Our yo-yo weather continues; watch out for signs of plant stress
Harvesting summer vegetables such as peppers will keep the plant producing. If you wish, leave bell peppers on the plant until they turn color -- red, yellow, orange, purple or "chocolate," depending on the variety -- and then harvest them. Kathy Morrison
If you liked July, you’ll love August. This month starts out with the same spiky weather pattern: Triple-digit heat on weekends and dramatic cooldowns in between.
According to the National Weather Service, Sacramento can expect 105 degrees on Sunday. But by Tuesday, we’ll be back down in the 80s. Tuesday’s forecast high is only 89 degrees – six degrees below Sacramento’s average for the first week of August and a 16-degree drop from Sunday.
That relative cool will linger through the work week – with afternoons topping out in the high 80s or very low 90s – before creeping back up to 98 degrees next Sunday, Aug. 13.
Could the worst of our summer heat soon be behind us? Averaging highs of 91 degrees, August is typically a little cooler than July. But it’s still pretty hot. Remember to stay hydrated; that advice goes for your garden, too.
Maintaining even soil moisture – not too dry or too wet – can help plants cope with the stress of not only high heat, but yo-yo temperatures.
* 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. Most tomato plants need at least 5 gallons a week.
* Give your summer veggies a boost with phosphate-rich fertilizer to help fruiting. (Always water before feeding.)
* Cracks on your tomatoes? Blame these dramatic increases in temperature. Heat spikes likely caused those splits.
* Brown spots on the bottom of tomatoes, eggplant and peppers likely are due to blossom end rot. It’s a side effect of very dry soil. Plants need moisture so their roots can absorb nutrients and form healthy fruit.
* 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 early morning or late afternoon.
*Feed citrus trees their last round of fertilizer for the year. This will give a boost to the fruit that's now forming.
* 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 crown rot.
* 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.
* 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 for next year.
* 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.
* 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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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3
November still offers good weather for fall planting:
* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.
* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.
* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.
* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.
* Plant garlic and onions.
* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.
* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.
* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.
* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.
* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.
* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.
* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.
* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.
* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.
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