March Todo List in the Orchard



Sweet corn at the orchard

March Todo List

• Plant sweet in at least three rows for wind pollination. Plant seed one foot apart and enough room between rows so you can harvest ears. Keep out of strong winds.

Contessa sweet onions after harvest
at the orchard

• Dig and replant onion transplants or plant transplants ordered. Be sure to use a high phosphorus fertilizer and compost at the time of planting. We can grow both Short and Long Day onions. Try Candy, Big Daddy, Texas Super Sweet, Red Candy, Walla Walla, Sterling. A good place to order online is Dixondale Farms in Texas http://www.dixondalefarms.com/     

• Harvest asparagus every 2 to 3 days. Store spears upright to prevent curving of the spears.
• Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, melons, cucumbers to be planted March 15. Protect from wind and strong sunlight for two weeks.
• Early March. Prune table grapes.
• Spray to prevent thrips damage on nectarine fruits.
• Prepare bottles for putting on fruit trees for harvesting fruit in bottles. Select early producing varieties and put the bottles upside down so they drain and in the shade of the canopy on the north side.

Growing fruit in bottles partially covered with aluminum
foil to prevent heat buildup



• Weed vegetable plots.
• Cutworm control on newly emerged seedlings. Spray Bt (Dipel or Thuricide) or Spinosad over newly applied vegetables and the soil surrounding the plants.
• Prune palms to get them out of the way of the vegetable plots.
• Harvest green almonds toward the end of the month and into April.
• Thin apricots when dime sized.
• Thin peaches when nickel sized.
• Harvest snow peas
• Fix irrigation leaks

Almonds harvested green. This size and smaller can be used.