Sanhedrin Nursery – Garden Blog

• Cool season vegetables should be planted right away to insure good crops this fall.

• Mums are the beauties of the fall garden. Choose plants now in a wide variety of colors.

• Divide Oriental poppies and bearded iris now. Add some bone meal in the bottom of the hole when you replant them.

• Wisteria trees need to be trimmed throughout the summer. Keep long tendrils trimmed back to maintain the shape of the tree.

• Plant beets now for fall harvest. They will have a deeper red color than beets planted for spring harvest, and tend to have higher sugar levels too.

Bring in the Harvest!

The long hot days this summer have made the garden grow like crazy and now the harvest is coming in. The tomatoes are starting to ripen, summer squash is plentiful and beans and corn are coming on fast.

It’s time to harvest the garden to keep production going strong. The more you harvest, the more you grow. Harvest vegetables in the morning when they’re crisp and cool.

Squash tastes best when harvested young. Pick zucchini when it is eight inches long, and pick crookneck squash when only six inches long. Immature winter squash lacks flavor, so wait until the rind is hard. Harvest winter squash with two inches of stem remaining. A stem cut too short is like an open wound, and will cause early decay.

Cantaloupes are starting to get ripe. To make melons sweeter, hold off watering a week before you expect to harvest the ripe fruit, when it starts to turn color. A cantaloupe is fully ripe when it pulls off the stem easily.

With other melons, check for a strong, pleasant aroma at the blossom (not stem) end to indicate ripeness. A watermelon is probably ripe if it makes a dull “thunk” when thumped, and when its underside has turned from white to pale yellow.

Pick most kinds of tomatoes when their color is even and glossy and the texture still slightly firm. Some varieties, primarily large heirloom types, ripen before they reach full color. Pick them when they are mostly colored up and bring them inside to finish ripening.

Let sweet peppers reach their final ripe color of red, yellow or orange, for maximum sweetness and flavor. Hot peppers are nutritious at all stages. Sample them at different points to see what you like best.

Lettuce is a fast crop and it’s important to harvest heads before they “bolt” and go to flower. Harvest butterhead lettuce when a loose head is formed; crisphead lettuce when heads are firm; and looseleaf lettuce and romaine any time when the plants are large enough to use. You can pull off leaves of leaf lettuce or harvest the whole head.

Cabbage also must be picked before it bolts. Test the head for firmness, then cut it off. If you have mature heads that you’re not ready to harvest, hold off water or twist the plant to break some of the roots. This should keep them from bolting.

Pick green beans when they are at least three inches long but before they begin to get tough and stringy. Harvest pole beans faithfully every other day and the plants will yield right up to frost.

Corn is ready when the silks turn brown. Check an ear or two by pulling back the husk and testing a kernel with your fingernail. It is squirts a milky-white juice, it’s ripe.

Home gardeners have the advantage of being able to pick their vegetables just as they reach their prime. Knowing when vegetables are perfect for picking is a skill that you will gain with experience. For the best flavor and quality, prepare them for eating or freezing as soon as possible after harvest.

• Tree collards make a delicious winter vegetable. Set plants out now to give them time to grow before the winter chill that makes the leaves so sweet.

• Japanese maples may be pruned now in order to shape them.

• Sow lettuce seeds now for a fall crop. Set out broccoli and cabbage plants too.

• Trim grapevines to allow more sun to reach the fruit and sweeten the grapes, if they are being shaded heavily by the foliage.

• Feed fuchsias, begonias, summer annuals and container plants to keep them green and blooming right up until frost.

Houseplant Care

Houseplants offer beautiful foliage, with an almost infinite variety of leaves and exotic flowers which delight the eye. Growing houseplants can be anything from a serious hobby to a casual pastime. Once you start collecting houseplants, you enter a new realm of gardening that is very pleasant and rewarding.

Houseplants are, for the most part, tropical plants which are accustomed to the low light of the floor of a tropical forest. For this reason, they do well in the low light conditions of our homes. These plants are also accustomed to rather warm night temperatures, which our homes offer as well. Plants which have become popular as houseplants, are generally very adaptable and will sometimes survive in spite of poor care.

The main requirements for healthy houseplants are proper light, watering and fertilizing.

When selecting a plant, be sure its light requirements match your proposed location. Light intensity drops off rapidly as you move away from a window. Plants that aren’t receiving enough light often become elongated and pale, or they may drop their lower leaves and fail to grow. A plant which has just come from a greenhouse may also drop some leaves at first as it adjusts to the lower light in your home.

For low light situations, look for Chinese evergreens, creeping fig, any of the many Dracaenas, Dieffenbachias, palms, Philodendrons, Pothos or Peace lilies. They will do well with a northern exposure. For an eastern exposure that receives morning sun, add to these African violets, coleus, creeping Charlie, and spider plants.

Too much light, on the other hand, may burn the leaves of some plants. In a southern exposure you can grow spider plants, angel-wing begonia, citrus and many kinds of succulents and cacti. In a western exposure you can also grow wax plant, sago palm, lipstick vine and goldfish plant.

Watering is a touchy subject: you have to feel the soil to see if the plant needs water. Some plants need water only when the soil surface has dried out, while others need to be kept constantly moist. Learn each plant’s preference, and check each pot before you water. Avoid overwatering: more plants are killed by overwatering than any other cause. Empty the saucers after the water drains out of the pot.

If the soil becomes very dry, it may shrink away from the sides of the pot allowing water to run through rapidly without being absorbed. If this happens, add water slowly until the soil is saturated, or set the pot in a tub of water for a few minutes.

Plants growing in containers need fertilizer, especially in the spring and summer when they are actively growing. There are a wide variety of products available. Choose one and use according to the directions. Fertilize less during the winter.

Given proper care, your houseplants will prosper and give you many years of enjoyment.

• Keep flowers and vegetables in peak condition by giving them a midsummer feeding with a fertilizer that is higher in phosphorus than in nitrogen.

• Check for squash, or “stink”, bugs on squash and pumpkins. Hand-pick grey-brown adults and destroy red egg clusters on the leaves. Use pyrethrins to control heavy infestations.

• Take care of your roses: feed, water, weed, mulch and remove faded blooms regularly. Spray if necessary at first sign of insect or disease problems.

• Sow seeds of perennials like columbine, coreopsis, delphiniums and cone-flowers now for planting in the fall and beautiful blooms next year.

• Impatiens will give you instant color in shady areas and continue blooming right through the fall.

The Trouble with Spider Mites

Spider mites are common pests in the urban landscape and can inflict serious damage to trees, shrubs and flowers. Hot and dry summer weather often encourages the outbreak of spider mites on garden or house plants. Cousins of spiders, spider mites are very small, rarely growing larger than a grain of fine sand. Although small, they can do plenty of damage by sucking nutrients out of plant leaves, and by injecting toxins which curl plant leaves.

The telltale signs of a spider mite infestation are stippled yellow, white or bronze leaves. Sometimes there is a silken webbing on the stems or leaves, and the leaves will appear very dusty and dirty looking. New growth may be distorted, and the plant may be unhealthy in appearance.

To determine if a plant is infested with mites, hold a sheet of white paper underneath an affected leaf and tap it sharply. Minute green, red or yellow specks the size of pepper grains will drop to the paper and begin to move around.

The two-spotted spider mite is one of the ‘warm season’ mites. This pest attacks over 180 host plants including field crops, ornamental plants, house plants and weeds. The females overwinter in the soil or on host plants. They become active in April and May when they seek out the undersides of leaves on suitable hosts. Each female may lay over 100 eggs.

European red mites attacks deciduous trees and shrubs. They are especially common on fruit trees and flowering trees such as crabapples, flowering cherries, pears, plums and hawthorn trees.

Spider mites can be controlled in different ways. They are attracted to dusty leaves, so spraying the undersides of the leaves with a strong blast of water twice a week will help control them. Add some insecticidal soap to the water for even more effective control. Horticultural oil and Neem oil are safe to spray on most plants and they will control spider mites very well.

Oils and insecticidal soap are contact insecticides that kill certain insects and mites by intervening physically, rather than chemically, with their respiratory processes. They affect pests that are present when the spraying takes place, but have little or no residual effect. Under optimum conditions, spider mites can complete their development from egg to adult in less than one week. Populations increase rapidly in warm weather and cause extensive plant damage in a very short time. So several applications 7 to 10 days apart will be necessary. Be sure to saturate the undersides of the leaves.

As with all insect problems, plants which are under
stress of some kind are more susceptible to insect attack. Make sure affected plants are receiving proper sun or shade exposure and the right amount of water. Keep your plants healthy and you will have fewer insect problems.