Keeping your fuchsia fabulous.

 

 

There’s nothing quite like a fuchsia hanging basket. The colors are incredible. Keeping your fuchsia hanging basket beautiful all summer long depends on the location of your hanging basket, watering, feeding and deadheading. Fuchsia need shade in order to thrive. They can handle early morning sun, but do best when they are in the shade all day. Watering fuchsia is fairly simple. They generally like to be kept evenly moist. Hanging baskets are especially prone to drying out quickly, so this time of the season, you should check your fuchsia hanging basket twice a day, once in early morning and again in early evening.

A simple way to see if your basket needs water is to lift it from underneath. If the basket feels light, it needs to be watered. If it feels heavy, it doesn’t need to be watered.  When you water, give your plant enough so that it starts to drain out the bottom.  Keep up with removing spent flowers on your fuchsia.  As soon as a blossom starts to fade, remove it so the plant can re-direct its energy toward producing blooms, not seed.

Feed your fuchsia every 10 days to 14 days with water-soluble Fertilome 20-20-20.  

Fuchsias are generally insect and disease free but can have problems with aphids, thrip and spider mites, especially this time of the season. Aphids will show up along the flower stem and the plant leaves will be sticky. Spider mite damage will show up on the leaves of your plant. Affected leaves will discolor and eventually fall off.

Apply Safer® Insect Killing Soap to control these insects. Thrip will also cause leaf and flower damage.

To control thrip, as well as aphids and other insects, use Bonide® Eight, which is a stronger insecticide. Another problem which may cause leaves to discolor and fall off is the disease called rust. If your plant has rust, the underside of the leaf will be orange colored.

Rust can be controlled with Bonide® Sulfur fungicide. Sometimes, leaves get old and drop off. It’s part of the process and there’s nothing wrong with your plant. If your fuchsia has a problem and you’re not sure what it is, bring us a sample. We’ll figure out what’s going on and help you find a solution.

“My tomato flowers keep falling off. What can I do?”

 

 

A number of factors can cause your tomato plant to not set fruit, including water, temperature, poor pollination, fertilizer, not enough sunlight, stress from insects or diseases.  Recently, we’ve gone from warm and dry conditions to cool temperatures and rain, then back to warm and dry again. Fluctuations in the amount of water your tomato plant receives can cause a lot of problems, including blossom drop.

You may notice the new blossoms wither right on the vine. When you do water, irrigate your plants, don’t sprinkle them. You want to water at the base of the plant, not the top. If you can, water in the early morning so the plant doesn’t sit wet overnight. Take into account any rain fall we might have had as part of your plant's weekly water needs. It’s better to water less frequently and really soak the soil.

If you don’t have a lot of bees in your garden, you may have to be your own pollinator. Hand pollination will help your blossoms set and produce more tomatoes.

Simply take the flowering branch and give it a gentle shake. This will move the pollen and help the flower develop. Make sure your plants are receiving plenty of sun. If they get less than 6 hours of sun a day, they may not bloom.  

Go easy on the fertilizer. Too much Nitrogen (the first number on the package) can cause blossom drop. Steamed Bone meal is a great product to use now that your plants are flowering.

You can also use Fertilome Tomato and Pepper Set to help your tomato plants set fruit.

This is a natural plant hormone product that you spray directly on your tomato plant to help promote flowering, increase blossom set and increase fruit yield. Insect and disease problems will stress your tomato plant and reduce flowering and blossom set. Catching a problem early gives you the best chance of controlling bugs and disease and keeping your plant healthy.  If you’re not sure what the problem is, bring us a sample. We’ll figure what’s going on and help you decide the best solution.