Category: Home & Garden

Stevia is well known as an all-natural sweetener, but did you know you can grow it right in your home garden?

Growing stevia is actually simple once you learn what it needs to thrive and how to care for it. This guide is designed to help you do just that.

Here you will find everything you need to start growing stevia. From the right soil, temperature, fertilizer, and light exposure to how to water, prune, harvest, troubleshoot problems, and much more.

Quick Stevia Plant Care Overview

Scientific name:	Stevia rebaudiana
Classification:	Herb
Common names:	Stevia, Green Stevia, Sweet Herb, Sweetleaf
Hardiness:	Zones 8-11
Temperature:	70-85°F (21-29°C)
Flowers:	White, blooms late summer-fall
Light:	Full sun to dappled shade
Water:	Keep soil evenly moist, never allow it to dry completely
Humidity:	Average-high
Fertilizer:	Compost tea or fish emulsion, summer
Soil:	Loamy, loose, well-drained
Common pests:	Thrips, aphids, whiteflies, snails, slugs

Information About Stevia Plants

Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana) is a tropical perennial herb in the daisy, or Asteraceae family, native to Brazil and Paraguay. It’s grown for the leaves that are up to 40 times sweeter than sugar.

The ovate serrated leaves grow on brittle branches and can be used fresh, dried, or ground. They taste similar to a sweet green tea with a mild licorice finish.

The plant is often called “green stevia”, “sweet herb”, or “sweetleaf” to differentiate the natural herb from the refined store-bought stevia products.

In the late summer or fall delicate, small white flowers form at the end of the branches.

Hardiness

Stevia is not a cold hardy plant, it prefers warmth. It can survive year round in zones 8-11 where it can flourish during long growing seasons and survive the mild winters.

Though it’s a perennial, the leaves lose sweetness with each year. So many gardeners, even in warm climates, choose to grow it as an annual instead.

How Does Stevia Grow?

Green stevia is a flowering herb that can be grown from seed or cuttings. It produces bright green leaves with an intense sweetness.

The leaves grow in symmetrical pairs on spindly, brittle stems. The branches can grow up to 36” in ideal conditions, but can also be pruned into a bushier, mounded plant.

How To Grow Stevia

Before we talk about how to take care of it, first we need to chat about where and when to grow stevia. The right timing and location will make a big difference in your success.

Where To Grow Stevia

Stevia likes a spot with plenty of warmth, light, and humidity. It won’t do well in excess heat, the cold, or very dry climates.

It can be grown in fertile, well-draining soil in the garden, containers, or even indoors. Pots need to be at least 12” deep and have drainage holes to prevent overwatering.

When To Plant Stevia

You can start Stevia rebaudiana indoors 6-8 weeks before the last spring frost, or direct sow it 2 weeks after.

The seeds can be tricky to germinate, so many gardeners choose to use nursery starts or cuttings taken from a previous year.

Transplant hardened rooted cuttings or starts into the garden when all chance of frost has passed in the spring.

The soil should be 70°F (21°C), which you can check with a simple probe gauge, and night temps consistently above 60°F (15°C).

Stevia Plant Care & Growing Instructions

Now that you know where and when to get started, let’s talk about how to grow stevia. The care tips below will help you create the best environment for it to thrive.

Sunlight

Stevia thrives in a full sun location that will provide 8+ hours of light a day. Lack of sunlight can delay or stall growth or cause leggy, sparse foliage, especially indoors.

However in very overly warm or arid climates, provide dappled shade during the hottest afternoon hours. That will prevent drying out and premature flowering. A shade cloth makes this easy.

Water

In its native environment stevia grows in damp soil near ponds and other bodies of water.

It will thrive in your garden if kept consistently and evenly moist. Do not let the soil dry out completely between watering.

Always water at the soil line to prevent splashing it on the leaves, which can cause mold growth and disease.

Temperature

Stevia prefers a warm temperature range of 70-85°F (21-29°C) and will suffer at anything below 45°F (7°C).

When temperatures fall below the ideal range, growth slows down and eventually stops. It can survive occasional freezing temps if it’s given adequate protection with mulch or row covers.

You can also overwinter it indoors in a container or as cuttings that you can root and replant the following spring.

Fertilizer

Fertilizer isn’t necessary to grow stevia, but the occasional feeding can invigorate growth and boost your harvest.

Use an all-natural balanced option like compost tea or fish emulsion. Dilute it by half and apply at the base of the plant every two weeks throughout the summer.

Otherwise you can apply slow-release granules at planting time, and then top dress it again in mid-summer. Learn all about how to fertilize herbs here.

Soil

Stevia grows well in loose, loamy, well-drained soil with a pH between 6.7-7.2, which you can test with a probe meter.

Use an organically rich potting soil for containers, or amend your garden bed with well-rotted compost before planting to provide nutrients and improve drainage.

Pruning

Consistent pruning throughout the season is very beneficial to Stevia rebaudiana. It helps create a fuller, bushier plant, strengthens the stems, and delays flowering.

Pinch back the tips by taking the topmost leaves as needed. You can also cut the branches back by up to half 2-3 times through the summer and fall.

Always use sharp shears or precision pruners that are clean and sterile.

Pest Control Tips

Stevia plants are fairly pest resistant. On rare occasions bugs like aphids, whiteflies, thrips, snails, or slugs can become an issue.

Use a sharp blast of water to rid foliage of small bugs, or prune off heavily infested leaves. Hand pick snails and slugs or use Sluggo pellets to help control them.

Natural treatments like neem oil and insecticidal soap are also useful. I make my own by combining 1 teaspoon of gentle liquid soap with 1 liter of water.

Disease Control Tips

Stevia plants are also resistant to most diseases. But they can occasionally be affected by soil-borne leaf spot diseases, root rot, and mold.

Keep plants spaced and pruned enough to provide good air circulation. Always water at the base of the plant to prevent soil from splashing onto the leaves. Avoid overwatering to prevent rot.

Tips For Harvesting Stevia

As soon as your stevia plant is 8” or taller, you can begin picking the leaves. Use micro tip snips or precision pruners that are sharp and sterile to cut leaves or whole branches from the plant.

Take top leaves as needed throughout the season, but never remove more than half the total plant. Pick them in the morning when the sugars are at the highest concentration.

In the fall, many gardeners harvest the entire plant and take cuttings to overwinter for the following year.

Wait until after the weather cools slightly, which intensifies the sweetness. But don’t allow it to flower, the leaves become bitter once it blooms.

Related Post: How To Make Homemade DIY Liquid Stevia Extract

Troubleshooting Common Problems

Stevia is fairly low-maintenance, but no plant is completely problem free. If you run into one of these more common issues, use the troubleshooting tips below to get it back on track.

Yellow Leaves

Yellow leaves on stevia can be caused by poor soil quality, nutrient deficiencies, overwatering, extreme heat, or leaf spot diseases.

Alkaline soils or low nitrogen levels can lead to yellowing foliage. Try testing your soil, and use an acidifier amendment or a high nitrogen fertilizer as needed.

Keep the soil moist, but never water the point of puddling or making it very soggy. A moisture meter probe can help you get it just right.

Temperatures above 85°F (29°C) will lead to yellowing and leaf drop. So provide dappled shade in the afternoon while the temps are high. A shade cloth can help with that.

Stevia Growing Leggy

Legginess is natural for stevia plants left to grow without pruning. It can be aggravated by lack of light, cool temps, or poor soil nutrition.

Prune the tops of the branches every 1-2 months in the summer, and pinch back the tips regularly to encourage bushier, fuller growth.

Provide ample light and fertilizer with a balanced, diluted liquid fertilizer, or side-dress with compost or slow-release granules.

Brown Leaves

Brown leaves on green stevia are usually an indication of drought stress, lack of humidity, or extreme temperatures. It can also be caused by some diseases such as Septoria or Alternaria leaf spot.

Check the soil moisture level. It should be consistently damp and not allowed to dry out completely or for long periods of time.

Temperatures consistently above 85° (29°C) or below 45°F (7°C) can cause the leaves to dry out or die off.

If the browning appears as reddish or yellow ringed spots, you’re dealing with a disease. Remove affected foliage immediately and destroy it. Air circulation and correct watering practices are key to preventing the spread.

FAQs

Here I’ve answered some of the most commonly asked questions about growing stevia. If yours isn’t listed, please add it to the comments section below.

Can you eat stevia leaves?

Yes, you can eat stevia leaves fresh or dried, or use it to add a natural sweetener to your food. The sweetness of the leaves isn’t as intense as the processed products you can get from the store.

Is stevia easy or hard to grow?

Stevia is easy to grow once you know how to provide what it needs. Lots of light, warm weather, adequate moisture, and healthy, well-drained soil help make it a low-maintenance and productive addition to your garden.

Does stevia grow back every year?

Stevia can grow back every year in zones 8-11, where the winters are mostly frost free. It can survive occasional freezes, but very cool winters will eventually kill it. Although it does lose its sweetness with age, so many people replant it as an annual every year.

How long does it take to grow stevia?

It doesn’t take very long to grow stevia, with the proper care you can start harvesting about 40-65 days after planting.

Is stevia a perennial or annual?

Stevia is a perennial in warm climates that don’t regularly experience extreme frosts or freezes, like in zones 8-11. But because the plant declines in sweetness each year, it is often grown as an annual instead.

If you want to learn all about growing your crops vertically, then you need my book, Vertical Vegetables. It has everything you need to know to be successful, plus almost two dozen detailed step-by-step projects that you can build in your own garden! Order your copy today!

Learn more about my Vertical Vegetables book here.

More About Herb Gardening

Share your tips for growing stevia in the comments section below.

There are five common types of blueberry plants out there, beginning with the most popular in commercial cultivation, the northern highbush (Vaccinium corymbosum).

Next we have the southern highbush, which is a hybrid of V. corymbosum and a native species from Florida known as the evergreen blueberry, V. darrowii.

Then there is the lowbush species (V. angustifolium), which grows low to the ground, staying under two feet tall. It’s native across the US and Canada and the type that people often forage in the wild.

And there is also the rabbiteye species, V. virgatum. These grow native across the southern US and can reach up to 20 feet tall.

Finally, there is the half-high, which is a hybrid of lowbush and highbush blueberries.

Cultivars of each species have been bred to produce fruit that matures at different times – early, midseason, or late.

There’s a lot of interesting and useful information about growing blueberries to cover, so let’s jump right in! Here’s what we’ll go over in the coming sections:

What Sets the Different Common Blueberry Types Apart?

Highbush blueberries (V. corymbosum) are deciduous woody shrubs that can reach up to eight feet tall at maturity.

In contrast, as you might expect from their name, lowbush berries (V. angustifolium) are significantly shorter deciduous woody shrubs.

Sometimes called wild blueberries, these only reach heights of about two feet tall.

Besides size, another way in which the available types differ pertains to gardening region. Some highbush and rabbiteye plants can grow in warmer climates, while lowbush varieties can tolerate cooler climates. Half-high blueberries sit somewhere in the middle.

Highbush types grow best in USDA Hardiness Zones 4 to 8, while lowbush types grow comfortably in Zones 2 to 7.

Half-high bushes grow best in Zones 3 to 7. It is possible, however, to find specific cultivars that can grow outside of these ranges.

Why the difference? It isn’t just that highbush plants can’t handle extended periods of freezing temperatures, but since they’re so tall, stems can break and they can be crushed under heavy snow.

Lowbush plants, on the other hand, don’t mind a thick blanket of snow.

These species are further broken down into northern and southern varieties, with narrower ranges of suitable climate.

For example, northern highbush and lowbush blueberries need about 800 to 1,000 chilling hours, while southern highbush plants need about 150 to 800 hours, depending on the cultivar.

Half-high bushes, as you might expect, need something in the middle, usually around 800 hours.

What’s that, you ask?

“Chill hours” refers to the number of hours that temperatures need to be somewhere between 32 and 45°F in the winter in order for the plants to produce flowers and fruit the following spring and summer.

A bit of an outlier, rabbiteye blueberries (V. virgatum) stand out because they ripen about a month later than lowbush or highbush types, and the berries are smaller and sweeter, with a tougher skin.

The immature berries are creamy white or pink in color with a bright red or pink calyx, giving the fruit the appearance of an albino rabbit’s eye.

Rabbiteye bushes can grow up to 20 feet tall and are a bit more tolerant of dry conditions or drought than other types. They aren’t able to tolerate a lot of water, like other kinds of blueberries can.

Rabbiteyes grow best in Zones 7 to 9 and need between 300 to 700 chilling hours, depending on the cultivar.

Cultivation and History

Berries in the Vaccinium genus grow wild across the world.

For instance, in northern continental Europe, Ireland, the British Isles, Iceland, and northern Asia, you can find the native European blueberry (V. myrtillus), also known as the forest blueberry or bilberry.

In South America, you can find the mortiño (V. floribundum) and the Jamaican bilberry (V. meridionale).

But when we talk about the blueberries you’re likely to find at the store, we’re usually talking about the plants native to North America.

Originally, all blueberries growing in North America were uncultivated lowbush or rabbiteye plants, along with a few other species like V. alaskaense, or the Alaskan blueberry, and V. ovalifolium, or the oval-leaf blueberry).

Scientists think the blueberry was one of the first fruit plants on the continent to be utilized by humans after the last ice age.

It was thanks to the indigenous populations living in what became known as the United States that European settlers learned about this magnificent fruit.

Native Americans ate the berries fresh when they were in season, cooked them into stews and meats, baked with them, and dried them to be eaten during the winter. They also used them medicinally.

People continued to harvest, eat, and preserve wild blueberries exclusively, until Elizabeth Coleman White and Frederick V. Coville came along.

White worked on her parents’ cranberry farm in the late 1800s. At the time, growers didn’t think the wild blueberry could be cultivated, but White believed she could make it happen.

She reached out to Coville, a botanist with the USDA who was also studying wild blueberries, and the pair worked together to create the first domesticated highbush blueberry.

These days, northern highbush are the most common commercially grown blueberry in North America and the berries that you see at the grocery store in those plastic clamshells or berry baskets are usually highbush types.

The southern highbush has only been cultivated for the past six decades or so. It is a hybrid of northern highbush and rabbiteye or evergreen varieties.

But that doesn’t mean the lowbush blueberry isn’t around anymore. It’s an important crop in the northeastern United States and Canada, where it is cultivated or harvested from managed wild stands.

These berries are usually sold either canned or frozen because they don’t store or ship well, though you can find them fresh locally during the growing season.

Rabbiteyes are grown commercially in the southeastern United States, and if you’re lucky enough to live in the region, you can find the fruits fresh at markets and grocery stores during the summer.

While North American blueberry species are cultivated across the globe, from Australia to Siberia, a majority of the commercially grown berries sold worldwide come from the US.

Propagation

You have lots of options when it comes to propagating your plants.

Bare roots, cuttings, and transplants are easiest, but if you want a growing adventure, you can also cultivate them by starting seeds.

Whichever method you choose, be sure to prep your soil well before sticking your new plants in the ground. If you need to alter your soil much, it can be a lengthy process.

For instance, if you have clay or sandy soil, working in some composted pine or fir sawdust repeatedly over several months can help create the right conditions for blueberries.

From Seed

Beginning with the most challenging option, you can grow blueberries from seed, but it will obviously take longer to produce your first harvest than it would if you started with established plants.

Seeds can be purchased or you can extract them from the berries. Keep in mind that seeds from hybrid plants won’t grow true to the parent.

To extract seeds, place a cup of blueberries in a blender with four cups of water. Run it on high for 15 seconds and then let the mixture sit for 10 minutes.

Eventually, the pulp will rise to the top and the seeds will sink to the bottom.

Pour out the pulp, add more water to replace what you poured out, and set it aside for another five minutes. Repeat until you get clear water with blueberry seeds at the bottom.

A few months before the last frost date in your area, sprinkle your seeds over a container filled with moistened peat moss.

Place a thin layer of peat on top to cover. Cover the tray with a piece of plastic or a humidity dome to keep the moisture in. Keep the seeds around 60 to 70°F.

Now comes the waiting game. Every time I’ve done this I’m pretty sure my seeds are duds and I get ready to toss the whole thing out, only to see the little green seedlings stick their heads out of the peat.

That’s because it can take a month or two – or sometimes three! – for seeds to germinate. And I’m impatient.

Once seedlings are about three inches tall, remove them from the peat and put each one in a six-inch pot filled with equal parts peat, sand, and potting soil.

Keep the medium moist but not wet, and put the seedlings in a spot where they receive about six hours of sun a day.

Once the danger of frost has passed, you can put the plants in the ground outside, but be sure to harden them off for a week before transplanting them to their permanent home.

Harden off seedlings by placing them outside in a sheltered spot with indirect light for one hour, and then bring it back indoors. Repeat this, adding an hour each day for a week, until they can spend the full day outside.

Because the seeds need such carefully controlled conditions, direct sowing in the garden isn’t recommended.

By Bare Root

Bare root plants are generally more affordable than transplants, but they take a bit of extra prep to propagate.

If you can’t plant yours right away after your order arrives or you bring them home from the nursery, put them in a cool, dark place. You don’t want to let the roots dry out, so spray them daily with a water bottle.

When you’re ready to plant, soak the roots in room temperature water for three to six hours. Remove from the water and cut away any broken roots.

Then, spread the roots out horizontally rather than down and dig a hole that is a few inches wider and the same depth as the roots.

These shrubs prefer to have their roots close to the surface of the soil rather than down deep, so we’re trying to recreate their natural growing habit when we do this.

Place in the hole and backfill with soil that you dug up. Water well to settle the soil.

Read more about blueberry propagation here.

Transplanting

If you’re in a hurry to dig into those sweet berries, you can purchase one, two, or three-year-old blueberry transplants.

Most plants start producing at about two years old, so you could be digging in right away, though your first harvest may be small.

Transplants should be planted in the fall or spring, depending on where you live. Gardeners in warmer regions like the Pacific Northwest or the Southeast should put plants in the ground in October, March, or April.

In cooler regions like New England, spring is best in order to allow the plant time to become established before winter rolls around.

When you are ready to plant, gently remove it from its container and be sure to thoroughly loosen up the root ball. Spread the roots out, not down.

When you’re done, the root system should be about twice as wide and half as deep as it was while confined to the pot it came in.

Dig a hole slightly wider than your newly spread-out root ball and about the same depth.

You may want to work some peat or compost into the surrounding soil if the texture of your earth is different from the soil the transplant was growing in. This helps to improve aeration and encourages the roots to expand.

For instance, if your potted blueberry is in a loamy potting mixture, but your native soil is quite sandy, you’ll need to amend your soil to encourage the roots to extend into your native soil.

You can learn more about how to transplant blueberries in our guide.

Consider using raised beds if you need to amend your soil to suit blueberries. Whether the soil lacks nutrients or needs pH adjustment, or if you have heavy, compacted or clay soil, you might want to construct a few raised beds to plant in.

This gives you the ability to alter the soil without impacting the surrounding area.

You can build a wooden box,  or just hill up some improved soil if you prefer. If you have heavy soil, you can also work in some sand to improve drainage.

You should group blueberries together, rather than spreading them out around your garden. That makes it easier to keep the soil pH at the right level, which is key to an abundant harvest. It also helps the plants pollinate each other.

Not all blueberries need a companion for pollination, but many do. This means you need to plant cultivars together that bloom at the same time.

Southern highbushes need to be planted with a cultivar that blooms at the same time, and this will typically be noted in the plant description or on the growing tag from the nursery.

Rabbiteye blueberries also need a companion for pollination. Again, be sure to pick cultivars that bloom at a similar time.

‘Alapaha,’ ‘Climax,’ ‘Premier,’ ‘Prince,’ ‘Savory,’ and ‘Vernon’ are all early bloomers.

‘Austin,’ ‘Brightwell,’ ‘Columbus,’ ‘Montgomery,’ ‘Powderblue,’ and ‘Tifblue’ all bloom mid-season.

‘DeSoto,’ ‘Ochlockonee,’ and ‘Onslow’ are late bloomers.

Most highbush cultivars are self-fertile, but cross-pollination will typically give you a larger harvest and bigger berries.

While harvest dates can vary dramatically among different cultivars, most northern highbush plants bloom within a week or so of each other. For that reason, all cultivars can be used for cross-pollination.

Native bees, bumblebees, and honeybees are the only pollinators of blueberries. The flowers can’t be pollinated by birds or butterflies because they require “buzz pollination.” This happens when a bee vibrates or shakes the pollen loose from a flower.

Large highbush species should be spaced around four to six feet apart, and dwarf cultivars about two to four feet apart.

Rabbiteye bushes need more space, with at least six feet between plants, but preferably more. Lowbush blueberries can be planted one to two feet apart.

Most blueberries like a lot of moisture, and those that are growing in the wild can often be found near water, or in swampy or boggy areas.

However, rabbiteye blueberries are more drought tolerant and will suffer if given too much water.

To complicate things, blueberries have very shallow roots. That means they dry out easily, so they need consistent watering.

Plants require one to two inches of water a week, depending on the species. You can use a rain gauge to help determine how much precipitation you receive.

If you don’t get that much naturally, you’ll need to provide supplemental irrigation.

Mulches like aged pine needles, wood chips, and bark are ideal for helping to retain moisture. Don’t use dyed or synthetic mulches because they may have a negative impact on the environment.

Pruning and Maintenance

If you’re going to grow blueberries, you’ll need to become good friends with your pruning tools.

Regular pruning is effective for managing insects, it helps to prevent disease, and it encourages more abundant harvests and larger fruits. Plus, it makes it easier to harvest the fruits when they’re ready to pick.

Older canes produce smaller fruit and less of it. They also compete with the younger, more productive canes for nutrition and light. In other words, they eventually need to go.

The best fruit forms on one-year-old canes and new shoots.

For the first two years of a plant’s life, you don’t need to do much work. Just remove the flower buds by snipping or rubbing them off.

You want the plants to focus on maturing and developing rather than producing berries, tempting though it may be to see your first harvest as soon as possible.

In the spring of the third year when the plant is still dormant, remove any canes that cross, any that are twisted, or any that are growing low along the ground.

Plants should fully emerge from dormancy by the end of March in most areas, and you want to complete your pruning prior to this.

Remove any older canes that weren’t productive in the previous season. To do so, just cut the canes down cleanly at the base of the plant using a clean pair of clippers or pruners.

Then, remove all but two or three of the largest, tallest, most robust new canes that were produced in the previous year. New canes are small, pliable, and often red or darker in color than older canes. You’ll repeat this every year.

Once the plant reaches its mature size, usually around eight years of age, it will typically have about 10 to 20 canes of various ages if you’ve kept up with your pruning.

Going forward, remove any diseased or damaged canes each spring. Then, remove any older canes that are larger than one inch in diameter.

They’ll likely be gray rather than brown or red, and the bark may be peeling. Don’t remove more than 20 percent of the old canes at a time.

If the plant looks crowded in the middle, thin out some canes to improve airflow. As you did in the first year, remove canes that are crossing and rubbing against each other each following year.

You should also remove any canes that don’t have healthy fruit buds and vegetative buds at the end simultaneously.

Blueberry canes can have both fruit buds, spots where the blossoms and fruits will emerge, and vegetative buds, spots where the leaves will emerge. Any cane that has nothing but vegetative buds or no buds at all should be removed.

How can you identify these? Fruit buds appear at the end of cane shoots. They look like teardrop-shaped, swollen buds that will form into clusters of flowers and fruit.

Lower down the canes from those are smaller, pointed buds. These grow new vegetative shoots in the following year.

Wear protective clothing while you are pruning. Gloves, glasses, and a long-sleeved jacket are all good ideas, because blueberry bushes can be rough.

If you have multiple lowbush blueberries, you can simply mow a few down to the ground each year with a lawn mower or weed wacker.

The plants that you mow down won’t produce the next year, so you want to make sure to leave two productive plants alone and alternate mowing. Otherwise, you can prune them as you would taller blueberries.

You may also want to trim the edges of the bushes to limit how far out they spread.

Feel free to give rabbiteye bushes a haircut in order to keep their height low enough that you can reach all those berries. Just don’t take more than a third of the height off at a time.

Otherwise, leave the plants tall and consider the higher berries a sacrifice to our avian friends. They’re nice to have around because they keep insects under control in the garden – we’ll get into a more detailed discussion of pests in a minute.

Blueberries of all species do best with a lot of mulch because it cools the soil and helps retain moisture.

Each year, you’ll need to add mulch so that your bushes always have three or four inches at a minimum around the base (six inches is even better), and extend it out for two feet around them.

You’ll want to remove some or most of the existing mulch before you add some fresh stuff.

The mulch should be flat around the canes, not heaping up higher around the base of the plant. But it’s fine if the mulch is touching the canes – in fact, it should be if you’re doing it right.

Diseases

Keep an eye out for the following diseases.

There are no cultivars that are resistant to everything, and not all diseases occur in all areas, so you might want to check with your local extension office to find out what to grow in your area to avoid problems.

Anthracnose Fruit Rot

This is a common disease that impacts all species of blueberries. It’s caused by the fungi Colletotrichum acutatum and C. gloeosporioides.

The fungi attack plants particularly during warm, hot weather. Severe infections can lead to serious crop loss.

You won’t see symptoms initially, but as the fruits ripen, they will eventually start to shrivel and small blisters will break out on the skin of the berries. Eventually, these will fall off the bush.

But it is also possible for this disease to go undetected until after the berries have been harvested, when they start to rot in storage.

Since you might not know your plants have this disease until it’s too late, prevention is essential. Provide appropriate spacing when planting, water at the soil level, and keep plants well-pruned. Harvest fruit as soon as it is ripe.

Cane or Stem Canker

Stem canker, also known as cane canker, caused by the fungus Botryosphaeria corticis, is especially common in warmer areas like the southern United States.

It causes canes to thicken and form deep cracks. Rather than damaging the entire cane, you’ll see short sections impacted. Eventually, the canes will die.

The best option is prevention. Always prune away any canes or stems that show signs of infection as well as any dead canes, whether they are infected or not.

If you know this disease is a common problem in your area, check the information tag on the plant when you buy, and pick resistant cultivars.

Rabbiteyes are generally impacted less and will continue to produce even if they show signs of cane or stem canker. Highbush plants are more susceptible, but there are many resistant cultivars available.

Mummy Berry

Mummy berry, caused by the fungus Monilinia vaccinii-corymbosi, can be devastating. It overwinters in fallen fruit on the ground.

With the arrival of spring, the fungus emerges and infects the leaves and flowers.

It causes flowers to turn brown, wither, and die. Leaves and shoots develop black centers and will eventually wilt and die.

Infected berries turn red or tan instead of green, and they often fall off the plant early. Once they’ve fully mummified, the berries turn gray, and become shriveled and hard.

Harvest and destroy any mummified fruit before it falls. You need to be diligent and keep at it for years sometimes, but eventually, the plant can recover.

You can also keep an eye out for resistant varieties if this disease is common in your area.

For more information, please check out our full blueberry pest and disease guide.

Harvesting

Blueberries start producing fruits at about two to three years old, but they won’t reach peak production or attain their full mature size until they’re seven to eight years old.

Depending on the species, you can expect to harvest anywhere from under a pound of berries on some lowbush cultivars to 30 pounds or more on some rabbiteye cultivars.

Let the berries ripen fully on the plant before harvesting them. Some species of blueberries, such as rabbiteyes, are non-climacteric, which means the fruit needs to stay on the plant in order to ripen.

Put simply, non-climacteric fruit has a reduction in respiratory activity and stops producing ethylene after it is picked.

Rather than continuing to turn starch into sugar, non-climacteric fruits start rotting once they leave the plant.

For highbush and lowbush plants, look for berries with a blue stem that are dull or matte. These should detach easily. Fruit with green or red stems or shiny berries aren’t ready to pick.

Rabbiteye blueberries turn their mature color well before they are actually ripe. Wait a few weeks after they’ve turned blue and then pull a sample berry off the bush.

It should come away easily and will be sweet and juicy, with a waxy bloom on the skin.

All berries in a cluster may not be ripe at the same time, so try to avoid picking the unripe ones. Pluck the fruits by hand, and place them in a basket or bucket.

Cool the berries immediately after picking to preserve their shelf life. Don’t wash them until you’re ready to eat them, but remove any debris like leaves or shoots that may have come off the plants while you were harvesting.

For more tips, read our comprehensive guide to harvesting blueberries.

Preserving

Blueberries are full of antioxidants and contain more iron than almost any other fruits that grow in temperate climates.

They’ll last in the fridge for up to 10 days, but they’re best enjoyed three to five days after coming off the plant for the best texture and flavor.

Anything you can’t eat in time can be frozen. It doesn’t take much prep, just wash them, place them in a single layer on a baking sheet, and freeze for a few hours.

Then transfer them to sealed bags. They can keep in the freezer for up to six months.

You can also smoke blueberries. With a little acid, some oil, and a smoker, you’re good to go. Combine two quarts of blueberries with the zest and juice of one lemon.

Add two tablespoons of olive oil. Smoke for four hours with cherry wood chips.

Of course, you can always turn them into jam as well, or pie filling, if canning is your thing.

Finally, consider drying them. This can be done in a dehydrator, or in the oven. Heat the oven to 225°F and place the fruits in a single layer on a cookie sheet.

Don’t pack them too tight, and be sure to leave a little space between the berries.

Bake for about two hours until they’re shrunken but not hard. They should be supple but firm. Allow them to cool and then place the berries in sealed containers and store in a cool, dark place.

They can last for up to 18 months when processed and stored this way.

Recipes and Cooking Ideas

Of course, you can use blueberries anywhere you would use berries.

Who hasn’t tossed a handful on their yogurt or waffles in the morning? Our sister site, Foodal has a tasty recipe for maple roasted blueberries on einkorn porridge.

Or how about a healthy breakfast quinoa with blueberries?

They’re also delicious in desserts. Check out Foodal’s recipe for Blueberry Peach Crisp.

Don’t forget lunch and dinner, too! The mashed berries are delicious baked on fish or white meat.

Quick Reference Growing Guide

Plant Type:	Perennial berry	Tolerance:	Heavy soil, flooding (depending on species)
Native to:	North America	Maintenance:	Medium
Hardiness (USDA Zone):	2-9	Soil Type:	Sandy, loamy, high in organic matter
Season:	Spring-fall	Soil pH:	4.0-6.0
Exposure:	Full sun to part shade	Soil Drainage:	Well-draining
Time to Maturity:	3 years	Attracts:	Butterflies, bees, birds, deer and other berry-eating mammals
Spacing:	4-6 feet (standard), 2-4 feet (smaller varieties)	Companion Planting:	Azaleas, basil, camellias, ornamental grasses, parsley, rhododendrons
Planting Depth:	1/4 inch (seeds), same depth as container (transplants)	Avoid Planting With:	Plants that prefer alkaline soil, such as asparagus, beets, forsythia, garlic, lilacs, kale
Height:	1-20 feet, depending on variety	Family:	Ericaceae
Spread:	18 inches – 6 feet	Genus:	Vaccinium
Water Needs:	Moderate	Species:	Angustifolium, corymbosum, darrowii, virgatum
Common Pests:	Birds, blueberry maggots, deer, Japanese beetles, yellow-necked caterpillars	Common Diseases:	Anthracnose, botrytis blight, cane or stem canker, chlorosis, mummy berry, ripe rot

Blueberries Are a Bountiful Bush for Your Berry Patch

Blueberries are the kind of plant that I like to have around even if I don’t plan on eating the fruits.

They add so much beauty to the garden, and if you aren’t interested in the harvest, the wildlife will thank you for the tasty snack.

Still, most of us humans are after those juicy, sweet berries, and for good reason. They’re nutritious on top of being delicious.

Once your plants are thriving, I’d love to hear how you plan to use up your crop. I’m always looking for new ideas! Share your tips in the comments section below.

If you want to learn more about growing berries and vine fruit, check out these articles next:

Also known as vertical gardening, this is a technique that involves growing plants in stacked containers. Building a hydroponic tower is becoming increasingly popular, as it is a space-saving, environmentally friendly, and efficient way to grow a variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers.

Introduction to Tower Gardening

Tower gardening is a method of growing plants in vertical stacks, with each level containing a container for the vegetation. The containers are typically arranged in a column, with the plants at the top receiving sunlight and water, while the foliage at the bottom receives less light and water. This technique is great for small spaces, as it allows you to grow a large amount of produce in a small footprint.

Understanding the Basics 

Before designing your tower garden, it’s important to understand the basics of tower gardening. The first thing you’ll need is a tower garden kit. There are many different kits available, so choose one that suits your needs and budget. Once you have your kit, you’ll need to assemble it according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Most kits come with a pump and a reservoir, which are used to circulate water and nutrients to the plants.

Choosing the Right Location 

Choosing the right location for your tower garden is essential for the success of your plants. The location of your tower garden will determine the amount of sunlight your flora receives, which is critical for its growth and productivity. As a general rule, most crops require at least six hours of direct sunlight per day, so it’s important to choose a location that receives adequate sunlight.

When selecting a location for your tower garden, consider the direction of the sun and the shade patterns in your yard or balcony. Plants that receive too much direct sunlight can get scorched, while plants that receive too little sunlight can become spindly and weak. Ideally, you should choose a location that gets morning sun and afternoon shade, as this will provide your plants with the right balance of light and heat.

Selecting the Right Plants 

The next step is to select the right plants for your tower garden. Tower gardens can grow a wide variety of botanicals, including fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers. When selecting your plants, consider the amount of sunlight they require, as well as their water and nutrient requirements. Some plants that are well-suited for this kind of growing include lettuce, spinach, strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, and herbs such as basil and mint.

Designing the Layout 

Once you’ve selected your plants, it’s time to design the layout of your tower garden. The layout will depend on the size and shape of your garden, as well as the number of plants you plan to grow. A good rule of thumb is to plant taller plants at the top of the tower, with shorter vegetation at the bottom. This ensures that all of the plants receive adequate sunlight.

Understanding Soil and Fertilizer Requirements

Tower gardens use a soilless growing medium, which means that the plants are not grown in soil. Instead, they are grown in a nutrient-rich solution that is circulated through the tower. This solution contains all of the nutrients that the plants need to grow, so you won’t need to add any fertilizer. However, you will need to monitor the pH of the solution, as well as the nutrient levels.

Watering and Maintenance 

Watering and maintaining your tower garden is key to ensuring maximum yield and beauty. You’ll need to check the water level in the reservoir regularly and add water as needed. You’ll also need to check the pH and nutrient levels of the solution and adjust them as needed. Finally, you’ll need to prune your plants regularly to promote healthy growth and prevent disease.

Maximizing Yield with Companion Planting

Companion planting is a technique where different plants are grown together to benefit each other. In tower gardening, companion planting can help maximize yield and promote healthy growth. Some plants that make good companions include:

• Basil: Basil is a great companion for tomatoes, as it can help repel pests and improve flavor.
• Marigolds: Marigolds are a natural insect repellent and can help protect your garden from pests.
• Nasturtiums: Nasturtiums are a great companion for cucumbers and can help repel aphids and other pests.
• Radishes: Radishes are a great companion for lettuce, as they can help repel slugs and snails.

Tips for Achieving Beauty

Tower gardens can be just as beautiful as they are functional. Here are some tips for achieving beauty in your garden:

• Choose plants with a variety of colors and textures to add visual interest.
• Add a trellis or other support for climbing plants like cucumbers and tomatoes.
• Use decorative planters or containers to add a pop of color to your garden.
• Consider adding decorative elements like fairy lights or wind chimes to create a relaxing atmosphere.

Troubleshooting Common Issues 

Even with proper care and maintenance, tower gardens can sometimes encounter problems. Here are some common issues and how to troubleshoot them:

-Plants are not growing: Check the pH and nutrient levels of the solution and adjust as needed. Also, make sure that the plants are receiving adequate sunlight.

Plants are wilting: Check the water level in the reservoir and add water as needed. Also, check the pH and nutrient levels of the solution.

Pests are attacking the plants: Use companion planting, insecticidal soap, or neem oil to repel pests.

Conclusion 

Tower gardening is a great way to grow your own fresh produce in a limited space. By understanding the basics of tower gardening, choosing the right location and plants, designing the layout, and properly maintaining your garden, you can achieve maximum yield and beauty. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different plants and layouts to find what works best for you. With a little patience and dedication, you’ll be enjoying the fruits (and vegetables) of your labor in no time.

Cucurbita pepo ‘Delicata’

There’s a lot of different types of squash out there, from tiny little pattypans to massive pumpkins, and all of them have slightly different colors, flavors, and textures from one another.

So you’d think with all the variety out there, it would be hard to narrow down just a handful of favorites.

But not for me. No question, I could happily live the rest of my life with a garden full of just ‘Delicata’ and maybe some Hokkaido.

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It’s all right there in the name: “Delicata” perfectly evokes the tender, airy texture of the flesh of these squash.

But that’s not what they’re named for. It’s the tender rind of this plant that sets it apart.

You don’t have to painstakingly scrape and cut away the skin of this squash. It’s perfectly soft and edible, and adds flavor that skinless winter squash lacks.

Think of the skin like that of young zucchini. Tender and flavorful. Inside, the flesh is nutty, sweet, and creamy.

It’s no more difficult to grow than any other variety of winter squash and we’ll help you succeed.

Before you know it, you’ll be smothered in tender, tasty squash. Before that can happen, we need to go over the following:

What Is Delicata Squash?

‘Delicata’ squash is a winter type, and winter types are usually characterized by tough, thick skin.

Pumpkin, kabocha, acorn, and spaghetti are all common examples of winter varieties. They all have thick skin that makes them last a good, long time in storage.

And that’s where the name “winter” comes from – you can enjoy them during the winter when the growing season is over, whereas summer squash needs to be eaten relatively soon after harvesting in the summer or fall.

The downside of winter squash is that you have to remove that thick skin to enjoy the sweet flesh, and it can be a real challenge sometimes. I literally have scars from skinning pumpkins and Hubbards.

If you’ve ever stood over the sink painstakingly peeling an acorn squash until your fingers ached, you know what a pain that can be. Plus, you miss out on the flavor that the skin could offer.

‘Delicata,’ on the other hand, is a winter type with thin, delicate skin that adds flavor.

Many of the most popular types of both winter and summer squash come from the native North and South American species Cucurbita pepo, like pattypans, crooknecks, zucchini, pumpkins, and of course, the cultivar called ‘Delicata.’

Even though it’s classified as a winter type, it doesn’t store as long as some hard-rinded kinds.

It’s somewhere in between zucchini and spaghetti in terms of storage. It can last a month or two in storage, but it won’t last from fall until spring like some can.

The thin skin actually has many people arguing that it should be classified as a summer type. For now, it lives on the winter side of things.

There are plants with both bush and vining growth habits and all of the fruits are an elongated oval shape with cream or yellow skin that has orange or green stripes.

Cultivation and History

‘Delicata’ was bred and first introduced in 1894 by the Peter Henderson Company of New York, a gardening company started by horticulturalists Peter Henderson and James Henderson, using squash that had been cultivated for decades before.

It was an immediate success, but a one-two-three hit of the Great Depression, low yields, and its inability to withstand some of the most common fungal squash diseases saw its popularity drop dramatically.

For decades, people missed out on the sweet squashy treat until a Cornell professor named Henry Munger picked up a ‘Delicata’ at a P&C grocery store in Ithaca’s East Hill Plaza in the 1980s.

He took it to the university and used it in their breeding program.

Eventually, plant geneticist and Professor of Agronomy Molly Jahn and Professor of Plant Breeding George Moriarty at Cornell crossbred the offspring from this squash with acorn types, which are more disease resistant, to come up with ‘Cornell’s Bush Delicata.’

This new variety was high yielding and resisted fungal diseases, with a handy compact, bushy growth habit.

Thus was reborn the ‘Delicata’ cultivar that we know and love today.

Propagation

‘Delicata’ can be propagated in two ways. You can either save seeds from existing squash or buy seeds for sowing, or you can buy a seedling.

Plants should be spaced about five feet apart, depending on the cultivar. Don’t crowd them – crowding is a fast track to diseases.

From Seed

Sowing ‘Delicata’ seeds isn’t much different from what you would do with any other kind of winter squash.

These plants need rich, well-draining, loamy, loose soil. The right pH is somewhere between 6.0 and 6.8, but these plants can tolerate soil slightly outside of that range.

Since the plants need up to 100 days to mature, you need to decide if you have the right climate to start them outdoors or indoors.

Since they do best with temperatures above 70°F, those with cool, short growing seasons should definitely start their seeds in the spring.

Look at your local climate calendar and determine when temperatures are predicted to be above 70°F during the day.

Then, count back about four weeks. That’s when you should start your seeds. Or, for direct sowing, that’s when you should put them in the ground outside.

To start seeds indoors, pick up a few three-inch pots and fill them with potting soil.

I always use biodegradable CowPots because they’re made from a renewable resource and they reduce the stress of transplanting for seedlings, which should lower your stress as well!

Plant the seeds an inch deep in the pot or ground and water well to moisten the soil enough that it feels like a well-wrung-out sponge.

If you’re using pots, they should be placed somewhere bright and sunny indoors on a seed heating mat. A west-facing window with no trees or fences blocking the way is perfect.

Since that’s hard to find, you’ll probably need to use supplemental lighting. Seedlings need eight hours of sun per day or you’ll be looking at slow, leggy growth.

I usually find my plants do better if I direct-sow them or if I use CowPots. Transplanting seems to bother them.

From Seedlings

Plant in the spring when you have 80 to 100 days with temperatures above freezing ahead of you, for the plants to mature.

If you don’t have that much time, you should opt to start seeds indoors at least a month in advance of the last frost date.

You can also squeeze in a few extra weeks by covering plants in frost cloth and planting slightly before the last predicted frost date.

To plant seedlings, prep your garden area, raised bed, or container, which needs to hold at least seven gallons. Containers should be filled with potting soil, and garden soil needs to be rich, loose, and loamy. It must also be well-draining, with a pH between 6.0 and 6.8.

If you need to improve your native soil, work in lots of well-rotted compost. It works wonders, loosening up clay and enriching sand.

Next, dig a hole that is twice as wide as the container that the plant came in. Gently remove the seedling from the container if it’s not biodegradable and place it in the hole. Shore up around it with soil and water well.

How to Grow

These plants need full sun. Don’t skimp and try to get by with a partially shady spot. You’ll just be inviting fungal issues and stunted growth.

If you can’t provide full sun, you’re better off planting in a container somewhere that does receive full sun.

Keep the soil moist. This can be a challenge in the heat of summer, so some organic mulch can go a long way toward helping you keep the soil moist.

Speaking of, be sure you’re watering at the soil level and not the leaves. That can be hard to do since the leaves form a dense canopy, but make it happen. Squash plants are prone to fungal diseases, and those fungi just love lots of water.

If you have drip irrigation, all the better. I’ve never had happier squash than when I use drip irrigation to maintain regular moisture.

I never fertilize my ‘Delicata,’ but go for it if you want. Just be aware that over-fertilizing causes leaf growth at the expense of fruit development. Instead, I side-dress once a month with handfuls of well-rotted compost.

Be diligent about keeping weeds away. Not only do weeds steal nutrients, but they can harbor and spread disease.

Growing Tips

• Keep the soil moist.
• Plant in full sun.
• Side dress once a month with well-rotted compost.

Maintenance

Once your plant is in the ground and spreading away, there’s little you need to do.

Trim away any leaves or vines that are dead or damaged, using a clean pair of shears. Other than that, just keep up with the water and watch it grow.

Cultivars to Select

Most of the time, you’ll just find this plant listed as ‘Delicata,’ but there are a few lovely strains out there.

‘Delicata’

Grab 15 heirloom seeds from Burpee, if you’re interested.

Otherwise, check out these excellent options:

Cornell’s Bush

‘Cornell’s Bush Delicata’ is a tidy little plant that will only spread out to about six feet wide and the fruit is ready in just 80 days, which makes it one of the earliest ripening winter squashes out there.

As you might imagine, the fruits are a bit smaller than those of the parent cultivar, but they’re every bit as sweet.

This 2002 All-America Selections winner is powdery mildew resistant. Because of its impressive disease resistance and bushy growth habit, it has become the most popular strain out there. It’s also open-pollinated so you can save the seeds to use year after year.

It stores well, too. These can last for 100 days in a cool, dark spot.

‘Cornell’s Bush Delicata’

It’s pretty impossible not to love this strain. Do you agree?

Grab some seeds for yourself at True Leaf Market. They carry four-gram, one-ounce, four-ounce, one-pound, five-pound, and 25-pound options.

Candystick

Ready in just 90 days, ‘Candystick’ has pleasing tan-orange skin and deep green stripes. It’s not just a pretty face, though.

Inside that tender skin is a rich, sweet, orange flesh. It’s so sweet that you don’t even need to drizzle on any maple syrup – it’s a natural dessert.

This open-pollinated strain was bred in Oregon by Carol Deppe, a Harvard-educated plant breeder and gardening book author who specializes in creating public-domain crops.

Deppe bred this beauty to have tiny seed cavities so you get more flesh per fruit than with some other strains.

Honey Boat

If you did one of those blind taste tests with this squash, you’d be pretty sure you were eating candy when you bit into this squash. It’s that sweet.

It was developed by Dr. James Baggett and his team at Oregon State University to be flavorful, early producing, and resistant to disease.

‘Honey Boat’

‘Honey Boat’ takes about 105 days to mature and has large seed cavities, which makes it ideal for stuffing.

Seeds in a variety of package sizes are available from High Mowing Organic Seeds and from Botanical Interests.

Jester

Jester is all dressed up like a court entertainer in striped bloomers. The midribs of the fruit are dark green while the flesh is pale ivory.

It’s ready in about 95 days, with medium-sized, egg-shaped fruits on a semi-vining plant.

Zeppelin

Plant breeder Frank Morton of Wild Garden Seed in Oregon bred this strain as an open-pollinated heirloom that improved on the parent cultivar to create a semi-vining, sturdy plant.

The large fruits are ready in 100 days and feature a showy yellow skin with deep green stripes.

Managing Pests and Disease

‘Delicata’ is disease-resistant, so you’re less likely to have to deal with the kind of problems that can plague other winter squashes.

One year, I had a few different squashes growing in my garden and all of them except the ‘Delicata’ struggled with powdery mildew. If you’ve faced powdery mildew in the past, plant the ‘Cornell Bush Delicata’ strain because it’s particularly resistant.

They aren’t immune to anthracnose, however.

This fungal disease is caused by Colletotrichum orbiculare and it thrives during hot, rainy periods. Causing yellow, water-soaked spots on the stems and leaves, the fungi can kill the fruit before it matures by causing sunken, rotten spots.

Crop rotation and buying certified disease-free seed will go a long way toward preventing this disease.

It can be challenging to treat, but if you catch it early and use a stellar product like Mycostop, you can get it under control enough to still have a big, healthy harvest.

I’m always singing the praises of Mycostop because it’s incredibly powerful and effective, plus it doesn’t harm the environment.

Mycostop Biofungicide

Buy some at Arbico Organics in a five- or 25-gram packet and keep it around just in case.

No cucurbit is immune to squash bugs, so read our guide for tips on how to spot and stop this pest. Keep an eye out for aphids, as well.

Harvesting

Wait until the leaves of the plant start to turn yellow and the stem feels hard and dry before you harvest the fruits of your labor.

The rind should feel hard and the color should have turned to whatever mature colors your strain exhibits.

At that point, cut them away from the vine with a sharp pair of clippers. Leave about half an inch of stem attached to extend the storage life of the squash.

Preserving

‘Delicata’ squash can last for months if you store them in a cool, dark area with good air circulation.

You can also cube the flesh with the skin on into one-inch sections, boil until soft, and then pack into containers and freeze.

If you’re into pressure canning, you can pressure can winter squash. Or slice it thin after washing and dehydrate in an electric dehydrator or in your oven at the lowest setting.

Recipes and Cooking Ideas

Oh ‘Delicata,’ how we love thee. Let me count the ways…

It’s perfectly marvelous roasted with butter or turned into a hash with some potatoes. Scrape out the middle and put your favorite topping inside and toss the whole thing in the oven.

I like breadcrumbs, butter, pistachios, and garlic, but add what you like.

If you make squash veggie patties, try it with unpeeled ‘Delicata.’ The skin adds a whole new layer of flavor and texture. Check out this recipe on our sister site, Foodal.

It’s also great roasted and allowed to cool and then tossed into a kale salad, or blended with your favorite ingredients into a soup.

The meatier texture of the skin makes slices or cubes of the flesh and skin a good substitute for meat in tacos as well.

Quick Reference Growing Guide

Plant Type:	Annual vegetable	Water Needs:	Moderate
Native to:	South America	Maintenance:	Low
Hardiness (USDA Zone):	3-9	Tolerance:	Downy mildew, fusarium wilt, leaf spot, powdery mildew
Season:	Fall	Soil Type:	Loamy, rich, loose
Exposure:	Full sun	Soil pH:	6.0-6.8
Time to Maturity:	80-100 days	Soil Drainage:	Well-draining
Spacing:	5 feet	Companion Planting:	Borage, chives, corn, dill, marigolds, nasturtiums, peas, tomatoes
Planting Depth:	1 inch (seeds), same depth as container (seedlings)	Avoid Planting With:	Brassicas, melons, potatoes
Height:	18 inches	Family:	Cucurbitaceae
Spread:	10 feet	Genus:	Cucurbita
Growth Rate:	Moderate	Species:	Pepo
Common Pests and Disease:	Aphids, squash bugs; Anthracnose	Cultivar:	Delicata

Enjoy Your ‘Delicata,’ Skin and All

If it wasn’t clear already, I’m a huge fan of ‘Delicata’ squash. I remember the first time I tried it. I couldn’t get enough, and I didn’t even know it was so freakin’ easy to grow!

How do you intend to use your harvest? Share with us in the comments, since the biggest challenge of growing ‘Delicata’ is going to be using them all up!

Was this guide useful for you? I hope so. We have many other guides to help you on your cucurbit journey, so check these out next:

For the last few months I haven’t been able to keep a consistent video release schedule. We’ve been shooting for Wednesday and Sunday video release days, but getting good videos out keeps getting derailed by family events, talks, illness, other projects, inclement weather, a videographer with morning sickness, etc.

My ideal video is one that is well thought-out, scripted, artistically shot with excellent B-roll, interspersed with good original music, provides useful information and is at least ten minutes in length. It’s even better if it has a skit or a rap or a great joke in it.

Yet we have found that simply standing in the garden and relating some information about a particular plant, method or technique, with almost no B-roll and very little time and editing… still gets good views. Oftentimes the views are even better.

It seems to come down to three things:

1. A great thumbnail
2. A great title (yes, this means clickbait-esque)
3. An interesting or provocative idea that increases debate

That’s really it. My personal favorite videos rarely take off at all.

It seems our main audience is really only interested in information, not artistic beauty, entertaining skits, great camera angles, etc.

When I imagined doing YouTube years ago and how I wanted it to work, I pictured a channel where I would present some good gardening information along with lots of humor and music, and sometimes just funny skits that had nothing at all to do with gardening.

Like this one:

More related to gardening, we recently did a video which was highly written and planned out, with lots of work in the editing, costuming, etc.

Yet that video is stalled out with roughly 23k total views. That’s a decent view count; yet I’ve already gotten more views from this video (28k) which was easy to film and edit:

And this one, which took only about 15 minutes to film, has beat them both with 32k views only 5 days after release:

Clickbait title? CHECK!

Classic REACTION IMAGE thumbnail? CHECK!

PROVOCATIVE idea? CHECK! 

Okay… so here we are.

The grand artistic ideas simply take more time to execute and seem to make little difference – and perhaps even a negative difference – on views.

On YouTube, views are the lifeblood of the channel. If we spend two days making a video which does not get many views, we do not reap much ad revenue or gain many subscribers.

That means, in effect, that we are punished for making more creative content. It might pay only $1 per hour or so, whereas throwing together a rant video might pay us $100 in revenue for an hour of work.

It’s crazy.

But, all that to say, this spring we have not been able to stick to a regular release schedule of videos which are highly planned, artistic, and time-consuming to produce. And that may not matter, since our simple videos seem to do as well – or better – than those we consider Classic Good Content(TM).

So, with that said, we’re going to try and up the amount of videos we’re releasing while decreasing the amount of time it takes to create them. That means more “talking in the garden” style vids.

Which may, by the numbers, just be what people want anyhow.

What do you think?

Share this post!

Spring is when the native wildflowers in the woods really show off. I love this time of year, when I can go out to look for all my favorites in natural areas.

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis, Zones 3–8) is so pretty. I just wish the flowers lasted longer!

Closer look at the bloodroot flowers

Hepatica (Hepatica acutiloba, Zones 3–8) is such an early bloomer. It is fun to look at big groups in the woods and see all the different colors. Some I see are white, others are blue, and there are lots of lavenders in between. I love all of them!

This hepatica is so pretty—such a rich color.

I think this is Cardamine douglassii (Zones 3–8). The pink flowers are so delicate, and they smell good too. I always see so many pollinators visiting the flowers in the spring.

I can’t get enough of Cardamine douglassii. There are so many blooms, it makes the woods look like a flower garden.

Dutchman’s britches (Dicentra cucullaria, Zones 3–7) is a favorite. I like the flowers, of course, and the foliage is pretty too. It almost looks like fern fronds. After it flowers, it will go completely dormant and disappear.

Usually when I see trout lily (Erythronium americanum, Zones 3–9) I just see a lot of leaves, but not many flowers. But not this clump! It is blooming so much.

 

Have a garden you’d like to share?

Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!

To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.

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Wouldn’t it be great, when it comes to your vegetable garden, if you could just plant it and forget it? Some of our favorites, like tomatoes, eggplants, and carrots, require almost constant care for a successful crop. And while there are certainly edible plants that pop up without much, if any, intervention on your part—the plant that sprouted from a fallen tomato, now somehow thriving in full shade and producing fruit; the lemon balm planted decades ago and still growing, unfortunately, everywhere—I’m talking about a more reliable list of vegetables that you can pretty much ignore, barring normal low-lift maintenance, like watering. There are, of course, no pest- and disease-free plants, but what sets these five vegetables apart is their high success rate. If their needs are mostly met, they survive and can thrive, leaving you more time to focus on the needier members of your garden.

Featured image courtesy of Rob Maday Landscape Architecture, from Gardenista’s 2015 Considered Design Awards.

1. Scarlet Runner Beans

Provide them with support and they will produce in abundance! They have stunning red and sometimes white or pink flowers that bees adore. After the flowers, the plants produce a heavy harvest of pods containing speckled purple or pink beans that would make a stunning necklace if they weren’t food.

2. Beets

Providing a late spring and early summer crop, and then again in the fall, beets are very low-maintenance. You can buy seed tape (a paper tape that has the seeds embedded at the correct spacing) with which you literally have to just dig a small trench, lay down the tape and cover with soil. Keep watered and harvest in around two months. Beets do attract a few pests that mostly affect the tops, but nothing serious.

Native to the Mediterranean region and the Middle East, oregano grows one to two feet tall and two feet wide at maturity.

Its leaves are oval and fragrant. Small, edible blooms in pink, lavender, or white form on spikes in mid- to late summer. Flowers have a more mild flavor than the leaves, and make a pretty addition to summer salads.

Hardy in USDA Zones 5-10, this plant can be grown as an annual in more northern climates.

Let’s learn how you can add this flavorful, easy-to-grow herb to your garden.

You may see oregano mistakenly referred to by any number of names that have “marjoram” in them, including winter sweet marjoram, wild marjoram, sweet wild marjoram… You get the picture.

However, while they are both members of the mint family, marjoram is indeed a different species with the botanical name O. majorana.

To add a little additional confusion, there are also two other, unrelated herbs with “oregano” in their names. Mexican oregano is Lippia graveolens, a member of the verbena family. Check out our full guide to growing Mexican oregano.

And Cuban oregano, Plectranthus amboinicus, is a member of the mint family, with a distinctive camphor, or menthol-like aroma.

A number of different varieties of O. vulgare are available, all with slightly different flavor profiles.

The most commonly used in American kitchens are the Greek O. vulgare subsp. hirtum, – previously classified as its own species, O. heracleoticum – and Italian varieties.

Italian cultivars sold commercially are often hybrid crosses between O. vulgare and O. majoricum, resulting in a mild, less bold flavor than the Greek type.

Syrian oregano, O. syriacum, a different species, is native to the Middle East. With its intensely aromatic overtones, it is a common addition to the spice mix za’atar.

Cultivation and History

Greece, the birthplace of so much that is good in our universe, also gave us oregano. In ancient Greece, the aromatic herb was described as “joy of the mountain,” and said to have been created by the goddess Aphrodite.

Citizens in the birthplace of democracy also believed that oregano safeguarded good luck and good health. In that long-ago culture, the herb symbolized joy and was often planted near homes to ward off evil spirits.

The conquering Romans appreciated this culinary herb and carried it with them, spreading it hither and yon as they invaded territory after territory.

Interestingly, oregano did not find huge popularity in the United States until soldiers stationed in Italy returned from World War II and brought back a taste for the herb they’d come to love in pizza sauce.

Propagation

Oregano can be propagated from seed, cuttings, or by dividing existing plants.

From Seed

Directly sow outdoors when daytime temperatures hit 70°F. Place seeds on top of the soil and lightly press them into the surface. Don’t cover the tiny seeds – they need light to germinate, which should take about 4 days.

Sow seeds in rows about 20 inches apart and thin seedlings to 8 inches.

You can also start seeds indoors at any time of the year, provided you’ve got a sunny location, or a grow light. Transplants should be set out in the garden when all risk of frost has passed.

Keep in mind that saved seeds may not produce a plant identical to the mother plant. You would have to take a cutting in order to achieve that.

From Cuttings

In the spring, use a sharp knife or garden shears to cut four- to five-inch pieces of softwood stem at a 45-degree angle. Remove the leaves from the bottom two inches.

Put cuttings in either water or a peat moss and vermiculite mixture. Change the water every two to three days, if you choose that option. If planting in a soilless mix, make sure you keep it moist.

Place the cuttings in an area with bright light, but not in direct sun.

Cuttings will be ready to transplant in four to five weeks, when the roots are about an inch long.

Root Division

Oregano plants are vigorous growers and easy to divide. The best time to do this is in spring or at the beginning of the fall, when the ground is still warm.

Simply dig up an existing plant and cut it through the root ball into two or more sections, then replant the divisions in pots or a different area of your garden. For more information see our guide to dividing perennials.

How to Grow and Best Uses

Like vacationers in Cabo San Lucas, oregano enjoys full sun. The plant also needs well-drained soil with a pH of 4.5 to 8.7, but the soil doesn’t need to be amended with anything special otherwise. Sandy loam, for example, is fine.

Fairly tolerant of hot and dry conditions, oregano appreciates about an inch of water per week; be sure to let the soil dry out completely in between waterings. For this reason, it also grows very well in containers, where the soil tends to dry out more quickly.

O. vulgare doesn’t require extra fertilization.

In addition to its culinary uses, oregano makes a very nice ground cover. It also makes an attractive border front and looks terrific in rock gardens. Some gardeners grow it in containers, where it spills nicely over the sides.

This plant can get leggy if you’re not pinching it back or harvesting the leaves often enough. So even if you don’t plan to make pizza sauce every night, be sure to trim it regularly throughout spring and summer to encourage bushy growth.

If you want more plants, you can let it flower and go to seed in mid- to late summer, as it reproduces easily.

If you want more control over this than you would if you simply allowed the birds and the wind to handle the reseeding for you, collect the seed heads when they are completely dry, shake them into a paper bag or envelope, and store them in a cool, dark place until you’re ready to plant.

In cooler regions, you can cut them back right after the first frost, and mulch heavily around and over your plants; they’ll come roaring back in springtime.

Managing Pests and Disease

While oregano doesn’t usually suffer from any serious insect or disease problems, there are a few annoyances to keep an eye out for.

Insects

These are the main pests that could cause a bit of trouble with your oregano plants.

Aphids (Aphidoidea)

Use blasts of water or insecticidal soap to get rid of these tiny, soft-bodied, pear-shaped pests that suck the life out of plants. They cause mottled leaves that turn yellow or brown and wilting foliage, stunting growth, and potentially even killing your plants.

Another control method for aphids on oregano is to introduce beneficial insects such as ladybugs, which are naturally attracted to the plant and enjoy feasting on these pesky insects.

Leafminers (Lyriomyza spp.)

Leafminers leave narrow, white trails or white blotches on leaves. These 1/8-inch-long flies can be yellow, dark gray, or black. The fly larvae feed on the insides of plant leaves.

Spray with neem oil to get rid of these pests.

Read more about identifying and controlling leafminers here.

Spider Mites (Tetranychidae)

Though these miniature bugs are so tiny you may not be able to see them clearly with the naked eye, you will probably notice little webs dotted with white specks if you have an infestation.

They damage plants by sucking out fluids, causing leaves to turn brown and fall off the plant.

Treat a spider mite infestation by spraying with neem oil.

Find more information about controlling spider mites here.

Disease

Mint rust (Puccinia menthae) is a fungal disease that may plague oregano. Look for small orange, brown, or yellow pustules on the undersides of leaves.

This disease can cause new shoots to be pale, and large areas of leaf tissue can die and drop.

Try treating mint rust with a fungicide. If damage is extensive, you may have to pull up and destroy affected plants.

Preserving

You have a couple of options to preserve oregano leaves.

You can use a dehydrator, if you have one. If you don’t, check out this guide to the best dehydrators on the market today on our sister site, Foodal.

Or you can hang bunches of stems in a cool, dry place. Place a perforated paper bag over the bunches to catch any bits that fall off, and to keep dust off the leaves.

Store the dried leaves in an airtight plastic or glass container in a cool, dark location. They will retain their flavor for about six months. You can find more information on drying herbs in our guide.

Or why not try making an oregano-infused oil? This is an easy way to add a touch of flavor to salad dressings, to drizzle on bread, or even to share the fruits of your harvest with friends. Our sister site, Foodal, has full instructions.

Recipes and Cooking Ideas

The flavor of oregano matches particularly well with that of garlic and fresh tomato, and the three are heavily relied upon in Italian cooking, presumably since the time when the herb first made the short hop across the Ionian Sea from Greece to Italy.

Quick Reference Growing Guide

Plant Type:	Perennial herb	Tolerance:	Drought, heat
Native to:	Mediterranean and Middle East	Water Needs:	Moderate
Hardiness (USDA Zone):	5-10	Maintenance:	Moderate
Season:	Summer	Soil Type:	Average
Exposure:	Full sun	Soil pH:	4.5-8.7
Time to Maturity:	45 days	Soil Drainage:	Well-draining
Growth Rate:	Average	Attracts:	Flowers attract bees
Spacing:	Single plants: 7 inches; row: 5 inches with a 9-inch row gap	Companion Planting:	Broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, squash, tomatoes
Planting Depth:	Seeds: surface sow under light scattering of soil; transplants: same depth as container	Family:	Lamiaceae
Height:	12-24 inches	Genus:	Origanum
Spread:	18-24 inches	Species:	vulgare
Common Pests:	Aphids, leafminers, spider mites	Common Disease:	Mint rust

People have come up with some crazy ideas for the garden over the years. Some of these ideas work, while others do more harm than good.

But one new trend is gaining popularity, despite sounding like a bad idea. They’re using a toy called Orbeez with their gardens and potted plants.

Let’s take some time to look at what these are, what they do, and why you might want to use them with your own plants.

Orbeez For Plants: How To Use Orbeez In Plants

Using Orbeez for your plants isn’t a new concept, but many people have never heard of it.

What Are Orbeez?

Orbeez is small, hydrophilic super absorbent polymer (or SAP for short) balls about the size of ball bearings.

When placed in water, they will slowly swell to 150% percent of their original size, with some becoming as big as 2 ¼” inches across.

The brand Orbeez was developed in 2009 by Maya Toys and soon became a big hit.

But this is only one part of the story. Believe it or not, Orbeez was adapted from an existing product.

Ron Brawler and Sharen Cohen had seen their daughter Maya playing with strange polymer orbs in a vase and saw the play potential.

These orbs were actually water beads that were invented in the 1960s to store water for plants.

Since then, they have been used for providing a safe water source for crickets and other small creatures, as well as a diaper filler in their gel form.

Are Orbeez Safe For Plants?

As you can see, Orbeez was developed from an existing product meant for plants, but are Orbeez themselves safe?

Thankfully, this product is completely safe and non-toxic.

It’s made of completely biodegradable materials, meaning you can use them in the garden without having to worry about any long-term effects.

How Do Orbeez Work?

The SAP that Orbeez is made of doesn’t simply absorb water, meaning you can cut it open and won’t find the water.

Instead, the polymer’s molecules bind with water molecules, expanding the bead as the water becomes part of the core structure.

This process is fairly slow, requiring the beads to be soaked from 4 hours to overnight to reach full size.

However, you can place them in an open container for 24 to 48 hours, and they’ll return to their original size.

This unique process allows them to capture water and slowly release it back into the soil, which can help reduce the risk of overwatering. Because they grow and shrink, they can also help reduce soil compaction.

Using Orbeez With Your Plants

There are many ways to use Orbeez. Here are some of the most popular ones.

Add To Garden Soil

This original use is intended for water beads and still works quite well.

When preparing the soil in your garden, mix in some Orbeez as you would an aggregate.

While you can add them in dry, it’s usually better to soak them first, so they’ll help your seedlings or any transplanted plants recover more quickly.

Filling them first can also give you a better idea of how much the ground will swell after watering or rain.

Aid In Transplanting Seedlings

Sometimes, we just can’t help ourselves and decide to grow cuttings in jars of water instead of soil.

This can be fun to watch, but it’s a rather big shock for the plant to go from water to soil.

Thankfully, water beads can reduce transplant shock and even serve as an intermediate medium.

Slowly add some Orbeez to your jar in layers so the jar won’t overflow and the expanding beads won’t push the plant out.

Once the beads have filled the jar, give the plant a few days to acclimate, then do your transplanting.

Be sure to add some swollen Orbeez into the new potting soil to help ensure the plant gets the right amount of water as it recovers.

Substitute For Potting Soil

Of course, you can also simply grow the plants in a container of Orbeez.

Soil-free mixes can be just as effective as a soil mix, and the water beads work surprisingly well as a planting medium.

You can either transplant seedlings or cuttings to the Orbeez-filled container or plant seeds directly into it.

When growing from seed, observe any planting instructions, treating the Orbeez as you would soil.

Note that your plants will still need fertilizer and other essentials when growing in any type of water bead, as they provide water but not nutrients.

Some Final Notes

Things have a way of coming full circle, and Orbeez is a perfect example.

Having been inspired by water beads developed for plants, Orbeez has gone from being a popular toy to an increasingly popular tool for plant lovers.

They come in a wide range of bright colors and are relatively inexpensive. As a result, it’s become a trend to grow plants directly in clear jars full of Orbeez to create a decorative statement.

Using them in the garden can serve many of the same functions as aggregates and will slowly degrade over time without any toxicity.

In other words, Orbeez is a great choice for any plant lover, and we expect to see their popularity continue to increase in the coming years.

The same goes for squash vine borers (Melittia cucurbitae), and spotted (Diabrotica undecimpunctata) and striped cucumber beetles (Acalymma vittatum).

All of these insects will choose ‘Blue Hubbard’ over pretty much anything else.

If you really want to ensure that your zukes thrive without becoming an all-you-can-eat-buffet for these bugs, plant some ‘Blue Hubbard’ squash nearby.

This is a practice known as trap cropping and it’s highly effective.

Even better, go out and hand-pick the inevitable bugs as they tuck into the meal you’ve provided.

‘Blue Hubbard’ Squash

You can also regularly spray your ‘Blue Hubbard’ plants with an insecticide containing pyrethrins. Just make sure your ‘Blue Hubbard’ is within 10 feet or so of your zucchini crop.

To bring home an eighth of an ounce of seeds, head to High Mowing Organic Seeds.

Learn more about how to grow winter squash in our guide.

2. Marigolds

Marigolds (Tagetes spp.) kick butt as a companion plant. They effectively repel whiteflies and root-knot nematodes, and they attract slugs and snails away from more valuable crops.

They also draw aphids away from squash crops.

Plus, they’re extremely prolific and colorful. We have a guide that explains how to best use marigolds in the garden as a companion plant if you’re looking for all the details about this cheerful flower.

Plant them within a few feet of your zukes.

Happy Days Mixed Marigolds

Happy Days Mixed is a vibrant, varied mixture of red, orange, and yellow two-inch blossoms. You can snag seeds at Burpee in packs of 150.

You can find more information about growing marigolds in our guide.

3. Marjoram

To know marjoram (Origanum majorana) is to love her, and sadly, not enough people know her.

If you haven’t tried growing marjoram before, and you want your zucchini to grow well, it’s time you gave it a try.

Besides the fact that the herb tastes fantastic chopped on baked zucchini, marjoram repels whiteflies, so you get two benefits for the price of one.

Be sure the marjoram is within a few feet of your squash.

Marjoram

Marjoram is a handy herb to have around the garden, so purchase packages of 2,000 seeds or live plants in three-inch pots at Burpee.

Learn more about growing marjoram in our guide.

4. Nasturtiums

Nasturtiums (Tropaeolum spp.) are a triple threat: they taste delicious and add color to culinary adventures, they self-seed reliably so they return year after year, and they attract aphids and flea beetles away from your zucchini.

Don’t panic that these pests will destroy your beloved nasturtiums, though. These colorful beauties are tough.

Plant them within a few feet of your squash. The beautiful flowers are just a giant bonus.

‘Salmon Baby’ Nasturtiums

‘Salmon Baby,’ for instance, has elegant pink and salmon flowers and you can bring home a packet, ounce, quarter-pound, or pound of seeds from Eden Brothers.

You can find more information about growing nasturtiums here.

5. Okra

Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it repels silverleaf whiteflies (Bemisia argentifolli) and may help increase yields in your zukes, so keep it around even if you don’t have plans to eat it.

‘Red Burgundy’ is a lovely ornamental variety with attractive flowers and red pods.

‘Red Burgundy’ Okra

Want some? Packets of seeds are available at High Mowing Seeds.

Silverleaf whiteflies are worth avoiding because they spread diseases and viruses, and they can cause silverleaf disorder, which makes zucchini leaves turn yellow.

If they’re grown within a few feet of your summer squash, they can help drive this annoying pest away.

Learn more about growing okra here.

6. Radishes

Radishes (Raphanus raphanistrum subsp. sativus) are useful for controlling squash bugs (Anasa tristis), and we all know these bugs love zucchini.

Pick your favorite variety so you can eat the radishes, and plan to plant two rounds in succession within a few feet of your squash.

‘French Breakfast’ Radishes

‘French Breakfast’ is a classic option that’s reliable and delicious, and it’s available at Eden Brothers in small packets and in bulk.

Find cultivation tips in our guide to growing radishes.

7. Sunn Hemp

Sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea) isn’t common in many gardens, but those who can grow this plant should consider it. It repels silverleaf whiteflies, and it can help increase yields.

Sunn hemp hails from tropical regions and suppresses nematodes. It also fixes nitrogen in the soil, acting like a natural fertilizer.

The trick is to grow it as a living mulch, but cut it down to below seven inches tall and keep it below that height. If it grows taller, you actually run the risk of reducing yields.

Sunn Hemp

For 10 pounds of seed to add to your garden – and maybe share with friends – visit Walmart.

8. Sweet Alyssum

Sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima) shows all kinds of promise as an effective cover crop.

It has been the subject of numerous studies and these have shown that sweet alyssum attracts beneficial predators like parasitic and predatory wasps, and flies that help control whiteflies, leaf miners, thrips, mites, and aphids.

Plant this pretty ground cover near your zukes to attract the good bugs that will help you eliminate the bad.

Beyond their ability to bring in the good stuff, sweet alyssum plants make a dense, colorful ground cover for shady areas. That means you can plant them under your zukes, and they’ll be fine.

Or, plant them around your zucchini instead. Sweet alyssum can tolerate sun, so these flowers can adapt to all kinds of spaces.

‘Carpet of Snow,’ with its thick growth habit and abundant white flowers, gives the impression of a beautiful blanket of snow covering your garden without the cold temperatures.

‘Carpet of Snow’ Sweet Alyssum

Bring home some seed for planting from Eden Brothers in small packets, one-ounce, and quarter-, one-, or five-pound containers.

Learn more about growing sweet alyssum in our guide.

9. White Clover

Along with okra, white clover (Trifolium repens) keeps silverleaf whiteflies away.

It also fixes nitrogen in the soil and loosens it up, too. Grow some between your plants to work as a green walkway.

White Clover

Bulk packages of one, five, 20, or 40 pounds of seed are available at High Mowing Organic Seeds so you can spread the clover love far and wide.

What to Avoid

Black-eyed peas (Vigna unguicalata) are an important crop in many parts of the world and this species has been the subject of numerous studies to see if they can provide any value as a companion crop.

Unfortunately, hydrangeas can be one of its victims, and bigleaf hydrangeas – Hydrangea macrophylla – are particularly susceptible.

In this article, we’re going to help you to prevent, diagnose, and treat anthracnose in your hydrangeas.

I’ll cover the following topics:

How to Distinguish Anthracnose from Cercospora Leaf Spot

Anthracnose is often confused with Cercospora leaf spot, but there are key differences that you may observe.

While Cercospora also forms circular spots on hydrangea leaves, the lesions start out purple.

As they grow larger, they develop lighter colored centers that look like frog eyes.

When this infection becomes established, whole leaves can turn purple. Keep in mind that this is not to be confused with a phosphorus deficiency either, which may also turn foliage purple.

Another key difference is that when your hydrangea is infected with Cercospora, you will see spots on the lower leaves first.

In the case of an anthracnose infection, the lesions can appear simultaneously throughout the top and bottom parts of the plant.

A final notable difference is that Cercospora will not infect the flowers.

Conditions That Favor Infection

Anthracnose is a disease typically seen in hot, wet conditions.

The increased moisture facilitates the spread of the spores, which then infect other areas of the plant. It can also spread to other hydrangeas. The ideal temperatures for infection range from 75 to 90°F.

Several days of wet weather and high temperatures dramatically increase the chances of infection, since the spores spread more quickly.

If there are infected leaves on the plant or leaf debris on the ground beneath it, fruiting bodies will form masses of spores.

All it takes is a bit of rain or overhead watering to spread these spores to other leaves – and even flowers. Prolonged periods of dew and heavy fog also facilitate the spread of this pathogen.

In addition to the masses of spores found in infected tissue on your hydrangeas, this pathogen is widespread in the surrounding environment. Therefore, it is likely to be present in your area and may pose a risk to your hydrangeas whenever the weather is favorable.

Prevention

The good news is that there are some steps you can take to keep this infection from becoming established in your prized plants.

This disease is spread by water, so avoid spraying the flowers and foliage of your plants when you water.

You are much better off watering at the base of the plant. Hydrangeas like a lot of water, but ideally you should water deeply with a soaker hose and then let the soil become dry to the touch in between waterings.

Another tip is avoid over-fertilizing the plants.

Dr. Fulya Baysal-Gurel, et al of Tennessee State University College of Agriculture, Human, and Natural Sciences report that hydrangeas that have been heavily fertilized may be more susceptible to anthracnose.

Management

Once this disease takes hold, it is very difficult to eradicate. But don’t fret! You can take steps to control an infection, or start new plants if you need to.

Since anthracnose can be a difficult disease to treat, when you see the first signs of infection, I recommend taking cuttings from healthy parts of your plant right away.

By taking cuttings that you may root and transplant into the garden, if the disease does end up killing up your hydrangea, you will at least have a few replacements ready to go.

Learn how to propagate hydrangeas from cuttings here.

Next up, let’s take a look at the available options to manage an anthracnose infection.

Pruning and Sanitation

If you see signs of infection, prune out as much of the diseased plant tissue as you can, to prevent the infection from spreading. Trim away any diseased foliage and branches, and gather them for disposal.

Be aware that although hydrangeas can generally tolerate quite a hard pruning, if you have to remove more than 1/3 of the plant, it may not recover.

The fungus can overwinter in plant debris, which can then serve as a source of infection the following spring. Do whatever you can to prevent this as well.

Pick up any fallen leaves or other plant debris on the ground under your hydrangea and dispose of it away from your plants. Preferably, you should place it in a tied bag in the garbage. Do not put infected plant material in your compost pile.

Make sure to disinfect your pruning shears afterwards, with a solution of 10 percent bleach or 70 percent rubbing alcohol. You may also want to consider cleaning your tools between cuts or between plants while you are pruning, to avoid additional unwanted spread.

On my recent video of Noah Sanders demonstrating till vs. no-till soil, Captain Ron comments:

When I first heard about no-dig or no-till gardening, I thought it was just another one of those “too good to be true” things. But as is my habit when I hear of something new soil amendment or practice, I look for published field trials to see if there was any measurable benefit. I was surprised to find that this was really a “thing” and there were several studies that had been conducted. Both showed promising results.

Over 50 years of gardening experience has taught me to be skeptical about gardening advice beyond adding compost unless I could find objective examples of whether it would measurably improve my production. And even then, before I adopt an innovative approach, I always conduct my own informal trials comparing differences in the same season with the same plants. I decided to devote 2 of my 10 raised beds to no till.

I did this for two seasons. I was more than pleasantly surprised by the results. No, not because there was a significant difference in production, but because there wasn’t. Yet, the no-till beds spared me from digging in the compost every season.

As for whether my practice of no-till produces more or better veggies, I can’t say for sure. I don’t precisely weigh my veggies for my trials. My approach is that if I compare same-season, same plant approaches, and I can’t see a significant difference, then it doesn’t matter. As you pointed out, there are circumstances in which tilling soil produces improved results. If I were a large-scale, commercial farmer, I would be much more precise about measuring my crop production. A 1 or 2% improvement in product would be significant and worthy of adopting a particular practice. At my scale, it’s irrelevant. Thanks for your post.

Here’s the video:

My Thoughts on Till vs. No-till

I have had good results with “lasagna garden” style beds and with long-term beds in my Grocery Row Garden systems. Both are no-till methods.

On the other hand, I have also had good luck with tilling up an area and making single-row gardens, the good old-fashioned way. We’d weed with a garden hoe or a wheel hoe and kept the soil bare all season, then we’d usually scatter a cover crop over it, then, next season, till that in and start again.

The important thing is to be growing food, and not destroying the land you’ve been given.

I do think there’s a place for tillage, though it can be abused. And there is a cultishness to no-till that is disturbing. If I had a buck for every time someone talked to me about Elaine Ingham, I’d be a rich man. Personally, I am not a fan of her, though I agree with a good bit of what she says.

People often aren’t smart enough to take what they can use and discard the rest. Instead, they divide into hostile camps and proclaim their way is the only way and all others are infidels that must be composted.

I’m pleased when I see a productive no-till garden and pleased when I see a productive tilled garden.

Grow food. Leave the factory farming system.

And by all means, experiment in your own backyard like Captain Ron. A season of testing various methods in your garden is almost certainly more valuable than listening to a thousand hours of podcasts.

Go thee out and DO!

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In traditional soap making, lard was our ancestors’ most common fat. To this day, it remains a very accessible and cheap soap-making ingredient. Make a batch for yourself and a friend too with this simple lard soap recipe.

Those who have tried my other soap recipes will know I always make them from plant-based oils. Over the years, I’ve made many soap recipes with ingredients like cocoa butter, rice bran oil, coconut oil, grapeseed oil, shea butter, and more.

But the truth is, these can get expensive. While I’ve made soaps with cheaper oils such as sunflower, I wanted to make an ultra-accessible soap. And lard is one of the cheapest ways to do so.

I also love how great it is for beginners. You can make mistakes and practice techniques without worrying about wasting plenty of expensive oils.

Lard soap is still quality soap. It creates a whiteish bar that’s very creamy and moisturizing. This recipe will still give you plenty of lather! Lard bars are always very hard and, therefore, long-lasting. You’ll get a lot out of just one bar.

Jump ahead to…

The Case for Lard Soap

I won’t deny that lard is a controversial soap ingredient. But it’s what our grandmothers and ancestors used before us. It’s taking it back to the basics.

Many people worry that it will be overly greasy. But really, it’s the opposite! Lard is closer to our skin’s natural oils than most plant oils. It’s very compatible with our skin cell’s structure and has a similar pH.

The soap is mild and moisturizing, so it’s really great for dry and sensitive skin. And whether you believe it or not, it won’t clog your pores.

As I said, lard is very cheap. It’s even cheaper than palm oil, which is probably the most inexpensive plant-based oil on the market. Buying lard also means using every bit of the animal that we can and aren’t being wasteful.

Lard for Soap vs Cooking

Traditionally, lard is rendered pig fat, but you may also see other animal-derived fats labelled as lard. It’s typically used in cooking and has a very neutral and mild flavour. While it used to be a popular choice for baking and deep-frying, now we typically use butter or plant-based oils in its place.

Processed lard from the grocery store does make fine soap. But some of them contain BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) and BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene). These are synthetic antioxidants which act as preservatives to make the lard shelf stable.

While BHA and BHT won’t affect the soap, they aren’t something we necessarily want to add to our natural soaps. Health Canada lists BHA as a high human health priority, and studies have shown that it may cause cancer and affect hormone function. BHT is flagged as a moderate human health priority, and studies have shown it is toxic to mice and rats. So let’s avoid putting that on our skin.

If you’re buying from the grocery store, look for lard without BHA and BHT. If you find natural lard, remember that it may need to be kept in the fridge or freezer before using it and may have an expiration date.

You may also find it in tubs by the meat section or can buy it directly from the butcher. You can even make it yourself! I love this tutorial if you want to try it yourself, using leaf lard and rendering it.

For soap making, you want only to use rendered lard. Rendered lard has been heated, which at that point melts and separates from anything else that may be in the lard.

Tallow vs Lard

You may also encounter tallow. Tallow and lard are both rendered types of fat. But the difference is the origin. Lzard is rendered pig fat, while tallow is rendered beef fat and occasionally other ruminants like sheep or goat).

Lard typically comes from either back fat or kidney fat. Leaf fat is the one that comes from the kidney area, and it tends to be higher in saturated fat. This makes it a bit stiffer and harder at room temperature, though any kind of lard will be softer and more compliant than tallow.

Tallow, meanwhile, most often comes from the kidney area. It’s going to solidify easily at room temperature and appear like cold butter, while lard will remain liquid-like after melting.

If you use tallow for this soap recipe, it may make a different consistency.

How to Make Lard Soap

This lard soap recipe also includes coconut oil and mango butter to give it some extra cleansing properties, a good lather, and make it even more moisturizing. Even with these two additions, it’s still a very affordable soap!

Equipment

Ingredients

Scroll to the end of this post for the exact measurements in the recipe card.

Jump to Recipe

Make It!

If this is your first time making soap, refer to this post for more information on making cold-process soap. I’ll go over everything here, but with less detail.

Start by getting yourself dressed in your safety gear and ensure you’re in a well-ventilated area.

Measure out all your ingredients on a kitchen scale. When it comes to soap making, we want to be as accurate as possible, and weight will give us the closest measurements.

Once you have measured all your ingredients, you will want to combine the lard, mango butter, and coconut oil in a double boiler over low to medium heat. You want to melt the oils together gently.

Meanwhile, make your lye water by adding the lye to the water in a heat-proof container. Lean away while you stir the mixture, as the chemical reaction creates strong fumes you won’t want to breathe in. Once mixed, set it in an ice bath to cool down.

When your oils and lye water have reached 115°F, you can combine them in a large mixing bowl. Use an immersion blender to blend your mixture together until it reaches a trace.

Add in your essential oils, then blend again.

Once blended, pour your recipe into your soap mould. I used these sleeping woman moulds, but you can put them into any soap mould you like.

Let your soap sit somewhere warm for 48 hours. After this time, you can unmold the soap. Cut it if necessary at this stage.

Let the soap cure for six weeks before using it.

Frequently Asked Questions About Lard Soap

Enjoy your soap-making! As always, if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I’m able.

More Soap Recipes to Try

Hello GPOD! My name is Kelly Hansen, and I live in Delmar, New York, right outside of Albany, which is in Zone 5b.

I started “planting” in our yard 25 years ago knowing absolutely nothing about plants and gardening. YouTube hadn’t been invented, and I literally did not even know how to correctly water a plant.

Fast-forward to today. I can confidently say that I have “gardens.” My yard was featured on our community garden club tour, I am near completion of classes toward a gardening certificate through the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG), and in 2022 I started a garden design business, New Leaf Garden Design LLC.

The purpose of my story is to serve as both a warning and an inspiration to new gardeners: a warning to save your money on the front end and to take the time to learn about gardening before you start shopping, and an inspiration to stick with it and enjoy having your hands in the dirt and seeing that first green leaf break in the spring.

We often see gardens from a distance. The perfectly planned drifts and brilliant pops of color allow us to absorb the entire garden through a widescreen lens.

I also love to zoom in as close as possible to see the tiniest parts of the bloom, the color of the leaf veining, and the symmetry of the leaf margins. Inevitably, I back away, completely awe-inspired, and think to myself, “How cool is that?”

Every year, I say I want to move the Euonymus fortunei (Zones 5–9) shrubs out of this bed. That idea evaporates when the butterfly weed (Asclepius tuberosa, Zones 5–9) blooms next to the creamy yellow euonymus, and the color combination is dazzling.

Details of the butterfly weed

The dark lacy foliage of the ‘Black Lace’ elderberry (Sambucus nigra ‘Black Lace’, Zones 5–8) in this photo fades into the background.

The close-up highlights the delicacy of the elderberry bloom.

These photos were taken at 6:30 pm, and the sunlight creates the shadow on the red oak bark and lets the simple green-and-white color palette of the astilbe (Astilbe × arenseii, Zones 3–8), hosta (Hosta hybrid, Zones 3–9), and red oak (Quercus rubra, Zones 3–8) bark really shine through.

 

Have a garden you’d like to share?

Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!

To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.

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Paperbush, Edgeworthia chrysantha

In the tentatively lengthening days of late winter, we cherish the rare botanical signs that this, too, shall pass. There is no better sign of hope than buds. In January and February, when frequent freezes snap hard overnight, flower buds that can withstand shivering temperatures without losing their precious promise of flowers, seem magical. If they are scented, all the better. Edgeworthia, a strange-limbed shrub whose form is more suggestive of deserts than of regions where tropical summers are followed by hard winters, is an exceptional choice for gardeners who crave respite after the most barren of months.

Photography by Marie Viljoen.

Native to the forested Himalayan regions of southern China and Myanmar, Edgeworthia chrysantha (E. papyrifera is a synonym) is known commonly as paperbush in English. Its inner bark fibers have been used for centuries in Japan to make paper and yarn (apparently with insect-repelling properties). Historically, it was used to make Japanese banknotes, and that tradition is being revived.

Edgeworthia’s smooth bark is interesting in winter, when its strange, deciduous limbs are bare. But the shrub’s enchantment is its cold-season buds: silvery and velvet-soft, they persist for freezing weeks until sumptuous clusters of rich yellow flowers open, borne on naked branches in late winter and early spring. Leaves emerge in late spring, long and eucalyptus-like, holding clear diamond drops of water, when it rains.

Cheat Sheet

• Plant Edgeworthia where noses can reach its richly scented flowers.
• If you have the space, use evergreen shrubs as a somber backdrop for its constellation of silver buds and yellow flowers.
• This is not a small shrub—give Edgeworthia room to spread.
• Despite the buds’ cold-resistance, do not locate Edgeworthia where it will be blasted by the prevailing winter wind.

Keep It Alive

• Edgeworthia is officially hardy from USDA zones 7 to 10, but zone 6 is a strong contender in our climate-changing times.
• Edgeworthia grows in full sun, but prefers partial shade in hot summer regions. (If you live in the latter, choose a spot that receives morning sun.)
• Dry summer climates are not Edgeworthia’s happy place – the shrub prefers humidity and ample moisture.
• If planting in a container, you will need to root-prune Edgeworthia every couple of years: this is a shrub that likes to spread!

See also:

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Are you familiar with deadheading? This is the practice of cutting flowers off a plant after they finish blooming, and before they set seed.

Its main purpose is to extend the growing season by energizing plants capable of reblooming, so they will produce as many flowers as possible.

Additional benefits that apply to all flowering plants include promoting foliar and root growth, keeping plants looking their best, preventing seed production and self-sowing, and minimizing yard litter that can invite pests and pathogens.

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The term “deadheading” is sometimes extended to include the removal of seed pods, which can provide many of the noted additional benefits, but comes too late to energize further bud setting.

In this article, we present a variety of plant types, and discuss how deadheading can benefit them during the growing season.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

How to Deadhead Flowering Plants

Let’s get started!

Why Deadhead?

As the growing season begins, we envision the garden alive with lush foliage and budding flowers. Soon, it’s a rainbow of glorious color under the summer sun.

Almost before we know it, we’re pulling out fistfuls of weeds, the first petals are beginning to fade, and those herbs we meant to harvest have sprouted spikes of blossoms.

This is where deadheading comes in – just when things are beginning to look a little peaked, this pruning technique offers us the opportunity to refresh plants, making them look young again, and eager to reproduce, having been denied the opportunity the first time around.

Even plants that don’t reflower are recharged when the energy devoted to reproductive growth is suddenly returned to roots and foliage.

Now, let’s turn our attention to various plant groups, and find out how to deadhead typical members of each.

And please note: Sanitizing pruning tools before and after use with a 10 percent bleach to water solution goes a long way toward supporting plant health and preventing the spread of disease.

Annuals and Biennials

There are many annuals that rebloom consistently throughout the growing season. By removing spent flowers, you can get the most they have to offer.

Examples include China aster, cape marigold, cosmos, geranium, marigold, pansy, strawflower, zinnia, and older varieties of lantana.

Remove individual flowers with a portion of the stem attached. The best place to make your cut is just above leaves or lateral stems. These locations are ideal to jump-start foliar regeneration.

Species with a multi-blossom head, like geraniums, are removed at the base of the stem, just above the foliage mound, when 70 percent of the petals have faded.

Some plants, like snapdragons, open early, when it’s cool. With deadheading and summer watering, those that remain vigorous may reward gardeners with a second display when the weather cools down again.

There are other annuals that deadhead themselves. A few of these “self-cleaning” types are impatiens, morning glory, petunia, wax leaf begonia, and newer varieties of lantana. They are best left alone, as the proximity of blossoms makes it too easy to accidentally snip off buds.

Nigella is a species that self-sows and returns each year. Deadheading is ill-advised if you want it to come back. Plus, you’d miss seeing its attractive lantern-like seed pods.

And then there are biennials that grow foliage in the first year and open in the second, like columbine, forget-me-not, foxglove, and hollyhock. If you deadhead them, they won’t be able to reseed themselves and come up again, either.

Bulbs and Rhizomes

Although they don’t rebloom, spring bulbs like daffodil, hyacinth, and tulip, as well as rhizomes like gladiola and iris, benefit from having nourishment diverted to the rootstock that would otherwise go into seed pod formation.

When snipping spent blossoms, take care not to prune the foliage, as it contributes food for next year’s colorful display.

Some folks recommend cutting spent bulb flowers just below the head and leaving the stalk in place to feed the bulb, but these hollow stems may draw water down into the bulb and cause it to rot.

Instead, you can cut stems just above a leaf. This may be all the way down in the basal foliage.

The tuberous daylily benefits greatly from deadheading. By removing individual spent blossoms, you can encourage more to form.

When all the blossoms on the slender daylily stalk, or scape, are finished, cut it down at its origin in the basal foliage to help feed the rhizome and keep the garden looking fresh.

Be sure to leave the foliage intact to contribute its energy to the rhizome as well.

Another tuberous species is the dahlia. Snip off individual spent stems just above the nearest foliage, to promote continuous blooming.

Agapanthus is a unique rhizome plant that may rebloom with deadheading, but the reason most people snip spent heads is because it is an extremely prolific self-sower that spreads more by seeds than it does via rootstock expansion.

The late winter hellebore and early spring peony won’t rebloom after faded flora is snipped, but self-sowing is prevented, and renewed vegetative energy is evident in the lustrous leaves of these two species.

And finally, while the autumn chrysanthemum likely won’t have time to rebloom before winter, deadheading individual blooms keeps up appearances and strengthens the rhizome for next year.

Cacti and Succulents

For cacti and many succulents, foliage is the main attraction, and flowers are a rare bonus.

Nevertheless, if you are blessed with blossoms, you can deadhead them as they fade, to restore strength and limit self-sowing.

Succulents grown for their blossoms include kalanchoe, a popular houseplant we’ll mention again shortly, and ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum, a garden bloomer we discuss in the perennial section.

Foliage

Why would we devote a section of this article to foliage plants when we’re talking about deadheading?

Because, like cacti and many succulents, plants that are grown specifically for their handsome foliage may occasionally flower.

Two examples are annual coleus and perennial caladium (a rhizome).

These leafy showstoppers grow well both indoors and out, and sometimes sprout a small, rather nondescript flower.

For coleus, it’s a small terminal spike of tiny lavender-blue blossoms that is easily pinched off. Doing so prevents this annual from running to seed, becoming scraggly, and dying prematurely.

Caladium produces a pale spike-like spadix inflorescence of minute white blossoms surrounded by a sheath-like spathe that resembles an anthurium. It is snipped off with ease – but not so fast!

In this case, the occasional blossom is so fascinating, and there may be so few, that it is fun to let several run to seed for a peek at the orange or yellow berry-like contents of its pods. Remove the rest to restore energy to the rhizomes.

Ground Covers

You can refresh perennial ground covers like creeping phlox and creeping thyme by mowing them after they flower, accomplishing both deadheading and cutting back at the same time.

In addition to boosting root health and stimulating foliar growth, the phlox may even reward you with a second, late-season show.

Sweet alyssum is a prolific self-sowing annual that grows thickly like a ground cover. It’s a good candidate for a mid-season cutback to inhibit seed drop and produce more blossoms late in the season.

Hanging Baskets and Houseplants

Hanging plants have masses of blossoms and are generally self-cleaning. However, by pinching the stems off beneath a spent bloom, just above the nearest leaves, you can keep them at the peak of vigor all season long. Examples include fuchsia, hanging petunia, and lobelia.

Some folks like to take down hanging containers of self-deadheading types to give them a good shake to dislodge fallen petals. Removing them not only makes the plants look neater, it prevents the spent blossoms from becoming slimy with rainwater, and inviting fungal pathogens.

Indoor plants also benefit from deadheading, as it restores strength to the roots and foliage.

To trim spent blooms from tropical African violet, use a pair of pointy scissors or fine snips to avoid accidentally severing budding stems in close proximity. If you prefer, instead of cutting the tiny stems one by one, wait until an entire cluster has finished, and cut the cluster-bearing stem just above the foliage.

Kalanchoe, a succulent cultivated primarily for its blossoms, is another example of a tropical houseplant with clusters of tiny blooms.

When most of a cluster has faded, cut the cluster-bearing stem just above the foliage.

And Christmas cactus, a rainforest plant as opposed to a desert cactus, is easy to keep looking its best with a gentle twist of each faded bloom to remove it.

If you grow miniature plant species, tools like nail scissors and tweezers are very handy for snipping blooms just above foliage.

For orchids, deadhead individual blossoms as they fade by snipping just above the main stem to which they are attached. When the entire stem has finished blooming, cut it off just above its origin in the basal foliage.

Herbs

There are both annual and perennial types of herbs.

In order to keep leaf types like basil and rosemary going, you have to continually pinch the growing tips to keep them from flowering. In the event that one does “bolt” and produce a stalk of blossoms, it’s essential to snip it off, or the plant will run to seed and die.

On the other hand, if you are growing a seed herb like caraway, you have to let the plant flower and run to seed to harvest the spice.

And finally, if you grow dill, prized for both foliage and seed, pinch off the growing tips until you have your fill of leaves, then let it bloom and run to seed for harvest.

Perennials

Some perennials that bloom repeatedly are:

They may appear continuously or intermittently.

Some species like coneflower and poppy produce one blossom per stem. Cut spent blooms just above the closest foliage.

Others, like the daisy, may bud at the terminal ends and also on lateral, or side shoots. The technique is basically the same: cut the stem of the spent head just above the nearest leaves or budding/flowering lateral shoot.

If you have a faded blossom on a main stem that has no side shoots, or spent lateral growth, you can cut it all the way to its point of origin in the basal foliage.

Some shrubby plants, like catmint and yarrow, have faded flowers and floppy stems by midsummer, if not sooner. For these types, it’s best to deadhead or do a cutback of the entire plant, to rejuvenate it for a late-season comeback.

Cutting individual stems just above leaf nodes, rather than gang-chopping them, may speed regrowth. Be sure to water them on the hottest days, and you may see a second round of color late in the season.

For plants with long leafless or almost leafless racemes, like astrantia, heuchera, and hosta, and dense spikes like aster, larkspur, and summer snapdragon, it’s best to wait until 70 percent of the small flowers have opened before cutting entire stems at their base.

If you wait until all of the flowers are finished, some may form seeds and sap plant strength.

Some perennials bloom once per season, like astilbe, autumn-blooming sedum (a succulent cultivated for its flowers), and sunflower.

And while you may be tempted to cut off their flowers to neaten the garden, they run to seed so beautifully, you may prefer to leave them for fall-to-winter interest. The birds may enjoy them as well.

And reblooming coneflower has beautiful cone-shaped seed heads that finches are especially fond of, so you may want to leave some of them unpruned, too.

Shrubs

Some shrubs are wired to bloom once, like azalea, camellia, and rhododendron, although you’ll occasionally see the odd off-season flower.

And while deadheading doesn’t bring about another flush of blooms, it does stimulate roots and foliage, and neaten the garden.

There are reblooming lilac varieties that will put on a spring show and return for an encore in the fall. Pruning off clusters of spent flowers just above the foliage supports this growth habit with a return to the vegetative mode.

As for hydrangea, you may want to leave the flowers alone, as they look lacy and elegant in dry floral arrangements.

A rose may bloom once or intermittently through the growing season, depending on the variety.

To deadhead individual roses, cut the stem of the spent bloom above the closest foliage. For especially sturdy stem regeneration, cut just above a five-leaf set.

For those with clusters of blooms, deadhead all individually. When entire stems begin to fade, cut the entire multi-blossomed stem above a five-leaf cluster.

If you grow roses with especially large, attractive, seed-filled hips, like the rugosa type, you may want to leave at least some of the flowers intact to set their lovely seed.

And finally, some types of roses deadhead themselves, like the Knock Out® cultivars, which readily shed spent blooms and grows more, forming relatively few hips.

In general, all kinds of roses are fair game for deadheading, even if they don’t repeat bloom, simply for the benefits of strong vegetative growth and neatness.

Vines

There are vines to consider, as well.

Clematis is a woody perennial climber with continuous blooms that you can deadhead to get as many as possible.

You can remove individual flowers as they fade by cutting stems just above the closest foliage.

However, its seed pods resemble swirls of spun silk, so you may want to let some of the blossoms run to seed so you can appreciate them.

Some vines, like coral honeysuckle and passionflower, do not need deadheading to rebloom, but a midseason cutback boosts foliar growth and helps to contain wayward stems.

And while trumpet vine needs no encouragement to bloom, cutting it back after a flush of flowers is the only way to prevent massive self-sowing and a yard full of seedlings next spring.

Ideally, vines are cut at leaf nodes. But if you do a mass cutback across random stems, don’t worry, vigorous growers will still be back very soon.

Part of a Healthy Regimen

Now that you’re familiar with the type of pruning we call deadheading, and how to manage a wide variety of plants, you can give it a try with your own.

Keep a garden journal to note the rebloomers, the ones that yield a bonus bloom with a midseason cutback, and those that simply look neater without all the debris.

Write reminders to yourself to harvest herbs regularly to prevent flowering, seed set, and premature demise, and keep your lovely edibles going as long as possible.

Also, if you grow a cutting garden, you know that “cut-and-come-again” species, like the annual daisies and zinnias we spoke about, rebloom continuously when they are “live-headed,” if you will.

And perennials like black-eyed Susans also benefit from the energy boost to roots and foliage.

Make deadheading a pleasure instead of a chore by doing a little each day. Put on your gardening shoes and take a quick spin through your yard before you start your day, snipping and pinching as you go.

Provided your plants are healthy, toss cuttings onto the compost heap where they can break down and contribute to garden care.

Soon, you’ll be familiar with your plants’ behaviors, and deadheading will be a routine activity in your outdoor living space.

Do you deadhead your flowers diligently? Let us know in the comments section below!

If you found this guide to informative and would like to read more about pruning, we recommend the following articles next:

Just picture it: you snag a blueberry off of a bush and the juice leaks out between your fingers. The skin is still warm from the sun as you pop the plump, candy-sweet berry into your mouth.

Now, forget it. Sorry, not going to happen for you if you have soil with the wrong pH in your garden.

Heartbreaking, right?

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Acidic soil can be a pain when it comes to growing veggies such as cabbage, kale, and peas. But it’s a blessing if you’re interested in raising azaleas or blueberries.

For gardeners in much of western North America, the slightly alkaline earth can make growing blueberries a challenge.

Even people in areas with more acidic earth, like the Pacific Northwest and New England, might find that their ground isn’t quite right for growing these incredible fruits.

Not to worry. There are ways to adjust your soil so you can enjoy all of the plants you want to have around. So don’t give up on growing your own blueberries.

We’re going to go over the following to help you make it happen:

Blueberries have evolved to grow in acidic soil. A pH of 4.0 to 5.3 is about right.

While you can nurture blueberries outside of this range, they’ll never be as healthy and productive as they will in soil with the correct pH.

Those who live in areas that experience heavy rain tend to have acidic soils because the alkaline properties wash out over time. The Northeast and the Pacific Northwest are good examples of this.

In drier regions like the West, the earth tends to be more alkaline.

If you live somewhere with earth that is outside of the ideal range, you don’t have to abandon all of your blueberry dreams.

You can fix the earth, but to do that, first we need to understand why blueberries need an acidic pH.

Why Do Blueberries Need Acidic Soil?

To start, pH is a measurement of the amount of hydrogen in the water held in the ground. The greater the concentration of hydrogen ions, the lower the pH and the more acidic it is.

Blueberry plants use up a ton of iron as they develop. Soil with a lower pH allows bacterial and fungal organisms to reproduce and excrete minerals that the developing plants need.

Acidic earth also allows phosphorus to bind with iron or aluminum, while in an alkaline environment, phosphorus binds with calcium. Plants have limited access to zinc and iron in alkaline soil.

In soil that’s too alkaline, blueberry leaves will turn yellow with green veins as the plant suffers from iron chlorosis.

Adding iron to the ground might help your plant recover a little, but a better, longer-term solution is to alter the pH of your earth to make it just right.

Selecting the Right Product

There are all kinds of myths and tales out there about how to alter the pH.

To begin, I’ll tell you right now that coffee grounds aren’t the way to go. They won’t alter the pH much, and the results won’t stick long-term. Same goes for pine needles.

Peat moss is a little better at altering pH but, again, the results don’t last. Plus, peat moss has its own problems.

The most long-term and affordable solution for home growers is to use elemental sulfur.

It takes at least a few months to lower the pH using this type of sulfur, but it is quick, efficient, cost-effective, and can alter the soil more dramatically than something like nitrogen fertilizer.

When you add elemental sulfur, bacteria goes to work converting it to sulfate, and this lowers the pH.

You can also use ferrous sulfate, but it costs more. If you only need to adjust the pH value by 0.1 to 0.3, you can use nitrogen fertilizer.

Aluminum sulfate has negative environmental consequences, so don’t use it.

Soil Mender Elemental Sulfur

Something like Soil Mender elemental sulfur works great. A four-pound bag is available at Amazon.

Test the Soil

Don’t even think about planting blueberries without doing a soil test first.

Some plants are more adaptable than others, but blueberries are picky about pH. Unless you’re planting just one or two bushes in a small area, test multiple parts of your property.

One spot in your yard might be lower, allowing water to collect. Other areas might be higher, and water moves through, leaching out elements.

It’s also vital that you know what texture your earth has. Amending heavy clay requires a totally different approach to amending sand.

Sandy soil leaches nutrients more quickly than clay, which takes a long time due to its slow-draining nature. You’ll need to amend the ground much more frequently if you have sandy soil.

Limestone contains lots of alkaline minerals that neutralize the things we use to alter pH to make it more acidic, while granite bedrock is more neutral.

You’ll need to use more product to amend soil with heavy limestone than earth with a higher portion of granite.

Doing a soil test is the only way to be sure of what you’re working with and what your starting pH is. It’s possible to find test kitss available for purchase online that will provide this info, but I’d suggest testing through your local extension.

They can provide more detailed information, and they’ll probably be able to tell you, broadly speaking, about what kind of earth you have in your region as well.

When to Apply Sulfur

You should start to apply sulfur at least six months to a year in advance of planting. Timing depends on how much you need to adjust the soil.

If the pH value of your ground sits somewhere between 5.4 to 6.0, you’ll need about six months to adjust it.

A measure of 6.0 to 6.5 will need about a year. Anything above 6.5 and you’re better off planting in a raised bed filled with acidic soil or finding a different species to grow.

Having said that, you should ideally make the change over the course of a year or two in order to improve the stability of the new pH.

Not all of us have that kind of time, of course, but spreading applications out over a longer period, rather than applying the sulfur all at once, is best because the soil is more likely to stay at the new pH level longer.

If you’re in a hurry, treat in the fall and plant in the spring.

It’s far, far easier to change the pH before planting. Once your plants are in the ground, the job is much more difficult because you risk damaging the roots when you try to really work the sulfur in.

Tips for Applying Sulfur

If you have extremely sandy or heavy clay soil, you need to work in lots of well-rotted compost.

Not only will this improve drainage and water retention, but it will make your efforts last longer. If you decide to alter your ground this way, test again a few months after you have worked in the compost.

When you work elemental sulfur into the soil, Thiobacillius species go to work oxidizing the sulfur to make sulfuric acid. This reduces the pH and, as you can probably imagine, it takes time for this process to take place.

Now, get out your test results, and let’s start our work.

Each treatment should reduce the pH around one point, depending on the makeup of your soil, so if you need to alter the pH by two points, you’ll need to apply two treatments at a minimum.

If your earth is between 40 and 50 percent clay, you want to add approximately four to five pounds of elemental sulfur per every 100 square feet of soil.

If it’s 20 to 40 percent clay, reduce the amount to two to four pounds.

If it’s on the sandy end of things, with less than 20 percent clay, you only need one to two pounds.

But remember, it will leach out more quickly, so you’ll probably need to space applications out over a longer period and apply more treatments than with clay.

Work the sulfur in well to at least eight inches deep and water it in. In six months, test the soil again. You’ll most likely need to add another treatment.

Amending the Soil When Plants Are Present

If your plants are already in place, dig a four-inch-wide or larger hole a foot deep in four to eight spots around the dripline of each plant.

Put two tablespoons of chelated iron in each hole and fill it back up. Keep the soil watered well.

This will give the plants pockets of access to the iron it needs to survive, though it doesn’t alter the pH of the soil. Still, it enables acid-loving plants to thrive.

Repeat this each year in the spring.

Biomin Iron

To grab five or 55 gallons of Biomin Iron, visit Arbico Organics.

Maintenance

Once you change the pH of the soil in your blueberry patch, you’ll have to maintain it. This isn’t just a one-and-done sort of situation.

Each time you fertilize the plants or it rains, the pH is going to start creeping up again. To prevent this, use a fertilizer designed for use in acidic soils.

Down to Earth Acid Mix is perfect because it contains cottonseed meal to gently and slightly reduce the pH each time you add it.

I like Down to Earth because it comes in compostable boxes and I’ve had good experiences with it every time I’ve used it.

Down to Earth Acid Mix

If you’d like to bring some home, visit Arbico Organics to nab a one-, five-, or 15-pound container.

Bring On the Blueberries

Few of us have the perfect soil for blueberries.

Even in my neck of the woods where it is naturally acidic, it still isn’t acidic enough to make blueberries truly happy. But don’t let that stop you from growing them.

A fresh blueberry straight off the bush is a thing of joy. It’s worth a little extra effort, right?

What kind of blueberries are you growing? Let us know what you’re going to go with.

If you’re looking for more information on how to grow blueberries, we have a few more guides that you might find handy. Check these out next:

Cucurbita moschata

Many people are finally catching on to the magic of calabaza squash, and it’s about time.

This winter type is more resistant to disease than a lot of the other varieties of squash on the market, and a single fruit can yield 10 pounds or more of dense, delicious flesh.

In other words, because it’s generally healthy and grows a ton of fruits, one plant will likely give you enough food to last a good, long time. You’ll be handing calabazas out as gifts to all the neighbors!

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There’s something to be said about the aesthetics of this variety, too.

If you like creating a fall display with different types of squash and gourds, calabaza has an eye-catching, fairytale-esque look to it, though I wouldn’t recommend that you use it for carving Jack-o-lanterns. The skin is tough!

But that tough skin is actually a great thing when it comes to edible use. It means the fruits can be stored for months and months with no trouble at all.

Because this is an open-pollinated, heirloom type, there are wonderful variations in the plants from region to region. I’ve come across some incredible ones in markets in my travels and I saved a few seeds to try in my own garden.

So, if you’re ready to give calabaza a go in your garden space, you’ll need two things. A big old chunk of available ground, and this guide.

Here’s everything we’ll tackle, coming up right up:

Calabaza is the same species as the butternut, and the taste is somewhat similar.

Just imagine butternut squash but slightly denser and more flavorful, and you’ve got the idea. It’s buttery, sweet, and mashes up into an ice cream-like consistency that is to die for.

Mmm, my mouth is already watering…

What Is Calabaza Squash?

This winter squash belongs to the tropical species Cucurbita moschata.

The name “calabaza” translates from Spanish to mean pumpkin or gourd and refers generically to any type of winter squash, but in English, it refers to the plant commonly known as auyama, West Indian pumpkin, or Puerto Rican pumpkin.

Because the name is a generic term for winter squash, it can be a little confusing to narrow down the specific plant in question.

Some other species, including C. foetidissima and C. maxima, are sometimes called calabaza.

Even among C. moschata varieties, the size, shape, and color can vary because of cross-pollination and regional cultivation.

In general, the fruits range from five to 10 pounds, and are usually round and squat, like a basketball that someone stepped on.

But they can also be elongated like a big football or round like a pumpkin too.

The hard skin can be gray, blue, orange, yellow, cream, green, or a mixture of these colors, with smooth or slightly bumpy skin. Each fruit weighs anywhere from three to 50 pounds.

Depending on how they’re harvested, they can have long, crooked stems. The mature skin takes on a matte appearance.

These combined characteristics make them awfully good-looking, which is why you often see them in fall displays. Their flesh is yellow to orange, meaty, and thick, with a large, hollow seed cavity filled with stringy pulp and relatively small seeds.

They grow on large vining plants with grayish, slightly mottled green leaves.

These plants can really stretch their limbs, so to speak, and a single vine can grow 50 feet out from the center, though most stay smaller.

Plants take around 100 days to mature, though they mature more quickly in southern parts of the country than in cooler, northern parts.

It can take up to 140 days in Maine but just 80 days in Florida for the same plant to mature.

Cultivation and History

Calabaza squash is native to the Caribbean, North America, and central South America.

Today, this squash is extensively cultivated in the Philippines, where it’s called kalabaza, as well as in the West Indies, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and tropical parts of South and North America.

Propagation

Propagating calabaza couldn’t be easier. Use the seeds from a mature squash, purchase seed, or buy a little seedling and get to work!

From Seed

It’s possible to find seeds, but it’s not easy to be sure that you’re getting C. moschata rather than something else labeled as calabaza, referring to winter squash in general, or one of the other species. Make sure the seeds you buy are from the right plant.

C. moschata Calabaza

Amazon, for instance, carries a 25-pack of C. moschata calabaza seeds.

The other way to go is to buy one of these squash at a market and harvest the seeds from there. The fact that you get to eat the flesh while you’re at it is a bonus! And that way, you can be sure that you like it before you plant.

Once you purchase the fruit, crack it open and scoop out some seeds. If you’re finding it to be a challenge to crack that thing open, we’ll talk about the best ways to do that in a bit.

Once you liberate the seeds, rinse them, and let them dry by placing them in a single layer on a plate, baking sheet, or towel. Or, you can plant them right away.

Whatever fresh seeds you don’t use can be roasted with some butter or oil and your favorite spices – we’ll talk about that more in a bit, too!

Place the seeds an inch deep with six feet between them in hills of rich, loamy, loose soil. If you have clay or sandy soil, work in plenty of well-rotted manure.

Water the seeds in well.

Since these fruits take at least 100 days to mature, you might need to start seeds indoors before transplanting them outside.

You can get a six-week head start this way, starting in the late winter or early spring. Count back six weeks from the last predicted frost date in your area to decide when to plant.

To start seeds indoors, fill six-inch containers with potting soil. Stick a seed one inch deep into the center of each pot.

Water and place the pots somewhere that they will receive eight hours of sunlight or supplemental lighting.

Keep the soil moist.

Transplant as described below after hardening off for a week. Hardening off is what it sounds like: it’s a way of toughening up a seedling so it’s ready for life in the big outdoors.

Do this process gradually by bringing the seedling outside for an hour and setting it in a protected spot. Bring it back in and then add an extra hour the following day. Keep adding an hour per day for a week.

By the way, it helps to set a timer for each day of this process. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve taken a seedling out to harden it off and then got distracted with some other task and forgot all about it!

From Seedlings

If you pick up seedlings at the nursery, make sure to plant them after all risk of frost has passed. They can’t handle any amount of frost.

Plant them in hilled soil that is rich, loose, and well-draining with a pH between 5.5 and 7.0.

Dig a hole the same size as the growing container and remove the seedling from the pot very gently. Place it in the hole and firm the soil up around it.

Water well.

How to Grow

Being native to the tropics, these plants love the heat. They tolerate heat better than many other species, and conversely, they don’t do as well as some species in chillier climates.

Plant them in the sunniest spot in your yard. If you can’t give them at least eight hours of sun, pick another type of squash to grow.

They can tolerate brief periods of drought, but the roots should generally stay moist. If you stick your finger in the soil and it feels dry to the second knuckle, it’s time to add water. If the leaves start to wilt, add water.

Always water at the soil level and not on the leaves because moisture on the leaves is a fast track to disease.

You need to be extremely diligent about keeping weeds away. Weeds not only steal nutrients from the plant, but they can host pests and diseases. This is especially important when the plants are young.

There’s no need to fertilize, but side dress with well-rotted manure after the fruits begin to form to give the plants a little boost.

There’s no real maintenance necessary with these plants. Cut off any broken or diseased leaves because they’re just a drag on the plant.

Growing Tips

• Grow in full sun
• Water when the top two inches of soil dry out
• Keep weeds under control, especially when plants are young

Cultivars to Select

In warmer locales, you can often find regional varieties or named cultivars, but most are simply sold under the generic name calabaza, calabash, or calabasa.

La Estrella

‘La Estrella’ is the most common cultivar in commercial production available in the US. It has extremely dense, vibrant flesh, a waxy skin, and it flowers and fruits earlier than the species plant.

This cultivar can be ready to eat in just 70 days in hot areas with long days. In northern latitudes, expect it to take around 120 days.

Bred at the University of Florida, it has a big, round shape and averages about 10 pounds.

El Dorado

‘El Dorado’ was bred in Florida and produces round fruits with a thick, buff-colored rind and bright orange flesh.

The plant takes a few weeks longer to fruit and mature than ‘La Estrella.’

La Primera

While ‘La Primera’ has been formally introduced into the market, it hasn’t really caught on outside of Florida. It produces smaller yields and smaller fruits than the other cultivars on this list.

It has vibrant orange flesh, green skin, and a round shape. It fruits and matures at the same speed as ‘El Dorado.’

Managing Pests and Disease

C. moschata plants are generally less susceptible to pests and disease than other winter squash species. That’s one of the great things about them.

The flesh is similar to that of the usual “pumpkins” that many gardeners grow, so you can enjoy them similarly, but the plants are less likely to get sick and die.

Powdery mildew may potentially impact every Cucurbita plant, but when the rest of my squash plants were turning fuzzy and white, my calabazas were just hanging out, wondering what the big deal was. At least anecdotally, they really seem to be totally impervious to disease.

Even so, it’s best to watch out for pests. These plants aren’t immune to pest problems.

Squash bugs, squash vine borers, striped cucumber beetles, and flea beetles can all be a problem. We discuss all of these in more detail in our guide to growing winter squash.

Harvesting

When it’s time to harvest, the stems attached to the fruit should be hard and brown.

If you press your fingernail into the stem, you won’t make a mark. The same goes for the skin – your fingernail shouldn’t leave a mark.

Once it’s ready, take a pair of clippers or pruners and cut the squash away from the plant, leaving at least an inch of stem attached to the top.

All of the fruits produced on a single vine will not ripen at the same time, so check each one before harvesting.

Preserving

You can preserve this squash for months and months if you simply go through the arduous process of placing it in a cool, dark, dry place.

They can store for up to four months in a root cellar or basement, though off the record, I had one that lasted seven months that had fallen off the back of a lazy Susan inside a cabinet.

I discovered it well into spring and chopped it open – perfectly fresh and delicious, and here I was in May, enjoying food I had harvested in October.

Just watch for rotten, soggy, black spots or rotting at the stem. If that happens, you can open the squash up and try to save the good spots or just compost the whole thing.

If you’re picking up squash at the market, go ahead and skip any with dark or soft spots. That indicates rot inside. But at home, you don’t have to waste perfectly good food.

Just cut away the rotten bits, and you can eat the rest, though you shouldn’t try to preserve flesh from fruits that show rot.

This isn’t a plant where you’re fighting for every harvestable morsel (that would be you, wasabi).

You’ll likely get a massive harvest from each plant, so you’re going to need ways to preserve the flesh. It cans and freezes well, and you can also dehydrate it.

Recipes and Cooking Ideas

You’ll often find this squash for sale in markets already cut into sections or quarters. That’s partially because it’s a pain to cut.

These have thick skins, and the flesh is meaty. To cut them at home, you might try pulling out your 15-amp table saw. Just don some goggles, and get ready to watch the sparks fly!

Not really, but this isn’t entirely a joke. I’ve actually cut a few open with a fresh saw blade now and then. They’re that hard to get into. For those who don’t fancy using power tools on their vegetables, there are other ways.

You can use a cleaver and hack away, or work smarter rather than harder. Bake the fruit for about 15 minutes on a rimmed baking sheet with just a bit of water in the bottom.

Or you can microwave it in a bowl with water for about five minutes, if it fits. Let it cool, and you should be able to cut through much more easily.

Besides opening the fruits, the other challenging thing about them is going to be narrowing down the best ways to cook them.

There are an endless number of ways, and anything a pumpkin can do, a calabaza can do.

You can batter and fry shredded flesh as savory or sweet fritters, bake the flesh on a cooking sheet with some butter or olive oil and spices, mash the flesh, or puree it into a soup.

Make calabaza curry or whip up some calabacitas, squash cooked with tomatoes, onions, garlic, chilis, corn, cheese, and spices.

Then there’s dessert. Calabaza en tacha is candied squash. And of course, there’s the old classic: pie.

The dense flesh really lends itself nicely to all kinds of applications, and the vibrant orange hue livens up whatever dish you use it in.

Speaking of, if you’re working with a really bright squash, you might want to wear an apron or something old that you don’t mind if it gets ruined. The orange color can stain your hands and anything else it comes in contact with.

The flowers (flor de calabaza) are a traditional food in South America. And the seasoned seeds, known as pepitas, are also delicious roasted.

Quick Reference Growing Guide

Plant Type:	Herbaceous vining annual vegetable	Water Needs:	Moderate
Native to:	South America	Maintenance:	Low
Hardiness (USDA Zone):	3-10	Tolerance:	Heat
Season:	Fall	Soil Type:	Rich, loose
Exposure:	Full sun	Soil pH:	5.5-7.0
Time to Maturity:	100 days	Soil Drainage:	Well-draining
Spacing:	5 feet	Attracts:	Bees, butterflies
Planting Depth:	1 inch (seed), depth of the root ball (transplants)	Companion Planting:	Alliums, beans, corn, marigolds, nasturtiums
Height:	24 inches	Avoid Planting With:	Brassicas, melons, potatoes
Spread:	Up to 50 feet	Family:	Cucurbitaceae
Growth Rate:	Fast	Genus:	Cucurbita
Common Pests and Disease:	Squash bugs, squash vine borers, striped cucumber beetles, flea beetles	Species:	Moschata

Bring on the Piles and Piles of Squash!

Truly, the biggest challenge about growing this wonder is finding the space with enough sun exposure, and then figuring out how to crack into those tough shells.

Other than that, this is a set-it-and-forget-it type of veggie.

Alright, so now it’s time to help me out. How are you going to cook up all of your calabaza? I’m always looking for ways to use mine up! Share your ideas and recipes in the comments, please.

Want to play around with some other types of winter squash? We have lots of great guides that can help you on your journey. Consider checking out the following next:

Nephrolepis exaltata

The Boston fern, aka the sword fern or the Boston swordfern, is the poster child of the fern world. When the average person imagines this type of plant, chances are they conjure up images of this popular species.

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And who can blame them? It’s a quick-growing option with feathery, blade-shaped fronds and an elegant arch to its growth habit.

This species can offer an instant upgrade to anyone’s home, adding an air of class and a touch of prehistoric interest anywhere it’s placed. What’s not to love?

Whether you’re a fern expert or a pteridophyte neophyte, this article will provide the necessary know-how to grow Boston ferns like a pro.

Buckle up, fern fans. Here’s what’s ahead:

N. exaltata can be the gateway plant to a fern addiction, however. Many Jurassic Park-esque, frond-filled rooms got their start with the addition of a single Boston swordfern. Be warned.

Just (half) joking, of course. Onward!

Cultivation and History

Despite its common name, the Boston fern actually hails from tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas, which explains its affinity for humid conditions.

This tightly clumped plant has a mature height and spread of two to three feet, with arching fronds tapering into points that give them a sword-like appearance.

This thirsty plant thrives in indirect light and dappled shade, which makes it ideal for planting on porches, under awnings, or in the shade of larger canopy/understory trees and shrubs.

It also tends to grow somewhat invasively, especially in warmer climates. Overall, a pretty easy plant to care for… when it’s grown outside in USDA Hardiness Zones 9 to 12.

More attentive care is required when grown indoors. Since N. exaltata lacks winter hardiness, bringing the plants in for the winter is a necessity, and many gardeners find that all theirs can do indoors is merely survive.

N. exaltata needs indirect light and humidity to thrive, and the often dark and dry conditions of wintertime homes can be rough on these plants if they don’t get some extra help.

As for its origin story, this plant can trace its horticultural history back to its namesake: Boston.

The story of the Boston fern begins with F. C. Becker, a Victorian-era Massachusetts florist who received a specimen in a plant shipment from Philadelphia.

Becker noticed that one fern had a greater growing speed, frond width, and drooping habit in comparison to others in the shipment. As any plant nerd would do, he began to propagate it.

Two years later, in 1896, London botanists identified the variant and suggested that Becker bestow upon the plant its Boston moniker. The Boston fern soon exploded in industry popularity and success.

Why? Well, back in the Victorian era, ferns were a popular choice for display in parlors, i.e. the fancy front rooms found in upper-middle class homes used to receive guests.

The quick growth, wide fronds, and graceful droopiness of N. exaltata gave it an edge over the slow-growing, narrow-fronded, obstructively upright competition, and thus became the species of choice for use in these parlor rooms.

Propagation

True ferns don’t make seeds, as they reproduce via spores. Propagating spores can be a tricky endeavor, but since Boston ferns are sterile and produce non-viable or deformed spores, this is a nonissue.

You’ll need to propagate this plant via division or by layering runners instead.

Via Division

Divide N. exaltata when it outgrows its container or when the middle patches start to die. Sword ferns should be divided in late winter or early spring, ideally every few years in order to keep the plant robust and not root bound.

To divide, gently remove the plant from its container, then divide the root ball in half or quarters, depending on size.

Try to keep as many leaves as possible intact while doing so, and be sure to loosen and pull apart the roots a bit so they can establish themselves readily into the new soil.

Transplant into appropriately sized containers. Avoid pots and hanging baskets that are too big, to prevent excessively wet soil, and containers that are too small, so you won’t have to repot right away.

Keep the medium moist via misting for the first few weeks of growth. After that you can transition to a standard watering can.

From Runners/Stolons

Propagation can also be done via layering. Simply take a runner (still attached to the mother fern) and affix it into a nearby patch of soil or potting medium in a separate container.

After a few weeks of keeping it moist, once the affixed runner takes root, the new daughter plant can be detached from its parent plant and transplanted wherever you desire.

Transplanting

If you end up buying a Boston fern from a nursery or garden center, you’ll eventually need a container larger than the pot that it came in, in order to repot it as it grows.

Be sure to fill the container with a well-draining medium consisting of equal parts peat moss, sand, and garden or potting soil.

Since sword ferns prefer a pH of 5.0 to 5.5, add a teaspoon of lime per quart of potting mixture as well, in order to keep the peat moss from making the soil too acidic. You’ll then want to dig out space for your sword fern in its new container.

Pinch the bottom of the original container as you gently pull out the fern by the base of its stems, working carefully to keep the plant intact. Break up the roots a bit, for an easier transition.

Place in the prepared container, and backfill any empty spaces. Water in the plant, making sure to give it a good soaking at the soil line.

Learn more about propagating ferns here.

How to Grow

Growing a Boston fern isn’t too tricky, especially when it’s grown outdoors, and we cover the details of this more thoroughly in a separate guide to outdoor care. (coming soon!)

N. exaltata loves well-drained, moisture-retaining soil such as a silt loam or a soilless peat and vermiculite mix.

This plant also loves water, so keep the soil moist – but not saturated – at all times. Placing the fern’s container in a second, larger container lined with damp sphagnum moss can help to maintain the necessary moist environment.

As a houseplant, the Boston fern does best when you give it indirect sunlight. If you’re limited to spots with bright light exposure, a sheer curtain helps in lowering light intensity.

Giving the pot a quarter turn every day or so can also help ensure even all-around growth.

N. exaltata thrives in containers that give it a bit of room to grow, and it does not like being root bound. But be sure to avoid overly large containers since the roots will suffer in large quantities of oversaturated potting medium.

This species thrives in the 60 to 80°F temperature range, but establishing a humid environment is of the utmost importance.

This can be done by placing your Boston ferns near kitchens or bathrooms, or setting containers on top of a tray filled with a bed of wet pebbles. 

Sword ferns need less moisture in wintertime, so don’t water them as much in order to prevent root rot.

Growing Tips

• Choose an indoor location with indirect sunlight.
• A broad range of indoor temperatures are tolerated, so don’t stress over your thermostat too much.
• Be sure to provide moist conditions!

Maintenance

N. exaltata usually needs fertilization every month when actively growing, but be sure to cut back the frequency during winter dormancy.

This is especially important when growing this species indoors, as indoor plants don’t grow quite as fast as outdoor ones, and having an excess of fertilizer can easily kill a houseplant.

The ideal fertilizer is a balanced slow-release or liquid product used at half-strength doses, like this liquid indoor fertilizer from Easy Peasy.

Easy Peasy Indoor Plant Food

It’s vailable in eight-ounce bottles via Amazon.

But be wary of over-fertilization – the ends of the fronds will brown and dry out as a result of using too much.

Feel free to remove any older dying or dead fronds as needed to keep the plant looking sharp. If fronds start to turn gray, increase watering. Increase light exposure if fronds become lanky and weak.

Be sure to divide your Boston ferns every couple of years as described above to keep them healthy and properly sized. In addition, repot your plants as they outgrow their containers and/or become root bound.

We cover the ins and outs of overwintering Boston ferns in our guide.

Cultivars to Select

This species is quite popular, and there are a variety of cultivars to choose from. Here are a few favorites:

Bostoniensis

The classic Boston fern, with all the traits you’ve grown to love.

Bostoniensis

You can find one of your own from Terrain, measuring about a foot in height and six inches in diameter – a real beaut!

Dallas

Also known as ‘Dallas Jewel,’ this is a rapid-spreading, smaller variety that tolerates lower amounts of light and humidity than your standard N. exaltata.

It’s the perfect houseplant for dark, dry homes.

Fluffy Ruffles

A cultivar with a densely growing clump of soft, “ruffled” fronds, ‘Fluffy Ruffles’ offers a visually textured interest that’s sure to amaze.

Rita’s Gold

Rita’s Gold™, aka ‘Aurea,’ is a compact variety with fronds colored a gorgeous chartreuse yellow.

Managing Pests and Disease

N. exaltata does well against herbivores – deer in particular – but it can be prone to some insect and disease issues, especially when grown outdoors.

Pests

Thankfully, no insect spells total disaster for a Boston fern owner armed with knowledge.

Mealybugs

Mealybugs appear as white, cotton-looking clumps on fronds, leaf axils, and roots. Mealybugs can lead to overall stunted growth and the eventual death of the infested plant parts.

To fix this issue, drench the soil with an insecticide such as this pyrethrin concentrate from PyGanic Gardening, available via Amazon in eight-ounce containers. Be sure to dilute the concentrate according to package directions.

PyGanic Gardening Botanical Insecticide

Ensure that the insecticide can eventually drain out of the pot via holes at the bottom.

Due to the sensitivity of the fronds, a gentle spray of water or organic insecticidal soap to the foliage will also help with insect control without damaging the greenery.

Natria Insecticidal Soap

Natria offers a great product for this, and their insecticidal soap is available via Amazon.

Scale

It can be tough to tell where a scale insect ends and the Boston fern begins. Not as much of a problem when plants are grown indoors year-round, you may spot them if your potted plants spend the summer outside.

These brown, itty-bitty critters will often blend into the foliage, making it hard to detect their presence on the plant. When infested, plants become stunted, weakened, and can even start to die.

Control of scale is the same as control of mealybugs: apply an insecticide to the soil and allow it to drain, along with a tender spray of an appropriate but gentler product to control these pests, like the insecticidal soap mentioned above.

Learn more about dealing with scale in our guide.

Spider Mites

Spider mites are technically arachnids, not insects. But since they’re also creepy-crawlies that can wreak havoc on the Boston fern, I’ve decided to mention them alongside scale and mealybugs.

Spider mites are puny, and tough to see with the naked eye. Bust out a hand lens for a closer look and you’ll find the spider mites to be oval-bodied and covered in translucent bristles. Oftentimes, you’ll see their webs before you see the actual pests.

An application of organic insecticidal soap to the foliage will help with spider mite control. And these pests tend to prefer dry environments, so be sure to keep N. exaltata watered well, and in a humid location.

For all of the above pests, a comprehensive control approach can go a long way in keeping your plants healthy. Learn more by reading up on integrated pest management here.

Disease

As green thumbs, most of us instinctually freak out a bit when we see our plants afflicted with dark spots.

However, the dark spots on the undersides of the fronds are where the spores come from, so be sure you can tell the difference between said spores and actual symptoms of disease.

Unfortunately, N. exaltata is still susceptible to various types of disease. When it comes to the following ailments, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Pythium Root Rot

When infected with Pythium root rot, Boston fern can show many different symptoms, ranging from wilting and frond graying to necrosis or overall stunted growth.

Roots often lose their outer layers, leaving just a weak inner core behind that can’t uptake water and nutrients properly.

Starting with pathogen-free soil or medium is your best bet for preventing Pythium root rot, along with keeping the soil from becoming oversaturated. Chemical control is another way to combat this disease.

Rhizoctonia Aerial Blight

Keep a sharp lookout during the summer, as this is when Rhizoctonia aerial blight typically occurs.

This disease can come out of nowhere in less than a week’s time, forming irregularly-shaped, brown lesions anywhere on the foliage. Over time, the rapid spread of the lesions can coat the entire sword fern with a weblike, brown mycelium.

Control of Rhizoctonia aerial blight should occur via the same techniques used for Pythium root rot. To optimally control these diseases, both the foliage and the roots must receive treatment.

Best Uses

The Boston fern is ideal for use in hanging baskets, prominently displayed containers, or as accent plantings for other shade-loving plants. It’s a great indoor specimen for the attentive gardener who can take proper care of it.

Being the versatile plants they are, sword ferns work well both as solo specimens and as companions to colorful tropical plants such as coleus, begonias, and impatiens.

Quick Reference Growing Guide

Plant Type:	Herbaceous evergreen perennial	Maintenance	Low
Native to:	Tropical and subtropical regions of North, Central, and South America	Tolerance:	Heavy shade, deer
Hardiness (USDA Zone):	9-12	Soil Type:	Silt loam
Exposure:	Dappled or indirect sunlight to low light or heavy shade	Soil pH:	5.0-5.5
Time to Maturity:	4-5 years	Soil Drainage:	Well-draining
Planting Depth:	1-3 feet	Companion Planting:	Shade and moisture tolerant plants, colorful foliage and flowering plants like begonias and impatiens
Height:	2-3 feet	Uses:	Accent plantings in shaded arrangements, houseplants, hanging baskets, containers
Spread:	2-3 feet	Order:	Polypodiales
Growth Rate:	Moderate	Family:	Nephrolepidaceae
Water Needs:	High	Genus:	Nephrolepis
Common Pests and Diseases:	Mealybugs, scale, spider mites, Pythium root rot, Rhizoctonia aerial blight	Species:	Exaltata

The Boston Fern: Your New Best Frond

In a hanging basket or in a container, out in the open or tucked away, the Boston fern will look absolutely stunning wherever you choose to show it off.

Experienced in the ways of growing this much-loved species? Still have more questions? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

If you’re craving more knowledge on houseplants, treat yourself to these fascinating guides next: