January 29, 2019 Kim’s Weekly Garden Blog
Hi Gardeners,
The mild winter is over here, at least for a few days, and we now
have wicked winter upon us. I am a
little bit glad we got about 8 inches of snow because it’s going to shelter my
plants when we get this polar vortex, double digit below zero weather in the
next couple days. Snows good for
something once in a while.
I am not supposed to shovel snow and my husband can’t. So, we rely on the kindness of neighbors to
plow our drive. We have some great
neighbors. My drive has already been
plowed today. But it’s up to me to make my
way to the barn from the house. Because
of my flower beds a big plow can’t get in there. So before the storm I purchased an electric
snow thrower. The cord is a nuisance,
but the thing is lightweight, starts by pushing a button and actually works
pretty well.
It’s about 75 feet from the house to the barn and I need to make 2
passes to make a wide enough path. The
little machine accomplished that task fairly well and I suppose I would get
used to maneuvering with the cord if I have to use it often. But I sure hope I won’t have to use it
anymore. I would stay inside and just
hibernate, but I don’t think the chickens and barn cats would like that.
I actually waded through the snow to the bird feeders in the back
yard. I took my time and did it today
before the worse of the cold comes. I
hope the birds ration their intake because I’m not going back out there until
the thaw comes this weekend. Yes, the
thaw. Its supposed to be 40 by Sunday.
I am a bit anxious about my plants overwintering on the unheated
porch. I may try and sneak the door from
the house open a crack after the hubby goes to bed so some heat gets out there.
It’s been down to -8 and they survived just fine, the porch stayed above
freezing. That shows me how much air
already leaks from this house.
Just keep thinking- spring is only 50 days away.
Helping outside plants survive the
polar vortex
In most areas of the country plants have been acclimatized to the
weather and this very cold snap will not kill them, although there may be more
branch die back. In many cases there is
nothing that can be done anyway. But one
thing you could do, although some people will think this is counterproductive,
is to heap snow over any exposed branches.
Snow is a great insulator and plants under the snow often emerge in
better shape in spring than those without a snow blanket.
Don’t heap snow on plants with evergreen leaves, especially broad-leaved
evergreens, unless they are very small.
You might break or crush the plants with leaves left on. However bare stemmed plants will generally be
ok if you use a little care in covering them.
If you don’t have snow and this weather is way out of normal range
for your planting zone you could try covering the plants in straw. You’ll need some kind of ring around the
plants, you could use chicken wire or other fencing, to hold the straw in
place. Then pack the straw down around
the plant carefully. (Dry leaves or even
fluffy potting mix could also be used.)
If you have a bed to cover you may need to add loose straw to
cover it, then cover with fencing, or netting or something similar. I would not use plastic or tarps because water
or snow might build up on top and crush plants.
A more elaborate protection scheme, possibly for plants in
containers, would be to put whole bales of straw around the plants in a square. Then balance bales across the top of those or
cover the top with a weighted down board.
Remove plant coverings when the weather reaches 60 degrees
regularly. Even if the weather is stays just above freezing, I would remove any
wet material.
Do not cover plants with any clear solid material like plastic or
glass. Even if it’s very cold, if the
sun is shining these materials will allow heat to build up under them. The plants will come out of dormancy and cold
nights will hurt them worse than if they were unprotected or protected with
substances that don’t allow heat to build up.
Don’t get out in the next warm spell and start trimming off dead
branches and stems. Leave them alone
until spring weather has settled in.
Dead areas help insulate the area below them and prevent further die
back.
Tips for houseplant survival in a polar
vortex
ven the houseplants snug inside your heated home may need some
extra attention when temperatures fall way below zero. If any of your plants touch the windows,
especially if you have older windows, you’ll want to move them back, so they
don’t touch the glass. The leaves touching the glass may die and some tender
plants may even completely die. If the
windows are drafty or the plants are close to doors that are opened during the
cold, you may want to move plants away from those spots.
People are being advised to keep their furnaces at an even
temperature instead of allowing temperatures to fall during the night. This protects your pipes along outside walls
and in crawl spaces. It can also keep
your plants from getting too cold.
We let our temperature fall back to 56 most nights, this usually
happens later in the night as temps fall slowly. But when it’s bitter cold it falls quickly and
sometimes falls lower than 56 before the furnace kicks in. Then it takes a good
while to warm up. So, we adjust the thermostat,
so the temps stay at our regular day temp pf 68.
If your heat goes out take precautions right away for the
houseplants. Move them to the warmest
room and cover them in plastic to hold in the heat. Bunch them together with the tenderest and
most valuable in the center. In a small
room it won’t take much to heat it to above freezing if you have a way to run a
heater or even a heat lamp. Just be
cautious about fire. If the hot water works put the plants in the bathroom and
run hot showers from time to time (not on the plants). Or fill the tub with hot
water.
If you keep a fireplace or wood stove going during very cold
weather, it will reduce the humidity in the house a great deal. Put a pot of water on the stove to boil or
next to the fire in the fireplace. Even
with a furnace it’s going to get dry.
Try keeping a pot of water simmering on the stove or use a humidifier. This will make you and the plants feel
better.
Don’t buy plants during below zero weather. Even a short walk to the car inside a bag
could damage some tender plants. Most nurseries won’t ship plants when the
weather is this cold, but if you have plants on order you may want to check
with the company to make sure the order doesn’t ship until the weather
improves. (Seeds will be fine.)
Watch the houseplant watering
In the middle of winter, especially in very cold periods such as
much of the country is experiencing, how we water our houseplants needs to be
carefully considered. Many houseplants will need adjustments from the regular
watering schedule.
If the weather is cold furnaces run more, and plants in the heated
area of the home may dry out quickly.
This is because humidity usually drops with a cold snap, both the humidity
outside and inside. Low humidity draws
water from plant leaves and from the soil. Plants close to heating vents will
dry out the quickest.
Plants in very cool areas or unheated spaces may not need water
for weeks at a time, depending on pot size and the type of plant. Cold air doesn’t absorb moisture as much as
warm air. Plant processes have slowed
down, and water isn’t being used.
Potting medium that’s soggy in cool weather is a big cause of root rot
so keep a close tab on plants in unheated areas.
Plants can yellow and look like they are dry when actually the
roots have rotted from too much moisture.
In cold weather it’s particularly important to check pots before they
are watered instead of watering plants on a schedule. Also be aware of plants
wilting, check the pot to see if more water is needed or if the plant is too
wet before watering.
Don’t worry about genetically modified
garden seeds
I’m happy to see that this year there are fewer plant catalogs
with the words “ no GMO seeds!” plastered across them. That’s not because they are carrying GMO
seeds. It’s because they have decided to
drop this foolish scaremongering and maybe because people have become better
informed.
While there
are many field crops on the market that have been genetically modified, wheat, field
corn, soybeans and such, there are very, very few garden plants have been
altered in this manner. And if they were
GMO you would certainly be told. There
is no need to put “no GMO seeds” on a seed catalog because garden seeds are
rarely, if ever GMO. The very few genetically modified garden crops are
expensive and generally available only to large commercial growers.
Hybrid
plants or seed are NOT GMO. Your hybrid sweet corn, cabbage, marigolds and so
on, are the result of good old-fashioned plant sex. A hybrid seed is the result of crossing two
purebred varieties of plants. Hybrids happen between plants all the time,
without man interfering at all. Every
time you plant 6 varieties of tomatoes in the same garden you are creating
hybrid tomato seeds. The purebred
parents and the resulting seeds can be grown without synthetic chemicals so hybrid
seeds can be organic also.
When
man discovers two purebred varieties of plants that when crossed produce
something good, he may set out to deliberately re-create it by hand pollinating
the plants or by removing the anthers, (pollen producing parts) from one
variety so it can only be reproduced by the other. He can discover which plants combine well by
experimenting with hand crosses and carefully keeping records of the
results. Then when he finds combinations
or hybrids he likes, he can re-create the cross.
Hybrids
usually have something known as hybrid vigor.
The offspring of that first cross of 2 purebred parents are generally more
vigorous and healthier than the offspring of purebred parents.
Purebred
varieties of plants are often called open pollinated. The only advantage they have is that you can
save the seeds (if you have carefully isolated that variety of plant from other
varieties) and the seeds you plant next year will produce plants like the
parents. Open pollinated plants don’t
always taste better than hybrids nor are they more nutritious. They may be less vigorous than hybrids and
more susceptible to disease.
If you
save the seeds from hybrid plants the third generation will recombine genes in
many ways and you will get all kinds of plants, and probably not ones like the
parents. But you could get something
better than the parents, you never know.
Most home gardeners don’t save food plant seeds from their own plants to
grow the next year anyway. They don’t
have room to separate plant varieties and can’t generally control what the
neighbors are planting. Plants can spread their pollen some distance with the
help of the wind and insects.
It’s a
great thing to save old breeds of open pollinated plants. We need the purebred
lines to produce new and better varieties of plants and preserve genetic
diversity. But if you are just a
gardener trying to grow good, safe food you don’t need to worry about whether
your seeds are open pollinated or hybrid.
If you don’t use synthetic chemicals in your garden then you are growing
organically, regardless of what seeds you planted. And the chances of getting a
GMO seed or plant in a home gardener’s catalog are almost nil.
 |
| GMO petunia African Sunset |
Foot
note
I used to say there were no GMO
modified garden plants on the market at all.
Then I found out that a type of petunia, an orange petunia called
African Sunset, had been genetically modified by inserting genes for color from
corn into petunias. For some reason it
slipped through regulations and was being sold by some nurseries, most of whom did
not know it was modified. As soon as the
error was discovered growers were ordered to destroy the plants. There was no danger to anyone from the plants
and some growers ignored the instructions that year. But that petunia has been taken off the
market. There are still some orange
petunias on the market but none of these are GMO and the color is slightly
different from African Sunset.
I found some of the GMO petunias at a
local garden center that year - and the owners told me they did not know they
were modified when they purchased the seeds.
I bought some of the plants and grew them in my garden. They were beautiful and there was no way they
could be harmful to any organism. They weren’t being eaten and I wasn’t saving
seeds. You don’t need to worry because this isolated case came about because of
some odd circumstances that are unlikely to be repeated.
Try this plant this year
Saskatoon’s
(Amelanchier alnifolia), have blue
fruit that looks and tastes somewhat like blueberries, however they are less fussy
about soil conditions. Saskatoons are native to North America. They are a
favored berry in Canada and Native Americans used them for both food and
medicine.
If your
soil is not sandy and acidic saskatoons may grow much better for you than
blueberries as they tolerate most soil types. They prefer well drained soil in full sun,
although they will tolerate light shade. Plant them in the fall or as dormant
plants in the spring. Space them 3-4 feet apart. Saskatoons should be mulched
or kept weed free when young.
Saskatoons
are self- fertile, so you only need one plant and a mature plant is very
productive. They form a 15-20 feet high
bush, have pretty white flowers in spring and the fruit ripens just ahead of
blueberries in late June or early July.
Saskatoons
are very cold hardy and MSU is working to develop them as a market crop in
Central Northern Michigan. There are now over 20 commercial growers of
saskatoon in Michigan. There is currently more demand than supply for the
berries.
Other
names the plants are sold under are June berry, serviceberry, shadberry and
prairie berry. There are many species of Amelanchier, so look for ones called
Saskatoons for fruit production. Several
varieties are offered commercially for fruit production. I ordered mine from Gurney’s nursery, but
several nurseries now offer them.
 |
| Saskatoon www.gurneys.com |
Saskatoons
are very high in antioxidants and the health benefits are similar to blueberries.
What’s interesting is that Saskatoon berries are considered a better
source of calcium than red meats, vegetables and cereals. They
don’t taste exactly like blueberries but are sweet and flavorful. Native
Americans used them to make pemmican, a high energy food source. They can be
cooked or eaten raw like blueberries and are said to make excellent jam. Fancy, high end restaurants are featuring
them in season on the menu so it could be a good cash crop too.
Two great products from sunflower seeds
Do you
know someone allergic to peanut butter?
Tell them about Sunbutter®, a creamy spread that looks like peanut
butter that’s made from sunflower seeds. Sunbutter® is a registered,
trademarked name and is made in North Dakota.
It
takes about 3 pounds of hulled, roasted sunflower seeds to make an 8 oz jar of
highly nutritious Sunbutter®. Sunbutter®
has 7 grams of protein per serving and more vitamins and minerals than other
nutbutters, especially vitamin E.
You can
use Sunbutter® in cooking just like peanut butter or smear it on bread or
crackers for a tasty treat. (If used in recipes
with baking powder it may give the items a green color, which is harmless.) The
taste is similar to peanut butter and won’t cause an allergic reaction in those
who can’t eat peanut butter. It’s only a
bit more expensive than peanut butter and can be found in mainstream groceries
now.
Sunflower
gourmet oils are now on the market and fancy chefs are featuring them as an alternative
to extra virgin olive oil. They are used
for dipping bread and making dressings and drizzling over food. Sunflower oil
is as healthy as olive oil. The best
oils have a slightly nutty flavor and people are raving over the taste.
These
gourmet sun flower oils are priced about the same as fancy olive oil. Don’t mistake them for sunflower cooking oil,
which is comparable to a low cost olive cooking oil. They can be found in some groceries and on
line.
What does this Latin word mean?
Many
gardeners are either afraid of a plants scientific name or scornful of the need
for them. But scientific plant names can
often give us valuable clues as to what a plant looks like, how it grows, or
where it comes from. Yes, you can look
at pictures of plants, but pictures can be deceptive or not show you what you
need to know. If the scientific name is in the description you may know a
little more. And remember- knowledge is
power.
These
terms below describe size or shape.
Nanus, pumilis, and pygmaeus are
descriptive terms for short, usually dense plants. When used as part of the species name it
usually means that this species is shorter and more compact than other related
species. These are also referred to as
dwarf species.
Humilis is
another term meaning low or shorter. However, in this case it may be that the plant,
while lower than other related species, is still quite large in general.
Elatus, Exaltatus or Procerus are
terms for taller than normal species in the same genus or family.
Giganteus is a
term for a species that is both tall and wider than most of the species in its
family or genus.
Conicus or pyramidalis means
the plant has a triangular or cone shape.
Globosus or sphaericus means
the plant has a rounded or globe shape.
Pyriformis means
pear shaped.
Fusiformis means
spindle shaped, narrow at both ends.
Filiformis means
slender or threadlike and often describes foliage.
These aren’t the only terms that describe plant size
and shape, but they are some of the common ones. Now when you see them, you’ll know what to
expect of the plant.
 |
| This juniper has several descriptive names Juniperus procumbens "Nana" |
Plants
can smell
There’s a new field of study called plant neurobiology. While plants don’t have a nervous system like
animals, they have analogous structures that can process sensory information
and react to it. We are slowly
readjusting what we know about plant intelligence and how plants regulate their
responses to the environment and communicate with other plants and even
animals.
New research has confirmed what several earlier
research studies had suspected. Plants
have the ability to recognize and differentiate among odors. Plants don’t have noses, but volatile scents
enter into plant cells through little receptor “antenna” on the outside of
plant cells. Once inside the plant cell
the odors turn on or off genetic responses, which determines what the plant
will do about the smell.
When plant cells are damaged, they can produce those
air borne or volatile odors that even you and I can detect. When a cat chews
catnip or you bruise a peppermint leaf, for example, we smell the odor. The
plant is producing volatile scents. If the plant cells of another plant
“smells” those odors that might signify danger, then the plant will produce
chemicals that could protect it from being attacked.
While plants can’t respond as quickly to scents as
animals can, researchers think that plants are able to differentiate or detect
even more scents than animals, even those animals highly responsive to scent.
They can determine whether a caterpillar is feeding on nearby plants or a deer.
(Can they smell us picking tomatoes?) Whether they actually smell the pest or
the odors produced when it interacts with a plant or both, is unclear.
If a plant “smells” a pest, it can also manufacture
and release scents of it’s own to summon help.
Plants that are attacked by certain caterpillars may release a scent
that attracts a wasp that parasitizes that type of caterpillar, for example. But a deer feeding on nearby plants won’t cause
the same response. The researchers used gas chromatograph chambers to determine that plants produced different chemical odors themselves when
attacked by different types of pests. In
nature these scents would spread to nearby plants to warn them of a specific
danger.
While the first plant being attacked won’t have time
to mount defenses against the predator, nearby plants may be able to protect
themselves to some degree. It’s also
thought that many species of plant can recognize scents that other plant
species emit. Of course, smelling that an
enemy is nearby may not mean the plant can effectively protect itself. But if there is a defense the plant can
produce, it will.
One reason exotic pests may do so much damage when
they first invade an area is that the native plants need time to learn the new
scent and decide what to do about it. In
many cases they will begin to adapt to the new threat over time.
Researchers are studying the scents that plants
recognize and react to in an effort to develop natural pest controls. For example, if plants respond to a certain
scent by producing chemicals that make their own tissues less attractive to predators,
we could spray a field with that scent and let plants produce their own
pesticides.
It makes our relationships with plants all the more
interesting when you know they have sensory perceptions. Do the plants in your garden know you are a
friend and not a foe?
More reading;
And
more about how plants see
Plants collect light for photosynthesis by little
“antennae” on the outside of the chloroplast, the little green food producing
factory in many plant cells. Our human
eyes collect light also and how much of that light is allowed inside the eye is
controlled by our iris, the colored portion of the eye. In bright light the iris narrows, sometimes
to a pinpoint. This protects the eye and keeps us from being blinded by too
much light. In low light our iris gets
larger to let light in and help us see better.
In plants it seems that the antennae on the
chloroplasts also expand or shrink according to the light level. There are
times when plants receive too much light for the chloroplast to process and the
antennae narrow to prevent damage to the organ.
When a cloud passes overhead or the daylight begins to wane, the
antennae expand to let more light in so photosynthesis can continue. A protein
called KEA3 is the director of this process. Just
like in animals, sudden changes in light intensity can cause plants temporary
problems.
There has always been speculation as to how animal
eyes developed through evolution. The eye is a complex organ. But research in plants is showing us just how
evolution of animal eyes may have occurred.
More reading;
iScience, 2018; 8: 126 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2018.09.019
You
can’t injure your eyes by looking on the bright side
Kim Willis
All parts of this blog are copyrighted and may not be used without
permission.
And So On….
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I write this because I
love to share with other gardeners some of the things I come across in my
research each week (or things I want to talk about). It keeps me engaged with
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