386 Grape Growing Basics (And More!)

Farmer Fred and Debbie Flower provide practical advice on cultivating table and wine grapes, focusing on the essentials  such as sunlight, well-drained soil and variety selection. Also: peach leaf curl controls, prematurely falling figs, no-till gardening benefits.

Previous episodes, show notes, links, product information, and transcripts at the home site for Garden Basics with Farmer Fred, GardenBasics.net. Transcripts and episode chapters also available at Buzzsprout. 

 Now on YouTube (audio) 

Pictured: A cluster of grapes on the vine (Photo: UCANR)

Links:

“Beyond the Garden Basics” Newsletter 

Dave Wilson Nursery https://www.davewilson.com/home-garden/

Fair Oaks Horticulture Center

“Growing Grapes for Beginners”- West Virginia University

Training and Pruning Grapes - UCANR

No-Tiil Gardening - Sonoma Co Master Gardeners

Peach Leaf Curl Info - UCANR

All About Farmer Fred:
 GardenBasics.net

“Beyond the Garden Basics” Newsletter

Farmer Fred website: 
http://farmerfred.com

The Farmer Fred Rant! Blog
http://farmerfredrant.blogspot.com

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Chapters

• 0:45 Grape Growing Basics
• 19:16 Dave Wilson Nursery
• 20:27 Q&A Dropping Figs
• 25:54 Beyond the Garden Basics Newsletter
• 27:57 Q&A Peach Leaf Curl
• 30:58 No-Till Gardening Benefits

Transcript

Ep. 386 GRAPE GROWING BASICS AND MORE!

Farmer Fred:

[0:06] Today, Debbie Flower and myself tackle a question from West Virginia about successful table and wine grape growing techniques. And the tips we have can benefit any backyard grape grower, no matter where you live. Plus, we tackle questions about fig growing, peach leaf curl, and the benefits of no-till gardening. So put that rototiller away! 

It's all in episode 386, Grape Growing Basics and More. We're podcasting from Barking Dog Studios here in the beautiful Abutilon jungle in suburban Purgatory. It's the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, brought to you today by Dave Wilson Nursery.

Let's go.

GRAPE GROWING BASICS

Farmer Fred:

[0:46] We like to answer your garden questions here on the Garden Basics podcast. Debbie Flower is here, America's favorite retired college horticultural professor. And we get a question from Brandon in West Virginia. And he says, “I absolutely love this podcast on Spotify. I work on excavating equipment in the city, and the noise of the city makes me really enjoy the calmness of the garden. I've been doing gardening for a few years, and it has been super calming and very rewarding. I've listened to every episode, but one thing I don't seem to remember hearing on your show is about growing grapes. I live in the panhandle of West Virginia, Zone 6A, USDA Zone 6A, and I have had no luck with grapes. Any advice on getting started? Also, how do you protect them from harmful insects and disease? I love every question you have on the show. Keep up the good work. Thank you for posting something that's specific to gardening in a way that's actually educational and fun.” 

And now for your entertainment part of the show, here's Debbie, juggling grapes.

Debbie Flower:

[1:48] I'm recovering from those compliments. Thank you.

Farmer Fred:

[1:50] Yes. Thank you very much for that. Well, yeah, he started growing grapes. And I guess this would apply to both wine grapes and table grapes,

Debbie Flower:

[2:01] Table grapes and raisin grapes if you want to go there.

Farmer Fred:

[2:03] Oh, if you want to go there, if you want to go to Fresno. Yeah, they like full sun. They like good drainage.

Debbie Flower:

[2:08] Yes, they like good sun. They like good drainage. It's critical to prune them to get fruit to form. He says he hasn't been successful with grapes. He doesn't say he can't get them to grow or if he can't get them to produce. So the first would be to get them to grow, which is to pick the right location, as you say, full sun. And soil, it's often recommended, people say, plant grapes in deep soil. I have seen grapes growing on really shallow soil and read about grapes growing on really shallow soil as well. The deeper the soil, the easier they're going to be to maintain because of  being able to apply enough water and having a bigger root zone. So deep, meaning three feet. It's not like tons of feet. Just three feet is plenty.

Farmer Fred:

[2:50] But you're right. There are very successful vineyards in our area that are being grown in the foothills, which is very rocky soil.

Debbie Flower:

[2:58] Right. There's not much there. And they do just fine. And some of the benefit of that rocky soil is the rocks hold heat. He mentioned he is in zone 6A. The panhandle of West Virginia is 6A up through 7A.

Debbie Flower:

[3:13] And that 6A is going to limit some of the varieties that are going to be successful there. It's too cold for the European varieties that we typically think of to make wine from, like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay. Those will not grow there. They won't survive the winter. But there are some French hybrids that will do well in the 6A. And there's a wonderful webpage called Grape Growing for Beginners at the West Virginia University Extension site. So I googled WVU, Grape Growing, I think is what it's called. Growing Grapes for Beginners. And it lists some of these. And I am not familiar with these cultivars, frankly. Chambourcin, Vidal Blanc, that would be a white one. Baco Noir, that would be a red one. The Chambourcin, I don't know anything about. They can be made into wine. And then there are the American grapes like... Concord. Concord, right, for jelly. So they should do well as they're in the 6A as well.

Farmer Fred:

[4:21] And we should point out, too, that grapes are grown in all 50 states.

Debbie Flower:

[4:24] They are.

Farmer Fred:

[4:24] There are vineyards in all 50 states.  Now, whether you want to grow table grapes or wine grapes, we're just talking basics here about getting started.

Debbie Flower:

[4:32] It's all the same. Table grapes or wine grapes is based on the Varietal you choose to grow. Actually, you can make wine out of anything. I have taught grape growing and wine making and taken classes in it. And I don't know who said it, but they said, you know, sugar and yeast makes alcohol. And the rest is, just the flavor of the fruit that you're working with. So if that's your route, don't think you can't make wine out of an American grape. It'll just be its own thing.

Farmer Fred:

[5:00] The grape varieties you choose could have a big decision in if it's successful or not. So, you want to choose the right varieties for your area. So, that would be rule number one and make sure it's good stock. 

Debbie Flower:

[5:14] Yes. If it's the French hybrids, if you are warm enough, I'm sorry, if it's the European varieties, if you are warm enough to grow the European varieties, then they will have to be on rootstock. They will have to be grafted onto rootstock. They cannot grow on their own stem. They can, but you're risking them getting a very common, widespread problem called phylloxera, which is a root louse. It's basically an insect in the soil that consumes the roots. One vineyard I took my students to, the woman who owned it pointed out a plot across the way and said that one has phylloxera. But it was producing some of the best grapes she produced in her whole vineyard. There is a belief, a saying that the best grapes are produced on stressed vines, but she knew she was going to lose those plants and then she would have to replant with grafted grapevines. The phylloxera  first attacked grapes in Europe,

 in the 1800s, and then it attacked in the 1980s, I believe, in the U.S., and again after that. So it's not going away. You're going to have to protect your grape plants by putting them on a grafted rootstock. The rootstocks are going to be from crosses between those European varieties and American varieties from the southeast, which is a place where phylloxera is native. So the crossing allows the European variety to attach to the root. They're compatible. And then the American blood, quote unquote, plants don't have blood. But the American genetics are protective of the phylloxera. But that won't be the case in West Virginia because you can't grow the European varieties there anyway.

Farmer Fred:

[7:00] And some of the American varieties, too, according to West Virginia University, might be limited to where you could grow them in parts of West Virginia where it stays a little bit warmer. We're talking about varieties like Concord, Catawba, Elvira, Niagara, and Muscadine, the American varieties. And this mentions that these grapes are sensitive to cold temperatures and are grown mainly in the southeast where temperatures don't fall below 10 degrees Fahrenheit due to their sensitivity to cold. They're only grown in certain places in West Virginia with winter protection. So even though some of those more common American varieties you might be willing to try, that might be a problem there as well. So you really have to go into maybe the real cold varieties.

Debbie Flower:

[7:50] Yeah. And choosing your site can have an influence on whether your plants are going to be protected in that microzone. If you have access to a south facing slope, you can plant on there near the top of the slope, not the bottom. Cold air sinks. So when you get that very, very cold air. And this is primarily for late spring frosts. One of the worst part of most destructive things to the fruit on the grapevine is a late spring frost when the plant has already produced its flowers and they're exposed. They're very sensitive to cold. And if you get a late spring frost, it will kill those flowers and there goes your crop. The south facing slope is not going to protect you if you regularly get to zero degrees. Everything's going to get injured at zero degrees. So this is just to be a microclimate for that late spring frost, a south facing slope. And that's coveted in the foothills here in California. You can grow grapes there where you couldn't necessarily grow them on the other side of that mountain.

Farmer Fred:

[8:46] Where the cold air has a place to escape.

Debbie Flower:

[8:49] Yes, it can drain out from below them. Yes. Right. So along creeks, you don't want to be down by the river. You want to be up on the hill beside it because the river will drain away that cold air in the spring.

Farmer Fred:

[8:59] Yeah, plant your grapes where they have a view.

Debbie Flower:

[9:02] There you go. And you put your house next to them.

Farmer Fred:

[9:04] There you go. So I guess like the French hybrids seem to be recommended for West Virginia because of that phylloxera outbreak you mentioned. These hybrids tend to be more disease resistant and winter hardy than American varieties. They're known for their low tannins, high acid and musky aroma. And there's that word again we can't pronounce, Chamborsin.

Debbie Flower:

[9:25] That's good. Good as any way, as far as I know.

Farmer Fred:

[9:28] Vidal Blanc, as we found out, is a white wine. And Bacot Noir, meaning red, I guess.

Debbie Flower:

[9:35] Dark. 

Farmer Fred:

[9:36] Okay. All right. So you may want to stick with those. Plant them correctly. When do you plant grapes?

Debbie Flower:

[9:42] Well, I hadn't thought about that. I don't know that there's a limit.

Farmer Fred:

[9:45] All right. I know that for West Virginia, they're saying either early fall or early spring. Fall planting should occur at least six weeks prior to frost to get sufficient root development. Roots will grow as long as the ground does not freeze. Spring planting should occur after the last killing frost. But fall planting is preferred over spring planting because the soil is warmer when you plant in fall.

Debbie Flower:

[10:10] Yeah, and the plants can take advantage of that whenever that happens.

Farmer Fred:

[10:13] And get established, yeah.

Debbie Flower:

[10:15] Planting distance is going to be critical. I think for at home, they should be planted, no closer than eight feet. To me, that's close together. But some vineyards are much closer. The reason being that they ramble when they grow. They grow long distances. And it takes more pruning work to keep them from running over each other. And fertilization comes into play on that. You don't want to give them too much nitrogen. I would only apply nitrogen, which is the first number on a fertilizer bag, if I see symptoms, if I see very small new leaves, Once they've matured and the plant is losing old leaves, or if I see lots and lots of yellowing in the whole plant, that could be a lot of things. So check it out first.

Farmer Fred:

[11:03] There are a lot of good graphics of how to design that trellis or arbor to grow grapes on in this publication from West Virginia University. We'll have a link to it in the show notes so you can do that.

Debbie Flower:

[11:17] Yeah, they did an excellent job on this website.

Farmer Fred:

[11:19] But there are common steps you can take to help ease the planting process. And one of the steps they mention is prior to planting, soaking the roots in water for three to four hours or overnight.

Debbie Flower:

[11:33] So they're hydrated.

Farmer Fred:

[11:34] Also at planting to remove all the canes except the more vigorous ones. The canes would be the ones coming out the top.

Debbie Flower:

[11:41] Yeah, when grapes are typically pruned into a T-shape. And so you have the stem or the trunk. I think of it as alphabetically. The stem or the trunk comes out of the ground, so we're working backwards in the alphabet. Then they have these arms, or cordons is the technical term, C-O-R-D-O-N, and they go out from the stem or trunk. And then the canes grow out from the cordons. Spacing of the canes. The canes are what are going to produce your fruit. And the fruit is produced on wood or growth that occurred, buds that were produced last year.

Farmer Fred:

[12:17] Buds, yes.

Debbie Flower:

[12:17] Yeah. So every winter, every dormant season, the canes are cut down to two, typically it's two buds from that are on last year's wood. And they grow out and produce the fruit that year. And then they're cut back to two buds. And so the spacing of those canes on the cordon is critical because they all need space to grow. A foot, six inches, it varies apart. And then you need to be able to spread the canes out somehow. Typically, it's up and down in many vineyards to allow them to get enough sun. There can be enough sun. There can be too much sun. There can be not enough sun. You need the buds themselves to be exposed to sun when you choose the ones you're going to keep. And then when they start to grow, then when they flower, then the fruit needs to get some sun, but not so much. It gets sunburned. But the more critical thing, especially in a place like West Virginia that is humid, is airflow. You need airflow between the plants, within the plants. Otherwise, you're going to have a lot of fungal diseases.

Farmer Fred:

[13:22] We'll have a link in the show notes that explains training and pruning grapes. The graphics are a better way than we could do it.

Debbie Flower:

[13:30] Yeah, pictures are really critical for pruning. So you're going to have a place in the sun, you're going to have well-drained soil, you're going to have to space your plants far enough apart, get the appropriate plants for your location. If they are the European varieties, then they need to be on rootstock to prevent them from getting phylloxera. You're going to have to support the initial vines with a trellis and then learn how to prune by looking at lots of pictures and talking to people.

Farmer Fred:

[13:58] Yeah, exactly. Because as we said, they're growing grapes in all 50 states. I'm sure you probably pass one or two on your way home. Yeah.

Debbie Flower:

[14:05] If you can get in there on the weekend and they'll have a tasting room, but maybe you can get somebody to take you out in the field and show you stuff.

Farmer Fred:

[14:11] Here you go. When you plant the vines, according to West Virginia, you want the lowest bud on the cane two to three inches above the soil surface. That makes sense. You want to trim away, I guess, damaged roots.

Debbie Flower:

[14:24] Yes, always. Before you plant.

Farmer Fred:

[14:26] And the hole, it goes back to one of my favorite garden sayings, you want to dig a $10 hole for a $5 plant. Right. And that's true with grapes as well. Dig a hole two to three times larger than the root system so you're able to spread the root system out. And also it talks about backfilling with soil. It doesn't talk about adding anything magical at all. That's very important to do that. Consistent watering? I would think so, if it doesn't rain.

Debbie Flower:

[14:54] Yes, yes. One of my first jobs was sucking the ants out of a drip line in a grape orchard.

Farmer Fred:

[15:02] Sucking the ants out of a black tube.

Debbie Flower:

[15:03] Sucking the ants, yes. At that point, the drip line was on the ground. Now, they've gotten wise, and the drip line is on a wire. This is in a wine vineyard, on a wire above ground, and it drops down, and it It's much harder. The ants don't go in there. The ants were climbing inside the holes.

Farmer Fred:

[15:22] Why would you have to suck them out? Couldn't you just turn the water on and flush them out?

Debbie Flower:

[15:26] It didn't work.

Farmer Fred

[15:27] Really?

Debbie Flower:

[15:28] Yeah. Wow, there were that many ants in there. This was Arizona. Okay. It's pretty hot and dry there.

Farmer Fred:

[15:34] Wow. Yeah, that would be, if you're an ant, that's a good place to be in a desert. Yes. Inside a black tube that has water in it.

Farmer Fred:

[15:41] All right. So basically, it comes down to this, Brandon. Grapes require yearly pruning, a trellis system, and maintain that trellis system, regular fertilization, and regular weeding.

Debbie Flower:

[15:53] But not a lot of nitrogen. They grow wild. They can grow. There's a grapevine, but I think it maybe just died. And so they're starting another one. There was a grapevine on the UC Davis campus that covered, wow, 2,000 square feet?

Farmer Fred

[16:13]  big.

Debbie Flower:

[16:14] Yeah, one trunk. And yeah, they would have conferences underneath it about grapes.

Farmer Fred

[16:21] Surprise, surprise.

Farmer Fred:

[16:22] And of course, besides yearly pruning, there's also yearly harvesting. And you don't want to really leave any grapes on the vine.

Debbie Flower:

[16:29] Right. Some of the classes I've gone to and the tours I've taken of vineyards, some people will walk their, like we talk about walking the garden every day, they will walk their vineyard and remove individual leaves so that the grape bunch is exposed to the correct amount of light and air. And they will also trim the bunches to allow the grapes to spread out a little more to get better airflow.

Farmer Fred:

[16:54] There are a lot of good reasons to be trimming not only the bunches so that there's more air circulation between them. I believe here in California, if you're growing table grapes, the old saying was put your fist between the bunches. And there should be at least a fist difference from one cluster to another. And also to cut the tails off the bunch. In order to get bigger grapes. Right. So we could do that too.

Debbie Flower:

[17:20] Yeah, if you really get into it. And then there are chemicals applied to table grapes to make them bigger.

Farmer Fred

[17:25] Gliberin? Gibberin? Gibberillin?

Debbie Flower:

[17:27] Gibberillin.

Farmer Fred:

[17:28] Sounds like a character out of Cinderella. Gibberillin. But you don't want to get into that.

Debbie Flower:

[17:34] No, you don't.

Farmer Fred:

[17:34] Not At this time. Yeah. And as I've discovered, too, in a lot of vineyards, there are more vineyards using mulch.

Debbie Flower:

[17:41] Oh.

Farmer Fred:

[17:42] To help preserve soil moisture.

Debbie Flower:

[17:44] In the row.

Farmer Fred:

[17:45] In the row. Yeah.

Debbie Flower:

[17:46] Because there's aisle maintenance, too. What you grow in the aisle and then what you do in the row.

Farmer Fred:

[17:53] And that aisle maintenance could be some plants that attract beneficial insects. Like, I think I mentioned this on an earlier podcast about how more California grape growers are using alyssum as a ground cover because it attracts beneficials like hoverflies.

Debbie Flower:

[18:08] Yes. Yes. And you want something in the aisle because then when it rains, you can still walk in there and not sink in the mud.

Farmer Fred:

[18:14] There you go. Yes. And yeah, we didn't talk really about watering them, but yeah, this is where drip lines are a necessity for effective watering. And like you said, to have them not on the ground, the drip line's not on the ground, but going along up about two feet or so going across.

Debbie Flower:

[18:33] Yeah, I wouldn't say two feet, but yeah, it's up off the ground on a wire. And there is dry grape growing, meaning they don't irrigate, but you have to be in a place that gets regular rain, which West Virginia is. Yeah.

Farmer Fred:

[18:45] So you may be able to get away with it.

Debbie Flower:

[18:46] You may be able to, yeah.

Farmer Fred:

[18:47] Yeah. So it depends on what you're growing. Depends.

Debbie Flower:

[18:49] And your soil depth and ability to hold on to moisture.

Farmer Fred:

[18:52] So, Brandon, we're not really sure what went wrong with your first go at growing grapes. But give it another try. And I think you'll find you'll have more grapes than you know what to do with. Mm-hmm. All right, Brandon. Thanks for the question.

Debbie Flower:

[19:06] Jam, pie, wine, juice.

Farmer Fred:

[19:11] Juggling. Debbie Flower, thank you.

Debbie Flower:

[19:14] You're welcome, Fred.

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Farmer Fred:

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Q&A: WHY ARE THE FIGS DROPPING?

Farmer Fred:

[20:29] We like to answer your garden questions here On the Garden Basics podcast. We got a question from Susie in Sebastopol (CA) wondering about her fig tree. So let's talk with a fig expert. We're here at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center on a workday Saturday in March. And Quentyn Young is here, Master Gardener, landscaper. He knows his figs. They have figs here at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center as well. 

And Susie asks, “I’m hoping that you can figure out what is going on with our small, about four to five feet tall, underperforming fig tree. We believe it is a Violet de Bordeaux semi-dwarf variety, but we're not sure because someone else planted it. It's supposed to be extremely cold hardy. It was put in the ground approximately five years ago. It seems to be growing fine each spring, leafing out nicely, and is happy through most of the summer. We do get quite a few figs that start, about 40 or 50 figs. However, they never mature, and then they fall off the tree. We do live in Sebastopol, which, by the way, folks, is in Sonoma County in Northern California. Zone 9, and our soil is very sandy. We also have a big gopher population, but the tree had been planted within a gopher basket, and the roots seem intact. Our microclimate in our yard can have extremely hot days, 90 to 100, and very cool nights in the 40s to 50s. In the winter, we do have many frosty nights. So we've tried watering more, watering less, and feeding with compost as well as using fertilizers over the past five years. I'm wondering if it needs more minerals, and if so, what kind?” 

That's a lot of stuff there, Q.

Quentyn Young:

[22:07] It is. She covered a lot of things on there. I guess my first question is, is it in the full sun? So from that description, I couldn't tell where the tree is planted. And the next question I want to check is, how big is their gopher basket, and what are the roots actually like? 

Farmer Fred

Yeah, if the roots have been eaten by gophers, the roots that have grown outside that gopher basket, especially in sandy soil, that's good gopher country. Lean against the tree. See if it budges. See if it moves. If you see weakness in any direction that you push the tree, it could be a root issue. 

Quentyn Young:

Yeah, and something else I was thinking about, they said they think it's a Violette de Bordeaux because somebody else planted it. But sometimes you will plant figs that they find just growing in the middle of nowhere, and that's no guarantee that it's a good fig. So unless they know for sure, they might want to try grafting another variety on there just to make sure.

Farmer Fred:

[22:55] What are ideal conditions to grow figs?

Quentyn Young:

[22:57] Full sun, southern or western exposure. Low water. They're pretty easy maintenance. They grow in a lot of arid climates. 

Farmer Fred:

And I'm wondering if the marine influence in Sebastopol, since it's fairly near the Pacific Ocean, might play a part in that. 

Quentyn Young:

Could be depending on the kind of weather pattern they have, sure. I know in the Bay Area, I'd have a hard time growing figs, let's say in San Francisco or Daly City.

Farmer Fred:

[23:20] Well, there's a clue. And as far as fertilizers, I've never worried about fertilizing a fig tree. Do you fertilize fig trees?

Quentyn Young:

[23:26] We don't fertilize our fig trees here at all. We barely water them, too. That's a good situation then when if they are providing too much water, even though it's sandy soil, that could lead to fig drop. It could be as well. Yeah, sure. 

Farmer Fred

And we don't know how they're watering. 

Quentyn Young:

No, we don't know how they're watering, how long they're watering, how much they're watering. Yeah, those are all good questions. It is sandy soil, so it might require getting a soil moisture meter and measuring around the tree at root depth. Doing a little bit of excavating with a trowel or something just to see what the soil is like. like also to look to see what the roots are like.

Farmer Fred:

[23:57] And then she ends with saying, she wonders if she needs more minerals, and if so, what kind?

Quentyn Young:

[24:03] I'd say nothing. They're just so easy to grow. They don't really need a lot of fertilizers or minerals.

Farmer Fred:

[24:09] Yeah. And the fact that it is setting fruit, but the fruit is not maturing, that goes back to what you said originally about there being too much shade.

Quentyn Young:

[24:17] Could be too much shade. We have a Breba crop here, too, that usually drops off before we get our next crop. But yeah, there's a lot of questions I'd like to know about that fig.

Farmer Fred:

[24:25] Breba, by the way, is spelled B-R-E-B-A. It is not acceptable in either Words with Friends or Scrabble (or Wordle or Spelling Bee). But if you grow figs, you want to breed a crop because it's an early crop, usually in spring, and then there's another crop in late summer, early fall.

Quentyn Young:

[24:39] Yeah. And we find ours isn't the best, that first crop. The second crop here is the one that's the best. Right. As far as size goes. Yeah. Size. .

Farmer Fred:

[24:46]  But still, the Violet de Bordeaux is an excellent fig tree and it is fairly modest in size. I won't say completely. I think ours is easily 10 feet tall that we have to keep trimmed.

Quentyn Young:

[24:58] Yeah. And that's kind of semi-dwarf for a fig. Yeah, but it's a good heirloom variety. Yeah.

Farmer Fred:

[25:02] All right. Susie in Sebastopol, it all depends on, I guess, how much shade you have and if it isn't too much shade. And when we say too much shade for a fig tree or if we say you got to give it full sun, what are the numbers?

Quentyn Young:

[25:15] I'd want at least 10 hours of full sun.

Farmer Fred

Oh?

Quentyn Young:

8 to 10. Okay. Yeah.

Farmer Fred:

[25:20] Right. I was going to say, wow. All right. And then again, that sandy soil might be problematic. I like the idea of adding compost or mulch to the top of the soil, too, to preserve soil moisture.

Quentyn Young:

[25:31] Yeah, it might be. But I think I'm wondering if it just it might be to due to their climate in Sebastopol, like you said, that maritime kind of foggy climate that might be having something to do with it.

Farmer Fred:

[25:40] Well, Susie, I hope that helps. And I hope you finally get a crop of figs on your Violet de Bordeaux soon. Quentyn Young, Master Gardener, landscaper. We're out here at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center. Q, thanks for the help.

Quentyn Young:

[25:53] Thanks for having me.

BEYOND THE GARDEN BASICS NEWSLETTER

Farmer Fred:

[25:59] It's early spring and social media ads and influencers are overflowing your internet feeds with supposedly surefire items and techniques for your warm season garden, usually designed, frankly, to separate you from your money. In this week's Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter, we tackle a popular topic in this season's online planting advice that you might be considering for your 2025 garden. Using biostimulants for your plants. Plus, the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter has expanded. There is now a Garden Tip of the Day that's published each day for paid subscribers. Paid subscribers will also have complete access to previous posts of the newsletter, of which there are now nearly 200 editions. In those previous editions, you can find, for example, helpful advice on how to make your own planting mix. That was from April of 2024. The best roses to grow for cut flowers from May of 2023. And the plants that attract the most beneficial insects. That was from May of 2022. But again, these previous posts are only available to paid subscribers. Free subscribers to the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter are welcome as well. They'll get a sizable portion of each week's main newsletter that comes out on Fridays. Your paid subscription to the newsletter, which frankly is very cheaply priced, supports the ongoing efforts to produce both the newsletter and the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, which is completely available for free, of course, wherever you get your podcasts. You can find out more information about the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter in today's show notes or at our homepage, GardenBasics.net or at Substack. And by the way, thank you for your support.

Q&A: CONTROLLING PEACH LEAF CURL (originally aired in Ep. 328)

Farmer Fred:

[27:58] We like to answer your garden questions here on the Garden Basics podcast. From San Luis Obispo, California, a beautiful coastal city in central California. Peg writes in and says, “I really learn a lot in listening to you. This recent broadcast you had on peach leaf curl touched on a really sad episode in my home orchard. I had been getting the best peaches until last year when peach leaf curl actually killed the tree. I did the preventative strategies like picking up prior infected leaves, and I had sprayed the tree, though unfortunately only once. But the investation was way too intrusive for the tree to survive. And this is the second time this has happened. My strategy now is to look for fruit trees that produce later on in the summer. Can you give me some suggestions?” Peg, that's a tough question. So we turn it over to Master Gardener, Orchard Specialist, Quentyn Young. Quentyn, what do you think of the strategies of using late ripening peaches as a deterrent for peach leaf curl?

Quentyn Young:

[28:55] I think that is a good option, especially if they're leafing out late. One of our earliest ones, Eva's Pride, which starts blooming sometimes in February, got hit really bad every year with peach leaf curl, and we ended up taking it out. Especially when you get hit year after year, it just reduces the vigor of the tree.

Farmer Fred:

[29:14] We've talked in the past about strategies for dealing with it at this stage of the year. You can't spray. It's too late to spray, but you can fertilize the tree to give it a boost. You can cover up underneath the tree with fresh mulch in order to keep those spores from bouncing back up. And, of course, clean up, too, cleaning up the fallen leaves. But it doesn't make sense to be removing any of the affected leaves now. Wait till they fall on the ground.

Quentyn Young:

[29:37] Yeah, and then she had mentioned in the letter that she had sprayed. So I'm always curious, like, what did you spray with and when? That most important one is around Valentine's Day, President's Day. The problem this year was it was raining. and you can see when you just start having that bud break, when it just starts showing color, that's the most important spray date. But again, if it's raining, you can't do anything about it and those fungal spores will get in there.

Farmer Fred:

[30:01] Yeah, we like to call that stage the popcorn stage of bud development where it's just showing a bit of white. And you're right, yeah, you need like six dry days afterwards, maybe sunny, windy weather to mitigate the spread of peach leaf curl after you've sprayed. So yeah, you could try, Peg, some late ripening varieties. I've grown Fairtime, a couple of others, Octoberfest you might want to try, which has, I think, as the name would imply, an October harvest, and Kaweah. Have you ever grown a Kaweah?

Quentyn Young:

[30:29] No, but I saw that was one of Sunset's picks a couple of years ago. I've always wanted to try it. I just haven't seen it that available in most nurseries yet.

Farmer Fred:

[30:37] Yeah, look for Kaweah. It's very popular. I know Dave Wilson Nursery grows it. It's one of their staff favorites to grow for taste. So, Peg, yeah, give it a try. Take care of your existing trees and maybe spray a couple of times this coming fall and winter.

Quentyn Young:

[30:50] Yeah, let us know if you do end up picking a late ripening one, if that actually works for you.

Farmer Fred:

[30:55] Quentyn Young, Master Gardener, thanks for your help.

Quentyn Young:

[30:57] Thank you, Fred.

BENEFITS OF NO-TILL GARDENING

Farmer Fred:

[31:06] It's early spring, and you just might have a hankering for pulling out the old rototiller to get the soil ready for your warm season garden. The problem is that rototilling may do more harm than good. According to the University of California Sonoma County Master Gardeners, there's recent scientific studies that have shown that no-till gardening makes the most sense. No-till gardening, it promotes minimal soil disturbance for nurturing the underground ecosystem of all those macro and microorganisms. But actually, there is one good time for using that rototiller, and that's before planting in a new area that's never been cultivated or has been lying dormant for a number of years, and that's called one-time tilling. A one-time tilling of a new bed breaks up compacted soil or sticky clay in which you can incorporate large amounts of organic matter.

Farmer Fred:

[32:00] A one-time tilling removes massive and invasive shrub and tree roots. A one-time tilling loosens soil for removing large, thick, invasive weeds in a new food garden where other organic methods are ineffective or unwanted. A one-time tilling offers a chance to change the soil's acidity or alkalinity levels. Obviously, we're talking about pH here. You incorporate limestone to raise the pH, or you incorporate sulfur to lower the pH. But actually, that's a rather rare need for most gardeners. For most food and flower gardens, a desirable pH reading is usually between 6 and 7. More acid-loving plants, like blueberries, though, would prefer a pH under 6.

Farmer Fred:

[32:43] Asparagus can thrive in more alkaline soils, up to a pH of 7.5. Another advantage to one-time tilling? A one-time shallow tilling creates small soil particles for broadcasting seeds in a new bed. But frankly, you could do that with a stiff metal rake. Are there any other advantages to keeping that rototiller in the garage or shed? Well, obviously, no-till gardening requires less physical effort. The no-till approach, it offers many advantages to the vast web of life beneath the soil that's easily destroyed when that environment is severely altered by those churning metal blades. A no-till approach results in an improved method for growing food, and here's how that's done. No-till gardening preserves the natural web of soil that includes earthworms, fungi, bacteria, and a myriad of other micro and macro organisms.

Farmer Fred:

[33:38] No-till prevents dormant weed seeds from being pulled up to the soil surface where they can more easily germinate. You don't want that. No-till reduces the frequent stirring or cultivation that compacts and breaks down soil structure. Untilled soil preserves a structure of soil aggregates that allows for higher water infiltration and greater soil water storage capacity. Untilled soil, it builds up a system of pores that moves water up, down, and sideways, and that results in more efficient use of water. Untilled soil is better able to retain more humus,  also known as tilth, leading to improved plant nutrition, disease resistance, soil aeration, and water-holding capabilities. Undug soil retains, it doesn't release, carbon dioxide that's in the ground. It's there in the form of compost, which is derived from the decomposing of previous crop roots. Untilled soil holds layers of compost and fertilizers on top of the soil, where nutrients can be lightly worked in when planting and transplanting. And as mentioned, untilled soil keeps those dead roots in the ground after crops are harvested. That increases carbon content as food for microorganisms, resulting in a healthier soil life. And that means less work for you in the garden. We'll have a link in the show notes today to this report about the benefits of no-till gardening from the Sonoma County Master Gardeners.

Farmer Fred:

[35:08] Garden Basics with Farmer Fred comes out every Friday, and it's brought to you by Dave Wilson Nursery. Garden Basics is available wherever podcasts are handed out. For more information about the podcast, as well as an accurate transcript of the podcast, visit our website, GardenBasics.net. And thank you so much for listening and your support.