June
GENERAL MAINTENANCE OF GARDENS
- Thin seedlings, so that leaves do not overlap, after final thinning root crops should be at least 4 inches apart
- Side dress leafy vegetables with blood meal, contains nitrogen for leaf growth
- Side dress root crops with wood ashes or seaweed, contains potassium (potash) for root growth
- Side dress flowering and fruiting plants with bone meal, contains phosphorus for fruit and flowers
PLANT SPECIFIC
- Use netting or sticky boards to keep birds away from blueberries and cherries (new product 1996, Bird Shield for cherries, try on blueberries)
- Start seeds of cabbage family for fall planting in 5 to 7 weeks
- Pinch back dahlias and fuchsias; remove stem tip and the hormone auxin, to promote branching
- Train grapes, young kiwis, blackberries and raspberries
- Prune established kiwis and untangle them where shoots are twisting on one another
- Direct seed: plant corn, beans, squash, pumpkins and cucumbers in first half of June
- Transplant tomato, eggplant, melon, pepper seedlings
- Remove faded iris blossoms (nutrient sink concept)
FRUIT TREE, GENERAL
- Remove water sprouts from fruit trees, pull or rub off
- Water one inch per week if dry, apply slowly to avoid run-off but conserve
- Inspect plants for insect problems, aphids, leaf hoppers, cherry and pear slugs, don't act unless problem is severe, give natural control a chance, spray with pyrethrin or rotenone (CAUTION: Broad Spectrum Killers)
- Aphids: Late spring and summer: control ants, control aphids with M-Pede, insecticidal soap
FRUIT TREE, SPECIFIC
- Apples and pears: Late spring and summer: set traps, pheromone or water/molasses for codling moth in apples and pears, check blossom ends for codling moth frass, remove fruit.
- Apples and pears: Late spring and summer: Isomate-C, mating disruption for codling moth, remove lose bark from tree, removes hiding place for pupa; wrap corrugated cardboard bands (ridges inward) around trunk of tree, encourage larvae to pupate, check if found, remove and burn, use for first and second generation moths.
- Apples: continue to examine shoots and leaves for San Jose scale crawlers spray with summer oil
- June drop, tree selects which fruits will develop, not well understood, probably based on number of seeds in fruit and photosynthesis
- Thin apples (30-40 leaves per fruit), peaches (50-75 leaves per fruit) and pears after June drop, or leaving 1 fruit every 6 inches, who has time to count leaves (nutrient sink concept)
- Continue scab and mildew control, if weather moist removes spent flowers from annuals to encourage more bloom
- Scale insects: the best time to control is during the crawler stages, from late June, July, and into August, spray with horticulture oil or fish oil
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