More triple-digit heat coming soon; plan accordingly
Tasty and prolific, Juliet tomatoes hold well on the vine. But harvesting encourages continued fruit set. Kathy Morrison
Hopefully, you got what you needed to get done last week because we’re going to start heating up again.
After some pleasant days in the mere 80s, we’re headed back to triple digits. According to the National Weather Service, Sacramento is expected to hit 105 on Tuesday. That’s 14 degrees above normal for mid August. But by Friday, we’ll be back down to a forecast high of 90 degrees – and a very pleasant weekend.
This spiky heat can play havoc with tomatoes; they can’t set new fruit when it tops 95 because their pollen dries out. But the warmth will bring on rapid ripening of fruit that’s already on the vine. Keep plants picked and hydrated.
Until temperatures cool back down, plan to take care of garden tasks in the morning, then retreat indoors out of the sun. Most chores can wait until then.
* What can’t wait: Ripe veggies and fruit. Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplants to prompt plants to keep producing.
* Give your plants a deep watering twice a week, more if planted in containers. Also, give these veggies a boost with phosphate-rich fertilizer to help fruiting. (Always water before feeding.)
* Watch out for caterpillars and hornworms in the vegetable garden. They can strip a plant bare in one day. Pick them off plants by hand in the early morning or late afternoon.
* Pick up after your fruit trees. Clean up debris and dropped fruit; this cuts down on insects and prevents the spread of brown rot. Then feed fruit trees with slow-release fertilizer for better production next year.
* Mulch can be your garden's best friend – it conserves moisture while blocking out weeds. But don't let mulch mound around stalks, stems or trunks. That can promote rot.
* Feed citrus trees their last round of fertilizer for the year. This will give a boost to the fruit that's now forming.
* Camellia leaves looking a little yellow? Feed them some chelated iron. That goes for azaleas and gardenias, too.
* Pinch off dead flowers from perennials and annuals to lengthen their summer bloom.
* To prolong bloom into fall, feed begonias, fuchsias, annuals and container plants.
* Fertilize fall-blooming perennials, too. Chrysanthemums can be fed until the buds start to open.
* Cut off spent blooms from roses, then give them a boost of fertilizer. Roses will rebloom about six to eight weeks after deadheading.
* Indoors, start seedlings for fall vegetable planting, including bunching onion, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radicchio and lettuce.
* Sow seeds of perennials in pots for fall planting including yarrow, coneflower and salvia.
* In the garden, direct seed beets, bush beans, carrots, leaf lettuce, radishes and turnips.
* Plant potatoes.
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Food in My Back Yard Series
June 10: Battling early-season tomato pests
June 3: Make your own compost
May 27: Where are the bees when you need them?
May 20: How to help tomatoes thrive on hot days
May 13: Your plants can tell you more than any calendar can
May 6: Maintain soil moisture with mulch for garden success
April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?
April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)
April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers
April 8: When to plant summer vegetables
April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths
March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth
March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space
March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds
March 4: Potatoes from the garden
Feb. 25: Plant a fruit tree now -- for later
Feb. 18: How to squeeze more food into less space
Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants
Feb. 4: Starting in seed starting
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Garden Checklist for week of June 8
Get out early to enjoy those nice mornings. There’s plenty to keep gardeners busy:
* Warm weather brings rapid growth in the vegetable garden, with tomatoes and squash enjoying the heat. Deep-water, then feed with a balanced fertilizer. Bone meal or rock phosphate can spur the bloom cycle and help set fruit.
* Generally, tomatoes need deep watering two to three times a week, but don’t let them dry out completely. Inconsistent soil moisture can encourage blossom-end rot.
* It’s not too late to transplant tomatoes, peppers or eggplant.
* From seed, plant corn, melons, pumpkins, radishes, squash and sunflowers.
* Plant basil to go with your tomatoes.
* Transplant summer annuals such as petunias, marigolds and zinnias.
* It’s also a good time to transplant perennial flowers including astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia, salvia and verbena.
* Feed camellias, azaleas and other acid-loving plants. Mulch to conserve moisture and reduce heat stress.
* Cut back Shasta daisies after flowering to encourage a second bloom in the fall.
* Trim off dead flowers from rose bushes to keep them blooming through the summer. Roses also benefit from deep watering and feeding now. A top dressing of aged compost will keep them happy. It feeds as well as keeps roots moist.
* Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushier plants with many more flowers in September.
* Tie up vines and stake tall plants such as gladiolus and lilies. That gives their heavy flowers some support.
* Dig and divide crowded bulbs after the tops have died down.
* Feed summer flowers with a slow-release fertilizer.