While 60-70 degree temperatures get us used to spring/summer, we may be jumping the gun on planting warm season garden items. Many annual flowers, tomato plants, and other warm season plants should not be set out until after May 10. When we look at our average frost free date, we see that it is April 25. About half the time in the last 30 years, the average last spring killing frost has occurred by this date. That also means that about half the time it hasn't. The last two years have been good examples of a late-season freeze occurring.

Those selling transplants love those of us that like to buy these plants in mid-April. More years than not, they get to sell us at least two sets of transplants. Of course all bets are off if you use protective covers (such as milk jugs, row covers, or wall-of-water types of protection). Usually it is just as easy to wait until the recommended date, and that would be after the range of April 25-May 10 for green beans, sweet corn, and tomatoes. These are all considered "tender vegetables."

Melons, peppers, pumpkin, and squash are considered "warm-loving" and should be planted in the range from May 10- June 1. Pumpkins planted for Halloween jack-o-lanterns should be planted about Father's Day. These pumpkins will get ripe too quickly for use in late October if planted the normal time. Pumpkins for pies can be planted in the May 10 to June 1 period.

We are getting quite a few questions about fertilizing a garden. The normal (without soil test information) rule-of-thumb rate for fertilizing flower or vegetable gardens is about 15 pounds of 10-10-10 per 1000 square foot of area. If you are using 12-12-12 or 13-13-13 fertilizer, use about 12 pounds per 1000 square foot. Soil pH may need to be adjusted due to the addition of lime and sulfur, which are acidifying. Generally, about 4.25 pounds of lime neutralizes the acidity from one pound of nitrogen or sulfur. Beware of pH requirements for different plants before you go out to apply lime. Surrounding plants are also affected. Examples would be blueberries, rhododendron, azalea, pin oaks, and many evergreens.

One of the more popular questions, at least during the growing season, concerns how to prevent the leathery rot on the bottom of tomatoes. The leathery rot is called blossom end rot. It is caused by a calcium imbalance in the plant. You could apply some lime to the area where tomatoes will be planted, because lime supplies calcium. The more reliable method is to mulch tomato plants well. This evens out the soil moisture available to the plants. The alternative is watering on a frequent basis, but too much water can cause root rot problems.

When soil conditions permit, it is time to plant things such as asparagus crowns, leaf lettuce, onions, peas, potatoes, radishes, rhubarb plants, spinach, and turnips. Give it another week or two and it is time to plant such things as broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower. As with most things, a little bit of planning goes a long way in preventing problems later on.

Reminders

· It is time to get the crabgrass preventer on, but don't apply if you seeded your lawn.

· It is about time to mow already, and remove no more than 1/3 of the leaf blade at a time to prevent raking or catching clippings.

· Cut back butterfly bushes to live material, with a 10 inch maximum height.

· Cut back mums, but leave two inches of dead material since much stored food is located there.

Cut back ornamental grasses to a height of four inches or so.

Here is a summary of March precipitation with the Extension Office on the left, and the National Weather Service on the right.

Station IL-LG-11 IL-LG-2

Date	Precip		Precip
03/01/2008	--		0.00
03/02/2008	--		0.00
03/03/2008	0.32		0.27
03/04/2008	T		0.00
03/05/2008	0.37		0.20
03/06/2008	--		0.00
03/07/2008	0.00		0.00
03/08/2008	--		0.00
03/09/2008	--		0.00
03/10/2008	--		0.00
03/11/2008	0.00		0.00
03/12/2008	0.00		0.00
03/13/2008	0.00		0.00
03/14/2008	0.00		T
03/15/2008	--		0.00
03/16/2008	--		T
03/17/2008	--		0.00
03/18/2008	0.13		0.75
03/19/2008	0.28		0.33
03/20/2008	--		0.00
03/21/2008	--		0.00
03/22/2008	--		**
03/23/2008	--		**
03/24/2008	0.02		**
03/25/2008	--		**
03/26/2008	0.00		0.03 *
03/27/2008	0.03		**
03/28/2008	0.23		0.27 *
03/29/2008	0.00		0.00
03/30/2008	--		0.00
03/31/2008	0.02		--
Totals :	1.40		1.85

Many small fruits require special maintenance in the early spring for their longevity and to achieve high production. This would include operations on grapes, brambles, blueberries, and strawberries.

Grapes should be pruned in the spring, and we are at the late time for pruning. The goal is to leave about six good buds per lateral on the vines. This late, there could be some serious "bleeding" of grapes. This happens when the sap has risen, and occurs on high sap flow trees like maples as well. This bleeding is probably more damaging to you than the plants. There is no way to stop it as there is nothing to plug or coat the ends when that much sap is being discharged.

Strawberries are rather labor intensive in the spring. Hopefully they were mulched with straw last fall. They should be uncovered when the soil temperature is about 40 degrees at four inches deep under the mulch. This soil temperature can be checked with a regular soil thermometer, or some type of cooking thermometer that has the lower temperatures. To use a thermometer without the soil point on it, you will need to dig a four inch hole with a trowel or spade then put the sensing bulb against the bottom of the hole to get the temperature. If you start to notice yellow leaves, uncover the plants immediately regardless of the soil temperature. Keep the straw handy, as temperature fluctuations may require you to recover the plants. That's where the labor intensive part comes in.

Brambles include blackberries and raspberries. Thorned blackberries should only be done in the spring. Start by cutting out all canes that produced last year. They will be gray in color. Also take out the small, weak canes and those that appear diseased. Try to leave canes about eight inches apart. You can cut these back to about 18 inches long. Tipping canes in the summer is the process of simply breaking the tips off about three foot high. If you didn't do it last year, make a note on this year's calendar for late summer. This greatly increases fruit production since fruit comes on the lateral branches, not the main stem.

Thornless blackberries also need to be thinned. Start by cutting out the canes that produced last year. Cut canes back to live wood, and you can tell this by a dark, sunken area above the live wood. Then keep about eight of the best canes for each plant, removing everything else. Most of the time the thornless berries are grown on a trellis, so tie those new canes to the trellis throughout the year. Using old pantyhose works great for tying up plants. I'll leave it up to you where to find your supply of tying material.

Red and yellow raspberries that produce in the spring and fall should be handled like the thornless varieties of blackberries. There are a few varieties managed for a fall crop only, and in that case you simply mow everything to the ground.

Fertilizer is often asked about. For brambles, an even analysis fertilizer such as 12-12-12 at the rate of 1.5 pounds per 100 foot of row is great. This is a little bit more than the recommended turf rate of eight pounds per 1,000 square feet so beware if you are applying to turf areas.

Weed control is often asked about as well. Preen is labeled for many uses and will kill annual small seeded broadleaves and grasses preemergence (the germinating seeds are killed). There are postemergence grass products available from specialty stores.

St. Patrick's Day has come and gone, but there is more green yet to come. Lawns will be greening up very soon, and areas protected under leaves or other types of loose mulch are already there. Spring seeding lawns is usually our second best choice, because of the warm weather soon to follow. Fall has been the preferred time for many years, but the weather the past few falls might encourage a shot at the spring time.

There has been a repeat of extremely dry weather the past several falls. This has led to grass seed laying there until moisture became available. The end result was grass germinating about Thanksgiving. Then the weather didn't cooperate as well, and the new seeding was lost to a freeze before it was actually established. Hence, the renewed interest in spring seeding.

Spring seeding should be done between March 15 and April 1 for the best chance of success. The reasons for the early date are the heat and the long germination time for Kentucky bluegrass. It can take up to a month for bluegrass seed to germinate. This means an April 1 seeding might germinate May 1. Then add six to eight weeks for it to become established. This could then be close to July 1. Usually we tend to get hot weather about then. Waiting a few years for those fall seedings to take root will probably increase the those trying again this spring.

Let's start with the basics. The normal seedings are a blend of Kentucky bluegrass and fine fescue. Some blends also include a perennial ryegrass with the other two species. The fine fescue is much better in shade, and the perennial ryegrass will provide quicker cover. The seeding rate is generally four pounds per 1000 square feet in bare dirt seedings. Use two pounds per 1000 square feet in overseeding thin lawns. Of course this can run into some real money when doing very large areas. Many rural seedings are done more on the basis of a pound per 1000 square feet. There are almost 44,000 square feet in an acre, so you can do the math on this one.

Fertilizer is always an area of many questions. The place to start is a soil test. This will tell you where you are starting from. Basic soil test levels for phosphorus, potassium, and soil pH should be in the neighborhood of 40, 350, and 6.1 respectfully. Phosphorus and potassium are on a pound per acre basis. This must be considered if you use labs that report in parts per million, which will give numbers half as large. These numbers will provide a great environment for grass. Grass will really grow in very poor conditions, but it certainly won't have that manicured lawn "look" many strive for. Lacking a soil test, or being at recommended fertility levels, general maintenance applications provide a pound each of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium per 1000 square feet of lawn area in May and again in September. Really lush lawns will usually have twice as much nitrogen applied in a season, but split among four applications. Hang on to your wallet this year, as fertilizer prices have increased dramatically.

If you decide to try seeding this spring, remember a couple of things related to weed killers. Number one, you can't use crabgrass preventer in the same season as you put down seed. The crabgrass preventer doesn't know the difference between grass seed and weed seeds. The second rule is to mow the new seeding at least three times before trying any broadleaf weed killer. Generally this means spring broadleaf control doesn't happen when you seed in the spring. The end result is if you seed in the spring, you control weeds in the fall. Seed in the fall, and you control weeds and crabgrass in the spring. If you do plan to use a crabgrass preventer, time it so it is on about the time the

When it comes to spray programs for apple and pear trees, the two rules are to be consistent and be persistent. Quality fruit these days takes these two things, and time. It seems like quality fruit must be sprayed at the recommended intervals. Starting with dormant oils, these need to be applied before buds swell. Dormant oils are usually needed only every two or three years to provide control of scales and mites. Sure, the populations will build up in the off years, but should remain relatively low if the three-year program is followed. Dormant oils do require temperatures above freezing for 24 hours, but you want to be ahead of the bud swell.

The first regular spray of the year is applied when the green tissue is ½ inch out of the bud. This spray for homeowners usually consists of a multipurpose fruit spray (and sulfur if needed for powdery mildew). Multipurpose fruit spray has been re-formulated the last few years to include malathion, captan, and carbaryl (methoxychlor was eliminated from the old mixture). This same mixture would be used when the fruit buds are in the pink stage (when fruit buds show color). After that, the persistence and consistence pays off as you spray with the same mixture about every 10 days until we get to within two weeks of harvest. In our area, we need to continue spraying this late because of apple maggot and sooty mold.

This spray program will also control borers on apples and pears, if you also thoroughly spray the trunk and main limbs of the trees. On non-bearing, young fruit trees where borers have attacked, you can spray the trunks every two weeks during June and July with a multipurpose fruit spray.

The spray schedule for peaches, nectarines, apricots, and plums varies a little bit. The dormant spray for them uses captan fungicide. This is the only spray that controls leaf curl and plum pockets. The next spray is when fruit buds show color with captan, followed by captan at bloom. When the husks begin to pull away from the base of the fruit we would then spray with sulfur, captan, and malathion. This mix would then be used every 10 days or so to within a week of harvest.

For borers on the peach group, you can spray or paint the trunk only with carbaryl (Sevin) on June 15, July 15, and August 15. We have some challenges with the loss of some of the insecticides, since carbaryl can cause fruit drop or thinning on the peach group and some apples.