The Eagle Gazette

Most garden plants will need 1-1.5 inches of water per week to maintain healthy leaves, flowers and fruit. When Mother Nature does not provide enough, it’s up to the gardener to supply the rest. Not too little, not too much, but just right!

When you do need to water, it’s best to do a thorough deep application, and then put the hose away for the rest of the week. The worst thing you can do to your garden is to sprinkle lightly every day. Frequent, shallow watering only moistens the upper layer of soil, which encourages plant roots to stay shallow. In turn, that top layer of soil dries out quickly, making shallow-rooted plants more susceptible to drying. This holds true for lawns as well as garden and landscape plants.

It is also possible to kill your plants with kindness. Overwatering occurs when soil is kept too wet for too long, forcing valuable oxygen out of the soil. Oxygen is just as crucial to plant health as water. When heavy rains fall, or thorough irrigation is applied, don’t water again until the soil begins to dry. While you don’t want the soil to become so dry that plants begin to wilt, it is important to allow air to occupy some of the pore spaces in the soil between watering.

Any newly set plants will need to be watered more frequently until they have a chance to establish new roots. Young vegetable or flower transplants may need to be watered every day or two, especially if the weather is sunny, hot and/or windy. Newly planted trees and shrubs may also need to be watered more frequently. But as the new plants become established, try to cut back on the frequency of watering.

Many plant fungal diseases are spread by splashing water during rain or irrigation. Drip or trickle irrigation will deposit the water low to the ground, keeping foliage dry; this is the most efficient way to deliver water only where needed. If watering must be overhead, try to water in the morning to promote quick drying and reduce loss due to evaporation.

SOURCE: Purdue University Consumer Horticulture

With this stretch of hot days and spotty rainfalls around the County many homeowners are all asking the same question, “Is my lawn really dead?”  Check it out, in some cases, the upper portions of the turf may be dead but the crowns may still be viable. Pull up a few plants and tease apart the crowns at the base. Healthy but dormant tissue will be white and succulent; new green growth may be present. Dead crowns will be brown, straw-like throughout.

Dormancy in the Lawn  –  Turfgrass plants need soil moisture to sustain normal growth and development. The water use rates of cool season turfgrasses during the summer period will often exceed the rate which natural rainfall returns water back into the soil. Once the soil moisture reserves are nearly depleted, the turfgrass will begin to wilt. This condition is evident as the turfgrass turns from green to either bluish-green or gray-green. Wilt is a sign of water stress and is usually most evident during mid to late afternoon periods. A period of continual water stress that limits or prevents the growth of plants is termed drought. Once drought conditions develop, the lawn will stop all growth and development and proceed into dormancy.

Dormancy is characterized by the development of brown turfgrass. The turfgrass is not dead but instead in a condition to preserve the vital parts of the plant. By becoming dormant, turfgrasses reduce water usage and can concentrate the limited amount of available moisture into the crown, rhizomes and roots. This dormant condition will allow the turfgrass plant to survive adverse conditions for extended periods until soil moisture reserves are replenished. The length of time lawn grasses can survive in a dormant condition is contingent on a number of factors including soil moisture levels, daytime temperatures, condition of the turfgrass at the onset of dormancy, etc. In general, turfgrasses can be expected to survive in a dormant condition for up to 4 to 5 weeks with limited damage if temperatures are at or below normal. If daytime temperatures are elevated (mid-80’s or higher) consistently through the stress period, only 3 to 4 weeks of survival should be anticipated. Dormant grass is lost once the crowns, rhizomes and roots begin to dehydrate.

 

Many would agree that one of the most pleasing sights that Fairfield County has to offer are the seas of green presented by fields of growing corn.

In mid-July, however, the careful observer will notice the emergence of yellow plumes reaching for the sky from the very top of the plant. Known to most as corn tasseling, these golden strands mark the commencement of corn reproduction.

Each tassel houses a plethora of pollen grains, between 14 million and 18 million, resembling a fine yellow powder that is easily dispersed by the wind. These grains contain the male co

rn genes, half of what is needed for a new corn kernel. Meanwhile, a few feet below await the female components needed for procreation. Hundreds of minuscule flowers are aligned on tiny, sheathed cobs, jutting upwards towards their male counterparts. Each of these tiny female flowers have the ability to develop into a kernel of corn…but only if a grain of pollen can find its way to it!

The process is further complicated by the fact that these female flowers and their cobs are enveloped by a husk and completely sheltered from the world, thus not allowing the pollen to make direct contact. Instead, each female flower sends out a single, sticky strand of silk with the purpose of securing a floating grain of corn pollen. It’s no coincidence, that these silky strands emerge on the very same day the tassel is set to release its powdery pollen.

The story only gets stranger when a grain of pollen aligns with the tip of a strand of silk. Once recognized, it tunnels its way down through the thread to finally unite and fertilize the female flower. This entire process can take several hours to complete, and upon achievement the silky threads almost immediately begin to dry up. The small, underdeveloped kernels you often find towards the end of an ear of corn resulted from flowers that were unsuccessful in engaging male suitors to venture down their tubes of silk, thus were not successfully pollinated.

So, the next time you smell that wondrously bright, musky odor emerging from a neighboring corn field, you’ll know that love is, indeed, in the air.

Source:   Carrie Brown, Fairfield County ANR Educator

 

Identifying trees can be a challenging process, especially if you have a tree that you pass on a regular basis and always wonder what it is, or if you own a woodland and want to know exactly what trees you have. This one-day workshop is designed to give participants in-depth training and practice on identifying trees using leaves and other common characteristics. The class begins indoors with some introductory identification clues and samples that are used to work through a dichotomous key. The afternoon is spent outside practicing!

The Fairfield County Name That Tree Program is slated for Aug 22, 2024 at Coyote Run, 9212 Pickerington Road, Pickerington, OH 43147

Time:  10:00am – 3:00pm

Cost is $40.00 which includes lunch and training materials

Deadline to register : Thursday, August 15, 2024

Cost: $40 includes lunch and materials

Online registration can be found at woodlandstewards.osu.edu

Location: Coyote Run, 9212 Pickerington Road, Pickerington, OH 43147

For details contact:  Woodland Stewards; 614-688-3421

ohiowoods@osu.edu

 

 

 

 

 

Be sure to listen into the Saturday Farm Page on 88.9FM WLRY at 7 am and 7 pm on Saturday 4/20 to learn more the 4-H Vendors Craft Show in July.  Vendors are needed!  Listen in for all the details with 4-H advisor Cindy Gilfillen.

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POISON HEMLOCK Control Tip:  Wait until Fall!

It’s getting late to control poison hemlock this spring, especially once it’s this mature. However, now’s a good time to record its location and make plans in Oct/November to treat the new seedlings with 2,4-D ester.

Bagworms are moth larvae (caterpillars) that develop within silk bags festooned with pieces of their host plants.  They never leave their bags throughout their larval development.  The caterpillars attach their bags to their plant hosts with a small stand of silk and extend their bodies a short distance out of the bag to feed.

Bagworm populations were on a rising trajectory from year to year in Ohio throughout the late 2010s peaking in 2020.  However, the caterpillars were almost a no-show in 2021, 2022, and last year. Bagworms have a history of “now you see them, now you don’t,” but eventually “now you see defoliated brown shrubs!”  

Did you know? Bagworms may feed on over 125 species of evergreen and deciduous woody plants in 45 plant families.  The Entomological Society of America’s approved common name for the species is “Bagworm.”  However, they are commonly called “evergreen bagworms” in the southern U.S. owing to the dominance of evergreens and thus the high likelihood of finding the caterpillars feeding on evergreen hosts. 

In Ohio, it’s important to pay close attention to both deciduous trees and shrubs as well as evergreens.  Overlooking deciduous woody plants during bagworm inspections allows infested plants to become reservoirs for infestations to spread to neighboring host plants, sometimes spreading from deciduous hosts to evergreens. 

As the caterpillars mature, they begin weaving more and more host plant debris into the silk which provides structural stability as well as camouflage.  This behavior makes bagworms one of the sneakiest general defoliators found in Ohio landscapes.  

The overwintered eggs hatch within the female bags from last season.  A percentage of the 1st instar caterpillars will produce a strand of silk to catch the wind and “balloon” the tiny caterpillars to new locations.  This behavior is a key reason bagworms often appear on hosts far from trees and shrubs that were infested last season. 

Although bagworm caterpillars may waft in on the wind to establish new bagworm beachheads, looking closely at trees and shrubs with last season’s

 

bags is a good way to detect this season’s crop of bagworms.  A single female can produce 500 – 1000 eggs meaning that populations can climb rapidly.

Stopping bagworms from producing noticeable damage may include both passive and active approaches to management.  The active approach is short-term while passive management is long-term.

 The Active Approach

 

An active approach is to closely inspect susceptible trees and shrubs and apply properly timed insecticides.   There’s a general rule with using insecticides that the bigger they are, the harder to kill.  This is certainly true with bagworms. For example, early instar bagworms are highly susceptible to the naturally occurring biological insecticide Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki (Btk) (e.g., Dipel, Thuricide, etc.).  Caterpillars are much less susceptible once bags surpass 2/3″ in length.  It’s appealing to use Btk products because they do not kill bio-allies such as predators and parasitoids that help provide natural control of bagworm populations.

The  Passive Approach

A passive approach to bagworm management focuses on increasing the diversity of flowering plants in a landscape.  It’s well documented that a wide range of enemies of insect pests are fueled by nectar.  They are pollinators as well as predators or parasitoids.  In other words, an effective long-term bagworm pest management strategy is to simply plant flowering plants that provide nectar.