HORTICULTURE NEWS Micah Meyer, Texas AgriLife Extension Horticulture Agent Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Jefferson County IN THE GARDEN Garden Checklist July & August are the months to begin preparing for the fall garden season. Okra, purple hull peas, yellow squash, and zucchini can still be grown this time of year. Just be sure to provide extra water and use mulch during the extreme heat. Evaluate the volume of water delivered from lawn sprinklers to ensure healthy grass during the heat of the summer. One thorough watering which will deliver one inch of water at a time is better than several more shallow sessions. It doesn t seem like it now, but fall will be here before we know it. Take the time to order your spring flowering bulbs so that you get what you want and that they arrive in time for planning in the fall. We are in hurricane season, so evaluate your trees and other areas of your landscape to be prepared. Dead trees or trees with large dead branches should be dealt with as soon as possible. Mid July is the latest that you can prune azaleas. Pruning afterwards will remove next seasons flower buds. Irises may be separated and divided during the summer. July 2011 Inside this issue: In The Garden 1 Horticulture Tips 2-3 Featured Plant 4 Horticulture Issues 5 Contact Us 6 Upcoming Events 6
HORTICULTURE TIPS I often get a chuckle at the extent of odd, costly, and mostly futile attempts at fire ant control that homeowners are willing to try. Luckily, one of our entomologists has been evaluating these claims to see if they do work. Check out the following article from the AgriLife Today website. Resourceful individuals have tried many different home treatments for fire ant control, but unfortunately lots of them simply don t pass the science test. Wizzie Brown, integrated pest management specialist for AgriLife Extension in Travis County, has been putting alternative, non-chemical means of fire ant management to the test for the past few years. She now has collected objective, science-based data to either support or reject claims about the efficacy of some of these proposed home treatments. I ve previously tested whether club soda was an effective means of control after getting inquiries from people who had read about this on the Internet, Brown said. I also started looking into whether or not other home remedies I d been told about had any basis in scientific fact as fire ant treatments. Brown said her most recent trials dealt with anecdotal information that coffee grounds could be used as a treatment. Many gardeners utilize recycled coffee grounds from commercial operations or grounds from their own coffee brewing in their garden for composting, Brown said. And since gardeners tend to be rather resourceful, some have tried using coffee grounds for other purposes, including managing red imported fire ant mounds. In 2010, Brown tested coffee grounds obtained from the Starbucks Grounds for Your Garden program as an individual mound treatment for fire ants. She spread a cup of used grounds over a test mound and noted fire ant activity in and around the mound several times over a 30-day period. The home remedy of spreading one cup of used coffee grounds over a fire ant mound failed to kill the fire ants, she said. The amount of activity after applying the grounds was the same as on the control mounds receiving no treatment. Brown said while coffee grounds make for good composting material, her research showed that when put to the test, they are simply ineffective toward killing fire ants. It would be nice to have a handy way to dispose of coffee grounds while simultaneously killing fire ants, she said, but in this case, it just didn t pan out. Brown also recently tested whether ground cinnamon may be an effective treatment. I also received inquiries from Travis County residents and had seen on several Internet sites that Page 2
HORTICULTURE TIPS (continued from page 2) ground cinnamon was being touted as a useful fire ant control method, she said. Brown established a similar methodology to test the cinnamon, sprinkling one tablespoon over the mound as an individual treatment, noting ant activity several times over a one-month period. I applied the ground cinnamon the same way one would apply a pesticide dust labeled for control, she said. As with the coffee grounds, Brown compared activity on the treated mound with untreated controlmound activity. In this instance, it turned out that there was actually more fire ant activity in the treated mound than the untreated control, she said. This spring, Brown will be investigating the ash and cayenne pepper. These are two other treatments that have been brought to my attention as possible alternatives to commercial pesticides, she said. It should be interesting to find out whether or not science supports their usefulness as a method of fire ant control. In 2009, Brown tested club soda as an environmentally friendly cure for fire ants, as was stated on a gardening website. The site suggested the reader pour two cups of club soda directly onto the center of a fire ant mound to control the colony, Brown said. This message found its way into gardening forums and was picked up by media all without any scientific testing to back it up. Brown said the site claimed the carbon dioxide in the soda would displace the oxygen and suffocate the ants, including the queen, killing the entire colony within about 48 hours. It also claimed that the club soda would leave no toxic residue, would not contaminate ground water and would not indiscriminately kill other insects or harm pets, she said. Pretty much all that part was true, but what wasn t true was that it would be effective in killing fire ants, unless of course you happen to drown a few in the process. Brown said her observations and data obtained from the trial showed there was no evidence of fire ant control resulting from pouring club soda onto a mound. It did not lead to the ants dying a horrendous death, she said. However, it did produce lots of impressive bubbling action. Brown said results of the club soda field trial and other home treatments have been or will be posted on the Texas Imported Fire Ant Research and Management Project website at http:// fireant.tamu.edu. She added that the site also shows results of other home remedy field tests by herself and other AgriLife Extension and Texas AgriLife Research integrated pest management experts. Other home remedies for fire ant control that have been or will be tested by agency entomologists include aspartame, molasses, Epsom salts, orange juice and cola. There s a lot of misinformation about home fire ant control out there, Brown said. And while it s important to be environmentally responsible and minimize the use of chemicals that may also kill beneficial insects, harm pets or possibly enter the water table, the thoughtful, careful use of commercial pesticides specifically labeled for control is probably still your best defense against them. Contacts Elizabeth Brown, 512-854-9600, w-brown@ag.tamu.edu Page 3
FEATURED PLANT Zoysia Grass Drought and chinch bugs have taken its toll on many lawns in Southeast Texas over the past few months. Some people have given up hope of reviving their lawn and have decided to start fresh with new sod. St. Augustine has long been the standard, but more and more people are turning their attention to Zoysia lawns. Zoysia is a native to parts of Southeast Asia and was introduced into the U.S. in the 1890 s. There are several species of zoysia with varying characteristics ranging from coarse texture that resembles St. Augustine to a much finer texture that resembles Bermuda grass. Zoysia forms a dense turf and has a huge root system which makes it extremely drought tolerant. It will brown out or go straw colored during severe drought, but it will respond and re green when adequate rainfall or moisture returns. Zoysia has a growth habit similar to Bermuda grass, because it has both stolons and rhizomes and can form a very thick turf. Zoysia is a fantastic home turf and it is sometimes used on athletic fields and parks. However, their slow rate of growth gives them very poor recuperative potential. Therefore, they perform satisfactorily on lawns, golf course fairways and baseball fields. But, they are not recommended for football or soccer fields where traffic is concentrated. One advantage Zoysia has over other turf options is chinch bug resistance. Chinch bugs have ravaged St. Augustine lawns over the past few summers, but it is very rare that they feed on Zoysia grass. Grub worms are the only major insect that commonly attacks zoysia grass. Zoysia is also susceptible to the normal fungal problems such as brown patch, rust, and leaf spots, but it usually recovers when environmental conditions change. Slowly but surely Zoysia is becoming a common lawn turf in Texas. As people become more familiar with it and experience satisfaction with it, then I would expect Zoysia to soon become just as common as St. Augustine or Bermuda. If you have a lawn to sod, then take a serious look at Zoysia, it might be slightly more expensive, but long term you should be happy with it. Page 4
HORTICULTURE ISSUES Honey Bee ID Lab Closed Since 1990, Texas A&M University s Honey Bee Identification Lab has provided identification and characterization of honey bees. As of the end of May, the Honey Bee ID lab is closed. According to Paul Jackson, with the Apiary Inspection Service, budget cuts left their department no choice but to end the program. Long-time employee Lisa Bradley was cut as a result. The laboratory provided analysis of honey bee genetics, and for many years had been the authority that documented the incidence and spread of Africanized honey bees spreading across the state. After a human or domestic animal stinging incident, the lab would verify the identity of the bee strain and document the incident. Africanized honey bees arrived in Texas in 1990. After an initial rapid spread through the southern portions of the state, Africanized bees began interbreeding with their calmer European cousins, influencing the genetics and behavior of honey bees throughout the state. As a result, most honey bees in Texas today share at least some of the aggressiveness of the African bee. Because Africanized honey bees are nearly identical in appearance to domesticated (European) honey bees, identification requires very precise measuring equipment. At least 25 to 50 worker bees from the colony are needed to accurately test whether the colony is Africanized. Individual bees cannot be reliably identified. Anyone wanting to confirm the identity of honey bees, or wanting to know the degree of Africanization of honey bees, will now have to go elsewhere for help. According to Jackson, the closest facility with the capacity to identify bees now is the Honey Bee Research Unit maintained by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Weslaco, TX. Insects in the City publication Ent-3007, which explained how to submit samples for identification, has been discontinued. Good luck to Lisa and thanks for her many years providing honey bee identifications for the state of Texas. Page 5
Texas AgriLife Extension Service 1225 Pearl Street, Suite 200 Beaumont, TX 77701 Phone: 409-835-8461 Fax: 409-839-2310 E-mail: jefferson-tx@tamu.edu We re on the Web! http://jefferson-tx.tamu.edu The Jefferson County Office of Texas AgriLife Extension Service educates Texans in all areas of agriculture including horticulture, marine sciences, environmental stewardship, youth and adult life skills, human capital and leadership, and community economic development. We offer the knowledge resources of Texas A&M and Prairie View A&M Universities to educate Texans for self-improvement, individual action and community problem solving. We, the Jefferson County Office of Texas AgriLife Extension Service, are part of a statewide educational network and a member of the Texas A&M University System linked in a unique partnership with the nationwide Cooperative Extension System and Jefferson County Commissioners Court. UPCOMING EVENTS Beekeeping With Top Bar Hives Saturday, August 13th 10am noon at the Texas AgriLife Extension office, 1225 Pearl Street, #200, Beaumont. Top Bar hives are simple and inexpensive, perfect for beginners, great for honey and beeswax production, and there is less equipment needed. For more information call the office at 835-8461 or 727-2191, Ext 8461 Master Gardener Shortcourse August 10 October 26th 1-6pm Wednesdays only. $160, includes 500 page manual. Call for application or get it on our website. Programs conducted by the Texas AgriLife Extension Service serve people of all ages regardless of socioeconomic level, race, color, sex, religion, disability or national origin. The Texas A&M University System, U.S. Department of Agriculture and the County Commissioners= Courts of Texas cooperating.