Fall has been taking a while to get here this year but lately the nights are nice and cool and the days very comfortable. It is the best planting time of the seasons. Fall is the ideal time for planting trees and shrubs as you can see in the diagram above. Take advantage of the beautiful weather we are having and get fall planting done now. Your fall installed plants will do much better next spring and summer than those planted in the spring. This is also the time to plant fall bulbs for spring bloom. Plant wildflower seeds this month as well when the rains start coming regularly.
Dormant Spray on Fruit Trees
This month you will need to be thinking about spraying your first dormant spray on your fruit trees to prevent leaf curl. Use liquid copper and horticultural oil or Neem oil with the copper to spray the trees when they are dormant. Looking at the orchard here at the nursery, it looks like about 3 weeks or so and they will need their first spraying. Once the trees have lost their leaves, is when you want to do your first application. You will do two more applications after for a total of three. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Valentines Day are easy dates to remember. But you have to watch the weather and the trees. Sometimes they will not have lost all of their leaves by Thanksgiving and if we get a warm snap in February, the final spaying will need done earlier. But be sure to get 3 sprayings done to prevent leaf curl. I spray all my trees in the orchard. It helps to stop other diseases such as fireblight and it also kills over wintering insects. It’s also a good idea to rake up the old leaves to help prevent disease and insect problems too. Don’t neglect this task or you will have leaf curl next spring which puts the trees under stress and they do not produce well and have to suffer through the summer, when a healthy treated tree has no problems getting through.
Blueberries, Cane Berries, Figs, and Pomegranates arriving soon
Our blueberries and cane berries and figs and pomegranates will be arriving soon. I will send out an email as soon as they come in. When you plant blueberries, add some soil sulfur and peat moss to create an acid environment for them. If you are going to grow them in a pot, mix pine or fir bark 50/50 with the potting soil. Blueberries like good drainage so if planting in the ground, be sure to amend the soil very well.
Asparagus, Rhubarb, and Strawberries will arrive in January. This is a change from the past.
Blue Spruce, Dogwoods, Japanese Maples, and Rhododendrons
Our shipment of living Christmas Trees such as Blue Spruce and our white Dogwoods will be shipped next week. Japanese Maples and Rhododendrons arrived last week. As soon as they arrive we have them inspected by the county and then they are ready for sale. I will let everyone know as soon as they are in and ready to go.
Bare Root Roses and Fruit Trees
Bare root roses will be arriving in mid December and bare root fruit trees will arrive in late December. We have complete lists available at the nursery, or you can email me and I can send you lists via email. I will notify via email when things arrive.
Gift Certificates
We have gift certificates available for holiday giving. We can sell them over the phone via credit card and send the gift certificate to you or direct to the recipient. We do not sell them online.
Regular Hours Year Round
A reminder on our hours. We are here 9-5 Monday through Saturday and 10-4 on Sunday. We do not change our hours for winter or close because of rain. We frequently get questions about that so I just want to let everyone know that nothing changes for winter or rain.
We will be closed November 28th for Thanksgiving.
We also close December 24th and 25th for Christmas.
Small Business Saturday is November 30th. We will be here.
Very nice fall weather we are having this year. Get out and enjoy it and we hope to see you soon.
Jeff
