Get ready to plant with Mountain Gardens Nursery

Stock image.

For home fruit growers, it is time to apply annual dormant oil application on selected fruit trees. This is probably one of the most important sprays for fruit trees and the least toxic of all spray materials for the homeowner to handle.

Dormant oil is a refined petroleum product formulated for orchard tree use. It has been in use for well over a century in commercial orchards and is still regularly used today. It is classified as an insecticide, and acts by coating overwintering insects hiding in tree trunks and limb bark with a suffocating layer of oil.

The two insect species most suppressed by dormant oil are red spider mites and scale. Both are common pests in fruit trees. It is important to remember that oil sprays will suppress, but do not always totally control these insects, however dormant oil decreases the insect populations by killing overwintering adults and eggs, and thus slows seasonal build-ups. This is well-worth the extra time and cost. Later in the season, I have other insecticides that work well on spider mites. I use Monterey Lawn and Garden's Neem oil for peaches and nectarines – for control of peach leaf curl. For other fungal disease apply Chlorothalonil. Apply this any time during the winter or summer.

It's also time for pre-emergent application, a product that prevents seed germination, like Preen, Hi-Yield or Monterey Weed and Grass Preventer. Think what it would cost to pay someone to weed that for you! A post-emergent herbicide takes care of existing weeds. So, a product like Monterey Remuda or Spectracide would work for existing weeds.

Now for planting: we plant trees everyday of the year in Tehachapi. I remember planting trees and sod on Christmas Eve in a snow storm and they did great. People don't realize the best time to plant a tree is fall. Winter is second, but you really can plant anytime. Winter planting is good because the soil is moist and easier to dig a big hole for the tree. The roots are still growing in winter and it gets you outside for a little exercise, which is nice! When you are finished, you'll feel great because now it's done and you don't have to wait until spring.

What fruit and nut trees grow in Tehachapi? Tehachapi is a high chill area, meaning many hours below 45 degrees. Apples, for instance, need 800 "chill hours" below 45 degrees to produce, that's why apples and pears do so well here.

Peaches, if you choose the late flowering varieties, do great here. Some favorites are O'Henry and Donut. Autumn Rosa, late Santa Rosa and Satsuma have all done well here. Some nectarines do well, but only late flowering varieties.

Cherries can also do well in Tehachapi, but not so well at 4,500 feet elevation and up. Bing, Lapins, Rainier cherries (a personal favorite), Stella, Montmorency, Black Tartarian and Royal Crimson are good sweet cherries. Also, the sour pie cherries do well here.

We have found several blueberries that are excellent if planted in acidic soil. Precaution: plant raspberries and blackberries in different parts of the yard or they may cross pollinate and you could get a black raspberry. The flavor doesn't change just the color of the fruit!

Some walnuts and almonds are worth trying here. Almonds bloom early, but most can fruit regardless of how cold it gets. They are more frost resistant. A lot of people plant them for their flowers. All shade trees can be planted now along with shrubs, Forsythia, Lilacs, Viburnum burkwoodii and Carlesii, Photinia and Nandina, just to mention a few.

The first load of baby chicks will be here in March. We have an assortment of tropical fish and gold fish varieties. Tori, Jaden, Gonzalo and Rick have done a lot of work this winter to get ready for spring, so come by and take a look at Mountain Gardens Nursery & Pet, 503 S. Curry St., Tehachapi. Make sure to leave your email address so we can send you a specials list.