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Gardening with the Weather on CRIS Radio

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CRIS Radio: Focal Point 6/16/2025

Heather Zidack from the UConn Home & Garden Education Center talks to host, Stephen Thal, about our strange spring weather, gardening outdoors and more!

Transcript

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 in the Work Now for Lasting Garden Beauty 

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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.  

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. 

 

 

This article was published in the Hartford Courant June 7, 2025

Celebrate Arbor Day!

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By Dawn Pettinelli, UConn Home & Garden Education Center

Redbud tree in flower with tiny pink buds.
Photo by Dawn Pettinelli

Arbor Day is celebrated in Connecticut on April 25th. Since it is a day traditionally set aside for the planting of trees, perhaps you might consider adding one to your home landscape. If you haven’t the need for another arboreal specimen, then plan on giving your existing trees a little TLC.

Trees have a lot to offer. They provide us with cool shade on hot summer days, brighten our spring season with lovely blossoms, add color to the fall landscape and winter interest throughout cold, dreary days. Trees provide food, nesting sites and shelter for many animals, especially birds. They help reduce noise pollution, trap particulate air pollutants, and can alter the microclimate surrounding them.

Most importantly, trees supply plenty of oxygen for us to breathe. Each year, an acre of trees produces enough oxygen to keep 18 people alive. They also sequester carbon dioxide. Trees convert atmospheric carbon dioxide into plant matter as they photosynthesize. This has important consequences worldwide. As more and more of our forested land is being cleared, less carbon dioxide can be stored in trees and more is available to increase the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels which, in turn, can contribute to global warming.

While we can’t stop global deforestation, we can make a difference in our own backyards by planting more trees or making sure that the trees already present receive the conditions they need to thrive.

When selecting a tree for your landscape, do consider factors like its ultimate height and spread, susceptibility to insect and disease problems, flowering, fruiting and fall foliage potential, rate of growth and site requirements. Review gardening books, consult with nurserymen and maybe visit an arboretum to view mature specimens.

Trees are purchased either as dormant stock through mail order sources, containerized, or balled-and-burlapped (B & B). Dormant trees generally arrive in the spring or fall and should be soaked for a couple of hours and planted immediately. If you can’t get them in the ground right away, they can be stored in a cool place for a few days out of direct sunlight. Make sure them are kept moist.

Containerized stock can be planted throughout the growing season although cooler spring or fall is best. Hard to transplant species are best purchased this way as there is less disruption to their root system. If potbound, make several vertical cuts about one-quarter inch deep around the root ball before planting.

Purchasing B & B trees is fine for younger specimens, but often larger trees have a good portion of their roots removed in this process. This can lead to poor survival. For greatest success, choose small to medium sized trees.

A tree planted at the proper depth with the crown slightly exposed. The hole is dug twice the width as the original root ball.
Photo by Dawn Pettinelli

Holes for planting only need be as deep as the root system. The key is to make them at least 2 feet wider than the root ball. Especially in heavy or compacted soils, be sure to

loosen as much soil around the planting area as possible so roots can grow freely. The majority of roots are found in the upper 3 feet of soil.

Amendments such as peat moss or fertilizer are not necessary to add to the backfill. However, if the soil pH or phosphorus levels are low, ground limestone and bonemeal can be mixed into the backfill.

Add water to the hole before planting and let it drain. Next, position the root ball. Remove plastic mesh and cords. Burlap can be cut away as much as possible. Fill in the hole about half way. Gently firm the soil around the root ball. Don’t stomp on it or you will compact the soil. Water thoroughly and when the water drains, finish filling the hole. Make a well around the tree with soil and water once more. Apply a 2 to 3 inch layer of mulch keeping it away from the trunk. Newly planted trees need a thorough soaking each week throughout the first growing season either from natural precipitation or from you.

If you have questions about trees or any other gardening topic, call the UCONN Home & Garden Education Center (toll-free) at (877) 486-6271 or email us at ladybug@uconn.edu or visit our website, www.homegarden.cahnr.uconn.edu.

This article was published in the Hartford Courant Apr. 26 2025

Preparing for Spring on CRIS Radio

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CRIS Radio: Focal Point 2/21/2025

Heather Zidack from the UConn Home & Garden Education Center talks to host, Stephen Thal, about climate change in the garden, houseplants, seed starting and more!

Transcript

Transcript 

00:00:01 Stephen Thal 

Hi, welcome to another segment on focal Point. This is Stephen Thal and I'm your host for today's program. 

We're going to be learning a lot about getting ready for the spring when we realize the weather is still not quite ready for spring flowers, but we want to get everybody thinking about it. So when the time comes, they'll have some ammunition and be prepared to get in there and get their hands dirty. 

00:00:31 Stephen Thal 

To help us understand that we have Heather from the plant and science program at the University of Connecticut. Welcome back Heather. 

00:00:41 Heather Zidack 

Hi Stephen. Thanks for having me back! 

00:00:43 Stephen Thal 

Yeah, it's great because you gave everybody some spirits to think about and encouragement. One of the things that we've been reading about lately is about climate control. And we were curious, you know, as we look around the country, different things are happening. People can't seem to explain why the weather has changed so drastically, and we're sure that this will impact the way we think about our flowers and the way we want to put a garden in and do herbs. Can you help us understand what climate control may be doing to this? 

00:01:22 Heather Zidack 

Yeah. So there are some things that we are noticing, especially from people just calling into our office with , um, in relation to climate change and a couple of the big things that have happened in 2023, I believe it was the fall of 2023 they did change the USDA hardiness zones. Which, when you're shopping for plants, your zone is actually going to tell you the coldest temperature that plants can tolerate to survive in your area. And so Connecticut, we're about a Zone 6 at this point, is the safe one. But it did shift and so there are parts of the state that are even seeing some warmer. Especially Shoreline is a little closer to zone 7. 

And you can look that up through the USDA to see the change from the zones. But that's a big change. Part of that happened because they had more data points and they could actually get more weather stations to report on what was going on, so it became a little more accurate in that sense. But we are also seeing some climate change effects happening as well. 

We’ve seen you know a lot of flooding over the past couple years. Remember up in you know, Vermont, New Hampshire, they had some of those floods that led to crop loss and contamination of fields. Storms with heavy winds can damage a lot of crops sometimes. 

And higher heat and humidity can affect your gardens as well.  

So if you're looking for management techniques, the first thing that you can do is make sure that you're providing enough water and nutritional support to your plants to endure any stresses that they might see during the growing season. So get a soil test. 

Have your your soil ready to go. Know what fertilizer you need. 

And make sure you're watering. Not too much, not too little. But you're keeping up with what the plants need. That's going to help them build their defenses, just like when we take vitamin C in the winter to prevent colds. 

If you're going to be seeing some hot weather come around and there's heat management strategies, one of the first things you want to do is remove weeds. It actually helps to increase air flow around the plants and also remove competition for some of those nutrients and water that I talked about a minute ago. 

You can also use shade cloth or something to kind of keep the plants out of the hot hot heat of the sun, especially on those really hot days. If you're able to, If you've got potted plants and you can move them to a a sheltered spot on those hot days it works for them. 

But those are a couple heat management strategies. 

00:03:58 Stephen Thal 

What about bugs? 

00:03:59 Heather Zidack 

For me? Oh. 

00:04:00 Stephen Thal 

What about anima-, little bugs like fleas, ticks, beetles? 

00:04:04 Heather Zidack 

Yeah, well, it's something that we notice in the garden and when we see these different fluctuations in heat and temperature. We see a lot of fluctuations in our insect populations. 

So we do see there have been some instances where you haven't had the ability to really have a good kill off of everything in the environment. And so the next year we see more bugs coming out. Our office deals primarily with the garden insects and the pathogens. So seeing things like-Last year, there was a lot of Japanese beetles. Last year there was a lot of fungal infections. 

Really, the best thing that you can do for that is again making sure any weeds are gone so they don't have anywhere to hide in your garden. You can also space your plants as they're recommended in order to make sure that you're having good airflow and good movement in between them, and again you're removing hiding places and you also want to prune all your woody ornamentals to encourage air flow too. 

So if those are some good strategies for that. 

00:05:09 Stephen Thal 

You mentioned fertilizer and doing soil testing. Is there a phone number that people can call and how do they do that? 

00:05:17 Heather Zidack 

Absolutely, so soil testing can be done anytime that the ground is not frozen, so I think we're in the one time of the year where we can't do it right now, but once the ground thaws, the UConn Soil Nutrient Analysis Lab is available for testing.They do a standard nutrient test and that covers all the basic nutrients that you would need for your home garden as well as pH so their phone number is 860-486-4274. 

Again, that's 860-486-4274. 

00:05:57 Stephen Thal 

Ok, Great. 

00:05:58 Stephen Thal 

So we now got to prepare for maintaining our house plants. As well as taking care of those that we choose to go outside and give them some fresh air and not allow too much heat, how are we going to do this? 

How do we prepare for it? 

00:06:16 Heather Zidack 

Yeah. So one of the things that you want to make sure that you're doing, it's still a little too cold to put anything outside just yet. You want to remember that our target is 50° at night before you're putting any plants outside. 

What you want to do with your house plans inside is you want to check for water. Make sure that they're accurate adequately-They have enough moisture in the pot. 

You want to check with your fingers, make sure that it's not clumping up too much in your hand. You want to make sure that it's also not like sand texture. You want to make sure there's an even moisture you might not need to water as much right now, especially if your plants are dormant, just like we don't think about hydration much in the winter, because we're not outside and in the heat, plants are the same way. So check before you water every time. 

The other thing that you can do right now is dust the leaves to scout for pests and disease. 

You can also start fertilizing your house plants when you see new and active growth. So like if there's new leaves, if there's new buds, if they're new shoots, those are signs your plant is waking up and you could use a little food at that point. 

And you want to make sure that you're checking any bulbs or plants that you have in winter storage. So if you dug anything up from your yard, like Canna lilies or Gladiolus bulbs or anything like that, check those bulbs in storage. 

Make sure they’re firm. Make sure there's no discoloration or smell to them and they should have some kind of humidity with them, but not too much. So if you had stored them in peat Moss, maybe missed in with the bottle for a second, but they don't need sopping water just yet. So you want to check all of those things. 

00:07:56 Stephen Thal

And what kind of tools do we need to help us with our projects?

00:08:03 Heather Zidack 

So big thing right now is going to be pruning season, so you can use-depends on the the size of the plant. But if you're outside, you want to have some some good hand pruners or some loppers- Depends on the size of your branches, but pruning right now is an advantage because there's low disease and low pest pressure outside, so plants can easily recover without being exposed to any other diseases. 

In general, people use hand pruners or like I said Loppers which are a little bit larger to cut their their trees back. 

And the rule that you follow is the rule of thirds. You don't want to cut off more than 1/3 of the entire plant if you want to leave 2/3 standing. And that ensures that there's enough of a ratio between roots and shoots that there's healthy regrowth.  

With that being said there are some different pruning techniques that can be suggested for different species of plants.  

So always consult with an arborist or landscaper or give our office a call. If you ever have any questions. 

00:09:10 Stephen Thal

And what about choosing the right fertilizer?

I know there are many different kinds. I know I've heard of fertilizer from Maine where they save all of the lobster shells, crab shells and mix them all together. And that's supposed to be good too, for your plants. 

00:09:29 Heather Zidack 

There's all kinds of fertilizers out there and so. There's different products that are organic. You have things like manures and composts and things like that. Also have synthetic materials like regular. You have coast of Maine like you talked about. The important thing when you're looking for fertilizers, we always recommend getting that soil test first. Because you want to know what your baseline is, right? 

You want to know where you're starting before you add anything else. Once you have that, the soil test is going to tell you in general terms you have 3 numbers on a bag. If you look at a bag of fertilizer, there's going to be usually something like the effect of 10-10-10, 5-5-5, 10-15-10 20-20-20, something like that. 

Those 3 numbers there, those 3 numbers represent in this order nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. So when you're looking at those numbers, you're actually looking at a percentage of how much of that nutrient is in the bag. 

00:10:31 Heather Zidack 

So once you have your soil test for example and it says you are deficient in potassium. So, NPK, your third number there would be the one that you would want to add a little bit more of you would maybe look for something like a 5-5-10. 

00:10:47 Heather Zidack 

It all depends on what your soil test comes out as and what you're actually looking for with a specific crop, so it's hard to give a generalization, but knowing how to read that bag is your first step in knowing what to shop for when you're ready. 

00:11:02 Stephen Thal

If we're going ahead and deciding to plant herbs, is this a good time of the year inside to get those started?

00:11:11 Heather Zidack 

Absolutely. There's a lot of plants that you can start right now. Herbs are going to be great for kitchen gardens. You can pretty much start them any time of year. 

Great for culinary purposes, but they're also loved by pollinators. The Swallow tail Caterpillar in particular loves things like dill and parsley plants, and they're all over them in my yard. So I actually grow a little extra just for them. 

00:11:35 Heather Zidack 

You get a lot of fragrance and texture out of all of the fresh herbs, which is fantastic, and it can be easily done, indoor or outdoor. 

So right now you would want to start everything indoors that you want. The really cool thing with herbs is that there are some of them, like basil is an example. You know how they sell the basil plants in grocery stores, right? 

00:11:56 Stephen Thal 

Right. 

00:11:57 Heather Zidack 

So what you can do is you can actually cut off a stem of that basil, remove the leaves up to like the first leaf, maybe the first 3 or 4 leaves up there, put it in water, and it'll send out its own roots that you could then put in a pot yourself. 

00:12:12 Heather Zidack 

So you don't necessarily even need to do anything with seeds. You can do cuttings to keep your herbs going. 

00:12:17 Heather Zidack 

The only thing I would recommend is to plant if you're going to plant mint. Keep it in containers and keep it away from the ground. Don't put it outside unless you want to grow it for the rest of your life. It does have a pretty aggressive tendency, and once it hits the ground and gets rooted in, it can just grow and grow and grow. And then you have mint in that area forever. 

But other than that, herbs are great to start right now. 

00:12:43 Heather Zidack 

A lot of people are starting, especially if they do cut flowers and small seeded plants right now. Like if you think snapdragons. If you think Cosmos, some of those they need to start now because they need a lot of time to grow. Veggie wise. People are starting things like broccoli and Brussels sprouts at this point. 

Most people have started like onions and shallots by now, but you probably still have time if you were to do it like right now. And so really, there's a lot of different veggies that you could be starting right now. 

00:13:19 Stephen Thal 

Yeah, those are are very critical things that we have to keep keep aware of. 

00:13:26 Heather Zidack 

Yeah, timing is everything with when it comes to starting. 

00:13:30 Stephen Thal 

Right. And this is Stephen Thal with another segment on Focal Point and we're interviewing Heather from the Yukon plant and Science program and they offer a lot of help to citizens in the state. In terms of not only analyzing the soil, but talking to you about the different kinds of plants or herbs that you might want to consider starting and what has to be done to maintain them, and we know that Climate change has strongly impacted the way we have to do our season so that we can take all of our hard labor in to make sure we get some good results and not have it fail for us during the during the coming growing season. 

00:14:20 Stephen Thal 

I think it. 

00:14:20 Heather Zidack 

Yeah. 

00:14:21 Stephen Thal 

I think it forces us to have a have a little more time to work with this. 

00:14:30 Heather Zidack 

Yeah, it's really interesting. You know the frost date is a big thing that's important when you start planting seeds and when you start planting outside, especially with vegetable gardens and a lot of gardeners- 

I remember, even when I was young, used to plant right around Mother's Day, which is in mid-May. In the past couple years, we probably could have done that, but you have to really watch the weather. 

I've seen a few seasons where you're waiting past Memorial Day, which is the end of May at this point, and it's-For me, Memorial Day has become more of that target. Be like-this Is definitely the weekend things are going to go in. 

You can keep an eye on the weather. And as long as the weather is staying above, you know, we're not getting frost. You can put your seedlings out, but you're taking a risk because we can have a frost anytime in that spring, part of May, and if you do you can lose your seedlings, so if you do put anything in the ground a little bit early do so with caution. 

Keep an eye on the weather and be prepared to be able to run out and cover them if you need to. We always recommend like fabric coverings like either a towel or a sheet or a pillow case or something like that to cover your plants if they're in the ground and we have a frost coming. Using anything like plastic is definitely going to exacerbate the problem and cause more damage when it comes to frost and freezes than anything else. 

So I would say. Look at your frost date. 

I know the Farmers Almanac has a target frost date that you can look up, but if you want to play on the super safe side, I plant right around Memorial Day and that's a good time to plant, be outside and make sure that you're keeping an eye on the weather when you're putting things out. 

00:16:21 Stephen Thal 

Are there specific questions you should be asking the local gardeners or when you go in and buy things? To make sure you're getting the things that you want, especially the different plants. 

00:16:35 Heather Zidack 

Yeah, you want to look for quality seed whenever you're purchasing. In general, most garden centres have. Seed that is timely. So you're going to see, just like we have certain products in the grocery store that have like an expiration date. There are seeds that have that date planted on the back. 

They should be packed for this year and I believe they have to sell seeds that are packed for this year, so that's not something that you have to worry about too much, but it is good to know where to look for that information. Look at where It will say “packed for” and then it will have the year on there. 

It'll also show the germination rate, which is how well, the seed will actually sprout. That's advertised on the envelope as well as like a quality control and so you want to make sure that it's got a good germination rate. 

I've seen seed products before that I've purchased where they had a note on the envelope that said last year we had a low germination rate. So this year we're giving you extra seed and in the envelope it was a little heavier pack than what it had been in previous year. 

So you want to make sure you've got a good germination rate. You want to make sure that there's a a date that's packed for this year. Those are both more important than anything like brand. You want to make sure that you're looking for good seed when you're starting. 

Something to keep in mind is that there are- if you are someone who saves seeds from year to year, you want to make sure you're storing them well. Keeping them in a cool, dry area. 

And if you do have seeds that are either seed that you've saved and you have a history of, like plant disease in previous years, or if you've bought untreated seeds and you have a reason to have concern that maybe you had some kind of, you know, plant disease a previous year. You can have your seeds treated with something called hot water seed treatment and our plant diagnostic lab does that. 

00:18:37 Heather Zidack 

To help make sure that there are no pathogens on the feed when you plant them in the ground to give them a healthy start. So that's an option, especially if you have a history of disease in your garden that some gardeners do like to take advantage of. 

00:18:52 Stephen Thal 

Oh, that's good. 

00:18:53 Stephen Thal 

Are there any special plants that some of the gardeners may be putting out this for sale that we need to be aware of, especially for the disease? 

00:19:04 Heather Zidack 

So you want to be careful with-I will say if you're looking at things like plant swaps and you're going to like Garden Club plant swaps and things like that, we did help out a lot of garden clubs last year as they were looking at how to do this while still being aware of the jumping warm issue. And so jumping worms are an invasive worm that are going from property to property and the best way to make sure that they don't transfer between properties is to make sure that your roots of your plants are cleaned off.  

So. A lot of, especially at plant swaps, a lot of these garden clubs were having people dig their plants that they were willing to donate. Rinse the plants off at the roots. Repot them into soilless potting media. 

And then they were willing to trade them and and exchange them at these swaps. 

So you want to make sure if you are going to plant swaps, they are taking some kind of precaution like that and if they are not, you can still take the plant home but you want to make sure that you're doing the rinsing of the roots to make sure that nothing is coming onto your property. 

00:20:18 Heather Zidack 

We had a lot of garden clubs that were able to take some of these procedures and be very successful with their plant swaps and not have to worry about it at all. But education is that first step in knowing how to manage this issue right and so that way they knew that they had to rinse the roots. They had to keep their gardeners educated on how to prevent this from spreading, and they were able to still have plant swaps and stuff, so not encouraging any fear of plant swaps. 

Just kind of giving you that heads up of tou may need to wash the roots if you bring some. 

00:20:50 Stephen Thal 

Yeah, those are very important things. And I think also as a person who may be out with your plants or just sitting in the yard admiring them, I think we need to remind people to wear their sunglasses and to wear a hat and use proper sun protection. 

00:21:07 Heather Zidack 

Very important. I always used to tell my colleagues when I worked at a garden center, I'd say water the plants and water yourself. 

00:21:16 Stephen Thal 

That's good. 

00:21:17 Stephen Thal 

Yeah. Good. 

00:21:20 Stephen Thal 

Any other items you'd like to have us our listeners be aware of and enjoy their spring fling in the garden and in their house plants. 

00:21:32 Heather Zidack 

Yeah. One of the things that I would love to make everyone aware of is that the Connecticut Flower and Garden show is coming up at the end of February. It's going to be February 20th to 23rd at the Hartford Convention Center and the Home and Garden Education Center, Myself and my colleagues will be there answering garden questions. 

So if you have garden questions, please feel free to stop by and say hi to us. We've also got speakers that are going to be there every single day. And it's a nice taste of spring because a lot of local landscapers and garden centres will do full on displays. 

00:22:10 Heather Zidack 

It's very cold. We're starting to see Snow and it's nice to take a break and just have that smell of fresh flowers all around and everything. So it's a great opportunity to get a taste of spring. And get your garden questions answered. If you need to see us. So it's really good coming up. 

00:22:29 Heather Zidack 

The other thing that I have for advice, if you're looking for spring a little bit early is if you have anything like Dogwood, forsythia, crab apple in your house or in your property, you can take cuttings of them and put the branches in warm water. 

And they could force the flowers to open right now. So you could get a little bit of spring early in your house by doing that. 

00:22:53 Heather Zidack 

The other thing that's really important to keep in mind is that if you are an avid gardener. It's a good time to take any of your tools that are in the shed and make sure they're in proper working order. Make sure that all of the handles are tightened. 

Make sure everything is sharpened if it needs to be sharpened and paint the handles with a bright red or bright orange paint to help you see them when you put them down in the garden. 

00:23:17 Stephen Thal 

Yeah. And I think also lawn mowers or any working tools like that should be taken to a mechanic to make sure everything's working. 

00:23:24 Heather Zidack 

Absolutely anything with an engine. Don't do yourself. 

00:23:30 Stephen Thal 

Yeah. Sounds like you've had some experiences. 

00:23:34 Heather Zidack 

Yeah. 

00:23:35 Stephen Thal 

Now in terms of plants, we have to watch out for some of these poisons that may be used to help plants. Are there any that we should avoid? 

00:23:47 Heather Zidack 

So most of the ones, fortunately, that you want to avoid too much are not allowed for sale to homeowners. That's a really, really good thing. 

What you want to make sure that you're looking at if if anyone is using any chemicals in the garden. Every single product has a label on it, and that label has to match whatever you're trying to to achieve, right? 

So If you're trying to eliminate cabbage worms, for example, in your garden. That label needs to say that that product will take care of cabbage worm. 

Otherwise you should not be using it whatsoever, and so we say this recommendation with any chemical, but also all of those home remedies that you hear about. We don't recommend using them because there's not that science to back it up that says this label identifies the cabbage worms. And cabbage worms are my identified problem so this is going to work. So that's one of the first things. 

00:24:45 Heather Zidack 

The other thing that's really important in making sure that you're monitoring regularly and looking for bugs. Because a lot of times if you can take care of the problem early, you don't necessarily need those chemicals. Or there could be other ways to manage it before you get to that point. So as soon as you see something, get a picture and we could help you or have someone at a garden center help you identify what's what's going on. And what you can do to treat it. 

00:25:14 Heather Zidack 

Reading that label is the most important thing that anybody can do, and it's the safest thing because you want to make sure you're doing targeted approaches to target species when you're using any chemicals in the garden. 

00:25:27 Stephen Thal 

Yeah. And also if you have a bug you're not familiar with, put it in a little container and send it up to you guys. 

00:25:35 Heather Zidack 

Yes, we can do that. We do insect identification-insects found in the garden. If, if they're found inside the home, we usually recommend like either a pest control expert or there's other resources available, but we are definitely able to do any garden pest. 

00:25:53 Stephen Thal 

Yeah. How about the got local garden clubs? Can they be helpful too? 

00:25:58 Heather Zidack 

Sometimes! They actually have some good resources. 

00:26:03 Heather Zidack 

If you're looking for an identification or a diagnosis, it really is good to come to the either the plant diagnostic lab or our office here because we have the connection to the diagnostic lab. But there are garden clubs. There are a lot of people with a lot of knowledge about gardening. The the reason that we we pride ourselves on is because we have a lot of research based information that we’re able to share with our clients. 

00:26:31 Stephen Thal 

Well, we want to thank you for coming in and sharing this vital information for getting your spring things started. 

00:26:40 Heather Zidack 

Thank you so much for having me. 

00:26:40 Stephen Thal 

And you know well, give us a call when the neck was a fall we have to get ready. 

Or. If there's any alerts, we can send them out. 

00:26:50 Heather Zidack 

Yes, I will let you know if there's anything else. 

00:26:55 Stephen Thal 

Well, I thank you very much, Heather, for coming on again. At the program we really enjoyed. 

I'm sure I got a lot out of it and I'm sure people here got a lot out of it. 

Appreciate you and your staff for all you do, why don't you give your number one more time? 

00:27:12 Heather Zidack 

Yes, if anybody has gardening questions for us, they can call and our number is 877-486-6271. Again, that's 877-486-6271. 

00:27:31 Stephen Thal 

OK, very , good. Thank you. Everybody thank you. 

Thank you for all you do to help make us a successful spring season. 

00:27:39 Heather Zidack 

Yes, thank you for having me. Have a good spring! 

00:27:41 Stephen Thal 

Like this is Steven Thal and another segment on focal point and we wanted to thank you the listeners for listening to all of the focal point programs. 

00:27:53 Stephen Thal 

As we mentioned earlier in the program, please wear your sunglasses and a hat because the sun is going to be a lot stronger this year because of climate changes. 

And also practice a family plan. If you don't know anything about it, contact a local fire department or go on the computer regarding emergency fire plans and involve everybody in in the House and doing a piece of it. And if you practice it a few times and also make sure that. Your fire alarm batteries or whatever are up to date cause a lot of them today are lasting 10 years. 

So get involved because life you say may be your own. 

00:28:36 Stephen Thal 

Thank you for allowing us into your homes. Safe and stay healthy. 

Is Early Leaf Drop an Indicator of Tree Health?

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By Nick Goltz, DPM, UConn Home & Garden Education Center, Plant Diagnostic Lab

Trees showing their autumn colors
Trees showing their fall colors. Photo by Nick Goltz

The autumnal equinox, one of two times of the year at which day and night are equal in length, just passed on Sunday the 22nd. While this point marks the astrological start of fall, many of the trees lining the roads on my drive to work (and in many of our clients’ yards) seem to want to get a head start on the season. Since late August, we’ve been getting calls from folks across Connecticut asking why the leaves on their trees are changing color and falling early. You may even be thinking, “Hey, a few of my trees are dropping their leaves early too. Is that something that can indicate how healthy they are?” In a word, maybe!

First, let me share the good news that, for most trees, premature color change and leaf drop doesn’t mean that they are in any immediate danger. Plants, much like humans and other animals, respond to stress differently depending on their environment and the kind of year they’ve been having. Just like we might see a little hair loss after a particularly stressful few months, trees may drop their leaves early as a response to stress. Identifying what is causing the stress however, is important when deciding if concern is warranted.

What type of stressors might be causing this early color change and leaf drop? For most trees, the answer is water. Connecticut and several other states in New England had a series of heavy rain events and flash flooding throughout the summer. While we’ve had hardly any rain in the land of steady habits for several weeks now, for many trees, the damage has already been done and symptoms are just appearing now. Saturated soils deprived plant roots of oxygen, damaging them and making them more susceptible to disease. Plants in especially low-lying areas, caught in floodwaters, or grown in poorly-draining clay soils likely experienced the most damage and earliest leaf drop.  Some plants may have even perished outright from the damage. Besides water, excessive heat and the increased prevalence of fungal and bacterial diseases, as well as some insect pests, may have also contributed to the stress our plants are letting us know about now.

So, how can you know if the early color change or leaf drop is an issue for your favorite tree or just its way of complaining about a stressful summer? When and where the leaf change and drop is occurring can help you determine if the damage is likely a normal stress response or due to something more sinister.

Consider when the color change and leaf drop first began. In this instance, seeing some leaves begin to change in the last week of August is less concerning than seeing them change at the end of June. Plants that have their leaves change color and drop in midsummer or earlier are most likely dealing with a disease or pest issue, rather than a stress response. I recommend you get advice for these plants by contacting the UConn Home & Garden Education Center and remove them from your garden if they are unlikely to recover.

Also, consider what part(s) of the canopy was affected. Conifers such as white pine drop their leaves (we usually call them needles) in response to stress too, but you will typically see this take place on the interior of the plant – the older needles that aren’t capturing much sun anymore. Branches on deciduous trees, such as oak, that are in shady spots tend to drop their leaves early too, and this is normal.

Branches in full sun that lose their leaves very early, while others on the tree remain fine, are a bit suspicious. Mark these branches with tape or string and monitor them carefully as the plant produces its first leaves or flowers in the spring. If these marked branches do not produce leaves or flowers with the rest of the tree, get advice (again, by contacting the folks at the UConn HGEC)! The best option is usually to cut them close to the main trunk, then disinfect your pruning tools.

If you’re concerned about the health of your tree, including as a result of a potential disease or pest issue, practice good fall habits to give your trees the best foot forward next spring! Clean as much leaf litter as possible and remove it from the base of trees that dropped their leaves early. If you suspect the plant is diseased or has pests, throw away these leaves or burn them before composting. For example, many plant pathogenic fungi can survive the winter on fallen leaves and reinfect healthy plant tissue the following spring. It’s also a good idea to minimize added stress for your plants. Try not to expose them to herbicides, deicing salts, fertilizers, or other chemicals until they’re looking strong again.

If you aren’t sure how to proceed with your fall cleanup or if you’d simply like a second opinion on your favorite tree, get free horticultural consultation from the UConn Home & Garden Education Center by emailing ladybug@uconn.edu or by calling (877) 486-6271.

Time to Fertilize Your Lawn

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By Dawn Pettinelli, UConn Home & Garden Education Center

A person pushing a spreader
Photo by dmp2024

While September brings with it shorter days, we still have plenty of opportunities to attend to those fall yard and garden chores. Among them is applying fertilizer to lawns. Keep in mind that for the most part, our lawns consist of cool season grasses. In a more typical year, turfgrass growth slows down during dry, hot summer weather. Up until the past few weeks, this summer had seen enough rainfall to keep lawns green and growing.

Turf plants take up nutrients as they grow and these need to be occasionally replenished. September through mid-October is a perfect time to do so as the cooler temperatures stimulate shoot and root growth and hopefully, some gentle fall rains will help the nutrients infiltrate the soil and reach the roots.

So, what kind and how much fertilizer does one need? Of course, the best way to determine that is with a soil test (www.soiltesting.cahnr.uconn.edu) but without a soil test, follow the directions on the fertilizer package. Whether one chooses a natural/organic or a synthetic fertilizer is up to the individual. A 2024 National Lawn Fertilizer Study by Axiom, found that 95% of respondents said it was important to apply fertilizers that are safe for children, pets and the environment. Somewhat ironically, despite safety concerns, 67% have used fertilizers that contain weed killers or insecticides. In most cases, applications of any kind of pesticide, whether it be an herbicide, insecticide or fungicide are not necessary at this time of year.

Most folks who tend lawns or gardens are aware that fertilizer packages come with a guaranteed analysis. These are the 3 numbers on the package, for example 5-10-10. They are always in the same order and always stand for the percent by dry weight of total nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Unless you are purchasing a lawn starter fertilizer, which you would use for new seedings and soddings, you will notice that maintenance lawn fertilizers sold in Connecticut have 0 as a middle number, so for instance 18- 0- 4.

This is because of phosphorus legislation passed in 2013. Many people may not be aware that phosphorus is the number one inland freshwater pollutant in the state and when it enters streams, rivers, ponds or lakes, it encourages algae growth that eventually dies and decomposes depleting the oxygen in the water and leading to fish kills. Also, it may encourage the growth of toxic cyanobacteria as well as making the waters undesirable for recreational activities. In a nutshell, the law says that phosphorus should not be applied to an established lawn unless a soil test performed in the past 2 years provides a recommendation for phosphorus.

When applying a lawn fertilizer, either the soil test recommendations or the ones on the package call for approximately 1 pound of nitrogen to be applied for every 1000 square feet of lawn. Two things to check are the size of your lawn and also, the setting on your spreader.

Ideally one would like to apply the fertilizer when the grass is dry but before a light rain. If no rain is predicted, it would be beneficial if the lawn was watered lightly so that fertilizer prills are not sticking to the blades of grass but washed into the soil.

Lawn fertilizers generally are available as either fast or slow release. The nutrients in fast release fertilizers, especially nitrogen, are generally water soluble and readily available to your lawn grasses. Many lawn fertilizers also contain slow release or water insoluble forms of nitrogen. These are typically more expensive but supply nitrogen over longer periods of time. They are less likely to burn and more slowly fertilize plants.

Whichever one you pick; it should be put down by October 15th. Weather is unpredictable after that, and plants may or may not be able to use the nutrients before colder temperatures prevail and grass growth slows.

This time of year is great for reseeding any bare spots, topdressing with compost if organic matter levels are low, using a mulching mower to incorporate leaves as they fall and for aerating if the soil is compacted. Send your lawn questions to ladybug@uconn.edu or call the UConn Home & Garden Education Center with your queries at (877) 486-6271.

Calling the Cut – Tree Triage, Care, and Removal

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By Nick Goltz, DPM, UConn Plant Diagnostic Lab/UConn Home & Garden Education Center

The forecast is looking good for a perfect 4th of July weekend. Most folks will take advantage of the weather ahead to plan that perfect grilling menu for when their friends and family visit. This is a much-needed respite from the severe weather that passed through over the past few weeks. Severe winds and torrential rains hammered Connecticut and most of the rest of the Northeast after a recent heat wave. With the weather for the week ahead of us is looking much better than the weather of the week behind us, now is the perfect time to assess our trees and determine if any action needs to be taken before the next storm comes!

Tree with branches missing on one side.
Storm damage caused this tree to lose branches on one side. This lopsidedness increases risk to property below. Photo by H. Zidack

I’ll start and end this column with the advice that a professional arborist should be called-in if you are ever unsure of your tree’s health, or if you need support regarding safe management and potential removal. In Connecticut, one of the best resources for finding a licensed, local arborist as well as additional resources regarding tree care and maintenance can be found on the Connecticut Tree Protective Association website, ctpa.org. That said, tree triage can start with you at home. There are many things one can be on the lookout for to determine if a tree need professional attention, and potentially in what order the work should be done.

I’m sure you’ve heard this phrase used to describe real estate, but with trees too, location is everything. The first thing to consider when performing your tree triage is the location of the tree. Regardless of tree age, size, species, or health, the trees that should always merit our immediate attention are those in locations where they could pose a danger to life or property if a limb were to fall off or if the tree were to topple altogether. Trees within striking distance of homes, power lines, and important structures like chicken coops and pet houses should always be the first inspected before the storm comes and after it passes. If a tree knocks down a power line or hits a home, call for help. Never attempt to work around a live cable (one that still carries electricity) without the proper training and equipment.

The second thing to consider as you perform your tree triage is health of the tree. Trees weakened by disease or age are more likely to succumb to strong winds or topple after standing water weakens or kills roots. Inspect your trees for symptoms of stress and disease such as branches that no longer produce leaves. Depending on the species of tree, a few may not be much cause for concern, but if there are several branches on a tree that no longer produce new leaves or needles, the tree is likely not in great health. Another symptom of stress or disease is a visible canker, or large wound, on the trunk of the tree. Trees in good health will typically grow new tissue over an injury sustained by pruning, animal feeding, or a previous storm. Cankers that appear to be getting larger over a few years, rather than smaller, are often a cause for concern.

There are even some obvious signs of disease such as conk or shelf mushrooms that grow directly from the wood of the tree. While these organisms are important for nutrient cycling in natural ecosystems, they often indicate that a tree is approaching the end of its life. The shelf mushroom is only the sexual structure of the fungus, there to produce spores and reach new trees. While removing the mushroom may slow the spread of the fungus to other trees nearby, the majority of the “body” of the fungus will still exist within the tree, weakening it by breaking down woody tissue over time.

Trees, like other living things, do not live indefinitely and become more vulnerable to illness and stress as they age. Just like people need to take care of themselves to ensure they live a long, healthy life, so too must trees be cared for over the course of their lives to ensure they have the best possible outcome. Regular fertilization and pruning are essential to not only ensure that a tree grows robustly, but also that it does not become lopsided or heavy on one side as it ages. Even healthy trees can fall if they are never pruned and have a poor center of gravity! Pruning should be performed frequently to promote new growth, discourage lopsidedness, and allow increased airflow through the canopy. This will have the double benefit of decreasing disease pressure that often accompanies high canopy humidity and prolonged leaf wetness. Though it depends on the species of tree, most here in New England perform best when pruned while they are dormant in winter. Remember to not remove more than 1/3 of the tree’s branches when pruning, if possible!

There are other factors to consider when determining if a tree should come down that we don’t have space to discuss at length here, such as the species of tree, whether the tree is used for other purposes (such as part of a living fence), whether the tree has historic or personal significance, or what removal of the tree may mean for other plants nearby that depend on its shade. And, of course, nobody should consider tree removal without considering cost and time. If cost is a concern, remember to do your triage and prioritize the management of trees that could potentially damage your home, property, or power lines if they were to fall. These considerations and others are worth discussing with an arborist as they survey your property!

For questions about planting and pruning trees or other gardening topics, feel free to contact us, toll-free, at the UConn Home & Garden Education Center at (877) 486-6271, visit our website at www.homegarden.cahnr.uconn.edu or contact your local Cooperative Extension Center.

Tying Climbing Roses

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By Marie Woodward, UConn Home & Garden Education Center

Climbing roses tied to a vinyl fence.
Photo by Marie Woodward

Climbing and rambling roses are a beautiful addition to any garden, adding height and depth to your outdoor space. These types of roses require proper training and tying to ensure that they grow in the desired direction, produce the most blooms and don’t become tangled or unruly.  Follow this guide on how to tie climbing and rambling roses to get the best results. 

Gloves, wire, hooks and pliers laid out on a table.
These tools are needed to train your climbing roses. Photo by Marie Woodward

For materials, one would need some twine or soft plant ties, a sharp pair of pruning shears, sturdy long-sleeved, thorn resistant garden gloves. Also, some wire and tools to secure to a trellis, fence or other structure may be necessary.

Climbing roses have two types of canes. Main canes are stems that originate from the base of the rose giving it its structure and support. They are also referred to as leaders. Lateral canes originate from the main cane. It is the lateral canes that produce the flowers and add volume to the shrub. In general, main canes are not pruned unless they are diseased or dead.

Before you start attaching the plant to a trellis, make sure that your rose is properly pruned. Removing any dead or diseased canes will encourage healthy growth. Cut back any wild or overly long shoots to create a manageable framework for tying. Starting with this step will allow for more control as you move through the process of tying.

Supportive wiring, better known as strain wires, helps to promote flowering. They hold the main canes at a 45–90-degree angle. These angles encourage lateral canes to flush and produce more abundant flowers.  

A rose cane tied to wire supports on a vinyl fence.
Attach your rose canes to strain wires with soft ties. Photo by Marie Woodward

If you're training your roses against a wall or fence, attach the horizontal strain wires to the structure, spacing them about 12-18 inches apart vertically and 5 feet apart horizontally.

 If you have a vinyl fence you can use vinyl safe hooks and secure the wire with a turnbuckle vertically, spacing them about two feet apart to avoid drilling holes in the vinyl material.

Using twine or soft plant ties, attach the rose canes to the support structure at regular intervals, starting about 1.5 feet from the ground. Tie them securely but not too tightly  You want to allow room for the canes to grow and expand. Avoid fishing lines or other rigid materials. Using the wrong ties or tying too tightly could lead to cane injury.

As the roses push new growth, continue to tie the new main canes to the support structure.  Continue to guide them in the desired direction, with those 45–90-degree angles as a guide.

Regularly check your roses and adjust the ties as needed.  Ensure that they remain secure but not too tight. Prune any wild or unruly shoots and remove any dead or diseased wood to keep your roses healthy and under control.

By following these steps and regularly maintaining your climbing rose, you’ll create a stunning vertical display that adds beauty and depth to your garden. While this guide provides good tips on for starting and maintaining younger climbing roses, older roses that have been neglected may need restorative measures. If you need more information on climbing roses or any other gardening questions, feel free to contact us, toll-free, at the UConn Home & Garden Education Center at (877) 486-6271, visit our website at www.homegarden.cahnr.uconn.edu

It’s Spring! Time to Feed the Plants!

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By Dawn Pettinelli, UConn Home & Garden Education Center

Plants need nutrients to grow and develop just like we need vitamins and minerals. They get most of their nutrients dissolved in the water they take up with their roots. When we add fertilizer to the soil around our garden plants, we are adding vital plant nutrients.

Native Connecticut soils are typically low in pH and low in nutrients. Our native plants have adapted to our native soils but most of our garden plants are not from around here. Zinnias and tomatoes are from South America, bluegrass lawns and lilacs hail from Europe and rhododendrons from Asia. Our native soils may not supply the nutrients they need so it is up to us to do so.

Of course, the best way to know which nutrients and how much to add is with a soil test. April is a very busy month at the UConn Soil Nutrient Analysis Lab (www.soiltesting.cahnr.uconn.edu) but there is still time to get your soil tested before planting.

Without soil test recommendations, always follow the directions on the fertilizer package. Applying too much can injure your plants plus excessive nitrogen and phosphorus can wind up in our waterways. Before fertilizing, calculate out the square footage of your garden or lawn. You don’t need to measure exactly; you can measure a pace and then walk down the length and across the width of your gardens to get a rough estimate of area. For odd-shaped beds or lawns, break them down into more square, oval or rectangular areas and add them up.

All fertilizers come with 3 numbers on the package denoting the percent, on a dry weight basis, of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Nitogen promotes green, leafy growth, phosphorus encourages fruits and roots, and potassium is for all round health and tolerance to stresses like drought, cold and disease. So, fertilizers with a higher nitrogen number would be most appropriate for turf grasses, trees and shrubs, while ones higher in phosphorus are generally used in vegetable and flower gardens.

Adding fertilizer to perennials with a watering can and a hand rake.
Fertilizer spread around a perennial. Photo by dmp2024

Whether you select a synthetic or natural organic fertilizer is a matter of personal choice. Both are beneficial to plants. For annual plantings, whether vegetable or flowers, it would be ideal to mix the fertilizer into the top 6 inches of soil. That’s where most of the roots will be so it makes sense that the nutrients they need are there too. Put down the fertilizer, as well as any limestone or other amendments shortly before planting. Long season annuals, like tomatoes, pumpkins and marigolds would appreciate a second application of fertilizer, referred to as side dressing, about 2 months after the first one.

As you are cleaning up your perennial beds and see the new shoots popping through the soil, add some fertilizer around plants and carefully scratch it in. Do the same for bulbs. It is harder to fertilize if the beds are heavily mulched. Not much fertilizer spread on top of mulch will make it to the plant roots. Rake or pull away the mulch, sprinkle some fertilizer directly to the soil around your plants and replace the mulch.

For trees and shrubs, fertilizer should be spread under the whole canopy as a healthy root system will grow at least as wide as the branches and perhaps even more so. Do your best to remove the mulch before fertilizing. Typically trees and shrubs are fertilized once a year in the spring. Once they have reached their mature size, often the fertilizer is cut down to half rate as woody plants can recycle many of the nutrients they need.

Lawns can be fertilized now but pay attention to the moisture level of the soil. With all the rain that we have been experiencing, the soil is pretty soggy in spots. Stay off wet soils as they will become compacted. Most lawns do well with just a spring and fall application of fertilizer. If the clippings are left down, they supply nutrients plus add organic matter to the soil. Be sure to set your spreader on the proper setting.

If you have questions about fertilizing or if you have any other gardening questions, contact the UConn Home & Garden Education at (877) 486-6271 or www.homegarden.cahnr,uconn.edu or your local Cooperative Extension Center.