Perfecting your soil this fall

By nancyc on October 4, 2012

Whether you’re an avid vegetable gardener, a flower enthusiast, or just want a nice looking landscape, the secret to your success begins with your soil. Rather than simple and static, the soil is a dynamic environment. In an ideal situation, it is full of tiny plants and animals, microbial activity, and all of the organic processes that lead to healthy plant life.

Here are a few ways to tell if your soil is functioning properly, and if Monty’s Liquid Carbon Organic Soil Conditioner can help.

Look – The first step to assessing soil health is to simply look for clues.  By observing what is going on at the surface you will have a good indication of what is taking place throughout your soil profile.

Key things to look for include:

  • Large clods after tilling
  • Cracks in the soil as it dries
  • Bare patches or areas where vegetation won’t grow
  • Heavy weed population
  • Standing water after a rain
  • Persistent “wet spots” or mud
  • No, or few, earthworms, pill bugs, and other signs of healthy insects
  • Heavy thatch layer or plant debris that does not decompose after a season
  • Pale soil ranging from almost white to light brown.  Healthy soil should be a rich brown to black.

Touch – Dig in to your soil. This is the fun part of gardening and maintaining your landscape.  By actually getting your hands into the soil you can tell a lot about the make-up, tilth and texture of your soil.  Good quality soil should be loose and light. In the morning when moisture will be at its peak level, dig in a few inches and grab a small handful of soil. Clench your fist around the dirt and then open your hand.  What happens?

  • If it falls apart into small pieces the soil is lacking enough organic matter and is tending towards a sand content that is too high.
  • If it stays together in one large clod it is likely holding too much water and is primarily clay, which can lead to compaction problems and anaerobic conditions which will favor the formation of harmful bacteria.
  • If it forms one central clod that breaks apart easily with slight touch or movement, is encircled by loose, separate bits of soil, you are on your way to creating an ideal environment for most plants.

Finally, if you have problems even digging into your soil at least 5-6 inches, you know that you have compaction problems that need to be addressed.

Smell – This is one that you may not have thought about, however, with a little practice your nose can tell you much about the condition of your soil. Healthy soils should smell earthy and moist, almost like well-maintained compost. If, on the other hand, what you smell is flat or non-existent, if it smells like a stagnant pond, or if it smells somewhat acrid, you know that you have situations that need to be addressed.

Gardening Practices – Some gardening practices themselves actually can be harmful to soil, especially over time.  And, even beneficial gardening practices may be enhanced. If you are currently doing any of these things, consider using Monty’s Liquid Carbon to remediate, improve, or expedite your current practices.

Not all soils can be transformed into an ideal state, but they all can be improved. By observing, touching, and smelling your soil, and by analyzing your current lawn and garden activities you can begin to see where improvements can be made. By making simple, seasonal applications of Monty’s Liquid Carbon Organic Soil Conditioner, either in concentrate or with the new ready-to-spray bottle, you can maximize the potential of your soil and return it to a plant-friendly, vibrant environment.

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Helping Plants After A Drought

By nancyc on July 22, 2012

To meteorologists, “drought” is measured in at least two ways. The first is a measure of ground water and surface water as measured by the Palmer Hydrological Drought Index. The second is a measure of rainfall over the past twelve months as indicated by the Palmer Drought Index.  In either case, recent indices from July, 2011 through June, 2012, have shown the most extreme level of drought extending from Texas west to Nevada and California, north to Wyoming and into parts of the Midwest.

Palmer Hydrological Drought Index: Source, National Climatic Data Center

Source: National Climatic Data Center

In homeowner and gardening terms: Boy, it’s dry!

Let’s look at how you can help your plants recover once a drought ends.

During the drought, plants basically shut down and now need to be nursed back to health.  The pores on the surface of the plant closed to prevent moisture loss. The nutrients and water stored in the cells of the outermost leaves withdrew, causing wilt, curling, and shriveling. Finally, the chlorophyll withdrew so it could be used to sustain the “heart” of the plant, which is why it turned yellow, became turgid and brittle.  The plant opted to jettison those leaves and limbs to guarantee its ultimate survival.

A similar process took place below the soil line.  The plant at first attempted to grow additional roots, especially tap roots, but eventually the auxiliary root systems and the root hairs dried, withered and eventually died.

When moisture returns, baby the plants at first, and bring them along slowly. Our first instinct is to go outside and pour on the nitrogen, which, after a drought is absolutely the wrong thing to do. The plant cannot process the nitrogen without the leaf surface, limb structure and root hairs to take it in. Also, it can’t handle the added stress of being forced to grow with a limited root mass to support the additional growth.

Rather than using a high N (nitrogen)* fertilizer, use a high P & K (phosphorous and potassium)* plant food to start.  This will help build the root system so it can make use of the other nutrients and draw in the moisture needed to process the nitrogen. Monty’s Root and Bloom 2-15-15, a liquid plant food, is an excellent option.

Once you start to see vitality returning to the landscape, step up to Monty’s Growth Formula 8-16-8.  By this time the plants can support the robust growth that Monty’s will provide.

Remember the soil.  The drought has taken its toll on the soil as well.  All of the microscopic flora and fauna — including earthworms and arthropods — have likely died or moved on and need to be encouraged to return.  Soils most likely have collapsed during the drought, making moisture management a challenge and additional root growth almost impossible in the tight, compacted environment.  Using Monty’s Liquid Carbon Organic Soil Conditioner will aid recovery. While it is always a good practice to condition soils at least annually to maintain peak efficiency, reduce compaction and boost organic matter, in drought years it may be critical.

*Plant foods and fertilizers are labeled according to the percentage of each of these three primary nutrients in the formulation:
N (nitrogen), P (phosphate) and K (potassium, or potash).  For example, plant food labeled “2-15-15” contains 2% nitrogen, 15% phosphorous, and 15% potassium.

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Ask Monty’s – Labels that read “All Natural”

By nancyc on June 8, 2012

In our last post we covered the plant food and fertilizer labeling terms “Organic” and “OMRI Listed.” In our next post we’ll cover the term “Certified Organic.”

Today, we’ll address the moniker “All Natural,” for which there is no regulation.

There is a growing belief as society becomes greener that natural is always better – better for individual health and for the environment. For this reason, many companies use that term to entice you into buying their product.

Using the term “all natural” is not federally regulated and is used by companies as a marketing tool. Just how “natural” a product is and how beneficial it will be is largely determined by the company itself.  Rather than muddying the waters further let me explain what Monty’s means when we use the term.

Some of our products, like our Liquid Carbon Organic Soil Conditioner, are OMRI listed for use in organic production.  Some, like our fertility products, are not. However, we can tell you, in full confidence, that our plant food products are naturally-sourced and derived.

How important that distinction is to you will be based on your objectives.  For example, if you are hoping to sell your vegetables in a local market as an organic product, then you could definitely use our Liquid Carbon Organic Soil Conditioners but we could not recommend our plant foods to you for that purpose.

However, if you are simply looking for a product with superior performance and that is not harmful to you, your family and animals, or the environment, then you can use our naturally-derived plant food products with confidence.

I hope this helps. I know it can be a bit overwhelming. For more assurance and to help you purchase with confidence I would encourage you to develop a relationship with an independent garden center retailer so they can help guide you to products — like Monty’s Plant and Soil Products — that will help you achieve your goals.

Listed below are some handy links to OMRI, USDA and organic growing websites.  Also, refer to our post from June 6, for information about the terms “organic” and “OMRI listed.” And stay tuned for our next post about the term “certified organic.”

  • OMRI – information that organic farmers, handlers, certifiers, and other members of the organic community might find useful.

  • USDA Organic Roots Collection – electronic collection of historic documents published before 1942 – a time before synthetic chemicals became widely used.  Find state-of-the-art information and data that is still pertinent for today’s organic and sustainable agriculture.

  • HowToGoOrganic.com – The Organic Trade Association offers this resource to help cultivate the growth of organic farming.

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Ask Monty’s – “Organic” versus “All Natural” labels

By nancyc on June 6, 2012

What is the difference between plant food or fertilizer labels that read “Organic SoilOrganic” and “All Natural?”
Derek, Calera, Alabama

Derek:
That is a good question and one that can be a bit confusing, so I’m going to address “Organic” in this post, “All Natural” in the next posting and “Certified Organic” in yet a third blog post.  Let’s look at “organic” first. It should be understood, as your question implies that there is definitely a difference between “all natural” and “organic” when it comes to plant food or fertilizers – and especially food products.  The terms are not interchangeable.

Organic fertilizers come from all-natural sources such as selected animal manures, mined rock powders, blood meal, feather meal, cottonseed meal, alfalfa meal, bone meal, fish extracts and seaweed by-products.  Simply put, organic fertilizers are derived from animal or vegetable matter.  Beyond that simple definition, though, things get a bit confusing.

The federal government has attempted to implement regulations on what it means to be “organic,” primarily with regard to the production of food and fiber.  A fertilizer company could place the word “organic” on most any fertilizer product it chooses to, and some do. After all, as we become a much “greener” society, these types of words have great power in the marketplace. In these cases the word really has little meaning at all, and may only refer to the fact that there is organic — or carbon-based — content, without any verification that all of the ingredients meet specifications set out by the National Organic Program (see below).  Therefore, the burden of proof and the task of sorting out these claims is on the government and the consumer.

Second — and this is where it gets even more confusing — is determining just how organic is “organic.”  For example, a company could blend cow manure with water and claim it is organic and it would be.  But the products produced by that fertilizer still may not qualify under the guidelines of the National Organic Program (NOP) instituted by the federal government.  This is where the organization known as the Organic Materials Research Institute (OMRI) OMRI - Organic Materials Review Institutecomes in.  OMRI is an independent, non-profit institution which serves as the gatekeeper for products which meet the requirements of the NOP.  Input products cannot be labeled “certified organic“: rather, OMRI uses the term “OMRI Listed” for products which may be used in the production of organic food and fiber, under the guidelines of the NOP. Furthermore, the term “certified organic” can only legally apply to food or fiber products.

Use of the term “organic” on fertilizers is generally not regulated. Some of the products listed by OMRI are not, in fact, organic.  Due to a provision in their guidelines for becoming “OMRI Listed,” a non-organic product can be a listed product if no close, non-synthetic substitute exists.

Let’s try to summarize.

  • Products that claim to be organic may or may not be.
  • OMRI lists certain “raw materials” which may be used in the production of organic finished goods, but they do not technically certify the input products.  All they do is say this material will not disqualify the end product from participation in the National Organic Program.
  • The National Organic Program certifies producers and products, but only of finished goods, i.e., food and fiber.
  • In the end, much of what is meant by the term organic is based on the reliability of the company making the claim.

If you are looking for a product that you can use with confidence in your lawn or garden, buy from a reputable dealer who sells products from reliable companies, and look for the “OMRI Listed” designation . Even at that, though, Caveat Emptor!

Stay tuned for our next blog post about the term “All Natural.”  In the meantime, here are some handy links:

  • OMRI – information that organic farmers, handlers, certifiers, and other members of the organic community might find useful.

  • USDA Organic Roots Collection – electronic collection of historic documents published before 1942 – a time before synthetic chemicals became widely used.  Find state-of-the-art information and data that is still pertinent for today’s organic and sustainable agriculture.

  • HowToGoOrganic.com – The Organic Trade Association offers this resource to help cultivate the growth of organic farming.

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It Ain’t Called The Volunteer State For Nothin’

By Dennis on August 2, 2011

When I was much younger, though not raised on a farm, I was raised by a momma who was. And that is the next best thing I suppose.  It was from her that I learned to speak “country’ with the ease of a local using words and phrases like “on the halves,” “mess of beans,” and “good soakin’ rain.”  While other kids were watching Saturday Morning Cartoons, I was up around daybreak and headed out to a local farmer’s field she had discovered that week to pick green beans, or whatever was in season “on the halves”…now for you city-folk that means that you pick the beans for the farmer for free, in return you get to keep half of what you pick.  It is kind of a rural barter system that has worked for generations. Then throughout the week, while other kids got to just watch their TV shows in the evening, my mom believed that our TV was somehow mystically powered by the sound of snapping beans, shelling peas, shucking corn or whatever else was in season at the time.  She would give us a bucket full of the crop d’jour and we could keep watching TV as long as we were working on those crops.  If we stopped, the TV was turned off…and we had to finish working our vegetables anyway.  I am sure that I complained about it, you’ll have to ask momma.  But I also know that I did it and looking back on it, it was not a bad existence.  The real pay off came not only from a good work ethic, but from the tastes and smells of our country kitchen right in the middle of a Dallas suburb.

In addition to pickin on the halves at area farms momma also always raised a small garden of her own.  It was from there that I learned the joy of “volunteer” crops.  Volunteer crops are plants that come up on their own.  You didn’t plant them, didn’t plan on them, they were just God’s little extras. 

As a general rule the science behind this phenomenon is this, you raise a crop in year one, say corn for example. At some point during the year one of the kernels fall off of the cob either through the action of animals or harvest and lays there on the ground all winter.  In year two, as spring comes and you work the ground you accidentally cover up the seed with soil.  That’s all it takes.  Soon as the soil warms in the spring, the seed germinates and VIOLA! You now have a plant that you were not counting on…a volunteer plant.  Mostly these volunteer plants came up roughly in the area where they were planted the previous year.  But sometimes crops would come up in unexpected places or even from plants that you had never planted.  Those were the mysteries, the ones that made you scratch your head and say, “Now where on earth did THAT come from?”

I didn’t understand it then, but momma was always so excited by these extra blessings. I saw them as a nuisance.  It was the corn stalk that I had to work around when trying to cultivate the beans.  And may the Lord have mercy on you if you uprooted one of momma’s volunteer plants cause it was “in the way.”

Flash forward 25+ years. Now I am the one with the garden out back, pickin on the halves, and teachin my kids the value of shuckin corn. And this year, I built a retaining wall to hold a new flower bed in the front of our house.  I planted perennials, annuals, and some ground cover so that it could grow and develop into a great flower bed and add some color to the front of our house and our otherwise unremarkable landscape.  The one thing I did not plant was a tomato.

Imagine my surprise, then, when in early June, a small plant began to emerge right next to one of my purple pansies. I was about to uproot it along with the other weeds when it occurred to me, “That looks like a tomato plant.” I honestly have no idea where it came from; apparently it was in the leavings as a bird flew overhead and left a deposit. I was about to uproot it, but then the guilt and shame and my momma’s voice rang in my head and I didn’t dare. 

I thought, “Okay, we’ll see what this does. Who knows, we may get four or five tomatoes off of it.  It will be a great conversation piece and I can teach my kids about volunteer crops.”

This is one plant; one volunteer tomato plant.

6 weeks later and a few applications of Monty’s as I was spraying my flowers and it now OWNS my flower bed!  What I expected to be a small plant about two feet tall and spindly has far surpassed any of the cultivated and staked tomatoes out in my garden. This plant is at least 10 feet long, about 6 feet across, and 2.5 to three feet tall.  It has grown from its place in the center of the flower bed to where it is over-spilling my retaining wall on three sides and hanging over my porch on the fourth.  It, quite simply is massive, and full of fruit. (mostly cherry tomatoes). 

This volunteer tomato plant has overgrown the boundaries of my retaining wall flower bed and is spilling over the wall an about two feet out into my yard.

I knew that Tennessee, my current home, is nicknamed the Volunteer State.  I thought it had something to do with the historical nature of the residents to volunteer for battle when the country needed it.  Now I am beginning to suspect it may be due to their vegetables.

This volunteer tomato plant is the most productive plant I have this season. It came up on its own and has been left largely alone, jsut to see what it would do. Who knew?

Whatever the reason, the biggest, healthiest, and most productive tomato plant I have this season is a little plant that somehow mysteriously ended up in my flower bed. It is just a little something extra for a gardener who is just trying to learn and to put into practice all of those lessons I was taught following behind my mom with a bushel basket as we picked beans on the halves.

The lesson here for the rest of you.  Listen to my mom.  If it “comes up volunteer, leave it alone;” nature may be waiting to surprise you.  Now, if you’ll excuse me, I am going in to add a fresh sliced tomato to my sandwich and enjoy my lunch with a little extra blessing on the side.

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Controlling Squash Bugs in the Garden

By Dennis on July 14, 2011

A friend of mine from high school just reached out to me on my personal FB account and asked for some advice on controlling squash bugs because he had seen some of my posts related to my vegetable garden. I wrote him a response back, but then thought some of you may have the same questions.  So, I am reposting the letter I sent to him in hopes that you may benefit.

Hey Don,

Yeah I garden.  Like a fool!  It is kinda part of my job and part hobby.  My kids accuse me of being one of those people who when asked what time it is, teach people how to build a watch.  So, forgive me if I get long-winded. 

First, I am not sure what stage your squash bugs are, if they are still in the nymph stage or are full blown adults.  If they are full grown adults, control with chemicals is difficult, if not impossible.

Either way it is going to be work AND tedious.

Controlling nymphs and eggs.  Get a bucket of soapy water.  2-3 drops of any household dish soap in a gallon bucket is sufficient.  Walk around to the plants and look under the leaves (particularly those with damage) and look for eggs/nymphs.  Squash the eggs with your hands; knock the nymphs into the bucket of water, they will die quickly.  This process is made a bit more difficult because the nymphs will tend to scatter quickly when threatened. At this stage, the bugs are easiest to control.

Controlling adults – Sevin (I use liquid Sevin, but usually only once a year when insects are at their peak, and it is my ‘nuclear option’ so I can control things as organically as possible.) will control some of them but it will also kill bees, lady bugs, and other beneficial.  For this reason spray only when the flowers are closed (early morning, late evening) to limit impact on pollinators.

The best control methods are:

  1.  Keep as much plant debris cleaned up, remove dead leaves from the plant and make the environment as inhospitable as possible for them.
  2. Lay a shingle or piece of wood next to each plant in the evening.  As night falls, the squash bugs will congregate under the object as a hiding/nesting spot.  Then in the morning you can go and turn the wood/shingle over and easily collect the adults and either squash them by hand (they will stink similar to stink bugs) or knock them into a bucket of soapy water.
  3. Keep the plants well watered and well fertilized (this time of year use a low-to moderate N fertilizer with higher levels of  P & K; Monty’s 2-15-15 or Monty’s 4-15-12 are excellent and easy options). This will accomplish several things:
  • Insects are opportunists.  If you have ever watch an animal show on the discovery network, you know that the lion will cut the weak or the lame out from the herd because they are easier to bring catch and bring down. Same thing. Insects will attack your weakest plants first.  I don’t know how they know this, but they do.  (This is also a chance to learn from the bugs, they are telling you stuff about your garden.  So keeping them well fed, and well watered will keep them strong and make them less vulnerable.
  • High Brix levels, the measurement of the amount of sugars in a plants also seem to deter insects.  Don’t know why, just know in side by side studies that I have done, those plants with higher brix have less insect damage.
  • Squash plants grow very quickly and can easily grow past any damage done by a squash bug. Making sure they are healthy, well fertilized and well watered will help this.

My favorite control method is to do nothing.  That’s right.  I said do nothing.  Here’s why.  Once the plants are up and growing normally (controlling the bugs in the early stages of plant growth is imperative), there is not much the bugs can do to stop them.  The bugs tend to feed on the leaves, not the fruit – especially until the end of the season when the leaves are starting to wilt naturally.  By then I have enough squash put up to get me through the winter anyway, so any fruit I harvest after that is just gravy. Squash plants grow so rapidly that the impact of any one or even several bugs is going to be minimal and is easy for the plants to keep up with. Squash bugs have sucking/piercing mouth parts. Because fo this, they do not eat away your leaves like caterpillars or beetles do. These wounds will kill the leaves in the immediate area, so they will look spotty, but unless your plants are very small or your infestation is extremely large they just can’t do enough damage to prvent the flow of enough nutrients to impede plant/fruit development. Basically, the work required for complete control, for the benefits, attained just isn’t worth it to me. 

So to summarize, your options are: 

  • Scout and control manually with a bucket of soapy water.
  • Lay out a shingle or piece of wood each evening, collect and destroy the adults in the morning.
  • Use sevin or other labeled control as a nuclear option, use it in the evening or early morning once the flowers have closed to limit the impact on beneficial insects and pollinators like honeybees.
  • Keep them well-fed (fertilized), watered, and generally healthy.

OR

  • Do nothing once your plants are matured.  They won’t eat much, really

BTW…I don’t know if you do this or not…but I have found out this season that the male flowers from the squash plant are delicious!  Harvest one or two this evening and enjoy a squash blossom quesadilla or dip them in a relleno batter and fry them.  (You can also stuff them like a stuff bell pepper, roll them and either bake them, or dip them in batter and fry them.

Happy growing, and enjoy the NM sunshine, I know your squash are!

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Ask Monty’s 7/6/11: Veggies for Novices, Something Dandy about Dandelions, and Swiss Chard

By Dennis on July 6, 2011

Ask Monty’s: “People make dandelion wine out of the weed’s flowers, but an old-timer recently told me you can eat the leaves too. Is this true?”

Heidi
Boalsburg, Pennsylvania

Heidi:Yes, the entire dandelion is edible despite its bad rap as a common yard weed. It’s an acquired taste and most recently I discovered a recipe in a copy of an old Mother Earth News magazine for dandelion greens sautéed in olive oil and molasses and served over a baked potato. The flower is also used as an edible garnish in many upper end restaurants, despite it’s number one popularity as a wine ingredient.

Ask Monty’s: “What is Swiss Chard exactly? Is it easy to grow? I’ve been told it tastes a lot like spinach, but it doesn’t look like it.”

Susan
Caney, Kansas

Susan: Swiss Chard is the forerunner of beets and a close cousin to spinach. In the kitchen, cooked chard can stand in for spinach in any recipe, while the crisp ribs of the plant can be steamed or grilled like asparagus. The beauty of chard as a garden plant is that chard tolerates light frost as well as the heat of summer. There are three types of chard I would recommend you take a closer look at. White-stemmed chard out performs their more colorful counterparts in terms of productivity and resistance. Bright colored varieties are the top of the line edible ornamentals when it comes to vegetables, but perpetual varieties have thinner stems and smaller, smoother leaves than large varieties, but they taste more like spinach than the other varieties. With perpetual varieties the more leaves you pick, the more new ones emerge from the crowns, thus reflected in their name.

Ask Monty’s: “If you had to name the top five easiest vegetables to grow, what would they be? I’m a new gardener, so I am going to need some instant gratification to keep my confidence level up. What vegetables do you think make the best use of time and garden space?”

Ronald
Golden, Colorado

Ronald:  Gardening is always an exploration of trial and error because everyone’s garden habits, patience levels and environments are different, so please keep that in mind. It’s a very rewarding hobby, great contribution to your grocery bill and creates an enormous amount of satisfaction when you take that first bite out of that garden fresh tomato, green bean or squash.

That said, regarding your questions there has been a lot of research done on these particular subjects and they do vary from region to region. Research tells me radishes, lettuce, bush snap beans, rhubarb and cherry tomatoes are listed as the top five. For me, radishes and lettuce took a few tries before I finally got it right, so my picks would be bush snap beans, rhubarb, cherry tomatoes, asparagus and green peppers. Squash is pretty easy too, but does take up a lot of room. I even slip my green pepper and broccoli into my flower beds as nice green back drops to other plants and utilize the space that way.

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Ask Monty’s for 6/13/11: Broccoli, Calla Lillies, Roses

By Dennis on June 13, 2011

Ask Monty’s:

“I’ve planted broccoli for the first time this summer.  How do I know when it can be picked?”  

Samantha  – Apple Valley, Minnesota

Samantha:

Broccoli can be eaten at a couple of different growth stages.  Some people eat the unopened flower buds.  As the weather gets warmer you’ll want to pick it before the flower heads bloom.  So harvest the buds when they are about the size of a match head.  Samantha, one mistake common among home growers, especially first timers, is that you keep waiting for the heads to get to the size of those in the super market. Don’t expect your home grown broccoli to get the size of supermarket broccoli heads, as their growing environments are much more controlled to achieve the size they get. What they lack in size, though, they will make up for in flavor and nutritional value.  Using Monty’s 8-16-8 will help.

Ask Monty’s:

“I plant roses because I love how they look and also because of their smell and the diversity of smells they provide.  Bleeding hearts are also quite fragrant.  Are there other more fragrant flowers to consider?  I know all have their own degree of fragrance, but I’m looking for strong smelling flowers to entice the senses when you walk in my garden.”

Rose – Knierim, Iowa 

Rose:

Brugmansia, or “Angel Trumpet” comes to mind immediately for year round outdoor growing in zones 8-11, although in your climate you’ll have to make it a patio plant that you can take indoors in the winter.  The same is with a Gardenia, “Passion Flower,” jasmine, nicotinia (flowering tobacco) or lemon and limes.  Sweet Alyssum, Moonflower and 4 O’clocks are also great smelling plants.  Unfortunately, none of these plants are perennials for your Iowa climate, but they can be grown in your greenhouse or as patio plants that can all be moved inside over the winter.  All have overwhelming fragrant qualities. Honeysuckle and magnolias are also fragrant favorites particularly in the south. 

O, and since you asked about roses, don’t forget to check out the latest videos on roses from our founder and noted rosarian Monty Justice.  You can find them on youtube, or here.  You can also check out our rose care calendar to make sure you are getting the most output from your roses.

Ask Monty’s:

“My Calla Lily never blooms.  I thought these plants required low maintenance and even bloomed in diffused lighting conditions.  What am I doing wrong?” 

Blaine -Cold Springs, Nevada 

Blaine:

There are a couple of reasons that come to mind as to why your Calla Lily is not blooming.  Although they really are low maintenance, they do prefer bright indirect sunlight, with morning and late afternoon light as their preference.  So if you have them in any less they simply aren’t getting enough light.  If you are using a fertilizer, make sure it is low in nitrogen, which encourages green, leafy growth.  Too much nitrogen will overpower the phosphate a plant needs to make blooms. Monty’s 2-15-15 is a great fertilizer to use if you are looking to encourage more, and longer lasting, bloom. Read more, here. Another reason a Calla Lily will not bloom is if the bulbs are simply getting too old.

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Ask Monty’s 5/27/11: Asparagus, Crickets, and Calla Lillies

By Dennis on May 26, 2011

Ask Monty’s: “How do you know when to harvest asparagus and leaf lettuce, spring’s earliest producers?  I never have been quite sure.” 

Susan – Joplin, Missouri  

Susan: You can usually begin harvesting your asparagus spears when they are 6-8 inches in length.  Snap them off at ground level when picking them.  Stop harvesting them about 4-6 weeks after the first initial harvest so the plants can produce foliage and food for themselves. Once the asparagus emerge you can spray with Monty’s 8-16-8 for vigorous growth, additionally toward the end of the season, use Monty’s 2-15-15 to help them store energy in the roots so that they can propagate and emerge healthy next season.

Leaf lettuce is best picked when the outer leaves have reached about 4 inches in height.  Let the younger, inner leaves to grow further which will allow you to have lettuce through most of the summer if you pick it right and keep it well watered.  Don’t forget to spray it at least once a week with Monty’s 8-16-8.  This will stimulate vigorous growth.  As an additional benefit, if you are one who chosses to use pesticides or herbicides, they can easily be mixed with Monty’s products for no-fuss, one step application.

Ask Monty’s: “In early spring, if I don’t watch my garden or flower beds closely, young grasshoppers and even crickets almost strip my young plants beyond repair.  I have been using a regular insecticide on them, but is there an organic approach to repelling them?  It’s a reoccurring problem for me.” 

Dexter – Granite Falls, Washington 

Dexter: These little devils can indeed strip crops incredibly fast.  Grasshoppers alone are responsible for consuming 25% of the available foliage in the western half of the U.S. each year!  There is an organic product on the market that literally infects grasshoppers with a naturally occurring disease that is much like a bad case of grasshopper flu.  The disease is called Nosema locustae and it infects over 90 species of grasshoppers and crickets.  The best part is that pets, people, plants and other insects are not affected by it.  You can find this product in gardening catalogs and garden centers and it is sold as Semasporte Bait or NoLo Bait.  It has a very short shelf life of only about eight weeks, so if you store it in the refrigerator it will keep up to five months, so buy only what you need.  You can also talk to your local independent garden center, they may have some insecticidal soaps that will do the tricks.  A mild solution of JOY dish soap sprayed on the foliage helps with many insects, it may help with your crickets and hoppers as well.

One last thought,  evidence indicates that Monty’s foliar fertility products will elevate brix levels (the measure of sugar in a plant).  Anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that elevated brix levels may help deter insects.  We also know that insects tend to be opportunistic.  That is, they tend to prey on plants that are weak or stressed. Think of them like a cheetah, they cull the weak out of the herd and in an odd way by doing so they are protecting the strength of the overall herd of antelope. So one way to address the insect problem is to make sure your plants are the healthiest in the neighborhood, this will tend to cause the insects to move on to more susceptible prey. They key to plant health can be summarized in three words. Fertility, Fertility, Fertility.

Ask Monty’s: “I have a love/hate relationship with my Calla Lily.  Sometimes it looks fabulous and other times I just about kill it.  It seems like when it starts blooming, and I fertilize it, it takes an immediate turn for the worse.  I do not understand this.  Am I giving it too much, although I follow the fertilizer instructions to the tee?”

Tessa -Portland, Oregon

 Tessa: You should never feed a Calla Lily when it is in bloom, which is the opposite of most plants, I know.  A good quality, healthy Calla Lily just simply doesn’t need it.  If you just can’t resist, go with a low nitrogen, high phosphorous, high potassium fertilizer.  this will decrease the nitrogen available for growth and increase those nutrients needed to support bloom and root health.  We recommended Monty’s 2-15-15.

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Reducing (or even eliminating) Transplant Shock

By Dennis on April 7, 2011

The Root of the Problem

Transplant Shock happens when plants are moved.  Unlike humans, plants were not designed to be shuffled around. In nature, once a plant is rooted, that is where it stays.  However, we are always waiting to change and design our environment and that means moving plants; either planting new annuals every year or moving, cutting, and thinning existing plants to more aesthetically pleasing areas. So, transplant shock happens when you move plants, but why?

The answer is all in the roots.  We tend to talk about roots as if they were one ubiquitous mass.  They are, in reality, not a mass but a system with individual parts serving particular functions.  The tap root is one or two long, thick roots that generally go straight down, deep into the soil. Think of this root as the “trunk” of your plant.  This root serves to access deep reserves of water, to add structural integrity, and to provide a wedge which breaks up the soil and allows for development of the second set of roots.  This second set is somewhat smaller and grow out laterally from the main tap root.  If the tap root is the “trunk”, these are the limbs and like limbs they stretch out, cross each other, and provide bulk.  The main function of these roots is to provide stability, serve as an anchor to the plant to keep it from moving, and to hold the soil so that the plant can get the water and nutrients it needs from its environment.  They also serve as host for the most important roots.  The third set of roots is the hair-like feeder roots.  These roots are very small, even on the biggest plants.  They are thin, wiry, and about the size of a human hair.  The ends, or growing points, are the only place where the plant can actually take up nutrients and the majority of water. Without getting too deep into the science, this is where the microbes and beneficial bacteria thrive and do their job of converting minerals into nutrients.

The problem with these feeder roots is even though they are vital to the plant, they are also the most susceptible to damage.  Some research shows that exposure to the air for even 3-4 minutes is enough to cause them to dry out and die.  They are also very easy to break. So, when you transplant the plants, even if you are careful, it is very easy to disturb this section of the root system and when you do, it takes the plant time to replace them.  Until then, the plant is getting very little nutrition or water. The plant enters survival mode, any flower is jettisoned as it fights to allocate stored resources for survival rather than reproduce.  As more resources are required to re-grow these vital roots, (and because it is getting no nutrition) it wilts. And this reaction is what is known as transplant shock.

So what can you do? Here are a few tips:

1) Be as gentle as possible.  Handle the root ball of the transplants as carefully as possible.  But know this. Even though you are careful, the feeder roots are so delicate they are going to break; it’s inevitable.

2) Prepare the new home.  Even if you are planting into the ground, you will want to provide a new home that is delicate.  Heavy clay soils are generally compacted and hard for the tiny roots to penetrate so mix some of the host soil with sand or soilless media and fill the hole loosely BEFORE transplanting.  Then remove just enough of the soil to make room for the new plant. 

3) Make sure the transplant is not root bound.  There should be a good amount of roots at the outer edges but they should not be circling around the root zone in a solid mass of white.  If they are, they will need a haircut, either by actually cutting and freeing some of the roots or by pulling them away to thin them out. This will kill of some of the feeder roots, but will cause fewer problems in the long term. You should introduce the plant to its new home as quickly as possible. I usually root-dip my plants for 10 minutes or so in a weak solution of Monty’s 4-15-12 or 2-15-15 (1 ounce per gallon of water) prior to placing them in the new environment.  This loosens up their native soil and gives them a quick shot of energy. Then once all the plants are in, I water them in with any remaining solution. The picture to the right is lettuce and spinach two days after transplanting.  Notice no signs of shock or wilt. You should place the plant its new environment just deep enough so that the stem and root ball is below ground level. Once the plant is in place back fill with the soilless/host soil mix. Be carefull not to press the soil around the plant as this can lead to problems with compaction.

4) Feed the plant. Some experts advise putting a bit of fertilizer in the bottom of the new home prior to transplanting. I have done it both ways and have not noticed much difference either way.  USE A LOW SALT, LOW NITROGEN fertilizer.  Nitrogen can burn even healthy plant material, much less tender feeder roots. Plus, nitrogen is the nutrient responsible for growth.  There will be a time for that, but now it is too early.  One of the biggest problems I see with zealous homeowners is giving the plant too much nitrogen too quickly.  This is especially true for perennials and larger transplants like trees and shrubs.  For these, I recommend very little nitrogen at all for the first full season.  Here’s why.  Nitrogen generates growth.  The mere presence of the nutrient tells the plant to get bigger, taller, and put on more leaves.  If you do that, and do not have an underlying root system to support this vigorous growth a few things can happen:  One, the plant will become top heavy and a strong wind will uproot the plant because there are not enough anchors holding it place. Two, and this is the biggest problem.  You know that droughts are going to happen.  When they do, the plant needs a good root system to access available sub-soil moisture reserves.  If, by applying nitrogen, you have spurred top-growth you have increased the burden on the plant by giving it more leaves, stems, and flowers to maintain and by not giving it the root system that it needs to provide the water and nutrients it is starving for. Instead of nitrogen, look for a fertilizer that is relatively higher in potassium and phosphorous (the second two numbers on the label).  These are the nutrients that a plant uses to develop good root systems and the ones you need to ensure successful transplants. 

By using a product like Monty’s 2-15-15 or 4-15-12 you can give the plant what it needs, and according to gardeners across the country, as well as my own experience, virtually eliminate transplant shock.  Get more details on transplanting in our how-to guides on our website. While this is still true for annuals, it is not as critical, cause let’s face it, you will be throwing them away in 6 months anyway.  Give them a week or two to settle in, then you can start using a higher nitrogen fertilizer.  The low-salt issue is still a concern so I recommend using Monty’s 8-16-8.  It’s high in nitrogen, but it has one of the lowest salt indexes on the market.

5) Water.  Believe it or not, most homeowners are so afraid of under-watering their new plants, that they go too far and over water them.  Over-watering is just as bad.  It depletes oxygen form the soil, collapses pore space, compacts the soil, and creates an environment ideal for developing anaerobic bacteria (the bad ones) which leads to rot, disease, and can increase the likelihood of insect problems.  If you are watering your plants keep them evenly moist so that they have to grow their roots both out and down.  this will give you a better anchor and will get feeder roots out of the topsoil.  If the roots stay in the upper reaches of the soil profile you will end up fighting drought conditions throughout the life of the plant as this layer of soil is the first to dry out in the hot dry days of summer.  To accomplish this, stick your finger about an inch deep into the soil (up to your first knuckle) at the edge of the drip line.  If the soil does not feel noticeably damp at your fingertip, it is time to water.

By following these few simple guidelines and by incorporating Monty’s Fertilitly Products you can get your plants off to the best start possible and virtually eliminate transplant shock.

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