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Jill and Rick Van Duyvendyk answer all your gardening questions in Garden Talk on 650 CKOM and 980 CJME every Sunday morning at 9 a.m. Here are some questions and answers from the Nov. 9 show:
Read more:
- Garden Talk: Can I plant organic garlic from the grocery store?
- Garden Talk: How to protect your precious potted peonies over winter
- Garden Talk: Last-minute garden activities to take care of this fall
These questions and answers have been edited and condensed for clarity.
Q: Is now the time to put a Christmas cactus in the dark for a few days?
A: You can definitely put the Christmas cactus in the dark for a few days now. Changing the temperature, changing the light cycle and even taking them out of the pot and transplanting them are going to force it to get some blossoms going.
If you haven’t done any pruning, taking the tips off will help promote new growth as well, and that’s where it will bloom too.
When you bring it back out into sunlight put it near a window that has like a slight draft but won’t freeze the plant. If the temperature gets to 3 or 4 C or lower close the window. It’s a desert plant and in the desert it gets cool in night
To know when to water it, want to stick your finger down into the soil about two inches and it should feel dry to the touch before watering. If there’s moisture in there, leave it alone. When it is in full bloom, you can water it a little bit more but when it’s still in the budding stage, watch that you’re not over-watering it.
If you have picked up a Christmas cactus from the store or the nursery, it sometimes has a decorative pot cover that doesn’t have any drainage so make sure to dump out any the excess water that has run through because otherwise you’re going to get root rot.
Christmas cactus leaves have a round part and then a jagged edge on the tip. If you break the tip off you can plant them in the soil and create little new plants.
Q: What do I do if a chokecherry has black knot?
A: Look for is any other branches not only have the black on them but also just the swollen part because that’ll be black next year. Trim those off at least six inches below the affected part. When you trim, keep cleaning your pruners with some bleach or rubbing alcohol.
Around the end of April or beginning of May, the black knots open up and shoot their microscopic spores out and they will land on either the same tree or another chokecherry tree in the area, so get it out as soon as you can.
Don’t put the trimmings in the compost. Bl;ack knot is a fungus that only affects the chokecherry family so it’s not going to spread to your elm tree or to your apple tree but it is important to make sure that it goes to landfill. If black knot gets into the main trunk and you see big lesions, it’s time to take the tree down.
You can spray dormant oil on the tree in April to prevent the spores from growing. Spary as soon as it is warm enough above zero that you can use a hose and sprayer attachment. You need to hit all the branches so just using a little pump sprayer is not going to do it. If your outside taps are still turned off in April, run a hose out through a window to spray your tree down.
(Submitted)
Q: My plum tree has never produced, and now the trunk is looking a bit odd. What is going on?
A: It looks like you have either fungal or spider mite issue on the leaves. Don’t be too concerned about the trunk. If you were missing all the bark on like one half of the tree or a ring all the way around then that would be a problem.
When you have any issues with the trunk, it is best to put a trunk wrap around the tree at this time of the year and take it off in May. Do that every year to help keep the sun off and keep the rodents away.
If you really want to try to revive a tree that that’s having issues there’s a product from Dirtngrow called Rage Plus, an organic fertilizer that fixes the root system and helps it take up nutrients. It is like Vitamin C when you have a cold.
Q: Can I plant strawberry runners in the ground now?
A: It’s going to be hard to put them in the ground right now because they’re not going to get rooted in. You could try putting them in the ground and mulching them well, but you can also set them on the ground and mulch them well.
You could also put them into some peat moss or sawdust or put them into pots and put them into cold storage where it’s kept a not more than -5 C and not more than 5 C. If you have a heated garage that stays a consistent temperature, but not 10 or 15 C, that would be perfect. Check they don’t go bone dry.
Q: How can I help my Saskatoonberry seedlings survive the winter?
A: Leave it alone for now. Next year every three weeks from around Mother’s Day to mide July fertilize them. Use between one and two litres of water every time mixed with the fertilizer in an amount recommended on the package.
Q: Can I safely prune my apple trees now?
A: Now is the time. One thing with your fruit trees is to watch those crossing branches and when the leaves aren’t on the tree, you can see them a lot easier. Take care of water sprouts and branches that come out of the tree and turn and go straight up through the middle.
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