Hort Tips

March

Edible

Plant onion sets in late March.

Till vegetable beds. Never till the soil when wet. Try the soil squeeze test first. Take a handful of soil and squeeze, if soil forms a ball, let it dry for 2-3 days. If soil crumbles easily through your hand, it is ready to till.

Clean up last year’s debris in the vegetable garden to reduce the potential for disease.

Plant potatoes as soon as soil can be worked in the spring. Buy certified disease free seed potatoes. Cut into sections. Each section should have 1 or 2 “eyes” (buds). Plant sections 1 foot apart and 4 inches deep. Factsheet available.

Sow lettuce, peas and radishes.

Start cabbage, broccoli and Brussels sprouts seeds indoors in early march. They should be ready to transplant outside in 6-8 weeks.

Start tomato and pepper plants indoors in mid-March. Transplant outdoors in mid to late May.

Ornamental

Trim back Russian sage and butterfly bushes to 6-8 inches.

Prune late flowering and large flowered

April

Edible

Plant late varieties of potatoes on top of the ground in straw.

Gradually expose plants to outdoor conditions over a 5-7 day period.

Start cucumber, cantaloupe, summer squash and watermelon seeds indoors.

Ornamental

Place stakes around plants now so plants can grow through stakes. You know which plants need stakes; they flop every year. The cheap green tomato cages sold in most garden centers work well to support many plants except tomatoes.

Watch for hibernating boxelder bugs and lady beetles to appear in your home.

With warmer spring weather these bugs become active. Insecticides are not necessary. These insects do not bite or reproduce indoors. They can emit substances that stain surfaces. Vacuuming them up is the best control.

Divide perennials in the spring when growth resumes. Poppy, peony and iris should be divided in late summer to early fall. Four inch diameter sections work best. Smaller ones may not bloom well for a couple of years.

Rake back mulch around roses when new growth appears.

Plant a tree in celebration of Arbor Day. Check out this Arbor Day website for more information: www.arborday.org

Cut back dead or damaged rose canes to the base of the plant. Slightly damaged canes need to be cut back to healthy wood. Cut back to an outward facing bud, so new growth will grow outward providing good air circulation around the plant.

Prune out and destroy webs of Eastern tent caterpillars.

Mow groundcovers to remove winter burned foliage. Raise the mower to its highest setting, fertilize and water after mowing to encourage rapid growth.

Indoors

Start tuberous begonias and caladiums indoors for planting outdoors in June.

Place Easter lilies in a bright cool location and out of direct sunlight.

May

Edible

Give tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, melons, peppers and eggplant at least 8 hours of sunlight for best fruit production.

Plant warm season vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and vine crops after mid-May.

Control cucumber beetles, carriers of cucumber wilt as soon as cucumbers germinate to prevent disease. This disease will cause plants to wilt and die just as cucumbers start producing.

Make a home for toads in your garden. Toads eat cutworms and other insects. Place inverted clay flowerpots in shady spots. Chip out a piece of the pot rim to give the toads an entrance to their home.

Extend your sweet corn harvest by planting successive crops when the previous planting has 3-4 leaves or plant early, mid and late maturing varieties at the same time.

To insure pollination of sweet corn, plant several rows together in a block, rather than in one long row. Keep well watered especially from tasseling time to picking.

Researchers at the Agricultural Research Service have found that many plants respond favorably to specific wavelengths of reflected sunlight. Different colored mulch materials reflect different wavelengths of light and have produced noticeable results. Tomato harvests increased significantly in both size and quality when plants were grown over red plastic. Potatoes and green peppers produced best when the plastic was white.

Ornamental

Plant cannas, gladioli, dahlias, tuberous begonias and caladium in mid-to-late May.

Try multi-flora petunias in the garden. They withstand heat better than other types. They are more resistant to botrytis, a disease that attacks petunias during wet weather.

Try lobelia (lobelia pendula) for hanging baskets for containers. Its stems will trail 8 inches. The ‘Cascade’ series is especially vibrant in colors of pink, white, lilac, maroon, violet and blue.

Most flowers have a white eye.

Watch for European pine sawflies on Scotch, Red, Jack and Mugo pines. Newly hatched larva feed on the green tissue of the needles. Larvae have a black head, black legs and a dark stripe bordered by white stripes down the side of the body. Factsheet available

Use plastic milk jugs for seed irrigation. Take a large nail and punch holes in the side of a jug, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Bury the jug, leaving the neck protruding from the soil. Fill the jug with water and screw the cap on firmly. The water will gradually seep out providing a slow, deep irrigation for surrounding plants.

Indoor

Adding fertilizer to a dry root ball burns the roots, damaging or killing the plant, so water dry houseplants before fertilizing and NEVER fertilize wilted plants.

Peat pellets that swell up to form both pot and growing medium for seedlings can be used for air-layering after the pot has soaked and expanded to full size. Slit it vertically on one side so it will fit over the plant stem. Next, wound the plant stem by cutting two fine rings around the stem _ inch apart in the bark or stem with a sharp knife. Peel off the area between the cuts, and slip the pellet over the stem. Cover the wound with a plastic bag tied at both ends to conserve moisture. When roots appear in the bag, remove the plastic, sever the new plant and pot it up.

June

Edible

Stop harvesting rhubarb and asparagus to allow foliage to develop and store food reserves for next year’s harvest.

When crops like squash and cucumbers are planted in a circle or hill, place a stick upright in the middle of the circle and leave it there. Later on you’ll know where to water the main roots hidden under the vines.

Do not be alarmed at June drop of tree fruits. This is a natural thinning process. Thin fruit to 6-8 inches apart on a branch.

Crawling ants on your vegetables may be a sign of aphids. Some ants protect aphids, moving them from plant to plant or even taking them underground into the anthill for overnight safety. The ants do this to ensure a supply of honeydew, a sugary substance that aphids secrete and ants feed on.

Ornamental

Prune shoot tips of chrysanthemums and coleus to promote bushier growth.

Remove leaves of spring flowering bulbs only after they have yellowed and withered.

Apply a light side dressing of a 5-10-5 fertilizer every two weeks to caladiums. This will insure continuous production of new brightly colored foliage.

Plant gourds as a summer gardening project for kids. When the gourd is half grown scratch a child’s name into the skin. The gourd forms a scab over the scratches and as the gourd grows the name grows bigger and bigger.

Trap earwigs in the garden by using rolled up newspapers moistened with water. The insects will hide in the newspaper during the day.

Indoor

According to studies conducted by NASA, plants can function as air purification systems. Spider plants are highly efficient in absorbing toxic substances. To purify the air in an average size, well-insulated home, 8 to 15 mature spider plants would be required. Other plants that also lower pollution levels, but to a lesser degree, were Chinese evergreens, golden pothos and peace lily.

Houseplants in clay pots can be set directly in the ground when placing them outdoors for the summer. Set the pots in the ground so the soil is 1-2 inches below the pot rim, allowing moisture to go through the porous clay. If your houseplants are in plastic or glazed containers, repot them into clay containers or check frequently because moisture will not move through the plastic.

Spring 2003
Hort Shorts | Hort Tips | Crabgrass: A Weed’s Weed! | Health & Household Tips | Perennial Plant of the Year 2003 | Mulch Reminder | Using Organic Fungicides | Bug Bites: A Bug Bite is Not Always a Bug Bite | Lawn Care Calendar | Cybergarden Sites | Pondering Early Planting? Think Lettuce | Eggology | Soup for Supper | Protein-Rich Diets and Weight Loss

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