Gardening

Don’t Let Dry Soil Follow Your Plants Into Winter!

Posted on October 25, 2025October 28, 2025 by Zidack, Heather

This year, Connecticut’s notably dry summer conditions have continued into fall. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, all counties are abnormally dry for this time of year, and some are even considered to be in a moderate drought. Thus, many trees, shrubs, and perennials are heading into winter low on moisture. These conditions combined with the dry air, low precipitation, and fluctuating temperatures characteristic of Connecticut winters can lead to plant damage if no supplemental water is provided. Many of your plants will benefit from a deep final soak before the ground freezes.

Fall drought stress often doesn’t show up until spring, or even the following summer.Affected plants may appear perfectly normal and resume growth in the spring, using stored food energy. Plants may be weakened or die in late spring or summer when temperatures rise. Browning evergreens, delayed leaf-out, and sudden dieback are common signs of plants that went into winter too dry.

Moist soil is so important in the fall and winter months because it provides insulation to the roots. It may seem counter-intuitive, but properly hydrated soil does a much better job at protecting roots from freezing temperatures than dry soil. Root damage occurs for this reason when plants do not receive enough late-season moisture.

Woody plants with shallow root systems require the most supplemental water during extended dry periods in the fall and winter. Trees in this category include maples, birches, willows, and dogwoods. This category also includes perennials, and shrubs like hydrangeas, boxwoods, and azaleas. These plants benefit from mulch to further conserve soil moisture and buffer the roots from temperature swings. Apply mulch about 2 to 4 inches away from the trunk all the way to the outermost reach of its branches in a doughnut shape.

Evergreen needles up close — Evergreens need sufficient water in dry falls to help prevent winter injury. Photo by Heather Zidack

Evergreens also benefit from fall and winter watering because they do not go dormant in the winter. Evergreens of any age are still actively respiring during the coldest months of the year and will continuously lose water through their needles. If they go into the winter with dry soil, they are more likely to have a difficult spring recovery. This is especially true for those in open or windy areas.

Only water when daytime temperatures are above 40°F, ideally in the late morning or early afternoon so the water can soak in before possible freezing at night. Feel the soil at a depth of 4 to 6 inches to ensure that supplemental water is necessary. Soil should be consistently moist, but not oversaturated or muddy. Stop supplemental watering after the ground freezes because plants cannot absorb water through frozen soil. To water, use a soaker hose to provide a slow stream of water that can penetrate deeper into the soil with limited runoff. If your hose is already stored away for the winter, and your tree or shrub is small, consider drilling a 1/8-inch hole at the bottom of a 5-gallon bucket and filling that with water for a slow, steady stream. If dry weather continues into the winter and there’s little snow cover, additional watering once or twice a month may be needed until the soil hardens.

A final round of watering now can prevent root injury that won’t be visible until much later. Evergreens, deciduous trees, and other landscape plantings will head into winter stronger with a little extra attention this month. Giving the soil one last watering before it freezes is one of the simplest ways to protect your landscape from winter stress.

The UConn Home & Garden Education Center supports UConn Extension’s mission by providing answers you can trust with research-based information and resources. For gardening questions, contact us toll-free at (877) 486-6271, visit our website at homegarden.cahnr.uconn.edu, or reach out to your local UConn Extension center at extension.uconn.edu/locations.

Fall Gardening and Preparing for Winter on CRIS Radio

Posted on October 13, 2025October 21, 2025 by Zidack, Heather

00:00:01 Stephen Thal

Hi, welcome to another segment on Focal Point. This is Stephen Thal, your host. And boy, we got another exciting program for our listeners. Today we're going to be talking about plants and gardens and how to take care of them, especially with the challenging weather- humid, hot. Oh, the plants must be having a tough time and garden things. What's happening?

00:00:27 Stephen Thal

Well, here to help us work this all out is Heather Zidack, and she's from the UConn Plant and Garden Education Center. Welcome, Heather.

00:00:40 Heather Zidack

Hi, Stephen. Thanks for having me.

00:00:42 Stephen Thal

Oh, it's always a pleasure. So what did the weather do to the plants this year?

00:00:49 Heather Zidack

So, this year was a wild year for our plants. It was a wild year for us too. Some of the weather that we noticed was quite crazy. But in particular, we had a very hot, very humid summer that led us to see a lot of fungal diseases. We got a lot of phone calls, a lot of emails, a lot of samples into our diagnostic lab that had a lot of diseases in the garden. So that was something that we saw. We actually have also been getting reports right now. People are asking us why are their lilacs blooming? And it's because of the stress that we've had this season.

00:01:28 Heather Zidack

So with that heat, that humidity, we've also had some really dry stretches that have kept us kind of right on the border of a drought. We're not quite there yet, but we are in abnormally dry conditions. So when plants are stressed, sometimes they do some really strange things and so people have been seeing their lilacs blooming in the fall when that's normally a spring blooming plant. It's not something that's normal, but it's definitely it's an environmental thing and it's not going to be like detrimental to the lilacs if you are seeing that. So it's it's worth noting, but it's not necessarily need for alarm.

00:02:06 Heather Zidack

We had earlier in the summer, we had the wildfires and smoke from that may have affected some of your plants. Because believe it or not, the air quality can affect your plants in the garden. And so that could have led to some ozone damage, which we see is like curling in the leaves. It can look like distortion in the leaves. So some weird things with that.

00:02:29 Heather Zidack

And then the other thing is that we saw temperatures whenever we went over 85 degrees, usually our common vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, things like that will actually kind of put a pause on. And so, they will not ripen or they may not fruit as heavily. So, we got some calls in saying, “Hey, why have my tomatoes been green for so long?” And it was probably because of the weather.

00:02:56 Heather Zidack

So a lot of things happening, the swings in moisture, so we'd have some really warm days, some really dry weather, and then we'd get kind of a deluge of rain. That kind of also stressed the plants out as well.

00:03:12 Heather Zidack

So we are advising right now to water your plants, especially your evergreens going into the fall. If we're not seeing an inch of rain forecasted, you want to make sure you're out there watering during any of your new plantings, any of your evergreens, anything like that.

00:03:31 Heather Zidack

The drought that we had last fall, so fall of 2024, actually caused a lot of losses in the garden for evergreens, rhododendrons, things like that in 2025 when we were coming into the spring and plants were starting to wake up. So, watering now is going to save you a headache in the spring for sure and if you've had anything like if you have had experience with like fungal disease in your garden this year we're recommending cut all of that tissue back let those leaves drop rake them up and dispose of them don't come compost it because you don't want to put it back into your garden so a lot of different weather patterns have caused the gardeners to have a little extra work this fall I think.

00:04:14 Stephen Thal

Okay so where do we go from here with the weather are we going to be bringing some plants into the house? And and we'll also be checking on the plants that have been in the house that may need some help for the fall.

00:04:32 Heather Zidack

Yeah, so it's definitely that time of year we recommend bringing in your plants when nighttime temperatures are 50 degrees or lower. And so, we've kind of been doing okay with that weather-wise but we are starting to get into that time where it's consistent and we're seeing that below 50 degrees.

So, a lot of things if you keep, you know, palms outside or if you keep any citrus trees or anything outside, they need to be in if they're not already. So, some species can be a little more sensitive, so they may have needed to come in already, like even before that 50 degree mark, but that's our rule of thumb.

00:05:13 Heather Zidack

When you start to bring them inside, definitely look them over really well, feel them over really well, make sure that the leaves are smooth, everything is healthy, you're not feeling any kind of like insects or any sticky leaves or anything like that. If you are, it is time to kind of have a little bit of a closer look, have checked out for bugs, make sure that you're not bringing anything into your house that you don't want staying there for the winter with your plants. You know, check the undersides of the leaves, check through the soil a little bit, and identify and treat any of those issues before they come into the house.

00:05:51 Heather Zidack

So, we do help homeowners if you have pictures, you can send us pictures and we can take a look to see if any of those plant related insects are anything that you need to do anything about before it comes inside.

00:06:07 Heather Zidack

You want to give your plants a chance to transition from inside to outside. So if 50 degree nights is what they're-the goal is and we've been letting the weather come down to that 50 degrees and then you're bringing it into your 68 degree house, that's an 18 degree temperature difference. So they may show signs of stress.

00:06:29 Heather Zidack

They may kind of not be used to the amount of moisture in the air in your home as compared to what was outside, especially as it starts to get a little colder and we start kicking on the furnace and the air is drier inside the home.

00:06:43 Heather Zidack

So keep an eye on your plants, monitor them. Those stress responses may happen, but don't-go ahead and-don't overreact to it. So if you see them drying out, if you see them wilting a little bit, don't change your practices too much. Continue to water as you've always watered. Continue to take all the care that you always have to make sure that they're not drying out, but you're not over watering either.

00:07:12 Heather Zidack

We see a lot of people that will over love their plants and over water them. So you end up kind of seeing things come inside, the wilt, we’ll panic and then we'll put a ton of water on it, which then sends it to swing the other way into that over watering and root rot and things like that.

00:07:30 Heather Zidack

So just keep doing what you're doing, but keep an eye on what's happening to make sure that you can respond if there is an issue.

00:07:39 Stephen Thal

Okay. And that also goes for the local gardeners too. They probably experience a lot of people requesting help during the summer and now how to make best use of their garden.

00:07:54 Heather Zidack

Yeah, yeah. And we're going to start seeing now with, you know, again, weather related, we're going to start seeing frosts. Some parts of the state may have seen them already.

If you have anything like mums or pumpkins outside, those are things that you may want to protect from those frosts.

What happens is that when the dew falls at night and it crystallizes into frost on your plant material, it can actually damage the tissue and that causes your pumpkins to rot faster. It causes a lot of tender flower petals to not look so good.

00:08:31 Heather Zidack

So, what we recommend is to either bring them inside if you just have one mum on the front step, that's easy to bring in and just leave in the kitchen overnight.

00:08:40 Heather Zidack

But if you have a larger grouping of plants or if you have some, you know, some cole crop vegetables or something like that that you may want to protect, you can use something as simple as a bed sheet or a towel even.

Never use a plastic tarp or anything to cover plants because that will just exacerbate the cold against the plant tissue, but definitely do find a way to cover them if frost is coming or bring them inside.

00:09:12 Stephen Thal

What kind of covers can you use?

00:09:14 Heather Zidack

So, anything that is fabric based is going to work really well. They do sell specific like frost covers, but you don't have to go that far.

If you have an old sheet, if you have towels, a pillowcase even, kind of depends on your plant size, but a lot of those just to keep that frost from falling onto and making contact with the plant tissue.

00:09:37 Stephen Thal

Okay so now we got to get in and roll up our sleeves and begin the work to preparing the plants as Heather has been saying earlier because of the weather and now she's trying to talk a little bit more specifically about plants that come in the house to make sure they don't have some sort of a disease, which will impact the plants that are in the house as well.

Now, is this the time too, because of the changing of the sunsets and amount of light coming in, you have to move your plants inside the house to different positions in the house.

00:10:21 Heather Zidack

So not necessarily different positions. Plants that we have indoors go through yearly cycles just like the ones outdoors. And so some of them may be able to tolerate that change in light as they adjust because it happens slowly. Always check your plant label to make sure if it needs like a full sun or indirect sun.

You know, we've talked about before those differences are kind of like if you think about a cat in the living room, right? So, if it needs bright indirect light, maybe the cat is somewhere that the light is not shining through the window but it's right next door versus if it needs bright direct light, the cat is sitting right in the window and if it needs shade, it's over by the couch and you don't see it necessarily.

So, if you always kind of think about in that way, you can remember where your plants need to be in terms of their labeling, which is important to follow.

00:11:14 Heather Zidack

But they do adapt a little bit over time when they're indoors, which is why we need to help them adapt when they go outside.

So if you keep them in a place that is draft free, bright enough for whatever their requirement is, and away from any of the heat sources, so away from any radiators, vents, anything like that that can dry them out, keep them away from like being too close to wood stoves obviously, and that will help them to not be too dry so they don't lose water as quickly. But the other thing too is that like I said, they go through those yearly cycles, so they will go dormant just like the outdoor plants.

00:11:58 Heather Zidack

Cooler temperatures, changes in light, changes in water can trigger dormancy, but it is species dependent and so with our houseplants because we keep them in a steady environment as possible, some years they'll go into dormancy, some years they won't.

And so it's just kind of knowing what plant you have and whether to expect that or not. That can be really helpful. The other quick tip with houseplants that I like to remind everybody is that we allow the soil to dry in between waterings.

00:12:32 Heather Zidack

So don't keep your soil wet when your plants are indoors. Let it dry out as much as you can in between to help prevent fungus gnats. Those are those little black flies that seem to get everywhere.

Again, follow what your plant needs for watering, but if you can stretch it and let it dry out a little bit, you're going to help reduce that issue.

00:12:54 Stephen Thal

Oh, that's great. Is this also a time to take a look at repotting any of the soils or any of the plants that we're bringing in or the house plants that have already been there.

00:13:07 Heather Zidack

You certainly can.

00:13:09 Heather Zidack

People like to repot either in the fall or in the spring. Usually when you repot in the fall, it can be good if you've had them outside and you're worried about any critters that may come in with them in the soil. It's a good time to do it.

You can do it in the spring if they've put on a lot of growth over the winter while they've been indoors.

So it all matters on checking the plant in the pot to see if there's any presence of any kind of insect or anything.

00:13:40 Heather Zidack

You're definitely going to want to change out your soil. But also if the plant is, those roots are a little too tight in the pot, it starts to get root-bound, that's more your sign of whether to do it or not. It doesn't have to be on a time frame per se.

00:13:56 Stephen Thal

Okay, this is Stephen Thal with another segment on Focal Point, and we're interviewing Heather Zidack from the University of Connecticut Plant and Garden Center up in Storrs, Connecticut.

00:14:08 Stephen Thal

And she'll give us some phone numbers that we can call regarding if you need some help with your plants or the garden that you've been doing.

Heather, you got some phone numbers we can use?

00:14:24 Heather Zidack

Absolutely.

So, if you have questions about anything in the garden, anything plant related, your house plants, anything that you have that you you keep for plant material, we can help at the Home Garden Education Center.

That number is 877-486-6271. Again, that's 877-486-6271 or you can always e-mail us at ladybug@uconn.edu. Again, that's ladybug@uconn.edu.

00:15:03 Heather Zidack

We look at pictures to help with diagnosis, so sometimes a picture says a thousand words. Also, I can give you the phone number too. It's a great time of year to be doing soil testing.

So, the Soil Nutrient Analysis Lab, their number is 860-486-4274. Again, that's 860-486-4274.

00:15:26 Heather Zidack

So, between the services in the Home Garden Education Center, we work with our plant diagnostic lab and then the soil lab. We have pretty much everything that the home gardener or plant enthusiast needs to make sure that they're keeping their plants healthy.

00:15:45 Stephen Thal

That's good.

00:15:45 Stephen Thal

What about fertilizers?

When does that come into play?

00:15:50 Heather Zidack

Yeah, that's a good question. So at this point, we should not be fertilizing anything. There are some exceptions for like lawn care and things like that, but my colleague is much more versed in that.

00:16:05 Heather Zidack

In general, it is too cold to fertilize anything right now because what's going to happen is if you were to put down any plant food,you would be pushing growth and any growth that's new on plants is very tender and very small and very susceptible to damage.

So, it'll push out new growth and then it would freeze and cause damage and not do so well for your plant. So, we don't recommend fertilizing at this point in the year.

The next time that you would be able to or you should would be for the springtime, once the soil temperatures start to climb up again and it starts to warm up.

00:16:46 Heather Zidack

If you have houseplants, you can fertilize.

00:16:50 Heather Zidack

However, some of them only need it once a year. It really depends on the species of houseplant you have.

And so again, like I talked about over loving our plants with watering, sometimes we can over love our plants with fertilizer and, you know, overfeed them. And so sometimes we don't want to do that. So it's something to be aware of.

Usually, as long as the plant is in active growth, you're able to fertilize. And so since we're kind of in that time of year where things are winding down and going to bed for the season, we just don't do it. But it all depends on what you're growing and what you have to keep an eye on.

00:17:30 Stephen Thal

Okay, what are some of the other things that we need to take care of in the fall?

We did mention, we talked a little bit about fertilizer.

We talked about bringing plants into the house. Making sure they're not bringing some critters in.

00:17:43 Stephen Thal

What about the compost pile? Is that something that we do all year round or just certain times of the year?

00:17:50 Heather Zidack

Yeah, composting is year round. So you want to make sure that you're continuously turning your compost pile. There's a couple different kinds.

So there's hot composting where you keep your compost pile at 140 degrees by turning it throughout the year.

There's also cold composting, which is what I'm a little better at, where you kind of throw it together, turn it when you can, but it takes longer and it may not necessarily take out all of the pathogens and weed seeds in the same way that hot composting will. So you have to be really careful with your compost at that point.

00:18:25 Heather Zidack

Which is a good thing to keep in mind because right now, we advise people who are doing their garden cleanup for the season.

There's a lot of controversy between that going for do I clean up in the fall or do I clean up in the spring? And so, what I tell people with that is to maintain what I call goal-oriented gardening. So, if your garden is all about pollinators and wildlife support and native plants and all of that. Definitely clean up in the spring. Don't cut back your perennials right now. You can leave your leaves a little bit. That leaves habitat options like hollow stems, leaf litter, and all of that for overwintering insects. And it leaves seed heads for birds to feed on as well as for winter interest.

00:19:16 Heather Zidack

However, if you have had a lot of disease this year and we talked about like with all the weather conditions, we saw fungal disease, people had, you know, if you had insects in your garden this year or things like that that you needed to manage, then one of the best things that you can do is clean up your garden in the fall.

00:19:37 Heather Zidack

And it goes against that instinct to leave the leaves and leave that pollinator habitat, however, it does help us to reduce our need for chemicals and other products in the spring and the following season because you're taking out anything that's potentially infected and just disposing of it right now instead of letting it overwinter and come back in the next season. So, if you've had disease in the garden and your goal is to have to try to not have that happen again next year.

You want to clean up all your leaf litter, you want to pull up all your sick plants, dispose of everything in the garbage, don't compost it. You know that you are removing some of those habitat opportunities for the pollinators, but you're keeping your plants healthy for them to come back to and find next season. So it's kind of a toss up between the two.

00:20:31 Heather Zidack

And so I always encourage gardeners to really look at their own personal goals in their garden and see what they're willing to work with. If they really want that pollinator habitat to clean up in the spring, go for it. If they want to manage the disease, then fall may be the better time. And the other thing to keep in mind that I encourage people is to think about their own time.

00:20:56 Heather Zidack

So your time is valuable when it comes to garden cleanup. And make sure you're doing what you have time for when you have the time. So I've explained this and I've talked to other gardeners about this and I am a big football fan and so on Sundays, I am watching football instead of being out in my garden, believe it or not.

And so sometimes for me, cleaning in the spring allows me to have that extra hobby and so it's kind of looking at my time and my priorities and really making sure that my garden is fitting that.

00:21:31 Heather Zidack

Because at the end of the day, we all do gardening as something we enjoy, and we want to make sure that we continue to get out there to enjoy it.

00:21:40 Stephen Thal

Okay, are there any other major things that we need to cover at this point, Heather?

00:21:46 Heather Zidack

One of the things that I definitely encourage people, like right now, if you're out in the garden, make sure that you're digging up any of your bulbs. It's the bulb time of year.

So when I say dig up bulbs, I mean all of your elephant ears, your canna lilies, your gladiolus, any of those annual bulbs should be dug up, put into paper bags for storage. If you're growing them in containers, you can just cut them back and put the container in the garage or the basement to make sure that it will stay cool, but it won't freeze.

On the other side of that, you want to start planting your spring blooming bulbs right now, you want to plant your garlic in late October, early November, you want to remove your vegetable plants that have those signs of disease, and don't compost again like I had mentioned.

00:22:39 Heather Zidack

The other thing that you want to do is you want to try to cover your soil in any of your garden beds. So a lot of the perennial garden beds that you have and a lot of your foundation plantings and things like that may already have mulch around them, so it might not be as important.

But for your vegetable gardens and things that you're turning over every year, it's important to make sure that that soil is covered for the winter. Some gardeners were able to put in some cover crops by now and have something to hold the soil, like plant material-wise, that they'll be able to turn in. However, at this point in the season, we recommend just using something like straw, leaf mulch. You can chop up your leaves and put them out onto the garden as long as they were disease free.

00:23:29 Heather Zidack

And what that does is when you break up your leaves and you chop them up first, it allows them to break down faster so that there's less cleanup for you in the spring instead of having like if you've ever seen outside the dense thick leaf patches that we tend to have in the spring where leaves have collected. You want to make sure that they're chopped up, they're fine and that they're able to be turned into the soil at the end of the season.

When you do, if you do have anything that you're turning in, so if you're going to do the leaves this fall and turn things in in the spring, it needs to be about three weeks before you're planting in the springtime. So, keep that in mind.

00:24:11 Heather Zidack

Make sure that you are cutting back any of your perennials, if fall cleanup is your goal, this is the time to do it. You want to cut back and leave one third of the perennials above the ground.

So, say you have a six inch perennial, you want to cut it back to a two inch stub and that's where you'll leave it for the fall if you decide to clean up now.

00:24:35 Heather Zidack

If conditions continue to stay dry like they have been, keep watering all of your trees, your shrubs, your perennials, especially your new plantings until the ground freezes. So we've still got a little bit of time that we should be watering with supplemental water.

We recommend one inch of water a week, which actually ends up being about, I think it's like 0.62 gallons per square foot. So that can help you kind of figure out how much water you need in a week for your plants.

00:25:07 Heather Zidack

And you want to wait till all your shrubs are dormant so their leaves have dropped before pruning in the fall. Do not prune any of your spring blooming shrubs.

So, you don't want to prune your hydrangeas. You don't want to prune your forsythia, your lilacs, anything like that because things likely already set their buds for next year already. So, if you prune them now, you could lose your flowers.

00:25:34 Heather Zidack

The other thing that we recommend is, like I said, you don't want to fertilize anymore at this point. You know, consider getting your soil tested now so that you can have those results in the spring and be able to hit the ground running.

00:25:48 Heather Zidack

And again, like I said, our office is open year-round to help support with any of these home garden houseplant questions that you may have.

00:25:59 Stephen Thal

And also you have a number of local gardeners, don't you, or grangers?

00:26:05 Heather Zidack

We do. We have county offices that will help with garden questions as well through our master gardener colleagues will help with identification and things like that. If it's disease questions, definitely send it to the Home Garden Education Center.

00:26:23 Heather Zidack

But the master gardeners at the county offices are also very well equipped to help with cultural questions, how to take care of plants, how to identify them, and some of these fall and spring cleanup tips as well.

00:26:36 Stephen Thal

Do you have many fruit plants that need to be taken care of, or are they all pretty much gone?

00:26:43 Heather Zidack

They're pretty well done the only one to keep in mind is your fall blooming raspberries or your fall fruiting raspberries those you want to prune after fruiting is complete otherwise you're going to be all set um mostly in the winter when things are totally dormant so we're looking at like March would be the time to start pruning your fruit trees.

00:27:04 Stephen Thal

Oh okay one other thing I forgot to ask you you also have to take clean your tools that you use the garden with.

00:27:12 Heather Zidack

Absolutely. That's a great winter chore. Clean your tools, especially if you're between pruning diseased plants.

The other thing is in the winter, it's great to not only clean your tools, but if you need to sharpen your tools or it's a good time also to make sure that you repaint all the handles so you can find them again when you have them in the garden.

00:27:34 Stephen Thal

Hey, Heather's going to give us the phone number one more time in case you missed it the first time.

00:27:40 Heather Zidack

Yes. So if you have any plant or garden questions, you can always call our office at 877-486-6271. Again, that's 877-486-6271.

00:27:55 Stephen Thal

That'll be great.

Well, thank you again for coming again to help our gardeners or people that have interested in starting gardens or plants or whatever. Great information.

Give my best to your whole team and I know when it comes around Christmas there's a lot of plants there that have to be protected once the season goes by.

00:28:20 Heather Zidack

Yes, yeah there's a lot of holiday plants that we could certainly talk about.

00:28:26 Stephen Thal

Okay well thank you again and wishing you and the whole team at UConn Plant and Garden Center continued success.

00:28:33 Heather Zidack

Thank you so much.

00:28:35 Stephen Thal

Stephen Thal with another segment on Focal Point.

I want to thank all of you for listening.

And a couple of things we want to remind you of is first, make sure that you wear a hat and dark glasses to protect your eyes against the sun all year around, particularly during the winter, particularly if we get snow, be a lot of glare.

00:28:59 Stephen Thal

The other item I wanted to mention is to make sure that you have an emergency plan and practice it. If you need any help with it, call your local fire department or police department and they can direct you to the proper resources to help you build one of these plans because someday that life may be somebody in your family that you save.

00:29:23 Stephen Thal

And also when you travel, make sure you know what the emergency rules are so that should you get into a situation, you know what to do.

00:29:33 Stephen Thal

So once again, thank you all for listening.

Stay safe and stay healthy.

Got Garlic?

Posted on October 4, 2025October 6, 2025 by Zidack, Heather

Garlic belongs to the allium family, which includes onions, shallots, chives, and even some ornamental plants. People have strong feelings about garlic; they either love it or hate it. Whether you add it to your pantry of seasonings or not, there are tons of fantastic reasons to plant it in your garden.

Garlic cloves — Photo by H. Zidack, UConn Home & Garden Education Center

Garlic is great for gardeners on the go. One of my favorite things about these plants is the window in which they grow. You plant cloves in October and harvest the bulbs in July. Planting garlic cloves is one of the last things I do in my garden before hanging up my gloves for the season. This means I have an entire bed already working for me when the spring starts. In early summer, you can harvest the young flower spikes, known as scapes, and use them in recipes for a mild garlic flavor. They blend beautifully with early season cole crops to make some fantastic spring dishes!

From a practical standpoint, the time saved in planting an entire bed before the season has even started is invaluable. Their presence helps to retain garden soil and prevent loss through erosion over the dormant season. Their care is minimal, only needing a side-dress of fertilizer in the spring and supplemental water when active growing starts. On top of all of that, they package themselves perfectly for storage, when cured and stored properly.

A garden bed of garlic with half of the plants removed — Photo by Heather Zidack, UConn Home & Garden Education Center

Another fantastic benefit to having garlic in your garden beds is that it is well equipped to fend off many vertebrate and invertebrate types of pests. From personal experience, my garlic beds have not needed a fenced in area like my other vegetables and have been relatively undisturbed by local wildlife. While there are claims out there regarding companion planting, I only can confirm for certain that the properties of garlic keep animals away from garlic plants. Scientists are also studying the benefits of garlic for the microbial environment in the soil, to see what other impacts they may have.

As large bulbs develop, they help to break up the soil in the bed for whatever is next to come in the rotation. Once garlic bulbs are harvested, we usually have anywhere between 90 and 100 days left of the growing season. This is plenty of time to rotate in a fast-growing crop like leafy greens, summer squash, carrots, radish, or even some kinds of brassicas.

If you do decide to give garlic a try this year, make sure you pick up clean seed garlic from a trusted source. As with any other plant, healthy starting material will help in yielding healthy plants. Hardneck varieties tend to grow best in our climate. They have a firm stem that starts at the base of the bulb and grows through the plant, giving it a strong single stalk during the growing season (this is where the scapes come from). They need a vernalization (cold) period, which is why it is best to plant them before the ground freezes. There are many varieties of hardneck garlic with a wide range of flavors.

Do not use garlic cloves from the grocery store. Grocery stores typically carry softneck garlic, which has no central stem and may have more cloves inside. A lot of our commercial garlic is grown in California. Softneck garlic may not grow as well in our climate. In addition, commercial agricultural produce can sometimes be treated with growth inhibitors or inadvertently carry pests or pathogens that would not serve your garden well. Local farms, farmers markets, and harvest festivals are great resources to find quality planting garlic. There are also reputable catalog companies out there, but you better get to ordering as time is short!

Garlic leaves peeking through straw mulch — Photo by Heather Zidack, UConn Home & Garden Education Center

Before planting, break the garlic bulb into its numerous cloves. Don’t be too concerned if some skin flakes off of the outermost layer, but do not peel the garlic before planting it. The intact skin acts as a protective barrier to keep them from rotting in the soil. Place cloves pointy end up in the soil at a depth of 1-2 inches, depending on the size of the clove. Water in and cover with a straw or leaf mulch, and it’s done! Don’t be too shocked if you see them start to emerge from the soil before the snow. Leave them be and assess in the spring, sometimes you don’t even have to cut those leaves back!

Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or just starting out, garlic offers something for everyone. Its numerous benefits in the garden, plus its versatility in the kitchen provide a great starting point for those who want to have their own garden-to-table experience. You’ll be a pro in no time!

The UConn Home & Garden Education Center supports UConn Extension’s mission by providing answers you can trust with research-based information and resources. For gardening questions, contact us toll-free at (877) 486-6271, visit our website at homegarden.cahnr.uconn.edu, or reach out to your local UConn Extension center at cahnr.uconn.edu/extension/locations.

Queen Anne’s Lace

Posted on August 23, 2025August 25, 2025 by Zidack, Heather

Among the plants that have naturalized across this country, is the seemingly ubiquitous Queen Anne’s lace also known as the wild carrot. This herbaceous biennial originated around the Mediterranean region and western Asia. It is thought to be a wild ancestor of the carrot as both wild and domesticated carrots existed at least 5000 years ago. Anyone weeding or digging out Queen Anne’s lace from garden beds will notice the distinctive carrot smell of the taproots.

Pass almost any sunny roadside or field and you’ll find the delicate white lacy blossoms swaying in the breeze. Plants start out as small rosettes of fern-like, green leaves. The seeds can germinate throughout the growing season if enough moisture is present. Typically seeds germinate within a couple of years but they can remain viable for at least 7 years. A taproot develops where energy is stored for next year’s growth. The following spring, the plant produces more leaves, stalks and flowers. The lacy leaves are finely divided and tripinnate. The hairy, solid stem can grow up to 3 feet before the flower buds are formed.

Queen Anne’s lace blossoms typically appear from June through August in most areas. The tiny white flowers are clustered into a flat, terminal umbel from 2 to 4 inches across. Curiously, many flower heads have a single pinkish to purplish floret in the center. The color is due to the pigment, anthocyanin. For at least 150 years, botanists have been trying to figure out what purpose the dark colored floret serves. It is thought that perhaps it serves as an insect attractant but this remains to be confirmed.

Each floret on the umbel can produce 2 seeds. Since there might be 1000 florets making up the umbel, saying this plant is a prolific seeder is an understatement. In at least 35 states, it is considered a noxious weed as it displaces native vegetation. As the seeds ripen, the flower head curls inward like a closed fist or bird’s nest and turns brown. Eventually the dried seed head might detach from the stem and then it can be blown like a tumbleweed spreading its cache. This plant is especially problematic if it occurs where domesticated carrots are grown for their seed. Cross pollination could take place and the resulting seed would be useless. The seeds have hooked spines and can readily attach to cloth and fur.

An insect on a white floret. — Photo by Dawn Pettinelli, UConn Home & Garden Education Center

Aside from its lovely, lacy flowers that hold up well in cut flower arrangements, Queen Anne’s lace serves as a host plant for the eastern black swallowtail caterpillar as well as providing a source of nectar for other butterfly species, bees and other pollinators.

Several seed companies offer varieties of Queen Anne’s lace that were bred or selected for their dark coloration. ‘Purple Kisses’ sports umbels in shades of dark purple and pink and is available from Johnny’s Seed. ‘Chocolate Lace’ from Seed Therapy comes in shades of burgundy, chocolate and dusty rose. Although I have not grown these varieties, I suspect they would also self-seed. A better option might be to try Ammi majus, called the Bishop’s flower or False Queen Anne’s lace. It is an annual with similar lacy, white flowers but I have not found it to be a prolific seeder especially if the flowers are used for cutting and not left to go to seed.

Being a member of the parsley (Apiaceae) family, Queen Anne’s lace is edible but not very flavorful. The flowers are sometimes used to make jelly. The root could be eaten when young but gets tough very fast. The seeds especially have been used for medicinal purposes for centuries. Reputedly this aromatic herb has many uses ranging from a love potion to soothing the digestive system, supporting the liver and for kidney and bladder diseases. If you are tempted to sample some Queen Anne’s lace, be very careful to identify it correctly. Other plants, such as poison hemlock have similar flowers and foliage but deadly outcomes.
As to how Queen Anne’s lace got its name, there are a number of anecdotes. Perhaps it resembled the lace collar or headdress of Queen Anne (1655-1714). Another story goes that she was tatting lace and pricked her figure leaving a drop of blood on the lace, representing the dark floret. Or it could be that the dark floret was thought to be the Queen and the white ones her maids. Geoffrey Grigson, an English botanist, conjectured that the name was in honor of St. Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary and the patron saint of lacemakers.
However Queen Anne’s lace got its name, one has to be in awe of how widespread it has become. Because plants are short-lived but prolific seeders, one way to control it is to remove the flower heads before they go to seed. They do make delightful cut flowers so make use of them in arrangements. You get to enjoy them and there is less seed out there.

The UConn Home & Garden Education Center supports UConn Extension’s mission by providing answers you can trust with research-based information and resources. For gardening questions, contact us toll-free at (877) 486-6271, visit our website at homegarden.cahnr.uconn.edu, or reach out to your local UConn Extension center at cahnr.uconn.edu/extension/locations.

Favorite Summer Plants For Hummingbirds

Posted on July 26, 2025July 28, 2025 by Zidack, Heather

By Pamm Cooper, UConn Home and Garden Education Center

Every spring I make a list of the plants that hummingbirds visited the most the year before, and then my search at garden centers and nurseries begins in earnest. The plants I look for are the ones that not only hummingbirds seem to benefit from the most, but also the ones that bloom the longest. I also select the plants whose flowers I enjoy as well.

Although annuals generally have the longest bloom time, there are some perennial ornamentals that are very attractive to hummingbirds and are worth considering for a garden or a landscape. Including a small group of these plants would be a great benefit to hummingbirds as they visit your property.

Obedient plants, Physostegia virginiana, can bloom from early June through September. These drought tolerant perennials may get 3 feet tall and some will slowly spread. If that trait is a problem, The ‘Manners’ series such as the white ‘Miss Manners’ obedient plants are not spreaders. The flowers are also attractive to butterflies, especially tiger swallowtails, and pollinators.

Native swamp milkweed, Asclepias incarnata, is also visited by hummingbirds. This plant likes moister soils than most milkweed, and mine is planted near a birdbath that gets emptied frequently to add fresh water. This milkweed, along with butterfly weed A. tuberosa, can be deadheaded to promote rebloom.

Hyssops, Agastache spp., are also a favorite of hummingbirds, and most have a long bloom period, some starting in late spring. The ‘Kudos’ series with small flowers that are yellow, pink or orange are the ones visited the most by hummingbirds on my property. Another favorite is ‘Boa’, which has larger flower spikes lasting a good three months. Deadheading all will prolong bloom time.

Annual flowering plants that are a favorite of hummingbirds include Salvias, cardinal climber, Fuschias, Lantanas and Cupheas. All are easy to grow, and all but the cardinal vine can be used in containers, hangers and window boxes.

The cardinal climber, Ipomena x multifida, is an attractive, fast-growing annual vine that has small, brilliant red trumpet- like flowers. You can save seeds from this plant and use them next year. One plant can grow to fill a large trellis, and you may need to corral it in if it starts reaching out for nearby plants.

Of the Cupheas, the ones most visited, in my experience, are the large firecracker plant, C. vermillionaire, and the smaller one, C. schumannii, also called the orange cigar plant. The former is superior, with a compact, mounding habit and continuous bloom of orange tubular flowers until frost. If the smaller cigar plant is planted directly in the garden, give it some room as it sprawls somewhat.

Purple flowers on a dark purple upright stem. — Black and Blue Salvia. Photo by Pamm Cooper, UConn Home & Garden Education Center

Annual Salvias like the “Rockin’ series, the ‘Black and Blue’, ‘Roman Red’ and the ‘Hot Lips’ salvias are the ones I always have in my containers or plant directly in the ground in spaces I leave for them. I would not venture to guess which ones hummingbird prefer, as they visit all of these throughout the day.

There are a couple of shrubs that I learned by chance observance are favorites of hummingbirds. These are Weigelas, and butterfly bushes, Buddleia davidii. There are Weigelas that bloom only in the spring, some that bloom in spring and then again later in the summer through fall, like the ‘Sonic Blooms’, and some that bloom throughout the year, like ‘Crimson Kisses’ and ‘ Peach Kisses’. The last two are smaller shrubs which have a rounded habit.

The plants I have included in this brief article are only a small example of plants that the average gardener can include on their property in gardens or containers of some type. I will mention that while I do have a hummingbird feeder, the hummers I see are favoring actual flowers over that source of food. Downy woodpeckers and orioles do visit the feeder instead, so it is useful to them, I guess. I may start calling it my downy feeder, at least during the summer.

Seeing Ghosts in Your Garden?

Posted on July 19, 2025July 25, 2025 by Zidack, Heather

By Emily Leahy, UConn Plant Diagnostic Lab

While meandering around my backyard this past weekend, I spotted a striking plant which I had never seen before. At first instinct, I assumed it was a particularly unique fungal species and snapped a couple pictures. My curiosity having been piqued, I did some research and learned that it was in fact not a fungus, but a parasitic plant reliant on fungus – Monotropa uniflora. Its name is self-descriptive; Monotropa, illustrating the single turn of its shepherd hook shape, and uniflora, depicting the lone flower produced on each stem. It is also known as “Ghost Plant” or “Indian Pipe.”

Pale white stem and leaf structures of Monotropa uniflora. — Monotropa uniflora in a shaded area. Photo by Emily Leahy, UConn Plant Diagnostic Lab

Perhaps the most unusual feature of Monotropa uniflora is its color, or lack thereof. While mostly white-colored overall, hues of pink can be visible along with black flecks spread along the plant. The translucent nature of the plant is derived from the absence of chlorophyll, a green pigment and key component allowing autotropic plants to perform photosynthesis.

Autotrophs are organisms that convert abiotic (non-living) sources of energy, like sunlight, into organic compounds they can use for food production. Most plants have this ability, using the chemical reactions in photosynthesis to produce carbohydrates for their own nourishment. However, Monotropa uniflora, a heterotrophic plant, cannot carry out such processes. They seek the organic compounds needed to sustain themselves from external sources. Autotrophs are often referred to as “producers” and heterotrophs “consumers” to illustrate this distinction. Since Monotropa uniflora is not directly dependent on sunlight for survival, it is often found in shaded areas and forests.

This all begs the question – where does Monotropa uniflora get its nourishment from? The answer comes in the form of its parasitization of mycorrhizal fungi and surrounding trees. The term “mycorrhizal” is used to describe fungi that form a symbiotic relationship with the roots of its host plant. The interaction is mutually beneficial – mycorrhizal fungi receive sugars and carbon from its host, which in turn is aided by the fungus in its absorption of water and nutrients. The root system of the host plant is used as a transportation highway in these interactions.

Monotropa uniflora inserts itself as a third player in the relationship, disrupting its balance. In a clever sleight of hand, the parasite tricks the mycorrhizal fungi into thinking it is forming another symbiotic relationship as its root system interacts with the fungal mycelium. However, the benefits of this interaction are strictly one-sided as Monotropa siphons the carbohydrates, initially derived from the mycorrhizae’s host trees, for its own consumption. This is not severely detrimental to the fungi or host plants, but it certainly detracts from the vigor of their symbiotic relationship and the amount of available resources transferred between the two entities.

Monotropa uniflora has a wide range of distribution throughout the U.S., so it is possible to see these fascinating plants in action in a variety of locations. Its flowering season ranges from early summer to early fall and it thrives even after seeds are released.

A microcosm of ecological phenomena, Monotropa uniflora is quite the unique find. It is enthralling not only to observe, but also to know the complex interactions that occur just below ground. I say we can overlook its parasitic tendencies and appreciate its role in the delicate balance of our natural world – after all, everyone loves a good villain, right?

Need help identifying something interesting in your garden? We’re here to help! The UConn Home & Garden Education Center supports UConn Extension’s mission by providing answers you can trust with research-based information and resources. For gardening questions, contact us toll-free at (877) 486-6271, visit our website at homegarden.cahnr.uconn.edu, or reach out to your local UConn Extension center at cahnr.uconn.edu/extension/locations.

It’s Not Too Late! Plant Now for Fall Harvests

Posted on July 12, 2025July 14, 2025 by Zidack, Heather

By Heather Zidack, UConn Home & Garden Education Center

Squash seedling with first true leaves mulched with straw. — A young squash seedling planted in time for the fall harvest! Photo by Heather Zidack, UConn Home & Garden Education Center

Gardeners have had a broad range of experiences with their vegetable gardens this season. Some planted early in May with the warm weather, which was followed by a cold front that meant covering plants, or keeping them in pots longer than you had planned. For others, a pattern of cool, rainy spring weekends delayed planting! Cornell even sent out a reminder to residents to watch for tractors on the roads a little later this season as farmers, too, were scrambling to adjust in upstate New York. Thankfully, there is still plenty of growing season left for us to shift our practices and still have a bountiful harvest from our home gardens.

There are roughly 100 days left of the growing season until the first predicted frost date, according to the farmers’ almanac. That means you have an opportunity to still plant your dream vegetable garden! Look at the “days to maturity” to determine if planting now makes sense. Many summer crops, like zucchini, cucumbers, and even some types of winter squash have much shorter days to maturity and can be started from seed right in the warm, summer soil.

Have a type of bean, radish or leafy green you love, but can’t process bushels at a time? Plant every couple of weeks this month for a staggered harvest to enjoy your favorites for an even longer period at a more manageable volume!

Do you plan to harvest garlic this month? Be ready to follow up with a short-term crop like leafy greens, beets, carrots, or even some types of corn!

The practice of succession planting gives gardeners a chance to extend the garden season and promotes soil health by keeping your garden beds active. Rotating crops in this fashion reduces the risks of soil erosion, weed overgrowth, and nutrient depletion, when done correctly.

When setting up a succession or rotation schedule, consider what has been in the bed previously and how those plantings might interact. Determine the nutrient needs of the plants you are considering. You want to be sure you are not planting one heavy feeder right after another as this may mean you need to provide more nutritional support than you planned for. Instead, opt for plants that feed on different nutrients, or better still, plants that help to reintroduce nutrients into the soil.

Succession planting and crop rotation not only benefit the garden beds that have been put on the back burner as we’ve tried to find time between the rain and temperature swings, but it may also benefit those who have a history of battling with garden pests. Planting later in the season may help prevent or minimize damage from many single generation pests, like the Squash Vine Borer or the Four-Lined Plant Bug.

Many Cole crops (those in the brassica family) and cool season crops can be started from seed now in preparation for fall planting. However, it may be best to start these indoors instead of directly sowing in the ground. Temperatures over 85 may cause delayed germination or bolting too early once those plants pop out of the soil. Starting them indoors gives you a little more control over the temperature. Otherwise, search for heat tolerant varieties for better results.

If you want a rest from the care of vegetable gardening and harvesting, consider planting annuals. There are many varieties of marigold, cosmos, zinnia, and some other beautiful cut flower varieties that could happily take up some space and lend their services to some late season table arrangements for you!

There’s a lot to still do if you want a bountiful fall harvest, and there are a lot of considerations to make when planning what to plant next. Do your research with cooperative extension or land-grant university resources for science-backed information to guide you in your next steps. And remember, we’re here at the Home & Garden Education Center to help you make sense of it all!

The UConn Home & Garden Education Center supports UConn Extension’s mission by providing answers you can trust with research-based information and resources. For gardening questions, contact us toll-free at (877) 486-6271, visit our website at homegarden.cahnr.uconn.edu, or reach out to your local UConn Extension center at cahnr.uconn.edu/extension/locations.

Gardening with the Weather on CRIS Radio

Posted on June 16, 2025October 21, 2025 by Zidack, Heather

00:00:01 Stephen Thal

Hi, welcome to another segment on Focal point. This is Stephen Thal and I'll be your host for today's informative program.

Our guest today uh is known to us. She's been on several times in the past year to help us understand more about living plants, whether you have them inside your house, or you put them outside or you're doing gardening and she's also part of the UConn plant science program and they offer many, many services which she'll be explaining sometime during her presentation today.

However, to kick this off. We have to be more cognitive of the weather, the types of weather we're having. Examples include drought, some places there's too much rain, so here to help us straighten it out and get some good plant life going. Is Heather Zidack back from the UConn Plant Science Center. Welcome, Heather.

00:01:00 Heather Zidack

Hi, Steven, thank you for having me.

00:01:03 Stephen Thal

So let's take a look at the weather pattern. Weather patterns have been infected- impacting plants.

00:01:11 Heather Zidack

Yes, it has been a very notable spring this year with the amount of rainfall that we've had. But before I talk about the rainfall, I want to just go back a little bit because we've actually seen effects from last fall in our garden. So what happened at the end of last summer, early fall and into the winter, if you remember, we were actually in a drought through most of the state.

And that lasted through March of this year. And so because a lot of plants went into the winter under drought conditions, we actually saw a combination of the lack of water with the heavy winds from this winter and it caused a lot of moisture to be pulled out of those plants.

We saw a lot of winter kill, so broadleaf evergreens, rhododendrons, mountain laurels, all sorts of shrubs like that, anything needled evergreens as well. A lot of arborvitaes Japanese Hollies, things like that. We saw the-uh They turned brown and then they ended up just kind of dying back. Luckily with a little bit of care, homeowners have been able to bring some of them back and at this point in the season, we're starting to look more towards disease causes, but this was seen all over the state, so we had this drought in the fall.

And then here we are in March and April, seeing the effects of it. So everything that happens is cyclical and we see it happen in the next growing season. And then here we are now with significant rainfall. I think it's rained-What every weekend for quite some time now.

00:02:52 Heather Zidack

And that rainfall in May was enough to pull us out of a moderate drought across the state, except for like one small area in Fairfield County who is abnormally dry, which is the lowest rating that you can have in drought conditions. So that's really good.

The expectation for the next month or so is average. So you want to start to monitor your gardens and make sure that if we're getting an inch to two inches of water a week, we have enough water for our plants, for the most part. If we're seeing less than that, we've got to get out and start checking the soil and get into the habit of watering so that when we get into the next fall that we have coming, we don't get used to not watering and then seeing plants decline from that. Because I think that was something we saw last year as well as we had a very wet spring and when we got to the fall.

00:03:47 Heather Zidack

Not only did we have a drought from the environment, but a lot of us didn't get trained, we'll say, to go out into our gardens every day or two to check to make sure the water was there, because we just relied on it coming from the sky. So that's been a really huge impact that we've seen over the the last season in our gardens and we're just getting started with growing.

00:04:10 Stephen Thal

Wow, what are some plants that are directly impacted by this?

00:04:15 Heather Zidack

So some of the things that we've seen, like I said, the evergreens were a really big deal.

A lot of stuff that's more shallow rooted is going to see more effect one way or another. It's going to have more signs of stress, but the bigger thing that we're seeing right now out in the garden-Once we've gotten passed into this spring and seen some of the shrub damage is looking at our annuals and what's happened with our annuals is we've looked at the temperatures and we've had some significant cold in comparison to previous springs. So when you have cold weather like we've had what we recommend. Is if it's 50° or more.

It's good to put your annuals, your house plants, your tomatoes, your Peppers, all of that outside. We've had a few weeks. I think it was the week before Memorial Day this year where those temperatures dip below 50 and so we actually saw a lot of people were covering their plants, bringing them inside, making those adjustments.

00:05:19 Heather Zidack

In order to protect their crops, because if they were left outside, although they would survive, they wouldn't necessarily die off. Turn brown and fall over and have to restart. You may notice things like the flowers dropped or they slowed down how they were growing, especially anything in the eggplant, pepper, tomato family once the temperatures get to like 60°, they pause development, so once it gets lower than that they start to get a little bit stressed. On the other side of it, our cole crops and our Greens have loved this weather. I just was out my garden this past weekend and I picked a giant basket of lettuce and spinach and all of that because these cool nights and warm days are really encouraging growth of those crops without sending them into flowering. So it's just something that kind of keep an eye on.

00:06:11 Stephen Thal

And uh, what about? Uh, you were talking about leafy lettuce. Uh, how do you take care of those? They're a little tender, aren't they?

00:06:20 Heather Zidack

They actually are pretty tough. What's really interesting is that once we usually get into this point in June, July and start getting into the heat of summer, they actually start to get a little bit more difficult to grow because they don't like the heat of the summer.

00:06:36 Heather Zidack

They'll start putting out flowers. They'll start wilting, using a little more water.

So we tend to not see them grow as well in the home garden in the high heat of the summer. You can protect them from that with any shade cloth or putting them in a shadier area because they're not producing anything like fruit or flower. They don't need to have as much of the sunlight as some of your other plants do that also applies to some of your your herbs like your basils and things like that, so they can go in a shadier spot if you have-

00:07:09 Heather Zidack

You know a spot in your garden that maybe is a little too shady for your tomatoes, but it might do OK for your leafy greens, your herbs and things like that. With the weather that we've been seeing too, it's really important to make sure that you're spacing your plants really well this year. You don't want to make them too close to each other, because crowding can often help when it comes to diseases and pests. They love tight, crowded areas, so if you space out your plants really well this year-You're going to help reduce that pressure when we start seeing the hotter temperatures, some of this humidity that we get in the summer and things like that.

00:07:51 Stephen Thal

Now when you're asking when you're working in the garden. Should you be wearing gloves to protect some of the insect bites you get, or some damaging to your hands?

00:08:04 Heather Zidack

Absolutely. I wear gloves when I'm in the garden all the time. I do it for a couple of reasons. I have, you know, I like to protect my my manicure, right? So I keep my gloves on. But it also is really good. Like you said, if you have got insects in the garden, but like I've seen this Spring because of all the rain that we've had, my garden is actually close to a wetland and we've had a lot of mosquitoes. So I found myself actually going out with not just gloves but long sleeves, long pants and close toed shoes and a hat, just to make sure that I'm protecting myself as best I can from the insects.

00:08:46 Heather Zidack

It's a good thing to do, just to have that extra layer of protection when you're pulling weeds. You never know when you're going to have something that you know might just interact with your skin or something like that. So definitely I wear gloves all the time in the garden and I do recommend it for everybody that's out there.

00:09:05 Stephen Thal

And what about? Uh, you had mentioned to me about you shouldn't walk on wet soil. What does that do?

00:09:15 Heather Zidack

Yes, so especially this spring with all the rain that we've had and everything, gardens are starting to get a little bit flooded a little bit waterlogged. So the first thing that we recommend is don't walk on the soil when it's wet if you can, especially when it's been really saturated after some of the rain that we've had these past few weeks.

00:09:35 Heather Zidack

What that does is that compacts the soil and it squishes it down and closes a lot of those air pockets that are there between the soil particles. So that makes it harder down the road for water to penetrate and get into the soil and to the roots of your plant. So if you do have either saturated soils or this is good if you're just checking your water needs in the garden, it's a really good thing to get tactile with it and use your hands so.

00:10:04 Heather Zidack

You want to dig down a little bit. You want to grab a little handful, squeeze it in your hand if it. If it's really dusty, really dry. We all know what that feels like. And so that's when your plants are usually gonna need water. If when you squeeze your hand, you've got water running out of your hand, it's gone the other way. And it's definitely saturated. You don't want to walk on it. You don't want to add any water you wanna try to keep your plants where they are so they can dry out a little bit.

00:10:33 Heather Zidack

If it's somewhere in between and it holds a form, but it doesn't have any water coming out of it. That's like that sweet spot where you're like, OK, I have enough water for now. I can come back tomorrow and check. So that's really the best way is to to look and use your hands as you're exploring your garden to make sure that it's well watered. Don't rely on appearance because a lot of times some of these garden products that we have can look wet or look dark compared to what the soil is and so it can be a little deceiving. So you want to always make sure you're checking with your hands instead of using your eyes to take a look.

00:11:13 Stephen Thal

OK, how about, uh, some of the insects like squash bugs and so on. Uh, are they helpful to the garden or harmful?

00:11:23 Heather Zidack

They are opposite, they are harmful to the garden, so they are coming. Squash bugs usually start coming out-Wanna say end of June, early July, there's squash bugs, there's squash borers, there's things like that. And with those, if you're growing squash plants, you wanna try to remove them as early as possible.

00:11:44 Heather Zidack

They are something the squash vine borer I'll start with is one that lives in the soil. Once that hatches, it crawls out and chews into the stem and the larvae lives in the stem. So if you see a squash plant that's wilting and doesn't look so hot, if you trace it back to the stem in the ground, you might notice it almost looks like...um..It's it's not, but it almost looks like wood shavings. You'll see where it like burrowed into the stem if you cut that stem open, you'll probably find some kind of Caterpillar in there and they move quick. They move like a foot a day, so that's one to watch out for.

00:12:22 Heather Zidack

The squash bugs are a little less dramatic, but you'll notice they're eggs on the underside of leaves, and what I recommend for people who are dealing with squash bugs to do is remove them by hand, take a piece of duct tape, wrap it around your hand backwards, and just stick your hands to the leaf. It's enough to pull those eggs off without having to use any chemicals or pulling the leaves off the plant. It's a really effective method.

00:12:47 Heather Zidack

If you want to go a step further and you're out in the garden and you're deciding to plant your squash, it's mid-June so you could maybe plant this weekend if you're doing that, you could put netting onto your plants. As long as it's not the same place it was last year and that will help the adults from flying in and getting onto your plants in the 1st place. So that's a really good thing to.

00:13:12 Heather Zidack

You there's other bugs out there as well. In the summer, there's a lot of insects. If you've had a garden, you know there's a lot of bugs out there. Usually you can't tell by just the damage left. You need to find an insect that it's in action to treat your plants.

00:13:28 Heather Zidack

Because what we recommend doing is, it's called integrated pest management, or IPM. They have-in using that method, you're using your targeted approach to get rid of a specific insect that you have identified using specific methods. That way we're not overusing any products in our garden. We're not going and over exerting ourselves to take care of the issue. It's a smart approach and a targeted approach to whatever your garden problems are.

00:13:56 Heather Zidack

With that being said, this is a little personal plug here for the Home and Garden Education Center, but we will be hosting a home gardener seminar for integrated pest Management in August, so it's a multi speaker event. We have tips to manage pest disease, and other things in your garden and that's going to be coming up in August. If you'd like to get information about that, you're welcome to either call or e-mail us and we can put you on the list to let you know when that releases. But it's something that helps make that targeted approach. Couple of other insects that are out there right now are things like the four lined plant bug that does a whole lot of damage. It's damage, looks like like little brown spots all over leaves. I've seen them on basil. Specifically, they have a bunch of hosts, but I know they love my basil at home.

00:14:50 Heather Zidack

There's this spittle bug which has little foamy...Nests will say they're not really nests, but they're little foamy structures that they put around the center of a stem. When they're there, they're a short-lived insect that just kind of does its thing and dives out in the environment, and we don't even need to treat it. There's aphids. There's all sorts of things, so that's when learning what you're looking at can guide how you're treating it so that you're not using as many products in the garden.

00:15:19 Stephen Thal

Huh. What are my mosquitoes? How do you deal with mosquitoes?

00:15:24 Heather Zidack

Mosquitoes are different, but very interesting in the garden, so they're definitely out. Like I said, I am near a wetland, and so I'm definitely experiencing them out in the garden frequently at this point. Best thing to do when you're dealing with mosquitoes in your yard is if you are out.

00:15:44 Heather Zidack

They come out at dawn and dusk, so being outdoors at those times, you want to wear bug spray, especially like when that's when they're most active.

00:15:52 Heather Zidack

If some people do wear bug spray throughout the day because in areas that are bad, they're always out there. So it really depends on what your yard is like. After rain, you can dump out any containers they've caught water because what they do is they lay their eggs and their larvae actually live in water before they go into the air. So you want to make sure that the air-that the water is dumped. You want to empty any of your bird baths and rinse them regularly for the same reason.

00:16:24 Heather Zidack

And one thing that's really interesting with mosquitoes is we see a lot of mosquito repellent plants that are sold and advertised to us and this is a big thing for a lot of people. One thing that I warn people about with this is that their job as a mosquito repellent plant is to keep the mosquitoes away from the plant itself.

00:16:46 Heather Zidack

So it's an immediate proximity.

00:16:49 Heather Zidack

What we do is we tend to harvest the oil from these plants and put them into repellent products. So like the citronella plant for example, or lemongrass or things like that, we extract those oils and then use them in our insect repellents. It's not necessarily going to protect you if you have a pot of lemongrass on your patio because it doesn't have an 8 to 10 foot range. It only has a few inches around that plant that really has that repelling effect, so.

00:17:21 Heather Zidack

That's how that works. They're great to have, but also just to keep in mind, with that, we never recommend crushing or rubbing any kind of plants on your skin without first consulting with a doctor or an allergist just to make sure that you're safe and you're doing what's best for your health.

00:17:39 Stephen Thal

This is Stephen Thal with another segment on Focal point and we're interviewing Heather Zidack from UConn Plant and Science Department up in Storrs.

00:17:49 Stephen Thal

And she's been leading us through the different weather patterns and also how some of the plants are impacted. And we also were talking about some of the oils that plants develop and how effective they may be in various stages.

00:18:06 Stephen Thal

It's very interesting and I think something else we got to take care of here is how do we, what kind of soil do we use and what kind of fertilizers we use, right, Heather?

00:18:17 Heather Zidack

Yeah. So soils are really important because that's the foundation of your garden. That's really where the not just your plants are taking root and and having their structural support, but also that's where the plants are gonna pull everything from nutrition, water and everything that they need. So whenever you have a garden, we always recommend calling our the soil Nutrient Analysis lab, either the one at UConn or the experiment station to have your soil tested. We recommend testing every two to three years and what they do is they look at the nutritional value of your soil. They don't look for anything else, but they will tell you what the nutrient levels are.

00:19:00 Heather Zidack

Are and I know with the UConn Labs specifically, what they look at is are specific values and how it would relate to your garden. So if you fill out a report that says I'm looking to grow vegetables, they'll kind of help you figure out what amendments you need to make for your garden to grow those vegetables. I can't speak. For what the experiment station does, but they are available as a resource for the public as well. And sometimes it just comes down to who's closer to you and how do you want to move forward and what information you want to get?

00:19:35 Heather Zidack

So that's really important. Get your labs and get your soil tested and figure out what your nutritional values are. Really important for, especially vegetable gardens, where nutrients are are kind of going through the systems a lot quicker than in established beds.

00:19:55 Heather Zidack

A lot of trees and shrubs and perennials that are established may not need fertilizer every year. They might need it every other year. It really depends on the species. There are some native species that rarely need fertilizer at all, so know what plant you have and then we can look into it a little further.

00:20:14 Heather Zidack

But like I said, those vegetables tend to have high demand and need more support because they're producing food for us. So what you want to look at are big three, our nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium or we say NPK. Your nitrogen is responsible for growing really lush leaves. Your phosphorus is really good for things like flower, fruit, a lot of your bloom booster fertilizers tend to be high in phosphorus, and your potassium is good for root growth, drought resistance, it helps to reduce some water loss, and they're still researching a lot of these things.

00:20:51 Heather Zidack

But what you look at when you're buying a fertilizer for your garden is you look for there's three numbers on the bag a lot of times it's and it's a lot of times in increments of 5 but not always. So like a 5-5-5, 10-10-10, something like that. These are percentages by weight of those nutrients in the bag. And they go in the order of nitrogen and then phosphorus, and then potassium. So sometimes they can be comparable to each other when you're working with a product because they're balanced in ratio. It really depends on what you need to apply.

00:21:25 Heather Zidack

A lot of the tone products that we see and weekly fertilizer products are much lower concentrations. So I've seen some fertilizers out there that are like 3-4-3, very low, but just a little bit of food to keep them going because if you're over applying, you can actually cause damage by providing too much fertilizer.

That's another reason going back to that soil test can be really important.

00:21:50 Heather Zidack

You always want to check the back of the bag. There is usually going to be not just those big three nutrients that we need, but also a lot of micronutrients as well, and that will vary in your soil as well. And when you get a soil report, you get all of that information.

00:22:08 Heather Zidack

Another really important thing is to stop fertilizing in August or September because-What we want to avoid is pushing any tender growth before frost, so if we start backing off in August and September, especially with some of these slow release fertilizers, we're not gonna continue feeding the plant and encouraging it to put out tender young leaves that then get bit by frost.

I think that's pretty much most of the soil rundown, a crash course.

00:22:38 Stephen Thal

Yeah, that's important. Thank you.

00:22:40 Heather Zidack

Would you like the number for the soil lab?

00:22:43 Stephen Thal

Oh, definitely.

00:22:45 Heather Zidack

All right, so this is for the UConn Soil Analysis Lab and it's 860-486-4274. Again 860-486-4274.

00:23:01 Stephen Thal

Great. Now after all of this, what else should we do to keep the gardens going?

00:23:09 Heather Zidack

So there's a lot of things that you can do right now. In June you want to be cutting back your perennials for sure that anything that has already flowered for your perennials you want to try to cut back. If you cut back some of these early flowering perennials at this point in the year, it may encourage them to push out new flowers. This happens very frequently in things like Salvia and Nepeta, which is known as Catmint as well. So if you cut back things that have already bloomed.

00:23:43 Heather Zidack

It will help encourage new growth and new flowers where you potentially. A lot of plants are in production mode right now. So they're producing fruit or flour for you. So water is going to be incredibly important. I went through all of the details with you before of like how to check your soil, but make sure that you can be checking your soil to see if there's enough moisture in there.

00:24:05 Heather Zidack

We don't recommend watering in the evening if you can avoid it. Early morning is going to be best because you're going to saturate that soil. And then it has the day to dry out instead of saturating at night, getting dark and cool. And then that's when there's a lot of rotten things that can happen.

00:24:23 Heather Zidack

You also want to avoid water on your leaves. You want to add water to the soil because if you have any droplets on the leaves, it can actually burn the plants a little bit. Believe it or not, plants can get sunburn, so you want to be careful.

00:24:37 Heather Zidack

It's also a good time to prune spring flowering shrubs immediately once the flowers are gone, so a lot of shrubs out there are like, again, I go back to rhododendrons, lilacs, things like that. They're gonna start to set their buds in this summer or during the fall. So if you prune too late, if you prune in the fall, when you're doing all your other cleanup chores or you prune over the winter like you do with your summer blooming shrubs. You could lose your seed-your

00:25:05 Heather Zidack

Lose your flowers. The next thing is that you can still plant from seed right now, so there's a lot of things out there that you can do. Radishes, beans, squash, carrots are all pretty quick to come up, so you could put those in the garden. Just check the back of the seed packet to see how many days till maturity we have and if it falls within, you know from here too. Let's say October, you've probably got a good shot in getting a crop. I know radish is an example only goes about 21 days in between seed to days to harvest. So that's really cool. I've even planted sunflowers in July after I've harvested.

00:25:45 Heather Zidack

My garlic needed to throw something in the bag, so there's a lot of really good plants out there that you can still plant in June. It does. It's not too late.

00:25:54 Stephen Thal

That's great.

00:25:55 Stephen Thal

We have about 6 minutes left. Anything you'd like to cover in the last 6 minutes?

00:26:02 Heather Zidack

Yeah.

00:26:03 Heather Zidack

Couple of really important things too. Looking at your house plants, so if you grow house plants and you want to put them outside, I think we finally hit that point where they can go out on the patio and be pretty comfortable for the rest of the summer.

00:26:18 Heather Zidack

Temps have stabilized for tropical and exotic plants that usually thrive indoors. So like I said, we look for that 50° at night and we're definitely there. It took a while, but we got there. If they haven't been outside yet and you're just putting them out soon, you want to start slow.

00:26:36 Heather Zidack

If you put them in a sheltered, shaded kind of outdoor space for a few days before you move them to full sun into the high heat of the day. So you wanna make sure that they have a couple of steps to take in between going from inside your office, let's say, from out to your patio. So that's something really important that you want to make sure that you're doing. The other thing that's really, really important, and I emphasize this with all gardeners at this point in the season is get yourself into the habit of making observations you really want to go out into your garden and take a look at the leaves. Take a look at the undersides of the leaves.

00:27:16 Heather Zidack

Take pictures. This is a great way to monitor so that if something does look a little different or disease develops or insects start showing up, you know early enough to do something.

00:27:29 Heather Zidack

I see a lot of times gardeners necessarily don't see what's happening in their garden, and then we hit a point where we're overwhelmed with disease or pest or weeds, even because of all the rain we've had. So if you can go out and get yourself in the habit of just looking at your plants, seeing what the leaves actually look like. Seeing what's normal and what's not normal.

00:27:52 Heather Zidack

That's really important to do so that when something abnormal happens, you're right on top of it and you can do something to save your plants instead of losing your fruit or your tomatoes or whatever the case may be.

00:28:05 Heather Zidack

If you do notice anything, it's really important to know that our office is here to help you with the UConn Home and Garden Education Center. We can always look at photos via e-mail. That e-mail is ladybug@uconn.edu again, ladybug @uconn.edu. Or you could call us at any time. Our number is 860-486-6271 again 860-486-6271 and we can help with plant disease as well as insects and environmental things that just look weird in the garden. We can help get you pointed in the right direction so.

00:28:49 Heather Zidack

That's definitely something that I I remind everybody is just be observant, be out in your garden, you know, be present with what you're doing. If you're out there watering, don't just go looking around at everything else around you go get the plants that you're watering and see what's going on.

00:29:05 Stephen Thal

Ah, that's great.

00:29:07 Stephen Thal

So we have to hope this is good information for our listeners and we have the phone numbers and we'll have them have you give it to them one more time.

00:29:18 Heather Zidack

So give you a couple of phone numbers, so I'm with the UConn Home and Garden Education Center. Again, my number here is 860-486-6271One again 860-486-6271. There's also the soil lab that I had mentioned earlier. Their number is 860-486-4274, again 860-486-4274. Between our two offices, we can definitely help gardeners get a handle on what they need to know.

00:29:55 Stephen Thal

Well, we thank you for coming into focal point. We always appreciate the invaluable information to help our listeners enjoy their garden, not only a garden if they're doing or house plants or combination thereof.

00:30:13 Stephen Thal

This is Stephen Thal with another segment on Focal Point.

00:30:13 Heather Zidack

Thanks for having me.

00:30:17 Stephen Thal

We hope you enjoyed today's program.

00:30:20 Stephen Thal

Two quick items for you. Please wear sunglasses and a hat when you're outside with the bright sun, and also to do a emergency plan for your home or for your business or whatever. And practice it very important to involve the people in case there is an emergency. People. Everybody knows what to do and that's the key piece.

00:30:47 Stephen Thal

So again, enjoy the Summer.

00:30:50 Stephen Thal

Stay safe and stay healthy, Steven Thal saying thanks to our guest speaker, Heather and all of our listeners that tuned in today.

Put an End to Blossom-End Rot: Water and Nutrient Management is Key

Posted on June 15, 2025June 16, 2025 by Zidack, Heather

By Nora Doonan, UConn Soil Science Graduate Student, Department of Plant Science & Landscape Architecture

5 ripe tomatoes — Photo by Julie-Ann Adorno, Soil Science Graduate Student, UConn Plant Science & Landscape Architecture

It can be frustrating to put time and energy into growing tomatoes, only to find that your tomatoes have developed blossom-end rot. Blossom-end rot is a physiological disorder that commonly affects tomato plants, characterized by a black, sunken spot on the fruit. This disorder is caused by insufficient calcium as a result of nutrient and water management challenges. Blossom-end rot can also affect peppers, eggplants, squash, and watermelons. In tomatoes, it is commonly seen on larger and elongated varieties, which can have a greater demand for calcium. Calcium is an essential plant nutrient that is required for proper growth, especially for the development of cell walls in the tomato fruit. When a fruiting tomato plant experiences calcium deficiency, the cell wall can collapse and show the appearance of blossom-end rot. Soil tests can reveal if your soil has sufficient levels of calcium and can determine if your soil pH is optimal for nutrient availability.

Oftentimes, the soil is sufficient in calcium levels, but blossom-end rot still occurs. Blossom-end rot can be closely associated with soil moisture that is too wet or too dry. The soil should never dry out completely. It is important to water regularly to ensure that plants receive 1 to 2 inches of water a week. A cycle of dryness followed by overwatering is only promoting calcium deficiency in the plant. If soil is too saturated, there may be insufficient oxygen levels in the soil that can affect the roots’ ability to take up water and nutrients.

One method of maintaining optimal soil moisture is to mulch tomato plants with an organic mulch, such as wood chips or straw, after the soil has warmed up. This will help to prevent excessive evaporation and drying of the soil. Another method is to plant tomatoes in a mound of soil that is high in organic matter or compost. Organic matter can retain soil moisture and provide adequate drainage.

There are other factors that can affect calcium uptake by the plant, such as high concentrations of ammonium, potassium, and magnesium in the soil. This can be caused by over fertilization. Specifically, over fertilizing with nitrogen can promote excessive production of leaves in the tomato plant, which can preferentially distribute calcium to the leaves rather than the fruit.

Calcium movement in the plant is dependent on transpiration, which is the loss of water to the atmosphere from plant leaves, stems, and flowers. Calcium is taken up through the roots and relies on water flow through the xylem for transport through the plant. This movement of water through the xylem is driven by the process of transpiration. Calcium is not redistributed from the leaves to the fruit. In addition, the overfertilization of ammonium, potassium, and magnesium can allow for competition in root uptake of calcium because they are all positive cations. Damages to roots, caused by fertilizer burns or cultivation, can also be a factor in impairing nutrient and water uptake. To prevent blossom-end rot through fertilization practices, apply fertilizer as recommended by a soil test and apply nitrogen fertilizers in the form of nitrate, rather than ammonium.

Any affected fruits can be removed from the plant, as they will continue to drain moisture and calcium for development from other fruits. A foliar application of calcium can be made to the leaves when the fruit is young, but it is not the most effective method, since calcium in the leaves is relatively immobile. The goal is to prevent the need for foliar application through water and nutrient management across the tomato plant growth stages. Hopefully these methods will allow you to prevent blossom-end rot starting at beginning stages of growth, so that you can enjoy a bounty of beautiful, red tomatoes.

Put in the Work Now for Lasting Garden Beauty

Posted on June 7, 2025June 10, 2025 by Zidack, Heather

By Heather Zidack, UConn Home & Garden Education Center

If you’re planning to do some landscape renovations this summer, you will often hear the suggestion of doing certain tasks “until the plant is established.” If you’ve heard this phrase and wondered what the pros mean, you’re not alone. It’s crucial to understand that the first year of growth is one of the most critical to ensure the success of trees, shrubs and perennials in the landscape.

The “establishment period” is when a newly transplanted plant pushes roots beyond the original root ball to anchor itself into the surrounding soil and adapt to its new environment. Establishment happens in as little as 2-4 weeks for your veggie starts and other annuals. However, if you are installing woody ornamentals or perennials, it is recommended to provide support for their first year in the landscape. Some species, especially fruiting plants may need longer attention to ensure establishment and landscape success.

Keeping the plants properly hydrated is going to be your first line of defense in preventing transplant shock. Using sprinkler systems for supplemental water can be problematic for trees, shrubs and perennials. These systems, especially those designed for lawns, maintain moisture in the top 1-2 inches of soil. Our non-turf plants need much more. Providing adequate water will help new plants acclimate by providing sufficient hydration, but it will also encourage the root system to expand. Roots pull moisture and nutrients from the soil but also act as an anchor to keep the plants upright. Keeping only the top few inches of soil moist will encourage roots to stay in that shallow layer instead of expanding deeper into the soil, hindering the development of that anchoring system. Additionally, watering demand tends to be more frequent with shallow root systems, as the first few inches of soil are more susceptible to drying out on sunny days. Lastly, the shallow roots need to compete with established turf for resources at a 1-2-inch depth.

While in this establishment period, the standard watering recommendation is 1-2 inches per week, depending on the species of plant. An inch of water is equivalent to 0.62 gallons per square foot of garden area. Watering the plant at this rate encourages it to stretch its roots downward into the soil. With deeper roots, plants can find moisture even during times of temporary drought deep below ground. This is a huge contribution to drought tolerance, as opposed to the common belief that the plant will just “live longer without water.”

If the forecast does not predict an inch of rain within the week, gardeners should be out checking the soil for moisture a few inches down and providing supplemental water if necessary. Always check the soil before watering, especially if you are new to gardening. Squeeze the soil in your hand. If the soil particles stick together easily, it is likely that there is enough moisture. If soil clumps fall apart between your fingers or the texture is dusty, the soil is too dry and more water is needed. If you can squeeze water out of the soil like a sponge, there is too much moisture, and you should come back and check in a day or two. Overwatering can lead to root rot and other diseases and finding the balance is a fine-tuned skill developed over time.

Monitor your new plantings for the first year and watch for signs of transplant shock, pests and disease so that you can adjust quickly and keep your plants healthy during this time. While transplant shock is a normal response to being planted in a new location, the symptoms can be startling to gardeners. Remember that the UConn Home & Garden Education Center is here to help you determine if you are looking at transplant shock, disease, or possible pest damage. It’s easier to catch and treat issues earlier than it is to react at the end of the season. If you’re vigilant, we can help you find your way to solutions much more quickly!

Staking should only be done as a temporary measure for young trees where the environment or the species of tree requires extra support. In most cases, trees should be perfectly capable of supporting themselves. Exposure to the elements, like the occasional strong breeze, can help to strengthen them as they adjust. However, temporary staking can help take some of the stress off the young trees if they are establishing in harsher environments. While there are many situations that may be appropriate, consider staking newly planted trees when they are in open areas, have high wind exposure, or are in an area that risks mechanical or physical damage. Staking may also be appropriate if the root ball is significantly smaller in relation to the tree’s size, or if the tree has a top-heavy canopy.

Once your plants are well anchored into your landscape, they will be able to find water and nutrients on their own while standing tall in the face of our New England climate. Putting in the attention and care to help plants establish in their first year or two in the landscape will reward you with many years of enjoyment to come.

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Put an End to Blossom-End Rot: Water and Nutrient Management is Key

Put in the Work Now for Lasting Garden Beauty

Contact HGEC

Phone:	(877) 486-6271
E-mail:	ladybug@uconn.edu
Address:	1380 Storrs Road, Unit 4115 Storrs, CT 06269-4115
More:	Hours: Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 4:00 pm