Show Questions' - June 2, 2011

1. Wayne, first question: This question actually came from one of our most esteemed Master Gardeners. She has small, rectangular, oblong insects hiding and feasting on her walks.
a. We’re not going to show them because they would be running across the table. What she has are phlox beetles. They tend to feed on the newest foliage, the buds and blooms, and they cause distortion. You are going to have to do something about them, especially if there are quite a few of them.

2. Lowell, this is from Archer, Nebraska: A viewer with about an acre of quack grass used RoundUp last summer but it didn’t work very well. Any options this year?
a. If they used RoundUp last summer I’m not surprised it didn’t work all that well. Quack grass is a cool season grass, so trying to kill it in the summer when the quack grass is struggling to survive is probably not the best time. The spring or fall are the best times to try to control quack grass. So, if they still have it, which it sounds like they do, I would try to control it at a better time of the year and then try to reestablish desirable turf there.

3. Amy, a viewer has peach and nectarine trees with peach leaf curl.
a. It’s a fungal disease and is fairly common. Management wise, sanitation is always good. Raking up the leaves reduces the level for the next year. Another recommendation is fungicide application. However, you’ve missed the best time for that. We’re going to make applications at bud break and typically do a second application 14 to 28 days later, depending on the product you’re using. Especially during the last two years, we’ve been seeing a lot more peach leaf curl just due to the fact that we've had cool wet springs, which favor disease development.

4. Sarah, a Blair viewer wants to know the best location for azaleas and what type of soil?
a. Azaleas are a little bit pickier about their growing conditions. You might want to do soil amending before you actually put them in the ground and try to lower our naturally alkaline soil’s pH closer to 5.5. They do need to be protected. I would say an east location would be ideal. North would be OK, maybe not as sunny as an east location. Try to keep them out of the sun. A little afternoon shade would be good and make sure they stay well-watered because they are not particularly drought resistant.

5. Wayne, a north Lincoln viewer says the midges are biting already. They want to know what is going on and what can be done about it.
a. The midges are biting already? Standard procedure would be cover up; wear long sleeves if you can. Also, you can use DEET. DEET is the standard for any insect repellant to keep off biting insects. There are other natural products that work, but not nearly so well. If you happen to be with someone who is not wearing any insect repellant, the natural ones will work better because the insects will prefer the less smelly person.

6.  Lowell, a Lincoln viewer has maiden grass, one of the ornamental grasses, on one side of the driveway and it is filled with nutsedge. They want to kill the nutsedge which is along the outside edges of the ornamental.
a.  I guess I would have to check if it is on the label, but if it is, something like Sedge Hammer would work just fine on the yellow nutsedge. It has been cool and the nutsedge really hasn’t proliferated much this year. I haven’t seen much of it yet. I think it is just starting to come on now. So, do most post-emergence applications here in the next couple weeks, which is the best time to do it. But, I would look at the Sedge Hammer label.

7. Amy, you have a very interesting image.  It’s a weed in the lettuce patch. What they are worried about is not the weed, but the lovely pink spots on the weed. Will they spread to the vegetables?
a.  Lowell and I actually took a look at this before the show and the little pink to purple spots we’re seeing are very common. I see it on a regular basis in fields and road ditches. It is most likely a physiological response to stress. It could be due to cool weather or too much water. Since it is a physiological thing, it’s not going to move to the lettuce or any other plant in your garden.

8. This viewer has a maple, about 7 feet tall, planted in 2009, with no foliage. The tree did form buds and looks healthy, but has no leaves. Not too far away a neighbor has a large silver maple that lost some bark. The viewer is wondering whether the spring affected both the old one and the new one, and, most importantly, whether the new one is a former new one.
a. Unfortunately, it is probably dead. When trees are stressed and declining in vigor, sometimes they can just go to a certain point and then they don’t have the energy left to go any further. It could be this tree did have enough energy to form buds and look as if it were going to grow this year. But, it just didn’t have the energy to push those buds out and develop any new growth. I would be surprised if you see any growth on the tree at this point of the season. Unfortunately, you’re going to have to get rid of it and plant something there again. The more mature tree that is losing bark: silver maples do tend to shed bark naturally. I’m not sure if this is a natural situation or if this is something more serious, where it lost bark down to the white inner wood. I would tend to think the two conditions were probably not related. The spring was not severe enough to cause a lot of serious damage on a more mature tree. I think it is probably something else going on there.

9. We have somebody who is wondering what sort of creature is eating the flowers on their paw paw. You took a look at this picture and thought perhaps this particular thing was not eating the flowers on the paw paw.
a. No, it is not. This is a fly, one of many different kinds of flies. It is hard to tell the difference between so many of these things that look like that. It’s actually eating the nectar of from the flower. You might even call it a pollinator.

10. We had quite a conversation last week about killing bindweed. This viewer is from the Garland area. They want to know whether there is a better solution, and I don’t know how they are defining better, whether they mean totally permanent or whether they just didn’t like Roch’s suggestion to kill bindweed.
a. You know it’s tough. Glyphosate with the cotton glove is effective, but it is labor intensive or can be if you have a relatively large infestation of bindweed. If they want to try one of the growth regulator products, there was a segment earlier in the year about reading the label and looking at active ingredients. You would want to use a product that has triclopyr in it, not just 2,4-D, which is not that effective. The other thing I will comment on is to use the right rate. Read the label. I think in a lot of cases folks may under apply or over apply and to get effective control with those herbicides it is really important to get the right rate on the plant.

11. We have a lot of concern over small fruit trees and this is one where the viewer said the bark is coming off and sap is flowing out. It’s apricots, plums, peaches, that sort of thing. Then the tree dies and they don’t believe it is borer issues. So, cankers, diseases of known fruits?
a. When dealing with sun fruits I would lean toward a canker issue. You want to lead to any sunken issues that would cause sap to be released. We have two different types of cankers. A bacterial chancre will ooze a lot more than the fungal canker. Look for sunken areas. I would recommend you prune it back at least 8 inches if it is oozing a lot. If it is not oozing a lot, prune back 6 inches. If you see it on the base of the trunk of the tree, there isn’t a lot you can do. You can just try to maintain good tree health with proper watering, fertilizing, and pruning as needed, but eventually the canker will take the tree out.

12. We’ve had two or three images this month with leaning trees and this viewer has a Burr oak that is finally happily growing, but wants to grow in Iowa or somewhere else. Their question is should they stake it or what should they do about this tree? The trunk looks straight at the base.
a. There would be different opinions on this. With this particular tree, I would tend not to stake it because, like you say, Kim, the trunk looks straight. The base of that trunk looks OK. So, it doesn’t look like this tree has gotten pushed over in any of the windstorms we’ve had lately. I think you can correct this through some pruning and I hope, from the viewer's comment, they said it finally started growing. They probably have waited for this tree for a while and are hesitant to cut anything off. I think you can do pruning to correct and develop a central leader that will be nice and straight instead of veering off to the east the way that tree is growing. We do have other situations in the landscape right now, in varied saturated soils, where trees are getting pushed over by the wind. And, if that is the case, if the tree has been pushed over but not completely pushed out of the ground, it is more of a serious situation. Whether or not you can get that tree to reestablish depends on how much damage was actually done to the root system. In a minor situation, where it has just been pushed a little bit, you might be able to stake it back up and get it to reestablish. But, if it has been pushed over quite a bit and you see a hump on the upwind side of the tree where the roots have been pulled up out of the ground, the chances of that tree surviving and being a good landscape tree are fairly low. So, I probably wouldn’t stake a tree at that point. I would just take it down.

13. An Emerald viewer who saw a little quarter inch black and yellow beetle on their cucumbers and applied Sevin. They wonder if that took care of the problem and what was it to begin with.
a. As long as it was feeding, it should have taken care of it without any issues. This is the striped cucumber beetle.

14. A viewer has an ornamental grass that is spreading and becoming invasive. They don’t say if it is seeding itself like the fountain grasses do. They want to know how to get rid of problem ornamental grasses in the garden.
a. If it is plants germinating from seeds, then it is relatively easy. You can selectively use RoundUp or glyphosate there and use the cotton glove method. Usually, RoundUp or glyphosate is highly effective on grass species. If it is a perennial coming up from rhizomes, that gets more difficult. Perhaps they could use a spade to spade some of the rhizomes and do glyphosate on the chutes coming up. The thing I would be concerned about is translocating to the part they want to keep of that grass. So, that is what I would try.

15. A North Bend viewer has first year apple trees with yellowish- orange spots on the leaves. They did use the fruit tree spray, but still got it and want to know the best timing for future reference.
a. The beautiful yellow-orange spots are rust. We had a great year for cedar apple rust development again. The timing for fungicide application is at bud break and you do another application, like with the peach leaf curl I was talking about earlier, either 14, 21, or 28 days later, depending on the product you use. Most of the time the general fruit tree sprays are great products to use. If you are looking for more specifics on a particular product, I do have a NebGuide on Cedar Apple Rust with all of the fungicides and ingredients you can use on edible apples or if you’re looking at ornamental apples.

16. A viewer wants to know if perennial garden phlox can be pinched back to increase its blooming.
a. Yes. It will delay the bloom a little bit. It will set it back a little bit but you can do it. We quite often recommend pinching some of the plants back. Sometimes they get too dense and it can help to thin them out as well.

17. We have a Lincoln viewer with tiny bright red bugs on their roses. Many, many on one plant, 200 to 300, and they don’t seem to be destructive. What do you think they are?
a. Tiny red insects on roses? They could be aphids. Sounds like aphids and yes, they probably are busy sucking away the sap from the plant. You probably want to get out the insecticidal soap.

18. We have a Sutherland viewer that has nettles in a stand of pines. Wants to know how to get them out and, clearly, pulling is a poor option.
a. Yeah, if it is stinging nettles that is a perennial. I guess it really depends on the proximity of the trees to the nettles. If you can go in and make a herbicide application, with a 2,4-D plus glyphosate mixture, that would probably be effective, but, obviously, you would not want to get the mixture on any of the pine foliage. It is a perennial, so a translocateable herbicide is the best option.

19. We have a couple of issues here. This is a Cordova viewer from Seward County. They have an ash tree and the leaves are dropping off. They are turning yellow and dying and the question is, is there anything you’re aware of, disease-wise, that is doing that to the ash?
a. There isn’t anything, disease-wise, that I can think of that would be doing that to the ash right now. I probably would be more concerned about planting too deep, standing in too much water in a low area, since we’ve had a lot of rain events. It could be some insects or borer type issues, affecting the foliage in that ash tree. If the tree is losing its leaves, most likely it’s on its way out. Maintain and watch the tree and see if it loses all of its leaves or not. Then it would be dead and time to replant this fall, with no ash.

20. We have a viewer from Paxton that asked us about a Shooting Star he/she thinks grows in Nebraska. They saw some in the Sandhills and we had talked about our familiarity with a different type of Shooting Star.
a. Seeing it in the Sand Hills throws us off a bit. The Shooting Star we’re familiar with is more of a woodland type of a plant. You would typically see it growing in a soil with lots of organic matter in the shade. And since you’d be under a canopy of trees, seeing it in the sand doesn’t really jive with that too well. We’re wondering if maybe this is just a common name difficulty where plants can be called by common names with several plants being called the same name. It would be great if the viewer could send a picture then we could tell for sure if it is the Shooting Star that we're familiar with or if it is something else that is masquerading under another name. Send a picture if you can we'll see if we can help you out.

21. This is a question that came to Kelly. They want to know what this is and what to do about it. Is it harmful?
a. This is maple bladder gall. This is something we’re going to see every year. Typically it’s not harmful to the tree. You will get some instances where the leaves will be so covered with so many galls that they drop off of the tree. It’s caused by a little tiny mite that is kind of pear or carrot shaped and there is nothing you can do but admire the color on the green.

22.  Lowell, this Lincoln viewer has a five foot tall hemlock next to the foundation. It’s a plant with a hollow stem and she said that they did have Earl May ID the plant.
a. Poison Hemlock is a biennial plant; it was probably there last year already but they probably thought it looked nice last year. But since it is a biennial it has a deep tap root and the best thing to do is pull it up, or hoe it out. If it is five feet tall, herbicides probably aren’t going to be effective, especially if it’s flowering right now.

23. We get questions fairly often about Poison Hemlock. Folks want to know if it is toxic from touching it or do you have to ingest it.
a. You’d have to ingest some of the foliage. Different parts of the plant are more toxic. I believe the roots and stems are more toxic than the foliage but it somebody or an animal ingests enough foliage that could also make them sick. Just be sure to use gloves to pull it out and you should be safe.

24. An Eagle viewer has a fescue lawn and every year they get a brownish fungus that attacks it. Best treatment? They don’t say when this is happening.
a. “When” is really a big deal in terms of how to treat. Most likely you are probably dealing with Brown Patch that we usually see develop in August. With Brown Patch we don’t recommend any treatment for a home lawn. It is only there for two or three weeks and then it disappears. The other big thing about Brown Patch (if that is the disease we’re dealing with) is that the disease is usually made worse by heavy fertilizer applications. We want to make sure we're not doing too much fertilizing that will encourage that growth. If we could determine the timing, that would help me refine my answer.

25. We’re beginning to get Pin Oak chlorosis questions. What and when is the best treatment?
a. The best treatment would be to have the tree injected with an iron solution. And, usually, it is better for the tree if you hire an arborist to do it. It damages the tree less than if a homeowner tries to do it. The products you can purchase to do this yourself leave much larger holes in the tree and is not as desirable. The most ideal time to do that injection would be in the spring just as the new foliage is coming out. But, the trees can be injected throughout the summer too. You might not see quite as big of a change in the tree the first year after the injection is done. So, just don't be discouraged by that. There are also some soil treatments you can do. And there is a great new NebGuide out by the Nebraska Forest Service. We can make that available on the website. It's also available at the Nebraska Forest Service website and it covers all of the different types of treatments you can do. I would definitely check that out; get a copy and look that over before you decide which way to go.

26. This is a Curtis viewer who has a Meyer Lemon Tree, obviously indoors since this is Nebraska. The leaves have developed a sticky substance on the surface and some of the foliage is turning yellow. They want to know if they should feed it and also want to know if the problem can be insects?
a. Not insects; we're talking mites that get on things in the house if they can get in. Screens don't stop them if you have your windows open this time of the year they could be ballooning in and getting in on that tree. Best treatment right now is going to the taking the tree outside and hosing it down thoroughly with water to blast those mites off so you can at least reduce the population. Mites are funny; they produce that sticky substance like aphids do and if you look closely you might be able to find webbing as well.

27. We have an interesting picture for you: the viewer sent two images of two different leaves from the same plant. And they want to know is this a good or bad plant. They were hoping it wasn't poison ivy.
a. This was an interesting picture. I believe this is a Boston Ivy. And, interesting thing about this is, some of the leaves can have three leaflets on or it can be a single leaf like in this photo. I don't think there is anything to be concerned about. In terms of whether it is a good or bad plant, it can be very woody and aggressive. So, it may be hard to manage from that perspective, but if the viewer likes it, then I would encourage her/him to grow it.

28. This is a viewer from Sterling that has fall-blooming asters and the leaves are dying from the base up except for the last three to four inches where the flowers are. I suspect they are Purple Dome.
a. We see powdery mildew on the lower leaves. Powdery mildew can cause defoliation and is a problem if they’re planted thick. Thinning them out some should help.

29. This is a Mankato viewer who has 3 apples trees—2, 4, and 7 years old. The youngest has lots of flowers but the two older have none. What’s up with that?
a. That is kind of an odd situation. The thing that would really come to mind for me would be you're pruning at the wrong time. If you're doing lots of small cuts at the tip of the branches in the fall you're probably cutting off the flower buds that could cause it not to bloom. That would be my best guess as far as what is going on. Sometime with trees you will see a reduction in flowers when they mature, but these trees are still young. I wouldn't expect that to be an issue at this point. Double check your pruning and see if that could be the issue.

Lightening Round

Sarah

1. We have a viewer who has a single plum tree. The plums set, but then drop. Any ideas on that one?
a. Well, there are insect problems that can cause drop on plums. They normally do thin out if they have a heavy crop, but since this is all of the plums dropping that probably wouldn't be it. I think we need a lot more information.
2. We have a viewer who bought one of those serpentine pussy willows and has no foliage. Any hope at this point in the season?
a. I doubt it. It would have leafed out by now.
3. We have butterfly bushes dead in Pierce County. Question about whether that is too far north or how to manage them there?
a. Well, it probably is winter kill. I would make sure they are well watered in the fall and maybe give a little extra winter protection if you're going to try to replant and see if that will help them survive.
4. A birch is throwing surface roots; is that pretty typical of birch?
a. That is fairly common, especially if you’re watering shallow as well.

Amy

1. You have a viewer who has a spruce with three to four rust colored branches on the tree. Is that disease or damage of some sort?
a. It can be disease. I would take a closer look at the branches. It could also be some environmental damage if it is more of a brown rather than a rust color.
2. We have a viewer who has yellow spots on their black currants and they are wondering if this is a blister rust. Are we in the right location for that?
a. I don't see too much blister rust. It depends how far east you are. Just watch the development of those yellow spots. It could be environmental also. Just wait and see.
3. The pines look terrible this year. It is too late to do anything about it?
a. It is for some blight, but we're in the right timing for others. It depends on whether it's the old needles or the new needles being affected. One affects the old the other affects the new needles.
4. We have a smoke tree that appears as though it has mildew. Is that mildew?
a. Most likely you're probably dealing with a wilt. It is a fungal pathogen that affects the roots in the vascular system. We're going to get wilting and yellowing. Sometimes because the tree isn't thrifty you will get weird looking spots on the foliage.

Lowell

1. We have a Lexington viewer who wants to know whether they can graze their 6-foot tall orchard grass with sheep and expect it to survive?
a. Orchard grass is a perennial so they should be able to do that. If they are really concerned about it they can do rotational grazing if they have the fencing to do it.
2. This particular viewer missed whatever they were supposed to do with their turf on the last holiday. What were they supposed to do over Memorial Day?
a. The last thing we're at the end of the season for is fertilizing. And putting down some crabgrass control. However, it is getting late for that now.
3. It is possible to kill brome in a flower bed or turf selectively?
a. In the flower bed, yes. You can use RoundUp or glyphosate. In the turf it's very difficult. You can't take it out selectively.
4. There are bare spots in a fescue lawn. Can fescue still be seeded?
a. I would wait or you will struggle through with it through the summer and fall.

Wayne

1. This viewer has lovely garden beans that just came up and something is chewing away on the leaves and it is not rascals.
a. Most likely it's beetles.
2. A viewer has elm trees and the foliage looks like lace. What is going on there and what can be done about that?
a. It’s elm leaf weevil. We used to have a lot of elm leaf beetle. You can use pretty much anything that is labeled for application to trees, especially elm, should do the job.
3. Is the application of insecticidal soap to control insects okay at high temperatures or is there an upper temperature limit on that?
a. With most insecticides or pesticides you do not want to apply at high temperatures because you will have a tendency to scald your plants.
4. When do the mason bees actually start using little mason bee houses?
a. Not really sure of the exact timing, you just have to be patient.
5. There a single gall on the vein of witch hazel what is it?
a. It's an aphid.