Gardening Granny's Gardening Pages: January 8, 2019 Kim’s Weekly Garden Blog

Hi Gardeners

We are at the cusp of a weather change here today. It’s been mostly mild and spring like, with some strong winds yesterday taking down small tree branches. It’s still in the 40’s today but the forecast is for temps to drop rapidly tonight and then winter comes to stay for at least a few days.

I actually checked the front bed to see if the snowdrops were up- and they are starting to emerge. Other bulbs were nosing up too. But if we get colder weather, they should slow down growth again and wait for real spring. I do love seeing the bulbs bloom in the spring but if they get too tall right now, they’ll probably be deer food.

I saw a turkey vulture last week. They generally leave here in September and don’t come back until April. Even the birds are messed up with this weather. The chickens don’t remember a time when they couldn’t get through the snow and had to stay in the barn. They’ll walk through an inch or two of snow and lately they haven’t even had to do that.

The opossums know its winter though. An absolutely huge one has taken up residence in one of the cat boxes in the barn. When I feed the cats, it peeks out. I have seen it out a couple times in the evening out walking around. The funny thing is that it collects plastic to bring back to the bed, like plastic bread bags I had put in the trash. I don’t know if he/she just smells food on them and wants them around, but it seems to wrap the bags around itself, maybe for warmth. I had to give the cats another big box of straw so they could keep warm.

I picked a lemon off my indoor tree. At least I think it’s a lemon, it’s supposed to be a Meyer lemon. Its round like a Meyer lemon, which is a cross between citron and a mandarin orange. But its warty and rough skinned. I have had fruit on the tree before, but they were always smaller, barely worth picking. They were warty too, I just thought they were runt fruits. These fruits have pretty thick skin too, and Meyer lemons are supposed to be thin skinned. So, I may have a mystery citrus.

This summer I fertilized the tree with a grass fertilizer that contained iron, as I know citrus needs lots of iron. I got lots of flowers and I have about 10 fruits on the tree. All are bigger than the fruit I had in other years. I picked this fruit just as it started turning yellow as I was curious. I haven’t cut it yet, but it smells like lemon and orange mixed. The tiny fruits I had last year did have seeds and I started 3 new plants from them which are already about 18 inches high. I don’t know what I’ll get from them fruit wise, and I don’t know where I will put more citrus trees in the winter, but it will be interesting.

My weird lemon

The first GMO houseplant

Some of you suspected it was coming. The first genetically modified houseplant has been produced. Whether you find it on the market or not remains to be seen. A study done by researchers at the University of Washington was published Dec. 19, 2018 in Environmental Science & Technology that explains how and why Pothos plants have been genetically modified.

Researchers knew that plants do clean the air of pollutants to some degree, but they wanted to improve the efficiency of plants to accomplish that task. They were interested in making plants better able to capture molecules of two chemicals, benzene and chloroform, both of which are known to cause cancer. These chemicals are often in our homes air and can’t be removed with a HEPA filter or other household filters.

A protein found in mammals, called 2E1, turns benzene into a chemical called phenol and chloroform into carbon dioxide and chloride ions. Plants can use those compounds in their regular growth cycle. Humans also have these proteins in their livers, but they only work when the body is metabolizing alcohol, and they can’t remove chloroform and benzene from the air, which enter the lungs.

Researchers made a synthetic model of 2E1 from rabbits and introduced it into pothos cells. They chose pothos because it’s a common, easy to grow houseplant and it rarely if ever flowers in homes and temperate climates. Without flowers the genes couldn’t be passed to other organisms. It took more than 2 years to perfect the protein transfer process.

In an enclosed environment the modified plants removed 82% of the chloroform and 75% of the benzene over several days. Plants that weren’t modified didn’t remove the chemicals from the enclosures air. The researchers said that placing some GMO pothos plants in a room would help reduce the pollutants, but it would be better to have the plants in some kind of enclosure where room air was pulled through the enclosure with a fan.

No mention was made if such a live plant filter was in the works or where you could purchase the GMO pothos if you wanted them.

More reading

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181219093911.htm

More interesting plants for 2019

Pugster Blue® Butterfly Bush is a new dwarf buddleia with full sized fragrant flowers. The thick stems are said to be more winter hardy (Zone 5) than pother small buddleias. There are other colors in the series too. This is a Proven Winners introduction and you’ll find it at many stores.

Echinacea, ‘Playful Meadow Mama’- Ok, maybe I was attracted to the name, but this Echinacea is something different. It has a double layer of soft raspberry pink petals with white tips and a red center. The tips of the petals are rolled, giving it almost a quilled appearance. It’s available in many places.

‘Tiger’ Boston fern, something different for houseplant lovers is this beautiful Boston fern with golden striped variegated foliage. Its care is similar to other Boston ferns. Territorial- http://www.territorialseed.com

Tiger Boston Fern
Photo credit

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kpaulus/25086476901

Tomatoberry Garden- How about a tomato with 1-inch strawberry shaped fruits? It’s firm and meaty yet sweet, and a great tomato to mix among your ornamental plants. Johnny’s https://www.johnnyseeds.com

Tennessee Red Valencia Peanuts- I want to grow peanuts this year and this is the variety I’ll probably plant. It has smaller nuts than many peanuts, but it grows better in northern areas. They are red skinned like Spanish peanuts. John Scheepers Kitchen Garden

https://www.johnscheepers.com/

Wasabi ‘Daruma’- Wasabi can be a bit tricky to grow but if you like the flavor you might want to grow your own. Most culinary wasabi here in the states is adulterated with horse radish and other plants since true wasabi is very expensive. The plant likes a shady moist location. All parts of the plant can be eaten but the roots are the expensive prize. It is a nice-looking plant with heart shaped leaves. ‘Darumba’ is a disease resistant variety developed for growing here in the States. Territorial Seed http://www.territorialseed.com

I don’t get anything from mentioning these plants. They are just plants I see in catalogs or on line and find interesting.

Planting native plants might spread disease

There are many projects going on across the world where people are trying to reintroduce native plants to areas where they once grew or where new native gardens are wanted to attract pollinators and birds. These native plants are cultivated in nurseries and purchased for the projects. After noticing that many of the areas where native plants had been planted seemed to struggle with disease, and that the diseases seemed to infect other plants in the area researchers began to study the problem.

In California researchers found that a deadly fungus, Phytophthora tentaculata, was killing plants in “restored” areas. The fungus was traced back to several nurseries where the native plants were grown. The fungus was also resistant to many common fungicides used on plants.

More research by the University of California – Berkeley and other research done around the world has confirmed that native plant nurseries can be infected with several other diseases such as Phytophthora ramorum, which causes Sudden Oak Death in North America and Sudden Larch Death in Europe. It’s also possible they could pass on exotic insect pests or pests that have become resistant to control pesticides.

Researchers stress that native plant nurseries can control these diseases if they find them. Many native nurseries strive for organic growing methods, but this may not be the best growing method if deadly diseases infect plants that are then are introduced into natural environments. Nurseries that treat plants must also carefully evaluate and plan their control programs to avoid producing strains of diseases that are resistant to fungicides.

Some restoration projects cost millions of dollars. If those projects are actually spreading plant diseases and failing at a high rate, the value of those restoration projects is in question.

For gardeners who want to plant native plants I would choose your nursery carefully. Ask if they test for exotic and native diseases and use a disease control program. You may want to quarantine native plants away from other plants in your garden for several weeks.

More reading

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190102140733.htm

Recycling Christmas trees

The holidays are over and it’s not a moment too soon to get the live Christmas tree out of the house. Live Christmas trees that are drying out are a big fire risk and shedding needles make them less welcome indoors too. Here are some safe ways to dispose of or recycle Christmas trees.

If you live in the city or suburbs without much of a yard you will probably want to re-cycle your Christmas tree through a commercial re-cycling center. Some municipalities have one or more days when they will pick up trees at the curb for re-cycling. Other areas have re-cycling drop points, where you take your tree to dispose of it. Call your city or township offices and ask what the plan is for Christmas tree re-cycling. If you pay for trash service on your own, call that service to see if they will accept trees and when.

When you are talking to your local government about recycling the Christmas tree make sure you ask how they want the tree brought to the pick-up point. While it makes less of a mess to enclose the tree in one of those large plastic tree bags, some places will not accept Christmas trees for re-cycling if they are in plastic. And since most of the community re-cycling efforts take place shortly after the New Year don’t delay in finding out what the re-cycling plan is.

If you have a compost pile and a little time you can make the Christmas tree suitable for re-cycling at home. Store the tree near the compost pile until a mild, sunny winter day, then sit out there with pruning shears and cut the branches into small pieces and add them to the compost pile. Pieces about 6-8 inches long will break down quickly in the spring. The trunk can be cut into smaller pieces with a saw. Of course, if you have a chipper- shredder you can simply turn the tree into mulch.

Many gardeners have learned that the branches of Christmas trees can be cut off and laid over perennial beds to help protect them from cold. The prickly branches will also discourage deer and other animals from disturbing things like heucheras that don’t lose all their foliage in the winter. Even after spring comes and most of the needles have fallen from the branches, the branches can be laid over newly seeded garden beds to keep animals from scratching out seeds. Remove the branches once the plants begin to grow.

Some people recycle Christmas trees by re-purposing them as bird feeding stations. They set them up where they can be seen from a window and tie balls of suet, popcorn on a string, little net bags of seed and other treats on them. Just make sure there is no artificial tinsel left on the tree. This can wrap around birds’ feet or be swallowed and prove fatal.

If you are trying to attract game animals like rabbits, you can take your Christmas tree, and maybe your neighbors too, and make brush piles for animals to hide in. You don’t want these too close to garden plants and orchards because you don’t want to encourage animals to hang out there, but in the woods or pastures they can provide safe winter shelter for wildlife. If you simply take the Christmas tree to a wild area on your property it will decay over time. Cutting it up makes that happen faster.

Owners of large ponds with fish sometimes re-cycle Christmas trees by placing them out on the ice. When the ice thaws the tree sinks and becomes a haven for fish to lay eggs and for baby fish to survive the jaws of big fish.

Country dwellers have been known to use re-cycled Christmas trees as a snow fence. Upright and on their sides, they do catch and hold snow, but make sure you have a place to put any extra trees you drag home from the neighbors when spring comes.

If you are legally allowed to burn on your property you could re-cycle your Christmas tree by burning it. Be aware that dry evergreens burn quickly and sometimes explosively. You never want to burn the Christmas tree in an indoor fireplace. It makes a big carbon build up in the chimney and can send sparks into the room as it burns. They can make a nice outside bonfire to warm skaters on a cold winter day.

Don’t just dump your tree along the road somewhere. Christmas trees can clog drainage ditches or blow into the road and pose a road hazard. Responsible people who cared enough to support a green industry- growing Christmas trees- should be green enough to dispose of a tree properly.

Don’t cook your greens

Dark green leafy vegetables like spinach, kale and collards have antioxidants such as lutein, which can be beneficial to people’s health. But researchers found that when greens are cooked, they lose much of their lutein content. Other vitamins and antioxidant are also reduced by cooking. So, boiling your spinach really isn’t a good way to prepare it. You’ll lose what little benefits eating it could bring. Steaming, pressure cooking and baking greens are also poor ways to prepare them.

Researchers suggest greens be consumed raw, with fat (like olive oil) or cooked egg to get the most benefit from them. Fats and eggs help your body process the antioxidants and vitamins. A spinach smoothie or a spinach salad with eggs and salad dressing would be much more healthy than cooked spinach. Chopping greens helps plant cells release antioxidants.

And if you must cook your greens a microwave is the least destructive way to prepare it. Of course, some plants people eat as greens, such as poke, must be cooked to make them safe to eat. And since greens are one of the foods often responsible for food borne illness eating them raw could also be problematic.

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Tuesday, January 8, 2019

January 8, 2019 Kim’s Weekly Garden Blog

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