping as most coir comes from Sri Lanka, Mexico and the Philippines. Also weed seeds are being imported in with the coir. Still it is the medium of choice for organic farmers.

If you have a well you already know this but it was interesting to me to learn that a well high in iron actually helps plants by providing this element that they need anyway. Slime bacteria that is associated with iron wells, however, is a dangerous health risk and the use of chlorine from household bleach to treat it counters this beneficial affect.

Much can be learned from a soil test provided by Perry Laboratory but If you choose to test your own soil for nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, be sure your reagent powder is fresh, advised Cliff. Last seasons left over capsules are not reliable. Meters to measure pH are not very accurate either unless the soil sample is uniformly dry. You can contact Perry Lab at (831) 722-7606 or http://perrylaboratory.com

My thanks to Monterey Bay Master Gardeners who offer so much for the home gardener. You can call their hotline (831) 763-8007 for horticultural advice. Their next Master Gardener Training class starts in January 2012. Check out their fall newsletter for articles ranging from integrated plant management techniques for Light Brown apple moth control to the successes and failures this year in members own gardens to how bunny rabbits may be the cause of your plant losses.

 

plant care

Indicator Plants

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If you’re like me you’ve caught a case of pre-spring fever. How can we help it when the flowering plums almost overnight are cloaked in bright pink blossoms and clumps of bright yellow daffodils turning their faces to the sun? If you have allergies, it’s no secret that every acacia in the county is blooming. It’s fascinating to mark time with events in the botanic world. There’s even a word for it- Phenology. Websites like USA National Phenology Network at http://www.usanpn.org/  offer lots of information on the subject.

When do they occur each year? Phenology is a real science that has many applications. In farming and gardening, phenology is used chiefly for planting times and pest control. Certain plants give a cue, by blooming or leafing out, that it’s time for certain activities, such as sowing particular crops or insect emergence and pest control.  Often the common denominator is the temperature.

Indicator plants are often used to look for a particular pest and manage it in its most vulnerable stages. They can also be used to time the planting of vegetables, apply fertilizer, prune and so on. Here are some common garden plants and what they indicate:

When daffodils begin to bloom, sow peas.
When dandelions bloom, plant spinach, beets and carrots.
When lilac leaves are the size of a mouse’s ear, sow peas, lettuce and other cool-weather crops.
When lilacs are in full bloom, plant beans.
Once lilacs have faded, plants squash and cucumbers.
When apple trees shed their petals, sow corn.
When dogwoods are in full bloom, plant tomatoes, peppers and early corn.
When bearded iris are in bloom, plant peppers and eggplants.
When locust and spirea bloom, plant zinnia and marigolds.

When forsythia and crocus bloom, crabgrass is germinating. When this happens the soil temperature at a depth of 4" is 55 degrees. Treat with a pre-emergent.
When crocus bloom, prune roses and feed your lawn.
Mexican bean beetle larvae appear when foxglove flowers open.

Record your own observations at  Project BudBurst at http://neoninc.org/budburst/index.php  to start a data base for our area. Another great site is National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service  at http://attra.ncat.org/index.php.  Sites like these can also help you design orchards for pollination and ripening sequence, design for bee forage plantings, design perennial flower beds and wildflower plantings as well as plantings to attract beneficial insects and enhance natural biological control. How cool is that?

flowering shrubs, fruit trees, plant care, pruning tips, roses

Time to Prune Roses, Fruit trees and Flowering Shrubs

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I’ll be the first to admit it’s hard to bundle yourself up to go out and work in the garden on a cold winter day. Bright sunshine sure helps but still it’s not t-shirt weather yet. It helps to think how good that fresh air will feel, not to mention that working in the garden relieves stress. And think about all that great exercise you get without getting on the boring treadmill.

Depending on your weight and how vigorous you work, one hour of gardening can burn up about 272 calories. Transplant a shrub, and the number of calories burned could jump to an incredible 340 calories per hour. Just think of that extra helping of potatoes-au-gratin you had over the holidays.

There’s plenty to do this time of year. Neaten things up by removing rotting perennials and sweep the leaves and debris off the driveway and your roof. 

It’s time to prune fruit trees and smother overwintering eggs and insects by spraying with horticultural oil. Combine your spray with lime-sulfur ( except on apricot trees ) to kill fungal disease spores like the ones that cause peach-leaf curl.  has also been shown to supress fungal diseases.You’ll want to do this again when the buds swell but before they open ( about Valentine’s Day )

Control large vines like overgrown honeysuckle, pink jasmine,  morning glory, passion vine, potato vine and trumpet creeper by radically thinning or even cutting back low to the ground if they are a big, tangled mess. Wait until after flowering to heavily prune spring-blooming vines such as wisteria.

Pruning Roses
When buds along rose canes begin to swell, prune repeat flowering roses by removing spindly or diseased shoots and dead wood. Do this before they start leafing out which wastes plant energy. Cut back the remaining stems by about a third, cutting canes at a 45-degree angle just above an outward facing bud. Don’t worry whether your pruning job is perfect. Roses are super forgiving and you can trim them up again later. You want to produce lots of roses not just a few of exhibition size. Aim for a vase-shaped  bush with an open center.

Prune old garden roses that bloom once in the spring after flowering.
Climbing roses require little pruning. Cut out extra stems if there are too many and also cut back long established canes to about the place where they are slightly thicker than a pencil. Then cut each side stem down to several inches. This will cause the cane to flower along its complete length for a beautiful spring display.

If any old leaves still cling to the plant, remove them. Rake up any debris beneath the plant and discard to eliminate overwintering fungus spores. It’s a good idea to spray both the bare plant and the surrounding soil with a combination organic horticultural oil to smother overwintering insect eggs and a dormant spray like lime-sulfur to kill fungus spores. If you usually have a problem only with black spot you can use a mixture of 1 teaspoon baking soda with a few drops of light oil in 1 quart water and spraying every 7 to 10 days.  Thoroughly coat the trunk, branches and twigs.

Other tasks to do in the garden in January:

Cut back hydrangeas if you haven’t already done so. Apply soil sulfur, aluminum sulfate or other acidifier if you want to encourage blue flowers.

Cut back summer flowering deciduous shrubs and vines.  Don’t prune spring flowering varieties like lilac, flowering cherry, plum and crabapple, rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias, weigela and spirea until after flowering or you can cut some during flowering to bring in cuttings for bouquets.