Hort Report – Nov. 6

By superadmin | November 13, 2024

Many of you had a frost or freeze in the past few weeks. But it didn’t do much damage. All of your root type vegetables, even some above ground vegetables did survive. To keep them growing water them so the roots aren’t exposed to the cold air.
Now draw out on paper your garden plan where all your vegetables were in your garden this year. Do this before you start to pull up your vegetables. This will help you know where to plant vegetables next year. You should rotate your vegetables each year, even in raised beds.
Having your garden plan will help you know what seed you should get for next year. You may want to increase the size of the garden area of some vegetables and plant fewer of other vegetables.
Once the vegetables and flowers are dead, you need to start to clean up your garden and flowerbeds. Burn all diseased and insect infected plants. The rest you can put in a compost pile. You should leave the roots of vegetables in the garden and till them into the soil to help build up soil profile in your garden.
When Laura and I are cleaning up our perennial flowerbeds, we start to collect flower seeds from many of the perennial flowers. Collect the seed and either sow it back on the perennial flowerbed or sow it in other flowerbeds. With annual flowers we will collect the seed, sowing it back on the flowerbed or saving it to sow in other flowerbeds.
With both types of flowers when collecting make sure the flowers are finished blooming, then collect the seed heads. We put the seed heads in brown paper bags. Plastic bags can cause humidity to buildup creating mold in them. We write the name of the flower on the bags. We store the seed in a cool dry place, so they will be viable to be ready to use next spring. Store them at a temperature between 32 and 41 degrees.
Flower seed saved should be used within one year. After one year the germination of the seed will decline every year after. I will talk about saving vegetable seed in another The Hort. Report.
Here are some things to do to help your Christmas Cactus produce flowers during the Christmas Season for you to enjoy this year, blooming between November and January.
Light and temperature levels will affect when a Christmas Cactus blooms. By doing a few simple things you can help your Christmas Cactus bloom.
Start by creating long dark night hours and short daylight hours. At least 12 hours of darkness. Don’t allow any type of artificial light during the night. Do this first.
Then you can make sure the temperature is between 55-60 degrees. We plan on putting our Christmas Cactus on the back porch with the other potted plants we plan on holding over the winter. The temperature stays about 50-60 degrees.
Next only water Christmas Cactus when you touch the soil and it feels dry. Water only the top one inch of the soil. Doing all three of the suggestions I talked about will help Christmas Cactus into a dormant state. Then it will start to flower again.
Once Christmas Cactus bloom you don’t want to over water them. Just keep the soil moist to the touch. Once it finishes blooming you can repot it and add some organic matter.
You still have time to plant some spring flowering bulbs. You need to get them planted before the ground freezes hard. You need to plant them in a well-drained sunny location. Then put some organic matter in the hole, cover it with mulch and water them in.
I appreciate all your questions in the past and look forward to them in the future. So thanks and please keep the coming. I learn a lot from people asking me questions. You can call me at 573-588-2040 Shelby County Implement in Shelbina, Mo. Email [email protected] Facebook Greenwell’s Greenhouse Group. I really enjoy visiting with people anytime. Enjoy the great fall weather and hope you enjoyed The Hort. Report.