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?)