Things to do in April: Fruits and Vegetables
â–¡ Plant peas . . . by early April, to avoid running into hot summer weather.
â–¡ Sow more seeds of spinach . . . salad greens, arugula, broccoli raab. Sow carrots, radishes, dill, kale and collards and Asian greens.
â–¡ Move transplants . . . of broccoli, cauliflower, collards, lettuce, Chinese cabbage, Swiss chard and onions from indoors to the garden after mid-April. Gradually harden-off transplants by setting them outdoors temporarily during the daytime for about a week before planting out.
â–¡ Start seeds indoors . . . for tomatoes, peppers and eggplants early this month, for late-May planting outdoors. Start muskmelon, watermelon and squash seeds indoors later in April.
â–¡ Plant potatoes . . . this month. Some gardeners advise planting them when the forsythia blooms.
â–¡ Plant asparagus crowns . . . to start a bed that will bear in future years. Dig several inches of well-rotted manure or compost into the soil; then bury the crowns 6 inches deep.
â–¡ Fertilize garlic planted last fall . . . as their greens get up and growing.
â–¡ Plant strawberries, raspberries and other small fruit . . . now. Bare-root fruit crops like raspberry bushes, strawberry plants, fruit trees, and asparagus should be planted immediately upon arrival.
â–¡ Prune grape vines . . . to no more than four fruiting canes with 7 to 10 buds apiece if you didn't in March.
â–¡ Prune out canes . . . of established raspberry plants that have borne fruit, and any that are thinner than a pencil. Shorten the remaining young canes by at least a foot.
â–¡ Control mites, aphids, and scale . . . on fruit trees by applying dormant oil spray early this month before the buds leaf out.
â–¡ Do a seed germination test . . . to help you decide if you should plant seeds saved from a previous year. Place ten seeds between two wet paper towels in a zip-lock bag and check after a week to find the percentage germination. Then decide if you should use them and how thickly to sow the seeds.
â–¡ Remove straw mulch . . . from strawberries beds when the soil temperature rises above 40 degrees for at least three days. Keep it handy, though, to put back if a freeze is predicted.
â–¡ Reduce disease problems . . . by rotating vegetable plants to a different area of the garden than last year.
â–¡ Plant vegetables . . . in full sun. If you have less than six hours of sun, the vegetables to try include beets, carrots, onions and turnips and greens such as kale, lettuce and Swiss chard.
â–¡ Loosen the bottom of the root-ball . . . when transplanting flowers and vegetables, to encourage roots to grow into the native soil.