Garden Plugs. A newsletter for Henderson County. Henderson County Center July / August 2010 NOW IS THE TIME UPCOMING EVENTS

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1 Garden Plugs A newsletter for Henderson County Henderson County Center July / August 2010 NOW IS THE TIME Contact Us Henderson County 740 Glover St. Hendersonville, NC (828) Phone (828) Fax henderson.ces.ncsu.edu Editor: Diane Turner diane_turner@ncsu.edu masteryourgrden.blogspot.com Distributed in furtherance of the acts of Congress of May 8 and June 30, North Carolina State University and North Carolina A&T State University commit themselves to positive action to secure equal opportunity regardless of race, color, creed, national origin, religion, sex, age, veteran status or disability. In addition, the two Universities welcome all persons without regard to sexual orientation. North Carolina State University, North Carolina A&T State University, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and local governments cooperating. Lawns Weather conditions have been favorable for the development of Brown Patch disease on home lawns. Irrigating during morning hours, promoting air circulation, and do not add excess nitrogen during these warm months will reduce incidence. Treat lawns with grub control in August to reduce populations of overwintering insects. DO NOT use lawn herbicides at this time. An established lawn will go dormant during hot dry periods if we do not receive adequate rainfall. If it does not rain in a 3 week period, consider watering. Ornamentals Check trees for fall webworms and remove the nest by hand or with a long pole. Fertilize your roses by early August to promote the final fall bloom. Plant fall blooming bulbs in September. Do not plant spring blooming bulbs until November. Vegetables Continue to spray tomatoes for late blight control. Keep garden vegetables watered with at least 1 inch of water per week, especially tomatoes. Promptly remove diseased plants from the garden and dispose of in trash. Do not add to your compost pile. 07/08/ /20/ /10/ /18/2010 UPCOMING EVENTS 3:00-4:30pm Culinary Herbs 10:00-2:00pm Pesticide Pick-up Day 8:30am-3:00pm Urban Landscapes Update 10:00am-Noon Garden Silk to Dye For Bullington Ctr ** Jackson Park Hendersonville NC Arboretum Call ** Bullington Ctr ** ** fee required Person with disabilities and persons with limited English proficiency may request accommodations to participate in activities mentioned in this newsletter, please contact Diane Turner at during business hours at least 5 days prior to the event to discuss accommodations. 1

2 PESTICIDE PICK-UP DAY The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, in cooperation with the North Carolina Cooperative Extension, Henderson County center will be offering a Pesticide Collection Day for residents in Henderson, Buncombe, Haywood, Polk, Transylvania and surrounding counties. The local site manager will be Mr. Marvin A. Owings, Jr. Agricultural Extension Agent for Henderson County. Collection will be Tuesday, July 20th from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Jackson Park. Nearly all pesticide products will be accepted. For liquid pesticide containers larger than 5 gal or for unlabeled pesticides, please contact the Cooperative Extension Office for information before bringing to the collection event. No gas cylinders are accepted at the event; however, assistance information can be provided. Contact the Cooperative Extension Office for more information. Don't miss this opportunity in Henderson County. For more information contact the Henderson County Extension Center at (828) BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR LATE BLIGHT This season, late blight on tomatoes already been identified on tomato transplants produced in greenhouses and many public box stores in Kentucky, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Although it has yet to be found in North Carolina (as of June 21st), homeowners should be aware of this threat and scout their home gardens. Without proper preventative measures, some diseases like late blight can completely defoliate and destroy a crop within two to three weeks. Due to moderate temperatures, frequent rainfall, and heavy morning dew during the growing season, late blight, caused by Phytophthora infestans, can be severe in the mountains of North Carolina. Despite intensive efforts for over 150 years to control P. infestans, it remains one of the world s most costly plant pathogens, concerning either direct losses and/or in the need for intensive use of costly fungicides. The recent spread of aggressive, fungicide-resistant strains of this pathogen on tomatoes in North Carolina has further aggravated the problem, making the pathogen much harder to control. The pathogen attacks all aboveground parts of the tomato plant. The first symptoms of late blight on tomato leaves are irregularly shaped, water-soaked lesions; these lesions are typically found on the younger, more succulent leaves in the top portion of the plant canopy. During humid conditions, white cottony growth may be visible on the underside of affected leaves. As the disease progresses, lesions enlarge causing leaves to brown, shrivel and die. Be sure to be on the lookout for this disease that seems to sneak up on us all. Call for more information. 2

3 TOP TEN TIPS FOR GREAT TOMATOES There is nothing like a fresh homegrown tomato picked from your own garden. Keep reading below if you would like a few helpful tips for success with growing your tomatoes. 1) Choose the right variety - Some tomato varieties are determinate type plants, meaning they may grow to about three feet in height and then stop. Others, especially most of the heirloom types, are indeterminate, meaning they will grow as high as you allow them to grow. 2) Don't plant them too close - Tomato plants need at least 1 1/2 feet between plants, preferably 2 feet, and that's for plants that are grown upright on stakes or cages. If no support is given and they are allowed to sprawl on the ground, tomato plants need twice as much room. Plants spaced too closely will produce few fruit and have more disease problems as the foliage stays wet. 3) Plant what you can use - For most people, six to eight plants is usually more than enough. That should leave you enough to supply fruit to your non-tomato growing neighbors too. 4) Don't plant in shady spots - Tomato plants, like any plant that produces fruit, need at least six hours of direct sun. If you have less, you will have fantastic foliage but very few fruit. Fruit production takes a tremendous amount of energy, and tomato plants, like all plants, get that energy from the sun. 5) Feed the plants, but not too much -Tomatoes like a balanced fertilizer, with similar amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Avoid using fertilizers that are intended for lawns. The high nitrogen will push the leaves at the expense of fruit. Look for fertilizers designed for tomatoes or better yet, throw a shovel full of compost around the plants every other week. 6) Don't lose sleep over pruning - Tomato plants will grow just fine without pruning. Pruning refers to removing the sideshoots or suckers that come off the main shoot. Pruning will help control the size of the plant and can keep the plants more manageable, which is usually desirable in a small garden. Pruning will result in slightly fewer total fruit but the fruit will be slightly larger. 7) Keep the plants well watered - When the soil around tomato plants dries out, a serious problem results. Calcium, one of the handful of minerals needed by all plants to grow, is absorbed by the plant's roots along with water. If water is limited, so is calcium. The result is blossom-end rot, a brown, dry, leathery spot found on the bottom of fruit. Don't be fooled by magic remedies that promise to fix this. Only water will make the difference. 8) Don't remove leaves or branches from mature plants with fruit - Some people think that tomato fruit need direct sunlight to ripen. This is untrue. Pruning the plant prior to fruiting is fine, but never remove foliage from a mature plant. This exposes fruit to direct sun and can lead to sunscald, a yellowing of the side exposed to the sun. 9) Identify your pest problems - You will see insects on your plants and chances are, most of them are not doing any harm. And every year, diseases will cause some yellowing and browning. But you should get more than enough fruit to satisfy your needs even with some pest damage. At the very least, learn to identify common tomato pests so that you can take appropriate action. 10) Don't put fruit in your refrigerator - Don t be tempted to put that fruit in the refrigerator. Temperatures below 55F will destroy the fragile balance of sugars, acids and other flavor inducing compounds. Leave tomatoes at room temperature, away from direct sunlight. If you want them to ripen faster, put them in a brown paper bag. Portions taken from publication MISTAKES TO AVOID WHEN GROWING TOMATOES. Author Stephen Reiners is associate professor of horticultural sciences at Cornell University, at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, NY. 3

4 FLOWER THRIPS Flower thrips and various other thrips species are serious pests of flowering plants such as roses, daylilies, and peony. Thrips are slender, dark-colored insects, with fringed wings. Adults are less than 1/16-inch in length. To see these fast-moving pests, you need a magnifying lens. Thrips are typically found on leaves and between flower petals. Both adults and nymphs (immature insect stage resembling the adult, but smaller) feed by scraping surface cells to suck plant sap. When they feed on flower buds, the flower may die without opening. With a light infestation, their feeding causes leaves to have silvery speckles or streaks. With severe infestations, leaves and flowers are stunted and distorted and may turn brown and die. As a result of their small size, thrips are difficult to detect before damage is obvious. To sample for thrips in your flowering plants, hold a sheet of stiff white paper under some leaves and flowers, and then strike these plant parts. Gently tip the paper to remove any bits of trash and then examine the paper in bright sunlight. Any thrips present will move around on the paper. Several naturally occurring enemies feed on thrips. To avoid killing these beneficial insects, which naturally reduce thrips populations, insecticides should be avoided as much as possible. Blue sticky traps will help protect plants from thrips. Paint cardboard or wooden boards blue and then coat with petroleum jelly. Attach them to stakes and place near around infested plants. If serious damage is occurring, insecticidal soap is recommended. As with any pesticide, read and follow all label directions and precautions. If dandelions were hard to grow, they would be most welcome on any lawn. ~Andrew Mason 4

5 SQUASH VINE BORER The squash vine borer (Melittia cucurbitae) ranges from Canada to Argentina and is the most serious enemy of squashes and gourds. It causes much trouble where only a few plants are grown in gardens. It rarely attacks cucumbers and melons. Great variations exist in the susceptibility of squash and pumpkin varieties. Butternut and Green-Striped Cushaw varieties are practically immune to attack, but Hubbard squash is highly susceptible. Damage is caused by larvae (immature forms) tunneling into stems. This tunneling often kills plants, especially when the larvae feed in the basal portions of vines. Sometimes fruits are also attacked. Sudden wilting of a vine and sawdust-like insect waste coming from holes in the stem are evidence of attack. The adult is one of the moths known as clear wings because the hind wings are almost without scales. It is 1½ inches (3.8 cm) in wing expanse and metallic greenish black in color. Hind legs are fringed with black and orange hairs, and markings of similar color occur over much of the abdomen. The moths are day fliers and are often mistaken for wasps. Larvae are white, heavy-bodied and considerably over 1 inch (2.54 cm) long when fully grown. The insect overwinters in the soil as a larva or pupa (a non-feeding stage where the larva changes to an adult) enclosed in a cocoon. Moths emerge in early summer and lay eggs on the stems of the plants, usually late May in the South. Upon hatching, larvae bore into vines and complete their development in four or more weeks. Then they leave the plant, crawl into the soil, spin a cocoon and transform to a pupa. In a vegetable garden, various cultural control measures can be taken to control this pest. Till the soil in late winter to expose overwintering insects. Rotate squash to another location in the garden each season. Destroy vines that have been killed to break the life cycle. You can slit the infested vine lengthwise and remove borers or kill them with a long pin or needle. Place soil over slit stem after removing the borer to encourage root development, and keep plants well watered. Plant as early as the weather allows since borers do not emerge until early summer. 5

6 Garden Plugs July / August Contents: Now is the Time! A newsletter for Henderson County Gardeners Be on the Lookout for Late Blight Top Ten Tips for Tomatoes Upcoming Events Pesticide Pick-Up Flower Thrips Squash Vine Borer Diane A. Turner Extension Agent-Horticulture 260 copies of this document were printed at a cost of $ or $0.60 per copy Henderson County 740 Glover St. Hendersonville, NC NONPROFIT ORG US POSTAGE PAID HENDERSONVILLE NC PERMIT NO. 73