November, 1999

LAWN AND GARDEN RELEASES FOR DECEMBER, JANUARY AND FEBRUARY

THE GARDEN CORNER

A FRESH TREE LASTS LONGER, IS SAFER IN HOME

AFRICAN VIOLETS EASY TO GROW, FLOWER READILY WITH ENOUGH LIGHT

ALL PINES HAVE NEEDLES, BUT A TREE WITH NEEDLES ISN’T NECESSARILY A PINE

AMARYLLIS: EASY TO GROW BUT SPECTACULAR

HYBRID, STANDARD VARIETIES: WHEN DO YOU CHOOSE WHAT?

LET PLANTS CARRY VALENTINE MESSAGE

NINE VARIETIES CHOSEN AAS AWARD WINNERS

PANTRY PESTS PLAGUE PLETHORA OF PRODUCTS

PICK THE RIGHT CACTUS, TREAT IT JUST RIGHT AND IT MAY FLOWER

PLAN TO ADD COLOR, TEXTURE TO WINTER LANDSCAPE

SEED CATALOGS: FUN, INFORMATIVE

SOIL, VARIETY, MOISTURE ARE KEYS TO SUCCESS WITH POTATOES

SPECIAL HANDLING KEEPS CHESTNUTS GOOD FOR ROASTING

ANR Communications Contact: L. Johnson
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Telephone: 517-432-1555
East Lansing, MI 48824-1039 11/17/99

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Though the outdoor gardening season is winding down, gardening questions are plentiful. Michigan State University Extension specialists answer timely questions about gardening topics ranging from vegetable storage to spring bulbs to houseplants.

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Q. Each fall, when the weather is cool and wet, my lawn develops a patch of mushrooms in the same spot. I usually just run through them with the lawn mower and forget about them, but I’m wondering why they’re there in the first place.

A. Mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of fungi that grow on decaying wood underground. Chances are that a tree stump or perhaps buried construction materials are supporting the mushroom growth. To get rid of the mushrooms, you’d have to dig up and remove the wood.

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Q. Can I plant my potted mum outdoors?

A. You can, but it may not survive the winter. Most florist’s mums -- the varieties grown for indoor use in pots -- aren’t winter-hardy. For planting outdoors, look for hardy mums.

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Q. Why do only some of my asparagus plants have berries?

A. Asparagus plants are either male or female -- that is, male and female flowers occur on separate plants. Only the female flowers develop into fruits. Therefore, only the female plants have berries.

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Q. I put some of my houseplants on my screened-in porch for the summer, and they grew like weeds. Now that they’ve come back inside, they’re dropping a lot of leaves. I don’t see any signs of disease or insects -- what’s the problem?

A. Dropping leaves is a plant’s way of adjusting to reduced light levels. A sudden change in growing conditions can result in a sudden, dramatic leaf drop.

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Q. What sort of planting site is good for spring-flowering bulbs?

A. Well drained soil is a must -- bulbs planted in poorly drained soil tend to rot rather than grow. Full sun is ideal, though bulbs will usually do well in partial shade. In deep shade, expect greatly reduced flowering. Avoid planting bulbs where heat from a nearby building might warm the soil and prevent them from getting the winter chilling period they need.

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Q. A friend planted 300 tulip bulbs several years ago and got a fantastic display the first year. Flowering was so-so the second year and very disappointing the third year -- she figures maybe a quarter of the bulbs flowered that year. Is this typical of tulips?

A. Gardeners who want an impressive display of tulips each spring treat the bulbs as annuals and replace them each year. Otherwise, flowering often dwindles just as you’ve described.

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Q. Why should I mulch my spring-flowering bulbs?

A. Mulching after the soil has frozen prevents the soil from alternately freezing and thawing, which can push bulbs right up out of the soil. This phenomenon is called frost heaving.

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Q. What’s a green manure crop? Why should I consider planting one?

A. A green manure crop is a small grain or grass planted in the fall and plowed under in the spring. It protects the soil against erosion during the winter and adds organic matter and plant nutrients when it’s plowed under. A crop such as rye can be planted as various parts of the garden are cleared and then removed the same way to make way for spring planting.

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Q. Some of my houseplants look out of proportion to their pots -- too much foliage, not enough pot. A couple are even prone to tipping over when the soil dries out, which it does in just a couple of days after watering. How do I tell for sure that the plants need repotting?

A. How they look and how quickly they dry out after watering are two indicators, but the clincher is the appearance of the root ball. Water, let the excess water drain out, and then tap the rim of the pot against a tabletop and tip the root ball out. If the soil is covered by a dense mat of intertwined roots, the plant needs repotting in a slightly larger container -- 1 or 2 inches larger in diameter and depth than the old pot.

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Q. How do I store black walnut nutmeats?

A. After you’ve gone to all the work to hull and crack and extract them, you don’t want them to go rancid. Store the nutmeats in plastic freezer containers, sealed jars or freezer bags in the freezer for long-term storage or the refrigerator for the short term.

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Q. I intend to start a new flower bed next spring and enlarge my vegetable garden. Should I start now or wait until next year?

A. Breaking ground in fall has some advantages. If you remove or kill the sod now and till it under, you’ll bring up weed seeds that will germinate this fall and then be killed by subsequent tillage or winter cold. That’ll be just that many fewer weeds you’ll have to deal with next year. Sod is usually home to at least some white grubs, which normally feed on grass roots. Remove the sod and till now and you’ll destroy some grubs while exposing others to predation and winter cold. If you wait to remove the grass next spring, many of the grubs will simply change their diet from grass roots to crops. Preparing the planting site in the fall may also give you a head start on next year’s planting -- you won’t have to wait until the soil dries out enough to till before you plant.

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Q. I understand the advantages of a fall cleanup for the vegetable garden. But what about a home orchard and the flower beds?

A. A cleanup can help reduce disease and insect carryover in these areas, also. Cleaning up fallen apples and leaves can reduce the carryover of apple maggot and apple scab, two major pest problems of apples. Cleaning up fallen rose leaves can help reduce the incidence of black spot disease next year. And removing old iris foliage in the fall or early spring can remove the eggs of the iris borer, a caterpillar that damages iris rhizomes.

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ANR Communications Contact: L. Johnson or M. Koelling
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Telephone: 517-432-1555 or 355-0094
East Lansing, MI 48824-1039 11/17/99

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- A fresh Christmas tree lasts longer and poses less danger of fire than a dried-out one, so follow these tips from Michigan State University Extension forester Mel Koelling to pick a fresh cut tree.

The first way to check a tree’s freshness is to bend a few needles. If the needles on an already cut tree spring back to their original shape, the tree is still fresh. If they break or stay bent, the tree is probably dry.

Another way to check for freshness is to bump the base of the tree on the ground. A shower of green needles means the tree is already dry.

Buying a fresh tree is half the battle -- the other half is keeping it fresh, Koelling advises.

The first step is to make a new cut across the bottom of the trunk. Remove 1/2 inch or so from the base and immediately stand the tree in a container of water. Making the fresh cut across the bottom removes old sap and dirt that would otherwise block the tree’s ability to take up water.

"Evergreens kept indoors will lose moisture through their foliage," Koelling explains. "If they can’t take up water to replace that, they dry out quickly. And the drier they get, the greater the potential fire hazard."

To reduce moisture loss and slow the drying process, place the tree in the coolest spot available and away from radiators, sunny windows, heat registers and heat-generating appliances. Keep it well away from fireplaces, woodstoves, candles and other sources of ignition, and use only UL-approved light strings that are free of frayed wires and other defects.

"It is extremely difficult to ignite a fresh tree," Koelling notes, "but a dry evergreen will flash into flame in an instant. So be sure to buy a fresh tree and keep it fresh to avoid a holiday tragedy."

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ANR Communications Contact: L. Johnson or M. McLellan
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Telephone: 517-432-1555 or 353-3774
East Lansing, MI 48824-1039 11/17/99

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Many types of flowering plants are available for enjoyment in your home. But few can be depended on to bloom again and again the way the African violet can. "And few flowering houseplants are as popular," observes Mary McLellan, Master Gardener program coordinator at Michigan State University. "They can be found growing everywhere from kitchen windows to college dormitories, in filtered sunlight and artificial light, in greenhouses and in offices."

Why are they so popular?

"Because, if they get enough light, they will flower indoors," she sums up.

Though they need bright light, they don’t tolerate direct sunlight. In an east-, south- or west-facing window, they’ll thrive in light filtered by a sheer curtain. In a north window, they do well year-round with available light, though they may stop flowering in winter.

Violets that aren’t getting enough light won’t flower, McLellan says. Their leaves will also be thin with long stems, and they’ll grow vertically rather than horizontally.

Small, leathery leaves that are curling down around the pot are a sign that plants are getting too much light, she notes. Direct sun can also burn plants -- foliage turns yellow and dies.

Plants receiving the proper amount of light will produce flowers more or less year round and have healthy-looking leaves growing horizontally.

African violets can be purchased in florists’ shops and garden centers, supermarkets and discount stores, and by mail order. Plants range from miniatures (6 inches or less in diameter) to semi-miniature (6 to 8 inches), standard (8 to 16 inches) and large (over 16 inches) varieties. Flower colors range from white to pink, red, blue, lavender, purple and orchid; and blossoms may be solid, bi-colored or multicolored. Leaves also come in a variety of shapes and textures; some are variegated.

Violets are more tolerant of a range of environmental conditions than people often think, McLellan observes. They usually do well in average home temperatures, though winter temperatures may be a little on the cool side, especially in homes where the thermostat is turned down at night. There, especially, it’s important to make sure that violets aren’t placed on a chilly windowsill, which can injure their roots, or closed off from the heat in the room at night by curtains, shades or blinds.

Low humidity can be a winter problem, also. Growing violets in an old aquarium or placing them on a tray filled with wet gravel can help counteract the desert-dry quality of heated air indoors in winter. It also keeps them away from icy windowsills and cold drafts, and if the container has a light in the top of it, it meets the plants’ light requirement, also.

Proper care of African violets includes proper watering. Pots with drainage holes can be set in a shallow pan of water until the soil surface is moist, then allowed to drain. Plants in pots without drainage holes should be moved into pots with drainage holes, McLellan advises.

"Good drainage is important to keep the roots healthy," she explains.

When watering plants from above, use water at room temperature and pour it on the potting medium rather than into the plant crown (the area where the stems come together and join the roots). Wetting the crown may cause it to rot. Cold water splashed on the leaves may cause leaf spotting.

Water thoroughly when the soil feels dry but don’t keep it soggy -- the roots will rot.

Plants growing in natural light will need fertilization every four to six weeks in spring, summer and fall, McLellan suggests. Use a complete, balanced, water-soluble houseplant fertilizer according to label directions. In winter, either reduce the rate or double the length between applications, or stop fertilization altogether unless plants are actively growing under artificial light.

African violets can be grown from seed or propagated by taking leaf cuttings or by separating multiple crowns. Root cuttings in vermiculite or a peat-like mix rather than in water for sturdier roots less likely to be injured when the plant is potted.

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ANR Communications Contact: L. Johnson or M. McLellan
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Telephone: 517-432-1555 or 353-3774
East Lansing, MI 48824-1039 11/17/99

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- All pine trees have needles, but all needled evergreens aren’t pine trees any more than all dogs are dachshunds. Telling pines from firs from spruces isn’t any harder than distinguishing beagles from Bassett hounds from bloodhounds -- you just need to know how each one is distinctively different from the others.

Mary McLellan, Master Gardener program coordinator at Michigan State University, points out that a distinguishing trait of pine trees is that their leaves (the needles) are bundled together, usually in packs of two to five. The needles may be long or short or somewhere in between, but if you find needles in bundles, you have a pine tree.

If you examine a needle from a tree and find out that it’s not round and not flat but rather four-sided, you are looking at a spruce needle. The color may range from dark green to quite blue, but if the needle rolls between your fingers as smoothly as a square wheel, it’s a spruce.

If you try this with a fir needle, it won’t roll at all because it’s flat. Like spruce needles, fir needles don’t grow in bundles, either. Like spruce trees, fir trees tend to be tall, dark and symmetrical. Like pine trees, some types of fir trees are used for Christmas trees. Spruces, however, tend to lose their needles too quickly once they’re taken indoors, though their shape makes them good candidates for outdoor lights around the holidays.

Another common evergreen is the juniper. The shape and size may vary from tall to short to globular to virtually flat, McLellan observes, but if the needles are lapped over one another like the shingles on a roof, it’s a juniper. Foliage may be anywhere in texture from soft to prickly, but all junipers share the overlapping needle trait.

Sprays of cedar foliage are compressed horizontally, bright green and soft with overlapping scales. A dark green evergreen with shiny, flat needles that remind you of fir needles but aren’t stiff or prickly is a yew, or taxus. Yews are another versatile group of landscape evergreens. Their soft foliage is a popular trait.

Evergreen identification can be more than just an intellectual exercise or a chance to show off to your friends and neighbors -- it can also help you track down information on unlabeled plants in the landscape that you might want to know more about, perhaps because you would like to add one to your home grounds. "’Large evergreen’ is a little vague, and not much help when you’re trying to enlist the help of a local Master Gardener or nursery operator in identifying a particular plant," McLellan observes. "If you can narrow it down to ‘juniper’, say, or ‘spruce’, you have a better start. And that may lead to other information -- on best planting site conditions, common problems, mature size and spread, and so on. You should end up with a much better idea about whether the plant will do well where you intend to plant it. And if you can ask for it by name, a much better chance of being able to find it."

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ANR Communications Contact: L. Johnson or M. McLellan
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Telephone: 517-432-1555 or 353-3774
East Lansing, MI 48824-1039 11//17/99

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- A spectacular flowering houseplant that’s also easy to grow? Yes, you can have it all in one plant. And its name is amaryllis.

These tender bulbs produce multiple flowers up to 10 inches in diameter in an ever-increasing range of colors. Rich red is dramatic and popular, but other colors include orange, pink, pink and white, red and white, white and peach. Large bulbs frequently send up more than one stem, one after the other, with up to four blooms per stem.

The bigger the bulb, the larger the flowers and the greater the chance that the bulb will produce more than one flower stalk.

"’Easy care’ is almost an understatement -- basically all you do is add water," observes Mary McLellan, Master Gardener program coordinator at Michigan State University. "Sometimes you have to pot the bulb first, but often they come already potted and may even have started to grow."

Pot, if necessary, in a clay, plastic or ceramic pot with a drainage hole using a commercial houseplant potting soil or peat-vermiculite mix. Handle the bulb carefully to avoid damaging the roots, and pot it with half to two-thirds of the bulb above the growing medium. The surface of the potting mix should be about an inch below the rim of the pot. Then water and stand back!

"Well, the plants don’t grow quite that fast," McLellan says, "but they do grow quickly, often producing their first blossoms within a few weeks."

The flower stalk usually appears first, followed by the sword-shaped leaves, though it’s not unusual for the leaves to grow first. Once new growth appears, move the pot to a sunny window and turn it daily so the flower stalk grows straight.

Amaryllis isn’t fussy about growing conditions -- all it wants are water when the top half-inch of the potting medium is dry and temperatures around 70 degrees. More frequent watering may be needed when growth is rapid, so feel the medium and water as needed rather than watering by the calendar, McLellan suggests.

Each flower stalk typically produces two or three large, trumpet-shaped flowers; four are not unusual. And each flower may last up to two weeks. A bulb that sends up two flower stalks can easily be in bloom for a month.

After the flowers fade, cut the stalk off 2 to 3 inches above the bulb. Allow the leaves to keep growing, McLellan advises -- they’re making food that builds up the bulb so it can bloom again. Fertilize regularly with a standard houseplant fertilizer high in phosphorus.

"Fertilizer and good light seem to be the keys to reflowering an amaryllis," McLellan observes.

The easiest way to reflower the bulb is to keep the foliage growing unless and until it dies back. If it does, reduce watering until new growth resumes. If it doesn’t, keep caring for it as usual. With a little luck, a new flower stalk will appear and you’ll soon have another gorgeous floral display to enjoy.

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ANR Communications Contact: L. Johnson or M. McLellan
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Telephone: 517-432-1555 or 353-3774
East Lansing, MI 48824-1039 11/17/99

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Planning the vegetable garden and getting seed orders together can be an enjoyable midwinter exercise. The sheer number of varieties available is an advantage of mail order buying, but sorting through the variety descriptions can be confusing.

Deciding which crops to plant is often easier than selecting specific varieties, observes Mary McLellan, Master Gardener program coordinator at Michigan State University.

"The crop decision boils down to whether you like beans or sweet corn or Swiss chard and whether you have room for it," she sums up. "Deciding which of perhaps dozens of bean varieties may be a little trickier."

There are lots of choices. Bush beans or pole beans? Green beans or yellow beans? Standard round-podded snap beans or the flat Italian type? Hybrid or open-pollinated varieties? The price difference between hybrid and standard varieties of the same crop may be significant, McLellan notes. The obvious question is why you should pay the higher price for the hybrid when the standard variety is a proven performer.

That higher price stems from the years of exacting work that it takes to produce a new hybrid, McLellan explains. Carefully chosen parent plants must be cross-pollinated by hand to try to produce offspring with special characteristics, such as disease resistance or seedlessness or plants with a certain growth habit. Then the resulting seed has to be grown out and the plants evaluated. The right combination may not occur the first time; finding it may take years. Then the developer has to produce sufficient seed to meet projected demand.

With open-pollinated varieties, the process is a bit simpler: plant it in a field, let the wind or insects move pollen around, and harvest the resulting seed.

So, how do you choose? Gardeners who want to harvest seed from this year’s garden to plant next year’s will want to stick with open-pollinated varieties, she suggests. These plants "breed true" -- that is, the plants grown from the seed they produce will be very similar to the parent plants. Seeds harvested from hybrids, on the other hand, may produce plants very unlike their parents. The results, though interesting, are unpredictable and often disappointing.

"When hybrids cross-pollinate, their more desirable characteristics may be lost in the shuffling of genetic material," McLellan explains.The desirable characteristics of hybrids often include uniformity -- in plant size and habit, flowering and fruiting times, flower color and fruit size -- improved disease resistance and wider adaptability to environmental stress. All of these together translate into healthier, more productive plants. Even though the price of seed is somewhat higher, it may also mean lower-priced plants because higher germination rates and disease resistance allow commercial plant producers to grow more salable, high-quality plants from a given quantity of seed with fewer applications of chemicals to control disease. In the home garden, those same traits mean fewer plants lost to disease and greater yields of high-quality produce.

"In other words, if you buy fresh seed every year and want the most productive, least problem-prone garden, hybrids are probably the way to go," McLellan sums up. "If you want to save seed from this year’s garden to plant next year’s, open-pollinated varieties would be a better choice."Vegetables usually available as open-pollinated varieties include snap beans, snap peas, English peas, popcorn, ornamental corn, sweet corn, lettuce, cabbage, beets, carrots, cauliflower, cucumbers, eggplant, onions, leeks, radishes, peppers, tomatoes, pumpkins, watermelons and herbs. Flowers include alyssum, balsam, calendula, celosia, cleome, coleus, cosmos, dahlia, dianthus, dwarf French marigold, nasturtium, pansies, phlox, portulaca, poppies, snapdragons and zinnias.

Some catalogs list hybrids and standard varieties separately; others indicate hybrids by placing "F1" after the names.

Which should you choose? Why not both?

"The best way to decide whether hybrids are worth the extra cost is to try them, alongside the open-pollinated varieties," McLellan suggests. "Over a few growing seasons, you can see how they perform in your garden under your care. Ultimately, that’s what it’s all about."

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ANR Communications Contact: L. Johnson or M. McLellan
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Telephone: 517-432-1555 or 353-3774
East Lansing, MI 48824-1039 11/17/99

EAST LANSING, Mich. -– Cut flowers are a traditional Valentine’s gift, but they’re just one of the plant gift possibilities.

Flowering plants in pots are another good choice, suggests Mary McLellan, Master Gardener program coordinator at Michigan State University. Choices can range from African violets to cyclamen, cineraria, florist’s mums, holiday cacti and spring bulbs ready for forcing.

"But why stop there? If your special someone gardens, plant and seed catalogs are full of gift ideas," McLellan says. "In fact, you could start with a stack of your favorite catalogs, or maybe collect specialty catalogs for someone with an interest in a certain type of perennial, for instance, or a subject such as water gardening."

Giving a catalog and a gift certificate shows you care and guarantees that the gift will be something the recipient really wants, she adds.

A certificate for landscape or garden design services may be just the thing to make your Valentine’s heart flutter. A piece of garden sculpture or a gardening book that your special someone has been admiring might be another possibility.

If you decide to go with plants, consider foliage as well as flowering plants, McLellan suggests. Foliage plants are often less demanding than flowering plants, which may not get in the home the combination of growing conditions they need to flower again. A plant like an African violet, which will flower more or less continuously if it gets enough light, may better convey a message of undying love than a cut flower that’s gone in a week or a florist’s flowering plant that’s

discarded after the flowers fade, McLellan suggests.

Friends, children, parents and co-workers may be remembered on Valentine’s Day, also, with houseplant cuttings, seeds and gift certificates for items from catalogs and gifts of your own expertise. Assistance in repotting overcrowded houseplants, divisions from your daylily bed or iris patch, help applying mulch, garden tilling -- the possibilities are endless. The fact that the gift will be fulfilled at a later date adds an element of anticipation and enables the recipient to plan how best to make use of it.

"Another possibility might be a jar of your famous four-alarm salsa, along with the recipe and seeds for your secret blend of hot peppers," McLellan says. "Or raspberry jelly and a certificate for a dozen starts from your raspberry patch. Let your imagination and creativity loose, and you’ll soon have a list of Valentine’s Day gift ideas to please anyone."

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Outreach Communications Contact: L. Johnson or N. Lownds
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Telephone: 517-432-1555 or 432-5657
East Lansing, MI 48824-1039 11/17/99

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Five flowers and four vegetables have received All-America Selections (AAS) awards for the year 2000.

AAS winners are selected after rigorous testing at 47 sites across North America, explains Norm Lownds, assistant professor of horticulture at Michigan State University, who oversees the AAS flower trial gardens there.

"Winners have proven their superior garden performance under a wide range of growing conditions and climates," he adds.

The winning flower varieties are cosmos ‘Cosmic Orange’, dianthus ‘Melody Pink’, sunflower ‘Soraya’, dwarf sunflower ‘Fiesta Del Sol’ and vinca ‘Stardust Orchid’. Award-winner vegetable varieties are cabbage ‘Savoy Express’, garden pea ‘Mr. Big’, pepper ‘Blushing Beauty’ and sweet corn ‘Indian Summer’. Flowers

‘Cosmic Orange’ cosmos reaches a height of about 12 inches and produces abundant, bright orange 2-inch blossoms all summer. It’s basically free of pest and disease problems and thrives in full sun with minimal care.

‘Melody Pink’ dianthus was developed for use as a cut flower. It produces sprays of single pink flowers with serrated petals. Mature plant height is 22 to 24 inches. It performs best in early summer and late fall and can be overwintered in the garden during mild winters.

‘Soraya’ is the first sunflower to win AAS honors. The self-supporting plants grow from seed to a height of 5 to 6 feet in full sun and produce multiple 4- to 6-inch flowers with orange petals and brown centers on stems long enough for cutting.

‘Fiesta Del Sol’ is a tithonia, a dwarf Mexican sunflower. It reaches a mature height of 2 to 3 feet, thriving on summer heat and humidity. The numerous daisylike flowers are 2 to 3 inches across, attractive to butterflies and excellent for cutting. Basically pest-free, it’s carefree in the garden or in containers, doing best in full sun.

‘Stardust Orchid’ vinca is a bedding plant award winner. Glossy, dark green foliage forms a backdrop to 1 ½-inch orchid flowers with white centers. Plants are heat- and drought-tolerant and relatively free of pest problems. Plants in the trial garden at MSU reached 10 to 12 inches in height and spread. Vegetables

‘Savoy Express’ cabbage is an early savoy (crinkled) cabbage, maturing in about 55 days from transplanting. Plants are compact -- they can be spaced a foot apart in the garden -- and the sweet-flavored heads are small, about 1 to 1 ½ pounds. It can be grown as a spring or fall crop.

‘Mr. Big’ garden pea offers consistently large, easy to shell pods, high yield and superior disease resistance. Vines grow to 2 to 3 feet and need support in the garden. Harvest begins around 60 days after sowing seed.

‘Blushing Beauty’ describes the color change from ivory to pink and red as these peppers mature. Fruits are thick-walled and sweet at any color and are ready about 72 to 75 days after transplanting. The compact, disease-resistant plants reach a height of about 18 inches, and they’re attractive in the garden or in containers.

‘Indian Summer’ is the first sweet corn with yellow, white, red and purple kernels. A supersweet variety, it needs to be isolated from pollen from other types of corn. Ears are large, about 8 inches, and color develops as the ears mature. Cooking intensifies the colors.

These varieties will all be available in spring of 2000, either as seeds or bedding plants and sometimes both.

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ANR Communications Contact: L. Johnson or T. Ellis
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Telephone: 517-432-1555 or 355-8478
East Lansing, MI 48824-1039 11/17/99

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- They’re lumped together under the term "pantry pests" because that’s where they’re found – in food storage areas. They’re pests because they feed in and on and contaminate a wide range of food products.

"The three most common pantry pests in Michigan are the Indian meal moth, the confused flour beetle and the saw-toothed grain beetle," says Tom Ellis, Extension entomologist at Michigan State University. "They have an appetite for stored food products, including grain products such as cereal and pasta, pet food, powdered milk, cornstarch, cake and muffin mixes, crackers, birdseed, and dried nuts and fruits."

Often the first sign of a problem is the sighting of a small moth fluttering around the kitchen. If the wingspan is about ½ inch and the wings are dull gray with reddish brown wing tips, it’s the Indian meal moth adult. If it’s in the kitchen, it probably spent its larval period in a neglected paper box or bag of some grain-based food product. Signs of larval presence in a food product include the caterpillar itself, webbing, shed skins and feces.

The two beetles are less obvious than the moth, Ellis notes, because they’re much smaller and don’t flutter around the kitchen calling attention to themselves -- you have to actually find them infesting something. The adults are both very small -- less than 1/8 inch long. Larvae are soft-bodied, whitish, maggotlike creatures 1/8 to 1/4 inch long. They have six observable legs and hard, dark-colored heads.

"If you haven’t observed pantry pests in your home, you are either practicing excellent kitchen sanitation or you just haven’t run into them yet," Ellis says.

Preventive maintenance includes keeping food storage areas free of spilled food products that could attract pests and storing foods in tightly sealed plastic, glass or metal containers rather than paper. When an infested food is discovered, dispose of it immediately and clean the storage area diligently. If pests can’t get into foodstuffs or find spilled food in storage areas, they will either leave or die, Ellis says. If they come into the home in food products, putting those products into tightly sealed containers will contain them and keep them from developing into a full-blown infestation.

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ANR Communications Contact: L. Johnson or M. McLellan
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Telephone: 517-432-1555 or 353-3774
East Lansing, MI 48824-1039 11/17/99

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- If you think about where cacti live in the wild, it’s not surprising that they don’t flower readily in the home. Low light, warm temperatures in the winter and too much water are typical features that make most homes a hostile environment for desert plants.

Turn those conditions around -- provide bright light, cool temperatures and little to no water -- and you may get cacti to flower. If you picked the right kind of cacti and if plants are old enough.

Mary McLellan, Master Gardener program coordinator at Michigan State University, suggests obtaining cacti from a knowledgeable individual who can help you pick species that won’t keep you waiting for flowers for 50 to 100 years. Families of cacti that bloom reliably indoors include the Mamillaria, Gymnocalycium, Parodia and Notocactus.When plants need repotting, use a mixture of equal parts bird gravel or other aggregate, potting soil or sterilized garden loam, and leaf mold. Water thoroughly only when the top inch of this medium is dry.

"The surest way to kill cacti is to overwater them," McLellan points out.

A sunny south, southeast or east window is ideal. Cacti can go outside during the summer, with some protection from direct sun.

Following these guidelines should keep your cacti healthy and growing well, but it won’t necessarily make them flower. To do this, you need to nudge them into a dormant period with a combination of cool temperatures -- a night maximum of 40 to 50 degrees F -- and four to five hours of bright light daily. A cool, dry greenhouse, if you have it, is one way to provide these conditions, but a covered basement window well, a glass-enclosed porch, a window-mounted mini-greenhouse, an unheated upstairs bedroom or an attached but unheated garage can fill in. If you don’t have a sunny, cool spot, add light or close a heat register or otherwise alter the environment to provide the right combination of conditions.

Though cacti need chilly temperatures in the winter, most of them won’t tolerate frost, McLellan notes, so make sure the temperature in the space you’ve chosen stays above freezing.

For many houseplant gardeners, the hardest part about overwintering cacti is watering -- or rather, not watering. Give them no water during the cold dormant period -- from mid- to late November until March. Place the plants in that cool, brightly lighted spot and ignore them.

If the plants aren’t too young, they should flower in spring. Resume watering when the flowers start to show. Then begin tapering off again in late August to ease them into their next dormant period.

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ANR Communications Contact: L. Johnson or M. McLellan
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Telephone: 517-432-1555 or 353-3774
East Lansing, MI 48824-1039 11/17/99

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- As you’re leafing through the nursery catalogs and planning landscape changes, you're probably thinking about the size and shape of each plant, the growing conditions it needs and the conditions your landscape provides, characteristics such as flowers and maintenance needs -– protection against pests, pruning, winter protection, etc.

"All of these are key considerations," says Mary McLellan, Master Gardener program coordinator at Michigan State University. "But once you’ve narrowed your list down to two or three choices, you might also consider what each plant will add to your landscape in winter."

People tend to think about how a plant will look during the growing season, she observes, but winter accounts for a sizable portion of the year in Michigan, so why not choose plants that will add color and textural interest to the home grounds then?

Evergreen foliage, persistent fruits and decorative bark are three ways to add visual interest to the winter landscape. Variations in plant shape and branching structure can also add variety to the view.

Evergreens are available in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and color variations. Evergreen trees and shrubs provide a spot of color in the winter and a dark backdrop for flowering plants in spring and summer. They also provide winter cover for birds and spring and summer nesting places.

A wet area in the landscape can be a problem -- many landscape ornamentals don’t like "wet feet," McLellan notes. But Michigan holly and red and yellow twig dogwood are well suited to such areas and add color to the late fall and winter landscape. Michigan holly ‘Winter Red’ has larger, redder fruits than the native species, and the burgundy red or yellow stems of the dogwood are colorful against a backdrop of winter white.

Homeowners usually plant crabapples for their spring flower display, but persistent fruits in yellow, orange, pink or red may hang around all winter, providing color in the landscape and food for birds and other wildlife. Cultivars known for their winter fruit include ‘Red Splendor’ (red), ‘Harvest Gold’ (yellow) and ‘Sugar Tyme’ (red). A variety of shapes and growth habits are available, also, from almost columnar to round and drooping.

Mention decorative bark and many people will think of European white birch, an attractive but usually short-lived tree in Michigan landscapes because of its susceptibility to damage by leaf miners and bronze birch borer. Numerous other less problem-prone trees offer interesting bark textures or colors, McLellan points out.

If you’re looking for a large shade tree, consider London plane tree, an ornamental very similar to the native sycamore but less susceptible to anthracnose, a defoliating disease. Chinese or lacebark elm, a middle-sized tree with multicolored, peeling bark, is as attractive as paperbark maple but hardier and less problem-prone. Purchase this tree only from a reputable nursery so you don’t end up with Siberian elm instead, McLellan advises. This is a weak-wooded tree that plays host to elmleaf beetles most years. The bark of various pine species can also add landscape color and texture.

One ornamental plant that is grown more for its winter appearance than its summer role in the landscape is Harry Lauder’s walking stick (Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’). The branches of this smallish shrub are twisted and turned in corkscrewlike contortions. Its branch structure is more visible in the winter than during the growing season, when it’s cloaked in leaves. Planted where its unusual silhouette can be seen from your favorite window, this slow-growing ornamental can become a winter focal point of the landscape.

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ANR Communications Contact: L. Johnson or M. McLellan
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Telephone: 517-432-1555 or 353-3774
East Lansing, MI 48824-1039 11/17/99

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- If you usually buy your garden seeds off the rack at the grocery store or garden center, you’ve missed out on the fun and information to be had from browsing seed catalogs.

"The fun starts when you turn your back on a blustery winter day and immerse yourself in gorgeous color photos of annual and perennial flowers, landscape ornamentals and vegetables," says Mary McLellan, Master Gardener program coordinator at Michigan State University. "The challenge, of course, is to fend off a full-blown case of spring fever and the temptation to order at least one of everything."

An advantage of seed catalogs over the grocery store rack is variety -- you’ll find more varieties of snap beans, peppers, tomatoes, marigolds and zinnias, for instance, in a seed catalog than you’ll ever see in a store rack. That can be a disadvantage, however, if you are new to gardening -- so many choices, all of which are written up in the most positive light, can be overwhelming.

Your local county MSU Extension office can provide lists of proven performers in Michigan, McLellan suggests. You can also look for the catalog symbols indicating the seed company’s top picks and All-America Selections (AAS) award winners. AAS is a network of trial gardens in the United States and Canada -- including a flower trial garden at MSU -- where new varieties are tested and evaluated. Those that perform well under a variety of conditions are named AAS winners and can generally be relied on to do well in Michigan gardens.

Another plus is the convenience of catalog ordering. From the comfort of your armchair, you place your order, which arrives soon at your door so you’re sure to have your seeds when you want them. Plants will be sent as planting time nears.

If you’re interested in specialized gardening -- Oriental vegetables, for instance, or herbs, wildflowers, perennial flowers or particular species, such as iris or daylilies -- general gardening seed catalogs may have more offerings than you might find locally. For more, you can probably find a company that specializes in that sort of gardening and will send you its catalog.

Many catalogs are a lot more than pretty pictures, McLellan points out. They are loaded with information on how to plant what you buy. Whether the species or variety should be planted in full sun, partial shade or shade; how long after seeding or transplanting you’ll generally wait for flowers or fruits; the height and spread of the mature plant; whether a squash or a bean variety grows as a vine or a bush; best uses for a variety (vegetables best suited for canning and freezing; flowers for drying or cutting); how far apart to space rows or individual plants; whether a woody plant is hardy in your area; resistance or tolerance to common diseases -- this and more information can help you select the best species and varieties for your landscape and garden and grow them successfully.

Any gardening magazine will have ads for seed catalogs. You can also get a list of seed companies from your county Extension office. Looking at several and comparing prices may reveal ways to save money on some varieties. The danger of placing small orders with many companies is that shipping and handling costs on each order can quickly outweigh potential savings, McLellan notes.

Many catalogs have more than just plants and seeds, of course -- you can buy everything you need to start seeds indoors, including the greenhouse -- plus pest control products, fertilizers, tools and more.

Today’s catalogs bear little resemblance to the first mail-order catalogs in the early 1800s. These plain, unassuming lists evolved first colorful covers, then black and white illustrations and only much later the color photographs that today’s catalog shoppers take for granted.

The evolution of catalogs paralleled the growth in the seed business, from an import enterprise during colonial times to a cottage industry or agricultural sideline and eventually into the big business that it is today. The hundreds of varieties offered in today’s seed catalogs represent decades of plant breeding and testing to improve yield, quality, plant form, disease resistance and a host of other characteristics of flower, fruit and vegetable crops and landscape ornamentals.

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ANR Communications Contact: L. Johnson or R. Chase
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Telephone: 517-432-1555 or 355-0206
East Lansing, MI 48824-1039 11/17/99

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Planning the garden and thinking about growing potatoes? Selecting an appropriate variety is critical to success with potatoes in the home garden. But even a great variety won’t perform at its best without the right soil and moisture conditions.

Richard Chase, potato agronomist at Michigan State University, suggests gardeners have their soil tested before they decide to grow potatoes.

"Potatoes will grow in a variety of soil types, but they are best suited to a sandy loam or loamy sand with a pH between 5.5 and 6.0," he says. "In soils with a pH above 6.0, problems with common scab on tubers tend to occur."

Applying lime or manure to the soil in the year that you plan to grow potatoes increases the risk of scab in susceptible varieties, he notes.

Potatoes are very sensitive to extremes in soil moisture, Chase observes. They do best in well drained soils but need a consistent moisture supply for tuber formation. In poorly drained soils with a high clay or silt content, potatoes tend to be knobby and poorly shaped. In very sandy soils with low organic matter content, it may take up to 2 inches of water per week to keep the soil from drying out. Drastic fluctuations in soil moisture from very dry to saturated cause a variety of defects in tubers, ranging from knobs and growth cracks to hollow centers and internal browning.

If your growing site is suitable for potatoes, choose varieties to suit your intended use, Chase advises. For storage, choose late-maturing varieties such as Red Pontiac, Katahdin, Sebago and Kennebec. Good early-maturing varieties for fresh use and short-term storage include Superior, Onaway and Norland.

Russet Burbank, an important commercial variety, is difficult to grow in home gardens because insufficient moisture or fine-textured soils may cause a large proportion of tubers to be knobby and irregularly shaped, he notes.

Chase encourages home gardeners to buy certified seed potatoes rather than trying to save money by using potatoes from the garden or the grocery store for seed.

"Saving home-grown tubers for seed will eventually result in a buildup of seed-borne viral diseases," he explains. "Yield and size will decrease."

Potatoes from the grocery store are often treated to inhibit sprouting, so they rarely give good results when used as seed.

Certified seed potatoes are available from catalogs and garden centers. Plant them in the spring as soon as the soil is dry enough to work and the soil temperature is at least 45 degrees F. Plant 3 to 4 inches deep and 9 to 12 inches apart in rows 30 to 36 inches apart. Five pounds of seed potatoes should plant about 40 feet of row (with 12 inches between seed pieces), and each hill should yield 3 to 5 pounds of medium-sized tubers. Spacing plants farther apart may give you bigger tubers.

To avoid carryover of diseases and insect pests, avoid planting potatoes in the same part of the garden year after year. Also avoid planting potatoes after radishes, beets, tomatoes, peppers or eggplant, which are prone to many of the same plant problems.

For more information on growing potatoes in the home garden, ask your county Extension office for bulletin E-2283, "Potato Production in the Home Garden."

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ANR Communications Contact: L. Johnson or M. McLellan
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Telephone: 517-432-1555 or 353-3774
East Lansing, MI 48824-1039 11/17/99

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Most people don’t think of nuts as highly perishable, but chestnuts are a special case. Storage conditions have to be just right, not too dry and not too damp, so they neither dry out and lose quality nor mold.

The chestnuts sold around Christmas are generally Chinese chestnuts, observes Mary McLellan, Master Gardener program coordinator at Michigan State University. They’re often imported and may have been stored improperly long before they reached your kitchen.

If possible, check nuts for dryness and look for mold before you buy them, she suggests. To check for excessive dryness, squeeze a few nuts between your thumb and finger. If the shells move inward, the nuts are dry. If nuts look moldy, they have been stored too damp and they may have taken on an off-flavor from the mold.

To store chestnuts in the home, place them in a sealed plastic bag with a few ventilation holes punched in it and store in the refrigerator. Another option is to store them in paper bags filled with dry peat moss.

Though chestnuts are usually roasted or baked, they can also be cooked by boiling, steaming or microwaving.

To roast nuts, bake them in an oven at 300 degrees F for about

15 minutes. Roast over an open fire in a long-handled popcorn popper or chestnut roaster.

"Before roasting, carefully puncture each nut once or twice with an ice pick or a knife," McLellan says. "If you don’t, pressure from steam building up inside the shells will cause the nuts to explode, either before or after they come out of the oven or roasting pan."

Leaving one nut whole is one way of telling when the rest are done -- when it explodes, the others should be ready.

"This doesn’t work if the nuts are overdry to start with," McLellan points out. "While you’re waiting for that one nut to pop, the rest may be burning up."

If you know chestnuts are too dry for roasting, try boiling them.

To boil chestnuts, place them in a shallow pan with just enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and boil gently for 15 to 20 minutes. Drain and cool somewhat, and then remove the kernels using the sharp tine of a table fork. The longer the nuts cook, the mealier the kernels become and the more likely they are to crumble when removed from the shells.

You can also steam chestnuts. Start by carefully cutting fresh, moist chestnuts in half. Then cook them in a vegetable steamer over boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Most of the kernels should fall out of the shells during cooking.

Steamed or boiled nuts can be dipped in melted butter and salted, if desired, or used in other recipes.

To microwave chestnuts, cut them in half and place them cut sides down on a double layer of moist paper towels. Then experiment with cooking times and quantities of nuts to find out what works best in your microwave. Start with perhaps eight medium-sized nuts and 2 minutes and adjust numbers of nuts and cooking times up or down from there as needed.

Be aware that dry nuts get very hard and can be difficult to cut safely. Boiling them whole would be better than methods that require them to be cut before cooking, McLellan suggests.

Store cooked nutmeats in tightly sealed jars in the refrigerator. Use within a month or two. Cooked chestnuts can be kept in the freezer for up to a year.

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