Baby It's Too Late

 

June 2023

Pickaway to Garden

Baby, it’s too late.

By Paul Hang

For Carol King it was too late to rekindle old love. For gardeners, it’s late, but not too late. It is not too late to start a garden. Plants of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant are the best bet for early June transplanting. Plants that can be planted from seed in early June are: green beans (successive plantings every three weeks can extend the harvest), beets, carrots, Swiss chard, corn (depending on the variety), cucumber, lettuce, lima beans, muskmelon, winter and summer squash. Transplants of most flowers can still be planted. Seeds of biennials can be planted.

Some seeds are too late baby. Read the label on the seed packet. If the date to harvest or flowering is further away than the average first frost date for your area (here in Zone 6 it is mid-October) then you will be pushing your luck to get fruit or flower before the frost kills the plant. This is true especially if the plant is tender and susceptible to frost. Again, read the seed packet. Of course you can experiment. What with climate change you might luck out.

If the plant’s seed packet you are thinking of planting says it is 144 days to harvest or flowering and you plant it the first full week of June you have about 134 days to the first average frost date here in Zone 6. The first average frost date means there is a 50/50 chance the first frost will occur in mid-October. That’s like flipping a coin. Not bad odds unless you are betting the money for the kid’s new shoes.

When planting seeds follow the directions for planting depth, spacing, thinning and the amount of sun needed. Once planted, tamp down the soil over the seeds and water well but carefully. You don’t want to wash away the seeds. Keep the soil moist until germination. That time is also on the seed packet.

When planting transplants ease the plants from their containers by squeezing the containers from all sides. Turn the container over and give it a tap making sure your hand is over the top to preventing the plant from falling to the ground. Inspect the roots. If you can see lots of roots “tease” out some of the roots by pinching the bottom of the root “ball.” Plants grown in containers can develop circling roots that, if not interrupted, can continue circling and strangle the plant. You want the roots to spread out and search for nutrients.

Plant with the crown of the plant slightly above ground level. Tamp in the soil around it gently. Pull mulch to the plant. Always water-in the plant to eliminate air pockets. You may see bubbling. Now just wait, water at the base of the plant when we don’t get at least one or one and a half inches of rain in a week. No need to fake it it’s not too late Baby.

Our annual Master Gardener Volunteer Founders Day celebration returns, after Covid, on Wednesday June 28^th, 6:00 PM at the Starkey Pavilion at Mary Virginia Crites Hannan Park. Kathy Smith from OSU, Program Director, Forestry, will talk about our trees and forests. Please bring seating as there is none at the Pavilion.

Things to do in the garden:

To avoid the wilting of cucumber and melon vines cover the new plants with row cover material until the plants flower. Then remove the cover so that the pollinators can do their work. Use row covers on all vegetable plants that do not need to be pollinated: cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, lettuce, onions and root crops are examples. We eat them before they flower and go to seed, thus no need for them to be pollinated. I have begun to do this on more vegetables and it keeps most pests away. Mulch vegetables in mid-month after the soil has warmed up. You can fertilize all vegetables, corn two times, this month.

Weed and thin plants. Crowding plants more than is recommended results in all the plants doing poorly. Water deeply (not a little each day) one inch per week all summer.  Apply the water to the base of the plants rather than on the foliage. If you use a sprinkler, water early in the day so the foliage can dry before nightfall. Wet foliage overnight encourages fungal diseases to develop.

Remove seed heads from perennials. Don’t allow fancy hybrids to ripen and self-sow as their offspring will not come true. Deadhead flowers for more blooms. Iris can be divided and replanted after blooming. Pinch back mums once they are 4 to 6 inches tall. Continue to pinch back until mid-July. If your daffodils or other bulb plants didn’t bloom well it could be because they are now growing in the shade of larger grown trees or shrubs. Or, perhaps they are too crowded? Once the foliage turns yellow you can dig up the bulbs and divide and/or move them.

Fruit trees often shed small fruits in early summer called June Drop. Thin after this occurs. Thin apples to one fruit per cluster and one fruit every four to eight inches. Other tree fruit can be thinned a little less. This will cause bigger fruit. Don’t thin cherries. Pick up all fallen fruit. Only compost fallen fruit if you have a “hot” heap. Otherwise dispose of diseased fruit in the trash.

If you notice a “volunteer” tomato plant in your garden, yank it out or transplant it. Good gardeners, like good farmers, rotate their crops. A volunteer growing in last year’s tomato area allows disease to accumulate in that spot. Mulch under tomatoes keeps the soil from splashing up on the fruits. Soil on the fruits promotes disease. If you don’t stake, trellis or cage your tomatoes and let them sprawl on the ground, mulch will keep the fruit off the bare ground. Mulch keeps the ground from drying out, suppresses weeds and moderates the soil temperature. Several layers of newspaper topped with organic mulch, leaves, untreated grass clippings, coarse compost, shredded bark etc. should do the trick. Never let your tomatoes wilt. Uneven watering causes blossom end rot.

Water your roses well but hold off on the geraniums. They will bloom best when kept somewhat dry. Roses sprouting from below the graft should be replaced. Peonies should be fertilized after they finish blooming. Newly planted trees and bushes should be watered well each week for the first two years if the weather turns dry. Give them a good soaking. Don’t give them a booster feeding of fertilizer this year. Force those young roots to search for food by stretching out into the soil. Mow the lawn high, 3-4 inches, it crowds out weeds and needs less water, and mowing.

The Master Gardener Volunteers Helpline is open for your gardening questions. Call 740-474-7534 with your question or go to www.Pickaway.osu.edu, click on "Ask an expert."