By Mary Gadek

The Dakota County Master Gardener Plant Sale is scheduled for May 14th. As we plan to share the lovely garden flowers abound in Dakota County, we will be mindfully bare rooting the plants before donating to the sale. If you are planning to share plants from your garden with others this summer, bare rooting them is the safe way to do it.

Why bare root?! The goal of bare rooting plants is to prevent the spread of jumping worms, which are an invasive species of worms in the United States. The worms can produce significant destruction in your garden by severely impacting the soil structure of your garden and reducing or destroying plant growth. Read this article from the University of Minnesota Extension to learn more about jumping worms in Minnesota.

Prevention is key to limiting the spread of invasive jumping worms. Since soil, plant roots and mulch are the common materials most likely to spread the jumping worms, you can play an integral role in minimizing jumping worm issues. Note that in the spring, jumping worms are either cocoons or juveniles. The cocoons are the size and color of soil aggregates so they are difficult to see. Juvenile jumping worms may look like other juvenile earthworms at this point, without the telltale cream color collar, so they are hard to find or identify. These worms and juvenile worms can easily hide inside the roots of your plant.

You can still share your plants and dramatically reduce the spread of jumping worms by taking steps to “bare root” your plants. The remainder of this article will provide step-by-step instructions about how to do so.

How to Bare Root Your Plants

Before sharing your beautiful garden plants, please take the following steps to bare root your donations.

SUPPLIES:

Drop cloth for work area; your plant; deep tray or wash tub; chopsticks or bamboo skewer; 4-5 five gallon buckets, with all but one half full of water; sheets of newspaper; paper towel; sterile soil; twine; label; 5 gallon elastic-top paint strainer and a gallon sized plastic bag.

DIRECTIONS:
1. Prepare the work area with a dropcloth. Take the plant out of its pot over the deep tray/washtub. Using the chopsticks/skewer or your hands, completely remove all the dirt directly into the tray.

2. Rinse the roots in 2-3 of the water buckets until clean.

3. Examine the roots to ensure no dirt or potential jumping worm cocoons remain.

4. Position one sheet of newspaper into a diamond shape. Set a paper towel in the middle of the newspaper.

5. Lay the plant on the paper towel. Sprinkle sterile soil on the roots.

6. Wrap the bottom of the newspaper up on the roots and dirt. Fold in both sides of the newspaper over the roots. Tie the packet with twine.

7. Attach a label with the plant’s name to the twine. Write the plant’s name on the newspaper, too.

8. Put the tied packet into a bucket of clean water (i.e., a bucket of water not used to rinse the roots) to hydrate it initially, removing it after soaked. Water the packet daily.

9. Return the dirt from the washtub to the old plant pot. Put the dirt back where it came from.

10. Pull the elastic paint strainer over the empty bucket. Dump everything collected in the other 5 gallon buckets (that you used to rinse off the plant’s dirt) into the empty bucket. Remove the strainer and the strained material into a gallon sized plastic bag. Seal the bag and discard it in the trash. Tip the bucket to empty the water into the area where the plant originated. Clean the dropcloth to prevent inadvertent spread of the worms/cocoons.

NOTE: Since no earthworms are native to Minnesota, drop any worms found while bare rooting into a plastic bag, seal it and put it in the trash. Do not compost.

With a little practice, you’ll get the hang of bare rooting. A practice well worth it to keep your garden healthy.

Bare Root Instructions Credit to Marie Stolte, Dakota County Master Gardener

Video instructions from Dakota County Master Gardeners:

Valerie Rogotzke, Master Gardener

Our Minnesota winters can be quite cold and snowy! We have warm houses and heavy coats and mugs of hot cocoa to keep us cozy all through the winter, but what about all the living things outside? How do they make it through the cold season?

Animals who live outdoors don’t have buildings or mittens, but they do have their own winter survival tricks. Squirrels and rabbits build warm nests, bears and frogs will hibernate, and insects and birds often migrate, flying south to warmer places for a vacation until spring returns to Minnesota.

Without arms to burrow into the ground, wings to fly away, or arms to build nests, which of these tricks can plants use to survive winter? How do plants survive the cold? Believe it or not, plants use many of the same tricks that animals use.

Let’s look at three examples.

SQUIRRELS

You might spot a squirrel on a cold winter day, running to one of its many hiding spots to find a few nuts or seeds to eat. They enjoy lazy winters, mostly snug in their nests or out on a food run, because they worked all summer gathering food and bulking up their nests for the winter.

Which plant is like this, alive and active through the winter?

A. Deciduous trees, like maples or oaks

B. Tender bulbs, like dahlias

C. Evergreen or coniferous trees, like spruces or firs

D. Hardy bulbs, like tulips

If you said C — Evergreens, you’re correct! Evergreen trees continue to be active throughout the winter, just like squirrels. They keep their green needles all through the winter months because they’re coated in a waxy shell that protects the water inside each needle. Furthermore, their roots can keep growing deep in the earth because the soil four or five feet below the grass isn’t frozen.

FROGS

If you have frogs in your garden in the summer, you will notice that they go away in autumn. As our Junior Winter Garden Detectives might remember, frogs survive winter by going into a deep sleep called hibernation, and they also make a special kind of antifreeze liquid in their bodies that keeps them from freezing solid.

Which plant is like this, going to sleep but not freezing?

A. Deciduous trees, like maples or oaks

B. Tender bulbs, like dahlias

C. Evergreen or coniferous trees, like spruces or firs

D. Hardy bulbs, like tulips

If you said A — Deciduous trees, you’re correct! Deciduous trees don’t disappear completely like frogs, but their leaves certainly do! A maple tree will drop its leaves in autumn because they are too delicate to survive the winter. The deep sleep that trees go through is called dormancy instead of hibernation. As for that antifreeze liquid that the trees make in winter to keep from freezing? You have probably eaten it on pancakes, because it’s maple syrup.

CANADA GEESE

It’s hard to miss Canada geese on our lakes in the summer. It’s even harder to miss them when they fly south in autumn, honking noisily in their V-shaped formations in the sky.

Which plant is like this, leaving the cold for warmer climates?

A. Deciduous trees, like maples

B. Tender bulbs, like dahlias

C. Evergreen or coniferous trees, like spruces

D. Hardy bulbs, like tulips

If you said B — Tender bulbs, you’re correct! You might have even been with the gardening grownups in your life when they dug up all their tender bulbs at the end of summer. These bulbs cannot fly to Florida for the summer, but go instead to the warmth of a garage until it’s time to plant them again the following May or June.

 OoOoO

You might have noticed that we didn’t have any animal examples for hardy bulbs. Why is that? Well, this last winter trick for plants is quite unique—vernalization.

“Vernal” is just a fancy Latin way of saying “spring,” so vernalization is about the process plants go through to get ready for spring blooming and flowering. We’ve already seen that some flowers, like tender bulbs, just aren’t tough enough to survive the snowy winter and need to be brought inside.

What about the plants that are strong enough to survive the winter? This includes hardy bulbs, but also apple and cherry trees and many vegetables like cabbages and carrots. Their flowers are all ready to produce another blossom in fall, but they don’t. The cooling weather puts a flower blocker onto the plant that stops new flowers from growing. (If you have cherry or apple trees, you can go outside and see the buds that have formed but not bloomed.) What removes the flower blocker? Several weeks of cold weather. By the time the cold weather has removed the flower blockers, it’s springtime—time for new flowers to start to appear!

DO:

Try These Experiments

1. FREEZER EXPERIMENT on deciduous and evergreen leaves. Gather an avocado and a piece of lettuce or spinach. An avocado has a waxy outer shell like a spruce needle, and a piece of spinach is unprotected like a maple leaf. What do you think will happen when you put them in the freezer for 24 hours? For a week? Write down your hypotheses on a piece of paper. Next, place both in your freezer. Check on them at 24 hours and again at one week. What has changed? Now let them thaw out on your kitchen counter. Which one has survived the cold best?

2. VERNALIZATION EXPERIMENT in the garden. If you grow carrots in your garden in the summer, try leaving a few in the ground in the fall. (This will be difficult, since homegrown carrots are delicious.) A beautiful white flower that looks like Queen Anne’s lace will be awaiting you. By letting this biennial plant live out its second year, you are witnessing vernalization—the flower blocker has been taken off by winter, and now the carrot flowers are in full bloom.

Further reading and listening for adults on vernalization, both from vernalization expert Dr. Richard Amasino from the University of Wisconsin-Madison:

Article: Winter Awakens Spring Flowers

Video: Vernalization: how winter cold promotes flowering

By Jim Lakin, M.D., Master Gardener

Chances are, you’ll be spending more time indoors over the next few months.  So will your green and growing friends – your houseplants.   It makes sense then to get to know how to keep them healthy.  Healthy plants look better.  They have less insect problems.  Their chances of making it through the winter and out onto the patio next spring increase.  So, what can we do to help them out?

First grow plants in the best possible conditions. Here you will have to do a little research on the preferences of each plant.  Match the plant to its light, moisture and temperature requirements.  If a plant is struggling with too little light, too much moisture or too warm or cold a temperature, it will not do well.

Second, fulfill your plant’s nutritional requirements.  Is your fellow a big feeder or not?  Generally speaking, fertilize at half the “recommended dose” for a given plant at the intervals suggested.  Fertilizers will be most effective when applied while the plant is actively growing.

Third, water your plants properly.  This is a biggie!  More plants ascend to heaven (or descend to the compost) from overwatering than any other cause.  Over-watering combined with poor drainage can encourage root rot and pest problems.  If you water on a schedule, say every Tuesday whether they need it or not, you’ll set yourself up for this problem.  Water when the soil is dry, say,halfway up your index finger.  Also don’t let your plants stand in water.  Water at the base of the plant, not on the leaves.

Fourth, keep your plants clean.  Remove dead leaves, stems and flowers.  Don’t let them pile up on the soil surface where they can harbor insect pests.

Fifth, use new, sterile potting soil when potting plants.  Avoid outdoor garden soil.  It probably is chock full of weed seeds and insect eggs.  Plant in clean pots and wash off the roots before planting bare-rooted purchases.

Finally, inspect your houseplants frequently for insect pests.  They most often tend to congregate on the underside of leaves.  Early detection is key.  If you do suspect that bugs are beginning to set up shop, check out “Managing Insects on Indoor Plants” on the University of Minnesota website: https://extension.umn.edu/product-and-houseplant-pests/insects-indoor-plants    It’s a great aid for diagnosing and treating pest problems. 

Observe these few simple procedures and you’ll go a long way to having happy house plants and home bodies!

By Brynne Eisele

Video

Read

Summer Green to Autumn Gold: Uncovering Leaves’ Hidden Colors, by Mia Posada, answers readers’ (ages 5-10) questions about why leaves change colors.  It gives the science behind the many different colors of leaves and includes beautiful watercolor and collage art on every page.  The author and illustrator reside in Golden Valley, MN!

Fletcher and the Falling Leaves, by Julia Rawlinson, lets young readers (ages 1-5) follow Fletcher the fox cub as he discovers his favorite tree seems to be sick.  Each day more leaves turn brown and fall to the ground.  Fletcher is very worried for the tree until he finds a wonderful surprise on the first day of winter.

Do

For elementary aged children try these two very simple experiments that demonstrate the importance of trees and their leaves to our daily lives.  It will also help them visualize the concept that plants and trees are alive just like us!  

1. Do Leaves Breathe?

Materials: 

1. Freshly picked leaf that is still green
2. Bowl of water large enough to fit the leaf
3. Rock or something to weigh down the leaf

Instructions:

1. Ask the child to observe the leaf. What do they see? Do they hear the leaf breathing? 
2. Fill the bowl with water and submerge the leaf in water using the rock to make sure the leaf is fully submerged. 
3. Place the bowl in a sunny location.
4. Wait for a few hours then check on the leaf.  You should see small bubbles forming on the leaf and edges of the bowl

Explanation: Your child is observing part of the process of photosynthesis where oxygen is being expelled from the leaf.  While the leaf doesn’t use lungs to breath as we do, it does similarly take in and release air.  As humans we breathe in the oxygen expelled in our daily lives.   

Adapted from science-u.org

2.  Do Leaves Sweat?

Materials:

1. Clear zip lock bag
2. String or twist tie to secure the bag tightly
3. Branch of leaves in the sun

Instructions: 

1. Ask the child to observe the leaf.  How does the leaf feel?  Can they see the leaf sweating?
2. Fit the plastic bag on the end of a branch which has several green leaves on it.
3. Make sure your branch is in the sunlight for a few hours.
4. Secure the bag tightly with the string or twist tie.
5. One corner of the bag should be pointing down toward the ground so that the water can collect into one location.
6. After a few hours, check the bag.  You should see water pooled in the corner of the bag. 

Explanation: Your child is observing plant transpiration. This process can be explained to a child by comparing it to a human sweating and expelling water to cool down.  Plant transpiration is crucial to our daily lives as it releases water into our atmosphere to be evaporated. 

Adapted from Kids Fun Science, Youtube channel

Fall Leaf Scavenger Hunt

For younger children around ages 2-5 set up a fall leaf scavenger hunt.  Depending on the age, the child may need greater parental assistance.  See below for some suggestions but feel free to add your own categories!

• Find a yellow leaf (or one with yellow on it)
• Find a green leaf (or one with green on it)
• Find a red leaf (or one with red on it)
• Find a brown leaf (or one with brown on it)
• Find a leaf with a whole in it
• Find a leaf with three points
• Find a leaf that has an oval shape
• Find a small leaf
• Find a big leaf