Cole Crazy: Broccoli For a Fall and Winter Garden

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Right about this time of year comes unpredictable weather. We hope for a little temperance with our daily and nighttime temperature. I’ve grown up with the brag ‘if you don’t like the weather, just wait a minute’, a saying that sounds great when joking about Texas Gulf Coast fall and winter.

I am highlighting one vegetable that is a cold tolerant trooper in the garden and one of my favorite to grow in the fall and winter: broccoli.

There are similarities in growing conditions when comparing cole crops such as broccoli, cauliflower or brussels sprouts. The optimal growing conditions for all are when daytime temps are moderate between 60 and 80-degrees and cool to cold nights at 40 to 50-degrees. They all perform best in fertile, well-drained soils so planting in raised beds with supplemental composted organic matter is optimal. A general rule of thumb for watering them is to keep the soil moist but not soaked. Mulch as appropriate and as always, modify watering dependent on seasonal rains. About four weeks after transplanting, apply one pound of fertilizer for each 30-feet of row and beside the plants. Another month after and if using a nitrogen fertilizer such as ammonium sulfate (21-0-0), evenly distribute at 1 cup per 30-feet row.

Broccoli are one of the easiest vegetables to work with this time of year. While planting from seed is best started late August to September, you can purchase transplant varietals from local nurseries and retail outlets. Make sure to space them at minimum 18-inches apart so that they have a chance to produce large heads and side-shoots as you harvest. Broccoli will weather light freezes and will perform adequately with sustained freeze if allowed to acclimate from an early planting ahead of true winter and covered to prevent freeze damage.

For the novice grower, what looks like small green trees are clusters of tightly packed, unopened yellow flowers. While we focus on floral heads for our table, these heads, supporting stems and leaves can be eaten. For harvest, cut the center head when individual buds begin to swell to about the size of a matchstick head. You can continue to harvest side shoots throughout the season. A few preferred broccoli varieties you can begin to harvest in less than two months are Italian heirloom Calabrese (48 days), Green Comet (40 days), Green Magic (57 days), and Packman (50 days); for longer season, try Lieutenant (75 days). Find out more and visit Galveston County AgriLife Extension Horticulture webpage to find links to vegetable varieties and planting guides, garden articles, soil and water testing and more at: https://galveston.agrilife.org/horticulture/. Thank you for the opportunity to grow with you, and I’ll see you in the garden.

Fall Flowers in the Fields

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Tall Coneflower

I often refer to this season as our second spring, fall flowering plants expressing brilliant colors before a short winters rest. As you explore your local horizon, you may see broad bands of pink or yellow appearing as a sheen across pastures and coastal prairies. Closer inspection reveals a striking brilliance of species like Goldenrod (Solidago sp.), 4-foot-tall sun yellow wands that gracefully bow in the wind. Fall is its season to shine, indicating cooler weather is on the rise. You may notice other yellow-flowering plants such as 3-feet tall coneflower (Rudbeckia sp.); what looks like one single flower are uniform ray petals surrounding a brown, cone-shaped structure made of hundreds of individual complete flowers.

Benefits for using native and appropriate non-native plants in the home garden include resource conservation (less water, limited fertilization) and food for wildlife (nectar, pollen). There are quite a number of native plant species and hybrids appropriate to enhance your home landscape and come in all shapes and sizes. For vining plants try Crossvine (Bigononia capreolata), a vigorous evergreen growing to 50-feet and producing large 2-inch orange trumpet-shaped flowers fading to a golden throat. The vine blooms on new growth in full sun from end of March through May and intermittent through summer, prolific and beautiful as a backdrop tied to a trellis and running along a fence, or gracefully cascading over an arbor. Explore Coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), delicate 2-inch-long tube-shaped flowers that bloom through early summer. Both vining plants attract hummingbirds and Crossvine appears to also be a favorite of bees.

American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) is a deciduous shrub with graceful arching stems that will tolerate occasional saturated soils. Individual shrubs can reach 5-feet tall and wide, and the payoff are clusters of magenta berries clasping in bunches about 6 to 7-inches apart along outward facing stems in late summer through fall. The shrub can be grown in the understory, and I always make sure to place it in my landscape with dappled shade exposure. For full sun and well-draining and dry soil, you may try Barbados cherry (Malpighia glabra), a native shrub that has the potential to reach 6-feet tall. It offers petite wrinkled leaves and produces clusters of small flowers across the surface of its canopy. This shrub is semi-evergreen, meaning it has the potential to retain leaves in milder climates. The shrub will tolerate shearing and formal pruning to form a dense hedge for ornament or privacy. I have seen the top of a Barbados cherry hedge shimmer with dozens of tiny pink flowers.

Turk’s Cap

Finally, Turk’s Cap (Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii) is a shade tolerant and airy woody sub-shrub of our forested areas, with arching single stems that reach 4-foot tall. Unique turban-shaped and brilliant red flowers are produced in spring and again in fall, emerging as a resource for migrating hummingbirds. Texas A&M AgriLife Texas Superstar® program promotes Turk’s Cap cultivars ‘Pam Puryear’ with soft pink flowers and variegated ‘Fiesta’ with yellow and white splotched leaves. We can continue to nurture our connection to our natural world through use of native and appropriate non-native plants in our gardens. To find out more about the Texas Superstar® program, visit online: https://texassuperstar.com. Enjoy the beauty of Fall in Texas, and I’ll see you in the garden.

Patio Citrus

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Last December’s hard freeze set back homeowners reestablishing citrus trees. A few residents that I have talked with swear they will never grow citrus again. My advice is to not give in to the vagaries of old man winter, to continue planting in-ground and consider cultivating citrus in containers. There are a number of advantages with container grown citrus: flexibility relocating plants before freeze events; great for homes with limited outdoor space; and cold sensitive varietals cultivated outside of their natural range.

Basics of Growing Citrus: Container Size

You will provide basic growing requirements with 6 to 8 hours full sun exposure to maximize performance, applying consistent water and scheduled fertilizer application. We must also consider container type and size in relation to varietal growth habit. The type of container is dependent on your practical and functional situation; molded plastic is lighter for ease of movement, terracotta and ceramic are heavier and larger containers may crack when moved. Eventually the container size must be potted up to 20-gallons minimum, a size appropriate to establish a healthy root system that will support top growth and fruit production. Upsizing should be performed incrementally at 25% more pot size; too much soil volume to root ratio disrupts equal distribution of water throughout the container. An example would be repotting from a ten-gallon to a twelve-gallon container. Assess the root zone annually to determine if repotting is necessary, and expect repotting every 3 years. Replant with similar techniques used for planting in ground: wash off the old media, prune malformed roots, plant at the same depth, etc.

Consider growth habit as each type of citrus has its own form, growth rate and eventual size. The largest trees are Navel oranges, grapefruit and pomelo, and can reach 15-feet or more in-ground; lemons at close to 15-feet; mandarin, satsuma oranges and lime trees to 12-feet. Citrus can be kept smaller stature by grafting onto specific types of rootstock. Unless otherwise stated on a product label, commercial citrus varieties are grafted onto a stump (rootstock) of a compatible sour orange. Trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata) is generally used, is a cold tolerant sour orange species and has the potential to dwarf top growth to 10-feet. Varietal ‘Flying Dragon’ (P. trifoliata var. monstrosa) offers the same environmental tolerance and is known to keep species 6 to 8-feet. In conclusion of this topic, research the grafted rootstock of your desired citrus tree prior to purchase. You may have to root prune once you have reached your preferred optimum container size to maintain a balanced growth.

Fertilizer Scheduling

Commercial soil-less media blended for citrus provides good drainage, is lighter in weight and has adequate organic matter. Nutrient availability is managed through scheduled fertilizer applications. The primary nutrients listed on a fertilizer product are based on a percentage of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, represented numerically and in the order listed. Fertilizer ratio and application rates are calculated primarily for in-ground trees, and related to trunk size and identified nutrient deficiencies. For containers, it is best to use products with a 2-1-1 or 3-1-2 ratio. Fertilizer can be slow release prils or water-soluble granules, and commercial products will have recommended application information on the label. I have had success with a product developed and marketed for citrus, rated 10-2-8 as a water-soluble fertilizer, applied three times at 1 cup (.5-lbs) each application. Timing for the application is mid-February, early May and final mid-June. It is best to discontinue after late July to discourage tender growth at a time of winter dormancy. Fertilizer products are formulated from salts as mineralized elements. These salts will accumulate over time in the media; visible signs will be a thin sheen or crystallized crust on soil surface, as well as brown leaf tips, reduced growth and unusual wilting. You will have to flush accumulated salts from the soil with water every few years. Keep in mind that you will have to increase fertilizer amounts as the tree matures. Supplement with liquid fertilizers as needed and regarding identified nutrient deficiencies.

Pruning, Fruit Drop and Harvest

Pruning in late February or early March is performed for canopy shaping, height reduction, water sprout removal and adequate air flow through the canopy. Do not prune more than one-quarter of the canopy each year, and only as necessary. Heavy pruning can initiate extra vegetative growth that may reduce fruit production the following year. Citrus are known for prolific flower production starting in spring. You will experience up to 80-percent flower drop after this flush, as well as intermittent fruit drop during development and toward harvest. This is a normal occurrence and must be expected. Most citrus flower once in spring and take about 8 months to harvest. Limes and lemons are the exception, can have several flowering periods and have the capacity to produce up to three times annually. Depending on the size and maturity of the tree, consider thinning the fruit to conserve resources for sustained tree health and production. With a well-established tree, aim for one fruit for every 42 leaves.

Life is a bit brighter with citrus, we continue to celebrate citriculture through education efforts like Gulf Coast Gardening seminars and events. Keep on the sunny side and I’ll see you in the garden.

Citrus Leaves Looking Bad: Asian Citrus Leaf Miner

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There are many reasons to love gardening along the Texas Gulf Coast, one being the ability to successfully grow a variety of citrus trees in our landscape. Urban gardeners to small-scale orchard operators in Galveston County have natural resources of temperate weather and access to full sun to entice sun-colored fragrant fruit from their trees.

Citrus is a general term for fruit that includes the familiar lemon, key and persian lime, the unusual thick-skinned citron, the delectable sweet orange, easy to peel tangerine, huge pomelo, grape-sized kumquat and our beloved grapefruit. Citrus species have their origins in southeast Asia, including south Vietnam, south China and India. Global trade routes via European western expansion eventually brought this precious commodity to be cultivated along the Texas Gulf Coast starting in the 1880’s. It is estimated that approximately 27,000 acres of citrus are now grown in South Texas in the Lower Rio Grande Valley region.

Image courtesy Harris County AgriLife Extension

Since there is a wealth of information regarding citrus production, variety availability and horticultural management, I wish to focus on several inquiries I recently received and related to citrus plant health. A few concerned homeowners witnessed damage to their citrus foliage, reporting black and silver-colored trails on the top of curling and disfigured leaves. One homeowner sent me a great picture of foliar damage to help identify the culprit. I concluded that the leaf damage is due to activity of the Asian Citrus Leaf Miner (Phyllocnistis citrella), a species of moth originating from India to the Phillipines and detected in southern United States in the mid-1990’s. The moth is small and light colored, mostly found active March through October in the Texas Upper Gulf Coast Bend. Regarding life cycle, the female adult will lay eggs on the underside of newly growing leaves in the evening or late night. Larvae hatch and burrow into the leaf, mining as they feed through the leaf tissue. We see the damage as a silver-colored trail along the leaf surface. The larvae proceed through 4 instars (stages of development) and take up to 20 days to form pupae (think of a butterfly cocoon). Right before pupae development, the larvae proceeds toward the margin of the leaf, emerges and rolls the leaf around itself to develop into the adult, causing the leaf to distort and curl. The life cycle can take from 2 to 7 weeks to complete.

While the damage looks unsightly, moth activity is found not to reduce citrus plant health or productivity on mature trees. Damage to trees aged from one to four years may warrant control of this insect and depending on the severity. There are a number of predatory species that feed on the miner at the larval stage, and best management practice involves least toxic intervention on our part to encourage a more natural control. If you do decide to use a control method that should include general plant maintenance, best management practice involves application of horticultural oil in cooler months; keep in mind that oils used in horticultural application can damage leaves when we begin to sustain temperatures in the mid-80’s. If you have a heavy infestation of Asian Citrus Leaf Miner and have determined that they are affecting the health of your tree, chemical control recommendation is for the use of products containing Spinosad, a chemical compound derived from a family of soil bacterium and attacking the nervous system of the insect. While this chemical is a least toxic alternative, it is a broad-spectrum control and I encourage you to limit application of chemical control to continue to encourage natural predators of the moth. More information regarding citrus and related fruit production and management can be found online at the Texas Aggie Horticulture website: http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/fruit-nut/.

You can find out more about our gardening programs from our website: https://galveston.agrilife.org/horticulture. I invite you to share your ideas and successes in your garden by browsing online to my Facebook webpage: www.facebook.com/horticulturiststephenb/. See you in the garden!

Garden Preparation Before the Freeze

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The first bite of the 2022 Winter (December 22, 2022) is nigh on the horizon as I write, and temps are predicted to drop to low 20-F overnight for two nights running. Fortunately, daytime temps at our Extension office in La Marque, TX are predicted to raise just above freezing and in the 40s-F right before Christmas Day. December’s cold weather is always welcome like an old friend that briefly visits for a few months, reminding that we have thick layers of fabric in reserve to ward off the bite of frost or sustained freezes from less-than fair weather guests.

Understanding types of cool weather events is key to properly dressing up our plants in just the right fashion for adequate protection. I have adapted an article written by AgriLife Specialist Monte Nesbitt and Horticulture Agent Skip Richter to describe the difference between frosts and freezes, as well as materials to consider for cover to help us make sound choices for winter protection.

How to Care for Frost Bitten Plants | Patuxent NurseryFrost, specifically radiation frost, is used to describe heat loss from radiant energy, accompanied by freezing temps forming ice crystals from dew collecting on surfaces. These events occur with clear skies, calm winds below 4 mph and temperature inversions. Freezes, also known as advective freezes, occur when freezing air mass displaces warmer air with wind speeds more than 4 mph, an event that can cause ice crystals to form and pierce cell walls within vegetative tissue. Thawing allows fluid to leak out of damaged cells and causing a burned look to leaf and stems. Our job prior to anticipated radiative events is to trap as much heat as possible from the surrounding environment, slowing down heat loss just enough to prevent damage to plant tissue and with appropriate materials such as porous fabric. Commercial frost cloth can be used, and additional materials can include bed sheets or surrounding the target plant with cardboard. Since the focus is slowing down heat loss, you can also use surrounding structures that reflect radiative energy such as roof overhang or even placing under the canopy of larger landscape plants to reduce cooling. The best method for covering plants is securing material at ground level and within the canopy drip line instead of tying around the trunk of the plant. Remember we are not trying to insulate the plants, rather slowing heat loss. The difference may be measured by a few degree’s, but it will be enough to lessen the effect.

How to Protect Your Garden from Freezing Temperatures | Today's HomeownerAdvective freezes require more than lightweight covers for protection and can include building box-shaped frames, applying row covers or hoop houses to place over your plants. Polyethylene, 4 mil sheeting is a good material to cover these structures. Make sure that there is enough headroom between the plastic and plants because plastic is conductive and can damage vegetation on contact. Always remove coverings as temps warm above freezing to avoid heat stress. Buildings and surrounding vegetation can also be useful as windbreaks, disrupting increased wind exposure during freeze events. Protecting plant crown and roots can be managed by 3 to 4-inch layer of mulch. Make sure the plants are well watered prior to these climatic events. Water and wet soils collect heat during the day and release slowly as ambient temps cool, providing additional protection to your plants. You can also collect water in used 1-gallon containers or 5-gallon buckets, allow to warm during the day and place beneath covered plants to provide further protection.

Be prepared and have the right kind of materials on hand, and always use best practices to protect your plants from frost and freezes. Browse online to the Galveston County AgriLife Extension’s Horticulture website for more practical gardening information: https://galveston.agrilife.org/horticulture/. Season’s greetings to you and your family, I look forward to serving you in 2023 with outstanding horticulture programs, and I will see you in the garden.