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Q. Late in winter this year, I saw a flowering shrub that was identified for me as a daphne. The blooms had a wonderful fragrance. Which daphne do you think it was?
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A. The daphne that blooms in late winter and early spring, with an exquisite perfume, is winter daphne (Daphne odora). This shrub needs a very well drained soil and shelter from the hottest sun.
Unfortunately, daphnes in general have become difficult to find. More easily grown and more likely available is one called Eternal Fragrance. It has a spreading bush habit and blooms in waves from spring through mid-autumn.
Q. I’ve been told that sprinkling wood ashes around the bases of cabbage and broccoli plants will prevent infections from clubroot. Do you recommend this?
A. Clubroot, a soil micro-organism that infects cabbage family vegetables, causes tumour-like swellings in the roots and stunting or death in the plants. The disease organism does not thrive in cool, alkaline soils. In acidic coastal soils, clubroot is a common problem.
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The disease spores can last up to two decades in soils. Rotating plantings and cooling summer soils with mulches are helpful measures.
Even in soils where the clubroot pathogen is present, damage can be averted by preparing the soil with a little more lime than usual, enough to bring the pH level up to just above the neutral 7 on a scale of 1 to 14. A pH of 7.2 or a little higher is ideal.
The higher pH helps to suppress the disease organism, and it also is of benefit to soil bacteria that help to control clubroot.
Wood ashes are strongly alkaline, with a pH of 10 to 12. They need to be used sparingly around plants They do contain a little phosphorus and around three per cent potassium, a major element that helps to strengthen cell walls and harden plant structures against disease and weather extremes. This is all beneficial, but overuse can cause an imbalance among soil nutrients.
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