Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

TIM'S TIPS

MULCHING HELPS

Mulching can improve your summer garden by holding in soil moisture and keeping the soil in your plants' root zone cool. A mulch will also help keep you cool, because it smothers weed seedlings.

A mulch can be something found anywhere such as gravel, pine needles or leaf mold; a manufactured product such as plastic film; or by-products such as bark, sawdust, pecan hulls or rice hulls. Regardless of which material is used, a mulch needs to be about three to four inches deep to do a good job of maintaining soil moisture and suppressing weeds.

You may need to add to your mulch during the growing season to keep it the right depth.

However, watch for Southern blight in tomatoes and peppers. Southern blight moves through your garden in organic material. If you notice the disease, remove the mulch between the plants.

RENOVATION OF

STRAWBERRY BEDS

Strawberry growers can extend the productive life of their strawberry beds by using the proper renovation practices.

Usually a strawberry planting is renovated for two to four seasons and then plowed under, but plantings can be maintained for longer periods. There have been reports of plantings lasting 10 to 12 years, but this is highly unusual.

The grower's goal in renovation should be to save only enough plants to reestablish a full stand of new runner plants for the following season. Otherwise, runner plants become weeds, competing for light, nutrients and water.

Dr. Keith Patterson, Extension horticulturist, recommends the following renovation practices:

• Immediately after the last picking, mow the old foliage as close to the ground as possible without injuring the crown. This practice helps keep strawberry yields high.

• Set the mower height so old leaves are removed but the new expanding leaves are not cut. If possible, rake the old mulch and mowed leaves out of the planting to reduce diseases.

• Top-dress plants with nitrogen (about two to five pounds per 100- row feet. But avoid fertilizer burn on crowns and young leaves.

• Narrow the beds to 12 to 18 inches. The method used depends on soil type, weather and equipment available to the grower. Some growers use a cultivator to narrow the rows from each side, leaving the desired width.

• Clean out the narrowed rows and thin the remaining plants, preferably by hoeing. At this time, plants should be about one foot apart.

• Apply herbicides or use other methods to control all weeds.

• If soil moisture is deficient, irrigate after working the bed. Strawberries need abundant water to recover from fruiting and the renovation process and make new plants for the next crop.

The thinning of plants, removal of weeds, use of irrigation and application of fertilizers and herbicides make it more likely that strawberry plants will attain the size necessary for maximum yield potential.

If renovation is delayed much longer than ten days after the last picking, it may be better to only narrow the rows slightly and thoroughly cultivate between them.

Late mowing of fresh, green, active leaves will set the plants back; and severely narrowing the rows too late after harvest will leave insufficient time for new runner plants to establish themselves for the next crop.

MANAGING FORESTS

If you can afford the investment in planting southern pines, there's no doubt plantation forestry will pay off; but if you have to hold down your initial costs, consider natural regeneration.

You'll save the seven or eight cents it costs to buy and plant each seedling, and generally the cost of site preparation will be less, too.

There are four basic methods for naturally regenerating southern pines: clear-cut, seed-tree, shelter wood and selection. They all work well for loblolly or shortleaf pines on most sites. Which method you choose depends on the situation.

Each regeneration technique has its advantages and disadvantages, so check with a forester before you do anything else.