July 15, 2011, Mid-Summer Color Newsletter



Container-grown plants can be planted any time

You Can Still Plant





It’s simple but true. You can install a container-grown plant any time you can get a shovel in the ground. From frost out in spring to frost in during fall, go ahead and safely plant perennials, trees, fruit trees and bushes and shrubs. That’s it. Simple.

This is different than transplanting a plant from one spot to another. If you are digging up a plant out of the ground and moving it to another spot, timing definitely does matter.

Keep an Eye Out for Colorado Potato Beetle

Although we addressed this issue earlier this summer, we are still finding many of you are unsure how to control this very hungry pest.

Click back here for our tips. Keep them under control or they can eat your entire crop of potatoes and them move on to other tasty plants.
In the garden now




We have a few tips to help you keep pace in the garden other than keeping ahead of the weeds (or trying).

- Sometime soon get outside after nightfall and check out the firefly show. They have been abundant this summer and it’s the males that show off to find a mate. If you don’t see them at first, find a viewing spot near some tall grass or good cover from shrubs and trees. It’s a treat.

- Keep up on fertility. This is high season for flower color, fruit set and ripening and vegetable production. If you don’t feed them, don’t expect your plants to perform well for you.

espoma tomato tone- Scout your tomatoes and peppers for blossom end rot. This is the dark blemish at the bottom of new fruit that forms due to calcium deficiency. Your solution now is to keep fertilizing with a product blended just for tomato and pepper and to spray your plants with rot stopBonide Rot Stop. It will saturate the plant with calcium.

 Handling the Heat




Here are a couple of tips on how to help your plants through the heat wave on its way.

- Water your annuals containers in the morning so they have water to use during the hot part of the day. Check them again in the evening but keep water off of the foliage when watering in the evening to prevent disease.

- Don’t spray herbicides and insecticides on plants and turf when temperatures are above 80-degrees. They can burn or kill plants when it’s really hot. Besides, herbicides won’t work well when it’s that hot anyway. You can continue to use Preen to control weeds.

- Keep a close eye on anything you’ve planted in 2011. Use your finger to check in the soil near the original root ball. If it is totally dry, go ahead and give a thorough watering… about a 10-count with a hose or a bit more for a larger tree. Don’t be fooled by plants. They will look sad and droop their leaves during the hottest part of the day but this doesn’t necessarily mean they need water. Always check first. Drooping leaves on a healthy plant that has adequate water will recover when it cools off in the evening.