|
Ask DIG IT!
Dear Readers:
Ask Dig It! is a weekly column where our team of professionals will answer your gardening questions.
Email us your garden questions at AskDIGIT@dig-itmag.com. We love a challenge.
Dear DIG IT!
I cannot find this flower - it is a bulb. Maybe I don't know how to spell
it...Cantis?? It gets about 3 to 4, maybe 5, feet tall? I don't know what
to do with it for the winter. When is the best time to really plant
them?
Thanks,
Sissy
Dear Sissy,
The plant most likely is a Canna, which are easy to grow. After the
first hard frost of fall remove the dead foliage to within 6 inches of
the ground then dig them up. Store them in a cool dry dark place in
either dry sand or peat. In March you can pot them up and place in a
heated area then, when the danger of frost is gone, plant them in the
garden.
Jeff Van Pelt
Dear DIG IT!
I hope you might be able to help me with a problem that my grapefruit plant has developed. This grapefruit tree, which is about five feet fall, grew from a seed. It has lived in my city apartment for about 28 years, and has generally been healthy except for occasional bugs. However, this summer, it developed an odd problem. The leaves are covered with sticky droplets. I have been able to clean the leaves with alcohol, or soapy water, but the problem has persisted. The floor around the plant has also become sticky.
Do you have any knowledge about what could be causing this problem, and what I might do about it???
Thank you so much.
Julie Diamond
Dear Julie,
It sounds like your grapefruit tree has scale – a hard-shelled insect that loves citrus plants. It’s almost a miracle that your tree hasn’t had it before. Perhaps you brought home a plant with scale already on it. Look for grey or brown bumps on branches and leaves. If they scrape off with your fingernail, your grapefruit tree has scale.
The clear sticky stuff is called “honeydew” and is, all nonsense aside, scale excrement. This sticky stuff can also attract ants and other tiny critters and molds, never mind ruin your furniture and floor. It hardens and is difficult to remove. Attack it now. Ask a nurseryman about the type of insecticide to use on your tree. I’ve used Malathion and it has worked on severe cases. Your infestation sounds severe.
Spray outdoors, if you can, on a cloudy day. You don’t want sunlight hitting the wet leaves. If you must spray indoors, lay down a 12x6 drop cloth; lay the plant down on it and spray, turning the plant to coat every single surface; otherwise, if you miss one spot the scale will continue to reproduce.
Scale transfers easily from plant to plant – every time you touch a plant or brush by it. Inspect all of your houseplants. Be ruthless and toss out or spray.
Good luck!
Mary
Dear DIG IT!
I bought six Italian flat leaf parsley plants and planted them with my flowers in containers. Now that they are growing, I wonder if they really are parsley. They look likee celery, smell like celery and taste like celery. I think I have celery growing in a clay pot with coleus and in my window boxes with petunias. I don't want to take them out. The petunias have been through enough trauma with all that rain lately. How do I grow them as celery? When do I tie them together to blanche? What should I do?
Mary
Dear Mary
Sometimes seeds get mixed up and these things can happen. You can
harvest the larger celery stalks on a continous basis. If you want to
blanche them, you could place some cardboard around the stalks, but there
really is no big need to do this. You don't have to cut the whole plant at
once, just havest the outside stalks as you like and they will grow back
from the inside.
Hope this helps,
Farmer Rich
|
|
 |
52 trails from five physiographic regions in New Jersey
that are dog friendly, dog fun, dog safe for you and your pooch
no matter what shape you're in!
click here
please visit our sponsors
|
Click Here for Site Map | Privacy Policy | Web site developed by SHiNYMACHiNE web development