Proper timing helps to ensure success in the garden
BY DANIEL E. MULLINS Extension Horticulture Agent Santa Rosa County

"Timing is everything." The person who coined this phrase was undoubtedly a gardener because the time of year that certain cultural practices are performed often means the difference between success and failure.

Two vegetable gardening examples come to mind each time that a question about planting dates comes up. Bulbing onions and strawberries are frequently misunderstood and planted at the wrong time of year in our area.

We can produce beautiful onions with bulbs up to 4 inches in diameter, with flavor that rivals those Georgia onions that we hear so much about. To do this we must set out plants in the fall, not in the spring like they do up north. In fact, onions planted after the first of the year make puny little bulbs or in many cases, something that looks like a giant green onion.

Several local gardeners successfully grow large onions, and this is how they do it. They use varieties of "short day" onions such as Grano, Granex, Texas Grano, Excel or Tropicana Red. Granex is the variety that is used for producing Vidalia onions and St. Augustine Sweets.

Some gardeners seed their onions in September and have plants ready for transplanting to the garden in November or early December. Others shop for plants of these varieties during the fall.

These plants are established 4 to 5 inches apart in rows that are 12 to 24 inches apart. A couple of light fertilizations will be required during the season to keep them vigorous. Onions grow well during our relatively mild winters and will be ready for harvest in early May.

Strawberries are also frequently mistreated by planting them in the spring. Under Gulf Coast conditions they should be transplanted during October and November. Like onions, strawberry plants are very cold hardy, producing a full sized plant by spring and yielding during March, April and May.

Use only "short day" strawberry varieties. These include Chandler, Sweet Charlie, Dover, Selva, Oso Grande, Florida Belle and Florida 90.

The time for planting other cool season vegetables is also fast approaching. The first planting of these can be done in August: broccoli, cauliflower, collards, bunching onions and turnips. During September most other winter vegetables can be established including: beets, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, endive, escarole, kale, kohlrabi, leek, lettuce, mustard, parsley and radish.

The time of year that many perennials are transplanted also makes a big difference. Amaryillis and daylily bulbs are best divided during September. Fall is the ideal time to move a shrub from one place in the yard to another.

The subject of proper timing can be applied to fertilization, spraying for pest control, pruning and almost any other gardening practice. Done at the right time, expect good results. On the other hand, if done at the wrong time of year much time and money is wasted.

Question of the Week: Some of my shrubs are covered with orange strands that appear to be growing. What could this be?

Answer: These orange or yellow strands are a parasitic plant known as dodder. It germinates in the soil and climbs upon nearby plants. Once it becomes attached to the host plant the stem dies at the base. The plant then lives off of the host plant much like mistletoe lives on trees.

It is too late in the year to recommend a control other than physically stripping away as much of the dodder as you can. Depending upon the shrub species, there might be a preemergent product that can be used in the plant bed next spring for prevention. Contact your Extension agent or garden supply dealer for a recommendation