The Garden Gate

Garden tips for every month of the year!

February

It is hard to believe that February is upon us. Believe it or not that means that spring will be coming to Wakulla County soon, but who knows when? Our garden chores will begin to pick up. This month you can get an early start on your spring vegetable garden by sowing seeds indoors directly into a plant band, peat pot, peat pellet, or a mini greenhouse seed starter. You would then move the seedlings outdoors and transplant them into your garden when the weather warms up. You may want to consider planting the seeds of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, lettuce, tomato, eggplant, onion, and pepper.

Vegetables that tolerate cold that can be planted this month include: beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, collards, endive, kohlrabi, lettuce, mustard, English peas, potatoes, radishes, and turnips.

Among the flowering annuals that can be planted this month include: Ageratum, Sweet Alyssum, Amaranthus, Aster, Balsam, Begonia (Wax Leaf Type), Begonia (Tuberous Type), Browallia, Calendula, Calliopsis, Celosia, Cosmos, Dahlia, Dusty Miller, Exacum, Gaillardia, Gazania, Geranium, Gypsophila (Baby's Breath), Hollyhock, Impatiens, Lobelia, Marguerite Daisy, Marigold, Nicotiana, Ornamental Pepper, Periwinkle, Phlox, Rudbeckia, Salvia, Strawflower, Streptocarpus, Torenia (Wishbone Flower), Verbena, and Zinnia.

Before moving on, I would also mention that there are a number of bulbous, tuberous, and rhizomous plants that can also be planted at this time of year to add to spring color. Many are perennial and will die back at their proper time, need cutting back at that time, and then will normally come back at their proper time to flower. Because many of these need no replanting, they are quite popular but they are usually used only to supplement a flowerbed. Among those that we can plant at this time are the: Achimines, Allium, Alstroemeria (caution this one can get out of hand and grow too well!), Amazon lily, Aztec lily, Blood lily, Caladium, Canna lily, Crinum lily, various Gingers, Gladiolus, Gloriosa lily, Kaffir lily, Lily, Walking Iris, Spider lily, Tiger lily, Tritoma, Voodoo lily, and Zephyr lily. Although many continue to try them, Hyacinths, Tulips, and most Daffodils, do no perform as well here as in the North and have to be replanted annually. There are better bulbs to use.

If you intend to prune plants such as grapes, apples, pears, and blueberries, try to have it done by the end of February. Yes you'll be pruning off flowering wood, but this is the best time to do pruning on these trees, and by reducing all those flowers anyway, you should end up with larger fruit on what branches remain. Peaches are not pruned in fact, until they are actually in bloom so as not to stimulate them to flower too early in our mild winters that don't get as cold as north of us.

Here are some tips:

1. With Blueberries, don't worry about doing much pruning for the first 5-7 years of their life except to top them back each year so they don't get so tall they are hard to pick. We grow them as bushes anyway. After that, just thin them each year. Seven-year-old trunks (canes) that come from the ground normally start to become less productive. To renew the bushes therefore, each year in February, select 3-4 of the oldest canes and cut them back as close to the ground as possible. This leaves young canes to produce and more suckers will sprout up from the ground to replace them. By doing this you always have new, vigorous fruiting wood present.
2. With Pears and Apples, you are mainly pruning out diseased branches and ones going back into the center of the plant that would "clutter" it. Other than that, only remove the weaker of the branches. In each case cut back to where that branch starts to insure that the healing process will take place quickly. Don't cut into the wrinkle part of the branch union we call the branch collar. This would cause slow healing, so cut just out from it. Also, be aware that those short, stubby "branches" on pear and apples are not really branches at all. Those are the "fruiting spurs" where the flowers will develop. If you cut those off you will not get flowers or fruit.
3. When pruning apples and pears be on the lookout for branches and twigs that show persistent leaves that hang onto a scabby-looking branch. This is a common disease called Fireblight. It is easily carried on pruning shears, but the only real control for it is to cut it out. Be sure to cut back to healthy wood. Then setting those pruners aside, take another pair and make one more cut an inch below the last or to the next healthy bud. This keeps you from leaving the disease on the next cut. To use those contaminated shears again, either wipe them with rubbing alcohol, or set them aside for a day , so they can dry and the bacteria left on them can die (it needs moisture to survive).
4. According the University of Florida, one of the better ways to get larger peaches and nectarines is to do heavy thinning of the fruit before it reaches the size of a dime. Do that now. They suggest removing as much as 50% of the fruit or pulling off all but the best fruit and space these 6 inches apart. That seems hard to do, but in the end you get a better flesh to pit ratio and end up with more to eat. Try it on a few branches this year.

Also, this month we give fruiting plants their spring fertilizer application. It is recommended that you apply 10-10-10 to these plants (Note: if a soil test shows adequate amounts of phosphorous present (which most of ours do), then go to a 15-0-15 and use it at two-thirds the rate listed below. In all cases, use fertilizers containing micro-elements, when available, for better fruit production):

Peach, Plum, Nectarine, Pear, Persimmons, Apples & Figs: Apply 1½ pounds per each year of age until a maximum of 10-15 pounds per tree is reached.

Pecan & Chestnut: Apply 2 pounds for each year of age of pecans up to a maximum 50 pounds per tree and with Chestnuts apply 1 pound per year of age up to a maximum of 15 pounds per tree.

Blackberry & Grape: Apply 1/3 pound per blackberry plant. For grapes apply 1½ pounds for each year of age with a maximum of 5 pounds per plant.

Blueberries: Blueberries are extremely sensitive to quick release nitrogen sources such as ammonium nitrate that are commonly in 10-10-10 fertilizer. For this season, the University of Florida recommends using an Azalea/ Camellia type fertilizer which contains ammonium sulfate instead. Apply this in late February at the rate labeled on the particular brand purchased.

It is still an ideal time to plant many trees and shrubs. Planting now gives them a few weeks to start active root growth and become established before warmer temperatures in March increase water demand. It you want to transplant a tree from one place to another, that needs to be done in February, as survival success drops quickly the further toward spring we move.

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