- Author: Alison Collin
Although I'm familiar with bindweed from past experience, for some reason it had never put in an appearance in my West Bishop garden until three years ago. A year after removing a lawn and having some topsoil delivered I was upset to see a small, white, Morning Glory-like flower in a raised bed in the center of my new landscape!
How could I have missed its growth up to flowering point? I regularly inspect for all the other evil weeds such as spotted spurge, yellow oxalis, yellow clover and Russian thistle, so how had this specimen avoided detection? And where had it come from? It had grown up through a patch of gaura, winding itself around several stems and the flower that I saw was just the first of many waiting to bloom.
There are two types of bindweed. Field bindweed has smaller leaves and flowers which are pink or white while Hedge bindweed has larger white trumpet-shaped flowers more like ornamental Morning Glory.
Field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) grows extremely fast. It has become a serious threat to agricultural crops in some areas of the country, and it is never good news in our gardens. It is a perennial weed with a very deep root system, able to penetrate as far as 16 feet below soil level! To make matters worse, the roots are soft and rather fragile. They merely break off if one tries to pull the plant up, leaving behind pieces that easily regrow. The leaves can vary from spade-shaped seed leaves to arrow-shaped on mature plants and the stems are from 1 to 4 feet in length, sprawling over flat surfaces but winding around any vertical stems or structures. The flowers produce copious amount of seed which has been known to stay viable for 50 years!
Realistically, is almost impossible to eradicate completely and the best one can hope for is to keep it under control. If seedlings are recognized and dug out before their roots have spread and before it has flowered one might eradicate it, but other methods of weed control seldom work. Covering a patch with plastic and solarizing will thwart it briefly, but will not kill deep roots, carefully hand digging out plants with as much root as possible will weaken it so long as this process is repeated whenever new growth appears. It is best to use a fork for removal because spades will inevitably cut through the roots making it difficult to get every last piece out. Likewise mechanical cultivators will chop up the roots and drag them to a new area, but for large agricultural areas there is little alternative, and so to address a heavy infestation this is done on a regular cycle as soon as any new growth emerges until the plants are weakened.
In my own garden I have removed any growth as soon as I see it. Nevertheless, shoots have appeared more than 10 feet away in two different directions from the original growth. The plant is established at the base of a young specimen maple tree, and the roots of the bindweed are beneath those of the tree, so consequently they are impossible to reach. I am sure that this is one gardening battle that I will never win, but currently I feel that I do have the upper hand.
Prevent spreading bindweed by inspecting any new plants brought in to the garden from other sources, and if you already have it don't be tempted to move plants around from one area to another, or share any garden plants with friends and spread it to their gardens! I saved a rather precious salvia by digging it up, washing and meticulously inspecting the roots for any scraps of bindweed, then planting it into a large pot where I kept it for several months before finally installing it in its new home.
For more detailed information regarding control of bindweed: http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7462.html
- Author: Alison Collin
Blessed with good soil, I usually grow all of my vegetables in the ground, but this year I was tempted to create a raised bed for strawberries with space for some vegetables too. I went to town on the soil preparation and during the winter dug in my precious supply of leaf mold and some horse manure from the local stables and then before planting hoed in some commercial soil amendment too.
I sowed ornamental blue wheat, spinach and cilantro all of which germinated well and I planted the strawberries in late March. As I was planting them I noticed a lot of tiny wriggling worms in the holes. I looked at them with a hand lens and saw that they were segmented and legless, whitish and almost transparent. I mistakenly assumed that they were baby earthworms.
While searching for the culprit, I found that the soil was very wet, and teaming with the tiny wriggling worms which after visiting our Farm Advisor, I learned were white worms in the family Enchytraeidae.
It's likely the chard actually was being eaten by roly-polies* or earwigs as these little worms wouldn't be able to eat foliage. Roly-polies also like moist conditions with plenty of organic material to consume so this seems like a reasonable pest.
Enchytraeid worms are sometimes found in flower pots, hence their common name of "pot worms." These are basically beneficial since they live on fungus and decaying organic matter which releases nutrients for plants and aerates soil.
Like earthworms, they are true worms (Annelids). These are often found in moist conditions with high organic matter and a fair amount of acidity. That usually describes the mix in flower pots. Their presence when you're trying to raise worms for vermicomposting can mean there is a problem, but in the garden they are harmless.
These little critters were a good reminder of the importance of proper irrigation. They are present because of all the moisture. It is obvious that I need to alter the irrigation amounts in this highly enriched area of the garden.
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* Also called sowbugs or pillbugs. They're not really "bugs" but soil-dwelling crustaceans.
- Author: Alison Collin
It is important to keep plant labels, preferably inserting them next to where the plant was put. But failing that, at least keep the label in a safe spot – a box or envelope or suchlike so that it can readily be accessed for future reference.
As a Master Gardener it is often difficult to give advice on how to grow something when the owner has no idea as to what variety it is. A case in point was the “non-fruiting raspberries” that a grower was complaining about. She had been told that you cut all canes to the ground in spring, but she never had a raspberry to eat. I asked what variety they were but she had no idea as she had thrown away the labels, but then luckily recalled that, “It was something like Shortcake”. Without a label or a notion of which variety the plant was, helping to solve the problem relies on a fair measure of guesswork.
From her recollection, I knew immediately that her pruning regime was completely wrong. She had been cutting to ground level all the stems that would bear fruit that year because that particular variety is a floricane bearer, but it had erroneously been pruned as though it was a primocane bearer. Not all raspberries are the same!
Keep the labels of fruit trees that you plant, too. Moving into a house with an established garden, we became owners of a very old peach tree which gives wonderful crops of excellent-flavored peaches every year. The tree itself has many sun-scorched branches and is well on its way to dying. I should love to replace it with a younger version, but have so far not been able to identify which variety it is.
If you grow roses, before long many of the names will be forgotten and you may want more of the same variety, or like me want to make sure that you don't buy a “mistake” again! In this case it was one called 'Westerland' which has beautiful flowers but the most ferocious thorns making gardening around it a misery.
Fruit and vegetable plant varieties and cultivars are important since they provide differing flavors, sizes, hardiness, crop yields, and flowering times. We go to endless trouble to buy the right sort of car, or breed of dog, but many people buy an apple without realizing that it may need a special pollinator in order to set fruit, or buy an apricot that may be a variety that blooms so early that it will inevitably be frosted in or erratic climate.
Most labels will have vital information to help you decide whether your purchase is likely to ensure that you are planting “the right plant in the right place” and not putting a 50 foot tall tree under powerlines, planting a zone 8 plant in Mammoth Lakes, or buying an acid-loving plant for a garden with strongly alkaline soil.
When you have planted your new acquisition keep the label!
Then you will:
- Learn the correct name of the plant and remember it.
- Remember where you planted things that die down in the winter and so avoid planting something else on top of it. Especially important with bulbs.
- Be able to exactly replace it if it dies, or buy more of the same if it is a plant that you really like or does exceptionally well.
- Be able to look up further information regarding its care and special needs.
- Know for certain which tomato is which in a tray of seedlings so that you won't accidentally give away the one that you really, really wanted to try!
- Be able to leave instructions for a specific plant if someone else is caring for your garden or harvesting produce when you are on vacation.
- Accurately know the name of any seeds or bulbs that you save.
Labels come in all shapes and sizes but whereas those marking vegetables are only needed to last a season, long-term landscaping plants require more durable markers if they are to be of any use. For information and suggestions on materials to use check out the following website:
https://marylandgrows.umd.edu/2018/05/04/the-importance-of-being-labeled/
And one final thought: Unless you plan to check on them often, the place to keep plant labels is not on tree branches. They either blow away eventually, or if they are durable, may girdle branches in the future.
- Author: Alison Collin
Everbearing, or daylight neutral, bare-root strawberries become available for planting at this time of year. Successful growing is dependent on careful soil preparation.
They need a sunny position in slightly acidic, well-drained soil with a lot of organic matter, and regular irrigation. If you cannot provide these it is best to grow them in containers.
Dig the soil some weeks before planting and be meticulous in removing any perennial weeds such as Bermudagrass, dandelions or bindweed since once planted the strawberries will produce undisturbed for about 3 years. Incorporate plenty of compost, leaf mold, or organic soil amendments.
Because it has been such a dry winter this year, I ran the drip irrigation a few times prior to planting. This has the advantage of settling the dug soil, enabling me to spot any clogged emitters and also to see the pattern and extent of moist soil around each emitter.
This year I planted 'Seascape' in a slightly raised bed (the result of adding compost). The plants were just breaking dormancy, and each had a mass of roots about 8” long. I put the roots in a bucket of water while I dug the planting holes. I then dug a v-shaped hole beside each emitter deep enough to easily accommodate the roots and wide enough to take the roots well fanned out along the dripper line so that they could take advantage of any moist soil. I added a teaspoon of slow-release organic fertilizer to the bottom of each hole and mixed it in well with the soil there.
The soil that I dug out of each hole was teaming with minute baby worms, and I worked quickly so as to return them as quickly as possible before they dried out.
When planting, I placed the roots in the hole, fanned out as described, and gently backfilled, making sure that the crown of each plant (where the roots and top growth meet) was level with the surrounding soil. This is really important because if it is below soil level it will rot, and if planted too high the roots dry out.
I also made sure that the crown was clear of the irrigation tubing by about 1.5” since that can get extremely hot in the sun and would burn the crown if it came in contact with it.
Holding the base of the crown in the correct position and at the correct level I watered the soil around the plant to settle the soil around the roots, topping up any low spots.
I then mulched around each plant with a generous amount of sawdust/wood shavings which, although of little nutritional value, will retain moisture and keep the soil at a more even temperature.
For further reading on how to grow Strawberries in California: https://cagardenweb.ucanr.edu/Berries/Strawberries/
- Author: Alison Collin
How could one possibly refrain from trying a vegetable variety that goes by the intriguing name of Smooth Criminal?
One of the most exciting developments in squash breeding has resulted in a space-saving, vertically growing hybrid, and for those of us who are tired of the endless battles controlling the summer squash bug population this variety may go a long way to help reduce the problem.
For starters, Smooth Criminal which is the result of the breeding program at Seneca Vegetable Research and the University of New Hampshire carries the gl-2 mutant gene which reduces spines on the plant, both on the leaf petioles and stems. This makes harvesting and checking for squash bugs less skin-abrading for the grower, and the young tender fruits have less damage to their surface.
Not only that, but this plant has an upright habit, with the pale yellow fruits produced sequentially along the stem. Although it will need to be staked it has been found by some growers to be less attractive to squash bugs because the fruits are carried well off the ground.
However, none of the information regarding this prolific squash makes any mention of its flavor so time will tell as to whether the positive aspects of growing it are worthwhile.
To offset this I have decided to grow an AAS award winner, Caserta-type hybrid squash, Bossa Nova, (see photo above) which has a compact bush type habit and is said to have an excellent flavor with very smooth flesh. The fruits which are generally zucchini shaped are pale green with darker green patterning, are uniform, and produced early and over a long season.
For a few years I have been growing Tiana F1 butternut squash which has become my all-time favorite for its smooth texture, strong colored flesh, straight-sided blocky shape, prolific crop, and excellent keeping abilities. I have just eaten, in mid-February, my last fruit which was harvested in late September. However, it has one major downside – the sheer size of the plants. One plant covers almost half my vegetable plot, rampaging over any other crops that are in its way, rooting wherever a node touches damp soil and continuing on across the lawn.
I really needed to find something smaller so this year I will be trying Butterscotch. This is another AAS award winner that produces smaller fruits on compact, semi-bush plants needing only 6sq.ft of space each and is said to have a very complex sweet flavor. It should produce fruits weighing between 1-2lbs and will keep in storage for about 3 months. An added feature is that it is also resistant to powdery mildew. It will be interesting to see if the compact form with fruits closely produced in the center will make it harder to see and reach any squash bugs.
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