Show Questions - September 8, 2011

1. This viewer sent in a picture from along side their house. They thought these were ant lions. They wonder whether they're good guys or bad guys, what sort of a little trail they leave, and what to do about them if they are bad guys.
a. First off, they are good guys. You want to preserve them. They eat lots of insects, particularly ants. The adult looks sort of like a dragonfly and they are fairly-large winged. The nymphs have a long mandible and they dig into crumbling soil and excavate a cone-shaped pit, at the bottom of which they lie concealed awaiting their prey. The ant walks along and slides down the side. If the ants tries to crawl back up the sides it just slides back down. The ant lion seizes its prey between the jaws and sucks it dry. These insects are absolutely harmless and 100% beneficial.
If you see them, take a good look at them. If you are really brave, get an ant and drop it into one of these of the little pits and watch this ant lion perform. It is really, really cool.

2. Here is a fall cleanup question: The viewer wants to know whether it is harmful to till in the fall and then till again in the spring after the composted garden plot has overwintered.
a. It is never really harmful to till as long as the moisture or water conditions are optimal. If it is too wet, you will aggravate a compaction problem. If it is dry and friable, then you are good to go regardless of whether it's fall, spring, or even midsummer tillage. As long as it's not too wet, you are good to till pretty much any time.

3. Here is a sycamore anthracnose question from the Omaha area. The viewer has two very large 60-foot sycamores that have dropped hundreds and hundreds of twigs after a windy day or thunderstorm. There is noted anthracnose damage on the foliage, not on the twigs. The viewer is concerned about the twig drop and wonders if there is an injection to help with the dropping of those twigs.
a. Typically there isn't anything recommended for it. When the twigs fall off those sycamores, they’ll just have to keep raking up the branches.

4. This viewer asks how to incorporate lamb and laying hen manure and composting that into next year's garden. They ask, do we have any recommendations on how to apply that?
a. You would like to have an aged manure, because fresh manure can get hot and cause plant damage. With compost piles it should be about 50/50 green and brown. So, add green materials like grass clippings or other green material, layered with the compost.. The moisture content is key and you will know if it's not working properly because you will smell it. A properly aerated an dhydrated compost pile won't have a smell. After it's composted, go ahead and put it on the garden and incorporate it at that time. Start with 2 to 3 inches thick. Just be sure you're adding aged manure to the compost for your landscape.

5. This is a viewer with a question about fogging for mosquitoes and how that might affect the garden. They have peppers plants that have gone to flower but have developed no peppers, strawberry plants that are thin, and tomato plants that are long and stringy with very little fruit. They are wondering whether the mosquito fogging done in their community contributed to the lack of pollinators necessary for these plants.
a. We know from a lot of fogging done in many parts of the country, especially down south, that when done properly it will not have a serious impact on the pollinators. We have seen a decline in the pollinators for other reasons but not knowing all the facts, it is not likely that that fogging affected the pollinators to the point that you have such poor pollination in the garden.

6. A viewer says they need sequence help on seeding and applying fertilizer with pre emergent in it---mostly to control dandelions. They have already aerated. Should they reseed now and get the lawn established and then put down the "weed and feed" and then do they winterize?
a. Pre-emergent control of dandelions is marginally effective. You do better with a post-emergent. You've already aerated, ideally you did it in three directions perpendicular to each other. You want one plug every 2 to 3 inches and then you reseed over the top of that; you rake that in to knock it into the holes. If you have a real small grass seedling there that's starting to grow and you mow it, you will yank it out of the ground. If it is down into the aeration hole, that creates a perfect germination chamber and protects the seedling. Plug those holes first and get the seed down into the holes however you can. Go with a higher seeding rate. If you are reseeding with fescue, do it in the 6 to 8 pound per thousand square foot range--if you're using bluegrass, somewhere in the 2-3 pound per thousand.  So use plenty of seed, and even in the fall put down a starter fertilizer. Once that is up and you've mowed it a couple times, just go about your business with a spring application of pre emergent and you should be good to go.

7. This is an Omaha viewer with a tall fescue lawn that rarely survives beyond mid August. There is limited green grass and a lot of brown. They water regularly with no good effect. They are wondering whether the trees could be part of the issue.
a. It may be too shaded and then you don't have to water it as much. Once the fescue lawn is established, watering two or three times maximum over the summer is sufficient. They could be over watering. If the lawn is watered too often, it tends to shorten the roots and make it more susceptible when a droughty time occurs.

8. We have questions about sweet potatoes. They are showing up in the farmers markets and two different viewers are wondering when you dig them up and if there are any tips or tricks.
a. You can leave sweet potatoes in the ground until we get a frost and then start to dig them up. Use that lovely potato fork you can get at different garden stores. Be careful not to skewer the potato with th efork when you lift them. So you want to get far enough out that you're not causing any harm to the potato and go ahead and put the fork in and tilt it back and lift up the potatoes  out.
A good thing for viewers thinking about next year's gardening is to take a look when purchasing sweet potatoes at the "days to harvest." There are some shorter season cultivars.

9. This viewer had a question about how to differentiate between Japanese beetles, green June bugs, and the emerald ash borer. They have apparently been in an area where people are saying they are treating for emerald ash borer and we have talked about Japanese beetles, all of which are green. Are there green June bugs coming out in September in Nebraska?
a. To the best of our knowledge, we still do not have emerald ash borer in Nebraska. When and if it arrives, everyone will know and we'll talk about it on this show and have lots of press releases, but right now there are no emerald ash borers. An emerald ash borer is about 1/2 inch long and a very narrow slender beetle. It is a beautiful metalic blue-green and, it's very short and pretty slender.
Japanese beetles are very abundant especially in eastern Nebraska. They jumped the Missouri about 10 years ago and are moving west across  Nebraska. They are a squarish insect about 1/4 inch long and have white dots around the base of the abdomen. They are sort of a brick color and you can see some sort of greenish color on them as well.
The green June beetles are very, very large beetles, about 3/4 of an inch in length. They are metallic green or metalic bronze in color. When you hold them up they almost have a rainbow effect. They actually moved into Nebraska over the last 10 to 20 years. In 1984 when we first moved here, we never saw green June beetles in Nebraska. Now they are abundant throughout southeast and perhaps even eastern Nebraska. The adults feed on decaying or fermenting food. You will often find them around fruit trees. If there's fruit drop, you'll often see them feeding around that in a big swarm. The immature June bugs are white grubs like the ones we find in the lawn now, only much larger and so far we have not seen them causing any injury to turf to the best of my knowledge, but that may be coming in the future.

10. Last week we had a sample that was Spanish needles. This viewer who lives on a lake in the Columbus area has a question for us. They trim and mow all around the lake property. Their dogs were playing and came in with lots and lots of black seeds stuck to their fur and they had to trim everything out of the fur. If it's not Spanish needles, what are the little black seed things do we have going on right now that stick to dog fur?
a. Sounds like beggar's tick but they are not that far along yet; they’re still green. and it is surprising unless it was in an area with an exposure issue or something where they have matured to that point, but beggar's tick can get on and has those little capsule-like things that stick to pretty much anything. But I question whether that would be what they would be getting right now. Later, into the cooler part of the fall, we will be seeing them, but right now they are pretty green. We could see burdock, stick tights and sandburs, those types of weeds are pretty good at getting stuck in dogs’ fur.

11. Amy, we have had a lot of questions about ash. And some people actually know the cultivar – this is a Lincoln viewer who has the old Patmore Ash, about 15 years old. They have been seeing brown spots in early August on the foliage, and they are slowly spreading through the tree. In mid-August the leaves dry and fall. They had been using one of the Bayer tree and shrub products to help prevent that in the spring, but nothing is really helping.
a. One thing we are seeing a lot of with ash this year is a little bit of scorch, especially in the branches that are hanging over sidewalks, over the street, or over driveways, where they are getting a lot of the extra heat. The sun is beating down on it, and that heat has been going up to the leaves. We have seen a lot of scorch occurring on those branches right now. And scorch will always start at the outside edge of the leaf and work its way in. So we've seen scorch develop in mid-July this year. It progressed during the summer especially when we got into a dry spell with those really hot days.
We do see a little bit of anthracnose on ash. That usually starts with brown spots along the mid vein in ash, and usually starts in midsummer. It needs water to allow the spores to germinate, but it likes the warmer temperature.
It’s possible you’re dealing with a combination of both. If you are trying to spray for anthracnos, you need to be doing a foliar application with a full coverage of the tree. If you are doing a 15-foot tree, you might need to hire a commercial applicator to come out and do it, due to the fact that you need full coverage of the tree and a private homeowner might not get the coverage you need. And a lot of times I don't recommend treating at that point in time. But for the scorch issue, you can add a little bit more water to the tree during the hot, dry periods so you don't see it appearing in those upper leaves, especially the ones hanging over asphalt driveways and sidewalks.
I will tell this viewer that we have Patmore ash on campus, and it is one of the cultivars that seem to consistently have this problem, unfortunately.

12.  This is a North Platte viewer with what was, and still is, it sounds like, a beautiful big maple with a terrible long crack in the trunk and a couple of serious stem-girdling roots. The question from the viewer is what to do. Will it help to cut the stem-girdling roots to preserve the health of the tree?
a. Amy and I looked at the pictures before we went on air and that tree has a quite significant scar or wound in it. You can try to remove the stem-girdling roots, but you will just remove the ones on the surface and there are potentially more down below. And they are not the problem or the cause of the big wound. It looks kind of like it could have potentially been hit by lightning. The tree can repair itself, but it will always have that damage there. The real question is, how long do you want to leave the tree? You can keep it as healthy as possible, and cut the roots, but potentially you are probably going to lose that tree.

13. Fred, this is an American Cranberry Bush Viburnum question from Fort Calhoun, with a number of seedlings about 8 years old. They began to reach full size, with big canes the stems in the center began to collapse, and the base at the bottom is pretty rotten and full of holes. You know where we're going with this, right?
a. I know where you're going. Those are viburnmum borers. It's a clear-winged moth much like the lilac ash borer. They are very closely related, and this one focuses in on viburnum. We deal with it the way we treat lilac ash borer. They are laying eggs in mid-May and overwintering in those old canes. Any canes that have died or look weakened or damaged, take those out. They probably aren't going to survive. Treat starting the middle of May and maybe another application or two. Treat the base and maybe up a foot to 18 inches with bifenthrin or Bayer Advance. So, take out the dead canes, treat in mid-May, and maybe do another application or two, three weeks or a month apart. It may take several years if the entire stand is heavily infested. We don’t see that a lot. I like viburnum because they don't have a lot of problems, but this is one in that can be a serious issue. The American Cranberry bush is probably the one where we see the most borer damage in the Lincoln area.

14. Roch, we have a good question from a viewer watching the weather. We have had cool night temperatures and the seeding window is beginning to close. The question is, if they have new fescue turf that’s up, what will this 41 degree evening temperature do to this?
a. It’s amazing how tolerant fescue seedlings are to the cold, and even in the low 40's and high 30's. When we get to the 27-28 degree range for the seedling stage, that will be a problem, but if they got on their hands and knees with a thermometer near the surface, the soil is retaining a fair amount of heat. It may be 41 at the weather station, but on the soil surface probably 47 to 56 – at least that is what the numbers are showing us – so we are not too worried about it. Seedlings are fairly cold tolerant. They are not going to take a real hard frost later in the season, but right now the soil temperatures are buffering the cold night temperatures – so, not to worry.

15. This is for Amy and Elizabeth – A viewer from Norfolk has a 15-year-old Norway Maple that has succumbed to verticillium wilt. The question for you is: A replacement plant has to be how far away from the original location of that maple? And the question for you, Elizabeth, is what kind of tree?
a. You can actually go in the exact same spot with a replacement plant. The verticillium fungus is prevalent in the soil. Go with a plant that's resistant or not susceptible to verticillium wilt, and maples are definitely very susceptible to it. And there is a great variety of other plant species that you can go with that can handle verticillium and will never become infected.
I think Linden is another one that is susceptible. And so steer clear of it, and it also depends on the size yard that you have. If you have a smaller yard, you will want to go with one of the smaller, mid-size trees that will do well. If you want to try a flowering crabapple, try one where the fruit stays on, so you don't have to be picking up fruit. If you have a larger space, you can go with Kentucky Coffeetree or one of the newer elm varieties. So, it depends on size. It is a good idea to work with the local nursery provider or Extension office.

17. Fred, and I'm laughing because we had a tomato horn worm last week. This is a viewer who has been watching and watching, and then went to the garden and found significant defoliation on three tomato plants and found the tomato horn worm and wants the know what to do so that next year they don't have horn worms in the tomatoes in the garden.
a. There’s absolutely nothing one can do. Well, actually, that's not true. You can cover your tomatoes with a cover of some kind, but you have to let the honeybees in to pollinate it. Th egood news is that there generally aren't very many of them, maybe one per plant. At this time of year the tomatoes are still growing well and that amount of defoliation really doesn't hurt the tomato. They can take a lot of defoliation right now. But look at the defoliated branches and where they are feeding, and once you see that, just track it down, see if you can find the horn worm, and dispose of it.

18. Roch, we have talked about doing the fall control of the winter annual weeds. Are we getting closer to that window? Or are we beyond it?
a. Well, we're probably a little bit late, meaning we should have probably put it on a week before Labor Day, roughly, to make sure it is in place. The way soil temperatures go in the spring, it is far more buffered than in the fall. Once we get the low nighttime temperatures, soil temperature tends to drop, not real significantly but more abruptly than in the spring. So you want to get that down right now for henbit and some of the other winter annuals which can be a problem. There are a number of pre-emergents out there, but most of the stores have pulled them off the shelves to make room for seasonal products, so unless you bought something last spring and carried it over or have Preen laying around for the landscape beds, then you are going to be out of luck. But some of the garden stores and the better suppliers will have some, and some of the commercial suppliers for the nonregulated or the nonrestricted use have some probably in larger quantities that you can buy from them as well. So, use Preen now this if you have a problem spot in the landscape bed or  in the lawn; get that down. And just like in the spring, you have to water it in to activate it, and anything will have trouble emerging later on in the season.

19. And we do have a follow up on the Japanese Beetle question, Fred. For somebody who is looking to get the NebGuide to come up, do we have advice on words to type in for a website or for the Backyard Farmer website?
a. Go to the Backyard Farmer website, under Extension publications, and it will be under insects and other pests, and kind of work your way down to the bottom. I was there within the last week or two and it was still up. Usually they let me know if they're going to take them down.
Somebody asked for a copy, and I printed it out yesterday afternoon doing exactly what Fred described. Go to ianrpubs.unl.edu. It will be under insects and pests, and near the bottom.

20. We have a lot of interesting weed ID questions. This is a cornflower blue flower about that high in the roadside ditches.
a. Probably chicory. And that's cowboy coffee the roots were made into coffee or used to augment coffee down in the southeast to this day. It’s planted in roadside mixes, and the flower color is from deep blues to almost whitish. I have heard rumor there's some pink ones. People like the plant and dig out the tubers and plant them in the yard, and then it spreads everywhere. If you want to plant it, plant it in a five-gallon bucket, because it is really aggressive.

21. Amy, this is a viewer in the Dundee area of Omaha, with Romano beans with galls or lesions and turning a rusty red. Have you seen a specific rust on beans that would look more like a funky lesion?
a. There is bean rust that we will see every year. It will be a brick red pustule that forms on the lower side of the leaf that will erupt and you should be able to wipe it off with your finger and it will leave your finger discolored. That will be the only thing with gall formation on a bean in this area. They are totally edible – they look funny, but they are fine.

22. Elizabeth, this is a lightning-striking-a-tree question. A viewer has a 25-year-old walnut, and they saw damage that was a lightning strike after an electrical storm. Their question is, how do they assess the damage or how do they know whether the tree should come down? What would we recommend on that?
a. Right off the bat, I’d say contact a certified arborist. That would be the first step. If you want to wait until next spring and see how it leafs out, and if it leafs out kind of halfway or the leaves are really small, that tree got some damage internally anyway, but the best bet is to contact a certified arborist.
We have had trees on campus with lightning strikes for years and years, and they are fine, but the arborist can say for sure.

23. Fred, we have a Newport Plum with nice purple foliage that but mostly it has sap everywhere – a lovely dark amber-colored sap – and ants.
a. These plums are very, very susceptible to borers---greater and lesser peach tree borers, and the sap and resin is the plant’s response to the boring activity. And so if you look around the base and the bottom 12 inches of the trunk and if you see a lot of debris associated with that sap, it is likely borers. But there are diseases that could be causing that.
Plums are also susceptible to the fungal and bacterial chankers that can cause sap to be oozing out. What you are looking for are any sunken areas in branches that could be girdling them. You said there were gall-like formations. These could be perennial chanker, these are fungal canker and what we get it callus growth around that infection point every single year and it builds up over time. If it isn't on the main trunk, just prune it out. If it is on the main trunk of the tree, there is nothing you can do at that point in time. It’s a great opportunity to put a new plant in the landscape. And plums have a limited life expectancy in Nebraska. So look for some new plant material.

24. And speaking of new plant material, a viewer did some seeding with a blend from a reputable nursery, and what they found was perennial rye grass was 3 to 3.5% of the mix. Can we talk about perennial rye grass and what is the deal with that?
a. It is not perennial in the state of Nebraska. It tends to last at best two to three years and is so susceptible to diseases and other bad things. It's got all kinds of problems. It really doesn't persist here. They generally put in it a mix for several reasons, but at about 3.5% you're fine. They put it in because it germinates quickly and does provide cover as the grass is trying to grow, and the bluegrass or fescue comes on later. The seed is really inexpensive and it can reduce the price it costs to produce and they can still sell it as a premium blend. We do not recommend mixing rye grass with any of the bluegrasses or fescues. Fescue germinates two to three days later, so you don't really get that jump start advantage. And the other thing is, the rye grows up and outcompetes the Kentucky bluegrass, and pretty soon you have a dead spot in what you thought was a lawn. I have pretty good experience with perennial rye. It provides another seeding opportunity.