Organic Gardening Tip of the Week

As fruit and nut trees go into fall, shorter days and cooler temperatures stimulate a hormone which triggers the trees to go into dormancy and stop growing. Cold temperature breaks down that hormone and when the tree experiences enough cold temperatures, dormancy is broken and the tree starts to grow again, by flowering and developing leaves. The period of cold temperatures needed to break dormancy is the cumulative chill hours, temperatures between 32- 45°F from November to February. What happens if your tree does not get enough chill hours? The tree will produce leaves later, blossoms may not open or just drop and therefore your fruit tree will not produce fruit. One the other hand why not just plant trees that have a much lower chill requirement? If you plant low chill trees in a high chill area your trees will break dormancy too early and the blossoms will be killed by cold temperatures and you have the same result, no fruit. Chill hours needed are not an exact number, it is usually a range. If you don’t know the chill hours in your area, consult your local Farm Advisor, Master Gardener or even a local nursery may be able to help. We have an article on chill hours, however, the links included to find your chill hours are only for California counties. If you live outside of California, you will need to search the internet to find sources, weather stations or county Ag Offices that can assist you. There is another site you can use, but it will take a little bit of work since the chill hours can only be looked up 10 days at a time. But once you get your chill hours calculated you are done. Might want to look at chill hours for several periods, since it does fluctuate. Just start from November 1 and go through February of the following year.

Now is a great time to plant your fall flower bulbs for a dazzling spring display of color. If you live in cold winter zones (1-7), you can plant when the soil has cooled to at least 50°F and your ground is still workable. For areas with warmer winters (zones 8-11) you may not get enough cold temperatures for the bulbs to do well, so the bulbs can be placed in the refrigerator–but not by any fruit that may give off ethylene gas. Bulbs do not need more than about 11-15 weeks of chilling, and the good news is that we store our bulbs in a cooler until they have shipped out, so they have already chilled about 8 weeks! Plant your bulbs in areas that have good drainage, they will not do well sitting in soggy soil. They also like full sun, so since they bloom in the spring when many trees may have not leafed out, you can plant them almost anywhere in your yard!

Follow the planting instructions on the package, and make sure you plant pointy side up. Some bulbs are kind of hard to figure out what is the bottom, so if you can't tell, plant it sideways and the bulb will right itself. No need to fertilize at planting time for new bulbs, but come spring you should give them some quality bulb fertilizer so they will have enough nutrients to return another spring bloom.

If you don’t want to wait until spring for your blooms, many bulbs can be forced to bloom in the winter indoors. For more information on forcing bulbs, read our article “Forcing Flower Bulbs”.

Tip of the Week: Green Tomatoes

Cooler weather is here to stay, but what about the green tomatoes still on the vine. Not to worry, you can ripen them and maybe even try your hand at fried green tomatoes! Fruits stop ripening when temps drop below 50°F, so if you are still warmer than that during the day, leave the fruit on the vine as long as possible. Remove any flowers & small fruit, and decrease the watering. Once daytime temps are consistently below 50°F and before the first frost, harvest all of the fruit. Place it in a single layer in a box lined with newspaper, and store between 55-70°F. To speed up the ripening process, add a couple of apples to the box. Check weekly for ripened tomatoes and remove any rotted fruit. If some just don’t seem to be changing color at all, try some fried green tomatoes.

Check out the recipe we have posted (under Entrées) for all the details.

For more information on growing tomatoes, see our Growing Guide in the Resource Center.  We have many types of tomato seeds for sale!

The air has a fall chill to it and the leaves are starting to turn, but there is still plenty to do in your garden and yard. Harvesting the last veggies and flowers, planting bulbs for a spring bloom and putting in your garlic and onions are just a few things that can be done in October. Here are just a few ideas to add to your "To-Do" List. Tricia talks about some things she is doing in her fall garden in our video, October Gardening Checklist.

Things to Plant in the Fall – Spring flowering bulbs, garlic, shallots, native plants, cover crop, wildflowers, annual flowers like mums, cool weather seeds like lettuce, kale, beets, greens and more! Read the full article, 20 Great Gardening Tips for Your October Garden for more information.