All that rain was a little too much for some plants
Many plants have become waterlogged, showing signs of stress through their leaves, which might have twisted and turned yellow or brown. Water stressed plants also might have darkened veins and midribs. The plant often will lose its leaves and new shoots might wither and die.
The symptoms of too much water mirror those of too little water, and there's a reason for that. In both conditions, the plants are robbed of oxygen and nutrients.
Fortunately, the time of year might save many plants. During the winter months most plants are in a dormant or slower state of growth so less damage occurs versus summer floods or monsoons when the plants are actively growing and taking in oxygen and nutrients from the soil.
If you have water-damaged plants, here are some things to do, and not do:
• Stay off wet soil as much as possible. Compaction will only increase the risk of damage.
• Wait until all chance of frost has passed, then trim off damaged branches, shoots and leaves.
• If you are growing in containers, make sure to elevate the pot a few inches off the ground so that water can drain through and away from the roots. If possible, remove the plant from the container and place it on cardboard or newspaper overnight to let it drain. Clean the pot and replant with fresh potting soil and slow-release fertilizer.
• If you are in an area that has flooded, it may be best to discard edible plants that have been submerged in water. According to research from North Carolina State University, flood water may carry pathogens such as E. coli, Salmonella, Hepatitis A and norovirus. The water can spread contaminants throughout the entire garden especially if there is livestock, a pet area or compost pile nearby.
• Produce that is consumed raw, including soft fruit like berries, should definitely be discarded. Plants that were in flower during the flood might be safe, but it's probably best to throw them away as well.
• Root crops that have four or more weeks left before harvest should be OK, but they need to be washed and rinsed thoroughly before eating. Canning produce is not advised.
• Add compost and mulch in late spring or early summer to help reestablish nutrients in the soil.
• If you lose some plants or trees, plant new ones on mounded soil that has been well amended to improved drainage.
• If you are concerned about a tree coming down, consult with a licensed arborist.
• Don't be too quick on the draw with those pruning shears and shovels. Plants are amazingly resilient and may make a full recovery once the rain stops and we get more sunny days.
by UC Master Gardener Rebecca Jepsen
This article first appeared in the March 5 issue of the San Jose Mercury News.
By growing different varieties in your garden, you can pick berries year round!
The home gardener loves them, too, and because of our climate and the variety of berries available, we can enjoy pretty much a year-round harvest.
Here are some tips on fulfilling your strawberry dreams:
Berries like full sun and soil that drains well. They also need potassium, so add pot ash when planting in clay soil.
Don't plant where you have grown tomatoes, eggplants or peppers as strawberries are susceptible to verticillium wilt, a fungus that can infect the soil and damage or kill the plant.
Strawberries have shallow roots and need to be watered frequently. Keep plants moist but not soggy.
Strawberries do best when refreshed every year. Dig up and discard of the mother plant. Snip off and replant the healthiest runners that are putting out strong roots and, to ensure large harvests and superior taste, plant new plants every 3 to 4 years.
Varieties
Strawberries fall into three primary categories: Everbearing, day neutral and June bearing.
Everbearing requires long days of sunlight to set fruit and, although they don't bear all year-round, they produce multiple crops in spring, summer and fall.
• Mara Des Bois, developed by a French breeding program, produces small, extremely fragrant, very flavorful fruit.
• Quinault produces up to 2 inch berries that are exceptionally sweet, great fresh or in preserves. It grows well in containers.
• White Carolina, or pineberry, is a unique white to pale pink berry that tastes like a cross between a strawberry and a pineapple. It produces medium size fruit from spring through fall and is heat tolerant and disease resistant.
Day Neutral berries do not depend on a set number of daylight hours in order to flower. They are a great choice if you want a small amount of fruit throughout the year.
• Alpine, sometimes thought of as wild strawberry, is a compact, clumping variety that can be grown in part sun. It has small, aromatic, rich tasting berries. Plants do not sent out runners so it makes a great edging option.
• Albion produces large, firm very sweet berries. It is disease resistant but needs more water and nutrients than other varieties. It spreads out rapidly, so space accordingly.
• Seascape, produced by the University of California in 1992, is productive. Many think it has the best flavor that any of the day neutral varieties.
June bearing strawberries require short day lengths, as in the fall, in order to flower. They are the most widely grown berry and make up the bulk of what you find at the supermarket. They tend to be vigorous plants, putting out lots of long runners, so require room to grow.
They are prolific producers of large fruit, but since the fruit comes on all at once you have to use it all pretty quickly. They are great for jams, jellies and pies.
Unlike the name implies, they don't all produce in June.
• Chandler offers good color and flavor, and the fruit holds well on the vine. It is susceptible to anthracnose disease.
• Earliglow is known for its wonderful strawberry flavor. The fruit is sweet, firm and medium sized. It produces vigorous runners, so give it plenty of space.
by UC Master Gardener Rebecca Jepsen
This article first appeared in the February 1 issue of the San Jose Mercury News.
Psyllid Adult FeedingThe pest can destroy citrus trees
The Asian citrus psyllid remains a serious and dangerous pest of all types of citrus, says Joe Deviney, Santa Clara County Agricultural Commissioner.
The tiny insect can carry the disease huanglongbing, also known as citrus greening. There is no cure for the disease; infected trees will produce bitter, misshapen fruit until the tree dies in as little as five years.
While the pest has been seen in Santa Clara County and parts of Alameda County, huanglongbing disease, which has been found in only a few trees in the state, has not yet been seen here. The only way to prevent huanglongbing is to guard against the psyllid.
The psyllid is prevalent in Mexico and across parts of the Southern United States. In Florida, the pest was first detected in 1998, and citrus greening was discovered there just seven years later. Both the pest and the disease are now in all of Florida's citrus producing areas and have resulted in the loss of trees, produce, more than 6,000 jobs and $3.6 billion in economic activity.
Psyllids, also known as jumping plant lice, are from the Psyllidae family and have been around for a long time. Psyllid fossils have been found from the Permian period, more than 250 million years ago.
The psyllids generally feed on one species of plant, or closely related plants. The pest is a tiny brownish winged insect, about the size of an aphid. They not only feed on all varieties of citrus — orange, grapefruit, lemon, lime, kumquat and mandarin — but also attack Indian curry leaf, Chinese box orange, wampeii, orange jasmine and others.
The pest is small, but easily identifiable thanks to its distinctive feeding habit. It eats with its body at a 45 degree angle with its head down and rear in the air. No other citrus pest feeds in this position. It also feeds on new leaf growth, causing young leaves to twist and curl, and prevents healthy new shoots from forming.
The insect can spread huanglongbing by feeding on a diseased tree and then spreading the disease to other, healthy trees. Grafting using infected budwood can also spread the disease.
To check for infestations, look for oblong, yellow orange eggs that are tucked inside new growth. Nymphs produce unique waxy, curly tubes with bulbs at the end. Adults are about 1/8-inch long and have a pointed front end with red eyes and short antennae. They can have greenish, yellow or orange abdomens, depending on what they have been feeding on.
The Bay Area's first report was in San Jose in 2014; the most recent sighting was last month. Approximately 200 square miles of Santa Clara and Alameda counties fall in an Asian citrus psyllid quarantine zone.
Although you can move fruit in and out of the quarantine zone, it must be free of all leaf and stem material. Be sure not to move any plant material outside of your zone, and if you are planting new plants or trees, make sure they are disease free by buying them from a reputable nursery.
Check the quarantine boundary lines and if you think you have seen the pest or are experiencing citrus greening symptoms on your trees, call the California Department of Food and Agriculture's Pest Hotline at 1-800-491-1899.
by UC Master Gardener Rebecca Jepsen
This article first appeared in the November 9 issue of the San Jose Mercury News.
Garlic, a member of the Allium — onion — family, is easy to grow and takes up very little space in the garden.
There are more than 600 varieties of garlic grown, and although China produces most of the world's garlic, California produces more than any state in the nation.
Garlic is believed to prevent cardiovascular problems, reduce cholesterol and lower blood pressure, and has been used to treat asthma, diabetes, atherosclerosis and a host of other ailments.
Santa Clara Master Gardener Sue Zaslaw, an expert on the stinking rose, says homegrown garlic is more nutritious and much more flavorful than supermarket garlic. By growing your own, you can choose the varieties based on size, shape and, of course, taste.
Sue inspired me so much that I planted seven varieties last fall. I was completely surprised by how different each tasted and the assortment of cloves' sizes.
Most garlic is either hardneck, with a hard, woody center stalk, or softneck, which lacks a central stalk. Hardnecks tend to have fewer cloves — 4 to 12 — and have more flavor. They grow well in cooler climates, but don't store as long as softnecks. They also produce flowering tops, called scapes, that are delicious when cooked.
Softnecks can produce up to 30 cloves and have a milder taste. The stalks can be braided for hanging storage. If you have both, use your hardnecks first as they will not last as long as the softnecks.
The best time for planting garlic is now through the end of November. Break the bulbs into individual cloves just before planting. Remove the outer papery wrapping, but be sure to leave the covering on the individual cloves.
Plant pointed side up, 2 inches deep in well-draining, well-amended soil. Space cloves 4 to 6 inches apart in rows that are 10 to 12 inches apart. Fertilize once after planting and once again in the spring when the weather warms up.
Make sure your soil or planting medium is damp before planting. Garlic likes water, but not too much or it will rot. If we have winter rains, you won't need to provide supplemental water, but if we have a dry winter, water when the soil dries out.
Harvest in June or July when the tops begin to turn yellow or brown and are starting to fall over. Carefully lift the bulbs out of the soil using a spade or garden fork, and let them cure in an airy, shady spot for a couple of weeks before using.
Once dry, brush off the excess soil and trim off the roots and leaves. Braid softnecks together and hang them in a cool, dry location. For hardnecks, or if you don't want to braid softnecks, cut off the roots and tops, and store them loosely in wire baskets, mesh bags, or on a slotted shelf. They need good air circulation to prevent rotting. With proper storage, your garlic will keep for about a year.
You should harvest up to 10 times the amount of garlic that you planted. Save some of the biggest and best bulbs for next year's planting.
by UC Master Gardener Rebecca Jepsen
This article first appeared in the October 16 issue of the San Jose Mercury News.
The answer is mixed. Although we made great inroads into saving water we need to continue conserving.
Our rain-year runs from July 1 to June 30, and fortunately, we got 96 percent of the annual average. The numbers were so good that this spring the State Water Resources Control Board updated its emergency regulations, allowing water retailers throughout the state to set their own restrictions based on local conditions and requirements beginning in June.
Many water districts in the Bay Area chose to ease restrictions or drop them altogether. Santa Clara Valley Water District, for example, reduced its restrictions to 20 percent from 30 percent, while Fremont, Newark and Union City dropped their reductions all together.
Some worried that the savings we saw under the mandatory restrictions would evaporate when residents began relying on their best judgment on how much and how often they water their landscapes; however, recent numbers show that we are continuing to conserve.
In June, compared to the same month last year, San Jose Water Company cut water use by 27.8 percent, East Bay Municipal Utility District by 18.1 percent, Santa Cruz by 20.9 percent, Alameda County Water District by 28.7 percent and Palo Alto by 17.9 percent.
The majority of our water -- 55 percent -- comes primarily from snow and rainfall in the Sierra Nevada. Another 40 percent is from natural groundwater and area reservoirs. The remaining 5 percent is recycled water -- purified waste water. With or without restrictions, we must continue to work on reducing water use, and capturing and reusing water for irrigation, industry and agriculture.
"Our main message to the public right now is 'Thank you' for the tremendous response to the drought and the savings that have been achieved over the last year," says Jerry De La Piedra, unit manager for the Santa Clara Valley Water District. "However, one average year doesn't erase four years of historic drought. We don't know what next year will bring, so we're asking everyone to continue to use water as efficiently as possible."
Fall is a great time to rethink and replant your lawn, renew your garden, or make major water-saving changes to your landscape. By planting new eco-friendly sod or native and Mediterranean plants, you will not only significantly cut back on your water use, you will be providing necessary food and shelter to help save our endangered birds, bugs and bees.
Try replacing your lawn with a gorgeous array of plants and shrubs that produce flowers and create interest all year long.
If you just can't bear to completely lose the lawn, try planting a smaller section of one of the many varieties of Delta Blue Grass California native sods. They roll out just like regular sod but require 50 percent less water. They also need to be mowed way less often, resulting in environmental savings well beyond water.
Look for city and county rebate programs that actually pay you to replace your water-guzzling lawns and replace older, inefficient irrigation controllers and sprinkler equipment.
You truly can go greener without the expansive, traditional lawn.
by UC Master Gardener Rebecca Jepsen
This article first appeared in the August 21 issue of the San Jose Mercury News.
