Jeff Rice

Vegetable starts are available now. We are receiving shipments of vegetable starts every week now and will continue to have them through the next couple of months. We also have some vegetable and herb starts in the greenhouse that should be coming out soon. We will have many different and unique tomato varieties (different than our usual wide selection) that should be ready in about 3 weeks or so. They are about an inch tall now. As usual we have many heirloom and other varieties of tomatoes available now. Our 4″ vege starts are $1.95 each. 6 pak vege starts are $3.50 each. We have a very large selection of tomatoes, squash, peppers, pumpkins, cucumbers, etc. with more arriving every Wednesday. Start prepping your area for your vegetables now. Be sure to add phosphorous or bone meal for root development. Incorporate it into the soil. Also add calcium to your soil to prevent blossom end rot. Incorporate your vegetable fertilizer and compost and/or chicken or steer manure in advance and be ready to plant. I use vegetable fertilizer, kelp meal and bone meal in the vegetable garden. Kelp meal helps with disease resistance and bone meal adds the calcium needed. …

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November Gardening Tips Well it finally feels like fall. the weather through September and October was unseasonably warm. Just the past week or so it has gotten quite a bit cooler and we had some nice rain. The fall colors are really showing now. And it is still an excellent time for fall planting. Fall fertilizing should have been done by now. If you forgot to do it you can still do it if the plants have not gone dormant yet. If they are already in fall color and starting to lose leaves best to wait until spring. Dormant spraying of fruit trees will be coming up soon. This will be the first of three aplications. Make sure the trees have lost their leaves before spraying. Remember “Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentines Day as dates to remember for the dormant spraying. Make sure to spray all three times to prevent leaf curl. Use copper spray and mix a dormant oil with it. We use copper and horticultural oil from Monterey mixed together with good results. The horticultural oil helps the copper to stick to the tree. It also helps to kill overwintering insects. Be sure to soak the tree all the way …

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Fall Planting Season Fall is almost here. The days are getting shorter and the nights are getting cooler. It’s been a little warm so far the last wekk or so but it will be cooling soon. The official first day of autumn is September 22nd. The wether is expected to cool down starting Sunday and next week the forecast is for the 80’s. Fall is definietly in the air. Time to get out and do fall planting.   THAT MEANS FALL PLANTING SEASON IS HERE!     Fall is the best time for planting just about everything, paritcularly trees. Plants that are planted in fall get the cooler weather to get roots established without the stress of the heat and transplant shock and continue to establish roots even after they lose their leaves. They will continue root devlopment with  the fall and winter rains. The roots then are established and the tree or shrub is ready to take off and grow next spring and is well established before the heat of the summer and can tolerate the summer heat much better than the same plant put out in the spring.   The inventory here at the nursery looks great. It …

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Vegetable Gardens By now you should be getting vegatables from your garden. Watch for tomato worms. Use caterpillar killer on them or pick them off and kill. Water your garden well about 2 to 3 times a week. Give it a good deep soaking when you water. You may need to fertilize one time this time of year. If you are suffering blossom end rot, add calcium. Harvest regularly to keep your garden producing. Hopefully it looks full now and not like the beginning of the season. Water Water Water With the summer heat comes the need for watering. Remember that it is better for trees in particular to have deep soakings 2 to 3 times a week rather than daily short watering. This will get a deeper root system and produce a tree that can withstand the long hot days much better than one that is watered daily for short periods. If you are seeing stress from the heat such as burned leaf edges, flowers fading quickly, wilting, etc., increase the amount of water you are giving. If you are unable to increase the frequency, we have a product called Soil Moist. You mix it with the soil and …

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Gardening tips for July The weather has been pretty darned hot the past week or so. Today as I write this it is very nice. Finally the heat broke. I’m a little late getting this out. Have been out watering two and three times a day here to make sure all the plants look good. And thanks to the hard work of all our people the plants look really nice. The biggest thing to do this month is water. When the weather is hot it is time to step up the watering. Increase time on timers to give plants good deep soakings. Some signs to look for that show not enough water are wilting in the heat that does not recover when the weather cools for the evening. If water is not increased when you see this the next thing will be leaves dropping and flowers dropping before the blooms are spent. The next thing is edges of leaves will turn brown and then die back on branches. If you see any of these signs increase the water to the plant. If a plant is stressed due to lack of water or other reasons, use Superthrive. Mix 1 to 3 …

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June is starting off fairly warm this year. This weekend is supposed to be pretty warm. Okay it is going to be hot.  Be sure to increase the water for the warmer temperatures. Plants need additional water during spikes in temperature and during the summer. Tune up your drip systems if you haven’t done so yet. Remember that trees in particular like long deep soakings two to three times a week for deep rooting. Daily short watering on your tree will cause surface rooting. Deep soaking ensures deep rooting and the tree will stand the heat of the summer much better. Tomatoes, melons, and cucumbers are also going to do better with deep soaking less frequently than with daily short watering. If you are unsure of the amount of water a tree needs, we have a handout at the nursery which will tell you the amount of water per week needed based on the size of the tree. It is a great resource for those in doubt.   June is the month for your second fertilizing of the year for most items in the landscape. An all purpose fertilizer such as 16-16-16 is good for most things in the landscape. This …

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March Gardening Tips Well I am a couple of weeks late getting this out. Sorry for the delay. The nursery has been pretty busy with the beautiful spring weather and I got a little behind. But better late than never right? I don’t think that is a good excuse but anyway here it is. March is the month to get ready for fertilizing the landscape. Almost everything in the landscape should be fertilized soon. As soon as deciduous plants have their full set of leaves and the danger of hard freeze is over fertilizing should be done. For most plants you should use a balanced fertilizer or an all purpose fertilizer. The three numbers will be the same such as 16-16-16 or 5-5-5 for organics. When fertilizing trees and shrubs apply the fertilizer at the drip line and work it into the soil. Make sure the plant is watered well before applying the fertilizer and water the fertilizer in after application. This year we have large bags of balanced organic fertilizer. Dr Earth Life organic fertilizer is available in 25 pound and 40 pound bags. It’s formulation is 5-5-5.  I used this last year on the orchard here at the …

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Upcoming at Bald Mountain Nursery: Bare root berries and vegetables arrive in November. Oregon stock will be in later in November which includes Dogwoods & Japanese Maple and living Christmas trees. Also climbing hydrangea, hosta, daphne, and many other items. Bare root roses arrive in December. Lists are available at the nursery or request one and I can send it via email. Bare root fruit trees arrive the first week of January. Complete lists are available at the nursery or request one and I will send it to you via email. If you wish to buy early you can pay and we will tag the trees once they arrive and call you. This way you can get exactly what you want from our list. Sorry there are no special orders on bare root items. Bare root fruit tree planting clinic– sometime in January, date will be announced. Fruit tree pruning clinic. Sometime in January and in February. Dates will be announced. Other clinics you would like to see? Let us know. We’ll see if we can do it. Don’t forget to do your 3 dormant sprayings for leaf curl on fruit trees. The dates to remember are Thanksgiving, Christmas, and …

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