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Tidewater Gardening - No Vacation in the Garden: K. Marc Teffeau
TIDEWATER GARDENING
by K. Marc Teffeau, Ph.D.
Gardens Don’t Take Vacations
August is the time for vacations, relaxing and, if you have schoolaged kids, getting ready for the new school year. With other things occupying our interests, the garden and landscape sometimes take a backseat. This is okay! The hot and muggy August weather sometimes makes it hard to get motivated to work in the yard. But lest you think that gardening activities also take a vacation, there are still jobs to be done.
Fruit plants and trees all need your attention now. If you have a strawberry bed, now is the time to fertilize for next year’s crop. On plants set out this past spring, apply 4 to 6 ounces of ammonium nitrate or 12 to 18 ounces of
a 10-10-10 complete fertilizer per 25 linear feet of row. Spread the fertilizer uniformly in a band 14” wide over the row when the foliage is dry. Brush the fertilizer off the leaves to avoid leaf burn. For older strawberry beds, increase the application rate to 6 to 8 ounces ammonium nitrate or 18 to 24 ounces of 10-10-10 per 25 feet of row.
Strawberries set their fruit buds in the late summer/early fall for next spring’s crop year, so they need a lot of fertilizing at this time. It's also important to maintain adequate water to the strawberry, blueberry and bramble crops now. A slow, long soaking of the water hose around the plants during the dry spells of August will ensure good fruit bud production and set for next year’s crop.
Don't forget to prop up any heavy branches on your apple or peach trees that are threatening to break under the increasing weight
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of ripening fruit. Be sure to make a mental note now to thin next year’s crop in June to reduce the number of fruits the tree is carrying and thus improve the size and quality of the remaining fruit.
Watering is also critical for fruit trees in August, especially peach trees. Adequate watering about two weeks before the tree is to be harvested will get the flesh to swell and result in large fruit.
After harvesting, pick up and compost all fallen fruit to help reduce the number of pests on your trees next year. Worms hide in the fallen fruit and then pupate in the soil, ready to lay eggs the next year.
On the vegetable side, a garden that weeds itself has not yet been developed. However, you can reduce your weeding time by mulching as much as possible and controlling weeds before they go to seed.
Now is the time to plant fall and winter vegetables. Plant starters or seeds of green onions, carrots, beets, lettuce, spinach, radishes and blooms. Now is also the time to plant transplants of fall broccoli, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts. Watering the plants with a weak liquid fertilizer solution will help give them a jump start.
Pinch off onion flower buds from the top of the plants to direct all the plant’s energy into the developing bulb instead of seed production. Many herbs tend to self-sow if the flowers are not removed. Dill produces seeds that fall around the parent plant and come up as volunteers.
With hot, humid weather come disease problems. Two types of mildew ~ downy and powdery ~ can affect vine-type vegetable crops at this time of year. Downy mildew
causes problem, on beans, cucumbers and cantaloupes. This fungus disease causes yellow to dark areas on the upper surface of older leaves. Turn the leaf over and you'll see patches of whitish or gray-colored mold. The mold may also occur on bean pods. Affected vines may be scorched and killed.
Powdery mildew appears as a white or brownish talcum-like growth on leaves and young stems of squash, pumpkins, cantaloupes and cucumbers. Look for it especially on the upper surface of leaves. It sometimes affects fruit as well. Severely infected plants will turn yellow, wither and die.
To control either downy or powdery mildew, use resistant varieties, practice crop rotation within your garden and maintain good weed control. It helps to space plants properly. Overcrowding allows for high humidity around the plants and favors the spread of these diseases. Remove and trash infected
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plants at the end of the season since they may serve as a source of new infections next year.
It is also necessary to use fungicides for control. Products containing the active ingredients copper or chlorothalonil (the trade name ‘Daconil’) are the best and only effective products available to home gardeners.
Powdery mildew also affects a number of ornamental plants, including lilacs and annual flowers. This occurs when the days are hot and the nights cool. As in the vegetable garden, growing mildew-resistant cultivars of plants is your first line of defense. Good culture and sanitation are also important for control.
Avoid using high-nitrogen fertilizers at this time of year, as they produce lush growth that may be susceptible to mildew. Treat the plants with a fungicide on an asneeded basis.
Correct watering is a major focus for August. If tropical storms or periodic thunderstorms haven't dumped adequate rain on your landscape, your plants may need extra irrigation.
Vegetable gardens, most flowering plants and the lawn all need about one inch of water every week to keep them green and looking nice. Each time you water, be sure to do so thoroughly and deeply. When possible, do your watering in the morning or early afternoon so the soil has a chance to warm up before the cooler evening hours set in. Deep watering will induce the plant’s roots to grow deeper, where they are less likely to dry out. This has the added benefit of better anchoring the plant in the ground.
This deal about going out with the hose and spraying everything for 10 minutes really doesn't do the job. A light surface watering wastes water, because it never actually reaches the root zone of the plant, and the moisture rapidly evaporates from the top inch of soil. The best way to tell if your plants are receiving enough water is to take a trowel or shovel and dig down a few inches. The soil should be moist at least 3 or 4 inches deep to ensure that the water is reaching the root zone.
Late summer is no time to be pruning ornamental trees and shrubs. The removal of large branches, unless they are dead, at this time of year tends to stimulate new branches to grow. Because of their late start, these new branches will not be able to acclimate for the first frost and subsequent cold weather.
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As a result, the new branches will likely die or suffer winter injury. The plant may also be injured.
However, if your hedge is beginning to look a little shaggy, there is still time left to do light summer pruning or shearing. If you didn't get around to pruning your plants in spring or early summer, forget about them until next March or April.
August is not the time for extensive fertilizing of trees and shrubs. Like late-season pruning, late-summer fertilizing stimulates growth that will be soft and easily killed by the first frost. In addition to producing soft growth, fertilizing now can stimulate the plants
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to grow if we have an Indian summer later this fall. If this happens, you can almost guarantee that your plants will not survive the winter. If you neglected to fertilize your trees and shrubs this past spring, continue to neglect them until sometime around the first of November or after the first or second hard frost.
Late-summer annual and perennial flower beds tend to look a little raggedy. Pick off the old, dead flowers on your annuals, as well as the spent flowers and flower stalks on perennial plants. A little time spent on grooming the plants will make a big difference in the garden's overall appearance.
Removing the spent flowers will prevent the plants from going into seed production and should allow them to continue flowering longer into the season.
Fall-blooming Crocus should be planted this month to give you an extra week or two of flowers after the main garden plants have fin-
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ished for the year. Spring-flowering perennials can be divided and transplanted this month or next. Be sure to do this during the coolest part of the day, and water the plants thoroughly after transplanting.
Make sure to prune your hybrid roses in late August to promote the most fall blossoms. Remove about a third of the vigorous growth. Any stems that cross each other should be removed, as well as those that are in the center of the plant. Weak, spindly canes and any damaged by black spot fungus should be removed. Maintain a spraying schedule to control insects and disease.
Clean up fallen rose leaves. They can harbor disease and insect pests over the winter if allowed to remain on the ground.
Happy Gardening!
Marc Teffeau retired as Director of Research and Regulatory Affairs at the American Nursery and Landscape Association in Washington, D.C. He now lives in Georgia with his wife, Linda.
Pamela P. Gardner, AIA, LLC
