Video Segments
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Planting Bare Root StrawberriesRetired UT Extension Agent Mike Dennison shows how to plant bare root strawberries. The most important thing to remember is to not let the roots dry out. Mike keeps the plants in water until they go into the ground. Also, you need to make sure you plant at the correct depth. The plant will die if planted too shallow or too deep.
After tilling the soil, Mike digs the holes for the plants. Ideally, in the matted row system, the plants should be about 18 inches apart to allow the strawberries to run and grow daughter plants. Here there is not space, so Mike plants them about a foot apart. Right before planting he prunes the roots. This pruning helps the plant fit in the hole better and stimulates growth. If the plants had more leaves, he would also trim off all but two leaves. He then holds the plant in the correct position relative to the hole and backfills around the plant. He waters which helps settle the soil around the roots. Finally, he checks for any roots that are exposed above the soil and covers them. Related Video: Planting Strawberry Transplants Related Resources: Growing Strawberries Growing strawberries in the home garden Growing Strawberries |
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Annuals and Perennials for the GardenChoosing the right perennials and annuals for the flower garden can be a challenge. Rick Pudwell Director of Horticulture for Memphis Botanic Garden gives some tips on choosing and shows some examples of each.
Annuals are plants – usually grown from seed that live one season, set seed, and then die. Because they only live a short time, they tend to flower most of their lives. Perennials on the other hand are plants that live several years and usually only flower once a year at a specific time. If you deadhead perennials, they may produce another set of flowers later in the year. You need to think about the conditions where you are going to plant – sun, shade, wet, dry – and pick a plant that will do well there. If you would like flowers blooming all year around, visit a nursery every month of the year and each time, pick a plant that is blooming. Some perennials even bloom in the winter. Proper soil preparation is important. Add organic material and get a soil test to see if you need to change the pH or other conditions for the plant. If you are starting a garden, start small. Plant where the plants will be easy to water and maintain in the hot summer. Rick shows a few examples of different plants. Related Resources: Growing Annual Flowers Growing Annual Flowers: Planning, starting and caring for a garden Growing Perennials Gardening with Perennials |
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Growing Potatoes
Potatoes are a garden staple. They may be eaten many ways: fried, boiled, or creamed. Haywood County UT Extension Director Walter Battle talks about the basics of growing potatoes. In the Mid-South, potatoes are usually planted from mid-March to mid-April. It takes 90-100 days from planting to harvest. In warmer climates it is possible to grow a spring and a fall crop. Potatoes like a pH of 6.1-6.2. Use a 6-12-12 fertilizer if your soil needs the nutrients. A soil test will tell you.
The eye of the potato will grow into a plant. Several days before planting, cut your seed potatoes so there are eyes on each piece. Set them aside for several days so the cut dries and scabs over. Plant six inches deep with each potato piece about a foot apart. When the potato plants are about six inches tall cover the bottom 3-4 inches with a mound of soil. When the plants die back the potatoes are ready to dig. Dig from the side to avoid damaging the potatoes. Do not wash the potatoes, that will cause rot. Lay them out for several weeks to allow them to dry out and cure before storing them. If stored in a cool place they can last many months. Potatoes are the favorite food of the Colorado potato beetle. There are several insecticides on the market that can control that insect. Potatoes are in the same family as tomatoes and get many of the same diseases. Early blight can affect potatoes but can be controlled with fungicides. Related Resources: Potato Growing potatoes in home gardens Potatoes in the Home Garden |
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New Pepper Varieties
There are several new disease resistant varieties of pepper available to home gardeners. UT Assistant Professor of Horticulture Natalie Bumgarner talks about some of the ones she has successfully grown in her vegetable trials.
Black spot is a common pepper disease which can reduce yields. Luckily there are several cultivars which are black spot resistant. For bell peppers, Natalie likes Alliance, Red Knight, Mecate, and Big Bertha (which does not have black spot resistance but still performed well). Italian roasting or bullhorn peppers have an elongated shape; good choices here include Carmen, Mama Mia Giallo, Corno di Toro, and Cornito Giallo. For Jalapeno hot peppers, Natalie recommends Emerald Fire and Spicy Slice. For novelty peppers she recommends Mad Hatter and Candy Cane. Many ornamental peppers are hot but are not that great tasting. Lately there are several ornamental peppers that are more mild and better tasting that have come on the market like Pretty N Sweet. You can see All-American Selection Pepper winners at the AAS website Related Resources: Growing Peppers in the Home Garden Growing peppers in home gardens Home Garden Peppers |
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Propagating Ferns from Spores
Ferns are one of the most primitive vascular plants in the world today. Gardeners can propagate ferns by dividing and sometimes with cutting rhizomes, but in nature ferns reproduce by spores. Kim Rucker the Greenhouse manager at Dixon Gallery and Gardens tells how to propagate ferns from the spores. In the late summer or early fall the fern spores on the back of the leaves are mature. Kim collects some leaves in an envelope and shows how to get the spores to release. Then she prepares a small container with germinating mix and vermiculite and dumps the spores in. After several weeks a moss-looking green covering will be seen on the soil. This is the gametophyte stage of the fern’s life cycle. If you continue to let it grow the sporophyte stage will grow, which is what we know as a fern.
Related Resources: Growing Ferns Growing Tropical Ferns Indoors |
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Daylily Basics
Daylilies are forgiving plants that add color to the garden. It is the favorite flower of UT Extension Agent Lucas Holman. There are over 60,000 hybrids of daylily, but there are two main distinct types: diploid and tetraploid – which refers to the number of chromosomes. Daylilies need full sun. They do well in many kinds of soil from heavy to loose. Lucas briefly talks about how to cross different plants and create new hybrids. He also talks about how to divide the plants, which is best done in the spring. If you are interested in growing daylilies Lucas recommends joining the American Hemerocallis Society which is the national daylily growing organization.
American Hemerocallis Society Website at daylilies.org Related Resources: Daylilies Daylil |
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