Gardening This Weekend: January 9, 2025
As promised, here is the general outline of what we ought to be doing in Texas landscapes and gardens as we head toward the middle of January. Most of this will probably get delayed in many parts of the state, but it’s all still work that needs to be done as soon as you can.
PLANT
• Fruit trees, vines, and bramble berries. Stick with varieties recommended for your part of Texas. Many of the well-known variety names are not at all suited to Texas (Bartlett pears, Elberta peaches, etc.). Here is a list of fact sheets from Texas A&M. Follow their variety suggestions. https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/fruit-nut/ I also have all this information in Chapter 10 of my book Neil Sperry’s Lone Star Gardening, which you can order here.
• Onions in South and Central Texas as weather allows. Hopefully you have prepared raised planting beds for them.
• Cool-season annuals. They work especially well when planted into large patio pots so they can be moved into protection during weather extremes. That probably won’t be necessary in South Texas, but it comes in handy in the Hill Country and North Texas.
• Established trees and shrubs that need to be relocated should be dug and transplanted in the next 3-4 weeks while they’re completely dormant.
PRUNE
• Peach and plum trees to maintain their bowl-shaped growth habits. Your goal should be to keep them 9-10 ft. tall and 14-16 ft. wide. Remove strongly vertical shoots.
• Apples to remove strongly vertical shoots (“water sprouts”). Very limited pruning should be needed for pears. Excessive pruning stimulates rapid new growth, and that will be more susceptible to fire blight. Figs will hopefully need little or no pruning.
• Grapes to remove as much as 85 percent of their cane growth while maintaining the scaffold branching structure along wire trellises.
• Oaks while they are completely dormant to lessen chance of spread of oak wilt fungus. Seal all cuts with pruning paint.
• Other shade trees as needed to remove dead or damaged branches. Leave only a short portion of the “branch collar.” Do not leave stubs that could fail to heal properly. That’s a main way that decay starts in tree trunks.
• Overgrown shrubs by as much as 30 to 35 percent. Use lopping shears and hand pruners, not hedge trimmers, for more natural looking results. Make cuts at different heights so stubs will not be as visible and remove all dead stubble in the process. If you’re having to do this every few years you might consider replacing the shrubs with a smaller species.
FERTILIZE
• Pansies, pinks, ornamental cabbage and kale with a water-soluble, high-nitrogen lawn fertilizer. For even faster results use a liquid high-nitrogen product each time that you water.
• Asparagus beds with an all-nitrogen fertilizer. Repeat 6 weeks later.
• Liquid high-P root stimulator monthly to newly transplanted trees and shrubs. Repeat for first year.
ON THE LOOKOUT
• Houseplants for insects, including spider mites, mealybugs, scales, whiteflies, and other pests that can build up quickly when there are no natural outdoor predators. If you decide you do need to spray, do so in shade on a warm afternoon. Let the spray dry for an hour or two, then bring the plants indoors. Do not expose them to direct sunlight, wind, or temperatures below 45F.
• Prune mistletoe out of your shade trees. It’s best if you can eliminate young plants that have just sprouted by clipping off the small twigs on which it is growing. All you can do with older, larger clumps is to keep them pruned back flush with the branch. There are no sprays that will control mistletoe without harming the tree.