January

These suggestions for your garden are intended for central Texas.  However, if you are not in central Texas these suggestions may still be helpful but may need to be done earlier or later in the season depending on your location.

 

January is an ideal time to prune your trees and shrubs. Pruning trees and shrubs tends to make them more hardy and attractive plants. The pruning of fruit trees, nut trees and grapes will make them more productive with better quality fruit. The objective of pruning is to remove dead or diseased branches, removing undesired and erratic growth, and shaping. 

 

Here are some general guide lines to help you with your pruning. Never top your trees. A tree that has been topped takes years to recover in to a good tree.  Seal cuts larger than 1 inch with a pruning paint. This keeps moisture and insects out until the tree can heal over the cut.  Prune peaches and plums by removing small interior branches and pruning overall shape back 25% -30%. These trees are soft wooded so you want to keep them short and stocky so they will not be damaged by wind or too much fruit. Crape myrtles and altheas need only to be shaped and the old seed heads removed. Perennial plants like lantana and cannas can be cut back to a couple of inches tall now that they have frozen. Roses should not be pruned until mid February because they tend to want to re-sprout if we get a few warm days in January.

 

Mistletoe and Ball moss are problems that are difficult to cure by pruning alone.  Mistletoe can be removed by sprayed with "Floral" when the tree is dormant. This will kill the mistletoe roots which are hard to remove from the truck and branches. Ball moss can be controlled by spraying with "Kocide 2000" in the fall.

 

Mark S. Ney   

Certified Texas Nursery Professional #4749