Show Questions' - July 7, 2011

1. This is a viewer east of Wheatland, Wyoming. They get NET and we are their favorite, which is nice to know. They have an organic garden that last year was ravaged by grasshoppers. They tried catching, burning, sprinkling, vinegar, hot pepper spray, etc. They do not want to use chemicals. They want to know if there is an organic management for grasshoppers?
a. It's going to be difficult, particularly once grasshoppers have wings. For every one you kill, 50 come to its funeral as new ones fly in. Your garden and landscape are sort of like a little green oasis in a sea of maturing grasses and other plants. So it's always a challenge. Couple of things: one, grasshoppers like the green vegetation around the landscape and garden. Keep that vegetation mowed off and reducing the food source where the grasshoppers can reproduce and can feed will be helpful. There is one product that is reasonably effective--it’s called Nolo Bait. It’s a nosema organism, so it’s a microbial type of control. It comes as a bait. You sprinkle it around and, if all of the conditions are just right, you can get substantial grasshopper control. It's important to get that on when the grasshoppers are still small. Again, once grasshoppers get wings and are fully grown, the only way you’re going to control them is two bricks. You’ve got to get on top of this right away.

2. This is an eastern Omaha viewer who wants to transition their turf into raised garden beds, one section at a time. They have never used pesticides and they don't want to do that if that's possibly. Do they need to remove what’s there--the weeds, the turf, or whatever--first? Can they just scrape away the top layer, cover the soil with weed fabric, then do the raised bed? What do they do first here?
a. They obviously have to get the surface ready and in that process they are going to probably scrape off the existing vegetation. Putting a weed fabric on top of that and a raised bed on top of that, I see no reason to use any aggressive herbicide strategy like Round-Up. I would not even mess with it. That plant is going to have a hard time getting up through that bed, especially with the weed fabric in place. That's actually what we did in our raised bed in the Backyard Farmer garden, too.

3. This is a viewer who sent a couple images of mushrooms. You have another picture. They want to know what they are. This is a Papillion viewer.
a. We're looking at the one on the left of the screen and then the picture I'm going to hold up, this is what the one on the left would come out of. This is the developing ovule of the stinkhorn fungus. Many times viewers call in and say they found an egg in the yard or you hear them described as all kinds of things—aliens, all kinds of stuff. In any event, these are all different kinds of fungi living on organic material. These will typically emerge over night, so you will find these ovuli, and then the fruiting body will come out many times within 24 hours of when you can see them swelling like that. So they are actually kind of fun. You can dig those up and put them in a jar and bring them in and set them on the table or put them in a pot. They’ll pop up. They will smell. They’re called stinkhorns. Their spores are moved by flies. Many times you will see that attraction and they will often times have a carrying smell to them. It’s one of nature's wondrous pageantries. They can just pull them out. Make sure you're managing organic material to limit their growth if you want to try to get rid of them. And then use conifer based mulches.

4. We have a bean lover who cannot get bush beans started. They have tried direct planting, soaking, transplanting, what do we recommend here?
a. Bush beans are not typically that difficult to grow. They are a warm-season crop, but if they are trying to start them too early in the spring when the soils are really cold, the bean could just be rotting. If they are still trying to start it now, it's possible the soil temperatures are becoming too warm. They are a warm-season crop so make sure you don't start them too early. Purchase new seed. Those are just some suggestions. If that still doesn’t work, they maybe should check with their extension educator and see if they can figure it out after asking a few more questions.

5. We have an image of an interesting creature found in Colfax County. Worm goes into the main plant stem and eats its way down--peppers, tomatoes, basil, and marigolds.
a. That is the dreaded common stalk borer. As the name would imply, a borer does just exactly as what the viewer described. They feed on the stem. Interestingly, they overwinter as eggs on weedy vegetation around the garden, and I’ll come back to that as a management approach. The eggs hatch, and the little borers go into small stemmed plants and the caterpillar you just saw a minute ago was maybe and inch, inch and a quarter long, so they get to be large caterpillars. They successively move to larger and larger stemmed plants, ending up in the basil, but ultimately to tomatoes and peppers. They like sunflowers. The giant ragweed is one of their favorites. They love dahlias. Once they are in the stem there is not much you can do about it. Sometimes, if it's a single plant, you can actually go in and just take a little pen knife and make a little incision and dig that thing out. The top part of the plant may or may not die, but you know it will resprout. Of course, tomatoes we don't worry too much, as long as it's not at the base. Because the eggs overwinter in the weedy vegetation in and around the garden, keeping that clean and using good sanitation will help reduce the numbers. The adult, unfortunately, is a moth and it can fly to new areas to perpetuate that infestation. So, there is nothing we can spray it with. You have to live with it. Plant a few extra peppers, plant a few extra sunflowers. Use that sort of approach.

6. This is a viewer who has chameleon plant. It has apparently invaded a row of rose bushes and they don't really care if they totally kill chameleon, because they want the roses. How are they going to get rid of it?
a. It probably has invaded vegetatively, as we might guess, rather than seeded. Given that, they run the risk if they spray with something like RoundUp it could translocate. I'm not saying it's real invasive, but the tendency is to go back maybe a node or two beyond the spraying point so you might kill what’s already infringed. You go back a little further, you go back above of where you actually want it to end--it might go back one joint or two in terms of nodes and you probably are going to be fine. And obviously you're among the roses. Roses have green stems in the middle of the winter. If they are open, you run the risk of getting the RoundUp on the green stem. Glyphosate-based products on green tissue, other than leaves, can actually be moved into the plant. You don't want to get it on the rose if at all possible. Even to the point of where you would shield it away for the spraying, wait about an hour or so, and pull the material you used to shield to make sure you get that RoundUp where you want it and not where you don’t. That's especially true for roses because they can really distort when they’re hit with a growth regulator herbicide like Glyphosate and sometimes it may take up to a year to express.

7. This is a viewer in Bruning, Nebraska that has apple trees. The apple trees have aborted all of the apples. They have sprayed and they have cedars about 50 feet away with lots of cedar apple galls. They sent leaves that are too shiny for us to show on air, but they are covered with lovely little orangish-yellow spots.
a. Cedar apple rust lesions. Unfortunately, if you have a susceptible apple tree, to manage cedar apple rust is quite difficult. You really have to routinely spray that tree. They indicated they sprayed it, but I’m not sure how many times. Keep in mind that most of the fungicide products that are on the homeowner market are protected fungicides so they have a 7 to 10-day window of residual activity. With the rains, that goes closer to 7 or less. Depending on when you sprayed, and how frequently, you could have easily missed the window when the spores were raining down and infecting the plant. That's probably why you still have it. In the future, I would recommend more treatment if you want to try to protect the trees. Do that with a fruit tree spray more routinely. Possibly even weekly. That’s not ideal, but if you want to keep the leaves clean, that may be what it takes to do it.

8. This is a Wahoo viewer with a seven year old burr oak. Leaves look healthy, but the trunk does not. New injuries on the bark and old injuries on the bark, stippling, large holes that are a couple inches deep. They see some ants but they don't really see anything in the holes. They’re wondering if this is borers. Should they treat? What exactly is going on?
a. When I first saw this picture, it was a little bit of a mystery about what was going on, because I have never seen anything quite like that. But as we got to visiting about it, Wahoo has had some hail storms. So it's very likely that some large hail stones hit and wounded the trunk of these trees. Maybe a secondary fungus moved into those areas, causing them to look enlarged or look a little bit different than they look. If you look really, really close there are tiny pinholes in the trunk. It would be unusual for burr oak to get a borer, but if the tree is stressed for some reason, then maybe the borers could move in. If that tissue or the bark is dead, then we’re going to get powder post beetles and other boring insects. And they were about the size of a powder post beetle. With all the rain we’ve had recently, I couldn't see if there was any fine, fine powder, but there definitely were some shot-hole-like borer holes in there. I guess there’s nothing to do at this point, but as long as the leaves continue to look healthy, maybe it will turn around. Maybe it will put on new cambium growth and down the road the tree will be fine. Burr oak’s a pretty tough tree.

9. This is a northwest Iowa viewer. They have an underground ant colony in the vegetable garden. They have sprayed with Eight. They’ve stopped the damage to lettuce and spinach so it must be in the crowns or something. They are wondering how to prevent this particular ant colony in the garden problem next year.
a. The ants really probably aren’t a big problem in the garden other than they may be tending aphids down on the roots of the vegetables. So that would be the issue because generally we don't have leaf cutter ants here in Nebraska or in Lincoln or the southeast part. But I would say the Eight would work. Liquid Seven might be a little bit better choice, and again you want to mix it according to label instructions and then drench those colonies--the areas where you see the ant activity and see if you can control them that way. My guess is that the ants are actually feeding on aphids or other insects you want to control. Try a liquid Seven drench—or a Permethrin liquid, or even a powder. See if that works.

10. This is a viewer who has some serious lack-of-lawn issues. A lot of it died last summer. They did follow some recommendations--seeding, mulching, fertilizing, tilled, watered--no growth this spring. Seeded three times, mulched three times, watered three times. Now what?
a. We don't know necessarily what caused the first spots. My guess would be a pathogen like brown patch or something like that, but I guarantee you can reseed right into brown patch and not have the effect they are having. That implies, perhaps, that something was sprayed or deposited on the lawn in which case that might be causing the problems there. What we want to do in this situation is pull soil samples. They probably will have grass seed because it sounds like they have bought out the stores in their area. You take that grass seed and throw it in the cup with the soil in it—in the top two inches or top three inches of it. Put it in a Dixie cup and cover it with cheesecloth, or something, to keep the moisture in there. Throw water in it and see if those plants germinate. If they don't germinate, that implies something is chemically wrong with the soil. If they do germinate and start to grow prolifically, there is another management issue perhaps going on. But given the fact they did it multiple times, I'm really at a loss to say that one time it doesn't work well that it could be timing issues or whatever. But it sounds like they tried it in the fall and throughout. This implies, I'm not saying this is the case, but there probably was something in the soil--maybe something was spilled on the lawn because they are having trouble growing grass. Generally, when we see grass go out, it is immediately inundated with weeds. There is not really a healthy weed population in there as well, so my gut instinct is they have issues with something placed on or poured in the soil. Pull that soil out, put it in a cup. Then you have the perfect environment in the window where you can keep it plenty wet in the house and see how the grass comes up. Not only does it germinate, but it starts to put a root system on and get growth on it. If it doesn't, we'll have to talk about adding activated charcoal to inactivate what the toxin is. You can spend 3 to $4,000 on a single quest to find out what specifically was sprayed. Don't think about calling one of the soil labs and say you want to know what is killing your plants. You can't afford it and you may be wrong after you spent the money. We have been involved with this too many years to know it's not as easy as it looks. I'm not sure, but it seems like to me, based on the work they have put into it, there is something inheritantly wrong with the soil--possibly a chemical of some kind.

11. A viewer wants to know whether the wood from trees that died from pine wilt can be used for furniture.
a. Yes it could. I think because you're probably going to dry it and it's going to kiln dry. The problem is the sawyers that could emerge through the process. If you take the logs and let them dry before you send them to the saw mill, it's probably going to release the sawyers. I would probably try to tarp them. I would wrap them in plastic, do something to cover them where they can still vent, but keep the sawyers from emerging. It seems to me that pine wilt is so widespread in eastern Nebraska now at this point, is it really going to matter? As you drive up and down the highway there are hundreds of dead trees just standing there releasing beetles, so I think if you have a tree you want to make furniture or bowls out of, go ahead. You might want to cover them to keep the beetles in, but I just think they are so widespread right now, that the one tree you want to turn into a table? Turn it into a table.

12. This is an interesting question. Cottonwoods near Mahoney Park don't turn yellow in the fall, they turn brown. But the ones out west turn beautiful gold in the fall.
a. It could be varieties. There are some varieties of cottonwood out there that do have a little bit nicer fall color, but more likely it's just environment. There is a huge difference between western Nebraska and eastern Nebraska. Sometimes in eastern Nebraska with the humidity, there are some fungal leaf diseases that cottonwoods will get, as well.

13. This is a Douglas, Nebraska viewer. Two sweet cherry trees, a couple years old. They bloomed, they leafed out. They had small cherries that are gone, but there is sap coming out of the bottom of the tree about four inches from the soil.
a. One possibility is that it could be caused by environmental diseases. Pathogen or borers. So on the cherry tree I would automatically go on a borer treatment. The time would have been mid-May for the first application, with a second application about two to three weeks later. You kind of missed all of those. Permethrin would be a product. Eight or  Byfenthrin, is another good core material.

14. Is there a safe spray that will kill weeds around vegetables?
a. Not really, because vegetable gardens tend to be much so diverse. You have grasses (corn) and broadleaf weeds, and in terms of a selective post-emergent, no. Pre-emergent Preen is pretty much labeled for most crops except sweet corn, but other than that it is pretty well across the board. A pre-emergent yes, but a post emergent we're running into some problems.

15. This is a Trumball viewer who has Bloomingdale spinach with white spots; they start small and expand. Lower leaves are showing the damage. Did it last year, too.
a. Most likely powdery mildew. Try to open things up. Get more light penetration--that will help. Powdery mildew does not like a lot of water. Overhead irrigation on that will not aggravate it. The overcast is why you're seeing it. There are sulfurs that would work well that would also be an option.

16. The first of many tomato questions. Big Boy tomatoes and a couple other types in cages. They are 3 feet tall and have been putting on flowers, but no fruit. Any ideas?
a. Temperature. Wait. Eventually they should set on fruits. A lot of people wonder if they should use the tomato set. I encourage people to wait awhile. They eventually will set on fruit. If it's too warm or cold at night they won't set fruit--and vice versa--if it's too cold or too hot during the day. We have gone from the extremes. Most likely it's temperature.

17. We have a very cool set of pictures. Unfortunately not such a great thing. This is the dwarf pine cultivar called 'Mops'. Spots on the needles but only in one place on the shrub and they are saying it looks like small ground crawlers. The viewer is wondering if they should prune the tip out or spray?
a. Well, you know, we started the show with euonymus bush scale. These are a needle scale. They are so susceptible. With this infestation, they will need to do something or it will kill the plant. Again, as we talked about with the euonymus bush, it's important to treat them early May to mid-June. They are going to have another shot in August. There is a second generation of these. What I would do is the tap test. Take some of those twigs and give them a tap and look for those little brown crawlers they describe. If they find them now, now would be a good time to treat. Insecticidal soap would work. In August, when we get that second generation, that would be the time to start. It's probably going to take a couple years to get this under control. And the problem is, the scales don't drop off. So you won't know if they are living or dead. That's always a challenge. If that's a severe enough infestation, as temperatures cool in the fall, they might try a horticultural oil. We know that will go under the scale and help kill the scale. Need to be careful not do it when it's too hot or they will also kill their needle pines.

18. Roch, you're not going to like this one, but, this is north of Grand Island. There is moss, but it's in the livestock tank. You get the moss questions. How do they control moss in the livestock tank?
a. If you keep the water moving, moss doesn't really propagative well.  I'm not sure. Usually aeration would go a long way because moss will only form on stagnant water; it doesn't form on water that is moving so if they have a windmill that is pumping into it or something, that may be enough. But in this case it apparently is not--maybe because they haven't had to pump into it because of all of the rain. I'm not sure how you would aerate it or scoop off the top where the moss is going to be dominant and hopefully get into a situation where it would be decreasing a bit. Probably need some sort of aeration. There are copper sulphate products that are safe. Obviously check the label. The copper sulphate probably makes sense for moss and water.

19. We have had a number of Catalpa questions lately. This one in Omaha has two Catalpa trees- about ten years old. They did leaf out then all of the foliage turned black and dropped off both trees.
a. In general we don't see a lot of diseases in Catalpa trees. In this case, see if a certain portion of the crown of the tree was affected and some of the larger branches will go first. The disease I'm thinking of is verticillium wilt. You can take some of the twigs and if you see any streaks or if the center of the wood is discolored, that is most likely the wilt that will eventually kill the tree. You're probably in a situation where you will have to remove it. When you replant try to get something that is not susceptible to verticillium wilt. Maples and smoketrees are highly susceptible.

20. Kelly, this is a Grand Island viewer that has a 30-year-old baldcypress. Last fall they said round balls were falling off the tree and it's starting to happen again.
a. Okay, well, I call it the fruit of the tree, because this being a conifer, those were the cones of the fruit. They are interesting looking they look like a brain or something. They are perfectly normal and probably a sign of healthy tree.

21. Fred, a follow-up to the grasshopper question earlier. They want to know if neem oil is okay on grasshoppers?
a. Neem oil would probably kill the very smallest of them; after that, probably not. Again, you have to have a direct spray on the grasshoppers. Yes, it would be another organic type of product.

22. Roch, a Northwest Iowa viewer wonders if using corn gluten meal will attract ants and other pests?
a. It's interesting because the carrier is the remnants of the corn processing and it is quite possible they might attract something, but you know it could be ants or other insects. Most of our carriers are organically based anyway and we have corn cob carriers that are used and I don't think I have ever heard of ant species being attracted to that. If there are foraging ants they might. It's not going to attract or draw them in. I don't think it would have that effect. I doubt it would be an ‘ant magnet’.

23. Loren, your turn for another picture. This is a viewer with cherry trees. Or, maybe former cherry trees and they want to know what is causing the damage. They are in a row of fruit trees; there for approximately 3 years, 20 feet apart. None of the other fruit trees are showing the damage. They want to know if there is a disease of some sort.
a. I'm having a hard time telling from the pictures. The way the leaves are rolling and such it looks like there may be a canker on some of the branches. Follow the branches and see if you see sap or a swollen area or sunken area on the branches. That's what I could tell. You could prune that out.

24. Kelly, we have a lot of people with big beautiful hydrangeas going like this. They want to know what can be done to keep them from being knocked down in the rain?
a. Well, about all you can do is stake them in some way. It's best to do that have the staking material in place as the plant is starting to grow. Rather than trying to stake them after they have grown and started to bloom. Just a sturdy staking material of some sort is the only way it will keep it from toppling.

25. Fred, we have a Council Bluffs viewer who has millipedes, centipedes, or something like that. It’s in full sun site and they are coming up between the concrete and the house. Hundreds of them are on the patio in the morning.
a. It could be millipedes. All of the rain we've had they are being pushed out of the wet soils. Hopefully if it dries out it will be less of a problem. They could use a perimeter type spray on the patio, if they chose to. And again, any of the products like permethrin would be effective.

26. All right, since you answered that so effectively, Roch, your last question quickly is, we have a viewer with concord grapevines curling leaves, the fruits are not filling in. Some of the weeds are accordion pleated. They want to know what is going on with that.
a. Sounds like 2,4-D injury. Especially when you get that sort of corrugated look to them. Feel them a little bit; if they feel leathery, it's almost definitely some 2,4-D. I know that grapes are highly susceptible to that. Be careful about that.
 

Lightning Round

Kelly

1. We have a Norfolk viewer with two of three Lindens thriving. They are 50 feet apart. The third one is not. What is going on?
a. Probably a soil issue. Difference in soil, planted too deep. I bet it is root related.
2. We have a viewer who wants it know how old bing cherries have to be before they bear fruit and is a pollinator needed?
a. Probably around five years minimum. I don't believe they are self-pollinated.
3. What about removing the hail damaged foliage off things like peonies and other plants? Good idea, bad idea?
a. If still green it is photosynthesizing and helping the plant.
4. We have maples and birches yellowing all over the state? What is this? Should they be treated?
a. Probably iron chlorisis or manganese and you treat them next spring and see if it works.
5. Is it time to mow off and fertilize June bearing strawberries?
a. Yes. Usually do that as soon as the harvest is over in June. We're about in that time period.
6. Will thinning squash leaves let the fruit bear out?
a. No. You need the foliage to photosynthesize to help mature the fruit.

Loren

1. We got rid of one plant that had aster yellows. Will the rest of the plants get it?
a. No.
2. Wisner and Omaha viewers both have cherries and plums that are very small and they turn black and fall off.
a. Most likely brown rot. It is very common now because of all the rain. It is a fungal disease. Fruit tree spray would be the only way to manage it, but it will be hard with all of the rain.
3. We have a lot of rust on roses can it just be cut out? Can they just cut the rusty things off?
a. No, you cannot. You can, but you still are going to have more --it's in the area. You will have to use a fungicide to manage that if you want to control it.
4. There is something called a big bud phytoplasma. Is that here?
a. I’m not aware of that in particular being here. But we have lots of phytoplasmas that can affect asters.

Roch

1. What is the range for drift injury to tomatoes from 2,4-D?
a. It can drift up to 2 to 3 miles, but probably not at a toxic rate. If you're seeing injury and somebody sprayed 2,4-D within proximity maybe a house down the street or a thoroughfare area, it is quite possible it is 2,4-D injury.
2. Is there anything that can be done for cherry suckers that will be permanent?
a. If you are going to eat the cherries there is a product called Sucker Stopper that can work really well on it. It's available at quality garden stores near you as well as some box stores.
3. In Fairmont we have a viewer who wants to know how to control cattails by their pond.
a. They can get a product called Rodeo that is safe for ponds and waterways.
4. How do you control nimblewill and when?
a. Use RoundUp; preferably about this time of the year and with multiple applications and then reseed and hope you got it all.
5. A Central City viewer has a weed with a little yellow head on it about 1/8 inch in diameter.
a. Probably black medic. It is controlled relatively well with pre-emergent herbicides. Can use post-herbicides. Don’t put post-herbicides on them this time of the year, people –let’s not do that.

Fred

1. Is there a broad-spectrum insecticide like Eight that will work on most things including mites?
a. I would suggest use bifenthrin; that would be a broad-spectrum insecticide and also is a pretty good miticide.
2. Is there anything to use to treat for twig girdlers?
a. No
3. How do you treat spider mites on a english ivy house?
a. Again get a bifenthrin product because it is a spider mite. Make sure to use a formulation labeled for indoor house plant use.
4. Is it possible for earthworms to appear in a raised bed that has never touched the soil? raised bed?
a. Raised bed-Probably. They can find there way in through cracks and crevices-sure.
5. There is a little insect with black ends and gray stripe in the middle and shaped like a vitamin pill.
a. It sounds like a dermestid beetle of some kind and it might be a carpet beetle. We find them in stored products. If you find that in stored foods, there are dead insects--clean them out.