Show Questions - June 30, 2011

1. This is an Iowa viewer who has wire worms on the house, around the foundation. What to do about that.
a. Wire worms around the house and the foundation. I'm trying to think about that one. We have two kinds of beetles that have larvae that look like wire worms. One is the true click beetle, called the wire worm, and the other one is a darkling beetle. You know what? I bet they're talking about millipedes. Because they have such fine legs they're hard to see, and there's so many of them. It's a seasonal event where they migrate. Yes, they'll congregate around the bases of homes and hide in the protection of the cracks and crevices. If you're watering, especially the foliage in that vicinity, it's going to be an attractive environment for them. What I would say is, it's going to pass. If they don't get in the house, and it's just a matter of a nuisance, don't worry about it. But if you need to control them, you can put down some granular material, which would be Permethrin or Byfinthrin, and water it in to create a barrier around the perimeter of the house. That will activate the insecticide and provide some degree of protection. It does pass. They don't harm anything, or damage anything, or bite. So, hopefully, you can wait it out and it will be over with.

2. This is a viewer in Creighton, up north, that has Canada cherries that send up so many shoots. They are really tired of cutting them. They want something that will keep them from coming back.
a. There is a product that's called Sucker Stopper designed exactly for that use. If they only have one or two trees, that's probably the way to go, because Sucker Stopper is actually a plant growth regulator. You won't see a whole lot of re-growth. We've recommended a non-Round-Up like material. Either Finale, which is a little bit harder to come by, or a product containing diquat and nothing else. There are other products that are diquat-based. You have to look at the label. These are actually herbicides, but they don’t translocate in woody tissue. They're contact type. Either one of those will work. Based on the fact it didn't sound like they had a lot of trees, the Sucker Stopper will make sure they don't regrow. Whereas the nonselective contact herbicides have to be reapplied multiple times, and it’s probably better just to clip them off by hand.

3. We had a comment last week about Thousand Cankers in walnut. We've had a request to tell people what in the world we're talking about and the quarantine with it in particular.
a. Thousand Cankers is a new disease that we're concerned about on black walnut. It's found in Colorado. It's a fungus transmitted by insects called the walnut twig beetle. But the thing is, the walnut twig beetle--none of you will be able to see it or identify it, because it's about the same size as a tip of a lead pencil. They're pretty tiny. What we're going to do is look for symptoms. A lot of times we see wilting of the trees, and at that point in time, we want them identified. We have a quarantine in the state so we do not have it. The reason why we have the quarantine is we want to protect our native black walnut population which is in southeast Nebraska, which is the western edge of that natural forest. The further east you go, the more common black walnut is in most of those deciduous forests. We want to protect those. The quarantine means we can't bring any walnut species from Colorado into the state of Nebraska. If you go visit your Aunt Sue this summer and you see her beautiful black walnut that might have come up, don't transport it back because you could bring the disease and the insect with it. If you're seeing wilting of your black walnuts, some thinning of the upper crowns, please contact your local Extension office, contact the Forest Service, or me. We'll get a sample, take a look, and determine what's going on. We want to keep this disease out of Nebraska---Colorado can keep it. It's not carried in the nut. It's all in the wood. It affects the vascular system, very similar to some of the normal canker diseases, and it's moved just like emerald ash borer. If you move firewood or if you want to save the wood so Uncle Bob can make a beautiful new table, you're going to move the insect and you're going to move the disease. You want to keep the black walnut wood where it's at. We're going with exactly the same philosophy as with emerald ash borer. Don't transport wood. Burn your wood where you buy it.

4. This is a viewer in Lincoln who has tomato plants in containers. Lots of flowers, no fruit. Blossoms are drying up a little bit. Not setting fruit. Any ideas?
a. There's a couple of things that could be going on. They might not be setting fruit because they might not be getting pollinated. Wait for some pollinators. They like hot weather. Today and yesterday it's been a little bit of overkill for them. You may not get good fruit set from today and yesterday's weather with all the hot temperatures. If you really want to do something, you can go out with a child's paintbrush and swirl it around one flower and move to the next, and to the next. You might get better fruit set that way. No need to buy the fruit set spray or things like that. The plant will set fruit on its own.

5. We have a Fremont viewer with two cherry trees. They did lime sulfur when they were dormant. They’ve sprayed five times with the fruit tree spray and the cherries are still wormy.
a. We tell you what we know and what has been a proven method with these combination treatments with insecticidal-fungicidal sprays through the season, timed a certain way. It's supposed to be really effective. So if it hasn't, I personally apologize. I don't know what to say. Maybe you can hone it a little bit better by perhaps putting out some sticky traps in the tree which might capture the pest itself. Just to see if what you have put on is about properly timed. That's the only thing I can think of as variable is the season. As we all know, we’re probably about two weeks behind this year in most normal development of plants and fruits, etc. It could be a rate problem if they’re not reading the label correctly. I’m not saying they’re not, but if they aren’t reading the label and putting on too low a rate, there are two problems with that. Obviously, there is not control and the other one is you promote resistance to that particular insecticide. Or a coverage issue. It could be a number of things.

6. We have a person with a large farm pond, has algae, wants to get rid of the algae. They’ve heard about straw, which is probably barley bales. Any thoughts on that one?
a. Once you see the algae, it's too late. Barley works as a pre-emergent. You need to get the barley in earlier. There's a lot of sources for barley. We actually grow some at the research site, and it's available as well. With a large farm pond, you will probably need several bales. That's located on the UNL web on algae control and farm ponds. But right now, it's really going to be difficult based on the weather we've had and everything else to control the algae, especially the string algae which is really in full bloom. I have never seen as much duckweed and string algae as we’ve seen this year. I don't know if it's because the way the water heated up or what. There are products out there that will work. But be careful you choose products that are not injurious to fish or other plant material you want to retain in the pond. Sometimes that's a problem. Some people try to remove it physically with rakes and throw it off to the side and let it desiccate on the side. It's going to continue to bloom. We're a little late to get very effective algae control in farm ponds or even small garden ponds if it's really gotten away from you. My pond is brutal in terms of algae and duckweed. We're all having the same problem.

7. We have a viewer who sent us some images of huge issues on their beans. Now they're seeing them on the potatoes. I know you really wanted to comment on this because it's a pretty significant problem.
a. It is. What we're seeing on the beans is a bacterial disease called common blight. So the viewer said he had treated with a fungicide multiple times and it continued to get worse. The fungicide won't have any activity against the bacteria because they're totally different pathogens. Common blight is a bacterial disease. It likes a lot of wet weather, which we've been having. It also likes the cooler temperatures. It likes it around the 60 to 70 degree mark. Once the temperatures get warmer, usually the bacterial blight will disappear. The other thing with bacterial blight: if you're watering, you want to avoid overhead watering because you're going to move that bacteria around. Use soaker hoses, different components like that. Regarding the potatoes showing the symptoms, the common blight won't move to the potatoes. So you have a different thing going on with the potatoes. To me, it looks like a fungal disease called brown spot. That could be treated with a fungicide. That should control it at that point in time. If you want to try to save your potatoes, you can try a fungicide. With the common blight on the beans, typically, with the year it's been, removing the beans will probably be your best bet. The bacteria can overwinter in the soil, but it’s seed transmitted. You might have brought it in with your seed which does occur.

8. We have a viewer with Endless Summer hydrangea. East of the house, lots of sun for most of them. Didn't bloom much last year, not much this year either. Anything they can do to improve the bloom?
a. The main thing they want to do is wait. Endless Summer is one of those hydrangeas that takes a few years for them to get happy in order to bloom. Just wait. I know it's not what everyone wants to do when it comes to the beautiful hydrangeas. You have to wait.

9. This is a viewer that has issues with their broccoli. These little guys are fuzzy little green worms. They're on the leaves and, of course, that means they're in there. What to do about that?
a. This is a pest of most cole crops. That includes the cabbages and broccolis, etc. It's our most famous pest of those plants. That's the cabbage worm. Those little white butterflies that are flitting around and dancing in the air at the time you're doing your planting or just perusing the garden, those are the culprits depositing single yellowish eggs on the undersides of the leaves. It's important to be out there inspecting those leaves. This occurs throughout the season. Inspect those leaves and just smudge out those yellowish eggs. That will greatly help. If you still have some crop, as we're entering this early summer, and you want to stop the damage or whatever, you can try your Bacillus thuringiensis formulation for caterpillars. It works well for caterpillars such as these. It essentially gives them the toxin for that disease, and within several days they'll be dead. It's an ongoing thing. You have to be vigilant in the garden.

10. We have a southeast Nebraska viewer. They have a tall fescue lawn. What they want discussed is the heat and humidity and what to watch for—which is a great question for all landscape plans, but turf in particular. I think we've had diseases begin to think about showing up.
a. Let me start with some fundamental management things. Our plants have not hardened off. And that's not just turf. All of them have had a really lush spring growing season into this time of year. They're pretty happy right now. And then what happens? We get into the weather we are right now. So don't be surprised to see some drought stress. You know, we've gotten this rain, we just got a three incher in eastern Nebraska the other night. Why do we have to irrigate? I'm pretty sure I'm going to run my irrigation system tonight and we just got three inches two or three nights ago. Before we start applying fungicides and other things, let's make sure it's not simply drought stress that's happening. That's true not just of the turf, but new plantings and the herbaceous perennials are going to look like they’re in trouble. They haven't really developed a root system yet, nor have they been subjected to temperatures in sequence. We like to see where it's cooler, little warmer and a little warmer and then the hellish days we've just experienced for the last two days. I would look at that first and then it does set them up with the high humidity and high nighttime and daytime temperatures for a lot of diseases. There's quite a few things to look at. My biggest concern with tall fescue, especially as lush as it has been, is brown patch. It's going to start showing up, you'll see the brown lesions, irregular in shape, they’re usually tan in the middle and dark brown on the outside edges. There's some Neb Guides out on it. Typically, with brown patch we don't look at a fungicide application. But this year it may be something to consider. Typically, we're going to recommend that you have a commercial applicator come out and do it. If you want to do it yourself, there is a Neb Guide that has a list of active ingredients. You can go to the Neb Guide and look at the compounds and take that list to your garden center and look for those exact same problems. The other thing we'll look at is powdery mildew--the nice white powdery growth. Typically there isn't anything we can do for that. Those are the two big diseases we’re going to see popping up in your turf.

11. We have a couple of pin oak questions. One from Lincoln, one from York. Yellowing leaves, chlorosis. These are big guys--50-foot or so. Some leaves came out late on the ones in York and now they seem to have caught up. They're saying two weeks late which I think we talked about. Anything to do for chloratic pin oaks or maples or anything else like that right now?
a. At this point in time, it's getting a little late in the season to cure the iron chlorosis. Iron chlorosis is what causes the leaves to be pale greenish yellowish color with the dark-green mid vein. Most of the time we’ll see it in silver maples and pin oaks. There's several ways that you can put on iron. You can do the Murphy method, I think, with all those PVC pipes around the drip line of the tree. To me, that's a lot of work. There's one where you drill the hole and stick it into the trunk of the tree or there’s the tree IV with iron solution. If you're looking at doing something, the iron solution will last longer in that tree. At this time of the year, I think you're just going to have the yellow leaves. Long and short of it, we're not recommending pin oaks in most locations.

12. In Shelton, we have asparagus with the stalks all falling over.
a. I don’t know how to explain that. The ferns are drooping over. They can get a root rot or a crown rot. If you mulch them, I would start pulling the mulch back a little bit and seeing how wet it is, especially with the amount of rain we've had. That would be the first thing I would look for is a crown rot. Not the black asparagus beetles?
No, we're past their time. If there's any of them, they're on the berries. Not so much in the stem anymore.

13. We need a little bit of a clarification about using Permit for nutsedge in the lawn. We had a comment about that, I think, probably last week.
a. Actually, I think the viewer might be confused. Permit is labeled for sweet corn. When I talked to Lowell about it, he recommended Permit for sweet corn, which is legal. But, Permit for lawns is not legal. The companion, or the product that is equivalent to Permit, is Sedge Hammer, which we recommend time and time again on this show. If you're talking about sweet corn, then Permit is the product of choice. If you're talking about the lawn, you have to use Sedge Hammer. You won't find Permit in most of the garden stores, but you will find, quite frequently, Sedge Hammer. Be sure you're using the product of choice. They do have the same active ingredient. But if you grab a bottle of Permit and you apply to it to your lawn, and you're found out, that's actually a violation of the federal pesticide law, and it’s not a good thing to go down that road. Make sure you product label lists the site AND the pest. Permit for sweet corn, not for lawns. Sedge Hammer for lawns.

14. A couple of tomato questions. One is the entire plant is curling from the top and is very leggy. The other question -- this is Lincoln and Omaha--they planted tomatoes in the same spot last year. They look wilted and dying, and the problems started about three weeks ago.
a. The one that's curling, the leaves are curling, I would probably lean toward a virus, tomato spotted wilt being the first culprit. It’s seed transmitted. A lot of times when you buy transplants, they're already sick and you don't know it. The best thing to do is remove the plant and throw it in the garbage. The tomato that's wilting already, I would lean toward it's probably a wilt disease, maybe a fuserium wilt from the extremely wet weather. We also strongly advise not to plant your tomatoes in the same spot from year to year due to the fact of the leaf spots that you can get early. Early blight and septoria blight are persistent if we keep the tomatoes in the same spot. I would look to see what the moisture levels are and back off on the watering. You have to be careful. With it being 100 degrees, we still need to water, if a little bit. Baby it along a little bit and maybe it will come out of it. If it's still wilting in a week, remove it and let your other plants start to take over.

15. Elizabeth, your turn for an image. This is a viewer with a question about arborvitae. Apparently the side toward the home are all kind of looking like this (scorched on one side). They're wondering what has happened here.
a. If you notice that at that side of the home is brick and brick does a wonderful job on holding in heat. What you're doing is scorching those little arborvitae that like the shaded environment. So that's what's going on. They're losing more moisture on that side next to the home. You can try to move them away from the home a little bit so there's not as much radiant heat. Try to put different plants that like it hot beside the home. See if that makes a difference. It seems to be a plant of choice for an awful lot of people. They just don't like those hot dry conditions.

16. Jim, we have a viewer in rural St. Paul and this is about grasshoppers. They're very small now. Around the yard, the garden, and the barn. They also want to know whether they can mix what will control the grasshoppers with whatever controls the weeds.
a. There is not a good compatibility chart or anything that would give directions on that. I'd be hard press to say go for it. They can do label checks, but I'm going to say spray them separately. I know it's a labor saver. About the question on the grasshoppers: while they're still small is the best time to get them. If you're talking about yard, ornamental situations, that’s completely different. In the garden, you’re restricted to products like permethrin. Get them while they're small. They're more susceptible then. Make sure you clear any weeds that might promote their development or just them sticking around in that garden. Clear those and keep the weeds well-trimmed so it's not habitat in the vicinity of the garden. I think around the barns or whatever, again, situations like that, you can probably get a little bit more powerful insecticides such as the Tempo or Talstar is another-that’s the commercial label for that. They're usually not labeled for garden applications.

17. Roch, your turn for an image. This is a viewer with a raised bed garden. This is one of the weeds that she had a concern about. I know we've pulled some of this out of our garden.
a. It's Pennsylvania smartweed. Prior to joining the Big 10, we didn't have this. Actually, it's a native to the central Great Plains. Pretty much across the central United States as well as East Coast. It can be fairly invasive. It will pull really easy. Doesn't have the aggressive taproot on it. It can produce a prolific amount of seed. The viewer had a couple of other weeds. They planted a mix of herbaceous plants. The other two, I couldn't key them out. They were concerned about pulling up desirable plants. Pull out the Pennsylvania smartweed immediately before it flowers. I'd say wait and see on the rest. They look like they might be desirable flowers, ornamentals, to me.

18. Amy, a Gretna viewer has pepper plants that are wilting and they show brown spots on the foliage.
a. Most likely, it's a bacterial disease. Once again, with a really cool wet weather, your best bet is to remove the leaves right away. This is a disease that can over-winter in the soil and it can move to your tomatoes. So you'll want to remove that material. If the plants continue to get brown spots, i would remove the plants in the garden area and make sure to not plant peppers or tomatoes in that spot next year.

19. Elizabeth, we're going to come to you with a question. Actually, this is like four questions. We have viewers with walnut trees that are dropping their walnuts. Pears that are dropping, cherries that are dropping and apples that are dropping.
a. My guess is summer fruit drop. Either they set too much fruit and they couldn't handle it all or maybe bad pollination. So that would be what I think is probably going on with all those fruits. I know they're hoping for something they can spray and kill. But I think that's pretty much what we hear about this time of year. Those fruits that remain will get much fuller and larger.

20. Jim, in Seward we have a north side of the house, log home, three holes in the soffit area. Appears to be wasps or something like that, about an inch long and black are going in and out.
a. It might be yellow jackets and the colonies are just starting to get maybe, you might say 20 or 30 workers. By the end of the season you can have 2,000. It's important to investigate that. If you're concerned about it for your own safety, hire a pest control operator to do it. They probably chewed a hole, or there may have been a crack or crevice there that they've enlarged. It's a larger hole now and somewhere up in there, in that attic space, is a papery watermelon-shaped kind of a nest. That will be increase in size. Probably a pest control operator I'd say in this case. Although there are wasp killers. You can use these in the early morning hours, if you can see the nest. Spray a stream about 20 foot long, dress yourself up nicely and get up on the stepladder and shoot away and soak that baby good. I think that's one way of doing it if you want to be adventurous.

21. Roch, a North Platte viewer is wondering whether it is too late to put on a second feeding of weed and feed?
a. With the temperatures the way they are now and probably going to be sustained, and with the upcoming slowdown of the rain, I would not be suggesting any sort of herbicides unless you're using the nutsedge products at this point in time. Wait until it cools off.

22. Amy, we have about four questions about orange spots on roses. They're either on the leaves or the flowers or they're on the hips.
a. We're getting rose rust popping up. It's a short season, on summer roses it will only be around for a couple of weeks. Otherwise you can see it progress all season long. The best thing to do is prune off the infected tissues. When you can go in with a fungicide, typically something for black spots will work for rust, just look at the label. Use a systemic product and you only have to apply about approximately every 21 days. That’s a lot easier than some of the contact sprays.

23. Elizabeth a viewer has tea roses with weak stems. They want to know how to prevent this from happening. They're fertilizing fairly regularly.
a. There is the possibility that it could be too much water. If they get too much water early on, they got that flushy growth and they're just not making the canes. Also, you it depend where they're pruning. If they're weakly attached and small, it might be a pruning issue. You know, at this point in time we're not recommending fertilizing roses. It's getting a little late in the season. Cut back on fertilizers on roses.

24. Jim, this is an Elgin, Nebraska viewer who wants to control the little black bugs that ruined the canteloupe, musk melons, and squash vines before they go to harvest.
a. I'm thinking the black bugs are the notorious squash bugs. Just look for the adults now on those crops. See if you can just find them and dispose of them in a soapy bucket of water. Later on, if you see the egg masses under the leaves---remember they're golden, they're shiny and golden and thimble shaped or football shape---remove the egg masses. If you see the grayish nymphs, it's better to control them early. Sometimes it's easier to control them when they're just hatched than it is when they're resistant adults. So just always be out there. Again, every so many days, looking at the crops, examining them. Much like a plant doctor. Looking for symptoms to deal with.

25. This is a viewer east of Freemont who planted Buffalograss by seed and wants to reduce the weed population to overseed and wonders if he can do that this fall.
a. You wouldn't seed Buffalograss in the fall. You're right about the optimal time for seeding. If they're struggling with the weeds, I would consider mowing, that's a great technique, mow it down short. That will help the buffalograss spread and keep the weeds from seeding. Then next fall, you'll be surprised how much buffalograss you have. Wait until the second hard frost, next fall, 28 degrees, couple times within a week and a half or so. Then wait until the daytime temperature jumps up to about 65 or greater. Go over the top of the buffalo grass with RoundUp. You'll get all of the cool season grasses and dandelions and that sort of thing. Once it's dormant in the fall, that works. Don't do the same thing in the spring. I'm not ready to say they need to overseed. They need to get the more grass competitive. Be aggressive and mow it. The more aggressive you mow in the first year, the more competitive and thick it will get against the weeds and you'll prevent the other weeds from causing a bigger problem.

Lightning Round

Elizabeth

1. We have a viewer who has cascadia peas. They've had a lot of moisture and the peas are turning yellow on the tips. The flowers are dropping.
a. Probably too much moisture.
2. We have a viewer who wants to know about putting flowerbeds in 2 x 8 metal stock tanks and whether in fact we think those will over winter well?
a. I think the annuals will do much better as long as you plant them away from the sides. Perennials might be iffy on heartiness but you can give it a try.
3. Do we have a recommendation for a small ornamental tree for a Harlan County viewer who tried crimson queen maple and gave up?
a. I would try a smaller maple, like a Tatarian maple.
4. What is the timing for pruning a new, two-inch caliper tricolor beech?
a. Most of the time in the first few years, you prune when there's no foliage and prune lightly. You would start with the dead, damaged, or diseased leaves. Give it some good size before you go to town and prune on it.
5. What do we think about the rubber mulch rings to put around trees?
a. They're better than nothing. However, they would not be my first choice.
6. When do we prune a magnolia? This is a Gibbon viewer.
a. Most of the time you want to prune those directly after blooming.

Amy

1 We have a viewer who removed a Colorado blue spruce that had canker. They want to replant a another one and they want to know if they can do it in the same place?
a Yes, you can.
2 We have two viewers actually who have said roses have really wild growth, lots of strange thorns, and this reddish growth that they're describing that looks like honeysuckle brooms. What is that?
a It's a disease called rose rosette. The best thing is to cut it out and throw it away.
3 We have a viewer with brown patches on the south side of apples. This is a Kearney viewer. They did do a spray program. Wondering what it might be?
a I would be considering environmental scorch with the really warm temperatures that we had. It is just a watering thing. The leaves may fall off early. It’s nothing to worry about.
4 Mushrooms are everywhere again. What to do?
a You can do nothing. Take the mower and mow them off. Or hand pick them and throw them in the trash.
5 Daylily foliage is yellowing already. Is this disease, moisture, environment?
a Most likely too much moisture. Daylilies don't like their feet to be real wet.
6  Bellevue, Nebraska. Zucchini is molding in a pot.
a. Too much water. Make sure you have a hole in the bottom that water can drain out or if we're getting three-inch rains, make sure you dump the pot out in the morning so it's not sitting there soaking all day long.

Roch

1 We have a viewer that has a lot of curled cupped foliage on things like redbud, etc. They believe it is associated with something adjacent lawn company did. Any idea?
a It's possible. But we're not going to say yes or no until we see a sample.
2 How do you control brome under lead plant? This is a Stapleton viewer.
a Grass-B-Gone will work but you have to be persistent and willing to wait. It’s safe around lead plant and available at most stores.
3 How about controlling black medic in Iris beds?
a In iris bed, black medic is an annual. I'd control with a pre-emergent like preen in the spring of the year.
4 Does mowing when it's this hot produce more stress on the turf than mowing when it's too long?
a That's a great question. I don't think there's any data to say one is worse than the other, honestly.
5 How do you keep the ornamental fountain grasses from seeding into the lawn.
a You cut them off before they flower. This may seem contrary to what you want to do. They are extremely invasive and can be controlled relatively well with pre emergent.

Jim

1. Is it time for grub control?
a Yes. Now all the way up to mid-July would be a good time.
2. What is the best control for slugs that are continuing to attack the hostas?
a My guess is there's iron sulfate or iron phosphate that's used at the base of the plant on the soil. Trap them underneath and dispose of them in the morning.
3. We have a viewer with black flies. These are am 1/8 to a 1/4 inch long with scaly wings, coming out of the shower drain.
a Drain flies is the common name. Or moth flies because they're very scaly. That means that you need to have your drains cleaned.
4. Is mountain pine beetle an issue in Nebraska?
a Yes, it is. I believe it's up in the Wildcat Hills south of Scottsbluff. I'm not sure about Pine Ridge. It's being watched and there are remedies and things are being done to try to contain it.