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by Rett Davis | |
Gardening Q&A by Rett Davis appears in
Alamance County's daily newspaper, The Times-News,
every Sunday in the Accent section. Each week's installment is
posted to this
website, beginning with January of this year. Scroll to the bottom of
this page to navigate to other Gardening Q&As. Please contact
Rett via e-mail with questions
or
comments in regard to this column.
Question:
I can remember as a child seeing fruit trees with their trunks painted white in the winter. No one seems to know why they did that. Can you tell me what the purpose was for this?
Answer:
This practice was referred to as 'whitewashing'. It was done to prevent winter sunscald on the trunks of fruit trees. In the winter, the sun's rays strike the trunk at a different angle than during the summer months. Winter sunscald can occur on trees when the sun's rays heat up one side of the tree trunk in the afternoon to above the current air temperature and then the air temperature drops dramaticly after sunset. This can cause the trunk to split or crack. It usually happens when we have a very cold sunny day. To prevent this, farmers would whitewash their trees with exterior latex paint. Usually the trunk was painted from the ground up to the first set of branches. This practice is not done much any more but was once very popular.
Question:
I have had four leyland cypress trees in a row of 20 suddenly turn brown. They are all on one end of a long screen. What could have caused this?
Answer:
There are few events that would cause the sudden browning of leyland cypress. When the entire tree suddenly turns brown it is almost always in association with a drainage problem. These trees are very intolerant of poorly drained soils or sudden flooding. These cypress are not related to the baldcypress that grow in our swamps in Eastern North Carolina. Many leylands died this summer as a result of flooded and saturated soils. Do not replant Leyland back in the same spot unless the drainage problems are corrected first.
Question:
Are house is nearing completion and the yard is to be sown in grass this weekend. What type of seed should we use to get a good lawn this late in the year?
Answer:
Unfortunatley it will be impossible to get a any lawn from seed this late in the year. It is just too cold for our fescues and even ryegrass to germinate. I would suggest that the contractor or landscaper go ahead and prepare the soil with lime and fertlizer, establish the finish grade, and sow in a high quality fescue and cover with straw. Although it will not germinate now, cold weather, snow, and even ice will not harm the seed. The seed will remain viable over the winter and germinate when more favorable conditions return in the springtime. You only other option is to condiser sodding the lawn in fescue.
Question:
This is my first year with a newly installed irrigation system. It is still running twice a week on the lawn and on our new shrubbery. When should I cut this off?
Answer:
There is no need to continue watering this late in the season for lawns and shrubbery. Colder temperatures have forced most woody plants into dormancy and even cool season grasses such as fescue are slowing down. The demand for water is greatly reduced now. Winterize the system and keep it off until it is needed when dryer weather returns in the late spring and summer.
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If you have any horticultural questions, please direct them to Rett Davis