THIS WEEK IN PLANT PROBLEMS:
Q: Some of my strawberry plants are a little lighter green than they should be, so I am thinking of giving them a boost. Do you suggest fertilizer with more nitrogen?
A: While strawberries can be affected by nutrient deficiencies, it’s difficult to know which one may be affecting your plants without a soil test. Applying fertilizer without knowing what’s going on in your strawberry bed can harm your plants.
The soil analysis report will advise on how to correct your garden’s soil nutrients. Giving your strawberries too much nitrogen at this point in the growing season will affect fruit production, and not in a good way. Plants need nitrogen for healthy stem and leaf growth, but use less nitrogen and more of other nutrients for fruiting.
Applying too much nitrogen now would divert the plant’s growth away from fruit development and into foliage development, risking fruit quality. You could see smaller fruit, fewer fruit, delayed ripening, and fruit that is mushy, less flavorful, or have a shorter shelf life.
For these reasons, it’s recommended to apply nitrogen to strawberries after fruiting is done for the season. Depending on your type of strawberries, this could be mid-summer for June-bearers or in the fall for ever-bearers.
But get that soil test done first so you know the best way to help your plants.
Q: My linden hasn’t leafedout yet this year. Its canopy was really thin last year, and it started losing its leaves sooner than usual last fall. I really don’t want to lose my tree. Is there a product I can use to revive this tree?
A: Different species of trees leaf-out at different times in the spring, but lindens should be fully leafedout by now. To discern whether your tree has signs of life, use a pocket knife to scrape a small spot on the side of a twig at the end of a branch. In the spring, it is these twigs where new growth happens.
When you scrape this twig, you are looking for green to signify that the twig is still alive. Another sign of life is swelling buds. If your tree has buds, remove a bud to see if there is any green color inside.
A lack of buds, driedup buds, and brittle twigs indicate that the twig or branch is dead. If you don’t find signs of life, check a few twigs around the tree to make sure. You can also contact your local County Extension horticulturist to double-check your findings.
Unfortunately, there are no products that can revive a dead tree. If your tree has signs of life, your local Extension horticulturist or a certified arborist can fully assess the tree and give recommendations on next steps forward.
Q: I want to transplant a couple of my huge hostas this July. The Extension office recommends doing this in the spring so the roots can get established before it gets too hot, but I saw a YouTube video in which a guy said using his method, any size hosta can be transplanted at any time of the year. Why doesn’t the Extension office tell people about his method?
A: The recommendations that University of Nebraska- Lincoln Extension horticulturists give out are based on the research that’s been conducted on the topic, specific to Nebraska’s climate.
That’s not to say that the guy in the YouTube video doesn’t see success with his method, but we have to wonder where the guy is from? What’s the climate like where he’s growing his hosta? Are the summers as hot as in Nebraska? Does it rain more there? What’s the soil quality like in his garden? What kind of hosta does he grow?
There are a lot of factors to compare to determine whether this YouTuber’s hosta-growing methods can work here in Nebraska. For this reason, I’ll stick with the advice to transplant hosta in the spring or early summer when the temperature is more moderate and there is time for the roots to get established before the summer heat. But if you decide to wait to transplant your hosta in mid-summer, be mindful that it’ll need more frequent watering to overcome heat stress.
Rita Brhel lives in Fairfield and is a certified Master Gardener, trained by the University of Nebraska- Lincoln to answer all sorts of yard, garden, tree, and houseplant questions. She also coordinates the Horticulture Program at the Adams County UNL Extension office in Hastings. Have a horticulture question? Contact your County Extension office to get connected with your local UNL Extension horticulturist.
