by Melinda Myers

You’ve probably read you should remove and dispose of insect pest-infected and diseased plant material to reduce these problems in next season’s garden. This is not as easy as it seems. Most compost piles do not heat up and maintain hot enough temperatures to kill weeds, weed seeds, disease organisms, and insect pests. In many locations burning is not allowed and it negatively impacts air quality. So, what’s a gardener to do?

Start by calling your local municipality and asking about disposal options. Many communities allow you to dispose of invasive plants in the garbage after placing them in a clear plastic bag labeled invasive.

Solarization is an option for managing weeds. Place small amounts of plant debris in clear plastic bags. Then place the bags in a warm sunny location before composting. For larger quantities, set the problem plant debris on a sheet of plastic and securely cover it with a 2- to 6-mil clear plastic tarp. The plastic helps create a greenhouse effect, trapping heat while blocking access to water. The seeds will sprout and then seedlings and other plants are killed by the high temperatures and lack of water. It is most effective when the days are long and hot.

This may be effective if the temperatures are hot enough to kill plant insect pests and diseases. Most plant pathogens are killed when moist soil remains at 145°F for 30 minutes, 160°F for bacteria, and 180°F for weed seeds.

If battling jumping worms, the University of Maryland has found creating a solarization package is effective for managing them in soil, compost, and mulch. Spread a sheet of clear plastic on the ground. Place a 6 to 8″ layer of mulch, compost, or soil on the plastic tarp, leaving enough excess to wrap and completely and securely cover the enclosed material. On a sunny day, the material inside can reach 150°F. Research varies on the number of days needed to kill the jumping worms. Several University sources recommend 3 or more days of at least 104°F or 105°F to kill the eggs, cocoons, and adult jumping worms.

You may want to enlist this strategy when harvesting your compost before applying it to the soil. This extra step may help reduce the risk of introducing problems back into the garden.

Burying diseased material can help reduce the source of future infection of some diseases. Dig a hole, fill it with plant debris, mix it with soil, and then cover it with an inch or two of disease-free soil. Speed up the decomposition of buried material by shredding it before burying it. Avoid growing plants susceptible to the disease in that location the following season.

Remember to disinfect your pots, stakes, and tools that may have housed or touched diseased plants. Disease-causing organisms can survive on these items, increasing disease risk in next year’s garden. Soak pots for 30 minutes in a 10% bleach solution, rinse with clear water and air dry. Store in a clean location. This is much more effective with clay and ceramic pots than plastic. Consider rotating plantings as you would in the garden and changing display areas when using plastic containers if you do not want to dispose of them.

Disinfect garden tools by dipping them in a 70% alcohol solution using rubbing alcohol or something similar for at least 30 seconds. Or you can spray your tools with a disinfectant spray containing about 70% alcohol.

Investing time in prevention will result in fewer problems and better results in next year’s garden.

Melinda Myers has written over 20 gardening books, including Midwest Gardener’s Handbook, 2nd Edition and Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” instant video and DVD series and the nationally syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine. Myers’ website is www.MelindaMyers.com.

by Melinda Myers

Low in calories and versatile, cucumbers can flavor beverages, perk up a salad, served as a snack, or made into pickles. This popular vegetable is a good source of fiber, potassium, and vitamin K. Plus, they have a high water content, making them a mild diuretic to help in weight loss and reduce blood pressure. To ensure the best flavor and greatest nutritional value, grow your own or purchase cucumbers fresh from the farmer’s market.

Harvest cucumbers or purchase them based on the variety and intended use. Pick the fruit when it is 1½ to 2½ inches long if you plan on making sweet pickles. If dill pickles are on the menu, allow the cucumbers to grow bigger to about three to four inches.

Wait to harvest those you plan on using fresh in salads, beverages, or for snacking. Harvest slicing cucumbers when the skin is firm, bright green, and the fruit is six to nine inches long. You can leave burpless-type cucumbers on the vine a bit longer. They have been bred to maintain their mild flavor when harvested at 10 to 12 inches in length.

Go big and impress your family with the crisp, mild flavor of the long Japanese cucumber. Pick these when they are 12 to 18″ long. Their flavor remains mild and the skin is easy to digest despite the longer size.

Misshapen and bitter-flavored cucumbers are usually the result of drought, improper fertilization, and large fluctuations in temperature. These are safe to eat but may not have the best flavor.

The bitter flavor in cucumbers is caused by the cucurbitacin B and C in the plant moving from the leaves, stems, and roots into the fruit when the plants are under stress. Remove about an inch of the stem end and peel where these compounds concentrate to improve the flavor. Consider growing varieties that are typically less bitter like Sweet Slice, Sweet Success, and Marketmore 76.

Compost poor quality fruit that are not suitable for eating. Then adjust your care to ensure better quality cucumbers for the remainder of the season.

Consider making a second planting if space and time allow. Many cucumbers reach maturity in 60 days or less. Calculate the days remaining until the first fall frost to determine if you have enough time to plant, grow, and harvest a second cucumber crop.

Grow the All-America Selections winner Green Light, ready to harvest in as few as 37 to 42 days. Train the long vines on a pole or trellis to save space and for easier picking. Harvest the fruit when three to four inches long for great taste without peeling.

Try growing Patio Snacker cucumber if space is limited. This compact plant produces an abundance of six- to seven-inch fruit in about 50 days.

Extend the season indoors with the new Kitchen mini Quick Snack cucumbers. These small plants will grow indoors in a sunny window, with no pollination needed, and produce fruit that tastes best when picked at 2½ inches long.

No matter how you plan to enjoy this multi-purpose vegetable, harvest it at just the right time for the best flavor and intended use.

Melinda Myers has written over 20 gardening books, including Midwest Gardener’s Handbook, 2nd Edition and Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” instant video and DVD series and the nationally syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine. Myers’ website is www.MelindaMyers.com.

photo courtesy of MelindaMyers.com

by Melinda Myers

A bit of summer pruning goes a long way to keeping your raspberries healthy and productive. So, get out the mosquito netting, long sleeves, and pruners and get busy.

The summer harvest is produced on 2-year-old canes called floricanes. Remove those that bore fruit to ground level once your harvest is complete. These canes will not produce more fruit and their presence can increase the risk of insect and disease problems. This is also a good time to remove damaged, insect-infested, or discolored canes.

Summer is also a good time to thin the remaining canes on summer-only bearing raspberries. Remove weak or damaged canes, leaving three or four of the sturdiest canes per foot of row or six or eight stems per hill when growing in the hill system. Thinning increases airflow and light penetration, resulting in healthier plants and a better harvest next season. Wait until next spring to reduce the height of the remaining canes. At that time, you can determine winter dieback, and damage, and prune accordingly.

Everbearing raspberries are often called fall raspberries and form fruit on first-year canes called primocanes. You can manage these types of raspberries for a single fall harvest only. Wait until the plants are dormant then cut the whole planting back to ground level. There will be a larger and earlier harvest when pruning everbearing raspberries this way. Although this pruning technique eliminates the summer crop, it is much easier, less time-consuming, and eliminates animal and winter damage in just one cut.
The other option is to prune everbearing raspberries for a fall and summer harvest. The new growth produces the fall crop. These canes are left to produce berries the following summer. Prune these two-year-old canes after the summer harvest as you would on a summer-only bearing raspberry.

Maximize your summer and fall harvest by planting a summer and a fall-bearing raspberry patch. You’ll enjoy summer raspberries from one planting plus a larger, earlier harvest from the fall-bearing raspberries when pruning all those canes to ground level each year during the dormant season.

Don’t let a lack of space keep you from growing delicious raspberries high in fiber and vitamin C. Plant, train, and use raspberries as a hedge in your landscape. Or grow the new compact and thornless Raspberry Shortcakeâ in a container or any sunny small space in your garden. You may not be freezing a large harvest from a single pot of raspberries, but you will enjoy fresh-from-the-garden raspberries even in your small space.

Melinda Myers has written over 20 gardening books, including Midwest Gardener’s Handbook, 2nd Edition and Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” instant video and DVD series and the nationally syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine. Myers’ website is www. MelindaMyers.com.

Compact varieties of raspberries and other fruit are well suited to being grown in containers and small spaces.
Photo courtesy of MelindaMyers.com

by Melinda Myers

Have fun and enjoy picking fresh fruit right outside your door thanks to compact varieties you can grow in containers. Just clear some space on your patio, deck, balcony, or front steps that receives at least six hours of sunlight and get busy planting.

Consider starting with strawberries. They provide seasonal interest with their white flowers, red berries, and brilliant fall color. Day-neutral and everbearing strawberries produce fruit throughout the summer and grow well in strawberry pots, containers, and hanging baskets. Place the containers where you can enjoy their beauty and easily harvest and enjoy a few berries on your cereal, as an afternoon snack, or atop your favorite dessert.

Include a few of the relatively new compact berry bushes suited to containers and small spaces. Raspberry Shortcakeâ grows two to three feet tall and wide and is thornless which makes harvesting a breeze. They produce a bumper crop on new plant growth each season.

Baby Cakesâ blackberry is another thornless space-saving berry plant. Like Raspberry Shortcakeâ it grows two to three feet tall and wide and is thornless. The white flowers and tasty fruit that form on old growth make Baby Cakesâ a nice addition to any outdoor space.

Grow compact blueberries in pots adding pretty flowers, edible fruit, and great fall color to your patio, deck, or balcony. Blueberries prefer moist, well-drained acidic soil that many of us do not have in our gardens but can provide these ideal conditions when growing in containers. You only need one plant to have fruit but growing two will more than double the harvest.

Use narrow and columnar dwarf apples as a living screen or vertical accent. The Urban Appleâ series, Spireâ apples, North PoleÔ, and Sentinel varieties are all suited to growing in containers and small spaces. The trees grow about eight to ten feet tall and only several feet wide. The trunk is loaded with short branches and lots of fruiting spurs for easy harvesting. You will need two different varieties of most apples, including these, for cross-pollination to occur and fruit to develop.

Grow your compact berry bushes in pots 12 to 16 inches in diameter and at least ten inches deep. As the plants grow and mature, move them into larger, 20 to 24″ containers. Your columnar apples will appreciate a bigger container that is 20 inches wide and deep.

Use pots with drainage holes and fill them with a quality potting mix. Check soil moisture daily and water thoroughly whenever the top few inches of soil are starting to dry. Reduce ongoing maintenance by incorporating an organic moisture-retaining product like Wild Valley Farms wool pellets (wildvalleyfarms.com) into the potting mix. This sustainable product reduces watering by up to 25% and increases air space for healthier growth.

Supplement the nutrients in Wild Valley Farms wool pellets as needed with a low nitrogen, slow-release fertilizer and eliminate weekly fertilization. Add the slow-release fertilizer soon after planting and again mid-season if needed. Do not fertilize in late summer as that can stimulate late-season growth that can be damaged in winter.

Those gardening in cold climates will need to provide extra winter protection. Insulate the roots by grouping plants together and surrounding them with bales of straw, bags of potting mix, or similar materials. Or move plants to an unheated garage for winter and water whenever the soil is thawed and dry.

Another option is to grow these plants in nursery pots and set them in decorative containers for summer. When winter arrives, move the potted plants out of the decorative containers and sink the nursery pots in a vacant part of the garden. Lift the plants out of the ground in spring and set them back in their decorative containers for the growing season.

As you master these fruit plants, and if space allows, expand your small-scale orchard to include citrus, figs, dwarf cherries, plums, and peaches. You’ll enjoy the flowers, shade and of course the tasty fruit.

Melinda Myers has written more than 20 gardening books, including the recently released Midwest Gardener’s Handbook, 2nd Edition and Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” instant video and DVD series and the nationally syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine and was commissioned by Wild Valley Farms for her expertise to write this article. Myers’ website is www.MelindaMyers.com.

The right potting mix will help ornamental and edible plants thrive. (photo courtesy of MelindaMyers.com)

by Melinda Myers

As gardeners, it seems we are all looking for an ideal potting mix for our houseplants and containers. As with any gardening endeavor, a lot depends on what is available, the plants you are growing, and the type of maintenance you provide.

That said, there are some things you can do to increase your success and reduce ongoing maintenance. It all starts by reviewing the label on the bag you plan to purchase. You’ll find a variety of bags labeled as planting mix, potting mix, container mix, and more. Check the label to see what the bag contains and recommendations for its use.

These mixes usually contain inorganic and organic materials and may also include sand and mineral soil. They may or may not be sterilized to kill weed seeds and pests. If it doesn’t say sterilized, it probably is not, and you should consider another product instead.

Many potting mixes are labeled as “soilless.” They consist of peat moss, sphagnum moss, and compost for moisture retention and vermiculite or perlite for drainage but do not contain mineral soils such as sand or clay. They are lightweight and blended to hold moisture while draining well.

Some potting mixes are modified to accommodate the needs of certain plants. Orchid mixes often contain more bark for better aeration while cacti and succulent mixes have more sand or perlite for better drainage. African Violet potting mix contains more organic matter to create a moist, rich growing medium.

Organic potting mixes are also available. Many gardeners prefer to know the ingredients are free of pesticides and other contaminants. Check for the word organic and OMRI on the label if you want an organic product.

Once again, check the label on the bag for more details on the potting mix. Some potting mixes contain a “starter charge” of fertilizer. This minimal amount of fertilizer is usually gone after two or three waterings. Some include additional fertilizer that provides small amounts of nutrients over a longer period. The label may say controlled-release, time-release, or slow-release fertilizer, meaning it provides your plants with nutrients for a certain amount of time.

Moisture retaining products are supposed to hold water near plant roots and reduce the frequency of watering. Research has not shown them to be effective. Some gardeners feel they are effective while others end up with root rot when using these.

Consider adding an organic product, like Wild Valley Farms wool pellets (wildvalleyfarms.com) to potting mixes that do not contain moisture-retaining products. It is sustainable, made from wool waste, University-tested, and has been shown to reduce watering by up to twenty percent, while also increasing air space and adding organic matter.

Select bags of potting mix that are light, fluffy, and moist. Avoid bags that are waterlogged and heavy. The mix can break down and become compacted and some of the slow-release fertilizer may be pre-released and damage young seedlings when saturated with water.

Spend a bit of time searching for the potting mix that best matches the plants you are growing and your watering regime. The time spent selecting your perfect potting mix will pay off with greater growing success.

Melinda Myers has written more than 20 gardening books, including the recently released Midwest Gardener’s Handbook, 2nd Edition and Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” instant video and DVD series and the nationally syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine and was commissioned by Wild Valley Farms for her expertise to write this article. Myers’ website is www.MelindaMyers.com.