SheriLL123's Blog

Citrus
Mar 18, 2008 | 9:28 PM PST
Tags: Master Gardener class , Veggies

Wow, we had an entire six hours dedicated to Citrus today.  More than I ever thought I wanted to know.  Half of our last class was on propagating citrus.  We learned about many of the most popular Door Yard(home grown) varieties, which are better for juicing, or resistance to certain pest or diseases.  A lot about different pests and diseases and different control methods.  Which root stocks are best for which varieties.  Mutations, good and bad.  Even which varieties require cross pollination and the best pollinators.  We had to learn about maturity dates and how that affects fertilizing and pest control regimens.  I will definitely need to review my notes from this class several times to soak up the information. 

I think they should have different levels or types of Master Gardener.  Some class just seem like so much information to take in.  For instance one could be an Ornamental MG, a Door Yard MG (home fruit trees), or a Vegetable MG.  Just because they give me a little certificate at the end of class that says Master Gardener I do not think I will feel as though I have 'Mastered" anything. (Personally I do not think I will grow any citrus trees either... That is a tree that requires too much year-round attention for my taste)

Good news!  The only other class topic that merits more that one session of training is vegetables.  Yea!  I have been looking forward to this one.  Thursday and Tuesdays classes will cover that topic. 

In my own gardens things seem to be doing fairly well.  My tomatoes have a little leaf spot but seem to be holding their own. They have several dozen fruit on them. =)  I have been pruning out affected branches and will mix up some baking soda and water for them tomm.  I did get a bad infestation of aphids in my peas and I think they are a loss.  I think I will retry those next winter I looked them up and should have started them in Sept/Oct.  I will get use to backward seasons... I will.

My sweet bell pepper plants have baby peppers on them, Hooray!  This is a plant I don't have a good history with... perhaps this year will be a success.  My cucumbers, squash, and cantaloupe all have flowers.  I think my jalapeno seedlings have doubled in size this week too.  My cilantro is done and I have started some more.  I think I will move them to the vegetable bed, I read that they attract lady bugs and help to repel other pests.  Tomm I will peek at the cuttings I started last week and see if they are still alive. 

Oh, I did get the composter started up can't wait for the 'good stuff ' for my veggies.  I didn't get to my air layering experiments but perhaps tomm. ( If I ever go to bed... Oops , what time is it?)

 

Trees & Babies
Mar 14, 2008 | 4:52 AM PST

Classes this week were a lot of fun. Tuesdays class was on how to kill a tree.  We learned proper planting techniques and pruning.  Turn out my hubby does a pretty good job already.  However we learned that we do over prune our palm trees.  During class they drug us outside and we got to plant a mahogany tree.  Cool.

Thursday we learned how to make babies!  He-he, my hubby has had lots of amusing comments to make about that class this week.  Seriously, Plant propagation was fascinating.  This is the class I have learned the most in so far.  The teacher for this class was great.  He works at a citrus research station about an hour inland from here.  He brought in bucket-fulls of plants and we got hands on training.  I am anxious for it to be light outside so I can run outside and propagate some of my own plants.

Gerrrrr,  I'm not adjusting well to the time change.  Usually my hubby and I will go for a bike ride or something at 6:30a before he goes to work. Then I will run the younger kids from our block to school and by now I would have watered the veggies and seeds and be sitting down for breakfast.  =(  It is just now getting light out.  Oh well guess we will have to ride at night.  If only I could get him home before dark. 

I bought a new composter about 2 weeks ago that I haven't got around to setting up yet.  My plan today is to get that going. I need to take some pics for my records too and put some in my albums.  Well hubby has to work all weekend so I should have lots of time to putter in the yard.   I want to try some of the things I learned in class yest too.  I have some hibiscus varieties that I would like some more of and I want more sea grapes for another bed I am planning too.  I would like to try 'air layering' some of my fav crotons too. Which means I need to run to Home Depot and get some sphagnum moss and some potting soil etc....  Oh, I'm going to save so much money. =)  We wanted to line the new fence with coco plums.....  Now where am I going to put all this so hubby won't complain?????

 

Classes
Mar 7, 2008 | 5:41 AM PST

Ya know, I really had intended to Blog after each class, hopefully going forward...

Our 1st Master Gardeners class was 2/28 "Orientation"

Our first class was mostly a meet and greet.  They gave us our manuals and talked a little about the origins of the Extension Service. Land grant colleges, where our funding comes from, and what kind or services we provide rounded out most of the class.  We also played a few 'ice-breaker' games to get to know the others in our class.  There are about 25 of us.  Most are retired persons.  A least I'm not the baby.  Two of the people in the class are Extension employees and they appear younger than me. 

3/4 Entomology "Bugs"

Eeeew.  Glad we got that out of the way first thing.  I had the creepy crawlies for two days!  Bugs are a big problem here.  Because we have such mild winters, bugs often just breed year round.  Where some insects would only have a generation or two of invasion up north we often get 4 to 7 generations per year constantly attacking.  That was a lot of scary information about invasive bug species too.  I hadn't realized how bad the problem was.   Over the last 3 to 6 years we have had some invasive species arrive that have devastated some of our major ornamental and native species.  In some areas there in not a living sago palm left.  Species such as Fica and Cassia that were viewed as hardy and nearly indestructible are dying in startling numbers.  Sad news

3/6 Applied Botany

This class mainly delt with leaf, flower, and fruit structure.  The focus was mainly learning how to 'professionally' identify and describe plants.  What is a leaf; simple, pinnate, & palmate forms.  What are their arrangements and so on, the same with flower forms.  I did go to the library after class to check out a couple Biology books.  I though a quick review on plant biology might be beneficial.  It's been a "few" years since high school Biology and I never took it in college.  Besides my youngest will have Biology in Middle school soon.  I will be a better homework helper. =)

Unfortunately there has not been much time for gardening.  My hubby is fishing in a tournament this weekend so Sat we will be at the Seafood Festival watching the weigh-ins. Then on Sun we are all headed to the Rodeo.  I love the barrel racing!  So, probably not much time in the garden this weekend either.  I have discovered aphids on my Arugula, Fire Bush, and Hibiscus so I do need to do battle with them today.  I have tried just spraying them off but they keep coming back so it's time to take off the gloves...