Gardening Q&A

We planted blackberries a few years ago and have tried to train the vines on a trellis, but it is a tangled mess. How do we make it neat and productive again?

The vine that produces this year's crop won't produce any next year, so cut it to the ground. That should take care of some of the spiny, tangled mess. A berry farmer I know uses a two-wire system. The canes produced this year, he ties to the wire on one side, so he knows which ones produce fruit for the year and to make it easier to keep the berry patch organized. As the canes come up for next year's fruit, he ties them to the other wire. If your berry patch is really out of control, you might just want to cut the whole thing back and start over, keeping things more organized in the future.

 

We want to plant several types of fruit trees this coming bare-root season, but don't know which are best for beginners.

Apple and pear are good bets for beginning orchard gardeners because they are easy to prune. Others, such as plum and peach, bear on new wood or year-old wood, so it can be tricky to know how to prune them to keep them producing. But the best advice is to plant what you love and will eat, and learn how to take care of them. There are several books on home orchards. I had several types of fruit trees, and when it came time to prune, I took the book out with me and followed the directions for each type of fruit tree. Pretty soon, I could identify fruit trees just by their bark.

This is a good time to plan your orchard and research what types of trees you like. Rather than buy something based on a description of its taste, try to sample varieties of fruit while they are in season, and then find and plant those varieties you know you like. I mistakenly planted a Rome Beauty apple once, and while it produced beautiful apples, no one in my family liked them.

Parts of my tomato vines are dying back—the leaves are dried up and brown. Someone told me they could have tobacco mosaic, especially if someone who smokes has been in my garden.

True, the tobacco mosaic disease can be carried into a garden by someone who smokes, but it's rare. And the symptoms you describe match those of the mosaic. Most hybrid varieties of tomato are not susceptible. Many heirloom varieties are, but it is still rare. More likely, the problem is not enough water. Tomatoes like long, deep soaks of water on a regular basis. They do not like drought. Cut away the dead parts of the plant—they aren't going to recover—and give the plants more water. To be safe, plant tomatoes in a different spot next year if you can. Add plenty of compost to the soil, no matter where you plant them. Put mulch over the top of the soil to preserve moisture, and make sure the tomatoes don't dry out. A friend had this problem and was convinced it was tobacco mosaic. He called in several experts, and the diagnosis was not enough water.

When do I harvest potatoes?

Once the plants are mature, you can gently pull some of the soil away and sneak a potato. Generally, they are all harvested at once. The plants will flower and then the leaves will start to turn yellow. The plants will begin to die back. Use a pitchfork rather than a shovel to dig up the plants. You want to be careful not to slice the potatoes you've worked so hard to grow before you ever get them out of the ground. I really love harvesting potatoes because it's like a treasure hunt. You don't know what you'll find until you get there. Kids especially love digging for potatoes.

If you miss any of the potatoes, they will sprout and grow for another crop, often just after the July harvest, so you would have a crop for Thanksgiving. Always fun. 

My squash plants are beginning to produce squash, but the squash shrivels up and never grows or forms correctly.

It's a problem with pollination. Squash plants produce male flowers first to attract bees for pollination. After a few days or weeks, they will produce the female flowers that will become the vegetables. The female flowers are the ones that have the baby squash at the base of the stem. Cut one of the male flowers and rub it against the female flowers to ensure they'll develop. I had this problem when growing squash in a pot on the deck. The bees just never found it.

 

Last year, I bought a corn plant at the nursery. It grew and bloomed, but no corn. I want to grow corn this year, so what do I need to do?

Corn has to be planted in blocks of at least 4 feet by 4 feet. That's because the flowers drop their pollen and it has to fall on the silks below to pollinate all of the kernels of corn on the cob. You'll never get a crop with a single plant, or even a few. Corn is really easy to grow from seed. If all you want is a few stalks for holiday decorations, then buying a few plants from the nursery will do the trick. If you want corn, plant a whole bed.