Boardash: ArcaMax Gardening Daily Tips for Friday December 25, 2009

Friday, December 25, 2009

ArcaMax Gardening Daily Tips for Friday December 25, 2009

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Happy Holidays from ArcaMax!

Gardening Daily Tips
For You
Friday December 25, 2009

Lily, Asiatic (Lilium)
Q&A: Scab on Potato Skins
Q&A: Planting Rosemary Cuttings
Tip: Harvest Winter Greens
Merry Christmas from ArcaMax
Reader Photos

Lily, Asiatic (Lilium)

Today's Featured Plant
Lily, Asiatic (Lilium)

Read the full profile of this plant at ArcaMax.com.

Interested in reading about other plants? Search through hundreds of plant profiles and helpful articles by keyword.

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Q&A: Scab on Potato Skins

Question: What makes the skins on my harvested potatoes scabby?

Answer: Common scab is caused by a naturally-occuring soil microbe called Streptomyces scabies. The optimum pH for scab development is from pH 6.0 to 7.5, so you can reduce scab problems by acidifying the soil to a pH of 5.5. Scab is also more prevalent on sandy or gravelly soils, so increasing soil organic matter can help. If you choose to use manure to enrich soil, use aged manure or apply fresh manure at the end of the season. You can also try planting scab-resistant potato varieties.

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Q&A: Planting Rosemary Cuttings

Question: I cut a few sprigs off my outdoor rosemary and put them in a glass jar with water, and, voila, they grew roots! Now what should I do? Can I grow rosemary indoors? What type of soil should I use?

Answer: Rosemary is one of those versatile plants that adapts to growing indoors or out, in pots or in the ground. To pot up your cuttings, find a container with good drainage holes in the bottom, fill it with regular potting soil, and plant your new rosemary. Then water it thoroughly and place it in bright light. Rosemary prefers soil on the dry side, so don't overwater the plant. Water when the top of the soil dries out, or when the pot feels light when you pick it up.

In your region, rosemary can be left outdoors year round. However, the plant isn't reliably hardy in most parts of the country. Rosemary can withstand temperatures down to about 20F (USDA Zone 9a); in regions with colder winters the plant must be brought indoors for the winter.

Sometimes rosemary is grown as a topiary plant. You can train your containerized plant into a topiary by pinching out all growth except one main stem, and rubbing out anything that sprouts along that stem but leaving the top stems and foliage alone. You'll end up with a "lollipop" rosemary, with a long, bare stem and a fluffy top of foliage.

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Tip: Harvest Winter Greens

In warm areas, greens such as lettuce, Swiss chard, spinach, kale, and mesclun should be ready for your Christmas dinner. Harvest greens when they're 3 to 4 inches long for the most tender salads. Merry Christmas!

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Merry Christmas from ArcaMax

The ArcaMax family wishes you and yours a safe and happy Christmas. Enjoy some last-minute holiday tips and fun today, and be sure to come back and see what else we have planned for the rest of 2009!

-- From the ArcaMax editors

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Sincerely,
ArcaMax Editors