THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 29, 1995 TAG: 9501270541
SECTION: HOME & GARDEN PAGE: G2 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Gardening
SOURCE: Robert Stiffler
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
Q. I have a large tree stump I need to remove. It's a little close to my deck to grind down. Can you recommend alternative methods?
Chris Eugene, Virginia Beach
A. Virginia Tech authorities say to cut off the stump as close to the ground as possible, then drill holes in it and fill with sodium nitrate, available at farm supply stores. Another method is to use powdered milk to fill the holes, the method Marc Cathey usually recommends on his WTAR radio call-in show.
If you do nothing but cover the stump with pine straw, it should deteriorate within three years, and you can easily chop it out of the ground.
Q. Enclosed is a sample of a weed growing in my lawn. I have tried using a weed killer, but it just keeps spreading. How do I get rid of it?
Ric Marolla, Virginia Beach
A. If it's any consolation, I'm hassled by the same weed. It is Virginia buttonweed, a perennial. It crawls on the ground and has small white flowers, often with pink streaks in the center. This weed prefers low, moist areas and is one of the most rapidly increasing lawn weeds in the Southeast.
Multiple applications of Weed-B-Gon or Weedone may eliminate it. Keep using the treatment for two years. Weed specialists say it may be easier to kill all your grass and weeds with a product like Roundup and reseed the yard next fall.
Q. Would you tell me where I can call or write to order the elephant garlic you described in your garden section on Dec. 4?
Frances Tenney, Norfolk
A. Veteran Virginia Beach elephant garlic grower Charlie Ward says he saw it just before Christmas in two stores - the Little Creek Navy Commissary and Farmer Jack's grocery on Newtown Road in Virginia Beach. All you need do is break apart and plant the cloves you buy in the store. You should then have garlic to harvest in the fall.
Q. I hope you can help me save two mature azaleas and one rhododendron. The azaleas are in a raised bed with some other azaleas and three large hardwood trees. In 1992, two mature azaleas next to each other got dieback and died. Last fall, we moved two large azaleas to the spot where the other two had died. They transplanted fine, grew well and bloomed. But after all the rain, they started to die back.
When I trimmed them, the wood inside was brown. I took a cutting to Winesett Nursery, where I was told it was a fungus problem. They suggested taking them out, removing the soil and replanting. Short of that, I was told to drench with a fungicide and Upstart. I drenched the plants and applied Upstart last fall. But a few weeks later, more branches succumbed.
If removal of the dirt is necessary, can I replant the azaleas or is the fungus in their root balls?
A rhododendron 12 years old was also transplanted last fall, and it did well and bloomed better than ever. Then it started getting dried brown edges on leaves and dropping them.
I would hate to lose three such mature and beautiful plants, so can you tell me what's wrong?
Robin Hixon, Virginia Beach
A. I think you've already lost the three plants, but perhaps this will help prevent future problems. It sounds like your plants are suffering from poor drainage. If there is a fungus in the soil, you should drench it with Ban-Rot, and that may help.
My experience, however, is that when azaleas or rhododendrons start downhill like you describe, seldom can you save them. The leaves you sent were camellia or rhododendron leaves. When rhododendrons get dry brown edges on their leaves, they're going downhill fast.
Experts at the Hampton Roads Research Center explain the problem this way. You buy a one-gallon pot azalea that perhaps measures 3 feet by 3 feet. You plant it in well-drained, good soil. But the plant grows larger - and so do the roots. The roots move out to a no-drain soil area, where they pick up a root disease. That eventually kills the plant.
The solution is to make sure the bed has good drainage before planting anything. If your plants have died, I'd till up the bed, incorporating compost and making sure the bed has excellent drainage. Then drench it with Ban-Rot and replant. Now is an excellent time for doing that. MEMO: No gardening questions will be taken over the phone. Write to Robert
Stiffler, The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, 150 W. Brambleton
Ave., Norfolk, Va. 23510. Answers will be published on a space-available
basis. For an earlier reply, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
by CNB