April Gardening Calendar

Vegetables

• Weeks 1-3: Finish transplanting broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower plants into the garden. High phosphorous fertilizers help get transplants off to a quick start.
• Weeks 1-2: Start cucumber, cantaloupe, summer squash, and watermelon seeds indoors in peat pots.
• Weeks 2-4: Try an early sowing of warm-season crops such as green beans, summer squash, sweet corn, New Zealand spinach and cucumbers.

• Blemish-free fruits unmarred by insect or disease injury can rarely be produced without relying on regular applications of insecticides and fungicides For special information, consult University Extension Guide Sheet #G6010, Home Fruit Spray Schedule.
• Weeks 1-2: Stink bugs and tarnished plant bugs become active on peaches.
• Weeks 1-2: Wooden clothespins make useful spreaders for training young fruits limbs. Place pins between the trunk and branch to force limbs outward at a 60 degree angle from the trunk.

• Start mowing cool season grasses at recommended heights. For complete details, refer to University Extension Guide #6705, Cool Season Grasses.
• Weeks 1-2: Topdress low spots and finish over seeding thin or bare patches.
• Weeks 1-2: Apply crabgrass preventers before April 15. Do not apply to areas that will be seeded.

• When buying bedding plants, choose compact, bushy plants that have not begun to flower.
• Study your landscape for gaps that could be nicely filled with bulbs. Mark these spots carefully and make a note to order bulbs next August.
• Enjoy, but do not disturb the many wildflowers blooming in woodlands throughout Missouri.

• Weeks 1-2: Termites begin swarming. Termites can be distinguished from ants by their thick waists and straight antennae. Ants have slender waists and elbowed antennae.