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Why on Earth would you want to wash off a plant’s roots? Don’t roots prefer being covered with soil?
Very often, mass-produced trees, shrubs, and other woody plants are root bound by the time they reach market. Roots can often be seen circling around the inside of the container, looking for a way out. Left uncorrected, these roots can girdle and kill the plants. Washing the roots allows you to identify the primary roots and to correct any problems.
Soil interface
Soil interface refers the what happens to roots when they come into contact with a different type of soil. Very often, the soil used in mass-produced plants is a soilless mixture that contains a lot of pumice and organic material. You might expect that plants would simply move into the new soil in search of food and water, but they often don’t. When this happens, the plant usually dies. The same thing can happen when you transplant summer annuals from high quality potting soil into more compacted, residential soil. [Believe me, I speak from experience!] Washing off the roots and installing the plant in new or resident soil eliminates this problem. You can do the same thing when planting vegetable and flower seedlings, just be very, very gentle. Planting depth Root washing helps you to replant the newest member of your garden or landscape at the proper depth. Bagged and packaged plants are often surrounded with extra soil. This soil is often assumed, incorrectly, to mark the proper planting depth. Planting trees at the incorrect depth is one of the most common causes of tree death. You want to be able to see the outward flare of the trunk above the soil line. Slightly too high is far better than too low. Very often, planting holes are dug too deeply and not widely enough. Trees and their roots are best pictured like a goblet on a plate. The goblet represents the aboveground portion of the tree, while the plate represents the root system, spreading out laterally. The crown and any grafting union should always be above soil level and soil amendments are not recommended. If you suspect deficiencies in your soil, get it tested before adding anything, because too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. How to wash roots Now that you understand why root washing is a good idea, how do you do it?
That’s it. Now you can inspect, prune, and replant. Finally, rather than watering your trees and shrubs (and other plants) on a calendar schedule, invest in an inexpensive moisture meter. Containerized plants should be allowed to dry out to the point that soil pulls away from the edges of the container slightly, then water thoroughly. The water-stress symptoms of overwatering look very much like the symptoms of not enough water. Don’t guess. Help your plants thrive with root washing and proper planting depth. “Give your plants one inch of water each week in summer.” “Almond orchards use an average of 4 acre feet of water every year.” But what are water inches and acre feet? Let’s find out!  Watering tomatoes by hand How much should I water my plants?
Sorry, but there is no single answer. Every situation is different. There are simply too many variables: soil structure, water holding capacity, sun exposure, plant species, age, size, and developmental stage, wind, rain… the list goes on. You can, however, generally keep your plants healthy by providing them with one inch of water each week in summer. The term water inches is traditionally used in hydraulic mining and it refers to specific tube diameters, vertical surfaces, and pressure levels. We are not discussing those water inches, but there is some math involved. Measuring water Since irrigating plants often means the water is being absorbed into the soil as we water, it is practically impossible to know how much water your plants are getting without measuring it at the hose bib end. You can get a general idea of how much water is coming out of your garden hose by turning the spigot on to a set point and timing how long it takes a one-gallon bucket to fill up. If you counted to 15 while your bucket was filling up, you know that your hose puts out 4 gallons a minute, since 4x15 is 60. Water math Generally speaking, in the world of gardening, the phrase “one inch of water” refers to how much water it takes to cover one square foot of space with one inch of water. Since there are 12” in a foot, you can multiply 12”x12” for your “one square foot” to get 144. This means 144 square inches of water are needed per square foot of garden space. Of course, none of us have measuring cups or watering cans that are marked in square inches, so there is a little more math to do. Don’t worry, though. Once you get used to the numbers, as they apply to your garden space, you won’t have to repeat the calculations. One gallon equals 231 cubic inches. If you divide your 144 sq. in. by 231, you get 0.6 or a little over half a gallon per square foot. What about irrigating raised beds? If you have heavily planted areas or raised beds, you can simply take the length and width measurements and multiply them, using the same steps. For example, say you have a 4’ x 6’ raised bed. First convert feet to inches: (4x12) x (6x12) = 48 x 72 Then calculate the area: 48 x 72 = 3456 Since we now know one gallon equals 231 cubic inches, we divide 3456 by 231: 3456 ÷ 231 = 14.9 gallons This means that your 4’ x 6’ raised bed should be given an average of 15 gallons of water each week in summer. What about watering container plants? The math gets a little trickier with containers. Remember the joke about “pie are squared - pie are not squared, pie are round”? Well, this is where you actually get to use that equation. For those of you who need a little geometry refresher:
For example, let’s say that you have a 10” planter pot. Since diameter is twice the length of the radius, we would create this formula: = (3.14)(10÷2)(10÷2) = (3.14)(5)(5) = (3.14)(25) = 78.5 That may sound like a lot, but it ends up that 78.5 square inches of water equals a little over one-third of a gallon. [78.5 ÷ 231 = 0.34] Acre feet If all this math hasn’t made you crazy, let me just tell you that an acre foot equals the amount of water it would take to cover one acre of land with one foot of water. Without going through all the numbers, one U.S. acre foot equals 325,850 gallons of water. In 2018, it was predicted that the average acre of almond orchard would produce 2,150 pounds of almonds. That works out to over 150 gallons of water per pound of almonds. Watering your plants properly can make or break your garden. Getting a more accurate idea of how much water you are giving your plants can improve their health and reduce water waste. And remember, the “weekly water inch” is just a recommended average for summer. You should always monitor your plants for overall health. If they start wilting and the soil is dry, water them. If they start wilting and the soil is moist, do not add water. Instead, check for root feeding grubs, gopher holes, and hardpan. Did you know that the amount of water in an Olympic-sized swimming pool weighs over 5.5 million pounds? I didn’t either. There are right ways to water trees, and wrong ways. Watering a tree the wrong way can make it susceptible to fungal disease, such as crown rot, and water-stress. While roots are meant to be exposed to soil and water, bark is not.  Almond and apricot trees with trench irrigation rings (Kate Russell) The two most common wrong ways include planting a tree in the center of a bowl-shaped depression, where water pools around the trunk, or using a sprinkler that sprays the trunk. In both cases, water ends up collecting in the crevices of the bark, causing rot and fungal infection. Improper planting depth and over watering are the two most common causes of tree death.  Planting trees in depressions increases the risk of fungal disease (Kate Russell) While you can certainly water your trees with a hose, irrigation rings can save time and provide the water more slowly, preventing runoff. Irrigation rings are handy tools for preventing shade tree decline and conserving water.  Dripline (Ben McInerney) CC BY-SA 4.0 Where do trees need water? If you’ve ever stood under a tree canopy when it’s raining, you know that most, but not all, rain water is deflected away from the trunk by the leaves. The leaves farthest from the trunk form what is know as the tree’s drip line. Trees have evolved in ways that protect the trunk from excessive moisture, while allowing rain water to reach tree roots. Roots that grow beyond the canopy absorb the lion’s share of rainwater. You can mimic this action by providing irrigation water in a ring at the drip line of mature trees. Types of irrigation rings Irrigation rings provide water where it is needed most, in the top 2 or 3 feet of soil, by releasing the water slowly. Irrigation rings come in many forms:
 Irrigation bag (Jeyaratnam Caniceus) Pixabay
Or, you can do what I do, which is simply to dig a shallow trench, 4” deep and wide, in a circle under or slightly outside of the drip line. If you have a semi-dwarf tree with a canopy that is 8’ across, and a trench 4” wide and deep, that trench will hold approximately 20 gallons of water. One added benefit of the trench method is that it helps keep turf at a distance. This type of irrigation ring is not suitable for newly planted trees. Newly planted trees Newly planted trees need water close to, but not touching, the trunk. This is where all the roots are. As the tree becomes established and the root system spreads out, you can start using a trench irrigation ring. Of course, it’s a good idea to dig the trench before the tree’s roots reach that area. In each case, the benefit to the tree is that water is allowed to seep into the soil slowly enough to be absorbed by the tree, rather than running off as urban drool, or percolating downward where tree roots cannot access it as well. And don’t forget to mulch under trees, keeping the mulch 6” away from the trunk. This will reduce water needs, thwart opportunistic weeds, and stabilize soil temperatures. If you have fruit and nut trees, you can prune those trees to improve both the quantity and quality of your crop, or you might eliminate production altogether.  Lateral spur buds of almond Normal pruning Normal annual pruning involves removing dead, diseased, and rubbing branches. It also means training trees for shape, size, structure, and air flow. This is normally done while trees are dormant, in winter. There is also renewal pruning, done in autumn, which stimulates new growth the following spring. But, did you know that you can also prune for better fruit production? It’s true! How fruit happens Fruit and nut trees produce buds. When those buds are fertilized, they can grow into fruit or nuts. [Assuming the tree of healthy enough and old enough.] But some trees produce fruit on new growth, while others produce fruit on old growth. If you keep cutting off productive wood, you won’t have much of a crop. Where do trees produce fruit? Depending on the species, trees produce fruit either on long shoots or on stubby spurs. That fruit can be arranged laterally, along the sides, or at the terminal end. Take a look at the chart below for information about your trees.  This may seem like too much information to be useful, but let’s walk through a few examples together, so you can see how to better prune your trees. Almonds You can see that almond trees produce the majority of their fruit on lateral spurs, and some fruit along lateral shoots. You will also see that each spur is good for 5 years, that very little pruning is needed, and that almond trees are best trained in the open center system. So, what does all this mean to the owner of an almond tree? First, snipping the tips off of anything on an almond tree won’t harm nut production. Of course, if you snip too much, the tree will have to put energy into healing, rather than filling your hopper with delicious almonds. The open center system is exactly what it sounds like - the center of the tree is left clear of major branches in the middle, creating a bowl shape which allows for plenty of sunlight and air to move through. Apples Looking at the information for apples, you can see that snipping off the ends of all the spurs would leave you without much of an apple crop, but cutting off the ends of long shoots would only have a very slight impact. Persimmons Now look at persimmons. All of the fruit production occurs on long shoots of new wood. Cutting out all of your new growth would hamper fruit production. The same is true for quince. Figs are produced on new wood and one-year old shoots.  Terminal shoot bud of fig Generally speaking, citrus trees do not need to be pruned to improve fruit production.
If you sort the chart by location of major fruiting buds, you have:
Armed with this information, go outside, sanitized pruners in hand, and see where you can prune your fruit and nut trees for improved overall health and a significant increase in production!
Pruners, shears, and loppers If you only have one garden tool, make it a high-quality bypass pruner. Pruners are used to prune away dead or diseased stems and leaves, shape shrubs and trees, espalier, and harvest the fruits of our labors. Bypass pruners work much like scissors in that the blades bypass each other to make a clean cut. This makes it easier for plants to heal. Anvil pruners use blades that cut against a flat surface, crushing plant material. Anvil pruners are a good choice for cutting dead wood and woody stems.  Hand pruners Shears look like pruners with the blades turned sideways. Grass shears have shorter blades and are used around trees and shrubs, where a string trimmer might damage the bark. Hedge shears are a larger version used to shear shrubs and hedges. For heavier cutting jobs, long-handled loppers are a good investment. For hard-to-reach cuts, pole pruners are a great choice. They allow you to trim the top of your trees without using a ladder. If you are like me and have arthritic hands, you can find pruners with a ratchet action, which provides increased cutting power. Buckets and baskets In my opinion, a sturdy, galvanized bucket is the second most useful garden tool, followed closely by a variety of baskets. Buckets can carry potting soil, water, weeds, chicken feed, tools, beverages, you name it. Baskets are great for carrying transplants, harvested fruits and vegetables, and other lightweight items. Buckets and baskets are simply too handy not to have, so I have several. Gloves While every gardener dreams of having a Green Thumb, that doesn't mean you actually want your thumbs to turn green. Gardening barehanded is an easy way to develop cracked, stained skin and dirty, chipped nails. Of course, gardening barehanded feels good. It also increases the number of mood-boosting soil microorganisms you absorb as your play with your plants. But you will still want good gardening gloves. Believe me. Thorns and blisters are not fun. When selecting gardening gloves, try on several sizes and brands to see which ones feel the best. To test the touch aspect of your garden gloves, try picking up a dime from a hard, flat surface. Once you find a style and brand you like, be sure to grab several pairs. You’ll be glad you did. Hoses and watering cans Watering cans are handy garden tools, helping keep your plants hydrated when and where they need it. The piece at the end of the nozzle is called a rose. A large watering can with a standard rose is best for larger plants. Use a smaller watering can with a long, narrow, open spout for watering containers. Before buying a jumbo-sized watering can keep in mind that one gallon of water weighs 8 pounds. It can get heavy after a while. Watering cans are generally made of metal or plastic. Plastic watering cans are lighter, but galvanized metals last longer. Personally, I opt for metal over plastic. Unless you are gardening on a balcony or indoors on window sills, you will need more than a watering can to keep your garden hydrated. Garden hoses and soaker hoses come in many lengths, colors, and styles. You can control the way water comes out of your garden hose with an adjustable nozzle or water wand. Water wands provide a gentle, rain-like sprinkling. My husband swears by them. I prefer using my thumb. When shopping for a garden hose, be sure the hose does not contain lead or other heavy metals. Lead is used in manufacturing many hoses, but it is probably not a good idea for your edible plants. Forks Pitchforks and spading forks look like dinner forks, only bigger. Pitchforks, or hay forks, have round tines and are used for pitching hay and flipping compost. Spading forks have flat tines that dig into turn the soil and lift plants out of the ground. Garden forks are handheld tools that look like a hand, with the fingers curled downward. A gardening fork is used to break up soil and when weeding. There are also potato forks, border forks, and broad forks, which you can read more about at the Garden Tool Company. Shovels and trowels Even if you employ no-dig gardening, sooner or later, you will probably need a shovel. A shovel is used to turn the soil, break up dirt clods, move materials around, and prepare beds for planting. Long-handled shovels are easier on your back, and short-handled shovels are better when working in tight spaces. There are two basic types of shovel: rounded end and square end. The end of a shovel is called its point. Round point shovels are used for digging. They usually feature a shelf for your foot to provide extra digging power. Square point shovels are better used for moving all that valuable mulch around. Shovels with sharp cutting edges are called spades. Narrow spades, used for digging trenches and installing transplants, are called drain spades. Trowels are simply miniature, handheld shovels. A trowel’s flat or curved blade surface is used to dig into and lift up soil, seedlings, and weeds without disturbing the surrounding area. Extra narrow trowels are called transplanters. Saws The most commonly used saw in the garden is the pruning saw. Pruning saws have a short handle and a short, curved blade, making it easy (usually) to work within a tree’s canopy. Bow pruning saws look more like hacksaws, with the blade held within an extended C-shaped metal handle. Wheelbarrows and carts Wheelbarrows are three-wheeled carts used for moving compost, soil, and other materials. Unless your garden is particularly small, you will want a cart or wheelbarrow. The bucket portion of a wheelbarrow is called its tray. Trays can be plastic or metal. If you are shopping for a wheelbarrow, I urge you to consider a more durable contractor grade. It’s worth the investment. Plastic wheelbarrows and carts have the advantage of being lightweight and they don’t rust, but sturdy and durable are worth the extra cost in my book. Hoes Most hoes are long-handled gardening tools with a small, thin metal blade, used to break up soil and when weeding. There are also handheld hoes, which are indispensable when it comes to getting to the root of problem weeds. In addition to your standard, rectangular garden hoe, there are three other common garden hoes: the Warren hoe, the action hoe, and weeding hoes. The V-shaped Warren hoe is used primarily for digging furrows. The sharp-edged action hoe is a flattened circle used to cut weeds on both the push and pull strokes. There are actually several varieties of this type of hoe, which we will explore another day. Weeding hoes are double-headed in that they have a flat blade on one end and two pointed tips on the other end. Rakes There are 3 basic rakes used in the garden: leaf rakes, cultivars, and thatching rakes. Leaf rakes feature flexible tines gathered at the top into a triangular shape. These cause minimal damage to lawns while collecting fallen leaves. Cultivators are comb-shaped rakes with sturdy metal teeth. Cultivators are used to move mulch, rocks, and soil. When a cultivar has a T-shape, it is called a flat rake. When the head is held in place with two curved steel supports, it is called a bow rake. Thatching rakes use short, sharp, blade-shaped tines, held horizontally, to scratch the soil surface and remove thatch from lawns. Other tools Other handy gardening tools include dibbles, brassica collars, moisture meters, soil sampling tubes, post hole diggers, edgers, stock panels, tree cages, tomato cages, canister sprayers, sticky barriers, brooms, tarps, rain barrels, knee pads… well, the list never really ends. Before adding to your tool collection, however, let’s take a look at common problems associated with garden tools.  Popular gardening tools Problems with garden tools Dull tools are hard to work with. Dirty tools can carry pests and diseases. If your garden tools are not well maintained, they can become dangerous to you and your plants. A sharp, rusty edge can turn a small cut into a trip to the doctor’s office. Dull blades tear at plants, rather than making clean cuts. And if you don’t periodically sanitize your garden tools, well, you’re just asking for trouble. Tools should be sanitized regularly with a household cleaner. There are a surprising number of mostly fungal and bacterial diseases commonly spread by contact with infected tools:
Witches’ broom and clubroot can also be spread by infected garden tools. And those tools can carry vine mealybugs, nematodes, and San Jose scale to new plants.
Remember, pests and plant diseases are not the only things that get carried on tools - herbicides, pesticides, and tetanus bacterium can hitch a ride just as easily. Keeping tools clean is one way to break disease triangles and prevent accidental exposure. How to clean rusted tools It happens. You leave a tool outside overnight, or you decide, as I did, that your garden tools look lovely, hanging up against the chicken coop. Unfortunately, in each case, this exposes metal tools to water. Metal plus water equals rust. Compounding that problem, putting tools away without cleaning them leaves soil and microbes in contact with the metal surface, which can also cause corrosion. Even if you are diligent about cleaning and protecting your garden tools, they will still need regular care to work properly and last. Following these steps will help your garden tools stay useful longer:
So, what about those rarely heard of tools? How about a billhook? Or a sickle? Or a scythe? Scythes are those long-bladed tools you see being carried by Death or Father Time. If you ask my kids, they will tell you that scythes are implements of torture. This is due to my mother’s insistence that they help her mow a swath of path through her 97-acre Upstate New York farm one summer. Sickles are similar to scythes but only smaller. Billhooks are similar to sickles, but with a wider blade and an even shorter handle. Used to pull brush and vines closer, and then cut them, billhooks, block hooks, and brishing hooks are commonly used in vineyards and when pleaching. Pleaching is the art of building living fences. You want tools that fit nicely in your hands and aren’t too heavy. It is important to buy garden tools that are well made. The demands put upon them often cause lower-quality products to fail. I urge you to avoid poorly made, novelty tools. Ultimately, all your plants need is good soil, plenty of sunlight, and occasional rain. But well-made, properly maintained tools can make gardening a lot easier on your hands and your back. Overwatering is the most common cause of death for houseplants and holiday plants. Under-watering can be just as devastating, indoors or out. So, how much water is enough, and how much is too much? And how can you tell?  Handheld soil moisture meter (Sealman) CC BY-SA 4.0 Moisture meters measure the amount of available water in a soil sample. You can buy a simple moisture meter at any garden supply store. You can also install a multi-million dollar moisture sensing system throughout your landscape, but that’s beyond the scope of this blog (and my budget).
The trick to using a moisture meter is understanding the reading, and using the information properly to avoid water-stress. Before we learn how to read those results, let’s see what types of moisture meters are available. Types of moisture meters Handheld moisture meters measure soil moisture using a bimetal tip that measure electric conductivity. Other types of moisture meters use a variety of methods to measure soil moisture and its availability to plant roots. These other tools include gypsum blocks, tensiometers, watermarks, and neutron probes. [A neutron probe is a radioactive tool used by professionals who have been trained and licensed. If you get your hands on one of these, please donate it to your local County Extension Office as soon as possible.] Moisture meters either measure the amount of water in a soil (content), or how tightly the soil holds that water (tension). The most commonly available handheld moisture meters do not require any real understanding about soil moisture. You simply stick the probe(s) into the soil, look at the display, and water accordingly. These inexpensive moisture meters are very useful tools, though the probes tend to corrode rather quickly. Since each type of soil has unique properties, it is important to be able to calibrate your moisture meter for your soil texture. Salt levels in soil can have a big impact on moisture meter readings. If your soil has high salt levels, you will need to take that into account, as well. Also, where you place your moisture meter probe has a big impact on the usefulness of the information. If you want to know more about soil moisture, read on. Otherwise, skip to the bottom section on caring for your moisture meter. Soil moisture Each soil has its own water holding capacity. For example, if you have sandy soil that is saturated with water, gravity will pull any excess water downward, away from plant roots. If you have clay soil, as we do here in San Jose, water may be present, but much of it will be unavailable to plant roots. This is because clay has many small spaces with which to hold tightly to water molecules. [Adding organic material to clay soil increases the availability of that water.] The extent to which soil holds onto water is called its soil moisture tension. Soil moisture tension is measured in centibars (cbar). Most plants perform best between 40 and 80 cbar:
The amount of moisture available to plant roots is called a soil’s plant available water. Plant available water (PAW) can be measured as a percentage of weight, a percentage of volume, or by depth, as inches of water per foot of soil. Soil moisture content varies widely between different soil types:
When plant roots are unable to pull water from a soil, it will have reached its wilting point. The permanent wilting point occurs at 15 to 20% for clay soil, 10 to 15% in loamy soil, and at 5 to 10% in sandy soil. How much water do plants need? There is no correct answer to that question. [Sorry.] There are simply too many variables at play: plant type, age, size, and developmental stage, soil structure, soil texture, sun exposure, microclimate, time of year, air temperatures, recent weather… You get the idea. In California, UC Davis recommends one inch of water each week during the peak of summer. To fill a one foot by one foot area with water to a depth of 1 inch uses 0.623 gallons. In winter, your plants may not need any water, assuming it rains. A plant’s need for water varies throughout its lifecycle. The biggest demand for water occurs during vegetative growth and initial fruit production. Since this normally occurs during summer, when evaporation is at its peak, maintaining the proper moisture level makes the difference between healthy, productive plants, and plants that are struggling for survival. As temperatures drop or senescence (preparation for death) begins, the need for water drops dramatically. Adding more than is needed creates a different sort of life-threatening set of conditions. [Can you say fungal disease?] Caring for your moisture meter The sensor found at the end of most moisture meter probes is sensitive to damage and corrosion. To keep your moisture meter operating properly, be sure to wipe it off after each use and do not force it into dry, compacted soil. If a reading is needed under those conditions, create a starter hole with a screwdriver. Also, watch out for rocks, which can damage the probe. As an added benefit, many moisture meters can also provide you with soil pH information. This is one tool every gardener should have on hand and use regularly. Just remember, you get what you pay for. Planting trees too deeply has become the Number One reason why trees fail.  Mature tree with visible flare (PxHere) Public Domain Is your tree failing to thrive? Does it seem overly susceptible to fungal diseases and pests? Are leaves smaller, scorched, or otherwise discolored? Has seasonal leaf color change started occurring earlier? Are wilting, early leaf drop, or twig dieback been occurring? Are you seeing more water sprouts and suckers? Have you noticed less new twig development? It may be that your tree is planted at the incorrect depth. Even heavy fruit production can indicate a problem. Confused? Don’t be. Producing fruit is a tree’s way of continuing the species. If the tree is dying, it will put everything it has into ensuring a big crop of potential future generations. A properly planted tree shows a flare at the base of the trunk. If your tree looks more like a fence post, it is probably planted too deeply. In the world of botany, a tree planted too deeply is said to be planted ‘below grade’. Trees with exposed roots were planted too shallowly and are ‘above grade’.  Proper planting depth (USDA Forest Service) Public Domain Knowing how to plant a tree at the proper depth (or how to correct the problem once it occurs) is the best way to keep your trees healthy and productive. Start your trees better When you first buy a young tree, it is usually in a container or the roots are balled up in a burlap bag. In both cases, the young tree has 5 to 20% less feeder roots than a similarly sized tree growing in the ground would have. As a result, these young trees dry out more easily and are easily stressed. If that weren’t problem enough, putting that stressed tree in the ground at the wrong depth can kill it, though it may take a few years. The goal of planting is to get your tree in the ground in such a way that new roots can grow quickly and properly. Proper planting depth The majority of a tree’s roots are in the top 18 to 24 inches of soil. They spread out horizontally and vertically from the center, well beyond the drip line, in their search for food, water, and air. [The drip line is the outer circumference of the tree canopy, where rain water drips to the ground.] To plant a tree at the proper depth, use these tips:
Ultimately, you want at least two structural roots to be in the top 1 to 3 inches of soil. Planting too deeply The roots closest to the surface are responsible for a large portion of a tree’s respiration. Tree respiration is not the same thing as human breathing. Tree respiration refers to the process by which a tree performs the gas exchange used to generate or release energy. If a tree is planted too far below grade, those surface roots will still grow horizontally and be unable to get at the air they need. Planting too shallowly The primary vertical roots of trees planted too shallowly (above grade) will not grow out into the air. They simply dry up and die. This reduces the water and nutrients available to the growing tree. These upper roots may also try growing into the mulch, where there is limited food and water, or they will simply go around in circles, becoming root bound in the planting hole. This is one way that girdling roots occur.  Girdling roots can kill a tree (cultivar413) CC BY 2.0 Girdling roots
Girdling roots are those lateral roots found just below the surface that have, for one reason or another, started growing in circles around the tree. This is common with trees kept in containers for too long. Another common way girdling roots occur is when the roots are ‘spun’ into the planting hole, rather than spread out horizontally. Make sure that your planting hole is wide enough to allow those important roots to spread out the way they were meant to grow. Girdling roots can also occur in compacted soil. If the surrounding soil is compacted, young roots simply cannot penetrate, so they go around and around, looking for a path in their search for moisture, minerals, and air. Curbs, large stones, and building foundations can have similar effects. Girdling roots will kill your tree in 5 to 15 years. It won’t matter how well you fertilize or irrigate your tree. Speaking of irrigation, be sure to avoid standing water around the trunk of your tree. This can lead to crown rot and other fungal diseases. Instead, use soaker hoses or build an irrigation ring at the tree’s drip line. Are your trees planted properly? The easiest way to tell if a tree is planted properly is to dig down an inch or two, with your fingers, next to the trunk. You should come across 4 to 11 substantial roots. If all you find are delicate feeder roots, your tree is planted too deeply. If the roots are visible from the surface, it is too shallow. How to correct planting depth errors Trees planted too deeply (below grade) should be dug up, the roots inspected, and then replanted at the proper depth. Trees planted above grade need more soil added around the trunk. First rake the area under the tree to loosen the existing soil. Then add a layer of soil to the proper depth, gently sloping away from the trunk. Proper planting depth is critical to your tree’s health. Trees planted above or below grade will never thrive. Believe me, it is much easier to do it right in the first place. Wrapping your trees to protect against winter cold sounds like a good idea, but it probably isn’t. For decades (centuries?) people have wrapped their trees to protect against frost cracks, winter sunscald, and other forms of cold weather damage. While this sounds like a great idea, it ends up that those wraps can actually cause more harm than good. The theory behind tree wraps Winter tree and plant damage can occur in several ways: flat out freezing; temporary warming, followed by freezing; and cracks caused by the water within the plant freezing, expanding, and pushing its way out. When you get down to it, it is rapidly fluctuating temperatures that cause the most damage to trees in winter. Types of tree wraps Tree wraps, also known as tree guards, or tree liners, can take many forms. Commercially available tree wraps include white plastic guards, white adhesive tape, foil-backed fiberglass panels, capillary mats, landscape fabric, reflective greenhouse insulation, and watering bags. DIY growers have used paper, bubble wrap, burlap, cardboard, shredded newspaper, foam, and I have a neighbor who knitted sleeves for her trees!  Knitted tree wraps (Kate Russell) It's very colorful, and I like to think that the good airflow allows moisture to evaporate enough to keep the trees healthy.
Some people make their own tree wraps by creating a tube of chicken wire fencing around the trunk and filling the space in-between with shredded leaves. All of these methods require frequent inspections to avoid becoming problematic. Problems with tree wraps According to the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA), studies have shown that tree wraps do not actually prevent temperature fluctuations. In some cases, temperature variations are even worse with the wraps. Also, tree wraps provide protection for many wood-boring insects, wasps, and earwigs, just to name a few. This is especially true with snugly fitting wraps. Manufacturers and many gardening sites suggest that tree tubes be left on young trees for several years, until they are well established. They claim that tree tubes insulate the trunk against winter sunscald and shade it against summer sunburn. These tubes may also prevent a tree from swaying in the breeze so much that it fails to get strong, through a process called thigmomorphogenesis. [How’s that for a cool garden word?] Wrapped too tightly, tree wraps can interfere with normal growth, causing girdling. Depending on the material used, it may cut into the bark, causing points of entry for pests and disease. Often bare root stock and young trees are sold with tree wraps in place. These wraps can provide protection during digging and shipping, but they can also hide injuries, insects, and improper pruning. Wrapping your trees may reduce mechanical damage and rodent feeding, but it is more likely to result in insect damage and fungal disease. And it will not protect your trees against frost cracks or winter sunscald. Personally, I prefer whitewashing, mulch, and proper irrigation to prevent cold weather damage. Frost cracks may look fascinating on small twigs, but they can destroy tree trunks.  Twig with frost crack (Kate Russell) The first step to preventing frost cracks is to know your frost dates.
Frost dates Frost dates are averages of when the first and last frost will occur in your area. Local frost dates provide valuable information to gardeners. You also need to know that those dates are only statistical averages. Frost may still appear before or after those dates, so be prepared. Plants in winter In nature, plants protect themselves from frost cracks and winter sunscald by absorbing large amounts of water from the ground and radiant heat from the soil. Even a blanket of snow provides insulation that stabilizes soil temperatures for the roots. Once the ground freezes, the water they need is locked up. Plants also go through chemical changes that help prevent death by freezing. Sometimes, those adaptations are not enough, and frost cracks can occur. How do frost cracks happen? Frost cracks can occur in two ways: the moisture inside the plant freezes too quickly, or the outer bark cools faster than the living wood. In the first case, the water stored within the plant freezes and forces its way out of those cells. The loss of moisture causes these areas to shrink and crack away from the unfrozen plant tissue. As temperatures rise, the tissue may be able to absorb enough water to close the crack. It will always be a weak spot, prone to pests, diseases, and re-cracking. Repeated cracking can result in a condition known as frost ribs. Frost ribs are permanently damaged areas that remain susceptible to pests and diseases. These frost cracks tend to be vertical, exposing the cambium layer. They can be several feet long, though you may not see them until spring when the tree resumes growing. Frost cracks are more likely to occur at previous injury sites, providing a good argument for protective tree supports in high-traffic areas. Frost cracks can also occur when the bark and underlying wood are heated during the day, causing them to expand. As temperatures drop in the evening, the bark cools faster than the internal wood, causing the bark to crack. Frost cracks commonly occur on the west and southwest sides of thin- or smooth-barked trees, such as apples and pears. Beech, crabapple, horse chestnut, maple, and willow may develop frost cracks, too. Other plants are susceptible to frost cracks and winter sunscald, as well. Caring for frost cracks Once a frost crack has occurred, it will likely happen again. Caring for these injuries goes a long way toward protecting your tree from invading pests and diseases. First, resist the urge to paint sealant or tar over the wound. Sealants can trap moisture against the injury and increase the chance of decay, especially around branch collars. If a frost crack has jagged edges, you can help your tree heal by cutting a narrow strip (< 1/2”) around the wound with a sharp, sterile knife, creating smooth edges. Doing so will speed the growth of the cambium, which will develop into a protective callus. How to prevent frost cracks First and foremost, keeping your plants healthy and properly irrigated will help them protect themselves. Since healthy tissue and defective tissue expand and contract at different rates, maintaining healthy trees in the first place is your best insurance against frost cracks and winter sunscald. These other tips can make a big difference in how your plants weather the winter:
Remember, it is far better for your plants to have frost and ice protections in place before they are needed. Do you have a spot where nothing (but weeds) will grow? Do you have a patch of lawn you’d rather use for growing food? No-dig gardening may be the answer.
Problem areas Digging out a lawn is hard work, and it damages the living things that help soil stay healthy. Areas of ground that regularly fail to support plant life often have poor soil structure and are lacking beneficial soil microorganisms. No-dig gardening uses layers of organic material to create the conditions needed for worms and other invertebrates, plant roots, and soil microorganisms, to transform a barren or compacted piece of ground into a friable, fertile place to grow healthy food. Traditional cultivation No-dig gardening is the opposite of traditional cultivation. For thousands of years, we have drilled holes, cut furrows, and plowed up the land we use to grow food. Traditional cultivation provides many benefits. It hides crop seeds from birds and other seed eaters, removes perennial weed roots, exposes pest eggs and larvae to predators, and it loosens the soil (sort of). Unfortunately, traditional cultivation also has a bad side. All that digging increases topsoil loss due to erosion, disturbs beneficial soil microorganisms, worsens compacted soil, reduces water absorption and retention, and brings dormant weed seeds to the surface, where they then germinate. We counteract these negatives with the addition of fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and more water. All those chemicals and disruptions are creating problems, and we need sustainable solutions. No-dig gardening may be one of those solutions. Natural processes Natural processes that have evolved over millions of years rarely result in furrows being dug in the ground. Instead, leaves, seeds, flowers, fruit, blood, urine, feces, and dead insects and animals all fall to the ground and lay on the surface. This mix is then walked on, blown around, and rained on until it is ground into tiny bits. These tiny bits of organic material are then pulled into the soil by worms and other invertebrates, and gazillions of microorganisms, that all convert organic matter into mineral elements plants need to grow and thrive. These processes also create soil with important spaces, called macropores and micropores, that allow the soil to breathe, and make room for water and roots to move freely. This nurtures soil microbes, which generate biologically active enzymes, vitamins, antibiotics, and glomalin (the glue that holds soil particles together). [Did you know that plants release one-third of all the organic matter they generate through their roots, to attract and feed nearby soil microbes? Pretty cool, eh?] So, maybe we don’t need to dig to be able to garden… How to no-dig gardening works Clearly, if you are going to plant a bare root tree, you need to dig a hole. But, if you have a patch of ground that you want to convert into a garden bed, digging is not necessary in most cases. Instead of digging up weeds and existing, unwanted plants, you simply smother them with a 3 to 4” layer of organic material, be it compost, aged manure, wood chips, or whatever you have handy. By blocking the sunlight, most annual weeds will die. In doing so, they and the mulch add nutrients to the soil and improve soil structure and texture. Garden plants are then installed in this layer of nutrient-rich, friable mulch. Over time, more mulch and other organic materials are added on top. This is why no-dig gardening is also called sheet mulching, sheet composting, or lasagne gardening, because organic matter is simply added in layers over time, without digging any of it in. Like other gardening methods, no-dig gardening has its pros and cons. Benefits of no-dig gardening First, let’s face it, digging is work. If your soil is heavy clay, like mine used to be, it’s damn near impossible to break ground in summer without power tools. In addition to saving your back, no-dig gardening leaves the complex world of soil life alone, to do it’s thing. This means beneficial fungi and bacteria, worms, and other invertebrates can go about their business, eating and pooping, unmolested, converting organic matter into plant food, and improving soil structure and texture as they go. This is an excellent way to put those autumn leaves, and all that yard and kitchen waste to good use. Placing all that organic matter on top, rather than digging it in, reduces the number of weeds you have to deal with, and it encourages worms to come up to the surface and grab a bite before heading back down to safety. All that worm traffic helps aerate the soil. No-dig gardening reduces erosion. Every time you dig or plow, you are exposing more soil surface area to sun, wind, and rain, which can lead to erosion. Over time, this exposed area develops a protective crust that repels water, interfering with the absorption of rain and irrigation water. No-dig gardening also reduces soil compaction. Here me out on this: as you rototill, dig, or plough the soil, one layer gets churned up and aerated. Below that level, however, everything gets compressed, potentially creating hardpan, or plow pan, an impenetrable barrier to delicate roots. So, why wouldn’t you want to try no-dig gardening? Drawbacks to no-dig gardening The first downside to no-dig gardening is that a lot of mulch and compost are needed on a regular basis. If you’re like me and raise your own chickens, this is not a problem. Or, if you live near a stable, manure is readily available, just be sure to age it first. If you have seriously compacted soil, no-dig gardening can and will, eventually, improve soil structure and texture enough to make it easier for plant roots, but it will take some time. [One of the easiest ways to reduce soil compaction in the garden is to install designated paths. This is true regardless of what gardening method you use.] Finally, because decomposition is occurring all around your garden plants, you may find that snail and slug, sowbug, and gopher populations skyrocket. While they are there to eat (and breakdown) all that compost, they may find your lettuce and young seedlings irresistible. How to create a no-dig garden patch If you want to try no-dig gardening, start with a small patch. First, water the area well. If there are any large, perennial weeds present, cut them off at ground level and cover the area with a thick layer of coarse wood mulch. Water the area again. Then, cover your patch lasagne-style with layers of aged compost or manure, straw, mulch, and other organic material, water it, and let it settle for a few days. While it may take a year or more for the benefits of no-dig gardening to fully take effect, you can plant large, spreading plants, such as pumpkins or squash in this patch right away, assuming its the right time of year. As the organic matter breaks down, simply add more layers on top and let nature do all the work. I use this method in my raised beds, adding organic material as a repeated top dressing. Once your no-dig garden is established, you can install new plants by simply clearing an opening with a dibble, your hand, or other garden tool, and water around it. No-dig gardening may not be the cure-all to your back and garden problems, but it is certainly worth a try! Did you know that soil has a wilting point? It’s not that soil wilts, instead, wilting point is reached when the water needed by a plant to stay upright has been used up.  A plant rooted in soil that is beyond the wilting point (Pewebe) CC BY-SA 3.0 Soil moisture
Water, plants, and soil perform an intricate dance. The soil has spaces, called macropores and micropores, that allow air, roots, and water to move through. The water molecules in the soil are strongly attracted to each other, using surface tension. This is how soil holds onto water, despite the pull of gravity. The amount of water a soil profile can hang onto is called its water holding capacity, or field capacity. When a soil is holding all the water it can, and becomes saturated, any additional water is pulled into the ground water by gravity, or runs off as urban drool, where it eventually is discharged into rivers, lakes, and oceans. At the opposite end of the soil moisture spectrum, a soil can be so dry that it becomes hydrophobic. Hydrophobic soil actively repels water. Sponges act the same way. If you have a completely dry sponge, water will tend to run across the top, rather than be absorbed. Once a little water is absorbed, a lot more is pulled into the spaces that make up the majority of a sponge. Finally, if even more water is added, it will simply flow through the sponge. Why the wilt? Plants wilt for several different reasons. Bacteria or fungi may be blocking the xylem, there may be too much salt in the soil, ice damage may have occurred, or because the soil has reached the wilting point. When plants do not contain enough water, plant cells cannot remain plumped up, or turgid. As water becomes less available, cells shrink and become floppy. [Tree trunks do not get floppy because they contain lignin. Unlike cellulose, which is a sugar-based material, lignin is alcohol-based, but we will discuss lignin another day.] The problem with wilting is that there is a point of no return. This is a soil’s permanent wilting point. Permanent wilting point Permanent wilting point is death for plants. If a soil moisture rating reaches or surpasses the permanent wilting point, it doesn’t matter how much water you add later, the plant will die. This occurs more often with containerized plants, but it can happen anywhere. Soil texture plays a big role in how much soil moisture is not enough to keep a plant alive. This is due to the soil’s ability to hold the water so tightly that plant roots cannot suck it in. The permanent wilting point occurs at 15 to 20% for clay soil, 10 to 15% in loamy soil, and at 5 to 10% in sandy soil. You can monitor soil moisture using an inexpensive moisture meter. Hot summer afternoons are the perfect time to enjoy a nap in a hammock - especially if you are a pumpkin or a melon.  Old onion bags make good pumpkin hammocks Climbing plants use vines and tendrils to pull themselves ever upward, but they are not always strong enough to support a full sized pumpkin or watermelon. Providing extra support for heavy fruits can allow vines to become far more productive. Supporting fruit in hammocks also helps with pest control and frugal disease. Growing up and saving space If you are like me, growing melons and squash is an exercise in space-saving. Melons, pumpkins, cucumbers, watermelons, and cucamelons can all be grown up stock panels, in vertical gardens or towers, or up a fence. Left untrained, these long vines can take over an area. Cucumbers and cucamelons do not need extra support. In fact, cucumbers will grow in strange shapes if they come in contact with anything as they develop. Cucumbers are best allowed to hang naturally. But growing vertically puts a heavy strain on stems and tendrils as fruits get larger. That’s where hammocks come in. Hammocks, insect control, and fungal disease Raising fruit off the ground reduces the chance of many insect pests, such as darkling beetles, even finding your crop. At the same time, solid fabric hammocks can also create the perfect hiding spot for earwigs, so it’s a good idea to monitor your hammocks frequently, especially if you are using a closely woven cloth. Getting fruit off the ground also reduces fungal disease. Millions of fungi wait in the soil for just the right conditions - conditions that are created when a melon or pumpkin sits on the ground, creating shade and moisture collection. Great for fungi. Bad for your crop.  Onion bags allow good airflow while keeping cucurbits off the ground How to make melon (and pumpkin) hammocks
You can use an old pair of pantyhose, net onion bags, scraps of hardware cloth or chicken wire, old dishtowels, or old T-shirts to create hammocks for your melons and pumpkins. I have tied strips of fabric around cyclone fencing, sunflower stalks, and stock panels. You can also slip colorful onion net bags over immature fruit and tie or thumbtack the bag to a fence, trellis, or other support. An added bonus to using onion bags - the colors make it easier to find your melons! Get your melons and pumpkins up off the ground with hammocks! A cloche can protect young plants from cold, wind, heavy rain, and many small pests. Similar to the women’s hat of the same name, a cloche is generally bell-shaped, but it doesn’t have to be.
Solid-bodied cloches can provide protection for tender plants against caterpillars, snails, aphids, and many other pests. For a cloche to be effective against chickens, squirrels, and other larger pests, it has to be very sturdy and anchored in a way that can withstand repeated attacks. DIY Cloches While there are many sizes and shapes of cloche available for purchase, you can easily make your own. The most common DIY cloche suggestion is to use soda bottles or milk jugs by cutting off the bottom of the jug and using the lid to ventilate the cloche. The only problem with these ideas is that they add even more plastic to your garden soil.
Heat-loving plants, such as tomatoes, peppers, basil, and eggplant, get a much better start when protected with a cloche early in their development. Seeds or seedlings can be placed under a cloche after the soil has been watered. Most of the moisture will stay trapped in the cloche, but occasional waterings will still be needed as the plant grows. Because a glass cloche holds heat and air within, it can get too hot and too humid for your young plant.
Occasional venting is necessary. To do this, simply slide a piece of wood or a rock under one edge of the cloche to increase air flow. In the evening, before temperatures start to drop, remove the prop and allow the cloche to sit flat on the ground again. If your cloche is made with fabric, venting is not needed. Once the plant outgrows the cloche, simply store it for another season or use it on another, smaller plant. Cloches can also be used to help sensitive perennials make it through winter. Some plants need help staying upright. That’s where garden stakes come in. Growing up and falling down Some of your plants, such as peas, cucumbers, and pole beans, need something to climb, while tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers often need help staying upright. As these plants begin producing fruit, the load they have to carry can sometimes be more than they can support. When that happens, stems can bend or break and fruit ends up touching the ground. This allows fungal diseases, slugs and snails, and other pests and diseases to threaten your crop. These problems can be prevented with garden stakes, tree supports, and tomato cages. Tomato cages Most gardeners are familiar with tomato cages. Tomato cages provide a framework within which plants can grow and produce without risk of falling over. In some cases, using simple garden stakes can provide similar support. Peony supports look similar to a tomato cage, but with bars across the middle. Tree supports Tree supports are used when trees are young and newly planted. These supports provide protection from mechanical damage from lawn mowers and careless drivers (or walkers). They also prevent breakage from strong winds. It is important that tree supports are used properly and removed when they are no longer needed.
Garden stakes are available for purchase in many different materials, or you can make your own. Garden stakes from retail outlets are generally made from wood, plastic, or metal. I have a collection of bamboo stakes, in various lengths, that I find very useful. You can also make your own from tree branches (called pea fencing), sunflower stalks, scrap lumber, and whatever fits the purpose.
How to tie plants to garden stakes
One common mistake new gardeners make is tying plants too tightly to garden stakes, or using material that is too thin. Thin string or wire can easily cut into stems. You can use cloth, insulated wire (I found a huge roll of insulated wire at a yard sale for $3), or commercially available plant staking tape. When tying plants to stakes, be sure to allow room for growth and some movement. When to install garden stakes Sooner is better than later. It is much easier on your plants (and you) to install garden stakes while plants are small. This way, you don’t have to maneuver around stems and fruit, and root systems are still relatively small, so there’s less damage. Getting creative with garden stakes Have some fun with your imagination, when it comes to garden stakes. You know that old umbrella that was turned inside out during a storm? Remove the fabric and the U-shaped handle and mount it on a pole. Attach strings to each arm and allow peas to climb up! You could repurpose an old bicycle wheel, create a tower out of some old chicken wire, or, install plants near a picket fence or stock panel for built in garden stakes. Plants don’t care what you give them as garden stakes, but your harvest will be significantly improved with these handy tools. Branch collars are one way trees seal off injuries.  Branch collars help trees heal (Mokkie) CC BY-SA 3.0 Picture, in your mind’s eye, a young tree growing towards the sun. Every so often, a branch starts to emerge from the side of the thickening trunk. This is what they do. Now, picture a side branch that grows in a way or a place that requires its removal. Where do you make the cut? Tree pruning is an excellent way to maintain good tree health and increase production. Doing it incorrectly, however, can kill your tree - and it's all about the branch collar.  Branch collars create visible lines, if you look closely What is the branch collar? The branch collar, or callus roll, is the raised area that surrounds the base of every branch. This where tree growth changes from trunk to branch. You may also see a wrinkled area where a branch meets the trunk. This is called the branch bark ridge. But the branch collar is where trees produce the protective callus. Damage the branch collar and infection is sure to occur. If you want to learn more about branch collars at the cellular level, check out Horticultural Science’s pdf Tree Branch Attachment to Trunks and Branch Pruning. In it, Alex L. Shigo describes how branch tissues develop, bringing the xylem and phloem along for the ride, to feed the new branch. Fascinating stuff! How trees heal When a limb is cut, the tree seals off the area with a dry covering called a callus. The callus is generated in the branch collar and slowly works its way toward the center of the cut. If the branch collar is damaged, the tree cannot seal the area off properly. Often, this is how moisture enters a tree, leading to rot and decay and, potentially, the death of a tree.  Dying branches form a chemical protective layer (red arrows). Removing the collar destroys that layer. Blue arrows show the branch bark ridge. (USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org) CC BY 3.0 Tree pruning - the Wrong Way Research has shown us that there are many common misbeliefs about tree trimming:
In each of the above practices, more harm is being done than good, and all because of the branch collar. Making a better cut Looking at each of the Bad Ideas listed above, let’s see what makes them detrimental to your tree’s health:
 Correct pruning of larger branches avoids cutting the branch collar (MPF) CC BY-SA 3.0 Instead of doing it the Wrong Way, you can put the branch collar to work for you and train your tree to grow better and stronger.
They will never jump through a hoop for you, but you can train your trees to be healthier and more productive.
Tree training helps fruit and nut trees stay healthy, produce larger crops, and avoid broken branches. Proper tree training also reduces the likelihood of pests and disease. Too much fruit and strong winds can result in broken branches. Proper training can prevent these problems. You may not want to go as far as pollarding or coppicing, but training your trees for good structure, air flow, and the retention of productive wood is always a good idea, except when it isn’t. Trees that are particularly large or unstable should never be trimmed or pruned by an amateur. It is too dangerous. When to train trees Most fruit and nut trees are deciduous. This means they go dormant and lose their leaves in winter. This is handy for several reasons. First, it allows you to remove leaves that may be carrying pests or diseases. Secondly, it allows you to see the true structure of your trees. This makes training them a lot easier. The only exceptions are cherry and apricot trees, which should only be pruned in summer, to avoid Eutypa dieback. Making a proper cut You may want to read up on pruning before you start training your trees. Put simply, you will want to make a smooth cut that is flush with, but does not cut into, the branch collar. There is no need to paint or treat these cuts. Your tree will develop a protective callus over the area, all on its own. Tree training basics To maintain a healthy fruit or nut tree in your backyard, you will probably want to keep it pruned to a manageable size. This is usually 6 feet tall and 6 feet wide. If it gets too large, you won’t be able to reach. Surprisingly, trees of this size can still produce a lot of fruit. As with any other pruning job, you will want to remove any dead, diseased, or damaged limbs. You will also want to eliminate one of any pair of crossed branches. These will tend to rub against each other, creating points of entry for pests and disease. As you prune, try to work from the inside out and avoid leaving stubs. You can orchestrate the direction new twigs will take by cutting just above buds that face in the direction you want the new twigs to grow. Do not use downward facing buds as these tend to be weak and break easily. Your overall goal should be to expose the tree’s interior to more sunlight, without risking extensive sunburn damage. The big picture Before cutting, take the time to really look at your tree’s structure and shape. Learn what is typical for that particular species, and think about what you want from your tree over the next several years. Consider issues such as wind exposure, shifting shade patterns, fruit and leaf litter, and tree maintenance. What is proper training for a tree in one location may be completely inappropriate in a different location. If you’re not sure, ask me. You can also look at this fruiting wood characteristics chart, from UC Davis, that can help you decide what to remove and what to leave for another year. Once you have really looked at your tree and prepared your tools, you will need to select the training style best suited to your tree species. The lowest branches are usually at knee height, regardless of the style chosen. Central leader The central leader training style is best suited to semi-dwarf and standard size trees. This style features a single main, vertical trunk. Competing upright shoots are removed and an alternating spiral of lateral branches is encouraged. This is your classic Christmas tree shape. Modified central leader The modified central leader style allows more sunlight into the center than a central leader system. To create this shape, a tree is first trained as a central leader, until it reaches the desired height. Then, the central trunk is topped, or removed, just above the most recent lateral growth. This causes the tree to develop more of an open center. This method is particularly good for cherries and pears. Open center The open center style seems to be the most popular for backyard orchards. In this style, three or four low-growing scaffold (main) branches are encouraged, with the center kept open, like a bowl. Lateral (horizontal) branches make up the sides of this bowl shape and are trimmed back to approximately 30 inches. Fruiting wood will grow from these branches. This method provides good sun exposure and air flow. Also known as vase-shaped training, it is a good method for almonds, Asian pears, and European plums. The “Y” system The “Y” system features two scaffolding branches, heading in opposite directions, creating a “Y” shape. Look at it as a two-dimensional open center style. This method is particularly good for peaches and nectarines. It can also be used for apples, plums, cherries, and pears. Espalier Espalier training is a trellising system used to create a two dimensional shape. This method works well alongside driveways, paths, buildings, and fences. If you end up removing smaller, new wood, you can save these and use them as scions, to create new trees or modify existing trees. They make good gifts for fellow gardeners, as well! Also, as you work closely with your tree, keep a look out for scale and other insect pests that may be overwintering in your tree’s bark. There’s a lot more to wind than meets the eye. You may not see it, but gentle breezes and wailing typhoons carry insect pheromones, fungal spores, viruses, and bacteria. Gentle breezes help plants develop stronger stems, and gale-force winds can rip trees from the ground.  Wind (USA.gov) Public Domain Beneficial winds Seedling development is a function of sunlight, moisture, temperature, and wind. Being blown around stimulates the stem to be stronger. Botanists call this action thigmomorphogenesis. Plants grown in greenhouses, without any wind, are gently knocked around by a machine that helps prevent the plants from becoming too tall and spindly. Note: While most pollen is too sticky to be affected by wind, wind is the primary mechanism for pollination of corn plants. Pollen is too sticky to wipe or rub off your eyelashes, so don’t try. You can damage your cornea. Believe me. It takes soap and water. Wind damage Wind dries plants out. Plants exposed to a lot of wind need more water than their protected brethren. Wind can also speed up erosion. Ground covers and mulch reduce that erosion. During heavy winds, you may want to move containerized plants next to a fence or wall to prevent breakage. Protect tall plants against wind damage with stakes, tree supports, and tomato cages. Wind damage can be in the form of branches flailing around and tearing holes in leaves and branches rubbing together. Wind damage provides pathogens with a way in. And hot summer winds can lead to blossom drop and fruit set failure. Wind wounds Strong winds can rip heavily laden branches or overly large limbs from a tree, leaving jagged wounds. You can help these trees recover quickly by cutting the tear to make it a flat surface, close to the trunk, but not too close. Do not cut into the branch collar. And you do not need to paint the wound. Instead, allow the tree to protect itself. It will grow a callus over the area. You may, later on, need to provide the callus with sunburn protection. Diseases on the breezes Disease-causing pathogens are usually microscopic. As such, they can catch a free ride on every breeze that blows through. [I wonder if that would make it a case of phoresy…] In any case, several diseases can arrive in your garden in the wind. Gray mold (Botrytis cinerea) is always present. That is why rotting fruit gets that gray fuzz so quickly. It’s everywhere. Mummy berry spores blow into your garden on the wind. So do chemical oversprays. The chances of ringspot on Brussels sprout skyrockets after a windy day, and citrus blast often occurs right after periods of wind-driven rain. You can reduce the likelihood of citrus blast by providing citrus trees with some wind protection. Wind protection Wind protection can take many forms. It may be a fence, a hedge, or a row cover.. You can protect plants from wind by installing them close to your house. Pineapple guava, mature blueberry bushes, and many fruit and nut trees can provide a windbreak. Portable cold frames can protect smaller plants against cold winter winds. When spring comes around, wind can mess up a plant trying to get established in a new location (ecesis). The wind is one of the main reasons for taking the time to harden off plants started in protected areas. And when you start planting those tiny seeds, such as lettuce, you can often lose most of your crop to the wind. They simply blow away. [You may want to check your neighbor’s yard for all that lettuce and endive you planted last year…] And all those delicate seedlings that emerge can be protected from the wind with a moistened layer of vermiculite. Or, you can cover them with a plastic gallon jug (cloche) with the bottom cut out. Just be sure to bury the edges or weigh down the jug enough to prevent it from blowing away, too!  Floating row covers (Keith Evans) CC BY-SA 2.0 Finally, I wanted to share this with you. While researching wind and its impact on plants, I learned that there are three types of wind in the universe:
I never knew that our planet outgassed anything. So, now you know. Our planet farts into outer space. Most of us have read the word coppice somewhere, but what does it mean? And how is it used in the garden? Let’s find out! Similar to pollarding, in which the top branches of a tree are removed, coppicing refers to periodically cutting trees or shrubs back to ground level to stimulate new growth for firewood, basket weaving, or other building materials. Similar to the word ‘copse’, which refers to a small group of trees, to coppice means to strike ‘a blow’ - taken from the Latin colpus. Copse is a shortened version of coppice, probably because after you coppiced a group of trees, you ended up with a copse. Coppicing in history People have been coppicing since pre-historical times. Back in Medieval days, the Lord of the manor, or the king, would allocate a measure of wood to the local peasantry each year from the royal forest. This allotment was called an estover. The stalks left behind when growing fields of corn or cereal grain is called ‘stover’ for the same reason. Depending on the size at cutting time, the wood was often referred to as a “low forest”, middle forest, or high forest.
The biology of coppicing Many trees and shrubs have the ability to put out new shoots, or suckers, from their roots or stump. This can be a royal pain, if you are trying to get rid of a plant. Otherwise, this ability leads to the growth of many thinner, straighter limbs that are well suited to woodworking, basket weaving, wattle and daube fencing, and more. The stump left behind after coppicing is called a stool. Growth rates vary by tree, so a birch tree may be coppiced every 3 or 4 years, for switches, while an oak tree may be coppiced every 50 years, for lumber or firewood. Did you know that cinnamon trees are coppiced for their bark? What’s really strange about coppiced trees is that they never get old. These plants never leave the juvenile stage. Because of that, the stump, or stool, just keeps getting larger in diameter, but the aboveground growth is always young. Some stools have been coppiced for centuries, reaching a diameter of up to 18 feet! Sometimes, it is decided that coppicing is no longer desired, but a mature tree is. In that case, a single stem is left uncut and all the others are removed. This is called singling. [A copse that has been abandoned to reach full height is said to be overstood.] Coppicing as woodland management Traditionally, areas that use coppicing as a management tool do so in sections, called coups. This allows one section to be freshly cut, another to be growing, and yet another to be nearly ready to cut, for a continuous supply of materials. Because of all these various stages of development, copses tend to have a lot of biodiversity. Back in 1544, Henry VIII (yeah, that guy) declared a statute that required coppiced trees be protected from browsers after cutting, and that 12 mature, uncut trees per acre be left in place. These mature trees were called standels. Nowadays, they are called standards. ‘Coppicing with standards’ is still commonly used as a woodland management tool. Coppicing as permaculture As long as the soil nutrients are maintained, these trees and shrubs can produce wood indefinitely. This makes them part of modern permaculture. [Permaculture refers to self-sufficient, sustainable agricultural practices.] Small wood harvested by coppicing can be used to create light fencing to keep out marauding hens, to support poles beans and other climbing plants, as building material, and as firewood. Coppicing as pest and disease management Coppicing can be used to interrupt common pest and disease triangles. Many insect pests overwinter in cracks in the the bark, at stem and twig joints, or in damaged wood. Diseases often lie dormant in the same places. This infested or infected wood is pruned out, along with the useful harvest. Coppicing in the garden Finally! Now that you understand the function, history and usefulness of coppicing, we can see how it is used in the garden. In late winter, before new shoots emerge, you can coppice a variety of trees or shrubs in your garden or landscape. Of course, this only works on plants that can handle heavy pruning. To coppice, simply cut off at or near ground level, while the plant is dormant. In addition to willow and hazelnut, alder, ash, birch, dogwood, elm, hornbeam, oak, and sycamore handle coppicing well. Most of these are broad-leafed hardwoods. Most conifers should not be coppiced, yew being the exception. There are several reasons for coppicing in the garden or home landscape:
 Coppicing infographic (Javier Martin) CC BY 2.5 Trees with a trunk diameter greater than 6 inches may not respond well to coppicing. That’s alright because amateurs shouldn’t be trimming big trees, anyway. It’s dangerous. Seriously. Coppicing can reduce problems associated with too much shade, clogged rain gutters, and shifting foundations. When the upper portion of a tree of shrub is coppiced, some of the underground roots die back. In spring, new roots emerge. Shrubs that can be coppiced include:
Before you start chopping away at trees and shrubs, be sure to learn as much as you can about the species being coppiced and the appropriate frequency for the species. Coppicing too frequently can kill a tree or shrub.
Banding is a way to help your seeds get a better start on life.
As much as making music is a great way to expand your mind and improve your math skills, banding in the garden has nothing to do with tempo or harmonics. Banding refers to the practice of incorporating fertilizer in the soil close to your seeds at planting time. Just picture, in your mind’s eye, a band of seeds planted in the ground, with a band of fertilizer right next to them. As new roots grow, they are sure to find a good meal to help them get big and strong. It makes obvious sense, but you do have to be a little careful. Banding falls into the “too much of a good thing can be a bad thing” category. According to Montana State University, benefits of proper banding include:
How to band seeds at planting time Unlike top dressing, which means leaving aged compost or fertilizer on top of the soil, banding requires a little more effort. For the home gardener, we don’t need to get too particular about the depth. Professional, large-scale farmers have this down to an art and science, but we can safely apply our banded fertilizer 3 or 4 inches deep, 1 to 3 inches on either side of the row of seeds being planted. These “starter fertilizers” make valuable nutrients available to early roots, helping the seedling to reach its full potential. Before you jump on the fertilizer band wagon [Sorry, I couldn’t resist], you need to find out what you are working with and which fertilizers are best for your plants. I’ll say it again: soil test! You can’t know what to add if you don’t already know what you have. Your soil may have an abundance of phosphorus. Adding more could be detrimental to your plants, and it’s a waste of money. Adding unnecessary fertilizer also puts the environment at risk, you know, global health and all that. Find a reputable, local soil test company and use them. The results are really fascinating and useful. [Over the counter soil test kits are not reliable or useful. Yet.] If your soil already has plenty of everything, banding is unnecessary. If your soil is lacking any of the Big Three plant nutrients, banding can help your seeds overcome this handicap. Choosing the right fertilizer for banding All fertilizers are required to provide information about the percentage by weight of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). Think about this for a moment. A 10-pound bag of 10-20-10 fertilizer contains 1 pound nitrogen, 2 pounds phosphorus, 1 pound potassium, and 6 pounds of filler. After you have gotten the results from your soil test, you can select the best fertilizer for your crop. According to Pennsylvania State Extension, nitrogen and phosphorus are the “key nutrient components in a starter fertilizer.” If all your plants need is nitrogen, blood meal is an excellent choice. Be cautious with fertilizers that contain urea (46-0-0) or diammonium phosphate (10-34-0), as these substances can burn or even kill young plants. So, find out what’s in your soil. If something is lacking, put it where seeds are sure to find it with banding! Correct overcrowded roots with division. Not the chalkboard variety, but by digging plants up, cutting them apart, and replanting. Do my plants need dividing? If production is down among your perennial plants, it may be that the roots have become too crowded. You can fix that with division. Division is a form of asexual propagation used on perennial plants. Annuals and biennial plants do not live long enough to make this method worthwhile. Signs that your perennials need dividing:
Why divide plants? There are many perennial plants that benefit from dividing every few years. Plants that grow from rhizomes, such as bunch grasses, asparagus, and ginger, can be divided simply by digging up a section of the underground stem and cutting between the established plant and new growth, and planting the cut end someplace else. Many other perennial plants grow from corms and bulbs. These plants reproduce underground by creating offsets and bulbils, respectively. In either case, over time, it gets crowded down there! Which plants need dividing? Some plants, peonies and hostas, for example, never need dividing. Others, such as iris, Shasta daisies, and coreopsis should be divided every 2 or 3 years. Daylilies, evening primrose, and bergenia generally need dividing every 5 years or so. Many other garden plants vary in their need for division, depending on soil health, plant age, climate, and more. It’s generally a case of being observant and noticing when plants look like they need some breathing room. Artichokes commonly need dividing, as do many flowers, including chrysanthemum, delphinium, germander, lamb’s ears, penstemon, scabiosa, and yarrow. When should plants be divided? Autumn is generally the best time to divide plants. Autumn-blooming plants, such as saffron crocus, should be divided in spring. In both cases, temperatures are neither too hot not too cold, and plants will have time to recover before winter’s chill slows growth to a halt, or the summer sun bakes everything to a crisp.
How to divide perennial plants
Don’t be afraid to try dividing your plants. They will be far healthier and more productive once they reestablish themselves. Follow these steps to divide the perennials in your landscape:
Help your perennial plants reach their full potential by periodically dividing them. By dividing, I transformed my overcrowded, unhealthy, and unhappy Shasta daisy into 15 separate plants that now have room to grow and thrive and bloom! Growing the same plants in the same place each year can be a bad idea.
You can break the life cycle of many soil borne pests and diseases by growing plants from different families in the same beds, at different times, in a process called crop rotation. Intercropping is similar to crop rotation, except that intercropping refers to growing different plants in the same area at the same time. Many false claims have been made about the “companion planting” concept, but the benefits of crop rotation have withstood the tests of time and science. Benefits of rotating crops While it may be convenient to grow the same plants in the same place each year, in a method called monoculture, many soil borne pests and root diseases can be thwarted by moving crops around. Also, growing different types of crops in an area can reduce nutrient depletion, and sometimes, growing nothing at all is the best choice. Going fallow In agriculture, allowing land to rest is referred to as going fallow. This means nothing is grown - no crops, no weeds, nothing. This period of inactivity starves out many agricultural pests. And, honestly, we all need a break now and then. Having a fallow period is an important aspect of crop rotation. Traditional crop rotation In Biblical times, farmers were urged to leave an area to its own devices every seventh, or Sabbatical, year. Other methods have also been tried:
Modern agriculture uses chemical supplements to replenish lost nutrients and counteract soil pests, but this method has its own drawbacks, as many of those chemicals then find their way into our food and water supplies. Crop rotation goals The goals of crop rotation are to break the life cycle of soil borne pests and diseases, to control weeds, to increase the amount of nitrogen in the soil, to improve soil structure, and to add organic material to the soil. Depending on what you are working with, different crops will help you reach those goals. The first thing you need to do is to identify the soil borne pests and diseases in your garden. Common soil pests and diseases Verticillium wilt and downy mildews are the most common Bay Area soil borne diseases. Phytophthora tentaculata is a new threat to many garden plants. Root maggots and many destructive nematodes, such as root knot nematodes, are the most common pests. Take the time to find out which pests and diseases are affecting your plants. Then, look those troublemakers up and learn what you can about the plants they prefer, which plants are unaffected, and which plants can help eliminate the problem. For example, research has shown that Verticillium wilt, which commonly attacks tomatoes, can be reduced by planting broccoli in the same bed, in the following winter. In the same way, root knot nematodes may not impact corn and onions, but they can devastate berries, grapes, and many fruit and nut trees. Growing members of the cereal grain family, such as wheat or barley, in an affected area can reduce nematode populations. Planning the right rotation for your garden The simplest way to incorporate crop rotation is to think of why each crop is being grown. Are you harvesting roots, leaves, or fruits? Simply switching up the type of harvest can be enough to break the disease triangle, just be sure to add in a legume crop for the nitrogen in this most basic rotation. For a more science-based crop rotation, you will need to put on your thinking cap. First, identify each unique planting area. Then, list all of the plants you normally grow in a year. Next, label each plant as nitrogen adding or depleting, also biomass adding or depleting. You will also want to add notations about any particular pests or diseases that affect each plant. Personally, I am a visual learner, so I break out a pad of graph paper and some colored markers for this exercise. I use slips of paper for each plant, and then add color-coding to represent each of the different conditions. Then, I move the slips of paper around on a sheet with each of my planting areas roughly drawn on it. Your method may be very different from mine, but it is worth the effort to find a way that works for you. Successful crop rotation can result in harvests that are 10-25% larger than crops grown in a monoculture system. While scientists have not yet figured out why this happens, they have named it “The Rotation Effect” and you can put it to work in your garden today! Thinning young plants gives them the room they need to grow bigger and stronger. And most people have a hard time with this common garden task. When to thin seedlings? While most plant thinning occurs in spring, as new tomato, pepper, eggplant, and other seedlings emerge, the Bay Area is lucky to have a second growing season, filled with salad greens, broccoli, and cauliflower, so the need for thinning comes around again each fall. A difficult task For many gardeners, the idea of removing perfectly healthy plants does not come easily. Images of lush, ripe tomatoes, peppers, and melons offer so much potential, that we find reasons not to thin our garden plants. Of course, by not thinning, we compromise the health of all the plants. Thinning eliminates competition, leaving plenty of food, water, and sunlight for the remaining plants. This allows them to reach full size and produce larger crops. Proper thinning also provides good air flow, preventing many fungal diseases. Thinning basics Thinning used to mean yanking unwanted plants out of the ground by their roots. This is no longer the case. Soil science has taught us how important tiny soil microbes are to plant health. Pulling plants out by their roots removes the microbes, as well. This makes it difficult for the remaining plants to get the nutrients they need. Pulling plants out also disturbs the roots left in place, which also slows growth. Instead, thinning is done with pruners or scissors, cutting pants off at ground level. This leaves the remaining root systems undisturbed. Plus, it allows the microbes from the thinned out plant to relocate and assist the plants left in place. Snipped off seedlings can be added to the compost pile or fed to the chickens. Just keep in mind that not all crops are thinned in the same way. Just how much thinning is needed? Onions and other root plants need frequent thinning. Other plants, such as leeks and beans, perform better without thinning at all. Large, spreading plants, such as pumpkins, need to be thinned out leaving a single plant every 2 or 3 feet! To understand the best way to thin each type of plant, check your seed packets. That information is usually printed on the label. Use it. They know what they’re talking about. If the seed packet is no longer available, look it up online or ask me in the Comments section. You can often calculate spacing needs based on the expected mature size of each plant.
If you really can’t bring yourself to toss out healthy seedlings, you can always plant individual seeds in peat pots, cell trays, or any other item that will hold a small seedling until it can be transplanted. Of course, this method means extra work in other ways, but it does eliminate the need for thinning.
Do your garden plants a favor and don’t procrastinate thinning! No, we are not talking about those epic childhood battles in the back of the station wagon. Pinching back is a way to redirect a plant’s growth and nutrients to where they will best be used. How to pinch back Take careful aim, tensing thumb and forefinger... Wait, no. That's not what we're talking about here. Pinching your sibling is probably a bad idea. Pinching back your plants can be a good idea. After a young plant has several pairs of true leaves, you can use your thumbnail to severe the stem just above a leaf node. Leaf nodes are the place where leaves grow out of a stem. It is important that you do not damage the tiny buds that are tucked between the leaf and the stem. This space is called the internode and the tiny buds are made of meristem tissue that can grow into new stems. Pinching back stimulates two stems to emerge at the nodes, increasing lateral growth. This doubles the number of stems, making a plant fuller. In only a few days, you will see these buds swell and new stems emerge. You can pinch back these new stems for even bushier growth after they have a few pairs of new leaves. Do not pinch back below where you have already pinched. Plants don’t respond well to that treatment.
Pinching back vs. deadheading
Deadheading refers to the removal of spent blossoms. This is done to stimulate new flowers to grow and the method is very similar to pinching back. In both cases, stems are cut just above leaf nodes, but for slightly different reasons. If a flowering plant believes that it has completed its reproductive cycle, it has little reason to produce more flowers. [Producing flowers is hard work for a plant.] Removing nearly spent blossoms triggers the plant to create new ones. Pinching back is done to stimulate lateral stem growth, rather than specifically for flower production. Tipping vs. topping Pinching is generally performed on herbaceous, or soft-stemmed, plants. Pinching back woody plants, such as trees, is called topping and can harm or even kill the plant, unless performed at the proper time of year and in the right way. Topping trees is best left to professional arborists. Pinching back for structure Some plants tend to get too tall, falling over just when they are covered with flowers or produce. My borage does this every year. Pinching the central stem slows that upward growth and stimulates growth out toward the sides. Of course, this does mean you get a few less flowers, at first, but it can extend the total growing time, weather permitting. Creating a bushier structure with herbs, such as basil, also gives you far more of the fragrant leaves you grew the plant for in the first place. You can think of pinching back as pruning, only in miniature! Pinching back for production Many plants, such as tomatoes, produce far more side shoots than the main stalk can support. That’s why tomato cages are so popular. You can significantly improve fruit quality by pinching back many of these side shoots. Pinching back is also very useful near the end of the growing season. Removing any flowers that will take too long to mature before the first frost dates forces the plant to focus its sugary energy on the remaining fruit. Don’t be afraid to pinch back new growth on your soft-stemmed plants. You can help them to be healthier and more productive with this simple task. It also gives you an up close and personal look at the health of your garden plants. Irrigation is what makes agriculture possible. The history of irrigation Humans started irrigating crops (on purpose) as far back as 6,000 B.C. Those early efforts were nothing more than redirecting the flows of the Nile and Tigris Rivers in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Twenty-five hundred years later, irrigation science led to the invention of the Nilometer. The Nilometer was generally a stick, or some stairs, that went down into the river to measure its changing depth. Priests would use that information to ‘magically’ predict the next flood. Another 400 years would pass before anyone thought to build actual canals and dams to redirect water into agricultural fields. It would take another thousand years before the Romans figured out concrete pipes. In fact, we owe a debt of gratitude to those same Romans for inventing indoor plumbing - yay! Two hundred and fifty years later, Hammurabi (the man responsible for the first set of written laws) instituted water regulations. Some of Hammurabi’s water regulations include: 55. If any one open his ditches to water his crop, but is careless, and the water flood the field of his neighbor, then he shall pay his neighbor corn for his loss. 56. If a man let in the water, and the water overflow the plantation of his neighbor, he shall pay ten gur of corn for every ten gan of land. I have no idea what ‘gurs’ or ‘gans’ are, but you get the idea - we’ve been fighting over water rights for a really long time! Good water management Many years ago, while living in an RV and traveling the country, I stopped at a midwestern diner in the wee hours of the morning for some breakfast. The old men who filled the booths and sat at the counter had but one topic of conversation: rain. They were comparing notes on how many hundredths of an inch fell on their respective properties. It was not what I expected, but it made me realize how much science there is behind irrigating crops properly. Good water management means understanding the necessary timing, volume, and application method best suited to your garden and landscape plants. Farmers deal with irrigation water in terms of acre-feet. One acre-foot refers to how much water is needed to cover one acre of land (43,560 sq. ft.) to a depth of one cubic foot. If you do the math, that ends up being 325,851 gallons of water! Per acre. Each week. You see why drought is such a Big Deal in the world of agriculture! Now, as home gardeners, we will never be using water at those rates. Instead, we have to look at our garden spaces as micro versions of the same calculations. Instead of acre-feet, we need to look at square feet. How much water does my plant need? One of the most common gardening questions asked is: How much water does my favorite garden plant need? And the answer is always: It depends. [This invariably irritates some people, but it’s the truth.] Water needs are a function of too many variables to give a pat answer. Soil structure and makeup, plant variety, microclimate, stage of development, life stage process, plant size, root depth*, and exposure to heat islands are just a few of those variables. In California, UC Davis recommends one inch of water each week during the peak of summer. To fill a one foot by one foot area with water to a depth of 1 inch uses 0.623 gallons. For example, let’s say you have a 4’ by 6’ raised bed: 4 * 6 = 24 sq. ft. 24 * 0.623 = 14.952 gallons Your raised bed should receive 15 gallons of water during the peak of summer. In spring and fall, half that amount should suffice. Now, if you dump 15 gallons of water into that raised bed all at once, most of it will percolate down through the soil and disappear from the plants’ root zone*. It is far better to water every day during summer. This would mean adding a little more than 2 gallons to our example bed each day of summer. * How deep do garden plant roots go? Rooting depth changes, depending on the variables mentioned earlier, but you can use the information below from UC Davis for a general idea for mature, full-sized plants:
How to irrigate
You have several options when it comes to how you get the water to your plants. You can spray with a hose, use sprinklers, fill furrows, use soaker hoses, or install drip emitters. Each method has its pros and cons:
Measuring water In each case, you will need to know how much water is being delivered. If your bed needs 2 gallons of water a day and you have a 2-gallon watering can, well, there you go. If you are using any other method, you will need to know how much water is coming out of the spigot. You can buy a gadget that is installed between the spigot and the hose for the easiest calculation, just be sure to avoid the cheap, plastic models. They are inaccurate and break very quickly. Also, you need to know that just because you applied the water does not mean it went where you intended. Soil can do funny things to water underground. Take the time to gently dig around plant roots after irrigating to see that the water actually saturated the root zone, rather than running off someplace else. Irrigating compacted clay soil Here in the Bay Area, we have heavy clay soil that is often compacted. That means we must be careful when irrigating. Irrigating compacted or clay soil too heavily simply compounds existing problems. Water slowly and gently, and do not dig or till wet soil. The smooth edges left behind can harden into an impenetrable barrier for tender roots. Benefits of proper irrigation Not only will plants receive the correct amount of water as they grow, but less water is wasted, pests and diseases are minimized, and plants will be more likely to reach their full potential. You can simplify irrigation by grouping plants with similar water needs. When it comes to container plants, you generally need to give them more water than in-ground plants. Self-watering containers are an easy way to make sure that your container plants have the water they need. Organic gardening and farming are on the rise. But what does ‘organic’ really mean? Let’s find out. The word ‘organic’ simply means that something is made from materials that were, at one point, alive. The term ‘organic food’ means different things in different countries. In some countries, it means absolutely nothing. In the United States, it refers to food produced by certified organic farming methods. Certified organic farming uses the following practices:
In a perfect world, organic foods (and clothing) would be exactly that, but we don’t, so it isn’t. Car fumes, GMO pollen, reckless profiteering, and countless other inputs make purely organic farming an impossibility. It is, however, still worth aiming for.  The OMRI certified label - look for it! Organic pesticides and fertilizers
Many organic farmers still spray crops with chemical pesticides and fertilizers, it’s just that the chemicals they use must be from natural sources, and they must be dispensed using equipment that was not used with synthetic chemicals. That being said, some of the ‘natural chemicals’ used in organic farming are pretty awful. Just because something occurs naturally doesn’t mean it’s safe to eat. Death cap mushrooms are a perfect example. Also, good intentions are not always enough. Horse and cow manure are excellent for composting, but are you certain about which medications, diseases, or other ingredients might come along with that manure? Good cultural practices, garden sanitation, biodiversity, and composting can all help reduce the need for any type of chemicals in your garden or landscape. Organic mulch Mulch is an excellent way to protect unplanted areas, but where did it come from and what is in it? Mulch from tree trimmers is usually a good bet (and free!), but there is still no guarantee that the trees weren’t diseased or sprayed with chemicals. Even worse, mulch made from discarded lumber may contain arsenic. Yikes! You can use your own yard waste to create a relatively organic mulch and reduce landfills as the same time. Organic potting and planting soil Deciding to grow your own food isn’t as simple as it sounds, either. Does your bag of potting soil contain ground up car tires? What about styrofoam? Just because a bag of soil says ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ does not mean it is healthy for you or your plants. If you want truly organic, you must look for the certified OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute) label. Other organics Sometimes we think we’re doing the right thing and it ends up being the wrong thing. For example, if you bought birdseed from 2005 to 2008, you may have been party to poisoning the very birds you were trying to help! Scotts Miracle-Gro knowingly sold birdseed tainted with chemicals toxic to birds, fish, and other wildlife. Would using organic birdseed have been better? Probably. [Personally, I won’t be buying ANYTHING* from Scotts Miracle-Gro. EVER.] Before despair sets in, let’s turn around and look at the positive side of things. As I said at the beginning, organic farming and organic agriculture are on the rise. Sales of organic foods and textiles are also increasing. As more certified organic farms become established, the prices of organic foods drops, making them affordable for more people. That’s all really good news. Also, for every food item that you grow for yourself, you will have a far better idea what went into that plant before you eat it. In the world of organic gardening and farming, the bottom line is: who do you trust with your family’s health? * Scotts Miracle-Gro sells the following product lines: Scotts, Miracle-Gro, Ortho, RoundUp, Tomcat, nature’s care. Osmocote, Substral, Evergreen, Nexa, Celaflor, KB, Fertiligene, Naturen, Weedol, Earthgro, and Hyponex, just so you know what I won’t be buying. What you do is up to you. |
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