April is the cruellest month! It tempts us with wonderful bright and sunny days, and then it turns around and hurls snow and ice and sleet at us, as if spring is indeed far, far away.
By now you will have checked your supplies of pots and wire and soil, and replenished them as necessary. And if not, there is still a small window of opportunity to do so.
Before the March meeting I had checked the state of my tools and discovered that I would indeed benefit my situation by adding a couple more to the collection. You too can still do this before the spring rush, at our April meeting.
Hardy Evergreens And Deciduous Plants
I discovered that back in early March some trees that I was overwintering in a garage had started to bud out. Once that happens to your trees, it's absolutely essential that you get these trees into the daylight whenever possible. Keep them as cool as possible indoors to slow growth down.
I have found that if these trees are kept in a shed or garage and the temperature dips to a few degrees below zero, that new growth seems to survive this cold snap, provided it is not too prolonged. If the same trees, however, were kept outside as the thermometer dipped, I am not sure that they would survive as readily. I suspect that the actual moisture which turns into frost and settles out on the newly opening buds will be detrimental to their survival outside.
Frost damage can also be averted by using a fan to move the air around the plants. Air movement seems to prevent frost from settling on the leaves. Fruit farmers at this time of the year will use smudge pots to the same end - the warmth of the rising smoke moves the air and also keeps the temperature a little warmer. The city's bylaws, of course, frown upon the use of such devices within the city limits.
A few reminders to those of you anxious to start the pruning and repotting process as early in April as possible:
1. Maples and birch trees should not be pruned before their buds begin to swell and open. Remember maple syrup? The sap flows before the buds open - once the trees bud into leaf, the sap stops flowing, it seems - is this logical? If you prune your maples and birches at that time, your trees will receive a setback as sap leaches out from those newly made cuts. Cut paste won't help either.
2. It's pretty much a sure thing that temperatures will still dip considerably during the month of April. The longer you can leave your trees buried in the ground, the more their root system will be protected from these temperature swings. Freezing and thawing repeated a number of times is a sure killer of trees!
3. Larches generally do not like being pruned or wired until the buds begin to swell.
Tropicals
As the daylight hours get longer, and the days get warmer, the bugs that like to bother indoor plants seem to get more plentiful = creatures such as aphids, scale and whitefly. You need to be forevere vigilant, and remove or destroy pests before they take over. Once they are thoroughly established, you will not likely be able to root them out without resorting to major pesticides.
With a little experimenting this winter I have found that regular spraying of aphid infested plants with soap solution soon gets the critters under control. By regular, I mean once or twice a week, and especially under the leaves!
Soap solution is a pretty inexpensive spray that you can mix up yourself. The only problem I have found with it is the extreme difficulty we have these days of actually getting a hold of pure soap. It used to be that you could buy a box of Ivory Snow pure soap flakes in your local supermarkets. Not any more! I found that Proctor and Gamble stopped manufacturing said flakes in 1978. So what can you do?
You can buy the much more expensive insecticidal soap solutions - they do work. But if, in extreme cases of infection, you need to dip the whole plant, pot and all, into the solution, you need to prepare a costly quantity of the insecticide. You can still buy bars of pure laundry soap in the supermarket - you would probably need to grate these before disolving in water, a cumbersome process. You could puchase "unenriched" (no scents or enzymes or degreasers added) liquid soap such as what is used in soap dispensers, and experiment first to see if any harm comes from using this product. Finally, you could try the very mild laundry detergents such as those made for infant clothing and the like. I think some careful experimenting would be called for before using any of these alternatives on all of your plants. However, when you have determined that your mix is safe for your trees, apply it to the whole indoor collection, not just the one or two that are infected. When using the dipping process to kill unwanted pests, the recommendation is that you rinse the slution from the plants after half an hour or so, lest you damage the plant's leaves. Again experiment here - I haven't found a problem and believe that if the solution stays on the plants and dries there, that the protection goes a little further.
Once you can move your tropicals outdoors in late May, natural predators should soon help to control any pests found on your plants.
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