Q: Our fall tomato crop has been great! They made it through the hot summer and we cut them back, thinking they were done. They started growing and blooming again! -- Sylvia & Terry Gilbreath
A: Your experience is the same as mine. I've discovered that if you can keep them alive in summer, tomatoes do great in fall. Much credit goes to lower day and night temperatures. Blooms stay on longer and are more apt to be pollinated. Cool temperatures also aid tomato ripening. If you still have green ones when a frost approaches, pick them and store in crumpled newspaper. Bring a few out every week to ripen on a sunny windowsill.
Q: I have a lovely Japanese loquat tree. Will it survive the winter here? -- Donna Reid, Loganville
A: I know of several loquats that grow in sheltered locations inside the Perimeter in northeast Atlanta. They occasionally get winter damage but don't die from it. As you know, this small tree flowers in fall and begins forming fruit in December. January cold will prevent you from getting anything edible except when we have a very mild winter.
Q: Is the Trucker's Favorite corn seed I buy from a garden center the same as what I can buy online from an heirloom seed dealer? -- Mike Hasty, Turner County
A: You can get the seed at either place. 'Truckers Favorite' has been around since 1899. The kernels are not as sweet as modern sweet corn, but the ears are quite edible and the plant is prolific. My father planted it in the 1950s, both for animal food and for our family. If you plant it in a block, with no other corn within 25 feet, 'Truckers Favorite' seed can be saved from year to year.
Q: While attending a UGA football game, a groundskeeper gave my grandson parts of the hedge that grows around the field. I have it in water now. What is the best way to root this? -- Hazel Chandler, email
A: The Sanford Stadium hedge is Chinese privet, Ligustrum sinense. It is easy to propagate in a greenhouse, but winter propagation at home is more problematic. Make several 6-inch clippings of the limb, noting which end of each clipping was toward the trunk and which end was growing outward. Fill a plastic shoebox three inches deep with damp (not soggy) potting soil. Dip the "trunk end" of each cutting in Rootone powder and stick it two inches into the soil in the shoebox. It will hold several cuttings. Cover the box with clear kitchen plastic to prevent evaporation. Place in a sunny window in a warm room. It will be a slow process to form roots, but you can give the clippings a gentle tug in January to see whether roots are growing.
Q: Can Bradford pears be safely trimmed in November? These are 20-year-old trees that were trimmed three years ago. -- Richard Logue, Cobb County
A: Pruning Bradford pear trees is a great winter job. You can see the limb structure of the tree after leaves have dropped and correct the structural faults this problematic tree develops. First to go are the thin vertical limbs in the center of the tree. They provide few blooms and impede air circulation through the foliage. Next out are the bigger limbs that are spaced closer than 12 inches apart along the main trunk. When choosing between two limbs, keep the one that grows more horizontally. Apply the "three-cut technique" to avoid tearing off bark below the limb. Use two cuts to remove the majority of the limb, then make a final slice just beyond the swollen limb collar where it emerges from the tree trunk.
Listen to Walter Reeves Saturday mornings on AM 750 and 95.5 FM News-Talk WSB. Visit his website, www.walterreeves.com, or join his Facebook fan page at xrl.us/wrfacebook for more garden tips.
