More Fall Work

November 1, 2011

The local weekend paper was similar to my last blog listing several items that should be done in the garden this fall.  I commented on vegetables, and now need to write about ornamentals. The Gannett Media writer Bill Cary wrote that now is the time to control weeds.  He is very correct.  Fall is the best time to kill broadleaf weeds in lawns, gardens anywhere you want them controlled.  The herbicide will be taken down into the roots where it will kill the roots.  Most perennials store sugars in the roots to stay alive during their dormant period over winter.  When they have the herbicide in the roots they are more easily killed as well as winter being a help for weed control.    

 

Fall cleanup is a time to make life easier in the spring.  The plants don’t care whether the dead tops are removed in the spring or fall.  The garden may look neater clean than leaving old dead vegetation through out the winter.  Bill Cary suggests that many of perennial plants should be left because they have seeds that will feed the birds through the winter.  I haven’t specialized in feeding birds, but Bill is correct that leaving vegetation will attract wildlife.  The neighborhood deer make regular stops though the winter at all the spots where vegetation is showing.   

Fall is the best time to plant perennial plants.  November in the northern states may be a little late but in the southern states is a perfect time.  The roots have time to get well established before the hot summer months.  Perennial bulbs should be planted in the fall.  Those are daffodils, tulips, crocuses, and hyacinths.  A year ago in the fall I thinned out some miniature irises that were very crowded.  The harvested irises roots planted in new locations were no longer quite as miniature when they were not crowded. 

 

Tender bulb perennials should be removed before fall freeze-up to replant in spring.  Those would be cannas, dahlias, gladiolas, and begonias.  For 20 years in Ohio I had gladiolas that were able to survive year to year along a retaining wall that faced south.  The sun on the retaining wall protected the soil from freezing.  Year after year they required no more care than to occasionally thin the bulbs that multiplied profusely.   The small new bulbs generally didn’t have enough strength to produce a good gladiola flower stalk. 

One flower, from a bulb, I have never tried, but should is amaryllis.  It appears this should be planted in the spring in northern climates.  Any information you have would be appreciated. This is from the website:  http://www.amaryllis.com/pac.htm

Amaryllis-One of a Kind

Of all flowering bulbs, amaryllis are the easiest to bring to bloom.  This can be accomplished indoors or out, and over an extended period of time.  The amaryllis originated in South America's tropical regions and has the botanical name Hippeastrum.  The large flowers and ease with which they can be brought to bloom make amaryllis popular and in demand worldwide.  The amaryllis comes in many beautiful varieties including various shades of red, white, pink, salmon and orange.  There are also many striped and multicolored varieties, usually combining shades of pink or red with white.

The Garden Doc

Fall Gardening

October 27, 2011

My neighbor for several years grew a garden.  About early September he would harvest everything, and clear the garden spot in preparation for planting the following year.  He lost a lot of good fall vegetables.  Sarah and Brian, my daughter and son-in-law are still getting zucchini squash from the few plants they planted early spring.  This may be a record for zucchini productivity, but it still chugs along, awaiting the final killing frost.  Several plants will continue to grow and produce until a hard frost kills them. 

Every week since mid September my raspberries have produced 1 to 2 cups of nice disease free berries.  Berry harvest measurement is inaccurate due to the handful I eat every day or two when I walk by.  The last handful was yesterday with a few more berries this morning.   This fall has been quite mild with only some light frosts.  There are more berries to ripen but our chances for many more are slim.  Last year we had a hard frost late September that ended all berry production. 

The most productive zucchinis in the world with a Granddaughter

With planning and mid summer planting several crops do very well into the fall.  Simply look at the days to harvest on the seed package, calculate back from the average frost day and plant.  This is usually sometime in late July or August.  Some crops that grow well planted for fall harvests are Swiss chard, mustard greens, peas and lettuce.  Beets do well planted mid to late summer for a new crop through the fall until deep freezes end the season.  My fall harvested beets grew better than spring planted beets.  Short season carrots will grow very well into the fall.  My spring planted carrots continue to grow in the cool fall months.  After a short drought during August, two inches of rain fell in September.  The carrots doubled in size and some split after they rapidly expanded with the excess moisture.  Some carrots reached 4 inches in diameter.  A later planting would have provided normal size carrots in fall.

Cole crops grow well in the fall months and can withstand heavy frosts.  Early planted brussel sprouts keep producing until temperatures get below 20 F.  Cabbage and broccoli planted mid summer can withstand temperatures to 20 F or sometimes down as low as 15 F.  As a new graduate student and citizen of the great city of Columbus, OH, I visited a friends place who had a broccoli plant that had survived the cold weather clear into December.  There was a nice 4 inch head on the plant.

Radishes planted late can be very tasty as well as being a soil structure enhancement.  A few years ago tillage radishes started to be grown after a crop was harvested in agriculture fields.  The radishes are the long icicle types or Japanese types that grow a deep root that will penetrate deep to increase water penetration after the radish is harvested, eaten by cattle, or just dies due to freezing.  If the weather is mild through the winter and they don’t freeze, they can simply be tilled up in the spring.  There is a chemical in radishes that may be very helpful and provide a natural control of nematodes, a microscopic worm that feeds on plant roots.  Crops grown after a planting of tillage radishes usually have a good yield bump. 

The Garden Doc

Apple harvest

October 17,

Go to the farm market or your local orchard and taste all the varieties of fresh apples you can find.  Here are some of my favorites and assessment of varieties.

My sister has raved on about Honey Crisp.  Yes, they are excellent.  They are firm, sweet, tangy, crispy, delicious with a taste that hangs around, and more.  I have two trees, the first got eaten off by deer twice, even when they left other varieties and I planted the second Honey Crisp in a fence.  The deer know what is good.  The other produced apples last year.  The first is now growing inside the fence.  One online cooking guide states they loose their flavor when cooked.  If they lose flavor, it must make the air smell great.  There is finally enough Honey Crisp around that they were running a $1.69/lb sale locally.  Honey Crisp was developed by Univ. of Minnesota and can only be propagated under license.

SweeTango is the newest variety from University of Minnesota crossing Honey Crisp and Zestar.  I tasted my first SweeTango last year.  They are far and away the best apple I have ever eaten.  I purchased a whole bag and savored them one a day until gone.  There were a few available in my local Pic-n-Save this year. Any grower who has SweeTangos for sale is doing well at $2.99 a pound.  Do you cook with them?  Why bother, just eat them fresh.  Check out www.sweetango.com.

The apple I purchase most often is Gala.  Firm, crisp, good flavor and it is an all around good apple.  It was first grown in New Zealand, then later patented in the US.  (How did that happen?)  Now there are several ‘sports’ of Gala apples with slight variations.  This is an apple that is rated number 2 behind the old standard Red Delicious, which I never buy at a grocer.  A good Red Delicious is a very good apple, but when stored and sold in bags they leave something to be desired.  I have never gone wrong buying Gala apples alone or in the 3 lb bags.  I use them in cooking.

Any of the standard apples in a store with a good produce section should be good.  The ones I occasionally choose after Gala are Fuji, Braeburn, Cameo, and Jonathon. Once I found one called Ambrosia.  It was very good, but I only saw it once. If you can find a good Winesap, it is considered the best by many, but it is very late.  One of the tartest apples is Granny Smith.  I try to avoid green skinned apples for fresh eating, but it is great for cooking as demonstrated Sunday by my son Ben in one of my favorite deserts, apple crisp.  I never tire of apple crisp, warm with fresh vanilla ice cream melting over it.

As a youth, we had Transparent apples trees around.  They are very early and quickly ripened from green to yellow and fell off of the tree.  I longed for a good apple as summer came.  Transparent apples may be the earliest apple variety of the season.  That was before apples could be stored well and well before they were shipped around the world.  They make delicious apple sauce.

My Liberty apple had two apples this year.  They were good.  I never sprayed them and they had no disease and no insects.  For just a good easy apple tree to grow and enjoy, try Liberty or.  It is known for very low disease and no apple scab.

Earlier I bragged, and rightfully so, about SweeTango, but there is one apple that may rival it for over all eating quality, Red Astrachan.  My grandfather had a tree in his yard.  They are tart, maybe the tartest of eating apples, sweet, and become overripe in the shortest time of any variety, then fall from the tree.  They make delicious pies and my mother made apple sauce from them.  Seriously, they went from ripe to overripe in a day or two.  What a wonderful apple, brought to the US from Russia in the 1830’s!  If I had space, this variety would be in my yard.  It doesn’t store at all and will never be shipped.

One of the best all around cooking and eating apples is Golden Delicious.  They keep their integrity when sliced and cooked.  They maintain good flavor and store well.  If I were making apple sauce or apple juice, this would be my first choice.  I often mix apple varieties for pies, apple crisps, sauce and for juice.  Having a good portion of the apples as Golden Delicious really rounds out the taste to be full and flavorful.  Good ripe Golden Delicious apples are quite sweet with firm but not hard flesh.  Rome apples are also bragged as great cooking apples.  They look great and cook well but are far from my favorite for eating fresh.

One of my favorite ways to eat and serve apples is fried.  The recipe below is great for a morning side dish with toast and eggs.

Fried Apple Recipe.

5 apples peeled and sliced

About 1/3 stick of butter {Enough to fry the apples}

1/3 cup of sugar

1/4 cup of flour

Fry the apples in melted butter until they become translucent.  Stir in the sugar and flour until it becomes the consistency of gravy.  Serve hot.  Serves about 4 people.

Fall harvest and gardening

Sept. 29

Should have put all these in the open cars at church.  Lauren is pleased.

I apologize for the few weeks on vacation.

The first frost of fall was light, just touching the sensitive leaves on a few garden plants.  The days are short and the temperatures are lowering.  What grows in the fall?

BEETS.  Six weeks before the expected frost a new batch of red beets was planted.  Beets mature time is listed as 55 days.  They are right on track with root bulbs at 2 to 3 inches.  They have grown beautifully until a deer ate off the tops of about ¼ of the plants.  The bulbs are still untouched.

PARSNIPS.  Last year a huge crop of parsnips was grown.  Some of the roots were about 4 inches in diameter and about 18 inches long.  For parsnip lovers they were a delight.  Parsnips are often much sweeter when allowed to overwinter in the ground and harvested in the spring.  That turned out to be true.  The unharvested plants grew back and went to seed this year.  For those who keep there own seeds, they were very easy to collect.  In far north climates a thick layer of straw or other mulch may help the parsnips survive the extreme cold.  A good layer of snow is also a good protector.

CARROTS.  In some climates carrots will overwinter well in the soil.  Like parsnips they may become sweeter over the winter.  They may be dug throughout the winter if the soil is not frozen.  Next spring the carrots will grow new tops and a seed stock will emerge producing new seeds.  After the seed stock emerges the carrots become woody and not very edible.  Carrots will overwinter better in soil than in a bag.  The next best way to store harvested carrots is cleaned and in a very cool fridge. 

GARLIC.  Fall is the time to plant garlic.  Garlic is a cool season perennial.  Plant now and the garlic bulbs will grow into maturity next summer.  Varieties that do well in cold north climates are the hardneck varieties; Russian Red, Spanish Roja, Chesnock Red, and Giant Siberian are cold hardy and have a milder flavor.  The softneck varieties are less winter tolerant.  Softneck garlic varieties are Italian Late and Silver Rose. Plant the bulb with the root end down.  A garlic bulb has several cloves.  Plant each clove separately and each will produce a new bulb.  Plant about 2 to 3 inches deep about 4 inches apart.  Garlic needs a cold period before it will grow a new bulb.  If left unharvested the next year, the cloves will start to grow next fall.

PUMPKINS AND SQUASH.  The first squash was harvested but unfortunately it was not yet mature.  The first pumpkin was completely orange and is sitting on the front step.  If you want pumpkins and squash to store well, cut the stems just below where they are attached to the vines.  Leave unripe fruit on the vine and it may well mature before freeze-up.  After harvesting store them in a cool dry environment.  They will store for a long time. 



A zinnia, dusted with pollen, from my garden. Photo by Janet.



The Fruits of Gardening

Aug. 10, 2011

Just before a week on the road I harvested the first cucumbers, beans, zucchinis and potatoes from my vegetable garden.  Nine days later after returning, the beans were starting to get over ripe, there were tons of zucchini, and there were some cucumbers fit to make little boats but not to eat.  Sweet corn is offered for sale now along the roadsides and my sweet corn is one week from harvest.  One of my main joys in life is biting into a fresh ear of sweet corn.  Onions are growing at a very rapid rate.  One tomato has ripened but it was split and not fit to eat.  Another few days and more will ripen.  In the northern climates all things are not early season.

The old over ripe fruit has been harvested and discarded.  Cucumbers, zucchini and beans will continue to blossom and grow new produce.  Items like cabbage and broccoli are more once and done vegetables even though they try to re-grow.

Peaches, apricots, raspberries, raspberry jam, and apricot jam

While traveling from the great Northern plains to the West I had the opportunity to buy some peaches and apricots.  We have harvested loads of raspberries from our plants.  We are filling our fruit jars.  Two weeks ago it looked like we would have loads of blueberries on our 6 bushes.  There are hardly any as a chipmunk has climbed up and eaten more than his share and left us with a handful.

Yesterday for dinner we had zucchini cut in half and filled with a scrambled egg zucchini flesh mixture with cheese melted over it and small red potatoes.  They were delicious.  Tonight we had a crock pot meal of corned beef with cabbage, green beans, carrots, and garden russet potatoes that had been cooking all day.

Harvest is now in full force with more zucchini than I can give away and enough cucumbers to make pickles.  The two types of pickles I will make are little whole dills from cucumbers 2 to 3 inches long and bread and butter pickles from larger cucumbers cut up.  Last night my daughter and I snapped, processed and froze about 8 packages of beans.  Tonight 13 pints of sweet and dill pickles were made. 

After having almost perfect weed control another round of new weeds has emerged and is growing exponentially trying to get seeds produced before the season ends in 6 to 7 weeks.  Rain has been abundant and in good fertile soil some of the plants are over running others even on 4 foot row spacing.

I have two gardens, one to eat from and one for research.

The purpose for such a large research garden is to test two chemicals.  One is for disease control and the other for insect control.  One of the major insects has been Colorado potato beetle.  The insecticide is sold commercially for beetle control and is completely controlling the beetles.  The potatoes not treated are completely defoliated.  The cabbage, broccoli and brussel sprouts are being chewed rapidly by cabbage worms.  The insecticide does not control those worms.  Later thrips on onions will be counted and powdery mildew on various plant species will be measured.  For good thrip numbers we need more hot dry weather.  So far, no disease is evident.  There are also five species of flowers. 

The two purposes of this research is to determine if spraying the chemical will harm the vegetation it is sprayed on and if the fungicide controls disease and the insecticide kills insects.  The two chemicals are sprayed alone and then a combination of the two is sprayed.  The chemicals and combination treatment are sprayed at the use rate and at four times the use rate to simulate over application.  Over application is often done by homeowners even though it is not necessary.  Amongst garden chemical testing, the main mantra is “Do No Harm” as sometimes the cure is worse than the problem.

Radio Gardening Shows

July 30, 2011

Driving across the great state of Iowa Saturday morning looking for a good radio show I came across the garden show on AM 600 WMT.  There were two hosts that answered questions as callers called in.  Here are a few of the questions and answers discussed on the show. 

My peas all dried up, if I cut them off will they grow back?  Peas are a cool weather crop and do much better in cool weather.  The hot weather of the past few weeds caused them to die.  Peas are a short season crop and a further question was, can I replant?  Yes, but you will be better off to wait a couple more weeks until the weather is a little cooler.

My beans are not doing well, can I cut them off and will they grow back?  They probably would grow back but they grow really fast and you would be better off to replant.  You still have time to plant and get a good crop before the season ends.

My zucchini plants germinated and were growing nicely.  There were lots of blossoms and I kept waiting for the fruit to grow.  It looked like they were starting but they never grew.  Zucchinis and most other garden produce need to be pollinated.  There just aren’t as many bees around to pollinate as there used to be.  A note from the Garden Doc—the hosts mentioned tomatoes need pollinated.  Tomatoes are self fertile, meaning each flower has both male and female flowers.  However they do need some movement such as wind to get the pollen from the pistils to the stamens. 

My zucchini were growing well then one at a time the vine turned yellow and dried up. What can I do?  The hosts said that zucchini grow fast and there is still time to replant and get plenty of fruit.  The Garden Doc says zucchini, cucumbers and several other of the vine type plants have stem borers that drill into the vine and then the vine dies.    This can also be alleviated by vigilant use of the proper insecticide.  Malathion and Sevin would be good choices.  Spinosad may work. 

My tomatoes have very large worms that are eating the tops of the plants.  The worms are tomato horn worms and are easily controlled by Sevin or Bt.  Bt is short for Bacillus thuringiensis.  (The garden hosts butchered the scientific name.)

There are three big pine trees in my yard, one of them dropped a lot of needles about a month ago.  What could be wrong with it?  The other two are doing well.  The season has been pretty rough on perennials due to the excessive rains that have fallen during the spring.  Trees are tough and the tree will probably be ok.  The hosts did make sure that they were pines.  From the Garden Doc;  A new lawn chemical has been made available this year and was extensively used by some lawn services.  About a month later the new growth on pines and possibly other conifers started dying and in some cases the whole tree appeared to die.  Whether the tree will die or not will not be known until next year but it is a serious problem.  If you have injured pine trees and used a lawn service ask if they used the herbicide Imprelis.

One person called saying he lives by several corn and soybean fields.  He had lots of monarch butterflies in his yard then the plane came spraying the soybeans and corn   Since then there have been very few monarch butterflies but they are starting to come back now.  He wondered what might be getting sprayed with.  The hosts didn’t know.  Many corn and soybean acres are now getting sprayed with fungicides to protect the yield from several diseases that would cause a yield loss.  Soybeans do have several insects such as aphids and the new marmolated stink bug that can cause a large yield loss. 

The last caller had several 3 to 4 year old rhododendrons plants that have curled up leaves.  What could be wrong with the plants?  The hosts weren’t sure what caused it and were not positive that the plants would survive.  The only thought the hosts had were that the plants may have had too much water.  Identifying problems on plants not doing well is one of the most difficult things a plant doctor can determine. 

Let me know your questions.

The Garden Doc

Summer Flowers

   

A well landscaped yard



Recently I visited my brother.  He had some of his yard professionally landscaped.  The ornamentals in his yard are a succession of blooms all summer long.  There are a few non blooming ornamentals.  During my visit there was a wonderful aroma from the Idaho state flower, the syringa.  The bushes were 5 to 6 feet tall and in full bloom.  I would recommend syringa for anybody who lives in a location that can grow them. 

Poppies in the corner garden

                                           

 One of my great nostalgic memories is going to my Grandparents house and seeing the big beautiful poppies like the ones in the picture.  They are short lived but very colorful.  I have a nice bed with both orange and mostly red flowers.  The flowers are four inches wide.  Bees love the poppies.

Dames rocket.  These grow wild along Ohio backroads

Along the back of the lawn are some perennials that have a selection of blooms throughout the spring and summer.  The first to flower to bloom are dames rocket (Hesperis), then Monarda and purple coneflowers (Echinacea), then the last is goldenrod.  There are some others that I don’t know if they are weeds or just someone else’s idea of a flower.  Either way, I just pulled a bunch of aster like weeds out. 

The corners of my back yard have different flowers with the most common being day lilies. There are daisies, poppies, some different irises a few hostas, and some catnip.



I have never looked this flower up to see what it is.


The one item I would change is to have more flowers in the front yard.  I have added some through the years.  The big addition is some azaleas in one bed and some daffodils and tulips.  I like roses but they struggle in the sandy soil, probably due to lack of moisture.  The big addition I have made is two beautiful lilacs to the side of the front yard.  They were a gift from a friend who had too much shade so they never bloomed.   

 

These are sure beautiful.  Notice the water droplets on the leaves.
I wish I knew the variety.
 Again, I haven't taken the time to look up the variety.



 

One of the weeds with a small white flower. 
I believe this to be a member of the mustard family. 
I haven't looked it up.



The hydrangeas are in the front yard.  Some flowers are bigger than my hand.  They get so heavy they fall over.  These flowers last for well over a month and are lightly grazed by deer .



For the most part all of my flowers are perennials and return with their beautiful foliage year in and year out.  The two items of maintenance are removing the old stems every year and trying to keep the weeds out.  Last year I removed the old stems by mowing over the whole perennial bed after the killing frost and the foliage had dried up.  This year I just did it by hand.   For weed control I use a Crabgrass Killer with Dimension that will last up to four months.  Last year I used Green Light’s Amaze.  I have been amazed at how effective both products have been.

The Garden Doc

Plant Diseases

July 18

There is some fungus among us.  The rainfall and sometimes excess moisture has brought on a plethora of diseases not often noticed in the landscape.  Common diseases on trees and ornamentals are apple scab on crabapple trees, Diplodia and Rhizosphaera needle cast on certain conifer trees, and powdery mildew on lilacs and many other species.  This year there has been somewhat severe outbreaks of anthracnose on maples, white oaks and especially sycamore trees.  Scientists have developed varieties of crab apples that are mostly immune to apple scab.  A few more trees die every year from Dutch elm disease.  If you live in an area where oak wilt is present, have your trees treated professionally with Alamo fungicide to protect those trees.  One treatment lasts up to three years.  Make sure you treat desired trees near infected trees.  The disease passes from tree to tree through underground root grafts.

Now that the vegetable garden is growing you will see either septoria leaf spot or early blight on tomatoes.  Septoria starts with small dark bordered white spots while early blight has circular brown spots with margins of yellow; both start on lower leaves where those leaves die and the disease progresses up the plant.  Early blight will also be a problem on potatoes.  If weather remains cool and damp for a period of time potatoes and tomatoes will be susceptible to late blight, the disease famous for the Irish potato famine where 1.5 million people died in the mid 1800’s.  Powdery mildew will affect onions causing the leaves to die early.  A cercospera leaf spot will affect carrots and beets.  Of all garden diseases, early and late blight on tomatoes is probably the most damaging.  Downy mildew and anthracnose occurs on vines crops and a few other crops.  Several other diseases are caused by virus, vectored by insects, and bacterial spot diseases caused by soil splashing up onto leaves.  My raspberries grow in a very wind protected area with barely enough sun.  The disease, Botrytis fruit rot is common on most soft fruits.

Several species of vegetables, especially tomatoes get blossom end rot.  This disease is a physiological disease caused by a lack of calcium in plants.  As the plants go through a very quick growth stage and start to fruit the roots cannot mine from the soil and transport enough calcium to keep up with the growing fruits needs.  When the plant gets more mature it generally overcomes this disease on its own.  This disease can be alleviated with the addition of a foliar calcium spray from a product like Green Light’s Blossom End Rot Spray.  It and other similar products contain soluble calcium. 

The most common ornamental disease that is treated is rose black spot on roses.  Roses also get powdery mildew.   

The three best things you can do to keep diseases away is to choose plant varieties that are resistant to common diseases, plant in areas with good air movement to keep plants dry, and water in the morning so plants will be wet for the shortest period of time.  In order for a disease to grow it needs a susceptible host, the proper environment to grow in, and the causal agent.  This is called the disease triangle.  The next best item you can do is spray a fungicide.  The most common all around fungicides and the fungicides that controls the most diseases contain chlorothalonil.  It was originally named Bravo but now comes in all types of professional and consumer formulations.  Chorothalonil is a protectant and will not stop existing diseases.  It must be applied every 7 days.  Other common organic fungicides are Neem oil and the elemental copper and sulfur fungicides.  The elemental fungicides work well but must be reapplied often and at heavy rates every 5 to 7 days.  There are some diseases they do not control.  Neem oil is a fair protectorant fungicide and can stop powdery mildew.  It should be applied every 14 days to protect vegetation and every 7 days when a disease exists until it is controlled.  Neem oil also leaves a pretty shine on the leaves and fruit.  There are some new fungicides on the market that can be used on some fruits and vegetables.  They not only protect but have the ability to burn out infections up to four days after the infection starts.  These fungicides have not made there way to many consumer products and are expensive. 

When treating edible fruits and vegetables, pay attention to the preharvest interval (PHI).  Neem oil can be used up to the day of harvest.  Others have various intervals between treating and harvesting of produce. 

My most favorite disease is a lawn disease called fairy ring. This scientist researched how to control it for several years.  It grows as an ever expanding circle of green or sometimes dead grass and under certain conditions produces a ring of mushrooms.  Fairy ring has several different causal fungi and is one of the least understood of all diseases.  Every year the disease just grows a little more and a little more until some circles become very large.  One scientist found one that he followed for several miles.

Best of luck with disease control.

The Garden Doc

Raspberries

July 7, 2011    

My wife and daughter just finished picking the first raspberries of the year.  I didn’t see if they came back from picking with red juice stains.  However, they are delicious.  (I snuck a few berries yesterday)  The berries are about three weeks later than last year due to a cool spring.  Five years ago when the raspberries were established five plants of five different varieties were chosen.  I chose based on four criteria; will they grow in a cold climate, berry size, berry flavor, and productivity.  All varieties were from Nourse Berry Farm.

My choice as the best variety is Jaclyn. It is outstanding and it spreads the easiest.  The canes are the tallest of my varieties.  It produces a very large sweet berry, moderate crop size and a spring and fall crop.  There are a few odd berries all through the summer.  It is a primocane beater, meaning it produces berries on the canes the fall the first year the canes emerge.  Most varieties produce primocanes the first year which do not bear, then the following year those canes produce berries.  That fall those canes die and during the year new primocanes grew.    

My second berry choice is a similar but with less yield, smaller berries, and shorter canes.  However, the berries are really good.  The variety may be heritage, but I forget.  Two other choices are just summer bearers and are not my favorites.  Those berries can be small and one spreads faster than it produces average size berries, but they taste good.  They are forgettable and will slowly get replaced with Jaclyn. 

Royalty is my only purple berry.  It was advertised as really sweet.  I didn’t find that to be true.  However it yields for the shortest period of time but is the heaviest bearer. Royalty also spreads less than other varieties which will cause it to be replaced by natural spread of the other varieties. The berries have fair flavor but when looking to make jam or jelly it is a great variety to bring up the berry volume fast to have good jam. 

The first berries were all planted in one single row.  The row is now two rows and I regularly remove primocanes that are growing outside the desired rows.  The berries are kept inside a crude wire structure to help the berries be upright.

Raspberries are a hardy plant but can have insect and disease problems.  My berries have not had significant insect problems or stem disease problems but have had diseases on the berries.  Spray as needed to control problems.  A good neem oil or neem with pyrethrins should work well.  Green Light Neem Oil Concentrate or Green Light Fruit Tree Spray are good choices.  The main problem my berries have had is fruit rot or gray mold, (Botrytis cinerea or soft rot (Ryhizopus and Mucor spp.).  Regular use of Fruit Tree Spray or Neem oil should stop or slow most disease.   Once it fruit rots get established it may be treated with a stronger non organic fungicide Daconil, which is generic or Fung-onil.  Both contain chlorothalonil which must be used weekly and has a pre-harvest interval which should be adhered to.  Neem oil and Fruit Tree Spray can be used the day before harvest. 

Here are some management practices.  They are published in Hort Mag.

1.      Remove dead canes. The presence of empty fruit stems identifies dead or dying canes, as does their yellowing foliage, and roughness of the bark. These canes should be cut low to the ground and removed. (Primocane-fruiting canes that have been left to bear a second year’s crop can be left and will produce a spring crop.) Raspberry canes are less thorny than blackberries, but a leather glove on at least one hand will make handling the canes easy and protect your fingers.

2.      Thin new canes. A vigorously growing raspberry patch will generate an excess of new canes. Some of these will appear at the edges of the patch, causing it to spread. But even within bounds, too many canes left one year will block the growth of canes the next. Good raspberry pruning anticipates not simply next year’s harvest but the harvest of the summer after. Thin the one-season-old canes, leaving the thickest and tallest ones spaced an average of six inches apart.

3.      Weed. With the pruning completed, use a hand hoe or other weeder to clean out grass and other weeds, being careful not to injure the raspberries’ shallow root system. 

4.      Mulch. The first ten feet of row have now been pruned and mulched. Several inches of free-draining wood chips will help the weeds from reappearing. Twin horizontal strings will support the fruit-heavy canes when they bear next summer.

Berries grow different in different environments.  Varieties that do well for me may not do well for you.  They will also grow different in different soil types.

We truly eat all the berries we want all year around.  We bottle them for use during the winter months. Eat lots of a true fruit of the Gods, raspberries.

The Garden Doc

How to live with or control mosquitoes

July 02

My wife hates to go outside because she attracts mosquitoes, when I don’t even know there are any around.  Several products are available to repel mosquitoes but how effective are they?  Whether or not they are effective is a good question.  A single test can cost millions.  Some of the tests have been made available to the CDC or EPA.  Test results sent to the EPA are to support registrations of products and may not be available for public  use.  The CDC, Center for Disease Control, has research results and does publish some data for the public.  Below is a summary of products and there relative effectiveness.

By far, DEET-containing products are the top performers and most will last from 2 to 6 hours with a single application. Picaridin is the second most effective product with performance in the 1-3 hour range. Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus are considered botanicals and are often labeled as being “green friendly” (whatever that means!). Cedar oil is employed as a scent to repel mosquitoes. The scant data available suggests that these products only last for 15 to 20 minutes after an application. This can be partially solved by finding a formulation that slowly releases the scent into the air.  There are bracelets or tags that hang on clothing that offer a slow release of one or a combination of the above scents. Citronella is listed on the EPA or CDC lists as a mosquito control product. And some of the new mint oils are also not on the list of effective actives.  A pretty good study, done two decades ago, used citronella candles surrounding test subjects.  The test people got bit as frequently as people some distance away, but with no candles nearby.  However, citronella candles seem to be so entrenched in our culture and used for ambiance with everyone thinking they control mosquitoes.  We will likely continue spending millions a year on the little lanterns and keep buying the oil. 

A unique item was found that supposedly gives off a magnetic or electrical field that keeps mosquitoes away from people.  You simply wear it around your neck and they leave you alone.  My suggestion is to make ankle bracelets incorporating the items so they don’t get my wife’s ankles and legs.  Do these items work?  I really can’t say, but I haven’t invested any money in this company.

Mosquito traps have improved and are recognized as being able to reduce mosquito bites when mosquito populations are medium to low.  The expensive ones that work use CO2, a tiny light and a suction fan to attract, pull in and then kill the mosquitoes.  A rather new method of controlling mosquito activity is modifying air movement! Mosquitoes are very weak flyers and don’t like to travel when air movement is in the 8 to 10 mph range or greater. Therefore, using outside ceiling or side fans in an area can greatly reduce mosquito flight and landing ability.  The fans must be turned to blow on the subjects.  

Our family had a wedding reception at our house last summer.  The weather had been very wet and we had a terrific mosquito problem.  My assignment was to make the yard mosquito free.  The methods I employed were four fold.  First, I used my Black Flag fogger which produces a fog that floats on the air.  Any mosquito will have a minute droplet impinge on their body and the small insecticide dose kills them. The fogger was positioned so the fog drifted across the yard and into the brush and trees around the yard.   Next I directly sprayed the vegetation for several feet around the yard and the lawn so mosquitoes that landed would pick up a lethal dose.  This works, because when resting, mosquitoes land on vegetation and get liquids from the surrounding vegetation.  Third, I made sure any mosquito breeding sites were eliminated or treated so my yard did not provide breeding sites.  Fourth, the day of the reception I treated the yard with a cedar oil product from Green Light, YardSafe Insect Repellant.  The aroma kept new mosquitoes from venturing in to attack our guests.  The cedar oil smell was faintly in the air and lasted throughout the afternoon and evening. No one would object to the pleasant smell.  The result was no mosquitoes at the party.

Do yourself a favor when you plan on going outside. Don’t eat bananas.  Eating bananas makes people attractive to mosquitoes.    They are also attracted to CO2 but we do have to breathe.

The Garden Doc

Growing apples

Apple trees may start bearing every other year.  This is called alternate year bearing and can be avoided.  When apple trees produce every other year they set a huge fruit load that produces small apples and the fruit load may be so heavy it ends up breaking branches.  The fruit load also drains the resources of the tree and it doesn’t develop flower buds for the following year.  A tree that is bearing fruit in alternate years can be brought back into yearly production by managing fruit load with thinning the fruit, proper pruning, and specific summer pruning.

Frosts may cause the blossoms to freeze in the spring about blossom time which will also cause fruit not to set.  You can try keeping some air moving or lightly misting the crop with water a few times during the below freezing temperatures.  Water may freeze and cause branches to break.  Another method to keep trees from freezing is warming the area with fire.  One of my uncles wrapped Christmas tree lights on the branches and the small amount of heat from the lights kept the blossoms from freezing (that’s a lot of work).  The best method is to select a variety that is tolerant of the cold and selected for your environment.

Commercial fruit growers yearly thin the fruit after it is set when the new fruits are about the size of a dime or nickel.  They use commercial products that must be applied at precise rates.  I wouldn’t recommend this be done by amateurs.  Homeowners may have difficulty spraying an even amount of chemical over the whole tree.  If your tree has excessive fruit numbers, hand thin when fruit is about the size of a nickel and before it is the size of a quarter.  Prune until there are one or two fruits per terminal.  The terminal is the group of leaves at the end of a branch.  An old fruit grower said you need 40 leaves to produce one apple.  The fruit will be much larger and you will get a good yield with proper thinning.   When thinning, leave the apple at the very end of an apple bunch.  This apple grew from the king bloom.  In a bunch of blossoms the king bloom is the center and larges blossom and will produce the largest and nicest apple.  By good pruning and controlling the fruit load, you can have fewer apples but each apple will be a lot larger and the over all yield will be a good yield.

If you are bold and want to chemically thin the insecticide, Sevin is used commercially for apple thinning.  Consumer packages don’t include apple thinning instructions.  You will have to figure that out yourselves.  If you over thin you will have no apples.  If you under thin you will have to reapply or thin by hand.  Apple trees often have what is called the June drop where the tree self thins.  Some varieties and trees do a pretty good thinning job by themselves.  Others may have so many apples it looks like the fruit was wrapped around the branches like a rope.

Prune the tree each year to remove excessive branches and any branch that will brush or interfere with other branches.  Fruit should be able to hang without banging other branches. The distance between branches when pruned should be 2 to 3 feet.  During the growing season this distance will close and then you prune again the following year.  Determine whether you want the tree to have a single leader with branches coming off the main trunk or do you want an umbrella shaped tree with several main branches arching over.  When pruning remove all water sprouts.  Those are the shoots that grow straight up but are not the central leader.  Pruning will stimulate more water sprouts to grow.  There are very sophisticated trellising or staking methods for growing apple trees planted at very high populations. 

Trees with alternate year bearing usually don’t produce flower buds because of the high fruit load stressing the tree when it does bear fruit.  Proper fruit load reduces the excess stress so the tree has the strength to produce flower buds for the following year.  Flower buds develop mid to late summer then bloom the following spring and turn into fruit.  Pruning stimulates the tree to grow new growth.  You can stimulate bud production by a light pruning mid July.  Prune 8 to 10 inches of the tips of some small branch that don’t have fruit. The remaining leaf bunches will be stimulated to produce flower buds that will bloom the following spring.