Episode Transcript

Hi! John Morgan here and welcome to this week’s episode of The Keep Growing Podcast where we take a look at the gardening week ahead for the Mid-Ohio Valley.  This week we’re looking at Week 37 of 2024, Saturday, September 7th to Saturday, September 14th.  Let’s start off with a look at the forecast.

With the cold front that moved through Friday evening bringing some much-needed rain, we’re looking at temperatures in the 70s for the weekend.  That’s downright chilly!  Then we’ll climb back up near 90 for the middle of the week.  Right now, the forecast looks dry.  Hopefully, our rain chances will improve toward next weekend.

The First Quarter Moon is on Wednesday, September 11th this week.  Patriot’s Day.  The 1st Quarter Moon is a great time to plant and harvest aboveground crops.  Right now, is the season for fruit tree harvests.  This weekend I’m working on preserving a 5 gallon bucket of pears that I picked Friday evening.  They’re from trees my grandfather planted over 40 years ago.  It reminds me of an old Greek proverb.  “A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit.”

In the garden this week:

• Seed Carrots and Bunching Onions in a Cold Frame or High Tunnel

• Plant Garden Mums and Hardy Evergreens

• Harvest Early Pumpkins

September 14th, begin exposing overwintered poinsettias to 14 hours of darkness each day to force them to turn by Christmas.  This is actually a pretty common question that I get.  “Why did my poinsettia stay green during the winter?”  Poinsettias changing color, like fall garden mums blooming, are day length dependent.  Exposure to extended period of darkness triggers them to start producing red pigment and decreasing the amount of green pigments in the upper leaves that become the quote/unquote blooms. 

In the depths of winter at Bob’s we use supplemental lighting in the greenhouse, but this time of year we have the opposite problem, we have to be careful about light pollution from outside the greenhouse.  A few years ago, the town switched from old style orange streetlights to new, super bright LEDs.  We ended up using a curtain of groundcloth to block the light, and in subsequent years we’ve just moved those plants to a different part of our facility.  It’s funny how something as innocuous as a streetlight can affect plant growth.

This week tell your poinsettias “Hello darkness my old friend.” And, of course, keep growing.

For show notes and a transcript, visit us online at bobsmarket.com/keepgrowing  Also, send me your questions, comments, or smart remarks to keepgrowing at bobsmarket.com

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