SOLUTIONS. We re Ready For Spring!

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1 Inside This Issue: We re Ready For Spring! Calendar Updates Annual Flowers Are In The Air! Spring Into 4-H! More 4-H Fun! Household Hazardous Waste Disposal Day Are Your Pastures Ready For Spring? Are You Ready For Spring? -Farm Equipment Springing Up On the Roads! -Weeds Are Springing Up In the Ponds! Alamance County Center NC Cooperative Extension 209-C N Graham-Hopedale Rd Burlington, NC Phone: Fax: SOLUTIONS We re Ready For Spring! I don t know about you, but I have been getting ready for spring since December. Cold weather and short days make winter my least favorite season. Fortunately the weather wasn t that bad this winter. There were many warm days and not so many cold days. That may have not been a good thing however. Our January winter storm was preceded by a week of days in the 60 s. Then the temperature bottomed out at around 2 degrees. Many plants weren t hardened off and suffered some cold damage. The weather was mostly mild and dry until mid- March. Many of our peach trees had started to bloom then we had several nights in the mid to low 20 s. Many of the peach blossoms were killed so I expect a light peach crop this summer. There were some blueberries in flower at the same time and may also have been damaged. We ll have to wait until a little later this spring to know for sure. Strawberries got ready for spring real early at Jane Iseley s farm. I went out for a visit on February 28 th and found a few ripe strawberries that day. I decided for the sake of research that I should taste the berries to see if they were good at that time of year. I can report that February strawberries are excellent. All of the staff at Alamance County Cooperative Extension is getting ready for spring. If you have questions about gardening, field crops, livestock or 4-H youth programs we are ready to help. Calendar Updates Thurs., Apr. 6 10:00 THINK GREEN THURSDAY - Perennial Math Multiplying By Dividing Thurs., Apr. 6 Fri., Apr. 7 4-H Blueberry Plant Sale pick up days Sat., Apr :00-4:00 - Homegrown In the Park - Burlington City Park Tues., Apr :00-4:00 Small Flock Owners Conference, Harnett County Extension Thurs., Apr :00 THINK GREEN THURSDAY - Vegetable Gardening Sat., Apr. 22 8:00-1:00 Household Hazardous Waste Disposal Day (see page 4) Thurs., May 4 10:00 THINK GREEN THURSDAY -Summer Bulbs Thurs., May 4 4-H County Activity Day (see page 3) Mon., May 8 - Fri., May 12 4-H Family Summer Sizzle Registration Mon., May 15 - Fri., May 19 4-H Summer Sizzle Registration (Open to the Public) Thurs., May 18 10:00 THINK GREEN THURSDAY - Gardening with Native Plants Thurs., Jun. 1 10:00 THINK GREEN THURSDAY - Propagating Woody Plants Thurs., Jun :00 THINK GREEN THURSDAY - One Day Wonders Daylilies For more information and to register Call or visit

2 SOLUTIONS Page 2 Tomatoes Are Ready To Spring! by: Mark Danieley, Horticulture Agent Getting ready for spring means you should spend a little time planning your garden activities before doing the planting. Even though you might have already seen tomato plants in some stores, spring planting season is not quite here yet. I have spent some time this winter looking through the seed catalogs and pondering the difference between different types of vegetable seed. Hybrid, heirloom and open-pollinated are all different seed types. Then there are determinate and indeterminate tomato varieties. No wonder some folks get confused when reading the seed catalog. I ll try to shed some light on these terms. Hybrid seed is the result of a selected cross between two known, but different parent plants. These parent plants have specific characteristics that have been determined to be desirable. These traits may be for improved disease and insect resistance, higher yields, more uniform growth, earlier flowering and greater adaptability to environmental stress. The idea is to combine these superior traits from the two parents into a hybrid plant. The early efforts at hybridization resulted in good looking fruit that shipped and stored well, but lacked a little something in taste. There is a stronger emphasis now in producing hybrid vegetables that have good taste along with the other desirable characteristics. One problem with hybrid seed is that even if they are self-pollinated, the seeds will not retain the characteristics of the parent plant. That means you will need to buy new hybrid seed every year. Open-pollinated plants retain the characteristics of the parent plant generation after generation. They are mostly selfpollinating plants, but sometimes can be cross-pollinated by plants of the same variety. Seed from open-pollinated plants can be saved and will produce a similar crop next year, but there can sometimes be some genetic drift in open-pollinated plants. That means the German Johnson tomatoes grown in Alamance County for generations may not be exactly the same as German Johnson tomatoes grown in Wake County. Beans, peas, peppers, and tomatoes are some of the more common openpollinated crops, but they are also grown as hybrids. It is necessary to know if a plant is a hybrid before trying to save the seeds. Heirloom varieties are always open-pollinated, but not all open-pollinated varieties are heirlooms. Heirloom varieties have been passed down from generation to generation usually for at least fifty years. They have been selected for taste, color, shape and size and are the result of regional preferences. Heirlooms may not always have the best disease resistance, but have other qualities that make them worth saving. Tomato growth can be described as either determinate or indeterminate. Determinate tomato varieties will be more compact and will tend to have most of their crop at one time. Production is very limited after the main crop is harvested. Some of the more popular determinate varieties are Celebrity, Roma, and Rutgers. Indeterminate tomatoes will continue to grow and bear fruit until frost and will need to be staked. Many of the heirloom tomatoes are indeterminate. Popular indeterminate varieties are Big Boy, Better Boy, Park s Whopper, and Beefmaster. Determinate Indeterminate

3 SOLUTIONS Page 3 Spring into 4-H! Taylor Jones, 4-H Agent Springtime is here again, and it is time to get moving with Alamance County 4-H! We have many exciting events coming up this spring that you should definitely be a part of. Moving on into 2017, there are many activities and projects we are looking forward to in 4-H. From countywide community service, to citizenship opportunities and more, there will be something for everyone. We are gearing up for our County Activity Day in May, which will be your opportunity to practice those public speaking skills in order to prepare for District Activity Day and State Presentations! More information on that is below. We also are excited to start planning our 2017 Summer Sizzle Program. This year will be a little different because Alamance County 4-H will actually have our own 15- passenger van, hopefully coming just before summer! I am really excited to be able to offer more trips to educational places across our state. We are lucky in that we have access to so many museums and natural areas and I cannot wait to incorporate that into our summer activities! I am very excited to see what Spring and Summer have to offer us and cannot wait to share it with you! This year, our County Activity Day will be held on May 4th, starting at 6:00PM here at the 4-H Office. Registration for County Activity Day can be done online here: or at the 4-H office. Please note, this event is for you to practice your presentation and receive feedback for how to move forward for DAD. Also, we will be selecting the two talent acts for DAD at County Activity Day so if you are interested in representing Alamance County in talent, please register for that here as well. We will have some awesome judges that are really excited to hear your presentations! Please also be reminded that County Activity Day is not required to participate in DAD however you will have to let me know you want to participate. I am looking forward to seeing everyone on May 4th! Since the beginning of 2017, Alamance County has welcomed a few new 4-H clubs to our community. The 4-H Science Explorers is an exciting new club that meets at Smith Elementary School. We have grown to 20 members in 2 short months! Last month we made baking soda and vinegar volcanoes and we plan to continue talking about earth science this month as we experiment with tornadoes in a bottle. Another club that began this year is the Jr. Master Gardener club. This club will feature fun and educational activities all revolved around horticulture. We also have our new Environmental Science Club that will focus on Wildlife and Forestry. Finally, the latest club to start, which will begin in March, is the Handwork Gathering Club. This club will meet out at May Memorial Library and focus on all sorts of sewing, crocheting, knitting, and more handwork skills. Contact the 4-H office for more details on these exciting new clubs!

4 SOLUTIONS Page 3 More 4-H Fun! Taylor Jones, 4-H Agent We are gearing up for an awesome 4-H summer camp week this year. Our camp week will be July 16 th through the 21 st. We still have two open spots for girls as of today so if you are interested, contact the 4-H office as soon as possible. For those of you who are signed up and getting excited about camp like us, our annual camp night to discuss overnight residential 4-H camp at Betsy Jeff Penn 4-H Camp will be held on Thursday, June 1st, at 6:00PM here at the 4-H office. If you have signed up to attend overnight camp with Alamance County 4-H the week of July 16 th -21 st please make plans to attend this very important meeting. We will go over and discuss all the forms and things that need to be taken care of and signed in order for your child to attend camp at Betsy Jeff Penn. Please RSVP for this night by May 16th so we know who we can expect to attend. If you have any additional questions about camp, please call Taylor Jones at Summer is on the way and we are so excited to bring some wonderful day camp opportunities to your youth. It is now time to start planning for those of you who are interested in teaching or leading a Summer Sizzle workshop this summer. Here is a link to the form: Please read through it carefully before submitting the form. Also, please note that there may be time conflicts with other events and therefore not every workshop will be chosen this year. Please wait to hear confirmation from the 4-H office regarding your workshop before gathering supplies and resources. We want to accommodate everyone who is willing to teach our 4-Hers a life skill. Please put as much detail/information on the form as possible in order for us to better prepare for this summer. Those with more open schedules will be chosen first. We anticipate loads of awesome things, so be sure to get yours in by the deadline of April 21st. (Same as County Activity Day deadline). Can t wait until summer is here! Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day The next Collection Day will be Saturday, April 16, from 8 am until 1 pm at 100 Stone Quarry Road, Haw River. The types of hazardous waste that will be accepted are as follows: Household cleaners, drain openers, toilet bowl cleaners, oven cleaners, disinfectants Solvents, thinners, shellacs, varnishes, sealers, wood preservatives Automotive products including brake fluid, antifreeze, used motor oil up to 5 gal, filters, gasoline Pesticides Miscellaneous materials such as acids, bases, kerosene, batteries, photographic chemicals, pool chemicals, mercury, fluorescent tubes Latex and oil based paint and spray paint The following will NOT be accepted: Gas cylinders, radioactives/smoke detectors, medical waste, electronics/ TVs/computers, explosives/ammunition

5 SOLUTIONS Spring 2017 Page 4 Are Your Pastures Ready For Spring? By: Lauren Langley, Livestock Extension Agent Spring is an important time of year for pasture care. Here is a list of things you can do in the next couple months to get your pastures looking great. Plan Summer Pastures Now is the time to think about your warm-season perennials or annuals for summer grazing. Refer to the planting guide for the best dates for planting those summer pastures. Planting Guide for NC: wp-content/uploads/2014/03/a.-planting-guide-for -Forage-Crops-in-NC.pdf Take Soil Samples See if your pasture needs any nutrients and/or lime. Contact us for more information and to obtain soil sampling forms and boxes. *The service is free between April 1st and Thanksgiving. Fertilize As stated above, test your soils first, so you know how much you need. Don t guess, soil test! Spray Herbicides Spring is a good time to spray annual weeds as it prevents them from getting established. However, mowing is usually sufficient for annual weed control unless weed densities are high. *Always read the label before spraying for sensitive crops that may be nearby, and check withdrawal times. Check fences Snow/ice and deer can be hard on fences. Check them before you turn out any livestock for spring grazing. Plan your grazing system Think back to last year whether you had enough grass or if the pasture turned into a putting green or mud pit. You may need to supplement your livestock with hay during certain times of the grazing season and set aside a sacrifice area when the pasture needs a rest. Let the grass grow Start rotationally grazing once grass starts growing. For fescue pastures, this is around 6-8 inches. Don t let livestock chase green grass over the entire farm since that will delay significant growth and sustained grazing even longer. A great rule of thumb is take half, leave half when it comes to grazing. Try not to let livestock graze fescue pastures below 3-4 inches. Repair Equipment Start repairing hay equipment for spring harvest.

6 SOLUTIONS Page 5 Are You Ready For Spring? By: Dwayne Dabbs, Field Crops Agent. Farm Equipment Is Springing Up On the Roads! As we work our way into April and May more and more farming equipment will start being out on the road. This is a busy time of year for farmers, because they will be preparing land, planting corn and soybeans soon, as well as topdressing small grains. The issue is tractors that are hauling equipment can only go 25 to 30 miles an hour at top speed, (most of the time it s more around 15 miles an hour). Your vehicle on the other hand is usually traveling 55 to 60 miles an hour, so it is not hard to run up behind a tractor on the road before you realize it. I know that most are in a hurry when they get behind a slow-moving piece of equipment, and your first instinct is to pass it as soon as you see an opportunity. Well usually that is not the best solution, for example if a farmer is hauling a grain drill behind the tractor, the drill can easily span foot and unfortunately cannot wheel around on a dime. The farmer will get over on the side of the road, when it is safe for you to pass. Another thing that I hear on a regular basis when I talk to a farmer, is people passing a stopped tractor or piece of equipment on the highway. Usually when a tractor is stopped or slowing down, there is something or someone coming the other way, so please don t try to pull an evasive maneuver around the tractor. Farmers will usually give you a hand signal, or have a turn signal on the tractor going to let you know what they are going to try and do. So I ask that you drive carefully this spring season, because the farmer s safety is in your hands, just as your safety is in theirs. Pond Weeds Are Springing Up! As the weather warms up, and hopefully decides to stay that way, the weeds in your pond will start to show themselves again. Although I know with the warm January and February that we have had, some have come a lot earlier than they normally do. The weeds can be treated many different ways, but until you know exactly what you are dealing with, then it is hard to control it. The best way that I can help you figure out what type of weed you have growing in your pond, is for you to collect a sample of the weed and bring it here to the office. To collect a sample you can gather a mason jar or any container that you have; please make sure that it has a tight fitting lid. The size of the weed will determine how much you will have to collect. If you have a large weed such as coon s tail, then I ask that you get as much of the weed as you can. Since some of these weeds are almost identical, sometimes the stems or the leaves are the only way that I can tell them apart. With that being said if it is something small, like watermeal, then you can get a little bit in a jar, and I can tell you what it is. If you have any questions about collecting these weeds you can always give me a call here at the office, and I can help you out with it. Some weeds can be identified with a few pictures, so if you have access to do so, you can me a few pictures and we can identify it that way.