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Plant Trees To Transform Your Landscape, Part 2

Autumn Lake Tree Nature Leaf - pasja1000 / Pixabay

After reading Part 1 of “Plant Trees to Transform Your Landscape”, you’ve located the best spot where a tree will shade the house from brutal summer sun. Recommendations and practices presented here are based on climate and soil in the eastern part of the United States, where I live and garden, but the basic principles apply everywhere.

If your main objectives are shade, attracting wildlife, and less grass to mow, include masses of shrubs and perennials in the landscape plan as well. This article concentrates on planting trees, the dominant features in the landscape.

Native Plants vs. the Non-Natives

The choices offered in garden centers can be narrowed down to native species and non-native, or exotic, species. Within each of those groups are the original species and the cultivars (cultivated varieties). Developed by plant breeders, cultivars exhibit more ornamental or desirable—or just different—characteristics than the species.

‘Red Filigree Lace’, a delicate cultivar of Japanese maple.

Non-native plants originated in a different country or perhaps only a few hundred miles away. If the plant doesn’t occur naturally in your geographic region, it’s non-native, although some gardeners restrict use of the term to plants evolving in another country.

There are many beautiful plants, exotic to our shores, which we’ve enjoyed in our gardens. Japanese snowbell (Styrax japonica), Stewartia pseudocamellia, and the dizzying assortment of Japanese maples (Acer palmatum) are just too hard to pass up. You can compromise, if you wish, by including both natives and exotics.

To most garden center visitors, none of this matters. We buy plants that solve problems and look pretty in our yards. But, to explain the relevance of native species, I’d like to expand the subject.

The Benefits of Native Species

First, native plants require less pampering to get them established.

Species that evolved locally can tolerate fluctuations in weather patterns. Temperature extremes, rainfall, humidity, soil types, altitude, wind patterns, and local fauna shaped today’s ecosystems.

Second, gardeners concerned about local pollinators choose plants that foster bees, butterflies, and other animals that pollinate farm crops and wild vegetation.

Every third bite of food we consume is attributable to pollinators. But, you might make the case that since most crops are alien to this country, it shouldn’t matter whether we use native or non-native trees. But we need to consider what larval insects consume, and that’s foliage and other plant parts. Thousands of species—not just bees—pollinate our farms, orchards, fields, and forests.

Egg-laying female moths and butterflies, beetles, and other insects are very selective and seek the natives they evolved with to supply sustenance for the following generation.

Incidentally, honey bees are not native to this part of the world. They will, however, forage from plants grown here, many of which are related to the plants they evolved with.

Making a Case For Single Flowers

: Amaryllis with yellow pollen and white stigma.

: Double amaryllis with no anthers or stigma.

Flowers attract pollinators, which reap the harvest of nectar and pollen. But many double- and triple-petaled flowers have lost their nectaries, stigmas, and/or pollen-tipped stamens. Photos above clearly illustrate the loss of reproductive parts in a double amaryllis cultivar. If these hybridized doubles and triples have lost the ability to reproduce sexually, they can’t make seeds. They must instead be propagated asexually, or vegetatively, by cuttings, division, grafts, or tissue culture.

The anthers, supported by filaments, bear the pollen; the male portion of the flower, collectively, is called the stamen. Female parts comprise the stigma, supported by the style, and the ovary, with its ovules, deeper within the receptacle; the female portion is called the pistil.

Not all dense flower heads are pollinator wastelands, though. Species in the Asteraceae family, for example, have flowers that normally look full. This family includes all the composites, such as aster, coneflower, daisy, dandelion, rudbeckia, and sunflower. Their dense inflorescences are composed of small florets arranged in a head, called a capitulum. But the original species also have the necessary reproductive parts. The composites are one of the most successful groups of plants and are found on every continent except Antarctica.

At a local garden center last year, I watched bumble bees that were quick to land on thickly-petaled hybrid red coneflowers (Echinacea). They were equally hasty in their departure! The bees stayed on the red flowers for a fraction of a second, while they lingered on the less frilly flowers of other cultivars, mining several florets in each flower for their treasure.

Pollinators waste precious energy visiting barren double-flowered hybrids. True, not all doubles lack nectar and pollen. For the pollinators’ sake, though, select more species or varieties with simple flowers. Natural selection favors plants that set seed, of course, which is why most native plants have simpler flowers.

Photos below show examples of single-flowering cultivars. If you see a boss of stamens and pistils in the flowers, those plants can probably supply pollen and nectar to the pollinators. This is a fine point, granted, but one that is critically important to populations of pollinators, given the preponderance of double-flowering hybrids at garden centers.

: Bumble bee on perennial aster.

: Pollinator on fruit tree.

: Purple coneflower (Echinacea) with bumble bee.

Third, planting a multitude of native species helps secure the future of threatened or endangered insects and animals.

In many regions, songbird populations have declined by half due to human intervention. Some have disappeared entirely. Trees and shrubs that provide shelter, nesting sites, berries or seeds, and which host insects, can help bring back the birds. Abundant biodiversity is a valid protection against the domino collapse of interdependent species.

Civilization has claimed much of the insects’ natural environments, so each of us can play a small part in rebuilding habitats. Annual butterfly counts show drastic declines. Monarch butterflies, in particular, now have less territory available in Mexico, a major overwintering site, than in the past, when they migrated by the millions.

Maintaining brush piles for overwintering insects and animals will help repopulate your landscape early in the season. Hauling those materials off to the recycling center, however, is sure death for the insects tucked inside. Fewer insects = fewer birds and other animals.

Fourth, incorporating native plants into the landscape helps keep the entire food chain intact.

A green anole basking in morning sun.

Insects feeding on plants become food for frogs, lizards, birds, and mammals. They, in turn, become food for snakes, hawks, foxes, and other predators. In many ecosystems, insects native to the region are the foundation on which the entire food chain is based.

A rich diversity of plant material supports an enormous number of insect and animal species. Left undisturbed, populations find a balance among themselves. On the other hand, life in monoculture, such as a lawn, is sparse. Unfortunately, countless urban and suburban neighborhoods have become dead zones with all their natural vegetation bulldozed to the ground.

As we spray, mow, burn, or build in natural environments, species will continue their rapid decline. Certainly, we need places to live and work, but we can also “give back” by planting for wildlife instead of continually killing it off.

Check with your state’s native plant society, native plant finders, BeeCity USA, and the local agricultural extension service for information. In addition to these sources, find a knowledgeable salesperson at the garden center for practical advice and sources of plant material. Garden shows might feature vendors specializing in native plants as this branch of horticulture grows.

Native Species and Nativars

trees, red leaves in fall, native white oak

Red fall color in a native white oak tree.

Plant breeders have brought to the marketplace many cultivars of our native species. These nativars might have purple or red foliage instead of green, or double flowers instead of single. Perhaps they mature at a shorter height than the original species, making them a better fit for small properties.

Garden centers often stock varieties of native species, although those selling native plants might also stock the original species. By a comfortable margin, though, most of the trees and shrubs in U.S. garden centers are cultivars of non-native species. Many originated in Asia, a treasure trove of tempting horticultural novelties.

Red Leaves and Wildlife

native trees, dogwood, red leaves, flower buds

Red fall color and flower buds on native flowering dogwood.

Many trees develop red or burgundy fall foliage. Species native to the eastern U.S. with red fall foliage include sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum), flowering dogwood (Cornus florida), black gum (Nyssa sylvatica), red maple (Acer rubrum), sugar maple (Acer saccharum), red oaks (Quercus rubra, Q. coccinea), and white oak (Quercus alba).

Beautiful fall color lures camera-toting visitors each year to the mountains, to New England, and to the Blue Ridge Parkway. The U.S. National Park Service provides an interactive map which tracks the progression of fall color.

Red- or purple-leaved cultivars sporting this color all summer are in high demand at garden centers. But if the point of planting trees and shrubs is for wildlife, we want to be sure the plants we choose will attract them. Each plant species has a particular menu of chemical compounds in their tissues that either attract or repel insects and animals. Organisms evolved a tolerance for these compounds…or they didn’t!

Purple and red leaves often repel insects due to their high levels of anthocyanins, the red pigments in the foliage. So, that defeats the purpose, doesn’t it? Not necessarily; these trees might have had green leaves that hosted insects before leaves turned red. Or insects simply tolerate the red pigments.

Oak trees support huge numbers of insects, birds, and mammals at various times during the year. This one genus, Quercus, hosts hundreds of species of moths and butterflies, although they often turn red in the fall.

Before planting a cultivar that stays red all season, though, find out if insects, such as mature caterpillars, will eat the leaves. This indicates that it could host insects for their entire life cycle. If all the larvae are tiny, however, when some larger individuals are expected, most might have crawled off to greener pastures.

If bees spend time working a flower and don’t fly off immediately after landing, that plant could be a good choice. Similarly, holes in the leaves indicate that the plant can host insects. Resources at the local university’s entomology department or botanical garden might have information that could help you choose plants that support wildlife.

The Untold Story

I’ve been packing the past couple of weeks, preparing to move to a rural location in northern North Carolina. I took a break from the work and sat on the deck, listening to the birds and insects.

One of those sounds was the hum of an approaching ruby-throated hummingbird, the only species summering in this area. Four feet away, and less than 4″ long, this tiny bird landed on a twig of the potted native dogwood tree, sitting right next to me. He then hovered near the flower buds (photo, above, with last year’s fall color), and I could see his tongue working the buds, one after another. These buds are tightly closed, yet he found something worth gathering, despite the presence of other flowers nearby.

Within a minute, another hummingbird arrived for the same reason, apparently. The two tiny birds fought for feeding rights, and the second one flew away after some impressive aerial maneuvering among the twigs. The first hummingbird continued searching for hidden sustenance held inside those buds. I’ve never seen this behavior.

My point is this: there’s much about the natural world that remains unobserved—a mystery to us—perhaps lending more credibility to the importance of using native plants in our gardens. (This section added 10/6/21.)

Deciduous Trees For the Eastern U.S.

Here’s a partial list of native and non-native trees that support wildlife. Large deciduous shrubs can substitute for trees in smaller spaces. Many other species might suit your purpose, so visit a few nurseries to see what’s available.

Most trees are sold in large plastic nursery pots, although you might also see freshly dug trees with their roots wrapped in burlap (“b&b”, or balled and burlapped).

American hop hornbeam (Ostrya)
basswood (Tilia)
birch (Betula)
black gum (Nyssa)
Carolina silverbell (Halesia)
chaste tree (Vitex)
cherry and plum (Prunus)
crabapple (Malus)
crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia)
dogwood (Cornus)
franklin tree (Franklinia)
fringe tree (Chionanthus)
hornbeam (Carpinus)
magnolia (Magnolia)
maple (Acer)
oak (Quercus)
poplar, cottonwood (Populus)
redbud (Cercis)
serviceberry (Amelanchier)
sourwood (Oxydendrum)
willow (Salix)
winterberry (Ilex verticillata)
witch hazel (Hamamelis)

Native red maple can have yellow, orange, or red fall color.

Most of the trees listed above have small- or medium-sized species or varieties. Compare suitability of native and non-native species within the genus. The familiar weeping willow, for example, is non-native and quite messy in the landscape. But smaller native willows behave better and host a large number of moths and butterflies.

Research disease resistance, flowers for pollinators, fruits for animals, sun or shade preferences, and soil types. Consider planting species that drop excessive amounts of fruit, acorns, or seedpods farther from the house and paved surfaces.

Also look into the tree’s habit of growth. A specimen with horizontal branches softens the strong vertical lines of a house. Pay close attention to utility poles and wires. Don’t plant trees near them that the utility company will butcher in future years.

Trees with invasive surface roots should be reserved for areas far from structures, pipes, and vegetable gardens. Find out from your town how close to the street or the property line you’re permitted to plant trees. Don’t forget to call 8-1-1 to locate underground utilities before digging.

Chionanthus, the fringe tree (photo, below), is a beautiful bloomer for gardens. This multi-stem plant has 2 species commonly available (C. virginicus, C. retusus), one native and the other from Asia. Male plants have larger flowers, but females set deep blue fruits for birds. The plants, however, are rarely sexed at the nursery.

Fringe tree.

The Hollies

Gardeners have used hollies in gardens for centuries. We can choose among deciduous and evergreen species.

The hollies (Ilex spp.) are another genus of primarily dioecious (Latin for “two houses”) plants that fruit on female plants. They ordinarily require a male plant, or pollenizer, to set fruit, although holly pollenizers (the males) themselves do not set fruit. Modern breeding techniques have yielded several cultivars that can make berries without pollination.

Ask your nursery salesperson for specifics regarding the need for pollenizers and how close they should be planted to female hollies. Choose the male hollies carefully; they must be closely related to the female holly and bloom at the same time. Incidentally, holly flowers are often nicely fragrant, and the bees love them! Just don’t shear them off after the buds have formed. Pruning should be minimal if you want flowers and fruits. And bees.

The Curious Case of Crape Myrtle

The Imperial moth.

Lagerstroemia indica is an extremely popular landscape tree or shrub in USDA zones 7-9. Crape myrtle, from China and Korea, was first introduced to the southeastern U.S. over 200 years ago. Adapting readily to our hot, humid summers and sometimes drought, it blooms for months despite the adversity.

What makes this non-native plant peculiar is a native moth’s preference for its leaves even when offered a multitude of its local favorites. Last year, I raised caterpillars of the huge Imperial moth. They went for the crape myrtle every time, ignoring all the others. Unless female moths instinctively target this species to host their young, the caterpillars will not likely eat these trees to the bone any time soon.

Several songbirds, including American goldfinches and juncos, feed on the seedpods.

Evergreens

You might prefer an evergreen specimen instead of a tree that drops its leaves in autumn. Look into arborvitae, chamaecyparis, hemlock, certain holly species, juniper, pine, rhododendron, spruce, and yew. Consider the shade evergreens will cast in winter, and whether sunlight might be blocked from entering windows or melting ice on the driveway.

Although not all evergreens are native to this part of the country, they make suitable nesting places and provide shelter in inclement weather. A dense border of evergreens can block fierce winter wind for a considerable distance downwind.

Soon after moving into the Maryland house in the 1980’s, I planted a chamaecyparis with deep green whorled foliage. Although it was supposed to get only 6′ tall according to the nursery, it grew to about 20′, when it was cut down by the people who bought the house from me. I left it in the front yard because birds raised a few families among its evergreen branches every year. And it looked gorgeous in the snow.

Chamaecyparis on the right, after 2010 blizzard. Sourwood on the left.

Good Looks

If you’re landscaping purely for aesthetics, plant a tree with characteristics that appeal to you. It’s your property, after all. Besides, all trees provide cover and nesting opportunities, even if they’re passed up by caterpillars.

Perhaps elsewhere you could grow perennials that offer food to wildlife. Planting a bed of milkweeds among the shrubs, for example, will help the monarch butterflies (photo, below).

While you might not consider insects important in your landscape, and, in fact, have invested considerable time and expense eradicating them, they are primary links in the food chain. A healthy landscape hosts a complex assortment of insects and animals. And with the rate at which natural habitats are losing out to development, it’s no wonder we see fewer ladybugs, butterflies, and songbirds in our neighborhoods.

Creating welcoming landscapes provides resting places for migrating birds. But they need natural corridors all along their path in order to find food and perching opportunities. We can help by planting at least part of our property with them in mind—every one of us! Provide food, water, and trees to rest in, and you might catch a glimpse of a bird you’ve never seen before.

I urge you to adopt a new attitude toward welcoming wildlife. You don’t need 10 acres to make a difference. A well-planted fraction of an acre will encourage many kinds of insects and animals to reside there. If you let them eat your plants and the sprayer hasn’t been used once this year, well done!

Monarch Butterfly Laying An Egg - Chesna / Pixabay

Monarch butterfly on milkweed.

Before Planting Trees

Let’s imagine a 2-story house and an appropriately proportional medium-sized tree. Your landscape plan calls for locating this tree off the southwest corner in the front of the house.

To prevent branches from rubbing against the siding in the future, you’ll want to plant the tree far enough from the house. Divide the mature spread of the tree by 2. Because plants tend to grow larger than the dimensions printed on the label, add a few feet to the measurement. So, a tree with a mature spread of 25-30′ should be planted 15′ or more from the corner.

While that little tree might look lonely out there, it will grow. Maybe that’s the extent of your garden project this fall. Or perhaps you’d like to develop a full garden on that side of the house with an underplanting of shrubs, perennials, and ground covers.

Walking a pathway through the garden to the side yard will feel like a walk through a park. This is a good solution where space is limited between your house and the neighbor’s. Consider your neighbor, though, and don’t plant too close to the property line. Perhaps the two of you could create an appealing garden that fills the space between both houses.

But first, it’s soil prep…please turn to page 2…

Headings:

Page 1: Are You Ready To Plant Trees?, Native Plants vs. the Non-Natives (The Benefits of Native Species, Native Species and Nativars, Red Leaves and Wildlife, The Untold Story), Deciduous Trees For the Eastern U.S. (The Hollies, The Curious Case of Crape Myrtle, Evergreens), Good Looks, and Before Planting Trees

Page 2: Soil Preparation For Trees (Slope, Outline the Bed, Heavy Clay, “How Deep?”, Adding Amendments, Organic Matter, and Time To Plant Trees (Trees In Pots, B&B Trees, Backfill, Edge, Mulch, And Water)

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How To Get Healthy? Start With More Greens!

Jun14

2020

Tomatoes, A Tribute to My Mother, Takotsubo, and A Tactic Called “Just One Leaf”

Open any food or garden section in print or online sites, and you’ll see articles on the benefits of eating healthy greens and colorful foods. Today, I’ll show how you can start adding leafy greens to your diet without being terribly inconvenienced. And I’ll mention how it might have saved my life.

How exciting—the first two ripe tomatoes of the season came off the vine this morning. And there’s some beautiful ‘Genovese’ basil begging to be picked. So, you can guess what’s for dinner tonight:

Tomato-Basil Salad!

It’s so easy to prepare:

ripe tomatoes, cut into chunks, including the juice
freshly picked sweet basil
cucumber, cubed or sliced
thinly sliced onion
mozzarella cheese
Italian oregano
extra virgin olive oil
red wine vinegar
salt and pepper

Mix it all together, and enjoy with some good bread for dunking (optional). This salad hits the spot when it’s hot, for one person or for a crowd.

But First, A Tribute To My Mother

My mother and I have lived together for the past 7 1/2 years. Many of the ripe tomatoes from the garden ended up in tomato-basil salad, a summertime staple for this family of Italian descent. How we loved our eggplant parmigiana, vegetarian lasagna, manicotti, and stuffed artichokes! How we loved to eat! In so many of our memories growing up and growing older—the holidays with family, sitting around the table for hours—good food always featured prominently.

Early last month, I had notified my family that there wasn’t much time left for Mother. So, my siblings prepared for a visit, and my sister sent an early Mother’s Day bouquet of white roses, purple statice, and baby’s breath—very much appreciated.

One brother came from out of town and spent the day with us, recalling some of the funnier family moments. We had ravioli and Easy Broccoli One for dinner. I’m a firm believer in the health-giving powers of broccoli, so I prepared it one way or another quite often. I’ve joked before about broccoli being Mother’s “favorite”, and she did too. “Oh, what a surprise—broccoli … … thank you…” She ate well that evening, better than any day in recent months.

But, the next morning, her time had come. She passed quickly and peacefully while I spoke to her and with 9-1-1. A friend said that the sense of hearing is the last to go, which gives some consolation, knowing she might have heard me.

“Don’t Forget To Watch Bob Ross”

My mother lived for 95 years, leaving behind a brood of 4 children, 11 grandchildren, and 8 great-grandchildren. Photographs of family reunions, grandkids, and the great-grandchildren sat in a neat pile within reach of her favorite chair. Mother often lamented the fact that the family had scattered all over the country and couldn’t get together more often for the holidays.

She enjoyed driving her little Toyota, running errands nearby, right up until early last year. Have Rollator, will travel! When speaking with friends on the phone, her humorous references to the “joys” of growing old brought a smile to my face. Humor is the best medicine.

She was an artist, as a few relatives are and were, and I’m inclined to pick up the brush myself and give it a whirl (photo, above—a detail from one of her paintings). I don’t have to wonder very long where this stubborn streak of independence or rebelliousness came from…or my love of animals and of all nature. So, maybe some of her talents run through my veins as well. I hope so. Sure, we had occasional disagreements, but the foundation of our commitment to family was unshaken.

Stress, Nevertheless

People often speak of “a good death”, and, in all honesty, we could not have asked for a more peaceful departure. The next few days, though, taught me that the body reacts to experiences differently than the brain does. While my brain thought I was handling this major event quite calmly, my body had a different opinion.

Soon after Mother had died, the four of us siblings got together, telling stories while dividing those belongings she had gathered—and loved—for nearly a century. Whether it was the distress of a misplaced ring or the stress of her passing, I ended up in the hospital three days later.

With Covid concerns at the time, I drove myself to the emergency room, with moderate chest pain. My mother had had serious heart disease for a few decades but was able to function fairly normally with assistance from her medications and her cardiologist. But I had to wonder: is it my turn? My blood pressure had soared to a dangerous level, so I was admitted.

After several tests over the next two days, the doctors did not find any “separation of the layers” or blockages in my coronary arteries, and the valves were working as they should. But my blood pressure stayed very high. Blood tests also showed the presence of those markers when the heart has been impaired.

One consequence of blood pressure this high could be stroke, and my release from the hospital was contingent upon healthier numbers. A few medications attempted to normalize the readings, and one in particular did an astonishingly good job of lowering those numbers to 79/51. Won’t be taking that one again! (It was hydralazine.)

Takotsubo Two!

Almost 4 years previously, I woke at 4:00 in the morning with a stabbing pain in the center of my chest. Considering our family history, I thought it could have been a heart attack. The ambulance came, the EMT recorded my blood pressure at 275/135, and off to the hospital I went.

The usual tests were performed, and a cardiologist administered a catheterization to trace the blood flow in and around my heart. The score: although I was lightly sedated, his words indicating that I had “the arteries of a 20-year-old” were music to my ears. After decades of being more than careful with diet, I wondered if I had needlessly missed out on all those BLT’s, pasta, and toffee cookies.

On the day of discharge from the hospital, another cardiologist explained what happened. He said one of the lower chambers of the heart (the left ventricle) had ballooned out, giving it an odd outline. Good news—I would fully recover but would experience fatigue for a few months. He and a dietician recommended continuing with a diet heavy in healthy leafy greens and losing some weight.

What’s Takotsubo?

That’s when I first heard the term “Takotsubo”. This Japanese word means “octopus pot”, a reference to the interior shape of the affected ventricle. The syndrome was first described in Japan in 1990. More than 90% of the cases involve women, aged 58 to 75 (check, and check).

So, it happened again. This time, though, stress was very much the precipitating cause. Often called “broken heart syndrome” or “stress-induced cardiomyopathy”, a sudden life-changing event, such as the loss of a loved one, winning a lottery, being assaulted, or a car accident, can trigger Takotsubo syndrome. Most cases are due to a stressor, but around one-fourth occur for no discernible reason.

The ring, by the way, was found after my return from the hospital.

Add Just a Little More Green

Greens from the garden: green onion, mustard greens, dinosaur kale, arugula, ‘Red Russian’ kale.

I’m not a nutritionist. All I know is what I’ve read or heard over the years and observed from family members. The purpose for writing this article is simply to credit how changing my diet many years ago might have prevented a stroke or a heart attack, possibly saving my life during these two bouts with Takotsubo. (Even though the death rate from this condition is fairly low, other contributing factors and our family history concerned me.) You, too, might decide to make some improvements in your own family’s habits.

Take from it what you want—and take heart—this doesn’t have to happen overnight. I encourage you not to wait, however, until after you’ve gotten your first stent to make some changes. We did eat pretty well growing up. But, in retrospect, we consumed more carbohydrates than is currently considered healthy, and certainly fewer healthy greens.

Simply adding fresh leafy greens to soup, a smoothie, sauces, salads, a stir-fry, store-bought pizza, or rice and pasta dishes is a great step toward a healthier future. Grocery stores offer a much wider variety of greens than they did decades ago.

Growing your own plants from seed opens up so many more options. And you can’t beat the convenience of walking a few feet out the kitchen door to pick fresh healthy greens for today’s omelet or soup. Many of them can be grown in pots on the deck or the balcony if you don’t have garden space.

At the end of this article is a list of links to posts I’ve written about growing and using greens. You’ll notice the frequency with which I refer to “the brassicas” (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale, etc.), the source of the most beneficial and densely packed nutrients.

Try this: a simple egg salad sandwich, on rye, made with one hard-boiled egg, mayonnaise, green olives, chopped dinosaur kale (a brassica, and super healthy), and topped with lettuce. Add chopped onion, if you like. No salt needed. I usually serve it on a bed of lettuce or mixed greens, without the bread. You can do the same with tuna or chicken salad. Adding “Just One Leaf” of kale significantly elevated the nutritional value.

Greens In Small Steps

Easing into dietary improvements by making small changes might meet with less resistance from your family. Perhaps starting a garden and letting the kids participate will get them engaged.

Children who help care for a garden are more likely to eat what they harvest. Start with easy crops, such as dinosaur or ‘Red Russian’ kale, collards, lettuce, a cherry tomato, Swiss chard, and radishes. Mustard greens are colorful and fast-growing—‘Florida Broadleaf’ has mild mustard flavor (and it self-seeds), while ‘Scarlet Frills’ offers a spark of heat and spice. These are easily grown from seed.

nasturtium 'Alaska', edible flowers and greens

Nasturtium ‘Alaska’, easy from seed, needs darkness for germination.

If your garden has good, rock-free soil, sow a pack of carrot seeds, and thin them properly. You’ll find traditional orange carrots and also nearly white, yellow, red, and purple varieties. ‘Rainbow’ is a blend of colors. Watch how excited your children will be when they harvest their buried treasure! Try growing ‘Adelaide’, a miniature carrot, in 6″ pots. Delicious, and so cute.

A customer at the farmers’ market in Rockville MD added chopped ‘Alaska’ nasturtium flowers and leaves to his grilled hamburgers. Each bite revealed a different combination of colors. Every year, he came to the market for his “burger-fetti” nasturtiums. Look for ways to introduce greens and colors at mealtime to make it fun.

Just One Leaf

As the first bits of greens have been accepted, keep adding more leafy greens (Just One Leaf or two at a time) and cutting down on some of the carbohydrates and animal proteins. Get creative in the kitchen. Soon, you’ll notice a boost in energy and might reach for a handful of nuts and a cup of green tea for a mid-afternoon snack, packed with vitamins and minerals, fiber, phytonutrients, and protein, instead of a chocolate doughnut.

Unless it’s absolutely necessary, I never peel fruits and vegetables. The skins have more antioxidants, fiber, and vitamins than the flesh. So, I don’t peel apples, peaches, carrots, cucumbers (some are less bitter, such as ‘Diva’), eggplants, sweet/white/pigmented potatoes, tomatoes, or zucchini.

But I Miss My…

Once in a while, it’s perfectly okay to indulge in an ice cream sundae or Christmas cookies. But you might find that the desire for such decadent treats decreases as your interest in healthy foods increases. Sugar is addictive!

Over time, adding healthy greens to the spaghetti sauce, a stir-fry, or the morning smoothie will become second nature. Not doing so might make you feel as though you’re missing out.

Eat Your Colors

red and yellow peppers, with healthy pigments

Ripe sweet bell peppers.

You’ll discover a new appreciation for incorporating colorful greens and vegetables into your salads. Deep green, purple, red, orange, and yellow pigments are filled with healthy antioxidants and other nutrients.

These plant pigments help prevent many major illnesses, including cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, age-related macular degeneration, inflammation, premature aging, and other disorders. Understand that they will help prevent illness. Do your best to eliminate other risk factors, too, and you know what they are.

Ask your doctor if you have any dietary concerns. While it is true that spinach, Swiss Chard, and beet greens (in the Amaranthaceae family) are high in oxalates, we need to examine the relationship between oxalate content and kidney stones. Some nutritionists believe that including more meat in the diet lowers the blood pH level, while a primarily plant-based diet raises the pH and lowers the incidence of kidney stones. Kale, incidentally, has extremely low levels of oxalates.

Another issue is how eating large amounts of certain raw brassicas can affect the thyroid gland, so, again, ask your doctor.

Add these to your salad and you’ll soon say good-bye to pale iceberg wedges:

deep green and red lettuces
purplish ‘Red Russian’ or blue-gray dinosaur kale (brassica)
baby beet greens (more nutrients than the roots)
turnip greens (brassica)
arugula (brassica)
spinach
Swiss chard
radish (brassica)
shredded red cabbage (brassica)
Asian greens, such as tatsoi, mustard, mizuna, napa cabbage, ‘Tokyo Bekana’ (brassicas)
broccoli leaves, or stems and small heads of ‘Happy Rich’ (brassica)
purple and orange carrots (heated carrots have more available antioxidants)
ripe lunchbox sweet pepper (red, orange, yellow; orange bell peppers are extremely high in zeaxanthin, an antioxidant that’s good for the eyes)
tomato, cucumber, green onion, celery, cooked button mushrooms, lightly roasted pecans, feta or bleu cheese, fresh basil, avocado, a hard-boiled egg, kalamata olives
and a simple homemade dressing: extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, water, fresh minced garlic, some herbs (small amounts of Italian oregano, and maybe thyme and sweet marjoram) and lemon if you like, some Dijon mustard, and salt and pepper

Colorful lettuces.

Headings

Page 1: Tomato-Basil Salad, But First, A Tribute To My Mother (Stress, Nevertheless, Takotsubo Two!), Add Just a Little More Green (Greens In Small Steps, Just One Leaf, But I Miss My…), Eat Your Colors, and Add these to your salad…

Page 2: The Veggie Omelet With Greens (Juice?, Or Cereal?), How It All Began (Close To Home, The Food Pyramid), But How Safe Are the Complex Carbs? (The Insulin Response, Too Many Carbs), In Conclusion, and Links

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Pages: 1 2

This Is Why Fall Color Happens

Nov14

One of the most phenomenal transformations in nature occurs in autumn when leaves take on fall color.

Deciduous tree canopies change from shades of green to the reds, oranges, yellows, browns, and purples associated with this time of year. A drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway, or even a glimpse out the window to the Japanese maple in the courtyard, elicits feelings of delight and wonder.

Equal to the spectacle unfolding in front of us, as we watch colors brighten from day to day, is the curiosity for an explanation. Why does fall color happen?

Plant Pigments and Fall Color

Looking up in Lincolnton NC.

It all starts with plant pigments, which give leaves their color.

Sandwiched between a leaf’s upper epidermis and the lower epidermis is a layer of cells called the mesophyll. The mesophyll is composed of the upright cells of the palisade layer, near the surface of a leaf, and the more loosely arranged spongy mesophyll. Both kinds of cells within the mesophyll contain chloroplasts, with chlorophylls “a” and “b”. Also present within the leaf is a network of vascular tubes—phloem and xylem—which carry water and nutrients between the leaves and the roots.

These chlorophylls absorb wavelengths from different parts of the spectrum. Chlorophyll a absorbs violet-blue and orange-red wavelengths, and chlorophyll b absorbs blue light. All plants have “a” but not all plants have “b”. In lower light levels, “b” more efficiently absorbs energy from available light and transfers that energy to “a”.

In autumn, as chlorophyll degrades into transparent compounds, the carotenoids become the dominant colors. Those pigments were there all along, but the green chlorophyll masked them. We don’t see the oranges and the yellows until the greens begin to die down.

Spring foliage on maple tree in the woods.

Chlorophyll

Oak leaves, at Mabry Mill, Meadows of Dan, VA (2020).

The green pigment is the familiar chlorophyll. We see it every day as plants grow and produce foliage. Chlorophyll, contained within a cell’s chloroplast, is responsible for manufacturing sugars during photosynthesis. Carbohydrates, made from oxygen and hydrogen in water, and carbon from carbon dioxide, permit growth and development of the plant. Chlorophyll is continually depleted and replenished throughout the season.

We see green leaves because most of the green wavelengths in light are not absorbed but are reflected instead. Chlorophyll pigments absorb primarily red and blue wavelengths.

Changes occur in late summer as days shorten and temperatures drop. Cells at the base of the leaf’s petiole, where it attaches to the stem, begin to cut off the vascular system. Water and nutrients no longer move freely between the leaves and the stems. Production of new chlorophyll stops, revealing the yellows and oranges. Sometimes the leaf veins are the last parts to change color and remain green as the rest of the leaf turns color (photo, above).

Carotenes and Xanthophylls

yellow fall color, maple in charlotte nc

A maple tree in Charlotte NC.

Carotenoids are composed of xanthophylls and carotenes. These are the yellow, orange, and brown shades seen in plants and animals—daffodils, corn, buttercups, bananas…and canaries, egg yolks, shrimp, fish, and flamingos. These pigments absorb wavelengths from the blue and some of the green parts of the light spectrum, which chlorophyll can’t absorb efficiently.

Xanthophylls and carotenes protect foliage from oxidative stress (cell damage) during photosynthesis. When the tree is exposed to strong sun, carotenoids absorb excess energy from excited chlorophyll molecules and release it as heat. In autumn, carotenes protect leaves as the nutrients are withdrawn from the leaves to the stems. The tree will re-use these nutrients when new foliage emerges in spring.

Beta-carotene, lycopene, lutein, and zeaxanthin are more carotenoids, present in leafy greens, fruits, and vegetables. These pigments are good for plants and for us, too—in squash, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, colorful ripe peppers, carrots, oranges, apricots, and grapefruit.

Between 15 and 30% of tree species have yellow or orange fall color. Trees that turn these colors include hickory, ash, redbud, yellow poplar, birch, aspen, black cherry, sycamore, maple, fringe tree, cottonwood, sassafras, Parrotia, pomegranate, alder, ginkgo, witch hazel, and Katsura.

Lincolnton NC.

Red twig dogwood ‘Arctic Fire’ and yellow-twig dogwood ‘Flaviramea’ stems turn color in cold weather and good sun. Cut back the plants in late winter, almost to the ground, to encourage a multitude of young twigs that will take on color later that fall.

Brown is often the color of cell walls and can appear in the absence of other pigments. Sometimes, leaves turn brown without turning color as a result of an early freeze. A Japanese maple that normally turns red in autumn, for example, can turn brown when the temperature suddenly plummets. Also, a tree that has been cut down in late summer or fall will turn brown instead of displaying its usual fall color. More on that later, under marcescence.

Anthocyanins

Fall color of crape myrtle, Cane Creek Park, Waxhaw NC.

What about the red colors? Unlike the yellows and oranges, the red pigments, called anthocyanins, are produced in the sap when sugars break down in bright light.

This happens after some of the chlorophyll has degraded in autumn and as phosphate levels decrease. Phosphates break down sugars manufactured by chlorophyll in the summer in order to carry out cell activities. However, in the fall, phosphates and other nutrients move from the leaves to the stems.

You might notice that in some years, the red colors are more vibrant than in other years. Rich red colors are visible when anthocyanins are produced in greater quantities. Bright sunny days and cool but not freezing temperatures foster the blazing displays we look forward to each year.

Edible berries with high levels of healthy anthocyanins.

Nutritionists encourage us to “eat all the colors” of vegetables, greens, and fruits. Anthocyanins, among the most powerful antioxidants, are found in many fruits and vegetables, including apples, cranberries, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, cherries, grapes, plums, and red lettuce.

Carotenoids can combine with anthocyanins to form deep orange, scarlet red, and bronze fall colors.

In temperate regions, about 10% of the trees turn red or burgundy. But the percentage can be as high as 70% in areas such as New England. Some plants with predominantly anthocyanin pigments include maple, oak, sweet gum, tupelo, sourwood, dogwood, cherry, and persimmon. Purple-leaved cultivars of smokebush and redbud turn deep red in autumn.

Variety Selection in Your Landscape

burgundy fall color, Japanese maple with lantern

Certain varieties of Japanese maple display great color in summer and again in autumn.

When choosing shrubs and trees for your landscape, be sure to ask the nursery about fall color. There could be several cultivars within a species, each with a different color in autumn.

Japanese maple.

Japanese maple (Acer palmatum), for example, comes in many varieties. Red-leaved cultivars of this tree seem to be the preferred choices among customers. Foliage that remains mostly red all summer will gradually deepen to a rich reddish burgundy. And then it suddenly looks as though the plant is on fire, turning bright red. On the other hand, green-leaved cultivars can be multi-colored in the fall, or rich orange, or sunny yellow. It just depends on the cultivar.

If you’re looking for a specimen tree, and fall color is a factor, visit garden centers and public gardens in autumn when the trees show fall color. Research the full botanical names (Genus, specific epithet, and ‘Cultivar’) of the varieties you like.

This is not a guarantee, however, that young potted trees will have the same fall color as established trees. Plants in nursery pots can behave differently than plants in the garden, so take that into consideration.

Fall Color Might Depend on Weather

parrotia persica, reddish fall color in snow

Parrotia persica in the snow.

Seasonal weather conditions also affect a tree’s fall color. In the Maryland garden, a Parrotia persica grew in an island bed. The leaves of this witch hazel relative often turned a bright yellow color. In other years it was amber-gold, and, more rarely, salmon-red.

Prolonged mild fall weather also affects the display. That Parrotia (photo, above) occasionally held its leaves until December. Many oak species keep their orange, russet, rich red, or brown leaves through early winter before shedding them.

Red fall color is particularly dependent upon weather conditions. In 2018, trees that normally turned brilliant red were rather dull here in Charlotte. The heavy rains, high winds, and overcast weather did not promote the production of anthocyanins.

Hormones and Abscission

Abscisic acid (ABA), produced in terminal buds, slows growth and signals the plant to produce bud scales that protect the buds over winter. ABA is also produced in the root system and is translocated to the leaves during drought in the growing season, signaling the leaves’ stomates to close. This reduces transpiration, conserving water content in the plant.

Hormones produced in leaves and in the tips of twigs influence development of the abscission layer. This layer is a few cells thick, characterized by short cells with thin walls, and sits between the base of the leaf stem (petiole) and the twig. During the growing season, higher levels of auxin regulate the influence of ethylene, two hormones, resulting in the leaves’ ability to remain attached. Auxin levels fall in autumn, however, exposing cells in the abscission layer to the effects of ethylene, which promotes leaf detachment.

Cells between the petiole and the twig are differentiated, disintegrating on the leaf end and depositing lignin and suberin on the twig side. This layer of cells is weakened, causing the leaves to fall off by their own weight or with help from wind and rain. Enzymes, such as pectinases, help the process by breaking down cell walls.

Remaining on the twig is a leaf scar, with remnants of vascular strands. Over several days, lignin (tough woody tissue) and suberin (corky bark tissue) will seal the fresh leaf scar, protecting it from infection and desiccation.

Marcescence

Beech tree.

Oaks (Quercus spp.) sometimes remain in brown leaf until early spring. Beech trees (Fagus grandifolia) can be spotted in the winter forest by their tan leaves dangling from the branches. Leaf retention through winter is called marcescence. The reason for this trait is open to speculation.

Nutrient Release

One theory claims that, by holding onto its leaves until new foliage is about to sprout, those newly fallen leaves will stay near the tree’s root system instead of blowing away in the winter winds. Since they have yet to begin decomposition, the nutrients locked inside the leaves will be released at a time when they can benefit the tree—when growth resumes in spring.

Browsing Animals

Another theory indicates that browsing animals are less likely to feed on marcescent twigs. In studies where deer were presented with both marcescent twigs and leafless twigs, they chose the leafless twigs.

Weather Abatement

Maybe the dead leaves help slow down fierce winds, protecting the buds from drying out. Even better is the accumulation of snow, as in the photograph (above) of a beech tree, decreasing exposure even more.

Another possibility is the protective shade cast by marcescent twigs on thin-barked trees, such as beech (photo, below). Large differences in temperatures, between night and day, can damage tissues on the south or southwest side of the trunk. Frost cracks and sun scald can be minimized when the trunk is partially shaded by brown leaves during the warm hours of the day.

If cracks occur, callus tissue will seal them, and healthy bark will compartmentalize the wound. There’s no need to paint it with “wound sealer” products. And never fill the cracks or hollows with concrete or dump rocks and debris at the base of a tree!

When a severe early frost suddenly kills a tree’s foliage, the abscission layer would not have had enough time to mature. Consequently, leaves can cling until those cellular changes occur. Young oak trees might exhibit this feature, but it often disappears with maturity. Sometimes only parts of the tree have leaves that cling.

You might have noticed that trees felled in the summer often hold onto their brown leaves.

Beech tree in winter, Charlotte NC.

Why Do Leaves Fall Off?

For a plant to keep its leaves all year long, resources would have to be consumed at a time when they are less efficiently gathered. When light levels are less than optimal, and cold temperatures suppress metabolic processes, it’s easier for the plant to reabsorb nutrients and drop leaves. Water loss, insect predation, foraging animals, and damage from ice, snow, and high winds are some reasons why it just isn’t worth staying in leaf through the winter. The cost is too great.

Pine tree with aging needles.

Conifers, on the other hand, have adapted to those conditions, and are able to photosynthesize all year. But they do slow down in cold weather. And the sticky sap in some species (pines, spruce, fir, and others) effectively fends off animals and most insects.

Evergreens drop some of their foliage each year; needles don’t cling forever. Some homeowners are alarmed when they see a large percentage of brown needles fall to the ground. That’s normal, as long as the tips of the stems remain green. A pine needle carpet is an effective mulch.

Protective Red Fall Color

Scientists have long speculated on the merits of anthocyanins—the red and purple pigments. Those adhering to the Photoprotection Theory claim that anthocyanins protect leaves from harmful effects of light. This pigment also helps the tree absorb nutrients more efficiently in cooler conditions, before leaf drop.

‘Miz America’ mustard greens and other brassicas.

Coevolution Theory claims that insects avoid feeding on leaves high in anthocyanins. The red fall foliage color signals them to stay away, but red berries signal birds to come and feast. (***Update***: Growing many flats of colorful fall greens illustrates this point. Among brassicas [mustard, kale, broccoli, cabbage], the deep reddish burgundy ‘Miz America’, one of the mustard greens, is entirely free of damage from caterpillars that ravage green varieties in this group. 10/7/2022)

Dogwood trees, hollies, barberry, and pyracantha have red berries that attract birds. After consuming them, the animals help distribute the seeds. Poison ivy has whitish berries that birds eat, but its foliage is fiery red, signaling birds to come around.

fall color in red berries of winterberry

Fall color in berries of a dwarf winterberry, Ilex verticillata, at Freedom Park, Charlotte NC.

Red colors in some species of maple trees are produced by a different metabolic process than through chlorophyll breakdown. These anthocyanins aid in preventing competition with the tree’s own offspring by stunting the growth of saplings trying to grow nearby. This is one type of allelopathy.

**But Only Part of the Tree is Turning Color**

You might have noticed that a portion of a tree is prematurely turning color while the rest of the tree is still green. I’m not referring to an even coloring at the ends of branches, but rather to the one branch that is conspicuously different in color from the rest of the canopy. That branch is stressed…

on the side of the tree where the roots are exposed to hot sun and poor, dry soil, such as on a south-facing slope (northern hemisphere).
from root compaction.
due to root disturbance, from working in the soil under the tree, severing roots.
because it’s heavily shaded and not contributing to photosynthesis.
from the tree being coppiced, or cut back to the ground. As several stems regrow, the dominant ones interfere with the others. Weaker stems will show early color and die.
due to girdling roots. Maple trees are notorious for this. Look for and sever a root that crosses over the base of the trunk. The trunk will try to grow over the root, but could end up being constricted. Look up from that point, and you might see branches that are developing early fall color. One indication of a girdling root is the absence of an even flare all around the base of the tree. One side of the trunk will look flat where it enters the ground.
from clotheslines, hammock ropes, or other items tied around the trunk or branches, eventually girdling the stem.
where lightning or physical damage stripped bark off the side of a trunk, killing parts of the tree above the damage which no longer receive water and nutrients.
from insects and diseases causing disruption in the flow of water and nutrients, affecting parts or all of the tree canopy. This can happen at the base of a leaf, a twig or branch, in the trunk, or in the roots.

Fall Color and Species Distribution

Red fall color in a maple tree, Lincolnton NC.

Some parts of the world are known for their fall color. Southern Canada, parts of the northern U.S., Scandinavia, northern and western regions of Europe north of the Alps, the Russian Caucasus region, Japan, parts of China, the Korean peninsula, Argentina, Chile, southern Brazil, and New Zealand’s South Island are some.

Certainly, there are pockets in millions of places around the world with absolutely dazzling fall displays! One option is to create your own by including in your landscape a few specimens with spectacular fall color.

In this country, changes in color begin as early as September in the higher elevations of the Rocky Mountains, far north Minnesota, and upper New England (far north New York state, Vermont, New Hampshire, and southwest Maine). Southern states, part of the Atlantic coast, and the California interior between mountain ranges begin their autumn displays in November. Check out this map, where you can see how fall color progresses throughout the country.

Speaking of Cold

North America is home to a diverse habitat of 800 species of trees, including 70 oaks. Northern Europe has fewer—51 species, 3 or which are oaks. These numbers do not include cultivars of the species. One thing scientists can agree on: they can’t agree on the number of tree species inhabiting the planet. Some say the number is 10,000, and others estimate over 100,000 species.

During the Ice Ages, North American tree species in southern regions and along the north-south mountain ranges were spared extinction caused by glaciers. As glaciers expanded from the north, trees were able to find refuge farther south of their original range. This took place over thousands of years. The last Ice Age occurred from 18,000 years ago to approximately 12,000 years ago.

However, in Europe, glaciers covered a larger area of land. The Alps acted as a massive barrier to species trying to retreat toward southern latitudes. Those trees were cornered, and then covered up by mile-thick sheets of ice, causing mass extinctions. This explains the disparity in the number of tree species between North America and Europe.

At the height of the last Ice Age, about 18,000 years ago, glacial ice covered one third of the planet’s land surface. Today, about 10% of the land is covered by ice.

Fall color is nature’s last hurrah of the season.

I hope you’ll consider planting trees and shrubs that have brilliant autumn color. If you’re not planning to do any landscaping, you can still enjoy the colors of autumn by visiting parks and public gardens, or by taking a leisurely stroll through the neighborhood. Maybe it’s time for a road trip. Don’t forget the camera!

Love it.

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How To Grow the Best Blueberry Plants

Jul7

Planting a Blueberry Patch?

July is National Blueberry Month, but it’s a rare day when I don’t consume blueberries. For many years, breakfast 5 or 6 days per week consisted of plain Cheerios, a handful of English walnuts, a handful of fresh strawberries, and a handful of fresh blueberries. Throw in half a nectarine or peach in season, or part of a banana, and I’m “doin’ the body good”. More fruit and nut than anything else.

Today is Day One

Until today. This morning, when I was researching nutritional information on the luscious little berry, I read the caution about eating blueberries and dairy, especially high-fat dairy, at the same time. The super-healthy antioxidants found in blueberries (strawberries, too) lose their desired effect when dairy and berries are eaten together.

Eating a lot more blueberries will increase the level of antioxidant activity, even in the presence of dairy. Apparently, this goes for strawberries as well. But this can get expensive, especially when berries are out of season.

So, all of you smoothie drinkers out there who use yogurt as a base might consider saving the blueberries until a few hours later. Or skip the yogurt. And today, the blueberry partnership comes to an end in my kitchen. At breakfast, anyway.

Blueberry Nutrients

A few berries in the bowl won’t hurt, and they certainly have other healthful reasons for including them. A ½-cup serving contains:

40 calories
1 g. protein
<1 g. fat
11 g. carbohydrate
7 g. sugars (blueberries have a low glycemic index of 53)
2 g. fiber
high amounts of vitamins A, C, K (blood clotting, bone health, heart health), and the mineral, manganese

But it’s the antioxidant benefit I’m after more than anything else. Blueberries contain huge numbers of antioxidants, including the flavonols, quercetin (linked to lower blood pressure and reduced heart disease) and myricetin (cancer, diabetes).

Anthocyanins include malvidin and delphinidin, found predominantly in the blueberry skins.

What Antioxidants Do

Blueberries have the highest antioxidant levels among commonly found fruits and vegetables—when they’re not eaten with dairy products. Anthocyanins are one group of antioxidants, the pigments that give red, blue, and purple fruits and vegetables their colors.

Antioxidants are health-promoting flavonoids belonging to a huge group of polyphenols. They circulate through our vascular system and help protect us from the damaging effects of free radicals. Those free radicals are produced as normal products of metabolism. They also help prevent free radical cell damage due to exposure to alcohol, cigarette smoke, and other pollutants.

A free radical, lacking an electron or two in the molecule’s outer orbit, is unstable as it tries to steal an electron from a nearby molecule, replicating the instability. This can lead to the development of cancerous cells if it happens in DNA. Antioxidants neutralize the unstable molecules.

More Benefits

In addition to helping prevent oxidative DNA damage, potentially leading to cancer, and slowing down the aging process by 2½ years, antioxidants in blueberries are also linked to lower LDL cholesterol, the “bad” cholesterol that can lead to heart disease. But there are many other factors that contribute to this illness. One of those factors is inflammation, and blueberries—you guessed it—are also anti-inflammatory.

Many studies point to the positive effects blueberries have on blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, urinary tract infections, brain function, and muscle damage after strenuous workouts. Antioxidants help our bodies produce more nitric oxide and can relax blood vessels, helping to lower blood pressure.

This little fruit also slows the progression of age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma. There are plenty of reasons to include blueberries and other colorful plant pigments in the diet.

One clue to their growing popularity is the fact that per capita blueberry consumption tripled between 2000 and 2015, to just over 3 pounds per person per year. When I move to a place with more land, planting a blueberry patch is high on the list of garden projects.

Prepare for Planting Your Blueberry

Sun

First, locate your blueberries where they’ll receive at least 6 or 7 hours of direct sunlight. In areas with hot summers, dappled shade in mid-afternoon helps prevent stress. Consider the tree canopy and how soon it might begin to cast too much shade on your blueberry garden.

For all permanent plantings, I like to give plants an excellent base to root into. The section in Soil Prep 101 for Your Vegetable Garden headed “Prepare for Soil Prep” offers details on getting started, with a few exceptions for blueberries. Blueberries, in particular, require very acidic soil.

A soil test is recommended to get an accurate reading of the soil’s fertility, pH, and tilth. Proper planting and management will reward you with perhaps 20-30 years of blueberry harvests.

Drainage

Planting mix composed primarily of pine fines.

Very dry soil is difficult to dig, so watering the area a few hours or the day before starting the process will make it easier. I usually use a sturdy garden fork for the initial dig.

Loosen the soil 15-20″ deep, and 3 or 4 times the width of the root ball. Add a cubic foot or more, depending on how bad the soil is, of partially composted pine bark chips, also called soil conditioner or pine fines (photo, above) to facilitate drainage. Don’t layer the pine fines; instead, incorporate them into the full depth of excavated soil.

If you have sandy loam to begin with, you might not need as much soil conditioner. Here in the piedmont of North Carolina, however, we have heavy, sticky clay. Clay soil holds moisture and fertility, but it requires amendments to improve the drainage.

Coarse sand (not play sand, which is too fine) is another material that can improve drainage, but it should be used in conjunction with organic matter.

Loosening the soil and adding amendments and plants raises the finished level of the bed. Take this into consideration as you sculpt the land. Blueberries need good drainage, and you want to make sure you didn’t create a berm where the water has nowhere to drain. Hire a professional gardener, if you prefer, to till and prepare the soil according to how you want it done.

If you’re planting the shrubs in a row or in a group, the plants will thank you if you dig the entire bed instead of just the area around each plant. Remember to place the tallest-growing varieties on the north side of the garden (northern hemisphere). Concentrate the peat moss and compost near the plants, but add some peat and pine fines between them as well.

Gypsum

Gypsum (calcium sulfate) can be added annually for several years to soils that are especially intractable. It works by “flocculating”, or gathering, tiny particles of clay soil into larger particles, opening up minute channels through the soil profile. The larger air pore space allows water, air, and roots to more easily penetrate the soil.

Unlike lime (no lime for blueberries!), gypsum doesn’t raise the pH of the soil. Pelleted gypsum can be incorporated into the soil at the beginning of the process and applied as a top dressing in subsequent years. Water will carry it lower into the soil.

Soil PH

Because blueberries are sensitive to high salt content, do not add mushroom compost or composted manure to the garden. Manure also can raise the pH of the soil.

Our soils in the eastern U.S. tend to be acidic, but not acidic enough for blueberries. Blueberry plants need a pH below 5.5, even as low as 4.3. Peat moss is very acidic, and blueberries love it. In addition to the pine fines, add at least one cubic foot of pre-moistened peat moss per plant. Again, thoroughly incorporate the peat with the top 12″ to 15″ of soil, breaking up the clods as much as possible.

Pockets of dry peat moss buried in soil will remain dry for a long period of time because it resists absorbing water. Clay readily absorbs water; you need to thoroughly mix the clay particles into the peat moss. Pre-moistened peat moss is easier to work with.

A moderate amount of aged compost can be incorporated into the top 6-8″ of soil. The amended soil should be at least 3 times the width of the root ball. Sure, that sounds like work, and the plants probably would survive with a lesser effort, but greater effort equals greater rewards!

Rake the area smooth.

Time to Plant Your Blueberry

Before removing the blueberry plant from its pot, water it. This will help the root ball slide out of the pot. Don’t pull the plant by the stem; this could damage the delicate root system. Avoid heavily damaging the roots of blueberries because they lack root hairs. Keep the label for each plant with the plant.

Let gravity help you. Tilt the pot almost upside-down and see if the plant comes out without too much coaxing. Be ready to catch it before it lands on the ground; stems are brittle and easily broken. If the roots still won’t let go of the pot, cut away the plastic pot with a utility knife or sharp pruners. Or use an old bread knife along the inside of the pot, separating the pot from the outside of the root ball.

Know how large the plants will grow when they reach maturity in order to gauge how far apart they should be planted. Plants often grow larger than the size indicated on labels. And to maintain the health of the foliage, spacing them farther apart assures good air circulation.

Grab Your Shovel

Hollow out a hole in the prepared garden. The depth should be almost the height of the root ball. Allowing ½” to 1″ of the root ball to protrude above the finished grade is advised.

Never cover the original root ball with new soil; doing so would suffocate the roots and damage the stem. Blueberries prosper when planted in a raised bed, ensuring good drainage and high oxygen content at the crown of the plant.

Use a cultivator to loosen some of the roots on the outside of the root ball, or score it several times with a knife, slicing shallowly from top to bottom. This light damage will stimulate the root system to quickly send out new roots.

You want to encourage the plant to grow roots away from the plant and into the amended soil instead of circling around the original root ball. Whenever you add anything into the landscape, do not dig a bowl with a smooth surface. Use a shovel to create jagged edges, which will direct growing roots into new territory.

Now plant the blueberry, backfilling with amended soil. Guide the loosened roots out into the prepared ground. Using medium pressure, firm the soil. Loosely packed soil will settle, possibly dragging the plant too deep into the ground.

First Pruning

With young plants, remove very thin twigs, crossing or damaged stems, and cut back long stems to remove most flowers. Mature plants at the nursery, grown in large pots—okay, experts still recommend pruning them, but I’ve had no problems letting them set some fruit the first year when the plants are well cared for.

Label the Blueberry Plant

For new plants, bury the label on the north side of the stem. This way, you’ll know where to find the label if you need to know the cultivar’s name. Plastic labels that are shaded will last a long time. It’s not a bad idea to take pictures or to record this information in a journal. Keep track of the plants’ names in case one or two should perish, because…

…blueberries are particular about their pollinizers—the plants that provide the pollen. So, you’ll want to know the names of plants that need to be replaced. All blueberries bear fruit, but you don’t want to create a gap in bloom cycles by guessing which varieties to buy. Ensuring an uninterrupted succession of flowers and mature pollen throughout the bloom season yields an abundant harvest of beautiful berries.

Mulch

Once all the blueberries have been planted and the soil raked smooth, apply the mulch. I prefer to use pine products, such as 4″ of pine straw or 2″ to 3″ of pine bark nuggets for blueberries. An inch of pine fines also works. Don’t apply mulch against the stems.

Avoid walking over the newly prepared garden to prevent compressing the soil.

Pine straw.

Mulch helps cool the soil and hold in moisture. It also helps prevent most weeds from growing, which compete with blueberries for moisture and nutrients. More mulch will be needed as it decomposes, but pine bark chunks can last a few years.

Shredded hardwood mulch is attractive and readily available. And it holds well on a slope, except during heavy rains. A thin layer, an inch or so, is acceptable. But too much hardwood will raise the pH of the soil. As long as you can maintain the pH that blueberries require, using a thin layer of shredded hardwood is okay. But pine straw and pine nuggets are preferred.

If the soil pH is too high, switch from shredded hardwood to pine bark nuggets. In fact, specialists recommend alternating between pine products and hardwood every several years. Changing the pH with mulch is a very slow process. So, you’ll need soil acidifier, which is available at garden centers, to lower the pH if it drifted too high.

Water

Blueberry ‘Patriot’, in a pot for several years.

If you can’t plant the blueberries right away, they might require water every day.

Water the new garden well. For the next 2 weeks, or until the plants root in, the only water available to them is the moisture held by the original root ball. Naturally, if ample rain falls while they’re rooting in, you might not need to water. Dry clay soil in the bed will steal moisture from the plant’s root ball.

If the plant was being watered daily at the nursery, it might require daily watering after planting. Large leafy plants dry fast in warm, breezy conditions. New growth on the tips of the stems visibly wilts if the roots have been damaged or if the soil is dry. Having no root hairs subjects blueberries to early wilting if moisture levels drop too low. Water immediately, or those tender new leaves will turn brown.

Direct water from the hose over the original root ball. Feel the water first, to make sure it’s not hot. Give each plant at least 3 gallons of water, more for larger specimens. Water the soil a few inches beyond the root system to encourage new roots to grow toward the moisture. Monitor soil moisture levels for the first growing season.

Tap water has a high pH, so regularly irrigated soil will require acidifying.

How Are They Looking?

Do they wilt every day although you water every day or two? Water deeply so that the entire root system is moistened. Shallow watering might satisfy roots near the surface, while those deep in the soil remain dry. As new roots grow into the soil, water more widely around the plants. The original root ball often resists absorbing moisture if it has gone too dry. That’s why we recommend pre-moistening peat moss and watering the potted plant before planting.

Overwatering also can cause wilt. Don’t overdo it. Too much water in clay soil prevents air from reaching the roots. Essentially, they drown. An overwatered plant is less likely to recover. I can’t over-emphasize the importance of good drainage… and that means amending clay soil.

Excessive root injury sustained when planting will cause the plants to wilt. You might need to lightly shade them for a few days to ease the stress. After a week or two, prune off branches that didn’t recover, or leave them for a while longer to see if dormant buds sprout from live wood.

Check to see if the root ball has settled too deeply into the soil. Raise it up if that’s the case. The crown of the plant should be flush with the surrounding soil level, or, preferably, raised a little above it. And make sure all air pockets around the roots have been filled with soil.

If your new blueberries are looking good and starting to grow, congratulations! Blue star!

Settled In

Once the plants begin to root in, after a couple of weeks, you can decrease the frequency of watering. It’s tempting to assume that the recent gentle rain is enough for the next few days. But it might have been only ¼”, which dampens the mulch but not the soil.

If in doubt, dig several inches into the soil near the edge of the original root ball to see whether the soil is running dry or is sopping wet. You don’t want either of those conditions.

One inch of water throughout the garden will moisten the top 4-6″ of soil. Every week during the growing season, the entire garden should receive 1½” of water, and more than that in sandy soil. After the plants have become established, water less often, if you need to at all, but water deeply when you do.

Family Likeness

Early season flowers and leaves on our potted ‘Patriot’ blueberry.

Looking at the flowers in late winter to late spring, you might have noticed the similarity between blueberry (Vaccinium spp.) flowers and the flowers of Pieris japonica, and those of the sourwood tree, Oxydendrum arboreum. Their flowers resemble little bells.

All of them belong to the family Ericaceae, which includes heaths, heathers, azaleas, and rhododendrons, although these shrubs’ flowers bear less similarity to those of blueberries. Cranberry, bilberry, and huckleberry also belong to the Vaccinium genus.

Gardeners cultivate 50 or 60 species of blueberries around the world. Several species native to the United States and Canada formed the basis for almost all of the many blueberry varieties available today.

New dwarf cultivars of blueberries feel right at home in foundation plantings. Edible landscaping highlights both the ornamental and the edible aspects of growing blueberries.

Headings

Page 1: Planting a Blueberry Patch?, Today Is Day One, What Antioxidants Do (Blueberry Nutrients, More Benefits), Prepare for Planting Your Blueberry (Sun, Drainage, Gypsum, Soil PH), Time To Plant Your Blueberry (Grab Your Shovel, First Pruning, Label the Blueberry Plant, Mulch, Water, How Are They Looking?, Settled In), Family Likeness

Page 2: The 5 Major Groups of Blueberries (Lowbush Blueberry, Northern Highbush Blueberry, Southern Highbush Blueberry, Rabbiteye Blueberry, Half-High Blueberry), Blueberry Maintenance (Water, Mulch, Fertilizer, Pruning, Blueberry Pollination, Disease, Picking), Woodchucks and Friends, Plant Protection, Cage Your Blueberries

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Tips For Growing a Tomato Plant

Apr29

A Tomato Plant For Your Garden

Anyone who has grown a tomato plant and experienced sublime sun-ripened perfection understands the joy that awaits those new to this endeavor. But it takes a little skill. Starting with light, I’ll explain the basics here. And be sure to read related posts to get the full picture.

How Much Sun For a Tomato Plant?

‘Cherokee Purple’ tomato.

A tomato plant requires at least 7 hours of direct sun. Sure, many sources of information recommend 6 hours, and you’ll certainly have some success. But, for best performance, give it 7 or 8 hours or more.

Tomatoes produce more flowers in a sunnier location. And their leaves will make more “food” (carbohydrates resulting from photosynthesis) that keeps plants growing and producing. More hours of sun maintains drier foliage for a longer period of time. And drier foliage means fewer problems with disease.

Now if you don’t have a spot that gets 7 hours of sun, but it gets 5, you might be able to get fruits from a cherry tomato plant. Instead of being disappointed with the lower-yielding but yummy heirlooms or the big beefsteaks, try ‘Sun Gold’ or the other cherry tomatoes. ‘San Marzano’ and ‘Juliet’ also are worth considering for five or six hours of sun. Because they are high-yielding, you’ll probably harvest something.

But, in full sun, cherry tomatoes produce so many fruits that you’ll be giving them away by the bowlful. Really…they’ll have produced hundreds of fruits on a tall vine by the end of summer.

A “hand” of cherry tomatoes.

Options

If you have the space, some experimentation might yield promising results. Try growing tomatoes in large pots on the sunny patio, and plant greens where there isn’t enough sun for tomatoes. Or perhaps a corner of the sunny rose garden can be given over to edibles that need full sun, if the soil hasn’t been treated with chemicals.

I don’t often recommend cutting down trees. Removing a silver maple that seeded near the vegetable garden, however, will make the garden more productive, and, if permitted, that’s the way to go. When selecting trees for an average size property, choose small-growing trees and locate them far from gardens requiring full sun. Consider their mature size and where the shade will fall from one season to the next.

More Light For a Tomato Plant

Here are some tricks to coax more production out of your edible plants if the sun exposure is less than ideal:

Plant in as sunny a spot as you have, perhaps near a white or light-colored wall, which will reflect more light toward the tomatoes. Or, using a little resourcefulness, create a reflective wall with tall stakes and white fabric.
Lay repurposed light-colored empty mulch or potting soil bags on the soil, on the sunny side of the plants. Anchor them with stones or bricks. Punch lots of holes in the plastic so the plants will get enough water from rain or irrigation. Don’t allow water to collect for more than a few days or you’ll have trouble with mosquitoes.
Porous synthetic or woven mulches are available from garden supply companies. White mulch helps reflect the light and also keeps soil cooler. Additionally, a source of light from below the plant confuses insect pests and might cause them to take up residence elsewhere.
Use a few stakes instead of one, or a wide trellis, for a tomato plant, tying main stems farther out from the core of the plant. This will get more light onto leaves that otherwise would have been heavily shaded.

Crop Rotation

Zucchini.

If space allows, locate your tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and eggplants (all members of the nightshade family) where none of them have been grown for the last 3 or 4 years. This crop rotation lessens the likelihood of heavy insect and disease outbreaks from one year to the next. It prevents disease spores and insect larvae from building up in the soil and infecting new foliage.

Tomatoes and other members of the nightshade family (Solanaceae) are affected by certain insects and diseases that generally do not bother other families of vegetables. Cucurbits (zucchini, cucumber, squash) and brassicas (broccoli, kale, cauliflower) have their own problems, as do the other plant families.

Disease Resistance

You’ll notice on seed packets, labels, and in catalog descriptions, a series of capital letters after the cultivar’s name. Those letters are initials for the diseases to which that cultivar is resistant. For example, ‘Big Beef’ tomato has the letters AS, F2, L, N, TMV, and V after its name. They represent the diseases Alternaria stem canker, Fusarium wilt (races 1 and 2), Grey leaf spot, Nematodes (not a disease but a tiny worm), Tobacco mosaic virus, and Verticillium wilt, respectively.

Most hybrids have been bred to withstand some disease pressure. Heirlooms are more susceptible to disease, but the flavor of their fruits is superior to that of many varieties commonly found at garden centers. If you have the space, try growing one or two heirlooms in addition to disease resistant varieties.

(***Update***: In 2019, I grew 2 heirloom tomato plants in large pots, and both succumbed to disease well before the end of the summer. We had an especially wet and humid season, but I knew the odds when I’d bought them. Still, each one produced several dozen fruits before removal.)

Susceptibility to disease varies from one area of the country to another, so you might never see some of the diseases that pop up elsewhere.

Weather plays an important role, too, and there’s nothing we can do about that. Choosing at least one disease resistant tomato plant is wise.

To a certain degree, we can manage the environment and our gardening practices in ways that discourage insects and diseases. I almost always include an heirloom tomato plant in my garden, knowing that it is more vulnerable to disease, but it’s worth the effort.

Disease Prevention For a Tomato Plant

For gardeners with limited garden space, crop rotation is not an option. In that case, consider mulching your plants with coarse, chunky material, such as pine bark mulch. Having a dry surface under the plants, as opposed to a moist surface that can harbor disease organisms, is another line of defense. Those large chunks will dry faster than the surface of clay soil or shredded hardwood mulch. Several inches of seed-free straw or dry oak leaves also work.

Porous landscape fabric is another barrier you can use. This product is available in both biodegradable and synthetic materials.

Using pine mulch or fabric will help keep dormant spores of soil-borne diseases, deposited from previous crops, from splashing up onto the low-growing foliage, infecting new plants. Always remove diseased foliage to the trash. Spores can, of course, be blown in from elsewhere, but it’s always best to exercise that ounce of prevention when we can.

Yes, problems can crop up. But usually there is enough fresh produce harvested from your own back yard to consider the garden a worthwhile project.

Air Circulation and Suckers

Tomato sucker removed.

Air circulation around each plant is another factor in disease prevention. I plant tomatoes 4 feet apart in the garden and permit only 3 or 4 main stems to develop on each one. Some growers limit the number of stems to just 2 and space the plants closer together.

A tomato plant is a weedy thing, and, left to its own devices, will create a tangled twining mess of stems and leaves. That doesn’t mean it won’t produce fruit. However, controlling the growth improves air circulation, which keeps the foliage healthier.

As tomato plants grow, suckers grow from axillary buds in the angle between the leaf and the stem. Those suckers will grow into more main stems if not limited. Simply snip out the suckers that have been selected for removal.

Tie stems to tall, sturdy stakes to lift tall plants off the ground. Removing suckers and staking a tomato plant increases the air circulation around and through the foliage, prolonging the plant’s life.

When the plants have been established for a few weeks, and they’re growing vigorously, remove the bottom leaves to get more air circulating underneath the plants. I keep about 12″ of the stem leaf-free. Keep the foliage as dry as possible and avoid handling wet plants.

When Disease Strikes

‘Rutgers’ tomato infected with disease (Septoria?).

Diseased plants will start losing foliage, generally from the bottom up. Leaves become yellow, spotted, puckered, or crispy brown. Widespread disease requires removal of the plants.

If a disease has just been noticed, though, remove to the trash all spotty, blighted leaves with clippers that have been dipped in a 10% bleach solution before going to the next plant. Disease can spread from plant to plant on infected tools and hands.

Spraying the plants with an appropriate remedy might save the plants. Several copper-, bicarbonate-, and microbe-based fungicides are available for organic growers.

Prevent the deadly tobacco mosaic virus from infecting tomatoes and peppers by never smoking near the vegetable garden, and by washing hands thoroughly before working there. Tobacco is related to tomatoes and peppers, and disease spores might be present in the product.

Occasionally we see tomato plants with leaves at the top all twisted and contorted. Sometimes they’re discolored as well. This can result from the application of herbicides, if not on your property, then from a few houses away. The chemical is carried on the breeze, and it takes minute quantities to affect tomatoes. Either cut the plants back to healthy foliage or replace with new transplants. Check also for leafhoppers and aphids inside curled leaves.

Sun Scald

Sun scald on sweet peppers.

On Peppers

Strong sun hitting the fruits on very hot afternoons can cause sun scald. Keeping enough leaf cover will protect the fruits. Patches of sun scald are the parts of the fruit that were perpendicular to the hottest rays of the sun.

Don’t thin pepper plants; they’re especially vulnerable to sun scald. These fruits (photo, above) from a young and sparsely-leaved ‘Lemon Dream’ pepper were not adequately shaded. But the good parts don’t have to go to waste. Simply remove the affected parts.

Tomatoes Exposed To Sun

ingredients for tomato basil salad, cherokee purple tomato

‘Cherokee Purple’ tomatoes and basil.

I prefer 3 or 4 stems on a tomato plant instead of 2; there are more leaves to lessen the sun’s intensity without entirely shading the fruits.

The flavor is more intense in some varieties (such as ‘Cherokee Purple’, ‘Black Krim’, and other “black” tomatoes) if the fruits are exposed to some direct sunlight. Morning sun is more gentle than hot afternoon sun. But on hot days, exposed tomatoes can get sun scald. Pick those tomatoes, remove the mushy parts affected by sun scald, and eat them right away, before they start rotting.

Sunlight gives fruits a richer color, increasing levels of anthocyanins. What are they? Anthocyanins, the blue and red pigments in fruits and vegetables, are powerful antioxidants, which help fight inflammation and play an important part in cancer prevention.

When you consider how much effort is required to support large amounts of ripening fruit on a mature tomato plant, it seems rational that 3 or 4 leafy stems will be able to produce a lot more “food” (carbohydrates from photosynthesis) for the developing fruits. This will help the fruits achieve full size and, more importantly, full flavor.

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Headings

Page 1: It’s Time To Plant Tomatoes!, How Much Sun For a Tomato Plant? (Options), More Light For a Tomato Plant, Crop Rotation, Disease Resistance, Disease Prevention For a Tomato Plant (Air Circulation and Suckers, When Disease Strikes), and Sun Scald (On Peppers, Tomatoes Exposed To Sun)

Page 2: Time to Plant!, Plant Tomatoes Deeper, Trichomes, Stake or Cage a Tomato Plant?, And Water, and Deer

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