Growin’ Green

It’s that time again!  It’s time to place your MSU cheese and gift-product orders for Christmas and, as always, we will be glad to pick up your orders. Contact the Extension Office at 675-2730 to place your order or to get an order form.
The Yalobusha Cattlemen will hold a meeting on Thursday, Sept. 18 at 6:30 p.m. at the Yalobusha County Multi-Purpose Building in Coffeeville.  Dr. John Michael Riley, Associ-ate Extension Professor, Agricultural Economics will be the presenter. The topic of the program will be “Marketing Your Calves.”  Oxford Kubota will sponsor the meeting.  If you plan on attending, please call the Extension Office  662-675-2730, by Wednesday, September 17th to reserve your seat.

Early Bird Daffodils
As me move in to the fall, garden centers will have bins, bags and other packages of spring bulbs for sale.  Nothing shouts SPRING more than the cheery buttercup. If you are one who, during the bleak, dreary days of winter, long for spring, you might want to look for the earliest blooming buttercup selections. The ones listed below are among the earliest bloomers.  

Selection Color                       (trumpet/petals)
• Rijnveld’s Early Sensation (T) Yellow/yellow
• Early Bride
(LC) Dark yellow/white
• February Gold
(T) Yellow/yellow
• Foresight
(T) Yellow/white
• Golden Harvest
(T) Yellow/yellow
T = trumpet, LC = large-cupped

Trumpet daffodils have the center “trumpet” as long as or longer than the petals; large-cupped daffodils have the trumpets more than one-third, but less than equal to, the length of the petals.
 
Vegetables
Long range forecasts by the National Weather Service call for no unusually cold nor hot, wet nor dry weather for the three months of fall. This allows vegetable growers about five more weeks of frost free temperatures in the northeast part of Mississippi and as much as 10 more weeks for coastal growers. Those who planted tomatoes, peppers, and other warm season crops in August should harvest at least the first fruits.  Those of us who are nursing our Better Boy and other indeterminate tomatoes can expect several more weeks for the green tomatoes set during the recent cool spell to mature. There is still time for okra to be topped at three feet and recover enough to start bearing again.
Several growers have reported 12 and 14 foot tall okra plants and wanted to know if there is a state record. Mississippi does not maintain state records for any vegetables.  
I have witnessed 20-foot tall okra plants. Plants this tall are fun to grow, but generally okra should be cut back when the pods are out of easy reach.
Soil temperatures are starting to cool. Plants of the  cabbage family  like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower and kohlrabi, that we eat parts other than leaves will benefit from these long, sunny days. Every day the sunlight lasts about two minutes less through late November, then is one minute less until December 21.
A plant set out on September 15 will receive an hour more sunlight than one set out on October 15. Light is the energy source for growth. These plants will grow if the temperatures are in the eighties, so watch the weather and plant whenever the nights are in the sixties.
Strawberry planting time is approaching. Be sure to order your plants now for October planting.

Horticulture Tips
Lelia Kelly, David Nagel