Radio Show: Goodwood Museum and Gardens

This week's show went on location to the Goodwood Museum and Gardens in Tallahassee, Fla., for its Winter Garden Symposium. This antebellum mansion and its surrounding grounds are beautiful examples of historic architecture and horticulture. Special presenters for the symposium lured garden enthusiasts from all over the region. We talked to two of them: Master Gardener Jill Williams and Brandy Cowley-Gilbert of Just Fruits and Exotics. Click on the link to Blog Talk Radio in the right rail to listen to the show for seven days after its initial broadcast. If you missed that one-week window, an archive of all our shows can be found at www.freeworldradionetwork.net. To learn more about Goodwood, visit its Web site at www.goodwoodmuseum.org.

Prune roses in February

By Audrey Post
MS. GROW-IT-ALL®

It’s February, and that means it’s time to prune roses here in our corner of the gardening world (USDA Zone 8b). The general rule is to prune around Valentine’s Day, which was last Saturday, but we still have a few weeks to get the job done before the big flush of spring growth begins.

As with any task, gathering the right tools make the job much easier. You’ll need sharp hand-pruners and loppers. You’ll need to wear gloves, too. I suggest getting long gloves that cover your forearms as well as your hands, because rose thorns hurt. If you can’t find long gardening gloves, use long fireplace gloves.

Make sure your cutting tools are sharp and clean. If you don’t want to sharpen your tools yourself, local garden centers can either sharpen them for you for a fee or direct you to a business that offers tool-sharpening. Once your tools are sharp and you’re ready to begin, clean and disinfect them with a bleach solution (1 cup of bleach to a gallon of water) and keep a bucket of fresh bleach solution handy, in case you encounter diseased canes on your roses.

First, identify any dead or diseased canes and remove them back to the ground, dipping your cutting tool in the bleach solution between cuts. Then, from the remaining canes, identify which ones are younger and which ones of the older ones can be removed.

As you’re deciding which canes to remove, be mindful of the overall shape of the bush and the direction you want each cane to grow. For younger, healthy canes on bushes that have been pruned annually, remove oldest canes, usually two or three, and cut back the younger canes by about half.

For bushes that haven’t been pruned annually, remove the really old canes – they’re tough and gnarly; you’ll recognize them. Cut back the remaining canes back to half their length. Then cut a third of those back farther, to about a third of the length they were before you began. Make cuts at a 45-degree angle just above a bud or “eye,” making sure the bud is pointing outward from the plant. Next year, identify the canes that didn’t get the most severe cut this year, and cut half of those back to one-third. The following year, do the rest. That’s the “rule of thirds” for rejuvenating roses and many other shrubs.

Remember that keeping the plant to a reasonable size is only part of the reason for pruning. You also want to open up the inside of the bush to light and air circulation. Remove any canes that cross back into the bush, as well as any of the twiggy branches that are smaller than a pencil in diameter. Remove any foliage that remains on the plant.

If any suckers have sprouted below the graft, break them off flush instead of cutting them. That way, you’ll get the basal bud, too.

Radio Show: Salad gardens

This week's show focused on salad gardens. Click on the link to Blog Talk Radio in the right rail to listen to the show for seven days after its initial broadcast. If you missed that one-week window, an archive of all our shows can be found at http://www.freeworldradionetwork.net/.

Overgrown figs need special treatment

By Audrey Post
MS. GROW-IT-ALL

Last week’s column on pruning fig trees generated quite a bit of reader response and several more questions on the topic, attesting to the popularity of figs in the home landscape.

Q: I, too, need to prune my fig trees, but my tree already has buds on it. Can I still prune it now or should I wait until after the fruit makes?

A: If your fig tree already has buds on it, you might want to wait until fall to prune it. Although we’ve had several hard freezes, we’ve also had many very warm days and several readers report that their figs have already gone into bud. While the trees will re-sprout and likely bud again in summer if you prune now – the kinds of figs that grow in the Southeast fruit on new wood, unlike figs in California, which fruit on last year’s wood – your yield could be reduced.

Plus, the milky sap, or latex, has started to rise and the tree will likely “bleed.” You’ll have to take off this year’s growth as well as last year’s when you prune in November or December, but these are resilient trees and should recover.

Q: Our fig tree has gone untrimmed for about 20 years. We have had good crops every year. We do no fertilizing. Last year, we couldn’t reach about half the crop. Since I am only 6 feet tall and the fig is on a sharp slope, ladders don't work. We’re willing to do without figs this year if that’s what it takes to resurrect the tree and get fruit next year. Or are the birds destined to get the top of the crop?

A: You have options. You can shorten the tree over the next few years, you can do nothing and leave the top fruit to the birds, or you can bend the tall branches down to where you or a taller friend can reach the fruit. Fig branches will lean with a gentle tug, as the reader who sent in last week’s question noted, because the wood is soft.

Considering how long your tree has gone without pruning and how tall it has become, I suggest you pick a couple of really long main stems each year and prune them back to the point where a younger, thinner side shoot is growing toward the outside of the plant. You don’t want branches crossing back over the plant. Cut the main stem flush with the lower side branch; that side branch now becomes a main stem.

Pick about a third of the main stems to remove this year and repeat the process over the next two years. At the end of three years, you should have a fig tree that’s a manageable size. Annual pruning should keep it in bounds.

You can shorten an isolated stem that has shot up far beyond the rest of the branches by cutting it back to just above a bud or twig that is growing out from the branch.

Radio Show: Care and pruning of roses

This week's show was all about care and pruning of roses, an appropriate topic for this Valentine's Day. Click on the link to Blog Talk Radio in the right rail to listen to the show for seven days after its initial broadcast. If you missed that one-week window, an archive of all our shows can be found at http://www.freeworldradionetwork.net/.

Prune figs annually for best production

By Audrey Post
MS. GROW-IT-ALL

Q: I failed to prune my fig trees the past few years since I planted them, and now I have to grab the branches and pull them down to pick the figs. What’s the best time and way to prune them?

A: The fig, Ficus carica, is one of the easiest fruits to grow. The large leaves make the plant an attractive addition to your home landscape. The fruit is one of the luscious treats of summer –provided you can keep the birds – and dogs -- away from it. More than one southern gardener has talked about having to prune his or her fig trees beyond the reach of Fido.
Ideally, you would’ve pruned your fig trees every year since you planted them, to train them to grow in a certain shape. Since you didn’t, we’ll have to do a bit of drastic pruning but the trees will be better for it. You’re going to have to prune the tree as though it’s a new planting, and now is the time of year to do it here in North Florida.
As a new planting, it should’ve been pruned it to 2 or 3 feet tall. Over the next year, side shoots would’ve developed where it was topped to form the basis of the tree’s framework. Over the next couple of years, continued selection of the strongest side shoots while pruning the rest would’ve produced a strong, healthy canopy.
Now, since your figs didn’t get that disciplined treatment, we have to send them through a rehabilitative process. Cut your trees back to 3 to 4 feet tall and let the process begin. As the side branches grow and develop side branches of their own each year, keep the three to five strongest and prune the rest back flush with the branch from which it grows. Remove any branches that cross over each other or grow back toward the main trunk.
If your figs sustain freeze-damage in winter, wait until all danger of frost has passed before pruning. Prune diseased, dead or damaged limbs.
Once you have your fig trees rejuvenated, after three or four years, plan on cutting them back about one-third each year. Figs need vigorous pruning or else they’ll get woody, lose vigor and reduce fruit production.
Note: Figs, the fruit of the trees of the same name, produce a white latex that promotes the decomposition of protein, similar to the papain found in meat tenderizers, which irritates skin. Use gloves when harvesting the fruit.

Radio Show: Choosing trees

This week's broadcast featured forester Stan Rosenthal of the University of Florida/Leon County Extension Service. As a follow-up to last week's program on pruning crape myrtles and other summer-blooming trees, we discussed mistakes people make in selecting trees to plant. He offered advice on trees that make good candidates for home landscapes, and he mentioned a few to avoid. Click on the link to Blog Talk Radio on my site to listen to the show. An archive of all our shows can be found at http://www.freeworldradionetwork.net/.

Times vary for fertilizing fruit trees

By Audrey Post
MS. GROW-IT-ALL

Q: Should I fertilize fruit trees now or in mid-April when I fertilize my lawn? I have a variety in my front yard including lemon, kumquat, blueberry, grape vine (scuppernong and a dark purple variety), plum and satsuma.

A: First of all, bravo for waiting until April to fertilize your lawn. Many people want to give their grass a boost as soon as the air warms, but the soil is still too cool for it to start working. You’ll simply turn your grass yellow if you fertilize before April.

As for your fruit trees, there are slight variations in formula for the different types, but basically each of them should be fertilized three times a year. The recommended time for fertilization varies slightly, based on when each tree or vine bears fruit.

You should fertilize the citrus trees – lemon, kumquat and satsuma – in March and again in May and August. If your citrus is on trifoliate orange rootstock, the rootstock recommended for North Florida because it encourages the trees to remain dormant in winter, use a slow-release 12-4-8 with micronutrients formulated specifically for citrus. You can find it at most garden centers.

Each time you fertilize, use a pound of fertilizer for each year of the tree’s age, so a 2-year-old tree gets 2 pounds of fertilizer on three occasions this year.

For the blueberries, use a similar formula (slow-release 12-4-8) but one with a different blend of micronutrients. A blend formulated for azaleas and camellias contained the proper mix. Use one-quarter pound for year of age, and make sure you keep it away from the trunk of the bush. Fertilization schedule is similar to that of citrus -- February, May and August.

Plums prefer a slow-release 10-10-10 and an early fertilization schedule -- February, April and July. Use a cup of fertilizer for each year of age. As with the blueberries, keep the fertilizer away from the trunk of the tree.

Grapes need fertilizing in February, May and July with a 12-4-8 and the same micronutrients the blueberries need: iron, zinc, manganese, molybdenum, boron and copper. The amount doubles each year for the first three years, from half a pound to a pound to two pounds, in an ever-larger area around the plant. Add a pound each year for the next two years, and then continue to apply four pounds a year as a maintenance rate.

You can search the Web sites of the Cooperative Extension Services in Florida (http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/) and Georgia (http://www.caes.uga.edu/extension/) for more information about fertilizing fruit trees in Zone 8b. Just Fruits and Exotics nursery in Wakulla County also has comprehensive information about caring for fruit trees on its Web site, www.justfruitsandexotics.com.