Posted on 02/09/2018 6:54:47 PM PST by greeneyes
he Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds.
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Thanks for the pics. Great looking start there. You always get to go for it sooner than we do.
So I guess you are using some sort of propane in the greenhouses? Is that like a coleman buddy stove or something else? We are all electric, here and it’s really expensive, so we are discussing wood - we have 20 acres of trees north of town.
Oh gheez - I hate when that happens to buds. It’s one reason that peaches don’t produce here very well.
ok.
Apples - nada. I am trying anew this year. I know apples WILL grow in this region, but ours never did. Peaches - “Reliant” works for us. About four years to get very good yield. Sunny spot, micro climate (near house) but away from bushes which can migrate insects. MUST spray - I use neem, although I use any spray reluctantly. MUST prune. That was where we went wrong as we didn’t prune back hard enough.
Apples NEED to be sprayed here. :( I just hate to do it, but there is no alternative. SO this year we begin again.
We are trying the Stowell Evergreen Corn this year. In the old days, they supposedly pulled it up roots and all and hung it upside down in the barn, and it was fresh enough to eat for several months. Thought it would be an interesting experiment.
OK, thanks. I’ll check out pinterest and see if I can muddle through it when I get a chance.
Thanks for the tips. Reminded me, that I read last year that Feb. was a good time to prune and spray in Missouri. I will use neem or something like that, but no pesticides like roundup.
YIKES! Roundup is a HERBICIDE that kills everything!
I use insecticidal soap for most bugs, and hydrogen peroxide for powdery mildew. When there is a serious bug that the soap won’t kill, I have been known to use malathion, but only in the early season, and the least amount I can get away with. Nasty stuff, but quite effective.
it sounds crazy, but sometimes you just have to threaten them. I had purchased a persimmon tree, for almost 3 years it did nothing! Out of sheer frustration I told it “you put on a leaf. or I swear to God I’m gonna pull your little stick butt up and BURN you.” 2 days later it had a leaf.
Go figure, she’s now over 5 feet tall, just hoping the really cold weather (for South Alabama that is) didn’t hurt her to bad.
We call her Mizz Simmons.
#1) A dormant oil spray will suffocate any insect eggs laid in the bark of a fruit tree, especially effective around the last frost.
It needs to be applied prior to any 'bud break' of new leaf growth.
I believe that you can use the neem oil as the dormant oil spray.
#2 Regarding lack of fruit set, I suggest an 'off-the-wall' suggestion; sometimes trees don't bear fruit (seed/ plant replacement) or flowers due to "complacency".
Make the fruit trees less complacent, by beating the trunk at different locations 3 or 4 times with a baseball bat to make it less complacent,
and thus placing mild stress on the tree.
Some times this makes the tree less complacent, and ready to set replacements (fruit/seeds) through fruiting.
I know, this sounds weird, but it has worked before; a friend in Ohio had a campisis radicans( trumpet vine) for 10 years in the same location,with no flowering,
but after assaulting the plant with a bat, that spring it resulted in bountiful flowers and seed production.
The alternative and less combative method is to inject/ dig phosphorous within the tree 'drip line", thus feeding what nutrients may be in short supply to the tree.
#3 When pruning a tree, never remove more than 1/3 of the plant growth, or you may 'shock' it too severely.
I have a couple of seed catalogs in the mail including number 1 in my garden, Territorial Seed out of Oregon and also new to me was a AM Leonard tool catalog with hundreds of different shovels, long handled pruners and hand Pruners. I hired a neighbor to do some yard clean up. He is coming back Monday to finish plus spade a 12’ x 12’ patch for new strawberries. Our weather has been unusually clear and warm. More on another day...
Thanks much appreciated.
I love looking at the Territorial Seed Catalog. I got my winter wheat from them last fall.
Just planted a ponderosa pine seedling brought from Northern Arizona. Don’t think it will grow in arid region. However, the Italian Pine is coming along and I believe will one day be a marvellous addition to landscape.
I shared them with Johnny via his email.
He forwarded them to FR.
They’re still on my computer.
I love cedar trees, pine trees, etc. We have a lot of cedar trees in Mo. Hubby has cut them all down on our lots, except for one. It is huge and I can look out the window and see it when I am on the computer.
He wants to cut it down too. He said it is going to kill the apple trees. I said well we shall wait and see. So far they are still alive and it’s been 7 yrs. But he planted them too close to the walnut tree, so I think that could be why we don’t have apples.
What year was it? I was thinking I might be able to find a thread in the archives and post a link.
I haven’t found any problems with cedar trees, but black walnuts can be difficult:
Potential Problems - Aside from leaf spot, Black Walnut is virtually disease and pest free. However, it is famous for the production by its roots of juglone, a chemical that is toxic to some nearby competitor plants. In a woodland setting, very few plants grow under the canopy of this species. When summer drought occurs, the response of this tree is to begin dropping leaves, in spite of its deep taproot system. In an urban setting, a constant rain of leaflets, rachises, dead twigs, stain-laden whole fruits, and debris from squirrel feeding occurs from mid-summer until late autumn, presenting a constant clean-up chore and mowing hazard.
and
PLANTS SENSITIVE TO BLACK WALNUT TOXICITY
Annuals and vegetables: asparagus, cabbage, eggplant, flowering tobacco, pepper, petunia, potato, tomato
Herbaceous perennials: autumn crocus, baptisia, columbine, lily (Asian hybrids), peony, rhubarb
Shrubs: blueberry, red chokeberry, cotoneaster, Amur honeysuckle, hydrangea, lilac, privet, potentilla, rhododendron, yew, and some viburnum shrub species
Trees: European alder, white birch, crabapple species, hackberry, larch, linden, saucer magnolia, mugo pine, red pine, white pine, Norway spruce, silver maple, and some viburnum tree species
Yep. Several of my raised beds are right next to the tree. I use those for winter wheat, winter rye, strawberries and I got one year of great melons, before the soil borne disease set in - haven’t been able to grow a decent melon since then.
That stinks. We have little flat ground that is also cleared, so we use containers for all of our vegetables and herbs. From our house down to the little stream in the side “yard”, it’s about 15 feet in height, with a steep slope. Our front yard is where the septic system is, and the well is in the back. Everything else is woods and brush, with varying levels of height. The other side of the house is narrow and slopes sharply up to our neighbor’s yard. I planted some bamboo there along the driveway for screening in an attempt to keep their dogs from barking so much.
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