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Tuesday, January 12, 2021

January 12, 2021 Too Cold for Hippos

 Hi Gardeners

No hippos only warthogs
We finally had a few days where the sun shone for a few hours.  We haven’t had a lot of snow, but the gloom lets you know it’s winter. I’ve been looking for seeds and plants I want to buy in catalogs and online, so it helps keep the spirits up.  And boy- there are a lot of things out of stock already and the season has just begun.

Another thing that keeps the spirits up is plants blooming inside. Green is good but flowers are better. I love tropical hibiscus as blooming houseplants, even though they are large plants. I have a beautiful big pink double flowered one blooming today.

Also good for inside blooms are fuchsia, I have 5 different ones and 4 are in bloom right now. Streptocarpus and geraniums are good blooming indoor plants as are the fibrous begonias and gerbera daisies. And of course, the various holiday cacti, I have “Christmas” cacti in bloom much of the winter.

Many of you may have received amaryllis for Christmas and you’ll have blooms from them soon. If you treat them right, they’ll bloom many times for you- but they need rest periods before each bloom period. If you want more information on them here’s a link.

https://gardeninggrannysgardenpages.blogspot.com/p/houseplants-amaryliss4-amaryllis-did.html

The birds are flocking to the feeders now as they deplete the wild seeds available. Many people are talking about robins and bluebirds that haven’t gone south. When there isn’t much snow these birds tend to linger. If we get a big snowstorm some more of them may leave. They don’t normally eat seeds, but bluebirds may eat suet. You can help them out with berries and fruit or expensive dried mealworms if you like.

Deer are wreaking havoc on many evergreen shrubs now. They may also prune your roses and some other plants. Don’t feel sorry for them and feed them. This makes your problem worse and things like corn aren’t good for deer digestive systems. Don’t get them used to being up close around your home and then cry about your flowers in the spring. You may need to bring bird feeders inside at night because they will empty them if they can reach them.

I guess deer pests are better than hippos. I was reading a news story about how hippos have become a problem in Columbia, after a drug dealers private zoo was emptied. They have multiplied and are destroying crops, rare native plants and threatening people. In Africa where they are native, hippos are considered to be the most dangerous large animal and they kill many people each year. I’m glad it’s too cold for hippos here, one advantage of winter.

 

Two resolutions for every gardener

There are two pieces of information every gardener should know and if you don’t know these things, make a resolution today to learn them. Those things are your growing zone and your average first and last frost dates, which gives you the length of your growing season. This information is critical for gardening.

You can find your growing zone by looking at the map below.

  


Knowing your growing zone will let you buy perennials, shrubs and trees that are hardy in your area. Almost all catalogs and plant tags list this growing zone information.

Knowing the length of your growing season- first and last frost dates- helps you chose varieties that will mature before frost in your area. It also helps you know when to plant frost tender plants in the spring. When you are starting seeds inside the package will tell you how many weeks to plant them before the last spring frost. These dates can only be averaged, because weather conditions at the time will pay a big role in whether you get a frost or freeze.

Finding the first and last frost dates is a little more complicated. I suggest contacting your nearest Extension office, almost all counties have an Extension office which is affiliated with a land grant college. An older experienced gardener may be able to tell you.  There’s a link to the average last spring frost below. It will get you started.

https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/news/when-expect-your-last-spring-freeze

Another way to find the information is to search online using “when is my first and last frost date” plus your zip code. Keeping a close eye on the weather forecast near the average dates is recommended.

Gardening you can do in January

Check your outside trees and shrubs and protect them from deer, vole and rabbit damage if you haven’t already done so.  A barrier around the plant of small wire mesh, 3 feet high is recommended for the trunk.  If deer eat the tops of evergreens surround them with a barrier of deer netting.  If you can’t get poles in the ground you can drape it over plants.

Fruit trees and grapes can be pruned this month, if you are good working outside in cold weather.

Cut up live, discarded, Christmas trees.  Use the branches to cover perennials or chop them into smaller pieces and compost. If you have a large pond with fish throw the trees in or on the ice. They make good spawning spots for fish.

Keep the bird feeders full.

Build new planters, birdhouses and other garden crafts. Paint old garden accessories new colors.

Check the houseplants for signs of insects or disease. Trim off dead leaves and dust leaves if needed.  Rotate plants next to windows to keep them growing straight. Start cuttings or root leaves from houseplants like jades, aloes, Christmas cacti, African violets, Rex begonias, spider plant, pothos and other vining plants.

Start tuberous begonia bulbs inside in a warm place. They need plenty of time to mature and start blooming before the last frost in spring.

Check summer bulbs and tubers in storage. If any are soft and molded, discard them. If they look shriveled add a little moisture to the material you are storing them in.

Seed starting can be done for some types of plants in some growing zones. More on that below.

 

When to start seeds


There has been an unusually early number of questions relating to what seeds can be started now. Everybody needs to relax and slow down a bit. Planting seeds too early is a waste of time and money.  And in most of the country it’s too early to start all but a few types of seeds.

If you do start seeds now you need a grow light. In the northern areas even a heated greenhouse will need supplemental lighting to start seeds now. Northern days are just too short and the sun too weak to grow seedlings well.  Windowsills definitely will not work.

Seeds to be started in January and February in zones 5 -7 include begonias of all types that can be grown from seed, impatiens, coleus, geraniums, petunias, and lisianthus. Start pansy and viola seeds early because they can be planted outside quite early, before the last frost. Some perennial plants might be started early if the seeds have had the proper chilling requirements met. But even with perennials it’s better to wait a bit longer. If you are in zone 4 and lower, late February is probably best to start the above species.

If you have seeds from indoor type plants they can be started.  Also, tuberous begonia bulbs, calla lily, banana and elephant ear bulbs can be started in pots early.

Most other species of plants should not be started in zones 5-7 until March or later. The seedlings will get lanky and require a lot of room to grow well if started too early. There is a great opportunity for diseases, insect pests and poor conditions to destroy the plants before it’s time to plant outside.

If you are in zones 8 and 9 some vegetable plants might be started inside now, and some annual flowers. Check catalog descriptions or seed packet instructions to find out how many weeks before your average last frost you should start seeds.

Growing weed

One plant you can start from seed now- if it’s legal in your state- is marijuana. If you are itching to grow something from seed start some pot. If you don’t enjoy smoking it the plants are very attractive to pollinators and a nicely grown plant is an interesting ornamental.

It can be tricky to find the seeds and I am not going to list any sources because in some states this is illegal. But if you search for the seeds online, you’ll find an abundance of places selling them. The seed is expensive, maybe a friend who grows has some seed they can share.

You don’t have to get an elaborate grow system and use all kinds of chemical concoctions to grow marihuana, although it can become an elaborate and expensive hobby. I grew it in regular potting soil using rose fertilizer and I ended up with huge, nice plants. I just used growlights that I raised as the plants grew- and believe me, they grow fast. It’s not called weed for nothing.  My plants went outside after the last frost.

 

Young pot plant under grow light

Buying seeds- don’t worry about GMO

Every year as people start ordering seeds for spring someone asks- “where can I find non-GMO seeds for my garden?”  The good news is that you can find non-GMO seeds everywhere. Home gardeners rarely have to worry about genetically modified seeds (GMO), because almost every seed offered to gardeners is not genetically modified.  GMO varieties of seed are almost always crop seeds: seeds of field corn, soybeans and so on. There are just two types of common garden crops that have GMO varieties, sweet corn and squash, but you will rarely, if ever, find them in the retail market. And if you did find them, they would be labeled as GMO.

Seed companies that advertise in bold letters- NON GMO SEEDS!- are just playing on public fears and ignorance.  And it’s ridiculous that almost all companies are now doing this because their competitor’s seeds are not GMO either. Seeing “non-GMO seeds” in a garden catalog means absolutely nothing. One catalog that shall remain nameless boasts “ non GMO seeds since 1876” .  What a crock.  Don’t choose a catalog to buy from because it say’s non – GMO.

If you want organically grown seeds, that’s a different matter. Organic seeds are seeds harvested from plants that were not treated with pesticides.  There are many places that carry some organic varieties of seeds. The only reason to buy organic seeds is to support people who grow organically. Your own health will not be affected in any way regardless if you buy organic or non-organic seed.

Neonicotinoid treated seeds

The only problem with “non-organic seeds” is if the seeds themselves were treated with one of the neonicotinoid pesticides.  Many types of seeds are treated with these products to prevent insect damage in storage. Since the seeds take up these pesticides the neonicotinoids also protect the seedlings as they begin to grow. 

As the plants get older, if no neonicotinoid pesticides have been applied since the seed treatment, the amount of the pesticide in plant tissues continues to decline. However, studies have shown that a small amount of pesticides can remain in plant parts, including pollen and nectar for at least a year.

Neonicotinoid pesticides are very safe for humans, other mammals and birds and that is why their use is so popular. The problem is that along with harmful insects, neonicotinoids can kill or weaken pollinators and other helpful insects.  There is ongoing research on this subject, but it seems that seed treatments or treating seedlings with neonicotinoids can affect pollinators when those plants bloom, weeks or months later.

Plants grown from seed treated with neonicotinoids will not harm you, only pollinators and other insects. If you are going to plant things that you consume before they bloom, such as lettuce, carrots, beets, broccoli and so on, then the infinitesimal amount of pesticide left from a seed treatment should not be any problem. If you used organic growing practices your food is very, very close to organic, although legally you may not be able to label it as such.

Plants like trees or shrubs that will take several years to bloom from seed will not have any pesticide residue left to harm bees. Whether you choose to grow neonicotinoid treated seeds for plants like beans, sunflowers, squash and flowering plants attractive to bees that bloom the first year, is a personal choice. At this time research suggests there may be some damage to pollinators with some species of plants whose seeds were treated.

If you follow organic garden methods your garden produce will be virtually indistinguishable from those who used organic seeds even if you start with seeds that weren’t grown organically. If organic seed is more expensive than non-organic, I don’t buy it.

Other seed terms


Open pollinated seeds (OP)-are seeds that are not hybrid and are offered by many seed companies.  Open pollinated seeds are generally older varieties or heirlooms. The only real advantage to open pollinated seeds is that if you isolated that variety from other varieties of the same species, you can save seeds to grow for next year. And with those seeds you will get a new crop very similar to the parent plants. 

If you don’t isolate your plants such as tomatoes and peppers by variety, the seeds you save from this year’s crop are likely to be hybrids- insects and the wind distribute pollen between varieties. The resulting plants grown from those seeds will be all over the scale as far as vigor and taste.

Seeds that are hybrids are not genetically modified in the accepted definition of the word; it’s just means that two different varieties of a plant were crossed through sexual reproduction, (getting pollen from one plant to the stigma (female part) of another plant).  The varieties that are crossed to produce the hybrid are known to reliably produce seeds that will grow into a certain type of plant.  But if you save seed from hybrid plants and grow them the offspring will have all sorts of variations, some good, some bad. 

Hybrid seed that is deliberately produced is usually more vigorous and disease resistant than open pollinated seed. You’ll usually see such seed marked as F1 or with the word hybrid in the name. Hybrid seed can produce vegetables and flowers every bit as healthy, tasty, and safe as non-hybrid seed.  And seed can be both organically grown and hybrid.

Most seed comes from the same place

It may surprise gardeners buying seeds to learn that many seed companies offering seed in small packets are all buying from the same seed growers or wholesalers. A few companies do grow some or all of the seeds they offer, but a great many companies just buy bulk seed and simply repackage it.  The seed grower sells seed to wholesale seed companies, they in turn sell seeds to smaller wholesalers or retailers, who package the seeds in paper or foil packets for the home gardener.

If you read a seed catalog carefully and pay attention to the small print you may be told what seed growers the company contracts with, or what wholesaler they buy from and who they are affiliated with or are owned by.  If you ever thought certain catalogs looked a lot alike and offered similar things check their mailing addresses. Some come from the same company under different names. These different catalogs from the same company may have different prices for the same item too.

Shop around. When buying garden seeds make sure to compare the size of the packet and the cost of shipping to see where you get the best deal. The same seed variety can vary widely in price from one company to another.

 

For lots of information about seeds and starting seeds click on the page below.

https://gardeninggrannysgardenpages.blogspot.com/p/have-youreceived-any-garden-catalogs-in.html

 

 

A surprising way plants can obtain new genetic material

An interesting research paper was just released that might explain how new species of plants form and how plants can adapt to changing conditions.  Researchers have found that genetic material in the nucleus of a plant can be passed from cell to cell.  And if two plants have a graft union that genetic information can then pass from plant.

In nature plants sometimes graft together at their root systems and parasitic plants such as mistletoe also tap into the host plants at a cellular level. Scientists have shown that genetic material can pass from plant to plant at these natural grafts and also at human made grafts. It’s theoretically possible that genes from one plant that can survive drought for instance, can be passed to another plant by a parasitic plant like mistletoe, or by roots grafting together.

This raises some interesting questions.  Not all grafts between plants will survive, the closer genetically the plants are the better the chances for a graft to “take”.  Species within the same genus can often be grafted together but plants in different genus or families are unlikely to form a graft.

But if you can find a related species of a plant that has some desirable quality you would like another species to have, such as disease resistance or flower color, it’s possible that a graft of the two might let the plants exchange the genes to pass the desired quality along.

It’s going to take some more research, but we may have discovered a new natural way to genetically modify plants.   

Here’s a link for more reading:

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210111112227.htm

 


“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” 

– Anne Bradstreet

 

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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If you have a comment or opinion you’d like to share, send it to me or you can comment directly on the blog. Please state that you want to have the item published in my weekly blog if you email me. You must give your full name and what you say must be polite and not attack any individual. I am very open to ideas and opinions that don’t match mine, but I do reserve the right to publish what I want. Contact me at KimWillis151@gmail.com

 

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