Spring has come and is on it's way out...how did the trials go??

Well, it has been a hard year for spring gardens! As you all know, it has been extremely hot and this has had some affect on our spring crops. This year marked a great trial year, and you may say why? In a research garden, adverse weather is a good thing, so we can test the merits of crops in the worst conditions.

This year we trialed:

Cabbage
- Parel - Sweet flavor, some splitting or busting due to hot weather, Taste Grade - A+, Appearance Grade - B-

- Bronco - Average flavor, firm nice heads unaffected by heat, Taste Grade - B, Appearance Grade - A

Broccoli
-Premium Crop - Good flavor, larger bead, semi-loose heads due to heat - Taste Grade A, Appearance Grade -B+

-Blue Wind - Good flavor, small bead, tight heads, (20% bolting due to heat) - Taste Grade A, Appearance Grade - A

Iceberg Lettuce
-Tiber - Excellent flavor, small size due to heat, 30% tip burn due to heat - Taste Grade A+, Appearance Grade - B

Excalibur - Excellent flavor, large heads, poor fall performance, excellent spring performance - Taste Grade A, Appearance grade - B+

Romaine lettuce
Parris Island - Excellent strong growth, Dark green - Taste Grade - B+, Appearance Grade - A

Cauliflower
Fremont - Excellent growth, large heads, heat tolerant, not self wrapping - Taste Grade - A, Appearance Grade - A

Symphony - Excellent growth, large heads, heat tolerant, self wrapping, not recommended for fall cropping. Excellent in spring. Strong flavor. Taste Grade - B+, Appearance Grade A

Kohlrabi
If you haven't tasted it you need too. It taste like a potato and a cabbage mixed together and is very good cooked! Easy to grow! Ours turned out great! I grew a variety called "Winner". Overall grade A


Even in bad years we can still have an excellent crop of spring vegetables. Your harvest will be reduced and come and go much more quickly but it's worth the effort every time!

End year round up of Vegetable Varieties.

This year's crops were less than stellar.

Broccoli - Arcadia = Average size, bland taste, purple leaves in the cold

Cauliflower - Symphony - Average Size, Sweet Taste, Strong Smell!, not cold tolerant

Cabbage - Bronco - Average Size, Good taste, Slow Growing

Head Lettuce - Excalibur - Good Size, Good Taste, High % of deformed heads

Carrots - Sweetness II - Excellent Size, taste and tolerance!

Zucchini - Meteor - Horrible, few zucchinis, poor taste

Jalapeno Pepper - El Jefe - Excellent growth, taste, fruit size, and diseases/insect resistance

Okra - Cajun Delight - Short plant, slow growth, good pod production

Cantaloupe - Athena - Excellent all around

Cucumber - Sultan - Excellent growth, sweet taste, slightly oily cucumber

Bell Pepper - X3R Red Knight - Excellent growth, taste, diseases resistance

Tomato - Big Beef - Good Growth, Large excellent tasting tomatoes, poor resistance to leaf spot

Tomato - Rose - Large plant, large tomato, good taste, few tomatoes


As you can tell, few of the varieties really stood out this year, but that is what the garden is for! We have to weed out the bad ones so you don't waste your time growing them.

For your spring garden I would recommend:

Cabbage - Parel

Broccoli - Premium Crop

Cauliflower - Fremont

Head Lettuce - Tiber

Carrots - Sweetness II or III

These would need to be planted out side around the first of March.

Fall Garden Update

It's never too early to plan for spring...what do I do now?

Planning for the spring"

In the Landscape

-Cut back ornamental grasses and liriope before new growth begins to emerge.

-Prune summer flowering shrubs like beautyberry, butterfly bush, Clethra, Vitex, and summer blooming spireas in late winter to encourage lots of new growth and heavy flowering.

-Prune everblooming roses in late February. Everblooming roses, such as hybrid teas and Knockout roses, rebloom continuously through the summer. Once bloomers bloom only in the spring and include many species roses and old shrub varieties. Once bloomers should not be pruned until after they finish flowering.

-Crape myrtles usually only require light pruning. Remove crossing branches and inward growth and cut off seed pods. Never hack back into large branches! Known as topping, this practice ruins the natural shape of crape myrtles and promotes insect and disease problems.

-Control winter weeds now by hand pulling or careful spot spraying will ensure your beds look good this spring and also stop weeds from setting seed for future crops.

-Winter is also a great time to spread mulch in the landscape. Aim for a maximum depth of 3” to 4” around trees and shrubs and 2” to 3” around perennials. Do not pile mulch around the trunks of trees and shrubs.

Vegetable Garden

-Plant a cover crop of winter rye on your garden by mid November at the latest

-Plant spring crops in the garden in late February to early march

-Winter is a great time to send off a soil sample. Obtain your supplies from the Cooperative extension office.

Lawn

-Aerate and seed your lawn in mid September.

-Do not fertilize your lawn during the winter when no growth is present. This will simply be a waste and can cause nutrients to be washed into our waterways.

-Plan to apply a pre-emergent herbicide for spring germinating weeds in late winter

As the Thunder Rolls and the Rains Fall.....

In late summer, as the thunder rolls and the rains fall, keeping us inside; we have the chance to recall all we've done and the results we've gotten. Life is that way. We work and work at all sorts of things and if we don't take a day for ourselves, mother nature will force it upon us. A day like this is important in our lives and it's also important in gardening. We've worked all summer trying to grow a bumper crop and we need to take our time now to know what worked and what didn't. There are literally thousands of varieties of crops we can grow and some simply grow and produce better than others. For example; this year I grew a new zucchini called meteor in our demonstration garden. This was a solid yellow zucchini that promised high yields and great flavor. Well, as I reflect; nothing could be farther from the truth. The plant is hard to grow and must be planted when it is hot outside to thrive. Oh wait did I say thrive? Well thriving to this plant is producing a bland yellow zucchini from time to time. Not a winner and not a useful plant. Well, back to the drawing board, but that's the reason we have a demonstration garden. That way the public will know what to grow and won't have to bother with experimenting with poor producers. So during this lull, take the time to review your vegetables and see what worked and what didn't.

While we are reviewing our successes and failures, we must begin to think about fall. I know it seems early but it is time to start thinking about what you will grow and where you will grow it. Don't be afraid to pull out those old worn out tomatoes and replace them with your fall crop. Come November you will be happy to have fresh vegetables.

So, what do we do? Start crops of cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and head lettuce indoors under florescent lights the first or second week of August. This way they will be ready to go in the garden the first couple of weeks of September. Contrary to what some believe, the crops grow great in the warm fall weather. They only need to mature in cool weather. This why fall frost hardy crops are generally better in the fall than the spring.

So take rainy days to reflect and plan for next year and for this fall. A garden that is planned out properly always produces more than one haphazardly thrown together. Remember, gardens are like people; they need love and care to be successful and proper planning is the first step in that love and care. Enjoy your fall gardens and if you have questions, contact me and I'll get you going in the right direction. scott_welborn@ncsu.edu

Do you have Bermuda grass growing in your Fescue lawn?

If you have a Fescue lawn then you probably hate common Bermuda grass. The grass that creeps into everything and can out right kill your Fescue lawn if it's not beaten back. In the past all we could do was dig it out or spray it with a non-selective herbicide and risk killing everything near it. Now we are lucky to have another option. There is a herbicide that will allow you to kill Bermuda grass in a fescue lawn. It is called Ornamec. The active ingredient is known as "Fluazifop". According to the label, to kill Bermuda grass in a Fescue lawn, use .5 ounces of Ornamec, 2 teaspoons of a non ionic surfactant to one gallon of water to treat 1000 square feet of lawn space. The first application should be made in the spring when the Bermuda grass is breaking dormancy and then again in Sept/Oct. when the Bermuda grass is preparing for dormancy. APPLICATIONS DURING THE HOT SEASONS SHOULD BE AVOIDED! Even when applied at the proper times, your fesuce lawn may show some discoloration or stress but should recover within 10-14 days so do not worry if it looks sick. This is also labled for use over the top of many ornamental flowers, trees and shurbs, but refer to the label before applying to determine if it is registered for what you want to spray over. Wow, this can really make your life much better. You have to love modern science. Happy Spraying.