Garden Talk: Will the recent cold snap stop my corn from maturing?

Jill and Rick Van Duyvendyk answer all your gardening questions in Garden Talk on 650 CKOM and 980 CJME every Sunday morning at 9 a.m. Here are some questions and answers from the Sept. 7 show:

Read more:

• Garden Talk: Why are there so many male flowers on my cucumbers?
• Garden Talk: Can I grow potatoes from seeds harvested out of the pods?
• Garden Talk: What can I do about mushrooms in my lawn?

These questions and answers have been edited and condensed for clarity.

Q: Will the recent cold snap stop my corn from maturing?

A: It might. Corn’s a little bit tougher than most vegetables because the husks insulate it and the plants can take a little bit of frost.

Things like tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers you need to watch, especially in low-lying areas. If you need to finish off melons you will need frost blankets or crop covers over the top.

We had a weird summer, with not as much light because of the wildfire smoke and so a lot of plants are behind. Ground crops like carrots, potatoes and onions will be fine.

Q: Is my corn still edible if it has small black ants in the cobs?

A: The ants are there probably because you have aphids. They’re milking the aphids. The sap leaks out and clings on to the back of an aphid and the ants milk them l and take the sap back to the nest.

If you need to get rid of the ants, if you know where the ant hills are you can use Ant Buster Nematodes to get rid of them. You can spray aphids with End All but you don’t want to spray anything during the flowering.

Q: The leaves of my corn are dry and white, will the cobs still ripen?

A: It depends how bad they got hit by frost. They’re not going to do any more
growing. Corn needs the leaves to be able to produce sugars to be able to put it into the plant.

The corn will ripen a bit because there’s, there’s energy in the stalk but the cobs aren’t going to grow any more. They’re just going to finish. If the tassels are turning brown they are ripening. If it is still really green they might finish up yet with just getting energy from the stalk.

Q: When should I prune almond trees?

A: You want to cut out any dead wood and the best way to dead wood is when there are still leaves on the tree. Once the leaves have fallen off, it’s pretty hard to distinguish which branch is dead and which branch is live. Now’s the time to get those dead branches out.

Q: Can I overwinter my perennials planted in whisky barrels?

A: Not very well. It would be best to transplant them into the ground and then move them back in the barrels in spring.

Transplant them into the ground any time after you get a good frost but before the soil freezes solid. Throw some leaves or mulch or something like that over top. You can even put them into a pot and then put the pot into the ground and cover them with leaves or mulch.

The issue with keeping them in a whisky barrel is iy will basically freeze right through, whereas the ground acts as a heat sink, and some snow cover will help provide protection for the roots and that’s what lets it survive.

Q: How do I get calla lilies to bloom?

A: If you want them to bloom, start them in the house in a pot at the beginning of April. Put them near a window so they got lots of light. Then you get a head start because our season’s so short. You can plant them together in a pot as long as the bulbs are not touching each other.

When you plant them in the ground again, put some bone meal or some organic vegetable fertilizer or around them. The bulbs need those nutrients to produce flowers.

Q: When can I prune my Saskatoon berry bushes?

A: Once the leaves fall off, about the end of October. Otherwise do it at the end of March or the first week of April.

Q: How can I fix a crack in a box elder with three trunks?

A: You can drill a hole through the tree and put some ready rods through it to hold it together. Do that up higher than right at the crack, because you need to use leverage.

The holes will eventually heal over top of your bolts. Use big fender washers to hold it so they don’t pull through because there’s a lot of leverage there when the wind blows.

A strap will damage the bark and hurt the tree, so that the rods are better. You want to  make sure that crack stays closed because you don’t want water coming down the trunk and into the crack and rotting the base.

You can also use a spray that stops leaks and seals the holes so the water won’t go inside. You can also drill another little hole at the bottom after you seal it up to leave an escape route in case moisture does get in.

Q: Why have my greenhouse tomatoes and peppers just flowered like in the last two or three three weeks?

A: It was the way the sunlight was this year, everything was late because of the light conditions from the wildfire smoke and cloud cover we’ve had.

One thing about a greenhouse is you still have time. If the temperature drops to -2 C or -3 C  for a few hours the plants will still be OK.

You can put some five gallon barrels filled with water in the greenhouse that will work as a heat battery and give off heat at night. Even a big rock would work the same.

Q: When is the best time to deep-water moon glow junipers and other little trees before the winter?

A: Slow down the watering now and then about the middle of October give them one last good soak. That’ll give them enough time to be able to suck up that moisture a bit into the needles and be all set for wintertime.

Q: When should I cut back a perennial garden with hostas?

A: With things like hostasv there’s two ways you look at it. I don’t cut them back until until the spring, I let my hostas hang down and act as a mulch. It’s just their natural way of protecting themselves. I like cleaning up in the spring becsuse they are a bit more mushy.

Some people love cleaning up their yard in the fall because it’s not mushy, so wait until you get a couple of frosts on them first. Right now perennials are putting energy from the leaves down into the roots. If you trim them in fall, use flags to mark where the perennials are so you know when you do weeding or spraying in spring.

Q: How long does cornmeal or corn gluten stop seeds from germinating?

A: Two years. If you have an empty plot of soil you can also cover it with some landscape fabric and staple it down. Corn gluten is not going to stop the perennial seeds that are there already. It doesn’t stop things like dandelions. If there are roots in the ground, they’ll keep growing.

Q: When do I scatter Oriental poppy seeds on the soil for germination in the spring?

A: The seeds need the winter time to stratify so they’re not going to germinate now. Wait until any time in October.

Q: When and how do I prepare hydrangeas for winter?

A: In the fall, once the heads have turned brown trim just the heads off so the snow load doesn’t cknock your plants to the ground.

Most varieties, you can prune in the spring as soon as the snow disappears. Cut them back by a third and then you’ll get lots of blooms. Use aluminum sulfate around the hydrangea and usually they start blooming in July.

Q: Should my lawn be cut shorter before winter?

A: Not yet, it’s going to feel like summeragain this week. Any time in September, you can do your fall fertilizing. There’s two different varieties of Groundskeeper fertilizer, which is made in Saskatchewan. I like using the 16-10 in the green bag.The orange bag is 23-0-3-17. Either one of them would be fine.

If you fertilize a lawn three times — once in the spring, once in the middle and then once in September — you’re gonna have a nice thick lawn. You’ll keep the weeds out, you’ll keep the insects like ants and all those other sod web worms out, they don’t like healthy lawns.

The fall fertilizer sets the plants up for next spring. Slow down the watering because you also want any trees to slow down. Water about an inch of water a week.

It’s a little early to cut it too short, all I do is I just go one notch lower on my lawn mower. Don’t scalp it, because then you’re leaving your lawn to dry out in the middle of wintertime, especially if we get a brown Christmas. You will also get get a lot of snow mold.

Q: How deep should I plant garlic?

A: The top of the close should be three to four inches under the soil. If you’re going to mulch, then you can go a little bit higher.

Q: When’s a good time to divide up a rhubarb to start a new patch?

A: Anytime the leaves get a good frost on them and go dormant. It’s a little bit early yet but another couple weeks and you can do that for sure. Otherwise do it first thing in the spring as the frost is off the ground, about the third week in April.

Read more:

• Garden Talk: Why are there so many male flowers on my cucumbers?
• Garden Talk: Can I grow potatoes from seeds harvested out of the pods?
• Garden Talk: What can I do about mushrooms in my lawn?