Avocado harvest time tricky to determine
wait until the fruits are the size of a typical ripe avocado and pick one or two from the trees to bring indoors and soften. If the fruit is tasty when soft, it’s harvest time. If it’s not tasty, leave the remaining fruit on the tree a bit longer and sample in a few weeks. Mark the date when ripe on a calendar to remember next year. Do note, there is no rush to harvest all the fruits as they usually store on the trees for several months.
Several holly trees were removed from our yard due to a disease of the stems. The trunks were ground down, but most of the roots remain. Should we have the trunks ground down more so we can replant with other trees?
Most trunks are ground down well below the soil surface but still portions remain with all the lateral roots. More grinding is probably not going to help with the replanting problem. The remaining trunk and lateral roots have to be removed. They must be dug out by hand or with equipment.
Take it from one with lots of experience — hand digging is no fun. Use of a tractor mounted backhoe or scoop makes preparing the site much easier. Some of these pieces of equipment are narrow versions that can squeeze into small yards. After a majority of the roots have been removed and the soil leveled, it is planting time.
We have been invaded by snails for over a year. Is there a way to get rid of them?
Maybe you won’t be able to eliminate all the snails, but most can be controlled with one of the snail and slug baits availson at your local garden center. Most pest control suppliers offer a natural iron phosphate to use outside the home in gardens and shrub plantings following label instructions. If the snails and slugs are controlled in these areas, they are less likely to be found on walkways, patios and the sides of homes. Do make sure you are not over watering and perform needed pruning to allow air movement so landscapes can dry a little which makes the sites less inviting for snails and slugs.
I bought a hydrangea with pink and lavender blooms that after planting in a larger container have turned green. Will they ever be the normal color again?
Hydrangeas are a bit like chameleons, as many adjust to their environment. Most gardeners are aware hydrangea blooms change colors when in soils of different acidity. An acid soil gives blue-colored blooms and an alkaline soil pink blooms. But why do they turn green?
One thing we have to remember is what we call a hydrangea bloom is really a cluster of really small flowers surrounded by usually colorful bracts, which are modified leaves. In the beginning, they are pink, blue or lavender. As the bloom clusters mature, they either turn brown and die or continue growth, reverting back to a green color being full of chlorophyll. These are not going to be colorful again, and gardeners can remove them, which allow the plants to make more growth in preparation to flower. All hydrangeas are best pruned after flowering, as new buds with flowers that open next year begin forming during the fall.
Our gardener says we cannot plant petunias at this time because it is too hot. Is this true?
Absolutely true — Petunias do not like the heat, humidity and summer rains. Some gardeners restart petunia plantings during October, but often, the heat produces poor lanky looking plants. Obtain the best growth and flowers by waiting until cooler weather starting in November. Petunias grow well during the winter and spring months. By the month of May, many are starting to decline and need replacing with warm seaable color. Some heat tolerant petunias are available, but all decline during the summer.
We recently harvested several ripe pineapples from our garden. Now we have another plant that is flowering. Is it possible to have two crops a year?
Two or more crops may be in your future, as pineapple plants can produce year-round in the warmer portions of Florida. Locally, a majority of the pineapple plants are encouraged to bloom in March due to the cool winter weather — then the fruits ripen five months later in August.
Temperatures near or below freezing injure pineapple plants, and the damaged tissue gives off a gas known as ethylene to induce flowering. Plants that escape the winter injury may flower at any time. If you wish to cause these plants to flower, set an apple or banana among the foliage, enclose the plants with clear plastic and shade them. After a day or two, remove the plastic and continue normal care. These fruits also give off the ethylene gas to induce flowering.