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By Kenner P. Love
Extension Agent, ANR
Crop and Soil Sciences
The following are gardening tips for September from the Rappahannock Extension Office.
• As your apples ripen this fall, take time to walk through your orchard and observe your trees. Look for tell-tale signs of tree vigor, such as leaf color and shoot length, dead or dying trees, excessive crop load* needing more thinning earlier in the season, and weed control among the trees. The problems you see can be remedied this fall or next spring.
• Be sure not to store apples or pears with vegetables such as potatoes and squash. The fruits give off ethylene gas that speeds up the ripening process of vegetables and may cause them to develop “off" flavors.
• Remove all two-year old canes from raspberry and blackberry plants to reduce over wintering of disease. Soilapplied fertilizers containing potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, or calcium can be applied, but do not cultivate of irrigate at this time of the year.
• There are several methods that can be used to determine when apples are ready to be picked. The first is to hold a fruit gently in the palm of your hand. Then, slowly lift up on the fruit. If the stem easily separates from the tree, it is ripe. Second, the base color, the side of the fruit nearest the truck, of many varieties changes from a darker to a lighter shade of green as the fruit reaches maturity. A third test is to cut a fruit in half to check the color of its seeds. Brown seeds indicate ripeness or maturity.
• Don’t leave a thick layer or organic mulch over your vegetable garden in winter or it will take a long time for the soil to dry out and warm up in spring. Rake even a light mulch aside as planting time approaches. Near the end of the growing season pick off all
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