Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
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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 May 17 show:
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These questions and answers have been edited and condensed for clarity.
Q: What’s the secret to growing large onions?
A: Spacing them is one of the biggest things.
When you’re starting them in a greenhouse, you might have four or five different onions growing out of a cell. When you plant those into your garden thin them out like a carrot, and then you’ll get larger plants. Make sure that you have each plant at least a hand-width apart.
If you’re going to do grow them from seed, plant them just so they’re just covered and then keep them moist.
Q: How can I make young Saskatoon bushes flourish?
A: It’s going to take about three years or so before you’re going to start getting any kind of substantial fruit production, what you want now is growth.
Use a high nitrogen fertilizer, get lots of vegetative growth happening, and then so use something like a water-soluable 30-10-10 or a 20-20-20 every three weeks from now until about July 15. If the plants are small, between one and two litres of water every three weeks and spread the fertilizer evenly around the plant, don’t dump it on one spot.
It’s not a bad idea to mulch around the plants, too, because if we have a hot, dry summer, it will keep the moisture in. Mulch also promotes micro bacteria to feed the roots because the roots.
Q: What kind of manure should I use for my garden and flower bed?
A: Sheep manure is popular.
Q: Should I cut back or take the blooms off greenhouse tomatoes, cucumbers and cantaloupes waiting to be planted out?
A: With your tomatoes, you don’t necessarily want to take the blooms off. You can take the little runners that are coming off the side. When tomatoes are grown in a greenhouse for a long time, they tend to stretch.
When you plant them out, trench your tomato by laying it on the side in the ground so that that stem hits the surface area of the soil underneath. You can bury that whole stem and just leave a few leaves sticking out at the top. You’re actually going to get roots growing all the way down. that stem, you’re going to have a stronger, healthier plant.
With cantaloupe and zucchinis or cucumbers you can prune off the blossoms, they will get new ones later. You can trim them back as well and that’ll make them bush out more.
When you’re using the fertilizer when you’re trying to hold the plants, especially in a longer like this year, try to go zero phosphorus, the second number. More phosphorus will make them stretch more.
Q: Can I do anything to get ahead of red lily beetles?
A: There’s a product called Bug X Out, and we’re finding that’s working better than End All. It’s a little bit stronger. Spray them from right now about every 14 days. As soon as the beetles start spreading under the ground, you’ve got to hit them. You can also use a lint roller on the underside of the leaves if you really want to get those little eggs off.
Q: Do fertilizer stakes work for large cedars?
A: The stakes work good if you have overhead sprinklers. If you have a drip system, then the water won’t sit, get around the stakes to dissolve them to feed the plant.
Q: Is there any way to stop a crab apple tree producing so much fruit?
A: No. All you can do is pruning to limit the number of branches. Prune them every spring before it leaves out or do it in October.
Q: Can I cut off maple tree suckers?
A: If they’re just little suckers, it won’t matter. If you get any bigger ones and cut them in the spring, they’re going to bleed like crazy.
Q: What’s the best way to care for a bonsai plant?
A: Bonsais are miniature plants grown in a small container to keep the top of the plant dwarf. Keep up the watering. There’s so many roots in a tight space and you have to keep them moist all the time, but you don’t want to have them sitting in water.
Sometimes they come in a decorative container that doesn’t have a hole in it, and you will have to drain the excess water. Treat them like a regular house plant and fertilize when you water. Get a moisture meter to stick in the soil.
Q: When’s the best time to water the garden?
A: Always in the morning. If it gets really hot in the summertime, you might have to do it in the early evening as well, but leave time for the leaves to dry off before the sun goes down or you’ll have lots of fungal problems.
Q: My lawn has greened up a lot. Do I still get it dethatched?
A: You can, but you’ll have to cut it. If you haven’t done it for a lot of years and it looks like it’s a lot of thatch in it, then you can cut it down lower and thatch it right now. It’ll green right back up again.
Q: I have dead spots in the lawn from dog urination. Can I just put new seeds on or do I have to remove and replace the soil?
A: It’s too much nitrogen, that’s why it’s really green at the outside edge and dead in the middle — it actually fed the other grass on the outside edge of the spot.
You want to aerate it a bit, and water it really well to dilute that nutrients out, and then put a little thin layer of soil on there, some grass seed, and it’ll come back in five to seven days. If you want to be quicker, you cut it out and put a piece of turf in. A garden centre can sell a piece of turf.
Q: How can I care for raspberry stalks until I plant them?
A: If the plants are bare root and have been in water for an extended time, put them into a bit of peat moss.
If you want to, you can make a jelly roll. Take a piece of plastic, put a layer of peat moss then the plants so that the stalks are sticking out of the plastic, but the roots are in the plastic. Then stick another layer of peat moss on top of it and roll it up. You can still water them through the top and then once you’re ready to plant, just unroll it. That’ll keep the roots moist but not sitting in water.
Plant them in two rows about 12 inches apart because they cross-pollinate each other. It could be 16 inches if you want. And then put the next row staggered so you get a triangle.
They always seem to thrive even in a back alley but if you are planting them along a fence and there’s something on the other side you don’t want them to get to, put a barrier down first. Dig a trench, put some landscape fabric down about 12 inches deep and let it stick above the ground and then fill that in and then plant your raspberries.
Q: Can I transplant a mature miniature lilac?
A: Yes but do it as soon as possible. They’re just starting to bud right now. When they’re full leaf, you do not want to move them anymore.
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