April 6, 2021 planting pansies

 Hi gardeners

Today is a beautiful warm day here but just last Thursday we had six inches of snow. What an awful April Fools day joke mother nature played on us. It was all gone in a couple days however and the frogs are back out singing away.

Even though they were buried last week the crocus survived and are back to blooming beautifully. Many daffodils are now in bloom and corydalis, and some anemones (windflowers) and Glory of the snow are in bloom. Both grape hyacinths and the larger hyacinths are starting to bloom. Tiny perky violas are popping up in the lawn.

My roses and clematis are leafing out and I see some hostas peeking out of the ground. There are big buds on the maples. Chickweed is blooming. The lilacs are showing green. I didn’t see any dandelions in bloom here, but saw them blooming in town, and if this warm weather continues, they’ll be blooming soon here.

The grass is greening up and soon it will be time to mow. There is a shortage of mower parts this year so get out those mowers and get them running, in case you need something you’ll have a chance to get it before the grass is too deep.

Get out those hummingbird and oriole feeders and put up any new bird houses. The birds will soon be here if they aren’t already. Many birds are already nesting.

Start your dahlia and canna bulbs inside now in zones 6 and lower. You can plant them in the garden in zone 7 and above.

I am busy working on the veggie garden this week.  I’ll have lettuce and spinach planted sometime this week. But for you new gardeners- patience, patience, patience. In zones 6 and lower there is still a chance for frost. Be careful still on what you plant outside.

The busy season has started. From now until late June I’ll be outside and working very chance I can. (And a lot of time after that too.) But I am looking forward to it.

 

 

April 1 at my house

April almanac

The full moon in April is a super moon as it coincides with the moon perigee, the closest point the month is to the earth each month. It makes the moon look larger and increases the tides. This will occur on the 26^th and 27^th this month. The moon apogee, farthest point from the earth, is April 14^th.

April’s full moon is known as the Pink moon, egg moon or grass moon. It’s known as the pink moon because it is when the pink wild creeping phlox usually blooms. The Lyrid Meteor shower peaks on April 22^nd but the moon will still be nearly full, and it may be hard to see them this year.  You will have a better chance to view the May 5th, Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower.

Holidays in April are Golfer’s day the 10^th, National Pecan Day 14^th, National Garlic Day 19^th, Christian Easter 21^st, Earth Day 22^nd, Executive Administrative day and Zucchini bread day the 23^rd, Arbor day 25^th, and International Astronomy Day.  Easter was April 4^th this year.

April is National Lawn and Garden Month as well as Keep America Beautiful month.  It’s also National Humor month, National Pecan month and National Poetry month.  April’s birthstone is the diamond, and the birth flower is the sweet pea.  In the language of flowers, the sweet pea means either goodbye or blissful love, depending on who’s translating, I guess.

Garden chores for April include seeding lawns, planting trees and shrubs, getting seeds and bulbs started indoors in zones 5-6 and maybe planting lettuce and peas outside and putting some pretty pansies in pots for color.  In warmer zones you may be planting more crops outside like onions, carrots and even tomatoes and peppers and planting those annual bedding plants and containers.

April is a good month to divide perennials and move plants you want to relocate. And get those mowers tuned up and ready to go, most areas of the country will mow at least once in April. 

Get out those oriole and hummingbird feeders by mid-month in zones 6 and lower and right now in zones 7 and higher. These birds have started their migration north already.

Here’s a link to learn about growing sweet peas.

http://gardeninggrannysgardenpages.blogspot.com/p/sweet-peas.html

Sweet Peas

                                 

Resetting the Table: Straight Talk About the Food We Grow and Eat  - By Robert L. Paarlberg

A Book Review

This is the book I have been waiting to read about modern food production, from a person who has experience with modern agriculture and who can give an informed opinion about the direction in which our food production should head. Much that has been written lately is strongly pro-organic, pro small farm, with an emotional, nostalgic appeal to people. But when you read these “let’s go back to the way we used to be” books and you do know a little about modern agriculture, you can see the bias quite clearly and you can also see faulty reasoning and incorrect assumptions touted as facts.   

Back on March 2, 2021 I wrote a review of Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal by Mark Bittman.  Bittman is a food writer, with no agricultural knowledge, whose book was interesting but deeply flawed in spots because he refuses to see a place for the good parts of modern, large agriculture and the progress being made to make modern ag more sustainable and earth friendly.

The truth is as Paarlberg points out in his new book, while organic ag and small family farms are great, we cannot feed the world with them. And if we tried, we would do far more harm to the environment and global food security than we would do good. Even though organic food and buying from small farmers is popular with middle- and upper-income families in developed countries, it still makes up less than 5% of the sales of food products in those countries.

In your home garden, and for small market gardeners, organic food production is both feasible and a healthy goal. But when it comes to producing food for the majority of the world’s population modern, large scale, precision type agriculture for plant-based foods is the best hope for sustainable, environment sparing agriculture. (The production of meat is another topic I’ll discuss later.)

Things you may learn from this book-

Did you know that pesticide use on commercial crops peaked in the 80’s and has been going down ever since? The pesticides used on crops today are actually safer for humans and the environment than those used even 30 years ago.  And with precision agriculture, those pesticides are applied only when and where they are needed, meaning that millions of gallons of pesticides are no longer applied to crops when they aren’t needed and no longer wash off into our surface water, and seep into ground water.

You don’t hear about this though. Instead, you hear about how bad certain pesticides are for pollinators, how pesticides are poisoning us even though the food supply is safer and cleaner than it’s ever been, at least in the last 100 years.  

(One of the biggest users of pesticides today, and the area where pesticides are far more likely to impact helpful insects and the environment than in crop fields, is the “kill the invasive plants” movement. But you don’t hear much about that. https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2664.12711 )

GMO crops, while greatly vilified, are part of the reason we use less pesticides. By now people should have realized that GMO modified crops are harmless. We’ve been eating them for 20 years and there is no science-based proof they are harmful. You may think you aren’t eating GMO foods, but unless you grow all of your own food, including grains and oils, you are.

While organic agriculture uses different pesticides, those pesticides can be just as harmful to pollinators and humans as modern “chemical” pesticides. And in many cases, much more of them are used to combat pests, since many are not as effective as modern pesticides and have to applied more frequently. Pests develop resistance to organic pesticides just as frequently as they do to modern pesticides.

Even most organic producers now agree that banning chemical fertilizers in organic production was probably a mistake. As I have mentioned many times plants don’t care how they get their nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.  Manure and other organic fertilizers are awfully hard to manage so that plants get what they need without polluting the environment with excess nutrients. And manure applied to fruits and vegetable crops introduces the risk of food born disease like salmonella and listeria.

Modern agriculture actually saves land

One of the that the reasons farms have gotten larger is because using modern technology is expensive. If you are going to buy a precision pesticide applicator, one that identifies a weed, then applies a tiny bit of pesticide directly to it, you need to produce a lot of crops to pay for it. This technology is now available and will lessen pesticide use even further.  

When we boost production from each acre with modern technology, we can retire marginal lands from production. Much of it goes into conservation easements. Large farms are willing to allow pollinator strips or edges, smaller farms feel compelled to plant from road to road. In the last 20 years technology has allowed us to grow more food on less land, and we now have removed thousands of acres from food production.

Other modern farming practices include no till, which prevents erosion and aids in keeping soil microbiomes healthy. Complex drip irrigation systems conserve water. Drones and satellites evaluate fields to see where problems are and water, fertilizers and pesticides are applied only where needed. Technology is the future of agriculture and it shouldn’t be looked at in a negative manner.  

The world needs more modern agriculture

One reason many developing nations can’t produce enough food is because farmers cannot afford modern fertilizers. They have access to manure but since animals are often poorly fed in these countries the manure is often not enough to substantially boost crop production. And animals are most often on pasture- and their manure hard to gather.

There are other factors- like water availability and politics that effect production but if many countries had access to affordable modern fertilizer’s they could greatly improve food production and reduce starvation and nutritional deficiencies. Poor countries also need access to better seeds and modern technology like drip irrigation.

There’s a movement now to tell these poor farmers that farming in the traditional way is good and they shouldn’t give up their traditions. While there may be some truth in that, much of it is romantic bs. It’s not ok for people in developed countries to continue to use all the modern technology at their disposal and produce far more food than they need, while the poor people of the world are told they should farm like their ancestors did and just buy food from more advanced countries or live with food shortages and malnutrition.

The healthy diet recommendations and human exploitation

The recommendation for a healthy diet in developed countries calls for lots of fruit and vegetables. But many fruits and vegetables still need a lot of hand labor and in the US and other developed countries, it isn’t the citizens of the countries that do much of that hand labor. Instead, it’s poor people from underdeveloped countries that come in to do the work, often illegally. This leads to abuse and exploitation of these vulnerable people.

Even though agricultural wages have risen, the work is still hard and often dangerous. Farmers will tell you they can’t find enough US citizens willing to do the work. It’s harder to mechanize this part of agriculture. So as long as US citizens expect to have fresh fruits and vegetables available all year at reasonable prices people are going to suffer to make that happen. It may happen in their own countries, where they are producing food for US citizens at the expense of a good diet for their own citizens. Or it may happen here where farmers happily take advantage of illegal workers.

We need to rethink how we obtain those “healthy” fruits and vegetables, where we grow them, how we transport them, who has access to them. Are we really healthier if we have fresh strawberries or lettuce in January? Or could we be just as healthy with berries frozen last June and cabbage kept in cold storage?

Fruits and vegetables are the foods most often wasted in modern countries. They are the foods transported long distances and utilizing lots of resources to clean and store.  Should we continue to support the production of foods that exploit poor people and cause environmental harm for the benefit of the middle and upper class?

Animals in Agriculture

Most people recognize that the way we produce meat, eggs and milk is not always humane and that changes need to be made in that sector of agriculture. But just like crop production, the way we raise animals cannot go back to the past if we intend to feed the most humans at the least cost to the environment.

Saying that people need to eat a plant-based diet and give up meat is one thing, getting people to do that is another. Vegans and vegetarians comprise less than 5 % of the population and are unlikely to ever become more than 10% unless meat just isn’t available.

Confined production of animals is here to stay and in some ways it’s probably better for animals like chickens than free range. But we must do it more humanely. Many countries have set standards for confined production and a few US States have also legislated better standards, but more is needed.

The majority of eggs produced in this country are now produced cage free, but hens are still too crowded in production buildings. We need to give hens more floor space, good ventilation and climate control, natural lighting and things like litter to scratch in. Turning them loose to free range exposes birds to disease and predators and takes more birds to produce the same amount of eggs. It’s not the answer. Free range is for birds you raise at home, and even then, a lot of chicken owners will tell you those birds face a lot of risks.

In the Netherlands standards for confined hog production require natural lighting, lots of room, climate control and cleanliness, good ventilation, bedding to root in and even what is called enhanced environments- which means things like toys to occupy the pigs. Farrowing crates are banned.  They produce a lot of pork at only a slightly higher cost than we do here.

An experiment with dairy cattle found that when cows were offered pasture or a choice of a clean, climate-controlled building with a deep straw bedding for comfort, most choose the building. Most US farmers shun bedding because it takes more work to keep things clean, but it could be mandated.

Confined but happy animals are healthier and require less medication for disease or to promote growth. Bio-security is easier in buildings and keeping animal diseases from becoming human diseases is important. But we must find ways to use less antibiotics and growth hormones in the animals we raise.

Raising an animal in comfortable conditions and treating them kindly and then killing them quickly and humanely is not evil. Most people say they are willing to pay more for meat raised in this way. It’s the way we must treat animals until we transfer to real meat grown in labs at a reasonable cost, which is still a long way off.

The artificial meats we now have are highly processed foods, requiring just as much water and land to produce the ingredients as traditional meat. We don’t even know how safe these foods are and many of the products contain more fat and salt than we should be consuming. They will never become popular unless the price can be lowered much more than real meat.  They aren’t the answer to feeding the planet.

We should encourage eating less meat. We should encourage buying locally and seasonally raised produce when it’s possible. We should grow some of our own food, but also recognize that some people just can’t do that. Using less pesticides and less land to produce crops should be the goal, and we should embrace technology to help us do that. 

We should help all countries to embrace modern agriculture and become more food secure, rather than expecting them to continue to use old farming methods because some well-fed people in the modern world think that’s what would be ideal for them. The green revolution worked for first world countries, and it will work for poor countries if we just let it.

Agriculture has changed -improved- dramatically in the centuries people have practiced it. Despite doomsayers in every era, we continue to produce enough food in this world to feed every person on the planet- even though that food is often not distributed equally, and people still starve.

We are able to do this because agriculture keeps improving. Now is not the time to regress and move backwards in some romantic notion of how things were better in an earlier time. Technology is what will keep us fed in the future.

And we should realize that it isn’t farmers, no matter how big or small, that are making us fat or ruining our health with their crops. It’s the middlemen between farmers and eaters that do that, turning perfectly healthy food into products full of sugar, salt and fat that make us all less healthy. Don’t blame farmers for your health problems, and don’t blame them for our environmental problems.

Read the book – no matter how biased you are towards organic agriculture and the old-fashioned way of farming. You may gain a different perspective.

 

Planting Pansies

Picking some pretty pansies this spring should be on every gardeners to do list.  Who doesn’t like pansies? When you just want to see pretty flowers but know it’s too cold to plant most annuals, think of pansies. They make cool weather colorful and give gardeners an easy to grow option when they just need to plant something. Pansies are heavily promoted to keep gardeners buying plants in the cooler months. They are so pretty it’s hard to resist them, and if you venture into garden stores when it’s cool, you are almost certain to return home with pansies.

In garden stores you may also find violas for sale in early spring. Botanically there is no difference between pansies and violas, although some species of viola are short-lived perennials in the garden, as are most violets, another relative. Modern hybrid pansies usually have larger flowers than violas and they are less likely to retain any fragrance. You can use violas just like pansies. Violas are more likely to reseed themselves in the garden and pop up in unexpected places.

In the garden pansies can be used hide the dying foliage of early spring blooming bulbs. Pansies are excellent in containers to add a bit of color to porches or decks in cool weather. Children love the “faces” on pansies, so they are excellent choices for a child’s garden. Pansies are edible and can be used to decorate cakes or added to salads. Pansies make good cut flowers and they are charming when dried and used in crafts. And the bees will love you for providing them flowers to feed on when there is little else in bloom.

Pansy growing tips

Pansies are planted in early spring or late fall. Pansies do not like heat, some varieties are more heat tolerant than others are, but few pansies will bloom in hot weather. There are some varieties of pansies that will put on a show in the fall until covered with snow, and then when the snow melts in spring they resume blooming as if nothing has happened.

Pansies are generally removed and replaced with warm weather annuals after the last frost in the spring.  A good idea is to plant your pansies in something that will fit inside patio containers or window boxes and then zip the pots of pansies away to a cooler spot when it’s time to plant the petunias or other warm weather plants in that location.  Find a shady spot for the pansies to rest in. Cut them back to a few inches and keep them well watered. If you are lucky, they will survive the hot weather and be ready to bring back into the sun in cooler fall weather to resume blooming.

If the pansies are planted in the ground, you can dig them out and pot them and remove them to a shady resting place as above or you can cut them back and hope to see them in the fall. And since pansies are inexpensive you may just want to remove them to the compost pile when the heat comes and they stop blooming.

Pansies like full sun in the spring and fall although they may tolerate some light shade. They need to be kept moist, but make sure they never sit in waterlogged soil. A slow-release fertilizer mixed into the soil at planting will aid flowering, especially in areas where pansies will be blooming for many months.

Pansies are annuals; they live for about a year. Some fall planted pansies will return in spring. Keep the dead flowers picked off so they don’t go to seed to prolong bloom. If you do let a few go to seed in the garden they may pop up on their own next year.

Pansies can also be started from seed indoors. Pansy seed germinates well, and plants are fairly easy to grow. They like to be started in a cool area, with daytime temperatures in the 60’s and nighttime temperatures in low 50’s - high 40’s. Pansies need a sunny area or good supplemental lighting to develop into sturdy plants. They will need to be started about 10 weeks before you want to plant them outside.

Some pansy varieties

There are hundreds of pansy varieties on the market. There are large flowered varieties and small flowered pansies. There is every color pansy in the rainbow, some solid colored, some with the traditional “cat’s face”.  There are ruffled and frilled varieties. Medium and small flowered pansies hold up better in rain and snow than the larger flowered pansies.

Tags on pansies sold in stores may just say “pansy hybrid, mixed colors. That’s because most people choose pansies by the color and markings that appeal to them. Here are a few named varieties. “Crystal Bowl Supreme” series features 12 solid colored, small flowered pansies. “ Majestic Giants” is an old series with large flowers, many colors and markings. “Bolero” hybrids have large, ruffled double blooms in a wide range of colors. “Pink Panther” series features medium sized flowers in shades of pink, wine and lilac.

 

A flower blossoms for its own joy.”

– Oscar Wilde

 

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)

 

Newsletter/blog information

 

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

 

March 30, 2021 spring is popping

Its sunny, windy and 70 degrees F here, but that’s going to change tonight, when it’s going to get colder and rain. This time of year the weather is very changeable, and the changes can bring severe weather. Everyone needs to pay attention to the weather forecasts now and have a plan for what to do if severe weather is forecast.

Flowers are really beginning to pop now. The crocus are at full bloom. Iris reticulata and winter aconite are blooming. A few Glory of the Snow (Chionodoxa forbesii), corydalis and daffodils are in bloom too. I took a cat to the vet to be neutered early this morning about 10 miles south of me. The daffodils in front of the building were in full bloom, just a few miles makes a big difference.

The early tulips are budding and so far, they have escaped deer attention, (I probably shouldn’t have written that.) So far, no bloodroot is blooming although I’m keeping a lookout.  Hyacinths are budding too. There are leaves on some of my roses and on the honeysuckle and barberry.

Unfortunately, I ran into a dead possum in one of my flowerbeds yesterday. No idea what killed him. I am not going to compost him in place though- I put him out beside the road in front of the old pasture for the vultures. There’s a dead deer just down the road so they will be feasting for a while.  Hopefully they will have cleaned the plate by the next warm spell.

The grass is greening up and next week we will get the mower out and get it running.  Garden clean up and prepping the new veggie garden is ongoing. I ordered a JawSaw- have any of you used one? It’s a chain saw with a guard that’s like jaws, and they clamp around small limbs and cut them.  I’m getting a battery powered one and hopefully I’ll be able to do some pruning and sapling cutting around here.

This weekend I started several more types of flower seed, I have lots of little pots under the grow lights. Things are crowded now and for the next month or so. I saved some of each seed packet to sow directly into the ground, that way I’ll have some early bloom and then a larger, later bloom.

 Do your plants need fertilizer?

This week before it rained, I applied fertilizer to most of my flower beds. I do this every spring just as plants start coming out of the ground. It’s a boost for the spring blooming bulbs, allowing them to produce bigger flowers next year. And it also gives the perennials in the bed a good start. I do avoid fertilizing some plants, like the lavender, which like “lean” soil.

I simply apply a slow-release granular fertilizer throughout the bed, following label directions. I will also be applying compost in the beds from time to time. Compost is good for the soil, improving the texture and supplying some nutrients, but it’s not fertilizer and often does not supply all the elements soil may need. I recommend using compost generously, but also fertilizing if necessary.

For my perennial flower plants, the spring fertilizing is all they will get in the year. I do fertilize annual plants once or twice more during the summer. Container plantings will get more fertilizing than those in the ground as watering leaches out the nutrients. My vegetable garden gets fertilized as I plant, and unless there seems to be problems later, that’s all it gets. I sometimes fertilize trees or shrubs if they appear to need it.

I don’t fertilize my lawn at all. It seems silly to fertilize a lawn to make it grow so I can mow it more often. If you like a plush, perfect green lawn and don’t mind mowing you’ll want to fertilize it both in spring and fall.

Every few years I get soil tests done, but as I have gardened in this spot for many, many years I have a good idea of what it needs to grow well. Newer gardeners or gardeners who have moved to a different growing environment may not be so certain as to what their gardens need.

The best way to know what soil elements are lacking and need to be replenished is to have a soil test done. Do this in early spring, as soon as the soil is thawed and dried a bit, so you have time to get the results and correct imbalances before planting or before plants begin growing. Its especially important when you haven’t gardened in the spot before, or you had many garden problems the year before.

Contact your local county Extension agency and ask if they do soil tests. In most states they do, and it’s the best place to get one done. Garden centers may also offer soil tests. These tests will cost something, but it’s worth it for the information a good soil test provides.

Plants manufacture their own food by photosynthesis, so it is technically wrong to call fertilizer plant food. But in order to manufacture their food plants need certain elements from the soil. The type of rocks that were broken down long ago and the decayed organic matter in an area determine the type of soil that area has and the amount of essential minerals and other nutrients the soil holds.

Sandy soil loses nutrients quickly, they move down through the large pores between soil particles with water and soon are out of the reach of plant roots. Sandy soil will need more fertilization than loamy or clay soils. Clay soils hold water and nutrients very well and may need less fertilization.

The type of rocks that broke down to form soil in an area also determine soil pH or how acidic the soil is. Soil nutrients become available to plants at different levels of soil pH.  Some soil may have all of the essential elements plants need in good amounts, but the soil pH prevents them from using it. A soil pH of 6.5-7 generally allows for the best use of soil nutrients by most plants, but some plants need a higher or lower pH.  A soil test will help you determine what your soil pH is and how you should modify it if it’s needed.

Lime raises the soil pH. It’s not a fertilizer and should not be used unless the soil is too acidic for good plant growth. Using lime when it isn’t needed may cause some soil elements to be “tied up” and unavailable to plants.

By the way it’s a good place to mention that Epsom salts are not fertilizer nor are they needed in the garden. Epsom salts are composed of magnesium and a little sulfur. Most soil has plenty of both and if you add unneeded magnesium you risk it interacting with other nutrients and preventing them from being used by the plants.

Different types of plants use soil nutrients in different amounts. When the same plants grow in the same spot for a long time, the elements they need may become depleted, which leads to poor plant growth. While nitrogen may be returned to soil from the air and decomposition of organic matter, some other soil elements are not easily replenished naturally. But nitrogen is the element that most often needs replenishing, because plants use a lot of it, and it also leaches and dissipates from the soil easily.  

Nitrogen promotes leafy (vegetative) growth and if too much is applied some plants will not flower and fruit well, they are putting their energy into leaves and stems. So different types of garden plants require different levels of nitrogen for the best production. Unfortunately a soil test will not tell you how much nitrogen your soil has, because nitrogen levels change so quickly.

Chances are good that vegetable gardens and plantings of annual flowers need fertilization because they grow rapidly and use soil elements up quickly. If you have used an area for a vegetable garden for more than 2 years, it probably needs fertilization. If you don’t soil test for some reason, using a general purpose fertilizer for vegetables in the spring at planting is probably a good idea.

Roses generally need fertilization. Lawns may need some fertilization, especially in fall to promote good root growth. Fruit trees and things like strawberries and grapes generally need some fertilization to perform at their best. Some plants may have a high requirement for certain minor elements, called trace elements, for good growth.   

Reading a fertilizer bag

All fertilizer bags are required by law to have several things on the bag.  They must have three numbers on the bag or container. These numbers signify how many pounds of the major elements that plants need, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, in that order, are in the bag. Nitrogen is first because it is the most important element for plant growth. Phosphorus in fertilizer is banned in some states such as Michigan because it pollutes water so that place will be represented by a 0.

Fertilizer bags must have a list of active ingredients, the weight of the bag and instructions for proper use.  If there are pesticides in the fertilizer, such as a weed killer, the pesticide name and the pesticide registration number must also be on the bag.

The three numbers on the bag are based on 100 pounds of fertilizer. A bag marked 15-20-15 would have 15 pounds of nitrogen, 20 pounds of phosphorus and 15 pounds of potassium per 100 pounds of fertilizer. If the bag was a 50-pound bag then you would have about seven and a half pounds of nitrogen, (and half the other minerals), in that bag. The rest of the weight would be made up of fillers, micronutrients, pesticides or other things.

Many fertilizers also indicate what types of plants the fertilizer would be good for. These often contain trace minerals certain plants need, like iron for citrus trees or chemicals that lower soil pH, like sulfur or aluminum in fertilizers for acid loving plants like blueberries and rhododendrons. A fertilizer high in nitrogen, the first number, is usually used for lawns. If it doesn’t contain a weed killer it could be used on corn or ornamental grasses.

But high nitrogen fertilizers are not as good for vegetables where the fruit or root is consumed, like tomatoes and carrots. In this case you’ll want a fertilizer labeled for flowers or for specific plants, like tomatoes. A general-purpose fertilizer usually has a low nitrogen content such as 5-10-5 or 5-0-5. You could use it on any plants.

Fertilizers that specialize in one species of plants, like tomatoes, often have micronutrients that the species uses more than other plants.  Tomato fertilizers often have extra calcium and magnesium, which some people think prevents blossom end rot and other problems. (It doesn’t.) But you don’t have to buy specific types of fertilizer for most plants.

Fertilizers that state they are slow release are formulated so that the little granules of fertilizer break down slowly, releasing nutrients over a long time. These are preferable in most instances, the exception is when plants are showing signs of a nutrient deficiency, such as chlorosis from low nitrogen. In that case a fertilizer that makes nitrogen immediately available would be better.

 

All plants don’t need fertilizing.

Some plants do better without extra fertilization, they are generally plants that evolved in places with poor soil and are very efficient in using what is available. Some perennials and herbs fall into this category. When given fertilizer they may grow differently than expected and are more prone to disease. Plants that are growing well, especially things like trees and shrubs, may not need fertilization every year.

Too much fertilizer is bad for the plants and bad for the environment. You can always give plants more fertilizer later if they need it, but if you over fertilize plants you may burn the roots, cause leggy, weak growth, and more pest problems. When excess fertilizer washes off the garden into the water system it can cause major problems, contaminating the water and causing the excess growth of algae.

It’s a good idea to look up the nutrient requirements for the various species of perennial plants you tend in your garden. It can help you make decisions on whether or not you should fertilize them.

Are chemical fertilizers bad?

Once a gardener determines they need to fertilize their garden they often worry about what type of fertilizer to use. The short answer is to use a balanced fertilizer, preferably one that corrects any soil nutrient imbalance you have and that is suitable for the plants you want to grow and then don’t worry about how it is made.

People who have no problems scarfing down vitamin and mineral supplements produced from chemicals rather than getting them from healthy foods are some of the worse “organic fertilizer only” proponents. The truth is that when the plants roots take up that nutrient it will be in the same form no matter what the source of it was.

The nitrogen in the blood scraped off the slaughterhouse floor and dried (organic), is the same as the nitrogen made from the air using a chemical reaction. The nitrogen in blood meal is broken down by soil organisms and water until it is a form the plant can take up. It’s the same form that is taken up from so called chemical fertilizers. Chemical fertilizers just have the ability to act faster as it’s easier for plant roots to use them.

The only thing chemical fertilizers do not do is add organic matter to the soil. Organic matter feeds soil microbes and improves soil texture and helps soil retain moisture. So, it’s a very good thing to add compost to your garden. Keep using all the compost you can make on your garden. But while compost returns some nutrients to the soil you may still need fertilizer.

Manure also adds organic matter. But both manure and compost vary tremendously as to what nutrients and how much of it are in each batch. It depends on what went into them and what happened to the material before you got it. So, using them is a crap shoot, unless you have them tested, which you could do. These products are bulky, hard to ship and store, and the longer they sit the more nutrients they lose.

Manure needs to be composted before you use it or applied in the fall. Fresh manure can burn plants. Even manure that is said to be “cold” and that doesn’t burn plants should not be used on food plants before composting. It can be the cause of food born disease like salmonella and listeria. In rare cases it could carry parasite eggs you might consume.

One more warning about manure and compost that you purchase. Both can be contaminated by the some of the very harmful chemicals you want to avoid. Some weed killers can remain in the manure of animals who were fed grass or hay treated with the weed killers or in plants used for compost and they can harm your plants.

Manure can be contaminated with chemicals used on animals to control pests or treat them for parasites. Traces of antibiotics and other medicines remain in manure. I would advise you not use purchased manure and compost on food plants. If you raise animals and know what’s in their manure, or you make your own compost then those materials are fine for the garden.

If the manure is dried and sterilized by heat, as some packages claim, it’s not very much different than chemical fertilizers, except for the higher price. It’s safe to use and probably has the nutrient levels determined.

There are now dry powdered fertilizers on the market that are said to be organic. You do know what the nutrient levels of these are as its required to be on the package. If they are the same price as the non-organic I will use them. If they are more expensive, I chose a “chemical” fertilizer. In the end the plants use these fertilizers in the exact same way.

And all those claims of added probiotics and helpful soil organisms in some organic products really haven’t been shown to offer much advantage. If you use compost and chemical fertilizers all your bases should be covered anyway.

 

Special germination needs of common garden seeds

Many gardeners are starting seeds right now for spring planting.  But did you know many seeds require special treatment if you want them to germinate? Storing seeds – or a dry, dormant period – whether in cold or room temperature surroundings, can be all that’s need for some seeds to germinate. You take them out of storage, plant them inside or outside, keep them moist and soon get new plants. But other seeds require special treatment for good germination.

Here are the plants which have seeds you can plant without worrying about special conditions. Do consult the seed package or a reference for how long before the last frost you should plant them, if you are planting them inside early. Alyssum, begonias, calendula, cleome, coleus, columbine, cornflowers, cosmos, echinacea, four o’clocks, hollyhocks, impatiens, marigolds, monarda, nasturtium, pansies, petunias, poppies, salvia, shasta daisy, snapdragons, sunflowers, tithonia, zinnias.

Basil, beans, beets, borage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, corn, cucumbers, dill, eggplant, kale, lettuce, melons, onions, peas, peppers, pumpkins, radishes, sage, spinach, squash, thyme, tomatoes.

Stratification

Some plants need stratification to properly germinate. In nature stratification occurs when seeds lay in moist soil and are subjected to freezing and thawing. Then they are ready to quickly germinate when warmer conditions occur- the amount of warmth to get them sprouting will vary by species. The period that they need to be cold also varies. In most cases cold temperatures are needed in stratification, but in a few plants the seeds must be stored in warm and moist conditions to get good germination.

Many common garden perennials need cold stratification to germinate properly. These include; Aconitum, Alchemilla, Asclepias (Milkweed), Baptisia, Bloodroot, Buddleia, Candytuft, Caryopteris, Chelone, Cimicifuga, Clematis, Chinese Lantern, Delphinium, Eremurus, Evening Primrose, Filipendula, Fuchsia, Gentians, Geranium species (Cranesbill Geranium types), Helianthemum, Helianthus, Heliopsis, Helleborus, Heuchera, Hardy Hibiscus, Hypericum, Incarvillea (Hardy Gloxinia), Knautia, Lavender, Marsh Marigold, Mazus, Nepeta (Catmint), Penstemon, Persicaria, Phlox (all types), Platycodon, Primrose, (all types), Ranunculus, Rudbeckia (Black-eyed Susan, most types), Saponaria (Soapwort), Saxifrage, Scabiosa, Sedums, Sempervivums (Hen-and-Chicks), Sidalcea, St. John’s-Wort, Stokesia, Thalictrum, Tiarella, Tricyrtis (Toad-lily), Veronica, Violas, Violets, Virginia Bluebells.

Many wildflowers/natives that a gardener might want to establish also require cold stratification.  Check with experienced native plant growers. It wouldn’t hurt to assume that most wildflowers that drop seed in late summer and fall would need stratification.

Gardeners can achieve stratification by simply planting the seeds of the above plants in the fall in the ground where you want them to grow and marking the spot. Or you can place the seeds in moist vermiculite in containers in the crisper of the refrigerator, which will be cold enough for most seeds.  A compromise is to plant the seeds in pots of sterile potting mix, well moistened and sink them in the ground covered with mulch.  Remove the mulch when the ground thaws.

If you want to start plants early inside, make sure that they get about 12 weeks of cold, dark treatment before moving them to a warmer, lighted place for germination.

Scarification/soaking

Some seeds require scarification (cracking) to allow seeds to germinate. This is the breaking of the seed coat to let moisture in. These plants may also require a cold period before the scarification process. In nature the breaking of hard seed coats may happen when animals eat seeds and pass them in feces, with freezing and thawing, with long periods of soaking, or other mechanical breaching or softening of the seed coat.

Some common garden plant seeds that require scarification/and or soaking include morning glories, moonflower vines, wisteria, bedding geranium-(Pelargonium), purple hyacinth beans, baptisia and canna (see below).  These may also require soaking as well as cracking the seed coat.

Assume that very hard seeds will at least need soaking before they can take up water and germinate. Soak seeds in warm water for overnight only. Too much soaking may drown the embryo inside. Then wrap the seeds in moist paper towel, slide that in a plastic bag but leave it open just a bit for air.  Place the bag in a warm, well-lit place and watch for signs of root sprouting.  As soon as you see roots the seed can be planted in the ground or pots and kept moist until the leaves are seen.

To actually break the seed coat, you can use a nail clipper to chip a tiny hole or a nail file to score one. Examine the seed before you begin. You do not want to damage the embryo inside. There will generally be a slight indentation and a tiny pore where the embryo rests against the seed wall. The spot may be a different color. Score or chip the seed on the opposite side.  Some people even resort to cracking larger hard seeds with a nutcracker, but you only want to crack, not remove the seed coat.  Then soak the seeds as above. 

Seeds that should not be stored very long

These seeds should be planted soon after you collect them or buy them. Don’t store them for next year.  If they are cold hardy you can plant them outside. Otherwise plant them in pots inside. The sooner they are planted the better germination will be. Some may need other treatments as listed above.

Anthurium, Asparagus species, Clivia, perennial Delphinium, Geranium (Pelargonium) Gerbera, Ginkgo, Impatiens, Kochia, Philodendron, Magnolia, onions, Passiflora, Potentilla, Salvia splendens, Tanecetum coccinium (or Pyrethrum).

Special needs of some common plants

Baptisia australis needs to be stored cold (dry) about 6-8 weeks (or longer is fine).  Then soak overnight in warm water, add inoculant for peas and beans and plant inside or outside after danger of frost. Or plant outside immediately after collecting the seeds using inoculant and expect sprouting in late spring.

Lilies- Asiatic and trumpets - plant outside as soon as seed is collected or save seed in cool area and plant in pots in early spring inside at 60-75 degrees. They take a long time to germinate, up to 6 weeks, and should not be left in pots very long before transplanting outside. 

Oriental lily seed should be planted in baggies or small pots of moist vermiculite and left in a warm, (65 degrees +) bright room for 3-4 months until a small bulb forms. Then they should be placed in a cooler area for 3 weeks- about 50 degrees, and then an even colder place, just above freezing for a cold dormancy of 12 weeks. Keep barely moist. After 12 weeks bring them back into a warm bright area or plant outside.  Lilies grown from seed take several years to bloom. Most gardeners buy bulbs.

Gladiolus- To possibly have flowers the first year, store glad seeds in the refrigerator crisper until January. Then pot them in a warm bright place, they can take a month to germinate- and move outside after frost is over.  Dig up corms before frost and store overwinter.  Almost all will bloom the second year outside.

Iris-  Bearded iris- you can plant them in the ground or pots sunk in the ground right after collecting.  Or rinse seeds in a mix of 10% chlorine bleach, and store seeds in a bag of moist vermiculite in the refrigerator crisper for 3 months.  Then germinate at 55 degrees in bright light.  Plant outside in spring.  It will take 2-3 years to get blooms.

Siberian and Japanese iris seed should be soaked in a bowl of water which is emptied and re-filled each day for 2 weeks. Then they are given a final rinse of 10% chlorine bleach and stored in moist vermiculite in the refrigerator crisper for 12 weeks. Any that have sprouted should then be potted and placed in a warm bright location. Un-sprouted seeds should be warmed every day for three days by placing them in water that feels barely warm to the touch for about a half hour. Then plant them in a warm bright location and plant outside as soon as possible.

Yucca- yucca has a low germination rate outside but a better one if started inside.  Keep the seeds in moist vermiculite in a warm, dark location for at least 30 days. Then pot up and keep at 65-75 degrees and in bright conditions.  The potting mix should be very well draining but kept moist.  It can take a year for germination so be patient!  They can be planted outside when they are a few inches tall at a frost-free time.

Wisteria – the seeds need to be nicked or cracked and soaked for 24 hours before planting, preferably outside in fall or they can be planted inside at normal room temperatures and bright light.  They take years to bloom from seed.

Trumpet vines- You can plant the seed outside after collecting or store it in moist vermiculite in the refrigerator crisper for 12 weeks, then plant in pots at a moderate temperature inside.  Germination may take weeks.  Plants take a few years to bloom and should be planted in the ground while still small.

Canna- Canna seeds are very hard and need to be first nicked or scratched and then they are put in a pan and boiling water is poured over them.  After you hear pops – or in a few minutes, remove the seeds. They are then soaked in cool water overnight and should have doubled their size.  Next, they are planted in pots in a warm 75 degree + room with bright light.  They should sprout within a week. The temperature can be lowered slowly to about 65 degrees.  Plant outside after the danger of frost is over and if started in February they will flower by August generally. They do not sprout well if the seed is simply planted outside in the spring.

Daylilies- daylilies can be direct seeded in the garden and will sprout in spring. However, daylily breeders believe they germinate better if started inside. The seed must be placed in moist vermiculite or in rolls of damp towels in the refrigerator for 6 weeks. They are then potted in individual small pots and kept in a warm, bright room until they are planted outside in spring.  It takes 2 or more years to get a bloom.

Hosta- hosta seed can also be planted outside in fall, but many gardeners collect the seeds and store them dry inside in the refrigerator. To germinate after at least 6 weeks of cold storage, soak the seeds for a half hour in warm water and then pot them in early spring to get a jump on the season. Grow in bright light inside in moderate temperatures. Plant outside in late spring.  Full leaf coloration may not develop until the second year.

 

Planting Sequence for the vegetable garden in spring

 Are you planting a vegetable garden this spring?  Good for you. Fresh garden produce can’t be beat for taste and nutrition.  But knowing when to plant your vegetables can be crucial.  It can mean the difference between no crop or a poor crop and abundant, delicious crops.

Vegetables fall into 3 categories for the proper planting time. The cool weather crops, mild weather crops and warm weather crops. When we plant these crops, we take into account the soil temperature, air temperature and the plants preferred growing conditions.

You can take the soil temperature by using a soil thermometer, very inexpensive in garden shops, or even with a small air thermometer you carefully push into the soil. Push the thermometer into the soil to about 8 inches deep. Sandy soils and darker colored loam soils warm up faster than heavy clay soils. Soil in raised beds also warms up faster.

The very first crops to plant are peas and leaf lettuce. These vegetables will grow in soil below 45 degrees and air temperatures just above freezing.  Frost doesn’t faze them. They can be planted as soon as your soil is dry enough to work, usually early April in zones 5-6.  Crocus, daffodils, and maples will be in bloom.

Next crops to plant are kale, chard, spinach, pac choi, radishes, onions, leeks, potatoes, and turnips. Soil temperatures of 50 degrees are high enough and daytime air temperatures in the 50’s and 60’s. Light frosts can still be expected. Depending on your location and the weather this can be late April- early May in zones 5-6. Dandelions will generally be blooming and the trees starting to leaf out. 

Next crops to plant, with soil temperatures of 55-60 degrees are carrots and beets. Air temperatures should be 60’s and low 70’s. This is usually early to mid-May in zones 5-6. You can set out cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts transplants or plant their seeds now too. Popcorn can be planted, and you can take a chance with an early planting of beans. If there are no frosts after the beans emerge, your beans will do well. Frost will mean you have to re-plant. Some people also like to gamble with a cold tolerant sweet corn around this time to attempt an early corn crop.

Once the soil temperature reaches 70 degrees it’s time to plant the rest of the garden. This includes sweet corn, the main crop of beans, cucumbers, melons, squash, okra, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, tomatoes, eggplants and peppers. Most tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants are set out as transplants in zones 6 and lower. The other crops can be seeds or plants.

These warm weather crops are planted just as the lilacs finish blooming and oak leaves are bigger than an inch.  This is generally late May and early June.  Even then, it’s not unknown to have a surprise late frost.  Keep an eye on weather reports and be prepared to cover tender plants if frost is predicted.  Make sure to remove covers when the sun comes up.

 

This week’s garden tip

Buy cheap butterfly nets when you see them. They’ll be out in dollar stores in early spring. Remove the handles and place the net portion over young cabbage and broccoli plants. This keeps the white moths that lay eggs that turn into those nasty green worms away from them.  The nets can be re-used for several years.  You can also buy fine netting in fabric stores.  Cut squares big enough to fit loosely over cabbage plants, gather them around the cabbage stem and secure with a twist tie.

Any plant that doesn’t need insects for pollination can be covered with netting. You can make a frame from light wood, stiff wire or even plastic pipe to cover an entire row. Frames make it easy to remove the netting for weeding and harvesting.  Plants that can be covered to prevent insect attacks include beans, potatoes, lettuce, carrots, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant.

  

“Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love.”

– Sitting Bull

 

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)

 

Newsletter/blog information

 

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

 

March 23, 2021, cicadas and cannabis

 Hi Gardeners

Iris reticulata

There is hazy sunshine here today and it’s mild again, in the 60’s.  We are supposed to get rain tonight and we actually need it.  It’s very dry. Yesterday it got up to 70 degrees and I actually heard frogs midday. Calendar, meteorological and actual spring weather all combined.

I have quite a few crocus in bloom, iris reticulata, and some tiny violas. It’s about time for a trip to the greenhouse for pansies. I have been doing some cleanup, not too vigorous yet, mostly taking down any tall stalks left from things like phlox, mums, and lilies.  

I actually break these dried stems in numerous pieces and scatter them back over the bed. It keeps the chicken from spotting bare soil and deciding to take a dust bath there. And it returns nutrients to the soil as all these stem pieces will break down fairly quickly and foliage will soon cover them.

I hold off on any pruning of things like roses and clematis for just a while longer- usually mid to late April. By then I will know for sure what has been winter killed on these plants.  I shake the clematis vines to remove dead leaves and make them look a little better.  You can then see where leaf buds are better and make your pruning decisions as they leaf out.

We have started tearing up and re-doing our veggie garden. All the old raised bed boards have been removed. We wanted to save the soil in the raised bed areas, and we needed to level out the area.  So we are half filling the new grow bags with the old soil, so they can be moved easily. I am then going to lay the old boards down flat and put the grow bags on top of them, so weeds won’t grow up between them. Lots of work there but we have time at this point to do it in small portions at a time, important for old folk with mobility issues.

I’ll be fertilizing my garden beds this afternoon, just before the rain. I use an organic granular fertilizer on all the beds. It’s a growth booster for all the plants and it’s very good for the spring flowering bulbs to promote healthy bloom next year.

Inside the seeds I planted last week, cannabis and two types of tithonia are up and growing. This week I’ll start a few more types of seed. Cannabis plants are tough from the get go. I dropped one of the cannabis pots while moving them and it landed upside down and the seedling was bent in half. I put in back in the tray under the growlight hoping it would recover.  By the next day it had fully righted itself- there is a slight kink in the stem but its already racing upward toward the light. Ten days after planting the cannabis seedlings are several inches tall and have 2-3 sets of true leaves.  More about cannabis below.

I want to thank everyone who sent me condolences last week. It was a rough week and I appreciate your sentiments.

Get ready for gardening

If you don’t remember when you last had a tetanus shot check with your doctor.  It may be time for a new one. Tetanus bacteria are in all soils and tetanus is a very serious disease that’s often fatal. All the bacteria need is to get into your system through a break in your skin, and gardeners get a lot of cuts and punctures.

And when you are using potting mediums and bagged soils try not to breathe in any dust from them. Here’s where a mask can be useful outside. Several types of fungal spores and bacteria can be present in these mixes and some of them cause nasty lung infections.

Start gardening slowly, warm up those muscles. Don’t do the same task for long periods of time, break your chores up so you do some digging, then some pruning, then some pushing or pulling a cart, then some weeding and so on. If you spend hours spading up a new garden site, for example, you are going to be very sorry and sore the next day, unless you are very fit and used to digging all day. 

Remember to wear mosquito spray- they’ll be out soon- and sunscreen. Gardeners should wear sunglasses or something that shades their eyes when working in the sun. This will help keep your eyes healthy as you age. Dress in layers so you can remove things easily as you get warm. Certain medications can make you sick or give you a bad burn if you spend a lot of time in the sun. Check your prescription medicines to see if they have a warning label for this.

Brood X – the cicada plague

I’m sure that if you live in the Eastern half of the country you have heard about Brood X – the swarm of cicadas that will soon be hatching. Cicadas have varying life cycles by species. This year 3 species of cicada mark the end of their 17-year life cycle.  This group of cicada (Magicada spps.) is called Brood X. As soon as the soil temperature reaches 65 degrees, millions of the bugs will start emerging from the ground. They’ll emerge in the southern areas first.

It sounds scary but relax, Brood X will not harm you. They won’t devour everything like locusts, in fact they won’t be eating anything, all they’ll be doing is having a giant sex orgy. And many areas of the country east of the Mississippi will not even see the bugs (and none west of it). The USDA Forest Service map below shows where the different broods of cicadas will emerge by county. Brood X is the yellow counties.

Brood X numbers will be highest in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland, with a few other counties in other states. Michigan has just a few counties on its southern border that will see them.

In the places where they do emerge in mass it is quite the sight to see and hear. The 3 different species emerging each have their own distinct songs but taken all together it’s one giant buzz, waves of noise rising and falling.  The bugs will cover trees and a few other things that look like trees, and they will be mating, oblivious to what’s around them. They will not harm plants or animals, they don’t bite or sting.

Birds and animals will be feasting on cicadas until their stomachs bulge. They will be extremely happy with Brood X emerging. In fact, people can eat cicadas too if they want. When I worked at Extension, I had a booklet in my files with recipes for cicadas. One of the best ways is to heat up some oil and fry them up until they get crispy and pop. (I did not try this recipe.)

After they mate the female cicada lay eggs on trees. The female makes a little slit in a twig to lay the eggs, and this may cause the twig to wilt. But the tree quickly heals from this.

The eggs hatch and a nymph falls to the ground, burrows in and begins to eat tree roots. There they will stay for 17 years. The adult bugs die soon after mating and the whole Brood X thing is over in a few weeks.

If you are in a Brood X county it’s recommended you don’t plant young trees until after the bugs have disappeared for a few weeks. The larvae feeding on newly planted tree roots can be very stressful for the tree. But the cicadas don’t seem to significantly harm established trees by root feeding.

While the cicadas may be annoying do not attempt to get rid of them with pesticides. They will die soon anyway and putting pesticides into the environment for a harmless bug is not earth friendly or safe.

You may want to watch your pets if you are in an area where the cicadas are swarming. They are not poisonous, but pets may eat so many of them that they get sick or have digestive problems from the bugs hard shells. A few of the bugs won’t harm them however.

So if you don’t want to harvest cicada for crispy snacks, just get some earplugs and everything will be fine.

 

Cicada adult
Photo credit North Carolina State University

Growing pot in the garden

When I was in high school and college it wasn’t unusual to see marihuana plants popping up in summer alongside a porch, where someone cleaned them out of a bag of weed. Your weed had seeds back then. People also grew pot on the windowsill or tucked it in a cornfield or in a clearing in the woods.

This pot was not as strong as the cannabis grown today but as I can attest, it was good enough to give you a mellow high. And people thought they hit the jackpot when they were able to score some cannabis grown in a tropical place, like Jamaican gold, which was also grown mostly outside in the ground.

Somewhere along the line cannabis growing moved inside, where it could be hidden and where the growing conditions could be carefully controlled. A whole underground business developed with hydroponic systems, grow lights, grow tents, exclusive fertilizers, and other specialized equipment. Breeders hybridized strains of plants and produced a myriad of specialized varieties.

Once cannabis began to be legalized for medicinal and then recreational use, the business spawned all kinds of growing innovations, many of which were assimilated into regular horticulture. Cannabis became a multi-billion-dollar industry and to this day it’s the one of highest grossing horticultural crops. The science of growing cannabis has grown by leaps and bounds.

If you listen to someone who grows pot in a grow room in his/her basement you might be discouraged from growing cannabis. Indoor hobby growers go to great lengths to get the highest strength, and fattest buds, that they can grow. They use elaborate systems of strong lights, exacting fertilizer regimes, heating and cooling, pruning and other means to produce those crops. The instructions can seem daunting to people just wanting to grow a little cannabis for their own use.

Cannabis plant in my house in April last year.

But you don’t have to grow cannabis this way. It’s been growing outside since the beginning of time and if you can grow tomatoes outside you can grow pot out there too. If cannabis is legal where you live you can grow it in the garden right alongside your other plants. (If it isn’t legal in your area you may want to keep growing it inside.)

The cannabis you grow in the garden might not be quite as strong as that grown under rigorous indoor conditions. But it will be perfectly fine for most users and a lot less trouble to grow.

And you may want to grow some cannabis plants just for the fun of it. They are nice looking and get quite large, making quite the impression in the back of the flower border or veggie garden. Cannabis has numerous proven medical benefits and if you grow herbs for medicinal use, you really should have some. Pollinators love cannabis flowers, although if you are growing it you really don’t want or need it to be pollinized.

So how do you grow marihuana outside? Start by reviewing your local laws. If it’s legal in your state, there still may be laws about how many plants you can grow and where you can grow them. For example, in Michigan each person can grow 12 plants and those plants cannot be seen from the street and must be securely enclosed. Other states have different requirements.

If marihuana isn’t legal for recreational use you probably can’t legally grow it, inside or outside, but there may be exceptions if your state recognizes medical use of cannabis. But do check out the rules because it’s not fun to go to jail.

What cannabis plants look like

Cannabis plants are often mistaken for cleome and vice versa.  The leaves are similar. Look for 5-9 leaflets arranged in a fan like pattern. Leaflets have wavy edges and coarse veins. There are some variations in leaf color between varieties, often called strains in pot lingo. Some plants have a purplish look, others may look frosted, especially near maturity.

Cannabis fan leaf

Plants are covered with small hairs called trichomes, which heavily coat the buds and leaves near them. These hairs produce the chemicals that make cannabis medicinal and fun. They feel sticky to the touch. Stems are thick and ridged.  Plants of some strains can get 12 feet high. Short stocky strains are available.

On the female cannabis plant buds begin to form in clusters at the junction of the stem and leaves, called a node. They also form thickly at the tips of main branches. They aren’t very showy or noticeable at first. They consist of several protruding filaments which are the stigmas. They are attached to a rounded pistil and surround by leaf bracts. Small leaves, called sugar leaves grow around them.

As the flowers mature- hopefully without being pollenated- buds become thick and fat and quite noticeable. But cannabis flowers are never very pretty.  

The right location

If it’s legal to grow it, find a sunny spot, marihuana needs full sun to grow well. You can grow it in pots on a sunny back deck or behind the garage if you don’t have yard space. Even if you don’t have restrictions on where it can be grown, I would suggest your outdoor grow area be out of public view, where those walking by or delivery people can’t see it.  A well grown mature plant can be worth around $1000, so you don’t want to tempt anyone. And it wouldn’t make you happy to lose that plant just before it was ready to harvest.

A dog kennel with a gate you can lock may be a good place to plant pot, make sure the dog has been removed.  Or just a good fence around the yard or garden with a locked gate can work. Fences also protect your plants against deer and rabbits, while cannabis isn’t their favorite food, they will eat it.

Marihuana plants are pretty sturdy but occasionally wind damage can be a problem as plants near maturity. You may want to plant your pot up against a fence or building to give it a little wind protection or support.

If you are planting directly in the ground, you need well drained fertile soil. Marihuana doesn’t do well in wet ground.  Working compost and aged manure into the area where you want to plant the pot can improve the growing area.

If you are going to use pots/grow bags for your cannabis plants use at least a 10-gallon size- that’s a deep pot roughly 16-18 inches in diameter. Cannabis plants are large and require a lot of soil to grow. You can start them in smaller pots and move them up as plants grow. Pots MUST have drainage.

Give each plant a lot of space. Crowding plants leads to poor air circulation and may lead to fungal diseases which are very hard to deal with when you want to consume the plants. A minimum of 3 square feet per plant is suggested. Don’t let other garden plants and weeds crowd them either.

You don’t need to grow all the plants you legally can. A well grown plant produces a lot of useable cannabis – up to a pound. Two-three plants are usually enough for personal consumption and it’s not like you can take it to the farmers market to sell. Unless you have a license, you can’t sell it.

Finding seeds and plants

The hardest part of marihuana growing for beginners may be finding a legal and honest source of seed or plants. Most pot that people are smoking doesn’t contain seeds anymore, so you probably won’t be saving them from your baggie. You can order seeds and rarely, started cuttings, online. But the best way may be to ask at a local marihuana dispensary.  I have heard a few are adding cannabis plants to their stores. Someone who grows indoors may sell you a cutting.

Should you buy seeds or cuttings, called clones, in the lingo of growers?  Both have advantages and disadvantages. Seeds are easier to find. Seed grown plants have a large taproot, good for anchoring plants in the ground outside. They are usually a bit more vigorous. But here’s the problem.

Cannabis plants are either male or female.  You want female plants. And when you grow marihuana from untreated seed you are going to get roughly 50% male and 50% female plants. The plants have to grow a while before you can sex them and destroy the males. And you do need to destroy the males, or at least keep all the flowers trimmed off, so they don’t pollinize the females which will then produce seeds. The male cannabis buds are not good for consumption and buds are the preferred harvest.

You can however buy feminized cannabis seeds. This is done by treating seeds with various chemicals. The percentage of female plants will be much higher from these seeds and so will be the price. Also, you may want to look for auto flowering seeds. These are seeds that produce plants that can flower without decreasing daylength. However, in the north decreasing daylength outside as summer progresses is usually enough to initiate bloom.

Clones or rooted cuttings will be just like the parent plant and most commercial cannabis is produced from clones.  They will be female plants. Clones have a fibrous root system which is good for container growing. Try to get your clones when they are about 8-12 inches high and have a healthy root system.

If the weather is warm- about two weeks after your last frost- clones can be planted directly in the ground. If you need to hold them inside in pots make sure they are under a grow light.  Start with smaller pots and transplant them as they grow inside.

Clones are hard to find unless you are friends with someone who is a licensed grower. Start looking well before warm weather and be prepared to grow them inside for a while.  Ask at local dispensaries and growing supply stores. The laws about selling live cannabis plants are quirky and murky.  Some places require buyers to have a medical use card.  Sending plants through US mail can be a problem.

Here’s a few places to try.

https://www.greenboxgrown.com/clones-for-sale

http://www.marijuanaplantsonline.com/  (says they offer free sample seeds)

Before you go hunting for seeds or plants do some research on what types of cannabis you want and what strains of the thousands available you might want to try. Look for fast maturing strains. It’s too much information to give here. But high CBD strains are for mostly medicinal use and high THC strains for recreational.

There are some strains considered to be better for outdoor growing.  Here are some of them; Honey Cream, Speedy Chile, Critical Kush, White Widow, Durban Poison, Blue Dream, Frisian Dew, Northern Lights, Royal Cookies Automatic, Quick One, Purple Haze, Sour Diesel, Candy Kush Express.

Starting cannabis seeds

If you decide to use cannabis seeds plan on starting them inside about 8-12 weeks before you move them outside- which should be about 2 weeks after the last frost in your area, when the weather is warm and settled. Cannabis seedlings do not tolerate cold wet weather well.

The seeds are usually easy to start. Soak them in warm water for an hour before planting. Use sterilized seed starting medium and clean containers. They usually sprout in about 7 days. Start the seeds in small containers and transplant them into larger containers as they grow.

Use grow lights unless you have a heated greenhouse. Cannabis plants need strong, bright light. Healthy cannabis plants grow like weeds- and you will need to start fertilizing them when they have 3-4 sets of leaves, unless the medium you used for seed starting contains a slow-release fertilizer.

Don’t worry about fussy, time consuming and expensive fertilizing directions the avid pot hobby grower will try to convince you to use. You can use any water-soluble fertilizer or granular fertilizer that is formulated for flowers. I actually use rose fertilizer and my plants grow very well. Follow the label directions for container plants.

Cannabis outside my house.  The fence was 8 feet high.
Picture taken in late August.

Finding the males and getting rid of them

If you did not buy female clones and started seeds, some of those seeds are going to be males. If you used feminized seeds you may not find many, but if you used regular seeds you may find a lot. You want to get rid of male plants early, both so they won’t fertilize the females and make them produce seeds, and because they are not desirable for medicinal and recreational use. They take up space and use valuable resources.

When seedlings are 6-8 weeks old, they start producing preflowers in the leaf nodes. You’ll probably need a magnifying glass to help you find the males. Male pre-flowers look like tiny sacs, with no protruding hairs. Females have those protruding hair-like structures, which will become stigmas.  As the male flowers develop, they lengthen and look like little bananas.  Females have those white hairs sticking out that become more prominent.

Sometimes a plant has both female and male flowers, usually when the plant is very stressed. Both these hermaphrodites and the male plants need to be destroyed if you want the remaining females to produce good marihuana product. You’ll need to remove the males before the “bananas” open up and release pollen.

If you aren’t sure if you have a male and don’t want to destroy the plant, you could take it far from the other plants. Or just keep checking frequently until you are certain of what you have. You could take a branch of the plant to an experienced grower and see if he or she can help you decide.

Transplanting outside

After all danger of frost has passed and the ground and air are warm your cannabis plants can be planted in the ground or containers moved outside. They need to be hardened off first. That means move them outside in a shady place for a few days. Then move them to the sunny spot where they are to grow and provide light shade for a few more days.

You want to get the vegetative stage of growth largely finished by the end of June. Plants started early can easily be 5-6 feet tall at this point. Plants will continue to grow larger more slowly at this point and as the days get shorter, they should start setting flowers. It takes a long time for flowers to mature enough for harvest – harvesting is done before frost, but preferably in late September and October.

Watering and fertilizing

Cannabis uses a lot of water, but it never wants soggy soil. Check containers particularly grow bags, every day and water if they are dry. For cannabis in the ground water plants when it’s dry- about when you would water tomatoes. If they wilt and the soil is dry, they need water.

Try to water at the base of the plant and water early enough that plants dry before the sun sets. This helps avoid fungal disease.

As I mentioned earlier cannabis needs fertilizing for optimal growth, but you don’t need special fertilizers or complicated routines. When planting outside in the ground, work in some slow-release fertilizer for flowers.  Or use a water-soluble fertilizer formulated for flowers as the label directs. If you use organic fertilizers make sure they are not too high in nitrogen. Do not use Epsom salt on cannabis. Do not use fresh manure.

Problems

Few insects bother cannabis. I have heard that Japanese beetles will eat it, but I have not seen damage from them.  But deer, rabbits and human pests can take your crop, so protect it.

The biggest problem cannabis has outside is from fungal disease, powdery mildew can affect it. Make sure plants aren’t crowded so air flow is optimal. You won’t want to use fungicides on the plants since you will be consuming them, and they don’t help after the problem has started. Home remedies like baking soda or milk don’t work. Plants don’t die from fungal disease usually, but the quality and quantity of buds produced will be greatly affected.

The best thing to do is try to increase airflow around the plants, avoid watering near dark and hope for the best.

Harvesting

Cannabis takes a long growing season to get a good harvest. In many planting zones, 6 and lower, you’ll need to start the plants inside early. As the plants mature it’s natural for leaves to yellow, beginning at the bottom first. The stigmas turn brown and dry, the buds will be fat. In zones 5 and 6 harvesting is normally at the end of September or early October. Cannabis has to be harvested before frost, unless you can move plants inside.

There are all kinds of tricks to telling if the buds are at the optimal stage and you may want to do some research on that. But even if your buds aren’t at the peak, they will still probably be pretty good. Even if somehow your plants got pollinated and seeds develop, you can clean out the seeds and still get a decent harvest.

When the plant is ready, cut it at the base and bring the whole plant inside to a warm, dry, dark place and hang it upside down. Closets and basements work. These plants can take up a lot of room so plan accordingly.  After 10 days or so you can cut off the bud clusters, break up the bigger clusters a little and spread the buds out on paper towels to dry further. After another 2 weeks or so you can store the buds in clean, sealed containers.

One thing to note is that drying cannabis stinks- it’s a very strong skunk like smell. It’s most noticeable at first, as it dries the smell gets less. But you may want it somewhere away from the main living area.

If you notice any moisture in containers open them immediately and spread the buds out to dry again. Discard any moldy buds.

You can dry cannabis in a dehydrator but even one plant will probably overwhelm your capacity. Do not use the microwave or oven because high temperatures can destroy the active ingredients or cause a fire.

New growers growing cannabis may not have the perfect, high potency harvest of professionally grown indoor cannabis, but you can get a decent amount of good herb for personal use. It’s fun. Try it, you’ll like it.

 

 

Spring makes its own statement, so loud and clear that the gardener seems to be only one of his instruments, not the composer.

-Geoffrey Charlesworth

 

 

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)

 

Newsletter/blog information

 

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