NORTHUMBERLAND — As the summer begins to wrap-up, some Valley residents might be wondering how they should care for their gardens as we head into fall. Carl Cantaluppi Jr., a retired Cooperative Extension agent, talked about late summer plant care, “Knockout roses flower on the current season’s growth, so you can prune them back severely in the spring. They will flower.”
He added, “Once the flowers have faded, you can prune them back again in the late summer or fall and you’ll get another crop of flower because they bloom on the current season’s growth. Ones that bloom only once, like a majority of your climbing roses, those you want to prune immediately after they finish flowering.”
Cantaluppi said that you should continue to water your plants, even into the winter, “Water is like anti-freeze to a plant. Water insulates the root. An interesting thing that a lot of people don’t know is soil temperature in the winter. The soil temperature never gets any colder than 32 degrees because the soil insulates. When you get colder air temperatures, the soil just freezes deeper.”
He gave some tips on how to properly fertilize your soil, “First thing to do, always test your soil. It’s very inexpensive. Test your soil, so you know what your plants need; more importantly, you’ll know what your soil PH is. Many trees and many plants will only be effective in extracting mineral nutrients when the soil PH is where it needs to be. The PH scale runs from 1 to 14. A PH of 7 is neutral anything less than 7 is acidic, anything greater than 7 is basic. Most plants like a slightly acid PH.”
Cantaluppi said that residents can buy soil testing kits at the Northumberland County extension office in Sunbury for $10, or the Snyder County Conservation district in Middleburg. (Alyson Holdren)
