Tuesday, October 20, 2020

October 20, 2020 falling leaves and pumpkins

Hi Gardeners

It’s 52 degrees as I write this.  We have had several freezing nights lately and lots of rain. The garden is pretty well gone although a few hardy things bloom on. The clematis by the barn is putting out a few blooms, that’s surprising. This week I start my bulb planting, weather and my arthritis permitting.

The oak tree is almost completely bare and the big maple in the side yard is shedding heavily. Fall color came quickly and is going just as quickly.  Every night as I go to the barn, I hear great flocks of geese honking their way south. The farm fields around me are pretty well harvested. I can now see clearly across them and watch the deer gleaning the grain.

I have the urge to clean and bake now, and hoard away food like a squirrel.  Hoarding this year might be more urgent and practical than in past years.  With the virus and a snowy winter predicted everyone needs to stock up. Do you have enough toilet paper?

I turn my gardening to the inside now. Watering this jungle takes nearly an hour to do it right. The plants inside are blooming quite well, I have 2 hibiscuses in bloom, streptocarpus, bouvardia, pomegranate, lemon, begonias, geraniums, fuchsia, Ardisia, and gerbera daisies in bloom inside.


Streptocarpus

The plants inside all look good right now. As winter drags on some will get straggly but for now, everything is lush. The elephant ear on the porch is thriving and I so want to bring it into the main house. But it’s huge, the pot is huge, and even though I play around with new floor plans I can’t seem to find room for it. If I could convince my husband we don’t need to see the TV it might work. I do have a new grow light, Amazon deal.  If I could just find a new place to plug it in…

This weekend I dug up some cannas and to do so I had to take out the sweet potatoes growing around them. The tops were mostly frost blackened but underneath there was still some surviving foliage. I forced myself not to pot them and rescue them. Instead I took some cuttings, which are rooting in water on the windowsill. So, I decided to write about rooting cuttings in water today.

 Starting cuttings in water

I have been seeing and getting lots of questions about starting cuttings in water. Many people seem to be under the impression that you can take any piece of a plant, plop it in water and it will grow. That’s simply not the case. While some plants will start from the right pieces placed in water, many will not. And in many cases, it’s better to start cuttings in potting medium and not water.

A cutting that you want to root needs at least one node. A node is a place along a plant stem where new growth can occur. It’s usually where a leaf will sprout along a stem, leaf joint. It can look like a thickened area, or a bump along the stem. Some plants can put out both leaves and roots from a single node, but it’s usually best if cuttings have 2 nodes, one to make the leaves and one to make the roots.



There are plants that can start from a leaf stem without nodes or even from a leaf. But most leaf or flower stems without nodes will not produce a new plant for you. Think of a bouget. How many of those flower stems in the vase are going to put out roots? Not many. You can pluck a hosta leaf and stick the stem in water but it’s almost never going to root. (Miracles do happen.)

When plants produce aerial plantlets, like spider plants, you don’t take a leaf from the plant and stick it in water, you take the whole plantlet. Put the base in water, or better in soil. Plants like sanseveria (snake plant) and African violets, which can be started from a single leaf are best started in potting medium. Cacti and succulents are more easily rooted in sand or coarse potting medium.

If you want to reproduce a plant from a cutting look up the culture (care and growing) of a plant. Most references will list the best ways to reproduce the plant. If stem cuttings are mentioned, you may be able to put the cutting in water to root. But not all plant cuttings will root in water, some do better when the cutting is inserted into potting medium, vermiculite or sand.

In general cuttings that will root in water are from plants with soft (herbaceous) stems. Many of the common plants rooted in water are houseplants. Plants with woody and semi-woody stems root better in solid mediums. There may be certain times of the year when cuttings are more likely to root. In general, this is when a growth spurt is happening, usually in spring.

If you will be keeping the plant growing in water then starting it in water is the right method, providing it’s a plant that will root in water. But if you are going to plant the cutting in potting medium or soil at some point, then start it in soil or potting medium.

When plant roots begin in water, they produce certain kinds of root cells to deal with the environment. When you take them out and pot them, they have to shift those cells to deal with the soil environment. This takes lots of plant resources. Many plants can handle this but there will be a growth setback. Some plants though, will die.

So, if you are gong to try to start a plant cutting in water here’s the basics.

Make sure it’s a plant species that can root in water.

Take the right kind of stem cutting. It should have at least 2 nodes, at least one that will be under water and one above it. Don’t make cuttings too long -3-4 nodes long is best.

Cut your plant piece so that there is very little stem left below the last node in the water.

You can leave the leaves on the cutting top, those parts above water.  Cuttings without leaves can be started also. No leaves should be under water.

Containers should hold at least a couple inches of water. They can be clear or any color. You’ll want heavy containers that don’t tip over easily.

Use clean water to fill containers and keep them filled to the same level as water evaporates. If the water starts to blacken or smell dump it and refill with fresh water. You don’t need to use distilled or rainwater.

If cuttings are going to root in water, they probably don’t need any rooting hormone, although liquid rooting hormones are now available. Do not add fertilizer, copper pennies, Epsom salt, or homemade brews of various things.  Just use plain water.

If cuttings turn black and mushy discard them. Some cuttings take longer than others to root but if you have seen no signs of rooting after a month, the leaves have dropped off the top part and there are no new leaf buds developing, it’s probably dead.

Keep the container of cuttings in bright light but not in direct sun as they root. Warmer room temperatures, above 50 degrees F, are best for the majority of plants.

Don’t use any fertilizer until the cuttings have good roots and are growing new leaves. Then you must be very, very careful not too add too much if you want to add fertilizer. You will burn the roots. Plants manufacture their own food but can benefit from some trace minerals in fertilizer from time to time when growing in water. Use commercial water-soluble fertilizers, not things like fish meal or manure, which can cause bacterial rot and certainly smell up a house. A tiny pinch, like wetting your finger and picking some fertilizer up on it and dipping it in the container, is all that’s needed.

If you decide to pot the cutting in potting medium you don’t need to add soil gradually to the container. Just pot it up. Keep the soil moist but not soggy. Soggy soil will rot the roots, even if they were used to water. If you are going to grow the plant in soil or potting medium get it out of the water and into that medium as soon as you see roots developing.

Here are some plants that will start easily in water. Pothos, philodendron, bridal veil, inch plant, purple passion plant, Boston ivy, Swedish ivy, coleus, wax begonias, sweet potato, pilea, setcreasea, zebrina, geraniums (Pelargoniums), impatiens, mints, tomatoes, lucky bamboo, thyme. Some of these plants will need transplanting into soil fairly soon after rooting in water to continue to grow.


In general plants with long stems, like many trailing plants or prominent nodes along a fleshy stem are candidates for water rooting. Plants where the nodes are producing little “bumps” around them are also prime candidates.

Some succulents like jade plants and holiday cacti might root in water but are more likely to successfully grow if rooted in a solid medium.

Plants with no easily seen stems, (crown type plants) and plants with woody stems are not likely to root in water.

 Let’s talk about deer

Do you know what the country’s most dangerous animal is? Yep, Bambi. A report done last year indicated that the number of car-deer collisions averages 1,332,322 each year. The number of human deaths from such collisions averages 440 each year with about 229,000 additional injuries each year. Elk, antelope and moose also cause a few deaths every year.

October through December are when the highest number of deer collisions occur. So of course, all drivers should take extra precautions this time of year. Dusk is the most likely time for a collision to occur, but deer can magically appear in the road at any time of the day. Slow down, especially in rural areas. Areas with farm fields on one side and wooded areas on the other are prime crossing areas.

Because deer are often chasing each other this time of year they don’t pay as much attention to roads as they normally do. And when you see one deer cross the road, slow down drastically or stop. This time of year there are almost always more deer coming.

If you see a deer in the road brake but do not swerve. Most people who die from deer collisions swerved and hit the deer anyway, plus something else.  Some deaths that were caused by people swerving to avoid deer may never be counted as deer collisions deaths because the deer didn’t get hit and disappeared from the scene.



Deer damage in your garden may increase

It’s rutting (mating) time for deer and gardeners should take steps to protect their gardens from deer damage done by bucks rubbing their antlers on small trees. They can scrape the bark off, killing the tree, or they can bend and break small trees. And since winter is coming and deer and other animals may eat the bark off trees, girdling and killing them during winter, it’s time to protect your trees.

Young trees are most at risk for both rutting damage and winter girdling. Deer like trees with soft bark and diameters of less than 12 inches both for rubbing on and eating. Trees that have an open area around them, such as ornamental trees in the landscape, are preferred for rubbing.  Sapling trees on the outer edges of woodlands are also targets.

Young trees should be protected at planting if you are in deer country – and few places aren’t in deer country anymore.  This can be done with a “cage” of wire fencing, or for trees that go dormant in winter, a tree tube. To keep small animals like rabbits or voles from eating bark at the tree base, the bottom 3 feet of your cage should be wire with small openings, like ½ inch hardware cloth. Chicken wire can keep out rabbits but not voles.

As a temporary aide to keeping deer from rubbing on trees you could put things close to and around the tree like lawn chairs, buckets of earth, lawn art and so on. They may or may not be kept away by spraying commercial products on the trees like “PlantSkydd.” It depends on the deer population in your area.  Bars of soap, human hair, peeing on the tree rarely work to stop rubbing.

If you are in an area with a big deer population and have experienced deer damage in the garden, stop fooling around and get a good fence, wire or electric. Or learn to live with the damage.

Deer eating your plants

Autumn also means winter is near and winter and early spring is when most deer feeding damage occurs to landscapes. It’s time to protect your plants. The only way to stop deer damage completely is to eliminate the deer from your garden with an 8 feet high fence. Barring that, electric wire is the next most reliable option. Shorter fences and spraying with commercial deer repellants help to some extent. Repellants must be applied frequently.

Folk remedies like Irish Spring soap, bloodmeal, various scents and urine products, human hair and so on, may work for a short time, but ultimately will fail. In areas where deer are used to human activity, noises, dogs barking, tin pans flapping in the breeze and so on, are often ignored by deer.

Some favored trees and shrubs can be protected with plastic netting or chicken wire. Burlap on strong stakes can offer wind protection as well as deer protection. There must be no gaps in netting or burlap barriers, they must be tall enough and far enough from the plants that deer can’t lean over it to reach the plants. There should not be so much space between the barrier and the plant that deer can leap over and land safely. About 3 feet of space seems to work.

I have had some success with strands of solar powered twinkle lights set on a “chasing” mode and strung on posts around the garden as a barrier. They come on automatically at dusk. Lights on a steady mode or just blinking don’t work. It has to look as if the lights are moving. The solar panel needs to be in the sun and on a post, so it doesn’t get buried in snow.

A problem with the lights is that deer sometimes run through them, in daylight probably, and break the wires. Then the lights don’t work.  If I don’t catch that right away damage gets done. And some long stretches of dark skies can also cause outages, although even a partly cloudy day is usually enough to power them.

I’m in a rural area and the lights don’t bother any neighbors. You might get complaints if you have close neighbors and the lights are bothering them. I use the lights all year around and all I can say is that when they are working, I don’t have deer damage to my ornamentals surrounded by them.

In the summer the sprinklers that detect motion and turn on with a noise and water spray are pretty effective. You need an electric and water hookup for them, and they don’t work when temps are below freezing.

Do not feed the deer if you like your garden undamaged

You can never feed the deer enough to keep them from eating your garden.  They can eat corn for an hour, then decide they feel like a bit of arborvitae for dessert. Deer like variety and there are some plants they crave whether plenty of food is available or not.

The more food you put out for the deer; the more deer will show up. Soon you will have hordes of deer, at least in winter when they are not very territorial. They will trample plants as well as eat them, leave piles of poop for your dogs to roll in and empty the bird feeders.

You may think it’s fun to watch the deer come and eat from your yard. But if you are a gardener who likes a variety of nice ornamentals and spends a bit of money on them, you’ll soon need to decide which thing you like the most- your garden or watching deer. Deer do not understand that the corn and apples you put out are ok for them to eat but they should leave your arborvitaes and tulips alone.

When you feed deer, you aren’t doing them a service.  Experts tell us it’s not good for the deer’s digestive system to eat corn and other grains. In winter their body normally adjusts to get nutrition from browse, that’s young trees and vegetation left above the snow line. If your grain suddenly stops it will be very hard for their digestive system to quickly adjust. Yes, deer glean grains form harvested fields but that usually is gone before winter. They also have to expend more energy finding it than eating from a pile.

Feeding deer habituates them to humans and makes them easier targets for hunters, it makes them more likely to damage gardens in summer too, when there is plenty of food. Where deer are crossing roads to get to feeding stations, they endanger drivers. Where deer congregate to eat, they also spread disease.

Some deer are meant to starve in winter, it’s natures population control. But in most rural agricultural areas and suburban areas deer rarely starve over the winter, even if people don’t feed them. And extra food means extra babies, does have triplets instead of singles or twins. This is not sustainable over time. Eventually they do begin to die from disease and starvation due to over population.

And to those people who say –“the poor deer- where do you expect them to go?  We took over their habitat”, the answer is we didn’t take over their habitat. Instead we have created more habitat, protected it from hunting and added extra food. There are far more deer in this country than there were when Europeans arrived here.

In a great many areas of the country the deer population is a big problem, the numbers exceed what is healthy and sustainable for the area. They are destroying native endangered plants and diminishing habitat for other animals. They are bringing in ticks to backyards and diseases to livestock.

Plants deer don’t like

Every gardener who has had deer damage gets the idea to just grow plants deer don’t like. That’s often not a good solution. There are very few plants deer won’t eat if they are hungry. And what they will eat in one area they may not eat in another. And that’s the reason deer proof plant lists vary from area to area and person to person. Native plants are not immune to deer feeding. In fact, some natives, like trilliums, are their favorite foods.

There are certain plants deer seem to dislike more than others but just remember they are not deer proof, no matter what some people will tell you. I’ll list some of those here that are perennial. Intermingling these plants can help protect others in some cases, but don’t count on that either.

Spring bulbs; alliums, daffodils and narcissus (I have had deer eat the flowers but rarely), fritillaria, snowdrops, star of Bethlehem, hyacinth, grape hyacinth, crocus (I have had deer eat these), corydalis

Herbs- mint, rosemary, sage, lavender, catmint, tansy, lemon balm

Onions, garlic, chives, horseradish

Ferns- ostrich, bracken, most ferns are safe from damage

Trees and shrubs; Many pines- white pine is eaten when young, spruce, junipers, hollies, paper birch, katsura, boxwood, sassafras, witch hazel, barberries, paw paw- deer will eat the fruit

Other perennials; ajuga, iris of most types, foxglove, peonies- (I have had occasional damage), poppies, ligularia, Bishops weed, bleeding heart, baptisia, pulmonaria, dames rocket, larkspur, bamboo- many types escape being eaten, yucca, Russian sage, salvias, buddleia, potentilla, sweet woodruff

Natives; Jack in the Pulpit, lilies of the valley, mayapple, bayberry, bearberry, elderberries

This list doesn’t include all plants that deer avoid and reflects my own growing area. In the south and west there may be other species deer avoid.

More reading

https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1544&context=hwi

 Pumpkin Carving tips

Larger pumpkins are easier to clean out and you want a pumpkin with a sturdy stem for a handle. Pumpkins with longer stems tend to last longer.  Lighter colored pumpkins are said to be easier to carve but they will not last as long before rotting. 

Pumpkins don’t change color after they are picked so whatever color your pumpkin is when you buy or pick it, that’s the color it will be when you carve it.

Don’t carve your pumpkin too long before you want to display it.  Keep it outside in the shade or in a cool until you do carve it.  Pumpkins should be kept from freezing. They can turn to mush if they freeze solid.

After cleaning and carving, soak the pumpkin in a mix of 2 teaspoons of bleach to a gallon of water for a few minutes. Note: this amount of bleach will not harm any animal that eats the pumpkin. Pat dry inside and out, or dry carefully with a hair dryer, and then coat your carving cuts with a thin layer of petroleum jelly.

Use small electric lights or solar lights instead of a candle to light pumpkins. It’s safer and the pumpkins last longer.

Consider painting your pumpkin or using decorative stickers or tape on it instead of the mess of carving it.

Take your pumpkin out to a field after Halloween for animals to eat. Livestock and chickens love them. Or compost it.

 


“October is a fallen leaf, but it is also the wider horizon more clearly seen. It is the distant hill once more in sight, and the enduring constellations above that hill once again.”

- Hal Borlan, This Hill, This Valley

Kim Willis

All parts of this blog are copyrighted and may not be used without permission.

 

And So On….

 

Find Michigan garden events/classes here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/118847598146598/

(This is the Lapeer County Gardeners facebook page)

 

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