- Author: Anne Schellman
What do pumpkins need?
Space - Pumpkin plant vines can grow over 20 feet long. Give plants plenty of space to grow. Use a tomato cage or small trellis for mini pumpkin varieties. For larger pumpkins, vines can grow on a fence. Make sure to support each pumpkin with a “sling” like a t-shirt or tied nylon stocking tied that is also tied to the fence.
Mounds - Make a small mound or hill and plant 3-5 pumpkin seeds per hill. Create a small basin around each planting to help keep the soil moist until seedlings appear.
Water – Water early in the morning. As the plants mature, water deeply and infrequently to a depth of 12 inches, allowing the soil to dry out slightly between watering.
Fertilizer – If desired, you can use a vegetable fertilizer labeled for pumpkins.
Thinning – If growing large pumpkins, select the best-looking fruit when it is small, and remove the others. This will send all the nutrients into that pumpkin so it can grow large.
Possible Pests
If you see any of these pests on your plants, visit the UC IPM Website tips on what to do.
Just for Fun
When pumpkins are small, carve your name or a cool design on the skin and it will become more apparent and look extra spooky as the pumpkin gets larger.
Also, if you are on Facebook or Instagram, please follow us @UC Master Gardeners of Stanislaus County and @UCMGStanislaus (respectively).
Resources
Sonoma Master Gardeners: https://sonomamg.ucanr.edu/Food_Gardening/Additional_KG_Articles/Pumpkins/
UC IPM Cultural Tips for Growing Pumpkins
https://ipm.ucanr.edu/home-and-landscape/pumpkins/cultural-tips/index.html?src=307-pageViewHLS
/h3>/h3>/h3>/h3>- Author: Barbra Braaten
Summer has arrived, bringing with it busier days and rising temperatures. Managing irrigation is quickly becoming the most critical task in the garden as the heat increases.
Here is a list of gardening activities to focus on this June:
- Plant Warm-Season Crops: In many parts of the state you can still plant certain warm-season crops such as beans, corn, cucumbers, pumpkins (start now for Halloween), and summer squash. These warm-season plants require substantial irrigation, so plan accordingly. Plant only as many as you can consistently water throughout the summer.
- Stake Tomatoes: Stake or cage tomato plants so they do not lay on the ground. This reduces fruit rots, makes pest management more manageable, and ensures harvesting later in the season is easy. Mulch your tomato plants to conserve soil moisture.
- Mulch: June is ideal for mulching the garden. Mulch adds a decorative touch and reduces water evaporation from the soil. It also helps control weeds, moderates soil temperature, and improves soil fertility. Maintain a 3-to 4-inch mulch depth, keeping it at least 6 inches away from the base of woody plants like trees and shrubs to prevent potentially fatal fungal growth.
- Check Watering Schedule: Regularly check soil moisture and adjust your watering habits or the schedule on your irrigation controller accordingly. Water early in the coolest part of the day to maximize water absorption through plant roots and minimize evaporation.
- Deadhead Flowers: Once you have spent flowers, deadhead roses and other summer-blooming plants to encourage continued blooming. Cut blossoms for bouquets early in the morning, as they stay fresh longer if quickly placed in a vase of water. Keep an old can or jar with water handy as you cut your stems.
- Manage Aphids: Be vigilant for any remaining aphid colonies and spray them off with water early in the day before high temperatures. This allows plants to dry quickly in the sun, reducing susceptibility to fungal diseases. Repeat applications over several days until the aphids are gone.
- Trellis Plants: Train your plants to trellises or supports as they grow. Avoid handling plants when wet from dew in the morning, as this can spread disease. Make sure the trellis you choose can handle the weight of your plant or is secured to another structure that can.
- Fire-Safe Landscaping: Implement fire-safe landscaping by following these steps:
- LEAN: Thin out dense vegetation and eliminate fuel ladders that allow fire to climb up trees.
- CLEAN: Mow grasses, trim shrubs, and remove dry, resinous, dead plants and flammable debris. Cut branches back 15 to 20 feet from buildings. Use non-combustible surfaces for walkways, patios, and driveways.
- GREEN: Landscape using low-growing, non-woody plants.
- Protect Fruit Trees: Cover fruit trees with netting to exclude birds and other vertebrate pests.
- Prune Citrus: Remove suckers at the base of citrus trees. Suckers that arise below the graft union are part of the rootstock plant. They are vigorous shoots that take water and nutrients from the rest of the plant and negatively impact your harvest. In addition to suckers, remove water sprouts, and low-hanging branches that could interfere with sprinklers or allow pests to climb into the trees.
- Enjoy Your Garden: Harvest and savor the fruits of your labor!
Following these June Garden Tips can ensure a healthy and productive garden throughout the summer.
Ask your local UC Master Gardener Program.
Have a gardening question? UC Master Gardener volunteers are available to help. Click here to Find a Program and connect with your local UC Master Gardener Program. You will be redirected to your local county website and contact information. UC Master Gardener volunteers are available to help answer questions for FREE. Happy gardening!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
In the sweltering heat of Solano County (100 degrees) during National Pollinator Month, how about an image of a sweat bee, genus Halictus, a tiny bee that's often overlooked in the world of pollinators.
It's a social bee that nests in the soil. "These nests consist of a complex of tunnels with individual brood chambers," according to California Bees and Blooms: A Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists (Heyday), the work of UC-affiliated scientists,
My camera caught this Halictus flying over Coreopsis in our Vacaville pollinator garden on June 5.
Camera: Nikon Z8 with a 50mm lens
Settings: Shutter speed, 1/4000 of a second; f-stop, 5; ISO 500.
UC Davis distinguished professor emerita Lynn Kimsey, emeritus director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, and Bohart Museum scientist Sandy Shanks said the species appears to be Halictus ligatus.
Most Halictus species are generalist foragers, according to the Great Sunflower Project. "They use all sorts of genera of plants from the Asteraceae to Scrophulariaceae. They are very common on composites (daisy-like disc and ray flowers) in summer and fall."
We've seen them on everything from mustard to milkweeds to catmint to rock purslane, from spring to fall. They also appear regularly on the tower of jewels (Echium wildpretii).
Not to mention the Coreopsis.
/span>- Author: Jeffrey P Mitchell
In an effort to extend information on CASI's twenty-year conservation agriculture study that has been conducted at the University field station in Five Points, CA and that has been recently published in the journal, California Agriculture, Jeff Mitchell provided three radio interviews on the morning Ag Report that Don York produces for KMJ580 AM each morning out of Fresno. The segments aired on May 23rd and on June 4th and 6th, 2024 and are available below. Mitchell shared findings of the long-term “NRI Project” that since 1998 has examined four production systems – standard tillage without cover crop, standard tillage with cover crop, no-till without cover crop, and no-till with cover crop.
The NRI Project started as an effort to determine the potential of reduced disturbance tillage in terms of generating or producing less dust and in the early 2000s found that dust can be significantly reduced by as much as 80% with a variety of reduced tillage practices relative to standard tillage techniques that have been widely used in annual crop fields throughout the San Joaquin Valley since the early 1930s. The recent findings from the unique long-term study have shown that several soil health indicators including aggregation, water infiltration, biodiversity, and surface carbon were improved through the long-term use of cover crops with reduced disturbance tillage.
In the interviews, Mitchell points out that the systems that were evaluated and developed in the NRI Project were not at all easy to implement and required considerable trial-and-error effort to achieve. Yields, for instance, of cotton in the early years under the high residue, no-till cover crop system lagged behind the standard tillage, however once effective planting techniques were learned to establish the cotton crop. There were no yield differences between the two tillage systems for the next several years.
The results of this study that included 18 coauthors can be seen at https://doi.org/10.3733/001c.94714
Jeff Mitchell on KMJ Ag Report 5-23-24
Jeff Mitchell on KMJ Ag Report 6-4-24
Jeff Mitchell on KMJ Ag Report 6-6-24
- Author: Debbie DiNoto
This month we will look at when and how to water your roses. Especially now that the weather is starting to heat up and the rains are probably done until the fall. We live in a Mediterranean climate. Winter rain and summer dry.
I am always asked how much water does a rose need? Ah, the typical Master Gardener answer is, “It depends!” It depends upon the time of year and the type/size of the rose. The typical hybrid tea (we are talking a big, tall and mature plant) will take 6 to 9 gallons a week if the temps are below 80 F (as in spring and fall). A rose bush, such as a floribunda, about 3 feet wide and tall, will need about 3 gallons a week if the temperatures are below 80F and it hasn't rained in a long time. In wintertime, when the temps are much cooler, they will take much less water, especially if we have rain or the plant is dormant. During this and last year's winter, I didn't have to water at all because of the rain we had.
When the temps are over 90 F consistently, they will take about 12 gallons a week (not daily!). Again, this will depend on the size of the rose. Mini roses will take much less water than a full-size hybrid tea. Roses are pretty drought tolerant and can take less water, but they may show signs of stress. Roses in pots will probably require more water during summer.
How can you tell if your rose is stressed by not getting enough water? They will drop their leaves, decrease flower size or show early signs of dormancy.
The amount of water a rose needs will also depend upon the type of soil you have (get your soil tested!). If you have clay soil, it will hold water, so you will need less. If you have sandy soil, the water will permeate more quickly through the soil, so your roses may need more water. If you have nice loamy soil, the recommendations above will suffice.
So what is the best way to deliver water to your roses? It is important that you deliver water efficiently. That means making sure there is no overspray if you are using sprinklers. If you are hand watering, use a water wand that you can turn off at the nozzle. When you are done watering one rose, you can stop the water flow before moving on to the next.
OK, here is where we get into the math of a drip system. How do you estimate the number of emitters each rose plant needs? It is not that difficult. If you use one-gallon emitters, that means that they will deliver one gallon of water per hour. If you place four one-gallon emitters per plant (an emitter in the front and back and one on each side of the plant), that plant will get four gallons of water per hour. We can water 3 days a week until the end of summer. So, if you run your system for an hour each day we can water (either Sunday, Wednesday, Friday or Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday depending on your address), your plant will get 12 gallons of water per week (three days per week x four gallons of water each day, equals 12 gallons per week).
OK, so one more bit of math. It is better for your plant not to get a gallon of water all at once. You want the water to soak into the soil surrounding the plant. I divide that hour of watering into three sessions of 20 minutes each. I stagger those times and water around 5 a.m., 7 a.m. and again in the evening after 7 p.m. Doing this allows the water to reach the roots of the plant. It also encourages the roots to grow deeply rather than on the surface. That is much better for the health of your plant.
Now, if the temperatures are going to be consistently over 107 F for several days, I may water a fourth cycle. I would add another cycle in the morning but keep the one at night as close to 11 p.m. as possible, so my plant can have some water for the next day or two when we can't water.
Mulch will moderate the temperature of the soil and maintain moisture. It will also keep weeds away from your plant! I prefer to do less work in the garden during our hotter than Hades summers. This is a way to make that happen! Don't use rubber mulch. Don't use mulch that has been dyed. Use a mulch that will break down over time and enrich your soil. I like fine wood chips the best. I will often have 2 to 3 inches of fine wood chips over an inch or two of compost around the plant. That way, I am feeding the soil, which the plant appreciates.
Now there are two thoughts as to whether to let your roses go dormant or not during a hot summer. For us, that generally means from the middle of June until at least the middle to end of September when the temps are finally cooler. If you choose to let your roses go dormant:
- Don't feed your roses.
- Make sure your watering system is operating efficiently and continue to water as described above.
- Apply 4 inches of mulch over the entire bed.
- Don't prune your roses.
- You can deadhead them or just remove the spent petals and allow hips to form.
- If the leaves burn on your plant, leave them on the plant to help shade the canes from burning.
There is another school of thought from folks who grow roses in Tucson. Grow your roses under shade cloth, when the temps are consistently over 95 F. June is often the hottest month in Tucson. They use 65% shade cloth as a canopy over their roses. In essence, they create a canopy structure with pipes and shade cloth. It is big enough to cover the roses and still walk under them. Some put a misting system on the pipe as well to increase the humidity.
They continue to feed their roses and don't let them go dormant. I have seen wonderful results. Beautiful growth and flowers all summer long. They remove the shade cloth in the fall, winter and early spring. In Tucson, they are still able to water their roses daily (if necessary and if they don't have monsoon rains that day). We don't have that luxury, unfortunately.
So, I will be trying a modification on this method. I just installed a pergola on my patio that will provide some relief during the summer (about 40% or so), near my rose bed. I may add an additional solar screen between my pergola and roses, so they get more relief from the blazing sun during the hottest part of the day. I will let you know how my “experiment” works!
Until Next Time; “I feel as if I had opened a book and found roses of yesterday sweet and fragrant, between its leaves.” – L.M. Montgomery, Anne of the Island