Articles by Dr. Francis Gouin

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 11/4/10

Brian Murphy: A Peach of a Researcher

He’s the 2010 Francis R. Gouin Scholarship winner

Brian Murphy, winner of the 2010 Francis R. Gouin Scholarship Grant, is helping solve the problem of storing peaches. With advisor Dr. Chris Walsh, he is conducting research on improving the quality of peaches in storage.

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Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 10/21/10

Want Asparagus Bounty Next Spring?

Let the stalks yellow before cutting

A Bay Weekly reader called asking when to cut back asparagus tops.

Not yet!

To maximize next year’s crop and to get early production of sprouts, delay cutting back the tops of asparagus plants until after they have turned completely yellow. You want all the nitrogen in the stems and foliage to migrate back to the roots in the ground.

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Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 10/7/10

Fall’s Favorite Fruit

You’ll love persimmons — once you learn the to eat them

Now that I have returned to the Deale Farmers’ Market Thursdays from 3 to 6pm with persimmons, I get lots of questions: What do you do with persimmons? What do they taste like?

The persimmons I grow and sell are the Asian type, almost as large as tomatoes and with very few seeds, if any, depending on seasonal conditions. This year, persimmons have more seeds than usual.

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Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 9/30/10

The Stink Bugs Want In

Don’t welcome them!

If you thought the Japanese beetles (aka ladybugs) were bad last year, get ready for worse this fall, when invading stinkbugs join the Japanese beetles. This is the worst year I have ever witnessed for stinkbugs.

Stinkbugs are harmless to humans and pets, but they are a nuisance and difficult to control. They derive their name from the foul odor they release when you squeeze the abdomen. It reminds me of smelly dirty socks with a slightly sweet odor.

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Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 9/23/10

From Humble Origins

Following a few simple rules, you can grow a mighty oak from a tiny acorn

A master gardener recently asked me how to germinate acorns because she had repeated failures. To be successful, collect the acorns soon after they have fallen from the tree. Never collect acorns that have caps still attached because those acorns are most likely empty. Only solid, firm acorns that have fallen from the tree without caps should be collected. A healthy, well-developed acorn is one that has separated from its cap while still attached to the tree.

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Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 9/16/10

Not Sour Enough to Kill Weeds

There’s a big difference between household vinegar and horticultural vinegar

A few years ago, I wrote about using horticultural vinegar to kill weeds. At a recent Deale Farmers’ Market, a customer who bought peaches from me insisted that my recommendation to use vinegar does not kill weeds.

She even went to the trouble of boiling the vinegar, thinking she would be concentrating it. What she did not realize is that boiling vinegar dilutes the acetic acid, which is why vinegar gives off a strong odor when heated.

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Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 9/2/10

Keep Your Roses Blooming

Bet you didn’t know these tricks

If you examine a rose plant carefully, you will notice that it has compound leaves, meaning that there are either three or five leaflets to each leaf. The three-leaflet leaves appear near the top and bottom of each stem, and the five-leaflet leaves appear in the middle of the stems....

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 8/26/10

Bay Gardener’s Cat

From a Norwegian forest to Upakrik Farm

Spooks adopted Upakrik Farm on the evening of All Souls Day in 1996. Our black cocker spaniel Dixie and I both saw a cat in our driveway. I thought it was our cat Pumpkin, a Maine coon cat, but Dixie gave chase and the cat jumped into the shrubbery. When I found Pumpkin in her basket, I concluded we had a visiting cat....

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 8/19/10

Hold Off On the Roundup

The way to kill a thirsty weed during drought is to pull it

A Bay Weekly reader called complaining that the weed killer Roundup was not killing the weeds he was spraying. Matter of fact, he said, “ I might just as well have been spraying the weeds with water.”

If you read the Roundup label carefully, you’ll see that it “should be applied only on actively growing weeds.”

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Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 8/12/10

Keep Your Garden for Yourself

Here’s a repellent that passes the Bay Gardener’s tests

Deer, racoons, groundhogs, rabbits and squirrels are a major problem in vegetable gardens and in landscapes. Many home gardeners have stopped growing hosta because the deer ravage their ornamental plantings. Groundhogs and racoons as well as deer invade the vegetable garden to feast on corn, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce and beans. Rabbits love to feast on lettuce, cabbage and snap beans. ...