The Garden Post January/February 2003

Got the Winter Blahs?
Then Get Sprouting!
by Jessica Manlin

If you’ve had enough of the cold weather and grey colors, spice up your home by starting your own plants for spring. Seed-starting brings lots of satisfaction and enjoyment in the winter months, as you look through colorful seed catalogs and packets, germinate your seeds, and lovingly nurture them into strong, healthy transplants for your garden beds. As you bite into a juicy tomato in June, you’ll feel proud knowing you were responsible for its growth throughout its whole life. Starting seed indoors will bring earlier harvests and can save you money, too. You will enjoy more variety, since you are not limited to the transplants sold in the stores. Your seedlings may be stronger and healthier, because they are getting more attention than in large greenhouses, and will not be exposed to as many diseases. Plus, you can grow your plants organically, if you wish. Worried that seed-starting will be too challenging? From starting 8 pepper plants to growing all your spring vegetables, annuals, and perennials, you may be surprised at how simple seed-starting can be. Here’s what you’ll need to get growing:

Seeds: Check seed catalogs to find the varieties you want. Pick crops that will benefit from getting a head start. Tomatoes, peppers, onions, cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, basil and parsley are good choices.
Annuals, such as zinnias and marigolds will flower sooner if started indoors. All perennials can be started indoors so that they will be stronger by the time autumn arrives. Be sure to follow seed packet directions carefully-these will tell you when to start your seeds and how deep to plant them. In general, start tomatoes and other warm-weather crops by March 1, to be ready to transplant outdoors after May 1. Cabbage and broccoli can be started earlier, since they should be ready for the outdoors in early spring. Lettuce seedlings are ready to transplant outdoors after 3 weeks. Depending on the variety, flowers should be started 8-12 weeks before the last frost, which is May 6.

Containers: Start saving all those plastic yogurt containers, berry boxes, and milk cartons-these make quick, cheap seedling homes. You can also make flats, which are just wooden boxes with a depth of 3-4 inches. Plastic plant trays, market packs, and pots are all fine, too. Egg cartons, peat pots, and clay pots dry out more quickly than plastic containers. Make sure to sterilize used containers with vinegar or bleach solution before using, poke drainage holes, and place on a drainage dish or tray.

Soil: Soil-less potting mix, or seed-starter, is best for tender seedlings, as it contains no living organisms that could harm the young plants. Buy this at a garden center, and use up moistened seed-starter within a week. If you want to use your own soil, pasteurize it in the oven at 275 degrees before using. This is a smelly process! Once your seedlings are ready for transplanting into a larger container, you can use a richer potting soil. One homemade recipe is: 1 part finished compost, 1 part loose garden soil or potting soil, and 1 part sharp sand, perlite, or vermiculite.

Light source: Seedlings need 16 hours of light a day for maximum health and growth, but can tolerate as little as 12 hours. A sunny windowsill or room can work, or you can buy fluorescent tube lights. These provide cool light, so you can keep your seedlings close (3”-4”) to the light source, encouraging bushy rather than leggy growth. Grow light systems are available at garden centers, making your indoor garden portable and stable. Other light sources are best used in addition to bright sunlight or fluorescent lights. Rotate plants to ensure even access to light. Aluminum foil reflectors will help reflect light back onto plant leaves.

Warmth: Seeds sprout best between 75 and 90 degrees. If using a windowsill, cover all drafts. To provide additional warmth, place plants on top of the radiator or refrigerator. You can also buy a soil-heating cable to place under your plants. If you use fluorescent tubes and your home is fairly warm, you won’t need extra heat.

Water: Keep seeds evenly moist during germination, then water well when soil surface has started to dry out. Too much water deprives plants of oxygen and encourages damping off, a fungal disease. If your home is very dry, spray plants often with water, or cover area with plastic to increase humidity.

Fertilizer: When your seedlings develop their second set of leaves, it’s time to give them a little extra nutrition. Try diluted fish emulsion or compost tea (made from steeping compost in water) twice a week. Spraying compost tea on plant leaves also prevents diseases.

If you started your seedlings in small flats or containers, you’ll need to transplant them to larger ones once they get their second set of leaves. Use a richer potting soil for this job. Spring will arrive soon enough, and once it does, get your plants ready for the outdoors through hardening off-placing them in a sheltered, outdoor spot for several hours a day, building up to a full day. This will get them used to the brighter light, wind, and rain that comes with the new season.

Have fun starting your plants this winter!

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THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UNUSUAL

PRODUCT EXPLORATION
by Christine Tilles

Winter is an ideal time for discovering and researching new or unfamiliar products. Browse the shelves of your favorite garden center. Check web-sites and write or call companies for product information.

A few points to keep in mind:

· All chemicals, naturally occurring or synthetic should be used with care.
· Because a chemical is organic you can’t assume it’s not toxic to humans, animals, fish or bees.
· Remember our skin is an active organ. Substances can be absorbed into our bodies through our skin.
· Wear protective clothing, goggles, and gloves (chemical resistant gloves are available).
· Read the label of every product you use carefully!
· Pay special attention to the ‘Precautionary Statements’ that should include comments regarding hazards to humans, animals, fish and bees. Environmental hazards should also be included.
· If you feel a label does not answer all of your questions about a product’s composition, hazards, etc., contact the company and request a copy of the product’s Materials Safety Data Sheet (MSDS). Labels and brochures will have a company’s address, phone number, fax, and in most cases, web-site address.

Here are a few products and a book you may want to explore.

Products:

· Weed Prevention Plus – 100% Corn Gluten - Prevents weeds around flowers and shrubs.

Organic WeedBan - 100% Corn Gluten – Prevents weeds around flowers and shrubs.

· Clay Soil Conditioner – 100% Natural Ceramic Granules Made from Fuller’s Earth

· Soil Moist Granules – Polymer ( Polyacrylamide) 97.7% and .3% inert ingredients
Reduces the need to water plants by 50%. Can be used in houseplants, outside in the garden, containers and flower boxes.

· Tree Tanglefoot Pest Barrier – Tree resins, oils and vegetable waxes. Will deter ants and other crawling insectsfrom invading your fruit trees.

· Sluggo – Iron Phosphate 1.0% (occurs naturally in soil) and inert ingredients 99.0%. Kills snails and slugs. Can be used around domestic animals and wildlife.

· Fish & Poop – A concentrated organic fertilizer from liquid fish and bird guano (9-6-2). For houseplants and outside ornamentals.

· IPM Laboratories, Inc., Locke, N.Y. 13092-0300, Phone: (315) 497-2063 or Fax (315) 497-3129. Biological Controls for aphids, spider mites, whitefly, mealy bug, etc.

· Dead Daisies Make Me Crazy – Loren Nancarrow and Lanet Hogan Taylor: Garden Solutions without Chemical Pollution. Ten Speed Press.

Enjoy your garden!

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FAREWELL JOE

The Urban Gardening Program and Staff would like to wish a fond farewell to Garden Advisor, Joe Janulewicz, who is retiring after 25 years of working with the program. He will be remembered for his work in North Philadelphia, especially at the Chalmers Park Demonstration Garden. Under Joe’s stewardship, it took 1st place year after year in the City Gardens contest.

We wish Joe lots of luck and success in all his new endeavors.

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Whether grown as bushes or standards, trained as fans or cordons against sunny walls, or forming a decorative fruiting screen, bush and cane fruits need annual pruning to fruit well.
A crop of fresh summer fruits is a pleasure in any garden. Soft fruits (sometimes called berry fruits) can also be used in an ornamental setting. The aim of pruning and training is not only to develop and maintain healthy well-shaped plants, but also to establish a cycle of pruning. Each year you should remove old unproductive wood to encourage young strong fruitful growth to take its place. Correct pruning techniques are not beyond the average gardener.

Raspberries, blackberries and many other hybrid berries set fruit on young side shoots that grew the previous year. Annual pruning consists of removing old canes (wooden stems) that have fruited so they can be replaced by new shoots. Prune after planting, then in fall after fruiting and again in late winter or early spring.

Fruit trees, such as apple, peach and pear, should be pruned in the early spring before the buds show color. Many ornamentals can and should be pruned in the early spring. The butterfly bush is one of them. This plant can be cut nearly to the ground and will grow to six feet or more in one season.

Whether you are a community gardener or homeowner, you can call us to get advice on how to prune your plants. We also offer workshops. Check our website for more information or call the garden phone at (215)471-2224.

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NOW YOU CAN WATCH UPG ON TV!
Tune in for great gardening information.
The Gardening Spot with Jeff Myers
10:00 a.m on Channel 10 TV the first Friday of every month.

FLOWERING PLANTS FOR THE HOME

Flowering plants bring a touch of the outdoors in and help to brighten the dull days of winter. Your experiences with flowering potted plants can be positive ones if you know something about the plants before you purchase them.

Poinsettia: This well known holiday plant is originally from Mexico. The true flowers of t he Poinsettia are the tiny yellow buds at the center of the brightly colored bracts. Available in pinks, reds and whites, the plant should last in your home until February. Maintenance is bright light, moist soil and a little fertilizer. Placing the plant in a cooler location at night will help to keep it fresh longer. It can be kept as a green houseplant and forced to bloom again, but the time and effort would be better spent composting the faded plant and buying a new one next year.

Christmas Cactus: Sometimes confused with the Thanksgiving Cactus, Christmas Cactus can be identified by its bloom time and the small rounded edges of its leaves. Thanksgiving Cactus have longer pointed edges. Both are easily propagated and make good houseplants needing bright, but not direct, light and moist soil. Reduce watering and stop fertilizing after blooming until new growth starts in the spring.

Cyclamen: A traditional wintertime flowering pot plant, Cyclamen or Shooting Stars have large pink, red, violet or white petals that hang upside down. This plant prefers a cool temperature, around 60 degrees. If kept in a cool humid environment with bright light, moist soil and light fertilizing, it should keep flowering for a couple of months. Like Poinsettia, Cyclamen can be grown on and allowed to flower again, but the results will be less than the original. Buy a new plant and compost the old one.

Amaryllis: A large bulb with long strap-like leaves, Amaryllis produces large flowers on tall stalks. The impressive flowers come in many colors and can sometimes be eight inches across. The lower 1/3 of the bulb is planted in the center of a pot that allows about an inch of space between the plant and the rim of the container. A forced bulb usually takes 4-6 weeks to bloom. Getting Amaryllis to bloom again is simple. In late summer stop watering and let the leaves die back. After giving the bulb a six-week rest, resume watering to start the cycle.

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