Garden Talk: What is the trick to using a banana to help orchids bloom?

Jill and Rick Van Duyvendyk answer all your gardening questions in Garden Talk on 650 CKOM and 980 CJME every Sunday morning from 9 a.m.

Here are some questions and answers from the Jan. 26 episode:

Listen to the Jan. 26 episode:

These questions and answers have been edited and condensed for clarity.

Q: What is the trick to using a banana to help orchids bloom?

A: Take a banana, just a normal yellow or slightly over-ripe banana and put it on the top of the soil or on the edge of the pot next to the plant.

Then put a plastic shopping bag over it and tuck the edges underneath the pot, so it’s  not totally sealed and leave it for 24 hours.

Around two weeks later, you should start to see a branch, which triggers it to bloom.

The banana’s giving off an ethylene gas, and mimicks what happens in a forest as stuff is decomposing. The gas will actually harm the plant if you leave it for too long, so around 24 hours is best.

Read more:

• Garden Talk: What do I need to do in January to get ready for spring?
• Garden Talk: How can I deal with aphids in 2025?
• Garden Talk: Plan ahead for a delicious raspberry harvest in 2025

Q: Is it okay to buy garden seeds for spring planting now versus in the spring?

A: It doesn’t matter — they’re still sitting on the shelf whether you buy them now in the spring. You can store them in a fridge away from a vegetable crisper. Some people slide the seeds into the pockets of a photo book, that’s a great way to store them. You can store your seeds for years if they’re stored properly.

Now is the time to be planning your yard, figuring out what you’re going to do and go out and get your seeds.

Get seed geraniums into the ground right now and get begonia bulbs going as well. If you have your geraniums from last year, bring them into the light and get them growing so you can take cuttings.

Some of the longer growing plants you can start right now, like coleus, dusty
miller, lobelia, spinach, onions, peppers, tomatoes, celosia, kale, cauliflower, and eggplant.

It’s a little too early for bell peppers, but the hot peppers go earlier. Looking into next week, you can start marigolds, necotiana, broccoli, and perennials as well.

Find Dutch Growers spring preparation checklist here.

Q: Where can I buy heirloom seeds pepper bell pepper seeds?

A: Check with Early’s Farm & Garden Centre, they have probably one of the best selections of seeds in Saskatoon. Another place that you can look is T&T Seeds which is out of Manitoba; you’d have to order online.

There are three varieties of heirloom peppers that usually don’t say heirloom on the
tags but are heirloom peppers: California Wonder, Purple Beauty, and Golden California Wonder.

Q: What do I need to do to take care of blueberry bushes?

A: Blueberry bushes need at least five hours of sunlight and a more acidic soil.

Depending on where you are, if the pH of your soil is too high, in order to get them to produce fruit, every time you fertilize use a little sulfate — probably once a month. Not very much, but just a little bit to acidify the soil. Keep the pH down to around 6 .5.

Q: How do you know when to water a cactus?

A: Let it dry out completely between waterings. A moisture meter should go right down to the bottom of the pot and it should read dry, not moist at all.

If you’re using your finger, make sure you stick it along the side of the pot quite deep and make sure that the soil is dry at least two to three inches down.

Q: How and when do I trim overgrown lilacs and caraganas that are about 12 feet high?

A: Wait until March or the first week of April, and cut them back to whatever you want. If they’re 12 feet, you can cut them down to five or six feet.

You’ll get all kinds of new growth this spring but not many blooms. You’ll get some blooms inside and at the base, but you will get blooms the following year. You can even trim them right down to the ground if you want.

Q: A cedar I wrapped with burlap for the winter is now leaning forward. Will that affect it when it comes to spring?

A: You can tie a rope loosely around the burlap to hold it and attach it to the house or a building or something heavy on the ground so it doesn’t lean more.

Once you get a lean, if you get more snow, it’ll just it’ll sit on that leaning part and lean it even more.

Otherwise keep the snow off of it using a broom or snow brush and just keep the snow off it so it doesn’t lean more.

In the spring you may have to you may have to tie it up just to help it. Once  a tree is bent over for a while it gets a memory.

One thing gardeners are going to see in Saskatchewan in 2025 is a shortage of ladybugs in stores because of all the fires in California. (Taden1/Depositphotos.com)

Q: How can I fix an organic raspberry patch that was decimated by wasps, beetles, and worms?

A: In early spring take all the third year canes out — the ones that produced last year. Leave the second-year canes and new suckers. The second-year canes will produce this year and the and the suckers will produce the following year.

Get rid of the old stuff because it is usually where pests hang out, get them out of the yard.

You can put diatomaceous earth along the ground to stop beetles and worms, and there’s also Grub Buster, which is a nematode. Put some of those in the ground because some of the beetles hibernate as a grub in the ground.

One thing that we’re going to see in Saskatchewan this year is a shortage of ladybugs because of all the fires in California — that’s where most of the ladybugs you can purchase at the stores come from.

Make sure that when you’re cleaning up your yard in the spring, you’re leaving some leaves as mulch on the ground around the shrub beds because that’s where the ladybugs are living.

You may want to also try getting some praying mantis, just make sure you’re releasing them when the temperature is about 10 C and higher, they take care of a lot of those bugs.

Q: Are Pot Poppers still usable if they have been frozen?

A: No. If the nematodes are in the ground where they’re protected they’re fine, but if they’re just in a package when it gets to -40 C, they’ll be done.

Some of the nematodes will say on the package and some have a best before date.

Q: How do I get rid of lily of the valley that’s taking over my flower bed?

A: You have to keep digging them up. You can use Roundup Advanced, which is, it would burn them a bit; it’s like a vinegar solution.

If you want to keep them in a small area find a 10-gallon pot, cut the bottom out and dig a trench around that one spot where you want to keep them, then bury the pot  so it’s 18 inches deep and it won’t get out of that. You can do the same thing for goat weed or ribbon grass or any spreading plant.

Read more:

• Garden Talk: What do I need to do in January to get ready for spring?
• Garden Talk: How can I deal with aphids in 2025?
• Garden Talk: Plan ahead for a delicious raspberry harvest in 2025