My magnolia has been in the ground for four years, with no blooms.  I know Holly tone is a great fertilizer for it. I also know magnolia takes about four years to bloom.
But what other fertilizer with a high phosphorus count can I put on it to not
totally mess the lawn area up? Thanks L.S.

Answer: Magnolias are wonderful trees and definitely add a southern flare to any landscape. They are very adaptable to many soil types but prefer an acidic and slightly moist soil. You might start by checking your soil pH with one of our soil test kits. Magnolias’ preference is somewhere in the 6.1 to 7.5 range. If your soil acidity is too low try adding some  Hi-Yield Aluminum Sulfate. These trees also prefer a full-sun location, as well.

The other big factor in bloom time is which cultivar you’ve planted, which you didn’t mention. If you bought it without a tag then chances are it’s a common woods Magnolia grandiflora and these can take up to 15 years to bloom. The newer cultivars that you can purchase from nurseries or growers have been bred to bloom in a shorter time frame, each one slightly different.  Little Gem, a smaller magnolia, gets started blooming in about three years. Other popular cultivars like Bracken’s Brown Beauty, Edith Bogue and Majestic Beauty are bred to bloom in three to five years.

As for fertilization, one source from a southern university extension office recommends during the first three growing seasons to apply light frequent fertilization.  Measure out from the tree trunk three times the canopy width then broadcast 2 cups of an 8-8-8 or 10-10-10 fertilizer per 100 square feet in March, May, July and September. After that reduce this application frequency to once or twice a year. It was also suggested by one grower to apply doses of a liquid acid fertilizer a few times during the year.

I hope you get some magnificent blooms soon. Karen

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 9:01 am and is filed under Ask A Master Gardener. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Can you tell me how cabbage plants make seeds? Ken C.

Answer: Cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kale and kohlrabi are all of the same species, Brassica oleracea, and have the same seeding and pollination habit. These plants produce a flower stalk that needs to be cross-pollinated (meaning a plant will not accept its own pollen) by insects. 

The cabbage plant sends this flower/seed stalk directly out of the cabbage core. Home growers, unless they live in a very long growing zone, in the fall will need to select at least three firm ready-to-eat heads and remove the plants, roots and all, and store in a root cellar, refrigerator or cold basement. Keep the roots damp and cold during the winter. 

In the early spring you would replant the plants, leaving two to three feet in between them. They will produce the seed stalk directly from the center of the plant.  Since cabbage seeds ripen slowly and fall off immediately when they are ripe, you might want to either harvest the whole plant as the pods turn yellow or pick the dry pods when they turn brown. 

When planted in the open garden – and if you are growing any other members of the Brassica family – you might be surprised what your seeds develop into since the plants can be cross-pollinated with broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, etc. But they might be interesting in flavor.

Good luck if you give this a try.

Karen

This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 1:09 pm and is filed under Ask A Master Gardener. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

How do you grow Ipomoea “Marguerite”?  Is it from seed, root, cutting? Marsha C.

Answer: Ipomoea batatas ‘Margarita’ or ‘Marguerite’ is a varietal cultivar of the large and diverse family of Convolulaceae or bindweed, which includes climbers, herbs, shrubs and trees. The species batatas includes the food group of the sweet potato, and while the culitvars that produce the colorful annual vines will produce tubers like their cousins, these tubers will often not produce foliage similar to the previous season’s growth but may revert to the previous coloration of the plant’s heritage. Most of the starts you see commercially available are produced through a tissue culture process that produces consistent results and allows for mass production. While they do produce a bloom, the flowers are usually sterile and any seed produced is not guaranteed to provide a new plant. It might be possible to take cuttings from plants but I haven’t read any great success stories about this method. If you live in southern Florida, or Zone 9 and above, they are hardy there, and I have also read where people have wintered them over as houseplants inside. But they like lots of light and warmth. They are vigorous growers, so a small plant will in no time take over an area in the garden or in your container.

If you want to give this great plant a try we will have them back in stock and available for shipment after the first of the year, <http://www.gardenharvestsupply.com/product/marguerite-ipomea-plants-flower-annual-plant> 

Hope you give this bright and cheery plant a try.

Happy Growing,

Karen

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 10:31 am and is filed under Ask A Master Gardener. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

I am interested in perennials that are red in color and are able to live in direct sunlight in South Florida.  I am looking for a flowering plant that I will not lose as soon as the fall is gone. Any suggestions? Sherry

Answer: Well, Sherry, most perennials have a “bloom period” so ideally you would want to include a variety of plants that would give you the sort of continuous blooms you are looking for. In your climate you also have the luxury of a number of tropicals! Many of those will offer you long blooms and many are red in color, like the shrimp plant, hibiscus, anthurium, phygelius, and lantanas. But you can also consider daylilies, pentas, cannas, celosias, dianthus, gaillardia, red salvia, kniphofia, and even snapdragons. Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ is a particularly vibrant red bloomer that puts on a show mid- to late- summer. Maybe consider a vine like bougainvillea or mandevilla, which both are available in shades of red.

Another consideration is red-leafed plants.  There are more and more varieties to choose from in the cordylines, alternantheras, aclyphas, and phormiums. The common coleus (Solenostemon) is no longer very common looking and is available in lots of red hues.

Don’t be afraid to experiment!  There are so many great options, so little space…

Happy searching for the right red.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 3:32 pm and is filed under Ask A Master Gardener. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Hi! I have gotten plants from you before and I love them.  Also I love how you stand behind your products. Thank you. I am in Florida and I want to do more planting of veggies – mostly tomatoes and spinach. Which of your tomatoes are good for Florida at this time of the year, and do you currently have spinach? I got my spinach from you last year and it was great. I grow all my veggies in pots on my patio.  Can you suggest any other ones suitable for Florida?  Thank you, Sue M

Answer: Thank you for all the compliments on the plants.  Always good to get such great feedback on how well they do. 

On our website at <http://www.gardenharvestsupply.com/category/fall-vegetable-plants> you will find a number of options that should work just fine for your temperate Florida climate. We have several varieties of peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, lettuce and cabbages that will do well in containers on your patio. While we do not have spinach plants we do have spinach seeds available <http://www.gardenharvestsupply.com/category/buy-organic-spinach-seeds> and spinach is very easy to grow from seed, even in pots.

Since your spring comes earlier than many areas of the U.S., make sure you check back with us right after the first of the year when we start getting some of our early spring plants just in time for the early growing season in Florida.  Remember, your spring cool season can start as early as January in some area of Florida for crops like cauliflower and turnips, and February for leaf vegetables, tomatoes and peppers. Be sure to check your zone guide to be certain of exact planting dates.

Happy Growing!

Karen

This entry was posted on Monday, October 19th, 2009 at 8:24 am and is filed under Ask A Master Gardener. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Can you tell me about split leaf philodendron? Someone told me that are horrible about tearing up your house in search of water. Is this true?
Thanks,
Vicky H.

Answer: Hmmm… sounds like someone has been watching Little Shop of Horrors! 

Monsteras deliciosa or split leaf philodendrons come in two varieties, climbers reaching upwards of 30 feet in their natural habitat, and tree or shrub-like with a mature size of 10 feet tall. As houseplants they want lots of room but I wouldn’t really call them destructive. They will produce aerial roots that you can direct into the potting medium to help support the plant as it grows. If the plant becomes too large it can be propagated by stem cuttings or air-layered and the aerial roots can be trimmed. When grown in pots and indoors, the rate of growth will be slower than in their natural habitat but they can still become quite large, so take this into consideration before adopting one. 

They are fairly easy houseplants otherwise, wanting warm daytime temps and evening temperatures in the 60s. They will survive in lower temps for short periods. Medium to low light is acceptable. If new leaves are developing smaller and farther apart, it wants some more light; too much light and the leaves will burn. Keep the soil evenly moist, allowing it to dry out between waterings, and keep the leaves clean and dust free. As a houseplant Monsteras can be susceptible to spider mites, scale and a fungal condition called Leaf Spot.

All members of the Monsteras and Araceae family are poisonous. This includes leaf, stem, root and sap, so be sure to wash your hands thoroughly after handling one.

Hope this helps your decision. Karen

This entry was posted on Friday, October 16th, 2009 at 8:15 am and is filed under Ask A Master Gardener. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Is it beneficial to put down fertilizer on asparagus beds this fall? If so, what are the recommendations? Thanks for your help!  Sammy

Answer: Asparagus is a hardy perennial and like all perennials fall clean-up and fertilizing are good practices to incorporate into those seasonal chores. 

Clean-up should begin after the first frost.  The asparagus tops should be removed to the ground to lessen the chances of fungal diseases overwintering in the foliage. With any disease it’s best to not compost this debris as fungus can overwinter and wait for spring to reinfect other plants.

Since asparagus can remain in the same bed for years, one of the best and easiest ways to keep roots well fed is after cutting down the fronds, apply a thick layer of well-composted manure or compost. The spears will push right thru it in the spring. Over the winter the spears are forming, so adding this organic fertilizer in the fall will help energize the plants for the spring growing season. You should not apply a high nitrogen fertilizer to any perennial in the fall. Nitrogen encourages plant growth and lots of new growth just before frost can cause harm to the overall plant health. 

Espoma’s Organic Traditions Manure or Triple Phosphate or Bone Meal fertilizer supplements can be added to help nourish the root systems of the asparagus in the fall. They can also be added in the spring to reinvigorate plants. They also make a great fall supplement for your other perennials, as well.

Check out Garden Harvest Supply’s entire array of renowned organic fertilizers.  There are products for every produce grower’s needs.  With cold temps approaching, now is a great time to stock up on plant supplements and fertilizers you plan to use in the spring, so they’re on the shelf and ready when you are as the warm days return!  

Karen

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 7:28 am and is filed under Ask A Master Gardener. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

I have new double knockout rose bushes. Please recommend a cover for our long winter where temperatures go as low as minus 20 F.  Thanks, Armande

Answer: For Zone 4 here are some general suggestions. First you want to make sure you have cleaned away any leaves or old mulch that might be left, eliminating over-wintering of any fungal spores. In Zone 4 it is suggested that after mid-October you spray the plants with a fungicide/dormant spray. After the first hard frost trim back the canes to a few feet.  You can also tie the canes together to keep the wind from blowing and breaking them. Then using mulch or wood chips mixed with soil, compost mound up about 10 inches over the graft or crown of the plant. You can continue adding mulch to a depth of 15-18 inches. Once the ground is completely frozen and mice are not a threat, you can continue to protect them by creating a fence around them and fill with straw, hay or strawy manure to a depth of 3 feet. Start the reverse process around April, removing the last layer, and add water. 

Rose cones can also be used but they are more expensive if you have a number of plants. For these you would want to wait until there have been several hard frosts and the roses are completely dormant. You will need to cut the canes back and tie together so they will fit completely under the cones. Mound your soil or mulch over the base of each rose. Punch 4-6 holes around the top to allow ventilation.  If the heat builds up inside, the rose might break dormancy too early. Before putting the cone over the rose, add some dry mulching material, such as leaves or straw. Make sure to weigh down the cones with a brick or heavy rock and mound some mulch or soil over the base of the cones. Remove the cones after the threat of hard frost is over in the spring. 

Knock-out roses are pretty hardy so either method should be fine; however, speaking from experience I find trying to wrangle roses into rose cones a bit of a pain, quite literally, so I prefer the fencing and mounding method for winter protection.

Best of luck with them.

Karen

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 9:07 am and is filed under Ask A Master Gardener. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

I am new to growing vegtables and herbs and I am looking for advice for the growing season.  I have a south-facing balcony and I am interested in what are the best fruit, vegtables or herbs to grow in a South-East UK climate. I am particularly interested in growing peppers and tomatoes but what else is there to grow from containers? What should I bring in for next year and when are they best planted? Thanks, David

Answer: Well, David, you’re pretty fortunate with the majority of the UK being Zone 8, a pretty temperate climate. I started out growing veggies on a balcony and while a bit of a challenge, I had pretty good luck.  Most herbs and vegetables should grow easily. If you’re just starting into gardening, stick with the basics. Almost anything can be grown in containers but if you want to try a zucchini or squash, look for some of the bush varieties since they will consume significantly less space on your balcony. There are also some smaller bush-like varieties of tomatoes.  For herbs, again you should be able to grow almost any in containers well, and in your climate Rosemary will even do well, and I really am jealous. Small plastic trash containers make good containers but remember to drill a hole in the bottom to allow for drainage. Look for “soilless”  potting mix as all that potting soil could get really heavy and I suppose you should also consider who is below you when the water runs off from the pots.

Good luck and happy gardening.

Karen

This entry was posted on Monday, October 12th, 2009 at 10:57 am and is filed under Ask A Master Gardener. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

What should I get for a crab apple tree that bloomed in the spring but then dropped all the leaves in the summer and did not make fruit for the first time? It is an old tree…. Thank you, Cindy

Answers: You do not mention what part of the country your crab apple tree is located in and what the weather conditions have been. Diagnosis is going to be difficult but here are some things to watch and check. There are only a few diseases and pests that bother crab apples, but if you had an overly wet spring your tree might have gotten attacked by Apple Scab, a fungal disease. It attacks emerging leaves in the early spring and then moves to the fruit. You would have seen dark olive green spots on leaves in May or June, turning black as the leaves matured. This can cause premature defoliation. Control will come in the spring when you apply fungicides as the leaves begin to emerge. I suggest you search the web for images of apple scab to determine this for certain and then for suggested fungicides if you feel it may have been affected. Fruit may have been damaged early and fallen, or weather conditions may have been such that flowers were not actively pollinated, causing fruit to not develop or to be insignificant. 

The Midwest had some very dry spells, causing many of the trees, including crab apples, to drop a significant amount of leaves as a means of self-preservation. If you have been experiencing such dry spells this could be the reason for the leaf drop, and possibly the lack of fruit if the dry spell was early in the season.

Also consider any environmental conditions that may have happened in the previous winter or summer that might have weakened the tree. Trees are often slow to react to stressors, so whatever has affected it might have happened a season or two earlier. Also if you have sprayed any herbicide around it in a more concentrated amount, it might have caused some stress to the tree.

You can check the branches to make sure sap is still flowing to them by carefully scratching the bark with your fingernail or a small knife.  You should see green in the layer just below the bark. If the branches are still green then the tree is still actively transporting vital nutrients to its outer limits, but at a reduced rate. It is currently setting bud for next spring.

Fertilizer should not be applied to the tree in the fall but in the early spring as the tree starts to move the sap up the tree. This time will vary for each zone so check online for the best time for your region. You will want to apply a nitrogen-rich fertilizer at that time.  This is one where the first number in the sequence is highest, such as 25-10-10.

For the moment there is not a lot you can do except make sure all the leaves are cleared away.  If it was apple scab you don’t want the fungus wintering over and recurring even worse next season, and make sure it has sufficient water through the fall season. Then wait to see what happens next spring. Hopefully it was just an environmental condition and will be beautiful again.

Best of luck,

Karen

This entry was posted on Friday, October 9th, 2009 at 10:53 am and is filed under Ask A Master Gardener. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.