Rodd's Seeds of Wisdom Horticultural tips and tricks from Rodd Moesel

After a couple of early March doses of winter we have been blessed with some nice “spring teaser” weather.  This nicer weather gives us a chance to actually do some of the garden activities that we want to do and need to be done but are quite challenging when there is snow and ice on the ground.

It is still too early to plant warm season vegetable or ornamental crops as we are likely to still experience some freezing weather until around April seventh to the fifteenth across central Oklahoma.  If you are so determined to beat your neighbors into production of the first tomatoes, peppers or other warm season crops in your neighborhood you either need to get your own greenhouse or be prepared to protect those early plantings with protective row cover products, waxed paper hot caps, Wall O’ water protective pyramids or some homemade combination of milk jugs, boxes, sheets or blankets to cover and insulate your warm season crops on cold nights.  The safest and best solution is to wait to plant these warm season crops until soon after the last freeze in mid April.  Remember that some really hot blooded tropical crops like periwinkle, caladiums and sweet potatoes should not be planted until after May first when our night temperatures are regularly above fifty degrees. 

This next week is the last week of the prime planting season for cool season vegetables. 

You can plant cabbage, broccoli, Swiss chard, lettuce, peas, potatoes and onions later but they do not handle the heat of Oklahoma summers well and so you will cost yourself a lot of yield the later you wait to plant them.  Old timers suggest that the cool season vegetables should be planted by Saint Patrick’s Day (March 17^th) or thereabouts if you want to allow these crops to grow, mature and provide a good harvest before the summer temperatures act like an oven and zap them of their energy and harvest.  Try your best to finish planting your bare root asparagus, rhubarb, horse radish as well as strawberries, grape vines, blackberries, blueberries and raspberries by next weekend.  You can still buy and plant container grown fruit trees and berries most any time this spring, summer or fall but you need to be wrapping up any bare root planting in the next week or so. 

Another project with a deadline of around Saint Patrick’s Day is the application of pre-emergent weed killers or herbicides.  As the day and night time temperatures warm up, the days get longer and after even the limited moisture from our recent snows more and more warm season weeds will start to germinate.  The easiest way to control most of the warm season weeds is to “just say No” and keep them from even germinating or coming up.  Timing is very important for this garden practice to work but if you apply the proper pre-emergent weed killer and get it spread or sprayed before the weed seeds germinate they can dramatically reduce the competition your lawn or flower beds will receive from crabgrass and other summer weeds.  Visit with your local nursery or garden center to select the right weed killer or weed and feed product for your flowerbeds and lawn.  My favorite pre-emergent’s will include Dimension, Prodiamine or Barricade, Treflan, Balan or Team.  You can apply these as a weed killer only or mixed with a well balanced fertilizer as part of a “weed and feed” product.

Take advantage of these nice days to prepare new flower beds, clean up and prepare your existing flower beds and container gardens as we get ready for the warm season crops in just a few short weeks

Time speeds by and we are already on the verge of saying goodbye to February and preparing to greet the month of March.  The further the calendar moves toward spring, the more gardening and landscape projects get the green light and are ready to go.

This is a good time to finish pruning your trees, shrubs and rose bushes while they are without foliage and you can see clearly to prune and shape these plants before they leaf out for spring.  You can also prune your evergreens and broad leaf shrubs before they produce their burst of spring growth in April and May.  Most all trees and shrubs need periodic pruning and shaping for best results.  If you go to long without pruning, God provides storms, tornadoes and high winds to provide periodic pruning but these natural forces will not be as selective as you can be with a good saw, loppers and sharp snips.  The first goal of pruning is always to remove any dead or damaged wood, branches or shoots.  Then shape the tree or plant for balance, to avoid congestion on one side and too open on the other side of the tree canopy.  When pruning shrubs or evergreens we often trim them back for size, to keep them in proportion to your home, patio, sidewalks, or other parts of your landscape.  Do not prune spring flowering shrubs like forsythias and quince or trees like redbuds and crabapples until after they bloom or you will cheat yourself out of part of your spring flower festival.  Roses actually do best when their canes are pruned back to around twelve to sixteen inches tall and you thin out the dead, weak or spindly canes or stems.  This relatively hard pruning on roses will produce vibrant new growth when the roses leaf out this spring. 

We are right in the middle of the prime planting season for your cool season spring vegetables.  Plant seed potatoes, onion plants, onion sets, cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, kale, Swiss chard, lettuce, carrot, spinach, peas and turnips by Saint Patrick’s Day in mid March.  These are all easy to grow crops that will expose your family to the joys of gardening and raising your own tasty fresh foods.  You can also plant cool season crops that will produce nutritious and healthy berries and fruits for years to come like strawberries, grapes, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, boysenberries, and many types of dwarf or standard fruit trees.  Plant and raise your own apples, peaches, pears, plums and apricots. 

Some of the early spring flowering bulbs will be blooming soon as the crocus and daffodils announce that spring is at hand.  Shortly behind their beautiful flowers, the crabgrass and the warm season weeds will start germinating to frustrate your lawn and gardening efforts.  If you want to control your crabgrass and weeds before they germinate you need to apply a pre-emergent weed killer soon, before the redbud tree flowers are done.  There are many good pre-emergent weed killers but they must be applied and watered in before the seeds germinate for maximum effect.  There are herbicides you can apply as a liquid spray or as a granule that you spread across the lawn by itself or as part of a weed and feed product.  Make sure not to apply a pre-emergent where you plan to sow any seeds as the herbicide could affect the “good” seeds as well as “bad” seeds.  There are several pre-emergents you can even use in flowerbeds to reduce future weed problems as long as you are not planning to sow any seed in that area for the next eight to twelve weeks. 

Happy Valentine’s Day! Flowers are a great form of communication and many of you have either received or given flowers today to help share your love with your spouse or significant other.  Flowers not only are beautiful but they can convey our emotions, share fragrances and memories.   A beautiful potted plant or fresh cut flower bouquet can recall a first date, a special evening or weekend, a wonderful wedding day, our honeymoon or some other special time together. It is amazing how much flowers can say without being able to say a word and then you can enhance the flowers with a personal card, chocolates, dinner and new memories to truly create your own festival or holiday of love.  Some relationships celebrate with a dozen red roses, others with a spring bouquet or pot of flowering cyclamen, hyacinth or tulips, while others prefer a living rose bush, tree or flowering shrub that will grow for years in your yard as a symbol of your love. 

The bright yellow forsythia is blooming across our state to announce that spring is coming. This is a green light for gardeners to apply crabgrass and summer weed control to your lawns.  Visit with your local nursery or garden center to select the best herbicide or weed killer for your lawn grass variety.  Apply as a herbicide alone or as part of a weed and feed combination product between now and when the redbud trees are done blooming which is usually around mid to late March.  The quicker you apply the pre-emergent the more summer weeds you will control as pre-emergent herbicides kill the weeds as they start to germinate from the seed.  Most pre-emergent’s are not effective once the seed has germinated so they must be applied and watered in to become effective before the crabgrass or weed seeds germinate and then they will offer control for four to eight weeks.  There are many good pre-emergent’s but I think the best ones include Barricade or Prodiamine, Dimension, Balan, Treflan, Sulfentrazone, Team or Gallery.  Once the crabgrass or weeds have germinated we have to switch to post–emergent herbicides for weed control. 

If you want to raise your own food garden we have entered the prime planting time for most of the cool season vegetable crops.  The next four weeks will be the time to plant seed potatoes, onion sets, onion plants, seeds of Swiss chard, carrots, peas, spinach, turnips, kohlrabi, and leaf or head lettuce.  Plant crowns of asparagus, rhubarb and horseradish or young plants of cabbage, lettuce, cauliflower and broccoli.  If you want to add berries to your garden or landscape, plant bareroot strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, boysenberries, gooseberries, youngberries or grapes to grow your own fresh berries for years to come.  When handling bareroot berries, fruit trees or roses please get them planted soon or place the roots temporarily in peat moss or soil so your new plants won’t dehydrate before they have a chance to get established. 

Most are getting seed catalogs or e-mails about new plants and this is a fun time to be thinking about what new plants to try in your yard this year.  I love reviewing all these possibilities and picking out a few new vegetables or flowers to try each year.  It is a good idea to visit with your local nurseryman or greenhouse grower for advice on these new plants and whether they are likely to succeed in our area.  It is a good idea to buy locally grown plant material when possible from local experts that can help you be a gardening success.

It is already time to start thinking about the early spring cool season vegetable crops.  There are many food crops we can start planting about mid February although folks in southern Oklahoma or the early bird planters may plant even before that date. For most of Oklahoma, the OSU Extension Service has long recommended planting most of the cool season food crops between Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day.  The cool season crops that do best when planted with that Valentine’s Day schedule include Irish potatoes, onion plants, onion sets, seeds of carrots, Swiss chard, kohlrabi, leaf or head lettuce, green peas, spinach and turnips.  This is also the prime planting season for plants of cabbage, cauliflower and leaf or head lettuce.  You can transplant bareroot strawberries, grape vines, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, boysenberries, youngberries and gooseberries.  Plant crowns of asparagus, horseradish and rhubarb over the next seven weeks to get established in your garden and produce year after year into the future.  This is also the season when bare root fruit trees and rosebushes are available to add to your landscape.  Remember that bare root trees, berries or plants will need to be planted right away or be temporarily planted into peat moss, soil mix or the ground until you are ready to plant in order to make sure they do not become dehydrated which will dramatically lower your chances of success when transplanting. 

 It is still way too early to plant out any of the warm season vegetable crops even using hot caps or row covers.  If you have a bright window or if you have a greenhouse you can start seeds of many warm season crops like tomatoes, peppers and eggplant to get them germinated and moved to pots ready to set outside when our freeze warnings have passed in early April.

The bright yellow forsythia blooms also signal the very best time to apply pre-emergent crabgrass and summer weed control.  There are many good herbicides or weed killers that work as pre-emergents to kill the weeds as they start to germinate.  Many people think of it as a birth control for weeds.  Most products only work if applied before the broadleaf or grassy weeds start to germinate so that makes timing very important.  Pre-emergents will kill seeds at germination for four to eight weeks after they are applied over the lawn or in flowerbeds.  Herbicides are available in granular form for spreading over the lawn or in liquid form to spray on the lawn.   They are available as just the weed killer or in weed and feed combination products that will feed your lawn while killing the weeds.  These products are sold under many brand names but the best products will include chemicals containing one of the following: Dimension, Balan, Treflan, Team, Gallery, Sulfentrazone, Barricade or Prodiamine.  You can start applying these herbicides or weed killers anytime but the very best window of control is usually when the forsythia are blooming.  Do not apply pre-emergent herbicides where you plan to sow grass seed or flower seeds later this spring. 

This is also a great time to do the soil preparation or improvement on new flower beds you plan to add this year.  This is the season of garden planning so enjoy your plant and seed catalogs and on-line searches as you make your landscaping and garden plans for the spring ahead.

House plants are always popular but we probably appreciate them more at this time of year than any other.  We are inside more when the days are shorter and the cold outside is less inviting.  We miss the green vegetation and fresh air we get in the other three seasons.  We can bring part of that life of outdoor living into our homes with houseplants.

There are hundreds, even thousands of plants that will work well inside the house but whether they work, just sit there in a holding pattern or whether they grow is largely a factor of light.  Some plants need a lot more light and others can tolerate less light.  Houseplants bring many benefits beyond just decorating or making your home or office look good.  They are amazing air purifiers, cleaning carbon dioxide and many pollutants from the air while providing you lots of fresh oxygen.  Study after study has shown they boost well being, improve the spirit and attitudes of people around them and can even address serious problems like sick building syndrome and other challenges of today’s tighter, more sealed homes and offices.  NASA has done extensive research on the importance of plants in exposed spaces and has determined they can remove up to eighty-seven percent of volatile organic compounds in items like carpet, paints and ink.  NASA has done their research on just a few plants. Spathiphyllum (Peace Lily), orchids, airplane plants, philodendron ivies and ferns all were effective in removing indoor toxins while looking pretty and adding interest to your home or office.  Houseplants can add color as they add height and texture to your interior spaces.  You can grow and keep houseplants for months, years or even generations, like a special plant passed down from grandma, a parent or a friend.  Houseplants can supply seasonal color for holidays, birthdays, dinner parties or other special occasions.  In the winter most folks spend eighty to ninety percent of their time indoors and live plants help remind us of the beauty and wonders of nature. 

There are many houseplants to choose from and picking the right plant for the location where it will live and can be easily watered is the most important key to houseplant success.  Will the plant get artificial light or window light?  Is the light coming from a north, east, south or west window?  Is it by a whole wall of windows, or just a simple window?  Visit with your nurseryman to select good plants for your light conditions.  With more light available you will have more plant choices and you can select from variegated foliage or plants that have more color.

There are a few plants that do well in darker areas, they will tend to be mostly green foliage so all the plants cells are doing photosynthesis, they will grow little and will need less watering.  A few good low light houseplants include Aglaonema (Chinese evergreen), Aspidistra (Cast Iron Plant), Spathphyllum (Peace Lily) and many varieties of Dracaena, philodendron, pothos ives and some varieties of ficus (Rubber plant).  As you move houseplants to better light your choices expand to include Hawaiian Schefflera, crotins, all of the dracaena, ficus, dieffenbachia (Dumb Cane), orchids, ferns and even many cactus and succulents. 

Water your houseplants when dry which will vary a lot depending on the light levels, type of plant, type of soil and size of pots.  If you want to encourage new growth you can feed your houseplants every four to six waterings.  Bring some nature inside by exploring the joy of houseplants and the many ways of displaying them in traditional pots, terrariums and mixed planters.