Ciscoe’s Tips of the Week: Encourage your tomatoes to ripen
Aug 15, 2013, 4:53 PM | Updated: Aug 16, 2013, 12:24 pm
Ciscoe’s Tips of the Week:
– Make sure trees growing in lawns receive adequate water. Also, August is a good time to prune any deciduous tree. Cut back branches that are growing over walks, remove branches growing through the middle, and cut off sprouts growing straight up into the tree.
– To encourage your tomatoes to ripen on the vine, remove all blossoms and newly formed fruit. By this time blossoms will never form a tomato, and newly formed tomatoes won’t ripen. Removing them will divert energy to bigger fruit and help them ripen more quickly.
– Deadhead Dahlias by cutting flowers for bouquets regularly. The more you cut the more flowers you’ll get. Make sure to deadhead by removing any spent blossoms regularly.
Ciscoe’s Tips of the Month for August
– Weed beds, and add a layer of fresh organic mulch to reduce weed regrowth and the need to water.
– Prune fruit trees by controlling height, removing sprouts growing out of the top, and crowding the middle.
– Pull finished crops. Work in bone meal and organic vegetable food. Plant spinach, leaf lettuce, radishes, and spinach.
Click here for Ciscoe’s Plant of the Week!
Gardening with Ciscoe can be heard on KIRO Radio on Saturdays at 10 a.m. Available anytime ON DEMAND at KIRORadio.com.