July 17, 2018 Kim’s Weekly Garden Blog

Hi Gardeners

I was so frustrated yesterday I almost cried.  It is so dry around here, I’m beginning to worry about the large trees and shrubs. I was looking forward to rain, we were promised a very good chance yesterday.  I watched the radar helplessly as heavy bands of weather approached us then split up and passed to the north and south of us. Three times yesterday that happened.  You should have heard me cussing each time. Some places in Michigan were flooded, some got no rain, like me. And late last evening when I gave up on rain I was out there in the heat watering again.

Today it’s cooler thank goodness. The watered parts of the yard are doing ok, but every gardener knows a good rain is better than a hose.  I break the watering into 3 sections so as not to overwork my pump. I have one section left to water today. But watering takes up a lot of time that could be used for other garden chores, like weeding.

My oriental lilies are beginning to bloom, it’s early for them and they are much shorter than normal, that’s the heat and drought.  A lot of the plants are blooming quickly and then fading away.  I actually have a mum beginning to bloom.  Sunflowers planted by the birds are blooming in the back yard, but I don’t water there, and they are beginning to dry and wilt.

Morning glories and cosmos have started blooming. Other things blooming are dahlias, clematis, rudbeckia ( black eyed susan),shasta daisy, harebells, bee balm, cleome, helenium, hydrangea, roses, all kinds of lilies and daylilies, 4 O’clock, zinnias, and woodland nicotiana.  And the amaryllis I put on the porch to get a vacation has put up a big bud stalk.

The dill is blooming like crazy, but I don’t have but a few cucumbers, not enough for pickles.  I guess I will just collect dill seed.  We have a lot of grapes forming but most of the vines are too far from the house to water, so they may not develop fully. I am still getting a few tomatoes and peppers.

What’s not blooming is the baptisia. The plant is huge this year but no blooms.  I don’t know what went on there. The blackberries have only a few flowers, that’s because the canes died back so badly last winter.  One good thing is that I have yet to see a Japanese beetle this year.  Knock on wood.  I don’t know if it’s the drought and heat or the hard winter last year.

I have already placed my first order for fall planted bulbs.  It’s hard to think about in the heat but bulb companies are having a lot of sales right now. And it’s the right time to order bearded iris too.  And if you order now you may get what you want before it’s sold out. If you don’t get catalogs in the mail check out the catalog listings page on the right side of this blog.

Baptisia in 2017

A book review- Supermarket Super Gardens- by Jerry Baker

I just got a pamphlet in the mail trying to get me to buy what is touted as Jerry Bakers latest book.   Baker died in 2017 and this book was published in 2008 and they are still selling the book as if it's some new work just released.  There’s no mention that Baker’s dead and no copyright date given.   I had to get a used copy just to see what stupidity the man wrote last.

Hogwash and claptrap is what best describes this book.  Most of the remedies have no basis in science and won't work, some may even be harmful. For an example of the stupidity of this book let's take page 236 as an example.  Baker recommends sprinkling Epsom salts on the soil after planting bulbs because it "gives them a much-needed nitrogen dose".  Epsom salt has absolutely no nitrogen.  Bulbs that were just planted don’t need nitrogen.  And it will not keep chipmunks away either, it dissolves and goes into the soil as soon as it gets wet.  

Oatmeal planted with transplants is a sure way to get them dug up by some animal and has no value in transplanting anything. (Pg. 157) Most pests don't give a hoot about cayenne pepper or hot sauce, or dry mustard and these are frequently mentioned.  Page 301- plant garlic around roses to keep blackspot off roses?  Blackspot is a fungal disease.  Planting something by a rose won't do anything to keep a fungal disease away.  It won't deter Japanese beetles or other insects either.  Pg. 109- a shot of scotch and a teaspoon of dish soap in a gallon of water to "liven up" potted perennials- if you use plain water it will work just as well, there's nothing in scotch or dish soap helpful to plants. And what does liven up mean?

In fact, most of his “remedies” or “tonics” would work equally well without most of the ingredients.   Take this rose tonic.  Baker has you mix together instant tea, red wine, a tiny bit of fish emulsion ( ½ tablespoon), baking soda, iron and a gallon of  warm water to apply every 3 weeks, 1 quart per rose.  The water and fish emulsion are the only things that have any benefit to roses and that amount of fish emulsion is probably useless.  You’d have to use chelated iron from a garden shop, not an iron tablet from the drugstore, but it would only be a benefit if the soil was deficient in it.  This could not stop any diseases or pests.  Just buy an organic rose food and follow label directions for a far greater benefit.

Baker throws in things like tablespoon of wine, so you feel like you are mixing up some special, secret potion.  That amount of wine in a gallon of water would be so diluted it would do nothing.  Why include it?  Because people think something they buy in a grocery or consume themselves is “organic” and not harmful.  They are mixing it themselves, so it must be safe.  Wrong.  While this remedy might be useless but harmless, without testing the combinations in these various “tonics” no one knows if they are harmless.  And I know some of them are toxic- take the chocolate and Plaster of Paris remedy for mice.  That’s just as toxic to children and pets as a commercial remedy and probably more attractive to them. 

As for saving money that's a laugh too.  Instead of going to the garden shop and buying something that actually works, you are urged to buy all kinds of weird stuff at the grocery instead.  Bottles of apple juice, mouthwash, bourbon and scotch, cartons of powdered milk and Epsom salt, all kinds of things that you are basically going to waste.  Even if you had them around the house you probably had to buy them and now you are going to waste them. Things that added together, even without the cost of the book, (about $35) will have you paying more per ounce for something that's useless than for a good commercial product. And Baker reminds you you'll need one of his hose end sprayers to apply that hogwash.

Baker used a lot of booze related "remedies" and that's probably because he was sitting around drinking while dreaming up stuff.  Baker never had any horticultural training and he was never a Master Gardener as most people define that, the Master Gardener program is run by state universities and trains volunteers in horticulture.  No university has ever had Baker in their program.  His knowledge of horticultural and even basic science is abysmal.  What he was, was an ultimate snake oil salesman.

Don’t buy this book.  In fact don’t buy any Jerry Baker book.  Buy a good garden book instead.  The above book doesn’t tell you much about gardening, just about remedies for garden problems.  Many garden books won’t recommend conventional chemical treatments for problems because the rules and label recommendations change so quickly. If you have a garden problem, ask if your county Extension office can help you.  If you don’t have an Extension office that deals in helping home gardeners try asking at a large, reputable nursery or greenhouse.

Yucca, Yucca filamentosa,  Adams needle

Yucca flowers

If you need a larger plant for a sunny dry spot, then Yucca filamentosa may be just the thing for you.   My yuccas are planted in poor soil along the bank of our pond.  They are high above the water and exposed to the weather, yet they do well.  Yucca filamentosa is one of some 40 species of Yucca but the most common one grown in temperate gardens. It will grow just about anywhere in the US as long it has full sun and well-drained soil.

While yucca is considered to be a perennial by most gardeners it is really an evergreen shrub.  In cold snowy climates the leaves may be damaged, yet they persist.  Plants in the right place live a long time and get larger each year.  While some references claim the plants die after flowering, that’s not true, at least for this species.

Yucca has long sword shaped leaves that can be 3 feet or longer, the tips may curl over.  There is no main stem to this shrub, the leaves arise from a central crown near the ground in a spiral fashion.  The leaves are tough and thick, with sharp points and edges.  On some leaf edges one will often find a white thread peeling off, which accounts for the filamentosa part of the scientific name.

Leaves are usually dark green, although bluish leaved and variegated leafed cultivars exist.  Plants get 3-4 feet high without a flower stalk and 5-6 feet wide. The plant often reproduces small plants around the main one from the root system.

The roots of the yucca are thick and fibrous.  They go deep into the ground and once established it’s hard to get rid of the plant by digging it out as small pieces that remain will start new plants.

Once a year, in late spring or early summer, the mature yucca plant will produce a large woody stalk with clusters of large white bell-shaped flowers.  Flower stalks can be 6 feet tall, with hundreds of flowers. The 6 petal flowers hang downward, and blooms open from the bottom of the stalk upward, providing a long season of bloom. Yucca plants in full flower are quite striking and the flowers attract butterflies and bees.  Yucca plants may not bloom every year, especially in the north.

Yucca is pollinated by one kind of moth (Prodoxidae spps).  In some areas the moth doesn’t exist, and the plants won’t produce seeds.  When it does get pollinated the seed pods are long oval shapes which turn dry and brown when ripe.  I have had seed pods and seeds on my yucca plants so being in the Northern part of it’s range doesn’t mean it won’t get pollinated.

The moth that pollinates yucca lays an egg in each flower and when that egg produces a larva (caterpillar) which eats some of the seeds in the pod, but in a mutually beneficial arrangement it never eats all of the seeds.

Planting yucca

Gardeners can find potted yucca plants, buy pieces of roots or start yucca from seeds.  It will take several years for root pieces to produce a blooming size plant and longer for seeds grown plants to mature.  Mature yucca plants can be divided but this is a bit hard on plants. Transplanting large plants is also difficult.

Yucca filamentosa is hardy in zones 5 and up.  Even some zone 4 gardeners have had success growing it.  It requires full sun and a very well drained soil.  Don’t place the plant where it gets regular irrigation.  It likes it dry.

You may not want to put the plant near children’s play areas, pet areas or close to walkways.  The leaves are sharp- the edges can cut a little hand if they are grabbed.  The sharp point on the leaves might also pose a problem.

After blooming the woody bloom stalk should be cut down to it’s base unless you are considering saving seed.  When spring arrives, northern gardeners may need to trim off some damaged leaves. That’s the extent of pruning yucca needs.

Yucca has few pests and no common diseases.  Rabbits and deer avoid the plant.

Some cultivated varieties of yucca include; 'Bright Edge', a dwarf variety about 18 inches high with gold margins on the leaves and creamy flowers, 'Color Guard', which has a gold stripe in the center of the leaves, and 'Hofer Blue' which has bluer foliage than the species.

Yucca "Color Guard'
Picture from Walmart.com

Edible and other uses of yucca

In many articles it seems that ‘Yuca’ which is a Spanish common name for cassava, is confused with Yucca. The roots of cassava produce a well-known food product, tapioca, and are eaten as a vegetable. Yucca flowers are often eaten but other parts of the plant generally aren’t eaten. A few species of yucca have edible fleshy fruits but Yucca filamentosa does not.

The flower stalks of yucca are sometimes eaten like asparagus.  Flowers can have the sexual parts removed and then can be lightly parboiled and fried up with peppers, onions and other vegetables. They are also cooked with eggs and salsa.  Various Mexican cuisines use them in recipes.

First people had many uses for yucca.  The sharp strong leaves were used to pierce meat, tied in a loop and used to suspend meat over a fire. The leaves were pounded and soaked to get the fibers out, which were woven into matts, ropes and nets. Paper can be produced from the fibers.

The roots of yucca contain saponins, which can produce a soapy lather for washing the body and hair.

In this picture you can see the leaf filaments on yucca leaves.
Wikimedia commons 

Since yucca is evergreen I wonder if it could become a houseplant?  The dwarf ‘Bright Edge’ would be the perfect size.  You’d need a sunny window.  I have that variety too, I might give it a try.

Yucca filamentosa is an excellent focal plant for hot, dry areas.  Since they are evergreen they provide year-round interest.  They are useful in rock gardens, low maintenance landscapes and for xeriscaping.  The stunning flower scapes are a bonus when they are in bloom.  If you have the right spot yucca can be a great plant for your garden.

Renovating strawberry beds

Here’s a summer garden chore that often gets neglected. If you have June bearing strawberries and harvest has ended it’s a good time to renovate your strawberry bed.  This will keep your strawberry patch producing well for many years.  Renovating involves these steps, leaf trimming, thinning and fertilization.  Everbearing strawberries do not need this treatment, but if you have had problems with good production you can renovate these beds too, but you will not get any more strawberries this year.

First remove all the old strawberry foliage to just above the plant crown.  Cutting the foliage reduces foliar disease through the summer and causes the plant to have a spurt of vigorous growth with healthy new leaves.  Make sure you make a sharp clean cut with a sharpened mower blade, or hand trimmers.  Don’t use weed “whackers”.  Ragged leaf edges are more susceptible to foliage diseases.

Rake debris out of the bed, including the trimmed leaves and remove any weeds.  Now thin the plants to about 9” apart from center of the plant to the center of the neighbor plant.  You can make rows or ‘beds” where plants are staggered 9” apart.  Strawberries can produce many daughter plants and you may find you have enough new plants to start a new bed or fill in bare spots in your old bed with the plants you thinned out.

After thinning apply a slow release granular fertilizer for vegetable gardens.  Water the strawberry bed well and keep it watered if weather conditions are dry.  That’s it- you have renovated your patch.  Keep it weeded through the rest of summer and mulch with straw just before winter and you should have a great strawberry crop next spring.

 Side dressing corn

If you haven’t done so already it’s time to side dress (add fertilizer) to your sweet corn. This should be done just as you see tassels starting to form on your corn.  Use a granular garden fertilizer between the rows just before a rain or good watering. (Unfortunately, I added fertilizer yesterday because we were supposed to get rain.  We didn’t, so now I need to water it in.) Use a fertilizer with a high first number, (the nitrogen) such as 23-10-0. I use a lawn fertilizer, corn is a grass family member.

Corn tasseling 

Blood meal is used by some organic farmers although you can find good organic fertilizers on the market now.  Try to keep the fertilizer off the corn stems, about 2-3 inches from the stalks.  Spread the fertilizer at the rate recommended on the bag.

Corn is a heavy user of nitrogen and will start to yellow and slow-down in growth if nitrogen is lacking. It uses the most nitrogen just before and during the tasseling, (pollination) stages.  Heavy rains tend to deplete nitrogen and we often get them this time of year.  You want your corn to have deep green, sturdy looking leaves and stems.  Height will vary by the variety of corn you plant but 4 feet tall is probably the minimum sweet corn should be when it starts tasseling. 

Side dressing your sweet corn will produce a higher yield of big juicy ears. It’s one of those little things that can make a big difference.

Food safety at the farmers market

When you buy produce at the farmers market or road side stands, make sure you wash it before eating it.  This is particularly true of produce you don’t peel or cook before eating.  Even if it is labeled organic it should be washed.  Organic produce is not safe just because it has no pesticides or organic pesticides used on it. Organic growers often use manure or other things on crops that can have salmonella, E. coli and other harmful microorganisms that may be left on produce.  This may actually be worse than a tiny bit of pesticide residue.

Many times, produce being sold as organic really isn’t. And just think of how many people handle produce at the farmers market- where have their hands been?  It’s tempting to eat a few berries or a peach on the way home but it’s probably better to resist the urge.  Wash it first.

And in the summer heat the eggs you buy at the farmers market should have been kept in a cooler.  While eggs don’t spoil right away they can develop unhealthy quantities of salmonella when kept warm. Some sellers think people are more likely to buy their eggs if they are unwashed, but this is an unwise purchase in warm weather.  Even washed eggs can have salmonella inside them and that’s why we cook all eggs until they are not “runny.”

It's great to buy local and seasonal.  But wash that food before eating it!

Tomato blossom end rot

Tomato blossom end rot (BER) is a common problem that home gardeners experience.  I’m seeing a lot of people asking about the problem this year and I’m also seeing a lot of dubious and even harmful advice being given.  BER is a complicated problem, there are some conflicting ideas even among experts, but we do know some things about BER and why it occurs.

BER causes a brown/black leathery area to develop on the bottom of green fruit, usually when they are about half of their mature size. (The area farthest from the stem is what is called the blossom end.)  The fruit will begin to rot behind the leathery area.  Sometimes the leathery area will develop mold.  BER can also affect peppers and eggplant. Fruits generally need to be discarded when they get BER.

BER isn’t a disease, it’s a physiological disorder.  That means it is caused by environmental conditions.  I hesitate to even say this because it’s always misinterpreted but it’s caused by a calcium uptake deficiency.  In most home gardens situations there is enough calcium in the soil but for various reasons the plants cannot take up enough of it.  Adding additional calcium in any form to the soil won’t help if the other conditions aren’t corrected.

Calcium is distributed through the plants xylem system, the system that transports water through the plant.  Calcium must be dissolved in water to be carried through the plant.  Since the bottom of fruits is the very end of the line for the xylem and it’s carried nutrient solutions, the fruit bottom is most likely to suffer from lack of calcium.

So, what causes the lack of calcium uptake in the plant? The most common reason is water stress.  The highest incidences of blossom end rot occur after a wet early growing period turns hot and dry as fruit begins to form.  Fluctuating water content in the soil and in plant tissues is the biggest cause of BER.  Sometimes if soil temperatures get high, air temperatures are high, and the air is dry the plants simply cannot take up enough water even if it’s in the soil. You can’t get calcium into the plant without enough water.

Tomatoes in the ground which are producing fruit need about 1.5 inches of rain a week.  In sandy soil in very hot weather that can go up by an inch or more. (Potted plants may need more or less.)  If rains don’t supply that you’ll need to water.  But the water should be given in at least two doses, so the plant doesn’t get really dry between watering.  Mulch can reduce soil temperature and help conserve soil moisture.

BER can also occur when soil moisture is adequate, but the soil has high salinity, the soil pH is too high or low, the roots are damaged or constricted, soil is too cold or hot, temperatures fluctuate too widely, or there is an overabundance of magnesium, potassium, and ammonium-nitrogen.  Adding Epsom salt to gardens, as often recommended for this very problem, can actually cause BER or worsen it. If there is too much magnesium in the soil,  it will impede calcium uptake by the plant and contributes to soil salinity.

Other than correcting water stress BER can be difficult to treat.  Soil pH cannot easily be changed while plants are growing in it. Overfertilizing will need time and lots of water to leach it out of the soil.  Soil with high salinity (salt) is also hard to fix.  It’s also hard to control the weather- if you learn how let me know.

Adding sources of calcium once the problem begins rarely helps either.  It won’t help damaged fruit. Plants do not take up calcium from milk, crushed eggshells, tums, or other home remedies, if environmental/soil conditions are not altered. In fact, they probably can’t use the calcium in these sources at all, even in good conditions. When these things seem to work it’s because extra water is used to apply them, milk for example, is mostly water, or because environmental changes have occurred.

BER is usually a temporary problem. When plants get enough water and temperatures normalize, you’ll start getting normal fruit. Make sure plants are getting adequate water in even applications.  Check your soil pH and salinity before the next season and do what you can to correct it. Mulch tomatoes if you live where it’s often hot and dry.  Don’t mulch if it’s cool and wet.

Don’t overfertilize, don’t add Epsom salt.  Use a balanced commercial fertilizer, not home remedies if you think your soil might be calcium deficient. You can buy organic fertilizers.  Some varieties of tomatoes and peppers have more resistance to BER if this is a frequent problem for you.

Greenhouse and hydroponic tomatoes can also develop BER, but in them it may be an actual lack of calcium as well as nutrient imbalances.  In this situation contact an Extension educator or other expert familiar with these methods of growing for advice and testing.

Giving your tomatoes “a sip of milk” is a silly and ineffective way to stop BER.  All they probably need is water.  If you’d like to read more about this problem here are some links.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1081/PLN-120027551

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00011081

http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.4141/P02-140#.W0ysINJKiM8

 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14620316.2009.11512568?src=recsys

Quick Zucchini bread

This is the only way I like zucchini.  I don’t grow it but I am sometimes given it and when I get it this is what I do with it.

Ingredients

1 cup butter, melted

3 large eggs

2 cups sugar

3 cups grated zucchini

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

Blend together butter, sugar and eggs.

Mix zucchini into egg mix.

Add dry ingredients and vanilla, blend well

Stir in nuts

Pour into a lightly greased loaf pan. 

Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes until top is brown and sides have pulled away from the pan.

  

Withered, brown and cracked in pain

The earth lies still and waits for rain

Kim Willis

And So On….

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