Show Questions: March 31, 2011

1. Are magnolias hearty and a good plant choice? This is from Norfolk, where they are in zone 4 or zone 5.
a. Magnolias, even the heartiest of the magnolias, the Star magnolia or the Saucer magnolia, are really on the northern edge of their range here in Nebraska. In the Norfolk area, you need to have the right microclimate, an area where it's protected from the wind and where it stays a little bit warmer; maybe you get some reflected heat from the house or other hard surfaces. It won't do well in a windy, exposed area; it probably would not survive.

2. A viewer purchased some firewood harvested from a shelterbelt that was ash, and it shows some evidence of trails from borers. Would the January temperatures kill these borers? The real concern here is the possibility of ash borer in Nebraska.
a. Let's talk about the beetles that come out of firewood when we bring it in. When we harvest a tree and cut it into firewood, the borers inside of the tree, mostly round-headed borers are not killed. They're happy and they continue to develop. Some time during the winter you get these very brightly colored beetles, sometimes yellow and black, sometimes red and black, that come out into the basement. These round-headed borers will not hurt anything. They won't affect the timbers in the house. They're not an issue. They can survive very well, and certainly survive the cold temperatures. The question is the emerald ash borer. There have been some in Wisconsin and Minnesota and to the east of us, but none so far in Iowa. We have no confirmed emerald ash borer infestations in Nebraska to date. They may be here, but not that we know of. If that ever does happen, this Backyard Farmer viewing audience will be the very first to know.

3. From Omaha: when can we plant grass seed and put on crabgrass control (at the same time)?
a. If they have a cool season turf, Kentucky bluegrass, turf -type tall fescue, they can seed any time now. Roch and Zack have been talking about even frost seeding as a good way to go. I actually would put seed out in the next week to ten days. Putting out a pre-emergence for crabgrass: crabgrass tends to germinate a little later into the spring, and the thing that I get a little concerned about putting crabgrass treatment out right away is when the crabgrass starts germinating. If they have it out there too early, the effectiveness of the herbicide will tail off a little bit. So, in terms of crabgrass control, I'd probably wait another week to two weeks before putting that out.

4. How does this viewer get rid of fungus that affects tomatoes? The problems have increased over the past five years to where even the fungi resistant tomatoes are barely producing. They've tried sprays, they've cleaned up completely in the fall, they've tilled them up, newspaper and mulch under them. They're wondering if they should solarize.
a. It sounds like they're doing a lot of things right. Tthe big thing is they're cleaning up to remove any residue that they can, the mulching, trying to avoid any kind of overhead irrigation. If you're continually growing a plant in the same spot, though, there's a real good chance you're always going to have that disease problem. If they have to continue to use the same spot, the next step would be looking at some protective fungicides they could use. There are some at the garden center they can select if they're consistently having a problem. The best approach is to rotate your plants. Grow your tomatoes in a different area and grow plants not related to tomatoes in this area for a year. Or, if that is not possible, simply do not grow tomatoes and related plants at all for a year. Tomatoes can be integrated into flower beds. Try to move them, and if they're just moving them within a block of a garden area, they're probably going to still have the problem, but if they can move them some distance or rotate out, that's going to help.

5. Canadian hemlock as a windbreak for house on an acreage? Current evergreens are dying and need to be replaced. Any recommendations?
a. We would not recommend Canadian hemlock for a windbreak in Nebraska. They will grow here, but they're not really very tolerant of high wind situations and they'll tend to burn. They like to have more consistent moisture in the summertime than we have as well. So I think better choices for your windbreak would be some of the Pines that are resistant to pine wilt (Ponderosa Pines, although Ponderosa has some disease issues, or Jack Pine or White Pine), or you could do any of the Spruces (Colorado Spruce, Colorado Blue Spruce, Norway Spruce). If the area is close to your house, you could also think about some of the Firs (Concolor Fir or Douglas Fir). The reason I'm thinking those need to be close to the house is they're less drought resistant than the Pines. If we have several years of extended dry conditions, they can become susceptible to a canker disease. They need to be watered if we have long periods of dry conditions. They're beautiful trees. They would do very, very well near the home. Another option would be Eastern Red Cedar or Juniper, which is still a great tough tree, very hearty. I think any of those evergreens could do well to help revive that windbreak.

6. It's an Elm. Leaves were covered in small white bumps, and holes chewed in the leaves, and obviously they don't want that to happen again.
a. Those are called pocket galls, and they are unrelated to the holes in the leaf. Pocket galls are caused by a tiny plant-feeding mite, called an Eriophyid mite. It's very similar to what you see on the top of silver maple leaves. The good news is unless they are extremely abundant, they simply won't harm the tree. The leaf may ultimately drop off, but it doesn't harm the tree. The bad news is if you've had them one year, you're likely to have them again. Aesthetically, they aren’t very attractive, and if it's a small, specimen tree, you could treat for it. You want to do that with insecticide just as the leaf is beginning to expand. It's that expanding tissue that the mites exploit to produce those galls. They're not going to harm the elm, but aesthetically it can be an issue as the leaves expand.

7. How do you get rid of Trumpet Vine?
a. It can't be done. You have to live with it. It's a woody species. If they really want to get rid of it, if they're going to get rid of it with herbicides, there's a couple of different ways they can do that. They can make a foliar application with a growth regulator type of herbicide (2,4-D). If it's not too large of a problem, they can also do a cut stump treatment on that as well; cut the plant off and then you apply the herbicide mixture immediately to that cut stump. Even if you wait a few minutes, the stump starts to heal over a little bit, so have the herbicide ready right when you cut it. And unfortunately, if you try to dig it, it will regenerate from the roots. I found a trumpet vine about ten years ago. I'm still getting little trumpet vines coming up.

8. Will blackberries and heritage raspberries that are planted together in the same patch actually transmit diseases back and forth?
a. A couple things there: Blackberries will fruit on second year. So if they're on second year and the heritage raspberries are fruiting on the first year, you would have a bridge for things like anthracnose. The further apart these two berry types are, the better. They would all be susceptible to some of those diseases, so if you do put those together, that would be the risk. You would really want to manage that and make sure you're pruning out those canes as they die after fruiting. Your first few years you wouldn't see a lot of disease, but over time you would see things build up. The further away from each other these could be, the better. From a cultural standpoint, it would be easier to harvest them if they were separate.

9. A Lincoln viewer wants to know when to prune Redbuds and Lilacs. They're both around 6 years old and they're both budding.
a. Those would be plants where it would be better for you to wait until after they have bloomed. Redbud will be blooming probably within the next three to four weeks and Lilacs usually a little bit more into May. Wait until they're done blooming and then prune them right after they're done. That would be the optimum time.

10. How do you get rid of the little, white worms that get in the broccoli? And what is the timing of the application? What kind of coverage?
a. Little white worms--I assume that they're thinking of the imported cabbage worm. You first see them when they're small. One of the best choices for that is to use one of the microbial insecticides, BT, which would be a very good choice. The timing is you'll see the cabbage butterflies (the white butterflies) laying their eggs. You see the white eggs on the leaves, and as soon as those eggs hatch would be when you want to apply the insecticide. As soon as you see the little worm, that's the time to treat, and I really like the BT formulation. You can purchase it at any of your local nurseries and most of the box stores. That's what I use on mine. You need to get good coverage of the leaves; mostly they aren't feeding in the broccoli head itself. Of course, if a few worms come to the surface when you're boiling it, you know it's good protein. The nice thing about using BT is there's no one-day waiting period, unlike most of the hard chemicals where you have to wait until well after that broccoli head is over mature.

11. An acreage in Buffalo County, between Kearney and Gibbon. Burr oaks, six years old, five feet tall, eighty of them. Every year they've been seeing little galls on the branches. Wants to know how to control.
a. Most of these trees will outgrow this when they get to be 10 to 15 years. Some are so susceptible, they'll probably lose the trees. That's the bad news. Again, we can treat them just as they're starting to leaf out. The insect produces a gall by exploiting that developing tissue on the new twigs. Picking them off in the fall won't help because it's already gone. There will be a little hole in it where it's exited. During the growing season, if you have a specimen tree, you can pick them off and that will help reduce the damage that they cause. With a row like that, I guess I would be tempted to go out in early April just as they're beginning to leaf out and make an application with Bifenthrin or Permethrin and try to reduce those numbers for a few years. These trees typically outgrow them after 10 or 15 years. That's a long time. In Scottsbluff last week, some of the parking lot trees, which are highly stressed anyway, were covered with these galls. It seems like we're getting more and more each year. I wonder if that has to do with it being warmer in recent years.

12. First, last fall, this particular viewer had a Buffalograss lawn that was starting to look poorly and it still looks poorly. So the question is on management. The second is Lancaster County. Their question is what to spray for ryegrass that's coming into the Buffalograss.
a. Sounds like maybe some management issues with the first and then a weed issue with the second. Let's start off with the weed issue. Obviously, Buffalograss is dormant right now. If the invading weed is green and growing right now, you can use glyphosate as a spot treatment on it. It's an avoidance thing where you're making an application when the Buffalograss is dormant. And then on the other turf, I would just look at it as it starts to green up. As the temperatures get warmer, I would look at your cultural practices and evaluate how the turf is doing, see if it has come back a little bit. Look at your fertility--your nitrogen fertility. Possibly aeration. I would evaluate it as the season progresses, and perhaps as the season begins to get warmer. It's hard to tell right now with everything dormant as it is.

13. This viewer, who last had apples, had a rot or a spot. Their question is when do they begin doing what? And it's kind of a two-pronged question. Is there a possible method of control without sprays, and if so, what, and if not, what?
a. The best way to control apple scab is to cut that tree down and start over and pick a resistant tree. Realistically, that's the only way you're going to do it without having some damage. You need to use a fungicide if you really want to control the disease. Apple scab is something we see every year. If you have a tree that's susceptible, you really need to look at a fruit tree spray. You need to start spraying now with dormant sprays and go through the year. Many of those are going to have insecticide combinations, because there's going to be several pests that would be a problem that could be controlled. You can still have fruit production without any of this. You can have apple scab and still have apples, but you're just not going to have as many. So it really depends on your level of tolerance for those types of problems. If you want to control it, start a fruit tree spray combination product and do it through the season. And using that combination product, the insecticide/fungicide, makes a lot of sense. We have lots of things that if you don't control them, you will have worms or maggots in the apples. If you're going to do the fungicide treatment, use the combination spray and take care of the insects at the same time.

14. We've had a couple of questions about asparagus—actually, from a couple of locations--northwest corner of Iowa and south central Kansas. One of them is how to control nettles and dandelions in the asparagus and the other is cultural practices for spring so they don't end up with a lot of spindly spears.
a. If you've had the planting for a long time (it's been in place for 10 or 15 years) and you're getting a lot of the small spindly spears, the planting may need to be divided. It's kind of crowding itself out. You might need to dig it up and divide the plants and reestablish the planting. Once the plants are reestablished and they become more vigorous, then you should get those nice size spears that you're expecting. As far as the weed issues go, one technique that we recommend with the perennial grasses actually comes into the play at the end of the harvest season. After you make your last harvest of the year, go in and snap down all the spears. Snap them down about half inch below the soil line and then rake the soil over all of the cut stumps that are left behind. You can overspray the whole planting area with Roundup and kill any perennial weeds that might be in the bed at that time. This time of year you might want to put down a preemergent that would help prevent crabgrass and foxtail and all the annual weeds that might come in. Of course, think about using mulch. Not a thick layer, but a bit to help prevent some of those weeds from germinating. That can be helpful, too. Beds tend to get weedy after they've been in place for a few years.

15. We have two viewers (Lincoln and Ralston) that are desperate for information about iris. How do you manage them?
a. The best thing we can do right now is remove last year's leaves. The problem is a moth and a caterpillar and they leave eggs on last year's leaves. Remove those. It certainly helps reduce the infestation this year. That's the first thing I'd have them do. Then again, when they get up to be about 6 inches, you may see little watery lines in them and those are the young borers. Then I would use a product and apply it around the base of of the plant and that will kill them. Good maintenance. You let your iris bed get too thick; it's going to need to be thinned periodically. You need to break those off and spread them out, and that will help as well.

16. This is a viewer who wants to know how and when to seed white clover, Dutch clover, for habitat, soil improvement, and they want to attract the bees.
a. It's a great insect--great hunting. It’s a plant they can go ahead and seed now. Actually the earlier you get it in, the better for it to establish and start growing. If you think about future years, you could seed this in the fall or even do a dormant seeding. They'll have good luck.

17. This is a South Dakota viewer. They noticed last summer their cottonwood beginning to drop leaves late in the summer. They saw some damage in the bark. They thought it was ants and then they kind of rejected that one. But the bark continued to erode. They're wondering if this is a canker disease. Any idea on this, and what can be done about it?
a. A lot of the cottonwoods we see with disease would result in defoliation late in the summer, so I doubt that the bark disruption, or damage to the bark that they're seeing, is related to the leaf drop. Most likely, and you never know without seeing it, but I would guess a foliar disease common in cottonwood that's doing the leaf drop, and most likely not something they really need to worry about--especially if this is a larger, older cottonwood. I wouldn't worry too much about it. They'll have some premature leaf drop. It should be fine. I wouldn't worry about trying to manage it.

18. This is a viewer who wants to start a vegetable garden. They're concerned about the fact that they have dogs, and where they actually do their dog business, and wonder if there are issues with dog business and gardening in the same spot.
a. The thing you would need to be concerned about would be bacteria that could be on the feces from the dog and there is potential for human pathogens that could cause illness. What you might want to think about would be to create a raised bed. Even if you did a fairly short raised bed, you would have a better chance of keeping the dogs out of that, even if you had to put a little fence around it. You could bring in your top soil, your good top soil, create your bed, and let the dogs use the rest of the yard.

19. This is a Scottsbluff question. We may need more information on it, but the question is suggestions for controlling cheat grass in newly seeded brome. Do we have any recommendations for that?
a. Cheat grass is a winter annual grass, so I need to look at some of the labels on that. It may be possible to put down a product like we do for crabgrass. But preemergents on the cheat grass to selectively control that once your grass is established and going. I'd have to do a little looking on that, as well. Maybe that's something we can do a little research on and come back and visit again.

20. In Octavia there's a question about a specific tree--for NBA.
a. Only if you need a tree for fast growth. It's very temporary or if you grow trees for a bio fuel system, that's the only reason for the trees.

LIGHTING ROUND

SARAH
1. A viewer had cushion mums they bought last fall and kept them in the pots all winter long. Can they be planted and expected to survive?
a. They're probably not alive. You can plant them, but I don't think they're going to come up. They're dead.
2. Are soil temperatures alright for planting spinach and lettuce right now?
a. Yes, they're good for spinach and lettuce
3. Is it too late to start tomato and pepper seedlings in a greenhouse and get plants for planting at the right time?
a. Typically, you need about six weeks to grow a good tomato transplant. There would still be time to get a transplant if you put it in toward the middle or end of May.
4. Can the spirea that is the pink flowering summer one be pruned now?
a. Yes. They do very well if you prune them to the ground and let them grow back up
5. How about pruning off those dead tips of juniper, cedar, and other evergreens?
a. You bet. Another good thing to do this time of year.
6. What about transplanting daylilies and hostas?
a. Daylilies--you should wait until they have a one-season of bloom. On a hosta, wait until the shoots are an inch, inch and a half, wait until they're up and divide them.

LAUREN
1. Is snow mold showing up anywhere in the state; yes or no?
a. I haven't seen a lot. There's some out there, but it's not as much as we've had in the past. We haven't had the snow cover, so it's not as severe this year.
2. Viewer really didn't like the slime mold in their mulch last year. Are they going to expect to see the same thing this year?
a. Most likely. It tends to reoccur in the same area. Take the hose and wash it off.
3. There was a viewer that had a red oak that had huge rust spots on the leaves in the fall. Is that something you've seen before?
a. On a red oak, huge rust spots? I'm going to pass.
4. If there are mushrooms in the trunk of a tree in the spring, does that mean the tree is rotten and needs to be removed?
a. It's an indicator that the tree is potentially damaged on the inside and it's on its way out, probably.
5. Can peony disease be prevented with spray?
a. I would recommend removing all the dead material to eliminate or reduce the amount.

LOWELL
1. There's a fine green weed along all the sidewalks already. It looks a little bit like turf, but it's not. What is that?
a. Right now along sidewalks we have knot weed, it's germinating like crazy.
2. How does the viewer take care of that?
a. Obviously it's a little too late for preemergents right now. Post emergents with a growth regulator type of herbicide should -- when the plants are young -- should be good.
3. Will a single application of a preemergent put down now work all season?
a. No. Like we talked about earlier, we're awfully early for a lot of weeds we're targeting with the preemergent herbicide. If they were to put it down early, they would definitely want to think about a second application six to eight weeks later.
4. Will they have it again?
a. Yes. If they had it last year, it's a winter annual, so it's growing well right now. So it's there now.
5. Is there a shade tolerant Buffalograss yet?
a. No

Fred
1. This viewer wants to know if they buy a Mason bee nest will they get Mason bees?
a. Maybe. Sometimes. But not necessarily.
2. There were early insects when it was in the 70’s and 80’s in the last couple of weeks. Are they all dead or hibernating? What happened to them?
a. Some of them died. Some of them have extended their life expectancy. A lot of them just go dormant. They wait until it warms up. They're still there.
3. Will the soil temperature affect earthworm activity?
a. Sure. Absolutely. The soil needs to reach 50 degrees or so before the earthworms become active.
4. This viewer found spider egg masses when cleaning around the outside of their house. Will they hatch? What should they do?
a. The best thing to do is either vacuum them or take a garden hose and hose them off to get rid of them.
5. Is this the time to control scale with oil or something like that?
a. We're really pushing the envelope for dormant oil. It can damage the plant if there's any green material. The middle of May is the time to go ahead and treat.