UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa
Client's Request: My coworker brought me some red onion seeds from Mexico. I have a small garden bed in my backyard and wanted to get some general info. on planting them. Some of the questions I had were: -How deep should I plant the seeds? -how far apart? how often should I water them? and what nutrients do they need to thrive?
UCMGCC Help Desk Response: Thank you for contacting the UC Master Gardener Help Desk with your question about onion seed from Mexico.
Please help protect California agriculture by not importing foreign pests or diseases!!
If the seeds did go through inspection at the border and were Ok'd for entry, then it would be Ok to use them.
Onion seed should be planted 1/4 inch deep. Plants should be 4 - 5 inches apart - you can plant the seed more closely and then thin to the proper distance once you see which seedlings are the strongest. You may also be able to eat the “thinnings”.
If you live in west county, plant between January and September. If you live in a warmer part of the county, plant between February and October.
Keep the soil moist until the plants have emerged and look sturdy. Onion is a high water needs plant. Additional information on watering and harvesting can be found here http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/VEGES/CULTURAL/onionwatering.html
Fertilizer needs depend upon the quality of your soil. You should test your soil for the 3 main nutrients: nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. You should also do a pH test, since if pH is high, micronutrients may not be available to the plants. Relatively inexpensive soil test kits can be purchased at garden centers. Or, if you prefer, you can send a soil sample to be analyzed by a commercial laboratory. A suggested list of laboratories can be found at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/files/51308.pdf. You'll want to visit their websites to learn how to take and submit samples, and what the service will cost. Once you know the condition of your soil, you can determine what nutrients would need to be added, if any. If you needed further advice about fertilizing once you have your soil test results, feel free to contact us again. Additional information on fertilizing can be found here: http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/VEGES/CULTURAL/vegefertilizing.html.
More information about growing onions can also be found at this University of California website: http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/VEGES/onions.html.
I hope that this information is helpful and you get some great onions.
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County (JL)
Note: The UC Master Gardeners Program of Contra Costa's Help Desk is available year-round to answer your gardening questions. Except for a few holidays, we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 75 Santa Barbara Road, 2d Floor, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523. We can also be reached via telephone: (925) 646-6586, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/ MGCC Blogs can be found at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Blog (http://ucanr.edu/blogs/CCMGBlog/).
Client: I'm somewhat disappointed in my garden's performance this year. Or maybe it's me. However, I'm thinking that my soil isn't what it used to be. I know you frequently recommend soil testing for struggling gardeners. Could you please remind me of how to test my soil?
UCMG Help Desk: Thank you for contacting the UC Master Gardener Program Help Desk with your question about soil testing. Healthy soils will definitely improve your garden's performance
Alternatively, you could take samples of your soil and send them to a commercial laboratory for analysis. This would allow you to test for additional variables, including organic matter and any micronutrients you may have an interest in. Attached below is a list of laboratories you could consider. You'll want to visit their websites to help you chose which laboratory to use and what to test for. The websites should also have information on how to take and submit the soil sample for analysis. We do recommend contacting the laboratory to confirm how and what to sample. They will most likely have special equipment and procedures that they will recommend that you use to assure accurate results. The laboratory should also be able to provide you with guidance on what the results mean and how to apply the results to your garden.
If you decide that you need help to understand the results of your tests, we would be happy to help you with that.
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardeners Program of Contra Costa County (JL)
Note: The UC Master Gardeners Program of Contra Costa's Help Desk is available year-round to answer your gardening questions. Except for a few holidays, we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 75 Santa Barbara Road, 2d Floor, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523. We can also be reached via telephone: (925) 646-6586, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/ MGCC Blogs can be found at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Blog (http://ucanr.edu/blogs/CCMGBlog/).
Soil Test Kits UC Davis Garden Web
Soils Testing Laboratories for Home Gardeners v20160322p (03-16)
Advice From the Help Desk
of the UC Master Gardener Program
While the plants featured by the several organizations are California native plants, they may not be "native" to where the garden was actually located. Have you ever wondered what the “native plants” were where you actually live and garden? Well, the California Native Plant Society along with UC's Jepson Herbarium (and many other herbariums and collectors) did and they have implemented a very useful graphic database on the web, www.calscape.org, that has cataloged what actually was native to your garden … right down to your address. So now you can "easily" plant and grow what was originally “native” vs. what “natives” you could grow… maybe. Their efforts are at www.calscape.org.
Below are edited excerpts from the “About” page of calscape.org to entice you to check it out:
“About Calscape
Our goal at Calscape is to help Californians restore nature and save water one garden at a time. We do this by showing people which plants are really native to any location in the state, helping them figure out which ones they want, and where to buy them and how to grow them.
California is an extremely environmentally diverse state. Different California native plants evolved to grow in areas of the state with very different temperatures, rainfall levels, summer drought periods, air moisture levels, and marine influences, among other factors. Because of this, it's always best to grow California native plants in the areas in which they evolved. They are easier to grow, healthier and require little or no artificial irrigation when they are planted in an area in which they evolved and naturally belong. Native California plants that aren't really native to that location will often struggle or die no matter how much you water them.
True native plants are the foundation for nature restoration. They attract birds, reptiles, amphibians, small mammals and insects and other pollinators that evolved with those plants, and over time create a working natural ecosystem, without pesticides, and without artificial fertilizers. The bird life in particular in a true natural garden is often spectacular. With the right plants, it's not hard for homeowners to create small patches of nature throughout even the developed part of the state.
Our estimates for which plant species naturally grow in each square mile of California are based on algorithms using the GPS locations of over a million field occurrences of native California plant species provided by the participants of the California Consortia of Herbaria, the 36Jepson geographic subdivisions, and detailed elevations profiles within each square mile of California.
Sources of plant photos include Calphotos, and dozens of amazing plant photographers who have agreed to share their photos with Calscape. Authorship and copyright information is shown under each plant photo.
Other sources include Wikipedia, which is an important source for the "About" sections in the Calscape plant pages. In many cases the sections have been edited and built on by Calscape volunteer editors. …
[S]unset information was provided by The Jepson Flora Project.
Propagation from seed information was provided by the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden from "Seed Propagation of Native California Plants" by Dara E. Emery.
Other general sources of information include Calflora, CNPS Manual of Vegetation Online, Jepson eFlora, Las Pilitas, Theodore Payne, Tree of Life, The Xerces Society, and information provided by CNPS volunteer editors, with special thanks to Don Rideout.”
The input and effort for Calscape.org is very impressive, solid, and can only get better as it allows for edited input on locations, plants, etc. (e.g., think Wikipedia) If you are interested in the impetus that led to calscape.org and how it was “built”, Dennis Mudd, one of calscape.org leaders provided some details in a recent radio interview. (He was also the founder of the digital music website Slacker.) He said he was motivated to construct this website because he planted so many drought-tolerant plants in his San Diego garden that died. But he couldn't find a site which told him what he should be planting instead. Thank you Dennis!
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa (SIM)
Note: The UC Master Gardeners Program of Contra Costa's Help Desk is available year-round to answer your gardening questions. Except for a few holidays, we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 75 Santa Barbara Road, 2d Floor, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523. We can also be reached via telephone: (925) 646-6586, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/ MGCC Blogs can be found at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Blog (http://ucanr.edu/blogs/CCMGBlog/).
Advice from the Help Desk of the
UC Master Gardeners Program of Contra Costa County
Zombie Lawns
Click on http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/drythenewnormal/ for a schedule of all workshops and a complete list of plants on sale that day. Landscape designers will also provide free consultations to inspire you with new ideas about re-landscaping your gardens to conserve water, all of which will be a great support in taking that first step.
East Bay MUD service area (West and Central County):
http://www.ebmud.com/water-and-drought/conservation-and-rebates/residential/rebates/lawn-conversion-irrigation-upgrade-rebates/
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Plants and Landscapes for Summer-Dry Climates in the San Francisco Bay Region.
and/or the UC Davis Arboretum "All Stars" (primarily for the warmer Central and East County)
http://arboretum.ucdavis.edu/arboretum_all_stars.aspx
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County (LR)
Note: The UC Master Gardeners Program of Contra Costa's Help Desk is available year-round to answer your gardening questions. Except for a few holidays, we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 75 Santa Barbara Road, 2d Floor, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523. We can also be reached via telephone: (925) 646-6586, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/ MGCC Blogs can be found at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Blog (http://ucanr.edu/blogs/CCMGBlog/).
Advice from the Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County
Help Desk Response: Thank you for contacting the Help Desk with your questions and concerns about your Bush Anemone plant with yellowing leaves.
Once established, this is a very hardy low-water-use plant, but even these varieties need extra water usually for the first several years while becoming established. However, yellow leaves can be a symptom or either under or over-watering. You mentioned that there is only one one-gallon dripper for 40 minutes a week, which would give the plant less than one gallon a week. Even for a young drought-resistant plant, this may not be enough, especially since it was planted this spring spring and in sandy soil. Also, one drip emitter would only be watering one side of the root ball. You can check on the moisture in the root area by carefully digging down beside the plant with a trowel or your hand, to feel for moisture, or if you have a soil moisture meter that can also be used. When you water, you want to wet the whole of the root ball and then let it dry out between waterings. If you want to continue to use drip, a circle of inline emitter hose around the plant or at least 2 emitters on opposite sides of the root ball would provide more even moisture than a single emitter.
http://ucanr.edu/sites/scmg/ Plant_of_the_Month/ Carpenteria_californica/.
The paragraph on Cultivation provides some good advice on getting your Bush Anemone back in good health and watering appropriately for the first several years. (The pictures in this blog post were also copied from the Sonoma County Master Gardener article in the link.)
I hope this is helpful, and that your plant will do well.
Follow-up response from the client: Thanks so much for this information. I have mostly drought tolerant plants but I always find that first year or two a big question mark. I have a newish lavendar that seems to be thriving with no water at all - and then this which seems to need more. And I love this plant when grown, so I don't want to lose it! I'll give it more water until the rains (hopefully) begin.
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County (SMW)
Note: The UC Master Gardeners Program of Contra Costa's Help Desk is available year-round to answer your gardening questions. Except for a few holidays, we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 75 Santa Barbara Road, 2d Floor, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523. We can also be reached via telephone: (925) 646-6586, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/ MGCC Blogs can be found at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Blog (http://ucanr.edu/blogs/CCMGBlog/).