Plain Gardening: Old and puffy ain't so bad

Bill Finch By Bill Finch Press-Register
on December 18, 2009 at 4:41 AM, updated January 14, 2010 at 1:13 PM

HI_J0136.JPGSatsumas are said to be puffy when the outer skin loosens almost entirely from the meat, leaving air pockets. Some folks jump to the conclusion that this means the satsuma fruit is past its peak.
Q: Someone told me my satsumas are old and puffy and aren’t any good anymore. But I keep eating them and they taste just fine. Is it bad to have puffy satsumas, and what can I do to prevent it?

A: A lot of us are old and puffy, but that doesn’t mean we’re no good!

Seems there’s a lot of confusion about "puffiness" in satsumas.


Much of the concern about puffiness seems to come from climates with warmer winters than ours, where satsumas have a very narrow window of harvest. If fruits are left to hang too long on the tree in truly warm conditions, the fruit becomes less flavorful. And the more mature the fruits become (and the warmer the temperatures) the greater the likelihood that they will display some puffiness. But the puffiness isn’t the primary reason they lose flavor — it’s the warm conditions.

On the upper Gulf Coast, the cool weather allows us to leave fruit on the tree right up until Christmas without losing much flavor. For a variety of reasons, some of the fruit might get a little puffy, but the flavor often remains good right into early January, as long as it doesn’t freeze. (For the health of the tree, it’s good to finish picking most satsumas by New Year’s.)

I should also note that a lot of puffiness we see in satsumas isn’t the result of "old" fruit, but rather young trees. For a variety of reasons, younger trees produce a higher percentage of puffy fruit. As my satsuma has gotten older, puffy fruits have become relatively uncommon, no matter how long the fruit stays no the tree. Poor spring growing conditions or fruit that forms too late in spring can also lead to puffiness. Those aren’t things you have much control over, so just enjoy your satsumas, puffy or not.

Torpedo grass:  The terror on the waterfront

Q: I have Japanese stilt grass in my lawn in the Dog River area. It’s spreading everywhere through my neighborhood. How do I get rid of it?

A: This may sound like good news, but it really isn’t: You don’t have Japanese stilt grass (Microstegium vimineum) problems in your lawn. Neither does anyone else along Dog River or in Mobile County, I’d be willing to bet.

Stilt grass is a severe problem on rich soils in forested areas (but rarely in lawns) in north Alabama. I almost never encounter it anywhere in south Alabama.

I suspect someone read about stilt grass on some national Internet chat room, and made the hasty assumption that the problems faced by gardeners in Huntsville are the same as those faced by gardeners in Mobile.

Now, what follows may sound like bad news, but it’s not the end of the world: What you believe to be stilt grass is almost certainly torpedo grass (Panicum repens), the terror of waterfront homeowners in south Alabama (but not a worry for Huntsville!).

Torpedo grass has long been a serious invasive plant in marshes along Mobile Bay — many people believe it was first introduced into the U.S. in Mobile in the middle part of the 19th century. (The port of Mobile gets the blame for a lot of famous Southern invasives, including fire ants and cogon grass.)

Torpedo grass has long since become a problem in marshes and other wet native landscapes, and it’s increasingly a problem in lawns. Some folks believe that torpedo grass is hitching a ride on centipede, Bermuda and St. Augustine sod that is being sold to landowners. But along Dog River, and many other coastal areas that were once essentially wetlands, I suspect the torpedo grass simply "walked" up into your lawn from the waterfront, where it is common.

What I (or anyone else) can tell you about chemical control of torpedo grass in lawns is fairly simple: There are no effective chemical controls that allow you to eliminate torpedo grass while maintaining a St. Augustine or centipede lawn turf. The most effective selective herbicides won’t prevent the torpedo grass from quickly resprouting and, within a few months, reinvading the sprayed area (i.e., the selective herbicides really aren’t very useful). Roundup, a non-selective herbicide is very effective against torpedo grass, but it will even more effectively kill the St. Aug and the centipede.

Even if you were to eliminate all of the torpedo grass from your lawn (which you won’t do), it’s going to quickly reinvade from the waterfront.

But torpedo grass has its limits, and is not a problem in many yards. So if you’re willing to be a little smarter than the torpedo grass, give it its due and engage it where you are most likely to have the upper hand, you might reach a reasonable compromise.

Here are the areas where torpedo grass will have the upper hand: Areas nearest the waterfront, areas that stay wet or have a high water table, areas that get full sun, and areas where torpedo grass can spread continuously from wetlands by roots (it does not often spread by seed). Torpedo grass will likely respond to fertilizer as well or better than centipede, so fertilization may actually promote torpedo grass spread in centipede lawns. Sprinkler systems that are used too frequently (more than once every two weeks) will definitely encourage the spread and vigor of torpedo grass, allowing it to invade parts of the lawn where it would not normally thrive.

Here’s how you can maintain certain areas relatively free of torpedo grass: Concentrate your fine grass areas in the well-drained portions of your yard. There may be some advantages to using St. Augustine sod, rather than the weaker and lower growing centipede sod. If mowed properly (no lower than 2.5 inches) St. Augustine on well drained soil will usually outcompete most weeds, including torpedo grass. Water your lawn ONLY during extended dry periods that last more than two weeks.

You might also consider creating a torpedo grass "barrier" along the waterfront. Since torpedo grass doesn’t tolerate shade, consider restoring your waterfront to native trees and shrubs that are well adapted to high water tables. Frame your waterfront views with cypress, tupelo or sweet bay trees, with an understory of buttonbush, winterberry holly, swamp honeysuckle azalea and other native shrubs.

By doing so, you’ll quickly eliminate the most seriously infested torpedo grass areas (the areas where you’ll NEVER fully control its spread in the lawn). You will also interrupt that easy walk torpedo grass now has from the waterfront up to your back door.

Winter rye and summer sod

Q: Does overseeding with winter rye have any beneficial effect on summer grasses such as St. Augustine?

A: Probably no benefits whatsoever.

The question still being considered is whether overseeding winter rye has a negative effect on summer grasses. I’m not sure anyone has answered that question conclusively, but I suspect the impact is usually small, since the rye simply replaces the normal winter weeds and usually dies down before the St. Augustine begins active growth. The most serious impact may be from fertilizers used to "green up" the rye in winter, as these may make the St. Aug somewhat more vulnerable to freeze damage.

With St. Augustine, the hard part is getting the rye to come up properly where the St. Augustine is healthy and has been mowed to the correct height. I’d caution you not to scalp your St. Aug in order to get better growth of the rye.

How deep do I plant bulbs?

Q: How deep do I plant my spring-flowering bulbs?

A: Up north (or so I hear) bulb planting virtually requires a measuring stick. On the Gulf Coast, all you really need to do, in most cases, is remember to cover the shoulders of the bulb with dirt.

Freezing soil is the reason Northern gardeners have to worry so much about planting depth. If planted too shallow, the bulb may literally be forced out of the soil as the ground cracks and heaves with freezes and thaws.

Here on the Gulf Coast, however, the soil almost never freezes, and I’ve never seen it freeze so deeply that it causes the ground to heave and disturb the bulbs.

Some expert bulb growers claim that you can use planting depth to control the degree to which bulbs spread (or offset). Some bulbs put too much energy into spreading and don’t have much energy leftover for blooming, so planting them more deeply, in theory, might control spread and encourage bloom. Others theorize that bulbs that aren’t well adapted to our climate may bloom better if they’re planted deeper, where temperatures are more stable. But bulbs "pull" themselves into the soil and find a comfortable growing depth, no matter how you plant them. And excessively deep planting in wet or heavy soils will certainly promote rot.

It probably makes more sense to simply grow reliable bulbs for our climate, and plant them with an inch or so of soil over the shoulders.

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