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Maine Home Garden News Welcome to the first issue of Maine Home Garden News. This newsletter is intended to provide useful information on a wide array of gardening issues. With our current economic challenges, we understand that there is an increased interest in gardening and we are here to help. University of Maine Cooperative Extension has a 95 year history of providing reliable information to help the citizens of our state improve their lives. I want to wish all readers a great growing year and please share this newsletter with anyone you think would benefit from it. --John Rebar, Executive Director, University of Maine Cooperative Extension
Seven
steps to successful seed starting
Timing. Check the seed packet for number of weeks before the last frost that your plants should be started. It will be four weeks for vine crops (pumpkin, cucumber, etc.), six weeks for medium growing plants (tomato, egg plant, etc.) and eight to ten weeks for slower growing plants (broccoli, cauliflower, etc.). If started too early you will have to transplant your seedlings into larger and larger pots so they won’t get pot bound before it’s time to set them out in the garden. Media. To prevent problems with dampening off disease use a soilless peat moss based starting media to start your seeds. Be sure to dampen the media before you put in containers. Containers. If you are reusing last years containers, be sure they are clean and sterilized. The best bet is to start in new containers or newspaper containers that you have made. Place. No, they can’t go next to the window. It’s too cold. Seeds need a warm place to germinate. If you don’t have a germination mat, you can use the top of your refrigerator to germinate the seeds. Be sure to move them to a sunny location or under lights once they have germinated. Feeding. After about three weeks you can start to include a water soluble fertilizer when you water your seedlings. Half strength only, you don’t want to burn the little roots off the plants. Water. Very carefully water your seedlings. When they first germinate they may not need water for several weeks. Lift the containers to see if they need water. Over watering is the number one killer of new seedlings. Transplanting. Be sure to harden off your seedlings before you transplant them into your garden later this spring.
Getting ready for a strawberry
planting Strawberries are an excellent crop for home gardens. They are relatively easy to grow and offer a great, tasty return on a relatively low investment. It’s not too early to be thinking about and planning for strawberries for your garden. March-April is a good is the time to order plants from the nursery to be sure that you can get the varieties best suited to Maine. You should also start thinking about how this crop will fit into your garden plan. Choose your planting site carefully. Strawberries grow best in a deep, sandy loam soil, rich in organic matter. The soil must be well drained. Keep away from areas that remain wet late into the spring. The site should receive full sunlight. Do not plant strawberries where tomatoes, potatoes, peppers or eggplant have been grown in the past four years. These crops carry the root rot fungus Verticillium, which also attacks strawberries. In addition, do not plant strawberries into recently plowed grass sod areas. This can lead to devastating weed problems and damage by white grubs, a common turf pest that will feed upon strawberry roots. Finally, choose a site where there is ready access to a water supply. Irrigation is important for good plant growth during dry periods, and can also be used to prevent frost injury in the spring. Getting a site ready for strawberry planting may take up to two years, depending upon its present condition. Have the soil tested for pH and fertility levels. Soil testing information is available at your Cooperative Extension office. Strawberries prefer a soil pH of 5.8 to 6.2; this may require applications of ground limestone to increase to increase the pH of acid soils. If the organic matter level of the soil is low, applications of compost may be recommended. Apply soil nutrients, including nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium according to your soil test results recommendations in the spring and work them into the soil to a depth of about six inches. Organic fertilizer sources such as compost, manures, sul-po-mag and rock phosphate may be used in place of synthetic fertilizers such as 10-10-10.
Strawberries should be planted in the spring (late April through May) as soon as the soil is dry enough to be prepared. Purchase only certified disease-free plants from a reputable nursery. Plants should have large crowns with healthy, light-colored roots. The crown should be planted in holes large enough to slightly spread the roots out, and deep enough to bring the soil half way up the crown. Pack the soil firmly around the plants, and irrigate immediately after planting. The simplest planting system for most gardens is the matted row. For this system, strawberries should be planted 18 inches apart within rows, with 48 to 52 inches between rows. Soon after planting, the crowns will produce a few leaves, and flower buds will emerge. During the planting year, all flowers should be pinched off. This encourages runner growth and plant vigor to fill out the bed, leading to better yields next year. Runner plants will begin to emerge from the crowns in the early summer. These should be used to fill out the rows. Each row should be limited to 24 inches wide to maintain easy access in the planting. The runners should be placed within the desired row width before they root and held in place with small stones, clumps of soil or old-fashioned hairpins. Runner plants that grow outside the 24-inch row width should be pinned back into the row to root removed if the plants become too crowded (less than six inches between plants). This will get the plants ready for a good fruitful crop next June. Consider day neutral strawberries If you want strawberries to eat this growing season, you should consider day-neutral varieties. Day neutral strawberries are a different type of plant that flowers during the summer months and into the fall, providing fruit well after June-bearing strawberries have stopped. The productivity and fruit quality of day neutral strawberries are much better than the old "everbearing" types, such as Ozark Beauty, and should be used in place of them. Because of their unique growing habit, day neutral strawberries are treated differently than the June bearing types, bearing their crop in the planting year and often treated as an annual. Day neutral strawberry beds should be four feet apart on center, leaving about two feet between beds for a walkway. Plant two rows of dormant crowns on each bed. The rows should be one foot apart (six inches from the left and right of the center of the bed). Plants within the row should be about ten inches apart. It is best to stagger the plants in the two rows on a bed such that a plant in one row corresponds to the space between plants in the other row. Growing these plants on four to eight inch high raised beds can greatly ease the management of the crop. Plant the crowns in the early spring, and mulch around the plants with two to three inches of straw, pine needles or wood shavings. Pinch off all flowers that appear for four to six weeks after planting. Plants should then produce fruit in about six weeks and will continue producing until frost. Remove all runners to keep aisles clear and improve fruit quality. Water plants regularly to improve fruit size. A light side dressing of 10 pounds of 10-10-10 fertilizer (or its equivalent) per 1,000 square feet should be applied in early August. The best day neutral strawberry varieties for New England are Tribute and Tristar. They are both disease resistant and have good fruit quality. Tribute tends to produce more fruit that Tristar, but it also produces more runners, which should be cut off. Seascape, a California variety, has also become popular because of its large fruit size and good yields. The flavor is not as intense as the other varieties, and it is not disease resistant. For more details on growing strawberries in your garden, see UMaine Extension's Growing Strawberries. © 2009 Published and distributed in furtherance of Acts of Congress of May 8 and June 30, 1914, by the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, the Land Grant University of the state of Maine and the U.S. Department of Agriculture cooperating. Cooperative Extension and other agencies of the U.S.D.A. provide equal opportunities in programs and employment. Call 800-287-0274 or TDD 800-287-8957 (in Maine), or 207-581-3188, for information on publications and program offerings from University of Maine Cooperative Extension, or visit www.extension.umaine.edu.
A Member of the University of Maine System |
Consider building a cold frame for growing greens under glass or for
hardening off seedlings later on this spring. Size your cold frame by the
recycled window(s) you might have available.
Good Seed. Start with viable seed either purchased for sowing in 2009 or stored
properly (dark and cool)
There is a good selection of strawberry varieties that will perform well in
Maine. It is best to choose those that have resistance to red stele and Verticillium root rots. It is usually best to plant two or more varieties.
Performance will vary according to the conditions at each site. Try new
varieties in small trial plantings, next to a variety with which you are
familiar. Listed below are varieties have performed dependably in Northern New
England. Further details on variety characteristics and performance are
available from UMaine Extension's 
Last
Modified:
10/21/09
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