318 Q&A Rosemary Propagation, Best Peach for Baking, Cover Crops, Blueberry Containers

Show Transcript

318 Q&A Rosemary TRANSCRIPT

Farmer Fred

Welcome back to the Tuesday edition of the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. Unlike the Friday edition, we're dedicating the Tuesday podcast to answering your gardening questions. Stay tuned to find out how you can get your garden question in to the program. So come on, let's do this.

Q&A PROPAGATING ROSEMARY PLANTS

Farmer Fred

We get a rosemary propagation question from Debbie, who doesn't say where she's living. Folks, If you're going to email me to ask a question, please tell me where you're living, because all gardening is local. Anyway. Debbie says, “I am attempting to propagate Rosemary. I clipped the sprig, stripped the lower leaves and put the stems in potting soil, covered it with a white plastic garbage bag. I sprayed it with water every other day, but during the first week I sprayed it daily. I'm about four weeks in and now a few sprigs have mold. I've removed the moldy ones. I have the sprigs in a warm bedroom near a window that gets morning sun, but the opaque window covering is closed. I'm thinking I have two problems.” Debbie goes on to say, “1. Too much water; and 2. The sprigs were not new growth. What are your thoughts on this? When would I see root growth normally?”  Well, Debbie, that’s a lot of good questions. Let's try to find a rosemary propagator right here at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center. We are in the herb section, oh, there’s one now. It's Maria Scheffler, Sacramento County Master Gardener. Maria, rosemary propagation. You do it?

Maria Schiffler

Yes. Hi, Fred.  Yes, I do. A lot of rosemary propagation, actually. It's one of the easiest herbs to propagate. It's a woody perennial. But since I don't know what area you're in, I'm just going to kind of generalize this. In our Sacramento area, and I live in Elk Grove,I have the best success propagating rosemary in the fall, in the early fall, because it takes a long time for it to set roots, just like lavender. So what you're going to want to do is maybe hold off right now, unless you're feeling more comfortable about this, hold off until the fall. It likes that cold weather. Our soil temperatures are still warm. You can actually propagate it directly in the soil at that point next to the mother plant. And what you're going to want to do is take some cuttings, maybe some semi softwood cuttings at that point. And since I don't know your area, you want to do this before it flowers or even after, take those same amount of cuttings that you're taking now, the ones that are 2 to 3 inches long, sort of strip those leaves. You don't even need to use rooting hormones. And you just stick them in the dirt. And what I like to do is take about five or six of them and put them fairly close together so that you can see there's Rosemary there. If you're not comfortable with doing that directly in your soil, get a one gallon pot and put about four or five a in a circle into there and you don't need to cover it. They don't need humidity to just set roots. It actually causes them to rot. Try it that way during the fall. And do it even when we have such mild winters going into winter. You can even do that. But rosemary needs that long period of trying to set its roots and you'll know when it sets, though. It's when you see new growth. Or you can do the little “tug test” where you tug at the tip of it. And if there's any kind of resistance, but not a slight resistance, but a good resistance, it has set roots.

Farmer Fred

And that could take months.

Maria Schiffler

Yes. And that's why fall is best. So it's ready to plant in the ground in spring.

Farmer Fred

All right. I have questions for you now, based on that answer. You talked about possibly growing it in containers, getting it started in containers, much like what Debbie has done. What sort of soil would you put in that container to propagate a rosemary plant?

Maria Schiffler

For the rosemary plant, you can just use a potting mix that's kind of like a little bit chunky and barky, maybe a little bit of your native soil within it, but  nothing light, nothing too fluffy. It really needs to set its roots in something a bit more dense and thick, and you won't even need to water it as much because we'll get all that fall rain, the winter rain. Of course, make sure it doesn't dry out.

Farmer Fred

But of course, if you've got that container indoors, it's only going to get rainwater if you've got a bad roof. And I would suggest you spend your money on a roofer to fix that. But if the pot is indoors, what sort of environment would it like? Indoors.

Maria Schiffler

Cool.

Farmer Fred

Cool? As in, groovy?

Maria Schiffler

Cool. Yes, groovy. Cool. As in not too warm and not hot and not in front of the direct light of the window.

Farmer Fred

All right. So just not in darkness, though.

Maria Schiffler

No, not in darkness.

Farmer Fred

Okay. Now. watering. I guess be careful so you don't overwater.

Maria Schiffler

Yeah. And what you could do if it's in a pot, stick it in some kind of a container where you can put about an inch or two of water and let that soak up from the bottom for about 5 to 10 minutes.

Farmer Fred

What about bottom heat? Would you use a propagation mat?

Maria Schiffler

No, no, I would not.

Farmer Fred

What about a rooting hormone? Would you use something like seaweed or something like that?

Maria Schiffler

You could. It's not absolutely necessary.

Farmer Fred

All right. When you make the cutting on a rosemary to plant, where is the bottom cut? Is it below a leaf node? Above a leaf node? And how long should that cutting be?

Maria Schiffler

I'll just go and clip in the garden and maybe take several four or five inch cuttings. So then  I put them directly in water at that point, so it doesn't lose any moisture. And then I’ll use about a 2 to 3 inch cutting of that when I’m ready to actually make the cut and put it in the soil, but first strip the bottom leaves. The cutting at the top should be  above the node (The cut should be below the node for the end you stick in the soil). And when you plant it, it's best to have at least two nodes in the soil.

Farmer Fred

Oh, okay. That's good to know. When you make the cutting, then, are you using one that has flower buds on it or not? Or one that had already flowered? And  can you use tip cuttings or should you go for that middle wood, that semi hardwood?

Maria Schiffler

I would I would go for the semi-hardwood because you have a little bit soft, but you don't have like completely hard. And the other part of your question about the flowering - it does depend on the time that your rosemary flowers in your garden, during either the fall or winter is the best time to propagate. But you don't want it to have any flowers. If it does, just cut those off, then you could still try to propagate it that way. It might take even longer because it didn't complete its flowering cycle.

Farmer Fred

When you're putting in that sprig to root. Are you trimming the leaves off the part that's going to be underground? Or are you leaving those leaves on?

Maria Schiffler

The part that's going to be in the soil or in the ground? You're going to want to strip those leaves off. And what I tend to do is leave about maybe an inch, inch and a half of the softwood leaves, the leaves on the top of it, because all the energy you want to be focused on growing the roots and not sustaining the leaves or any flowers or anything like that.

Farmer Fred

And I would think that the time of day is important, too. When you're taking these cuttings, what is the best time of day to do that?

Maria Schiffler

The best time of day is in the morning. If there's dew  on the plants, wait until after the dew has evaporated away; or do it early in the evening.

Farmer Fred

When it's cooler. So basically you're avoiding the hot afternoon sun.

Maria Schiffler

Yes.

Farmer Fred

Any final thoughts?

Maria Schiffler

Final thoughts would be don't give up.  Rosemary is a wonderful plant and it is easy to grow when it wants to grow. So just find the best timing to do that.

Farmer Fred

And do a lot of it too. So that way you'll have some success, right?

Maria Schiffler

And it does not need humidity.

Farmer Fred

Okay, So she doesn't need the white plastic bags?

Maria Schiffler

No, she does not.

Farmer Fred

We're making it easy for you, Debbie. Maria Schiffler, a Sacramento County Master Gardener, thanks for the rosemary advice.

Maria Schiffler

Oh, you're very welcome. Thank you, Fred.

Q&A BEST PEACH VARIETY FOR EATING, BAKING

Farmer Fred

From the garden email bag, Diane writes in and asks, “I want to plant one free stone peach tree to use for eating and pie making. Can you recommend a top flavorful one for me to purchase?”

Well, we need to define a few peach terms here. Peaches are either clingstone, where the fruit clings to the pit in the center; or, it’s a free stone. The fruit comes away easily from the pit, generally clingstone peaches are used for canning, while free stones are fresh market peaches for eating and baking. Most varieties mentioned here are self fruitful. Which means you won't need a second variety nearby for pollinization.

For decades, Dave Wilson Nursery of California conducted thorough taste tests with industry professionals to determine the answer to your question. Diane. Each trial usually involved more than 20 peach varieties, and as you might expect, the most flavorful variety depends on the individual taste buds. And we're going to be talking about chill hours in this little discussion. A chill hour is any hour between November and February that is between 32 and 45 degrees. Stone fruit trees require a certain number of chill hours during the winter for maximum production the following spring and summer.

So here are those top scoring peach varieties.

Over the years, Harken, which is a very high rated yellow peach, hails from Canada with red skin and yellow flesh described as sweet and flavorful. This tree requires about 800 chill hours during the winter for maximum production.

The O’Henry. It's a popular fresh market yellow freestone peach noted for its large size firm, full red skin and superb flavor. The O’Henry is a strong, vigorous, heavy bearing tree, and that needs about 750 chill hours per year.

The Loring. It's a taste test winner featuring a large size excellent flavor and texture. It's also a low acid variety. It's rated as excellent for growing in the home orchard. It, too, needs chill hours totaling about 750.

The 49er. It is considered a dessert peach. It's a large yellow freestone. It needs 700 chill hours.

Eva’s Pride. Now there's one for USDA zone nine. It's a freestone peach. It's a low chill peach variety. It only needs about 100 to 200 chill hours. The flavor is rated as fine or delicious. Harvest time is a bit earlier, June or July, than many other peach varieties. There's June Pride. One tasting judge wrote perhaps it is the best flavored peach for it's harvest season, around July 1st. It too, has lesser chill hour requirements than many of the other varieties, at only 500 chill hours.

One very popular peach variety that got a lot of votes was Kaweah. It's an all purpose favorite among late summer freestone peaches with a good balance of sugar to acid, good for eating, baking, canning, jams and jellies. And it too doesn't need that many chill hours, 500 chill hours. And when you talk to the professionals a day Wilson nursery, they're all Kaweah fans.

They have their own personal favorites as well. Phil Pursel likes Octoberfest, which ripens in early fall and requires 500 to 700 chill hours.

Ed Laivo, Independent fruit expert, really likes that O’Henry we talked about, but he also likes the Indian Free white freestone peach, which needs about 700 chill hours. He says the white red flesh make for great pie filling and jam. Plus it's great for drying. And the Indian Free has the highest test scores as well. But it is the one that does need another peach or nectarine tree nearby of a different variety, for pollination purposes.

Dave Wilson's Tom Spellman concurs with the choice of Kaweah. And, he actually is very Solomon-like in his discussion of what tree to get if you can't make up your mind. He says, instead of choosing a single flavorful peach, maybe purchase a multi budded selection. That would make more sense. That's good advice.

Q&A COVER CROP CRIMPING?

Farmer Fred

We get questions here on the Garden Basics podcast. Tonja writes in and says, “I have three raised beds. I planted a cover crop in one of them last fall. I was going to crimp the cover crop to slow the release of nitrogen, and I'm wondering if I can just do this by hand in my raised bed?  Just sort of crimp them and then work them in. Is this idea crazy?”

Well, actually, it's late winter. If you've got a cover crop, it is the perfect time to do something to make sure the nitrogen stays in the soil and doesn't escape. In fact, here at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center on this Saturday in March, I'm witnessing Master Gardener Gail Pothour cutting it down. And the flowers of the plant, Gail, have just barely started opening, right?

Gail Pothour

We like to cut down the cover crop as it's flowering. If you let it continue to grow and those flowers get pollinated and the beans start to develop, then that is taking some of that nitrogen into the development of that bean. So we want to cut down the cover crop just as it's flowering, so we get it at its most nitrogen-rich state.

Farmer Fred

And what you're doing here is you're cutting off about six inches at a time, and literally just tossing it beneath the plant. Now, once you get all these plants down, cut up into itty bitty pieces, what will you do then?

Gail Pothour

Well, it depends. This bed is pretty crowded with fava beans, and it will probably be too much green material for this one bed. So we will cut it up in small pieces and place it in two other beds that didn't have any cover crops. And we'll turn it under and it becomes organic matter. If we have too much still, we can just give it over to the compost folks and they can put it in their compost pile.

Farmer Fred

Or they can use it in their worm bins.

Gail Pothour

Yeah, they need to have organic matter for both the compost and the vermicomposting. But we can also just leave it on the soil and let it act as a mulch. But what we typically do is we'll cut it into small pieces and turn it under and let it start decomposing. In about 4 to 6 weeks later, then we could plant.

Farmer Fred

I recall one master gardener saying that after you cut down a cover crop, you want to cover it with mulch or something like that, just to help stop the nitrogen from escaping into the air.

Gail Pothour

Right. Because the nitrogen can volatize into the air. So either turn it under right away or yes, go ahead and cover it that way. You keep the nitrogen there. And then plus we are growing the fava beans as a cover crop, which are a legume, and hopefully they have nitrogen fixing nodules on their roots. And so you can leave those roots in the soil as well, and they can be used by the next crop that you grow.

Farmer Fred

Yeah, easy peasy. And peas are a legume too. But yeah, that's the unfortunate part of cover crops. They can produce flowers and in the case of fava beans, some edible beans, but if you wait that long, it doesn't do your soil any good. If your goal with a cover crop is to feed the soil, you got to feed it before it fully flowers. And then you want to chop it into pieces. Now, as far as crimping goes, if you just took an entire stem and just bent it over, yeah, I guess you could. But I think it would take longer to break down because like you're doing chopping it into little six inch pieces, it's going to break down and feed the soil a lot quicker.

Gail Pothour

Right. And fava beans have a pretty hefty stock. It's kind of a square stock. It's hollow, but there's a lot of bulk there. And so it takes a while for it to decompose. And so that's why we're cutting it in small pieces. Yeah. And the crimping? I'm not familiar with the term crimping of a cover crop, so if it means just bending it over, you still would need at some point to come back and cut it down, I would think. I don't know.

Farmer Fred

Cutting it down into little pieces is a good idea. Put those pruners to work and you can be feeding your soil at very low cost. Gail Pothour master gardener, Sacramento County here at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center. Cover cropping. Thank you, Gail.

Farmer Fred

Here's a bit more information about crimping a cover crop. It's called roller/crimping in the Midwest and back east on big farms. Roller/crimping cover crops has been utilized as a way to terminate cover crops and they've been doing it for many years. Roller crimping offers a viable option to managing cover crops in a no till cropping system.

The cover crop is rolled and crimped when the plants have reached maturity. The mature plant is flattened to the soil surface. And the stems are crimped. The crimping action helps crush the walls of the stem to facilitate drying down of the plant.

Now, this is a big machine. There are several different types of roller/crimpers available. They are units that mount on the front of the tractor, the rear of the tractor, or even on the planting unit itself.

The benefits of incorporating roller crimping onto a farm? Well, first, the use of a roller crimper program helps to leave biomass on the soil surface, and that drastically reduces the risk of soil erosion, and helps preserve soil moisture during the summer. The biomass on the soil surface will also keep the soil cooler during the summer. It reduces evaporation and heat stress on the crop you’re planting. Rolling down high biomass cover crops also provides an excellent way to work towards improving soil health. The use of the roller crimper will also suppress weeds early in the growing season.

But there are several considerations when implementing roller crimping technology on the farm. And remember, we're talking farms here, not gardens, where you may be thinking of crimping by hand. First, is increased pest problems. In Vermont, slugs and armyworm infestations are more prevalent on fields with more biomass. Field scouting is also a must with roller crimping. Second, there is a greater risk of lower final stand populations due to planting row crops into a heavy mat of biomass. Proper planting depth must also be maintained. The operator has to be sure the seed is placed at the correct depth to account for that biomass on top of the soil surface. So if you have a farm, not a garden, then investing in roller crimping equipment might make sense in a no-till situation. But for the backyard gardener, you just might be better off mowing or weed trimming or  chopping by hand your cover crop into small pieces, and incorporating that into the soil, or covering with a mulch. This information comes courtesy of the University of Vermont Extension Service.

TRANSPLANTING CONTAINER BLUEBERRIES

Farmer Fred

John writes in and asks, “I currently have a couple dozen blueberry plants in one gallon containers that I started a couple of years ago from cuttings. I eventually want to move them up to 15 gallon containers. What size container should I use to migrate up to that 15 gallon size?”

Well, the fewer times you have to migrate your blueberry cuttings, the better, John. For one thing, take a look at the roots in those one gallon containers. They may be wrapping around the root ball or coming out the bottom. If that is the case, put them  in the 15 gallon containers right away. As long as the fifteens have good drainage and your acid soil mix is easy draining, there's nothing wrong with moving them into fifteens now. But let's say the roots in those one gallon containers aren't tangled too much. You could move them up to five gallon containers if you're planning on giving a few away to friends; or, ten gallon containers if you're going to keep them for yourself.

But I would only have one per container. If you don’t want to have multiples in one container. You do want to give them each their own container.

Another option you may want to consider is planting them in cattle troughs, watering troughs, livestock watering troughs. Nowadays, you can find them in many places besides the farm supply stores. They're usually about six feet long and about two and a half feet wide and about 36 inches tall. That's a good size for holding two blueberry plants. So you could take those cuttings and just plunk them right into a good acid soil mix in those watering troughs, and save yourself the trouble of doing all that transplanting.

So what is a good soil mix for blueberries? Well, it should be on the low side of the pH scale, around 5.5. So that’s something that's a rather acidic mix. Use a one third mix of potting soil intended for camellias and azaleas, one third peat moss or coir, that's coconut fibers, and one-third small pathway bark. And maybe a handful of soil sulfur. This will give those blueberries that ideal growing range around 5.5.

WANT TO LEAVE US A GARDEN QUESTION?

Farmer Fred

Want to leave us a garden question? You'll find a link at gardenbasics.net. Also, when you click on any episode at gardenbasics.net, you're going to find a link to speakpipe. You'll find it in the show notes. And when you bring up Speakpipe on your computer or smartphone, you can leave us an audio question without making a phone call. Or you can go to our page on Speakpipe directly. That would be Speakpipe.com/gardenbasics. You want to call or text us? We have that number posted at gardenbasics.net. It's 916-292 8964. 916-292-8964. Email? Sure! We like email. Send it along with your pictures to Fred at Farmer Fred dot com. Or again, go to gardenbasics.net and get that link. And if you send us a question, be sure to tell us where your gardening, because all gardening is local. Find it all, at gardenbasics.net.

Farmer Fred

Garden Basics with Rarmer Fred comes out every Tuesday and Friday. And it's brought to you by Smart Pots and Dave Wilson Nursery. Garden Basics. It's available wherever podcasts are handed out. For more information about the podcast, visit our website, GardenBasics.net. And that's where you can find out about the free Garden Basics newsletter, “Beyond the Basics”. And thank you so much for listening.