Sometimes you just have to laugh

If you've ever grown a garden then you have undoubtedly had something stolen, either by man or beast. It can be discouraging to work really hard on something just have it stolen, but sometimes you just have to laugh. I experienced this recently with our demonstration garden here at the Ag center. Now, I knew when we built the garden that problems would take place due to the it's location right in the open, but what took place in the fall garden, I was not expecting. Like most gardeners that grow fall crops, I planted cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower. These crops were growing good and people would compliment me on how nice they looked, but then something funny began to take place. Folks began telling me how nice the collards looked. I would look at them real funny and politely say that the crops weren't collards and explain what they really were. At first I didn't think anything about it but one day I came in to work and found a few broccoli leaves missing. I figured that someone had mistakenly taken the leaves thinking they were collards and they would find out that the leaves weren't that good. Boy was I wrong. About a week later I found a group of people with trash bags in our garden stripping the leaves off the broccoli and cauliflower plants. At first I got mad but started to laugh once I saw the heads of broccoli and cauliflower sticking up like cotton balls...haha. Sometimes people are absurd and we expect more from them than they actually are but I hope they enjoyed their boiled broccoli leaves. I miss the days when people didn't take what wasn't theirs and wanted to work for what they had. I want everyone to have healthy food but sometimes I think that we should all consider honor just as important. After all what is a man with no honor. He's not a man at all. There is right and wrong in this world, if you do the one you're living if you do the other, well, you may be walking around but you're as dead as a beaver hat.

How do I make my old poinsettia re-bloom?

It's the Christmas season once again and we are all excited about seeing family and friends, eating holiday meals and decorating our homes in festive ways. If you're like my grandmother, you've tried to save those beautiful Poinsettia's from last year but they never will turn red. To most people it's a mystery as to why a plant can be so pretty and then never look that way again. Well by the end of this article you will know how to make those poinsettia's bloom just as pretty as they have in the past.

Poinsettias are phototrophic, and just like all plants they get their energy from the sun. The only difference is that this weird little plant takes the need for proper light to a different level. Poinsettias bloom based on the length of day. When the day length is correct the plant will bloom and the bracts (the red part) will begin to color. North Carolina is not the native range for the poinsettia of course so we have to take a little extra step to help it to reach this blooming stage. In order to force our plants to bloom, we need to make sure that the plant has a steady 14 hours of darkness and 6-10 hours of bright sunlight. The darkness is imperative to get your plants to re-bloom. Even a slight interruption in the darkness can cause the plants to not bloom. The best way to make sure they are getting enough darkness is to place the plant in a closet and set a timer for 14 hours each day. In this process do not open the door to that closet at all. If this is done correctly your poinsettia should begin to color up in about 6-8 weeks and be in full bloom in 12 weeks. If we count backwards that means we must begin our darkness process or what is technically known as a photoperiodic treatment around October 1 for the plants to be showing their full glory by Christmas.

After the Christmas season reduce watering of your plant but do not let the stems shrivel. This will allow the plant to enter a dormant state so you can store it for the winter. In the spring after all frost danger has passed cut the poinsettia back to 6-8 inches in height and repot the plant into a bigger pot. Place it outside in a partly sunny location that is protected from the wind. As the plant grows, pinch the new growth to keep the plant compact and bushy. As we reach the fall you can begin your photoperiodic treatment for yet another year of great color from your favorite poinsettia.

The American Chestnut

The American Chestnut is a treasure that may be on the rebound. The forests of today look very different than those that our forefathers saw when they first arrived in North America. They saw millions of towering Chestnut trees that fed the animals of the forest and provided a substantial amount of lumber to build our new nation. In fact, it could produce lumber up to 50% faster than an oak. This growth rate caused it to store great quantities of CO2 which few other trees can match. In this day and time we need the American Chestnut and researchers are trying to find a way to turn back the clock on the magnification tree.
In 1904 a few trees of Asian origin were planted in New York City. One of these trees just happened to be infected with a bark shattering fungus known as Chestnut Blight. This blight girdles the trees causing them to die. Once this blight was here it went on to destroy nearly 4 billion trees across the United States. A massive, useful and elegant tree was no more.
But wait....for the past 25 years scientist have been working to revive this giant of the forest. Researcher Charles Burnham discovered that he could do series of backcross breeding with the Chinese Chestnut (which is resistant to Chestnut Blight) to breed this resistance into the American Chestnut. The use of backcross breeding allows the trees to remain nearly 93% American Chestnut with only the disease resistance of the Chinese Chestnut. This is done by crossing hybrid trees with purely American Chestnut trees repeatedly. As a result of this breeding a seed orchard has been established to produce these blight resistant trees. Recently, hundreds of these trees were returned to their native range and after one year they are thriving. With continued work, these trees will hopefully be returned to there place among the might oaks and hickories thoughtout its native range. I would encourage you to support programs such as this to restore devastated plants or we may never see them again!

Prepare that garden for winter!

If you're like me, you are enjoying your first bounty from the fall garden as well as a renewed harvest from your pepper plants. Wait! It's starting to really get cold out and we've already had a frost. I want to eat fresh all winter, how can I do that?

Lucky for us, here in Davidson County we tend to have fairly mild winters, so most fall crops we grow such as cabbage can overwinter outside. If we really want things to grow during the winter, we should probably look into how to prolong our seasons. The way we do that is through season extenders. There are several ways to do this I will discuss two in this post.

The first way would be to use what is known a floating row cover.These row covers give your garden between 2 and 10 degrees of frost protection. Floating row covers are simply a spun bonded fabric that is draped over the crops. They trap heat during the day and hold it over night.











The second option you have is to build a high tunnel or a hoop house. What is a high tunnel? It's just what it sounds like. A tunnel that has a high roof. These are generally made out of PVC or electrical conduit and 6mil plastic covering. A high tunnel can really change your gardening life by allowing you to plant as much as a month or two earlier than normal and extend your growing season by the same. A hoop house is generally the same thing but on a much smaller scale.


If you decide you are tired of gardening for the season then you really need to think about putting the garden to bed. You should soil test your garden and get the ph in proper range first and then you should till or plow your garden to bury all diseases and insects that may be hanging around. Lastly you should plant a cover crop of winter rye. Winter rye helps the garden by preventing erosion, capturing nutrients from the subsoil and provides lots of organic matter to the soil when it is turned into the ground in the spring. Remember, winter rye is a grain like wheat and not rye grass!!!! If you only do one thing for your garden it should be to plant a cover crop every winter.

Fall Demonstration and Research Garden Update!

A month into the planting of our fall demonstration and research garden, here at the Davidson County Agricultural Center, the results are astounding. We seem to have hit everything just right. The plants are massive and I have harvested our first head of lettuce today! It was tasty and most importantly, pesticide free! This post will simply be a pictorial update of the growth that our plants have made in a short period of time. Also, just a side note, the bug pressure has been significantly reduced by the cool nights we have had recently. Enjoy the pictures and come by and see the garden in person.

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Tree Protection - A vital step.

Trees are valuable assets. If you've ever looked at building lots, you know that you will pay a premium for those with mature trees and for good reason. Trees near your home play a crucial role in controlling home energy use. Trees block out 70-80% of solar radiation which can lower cooling cost by 8-12%. They can also reduce the air temperature around your home up to 13 degrees. In the winter trees act as wind breaks and can lower heating cost up to 8%. Trees can also improve the air quality near your home. They absorb and trap airborne dirt and chemicals that can be potentially harmful to humans. They also store up to 13 pounds of carbon each year and produce oxygen for us to breath. I could go on and on but I think you get the point I'm trying to make. Trees are a big investment but are well worth it due to the benefits they give us.

All of that said, we need to think about protecting our trees! Most people enjoy having trees in there lawns and wouldn't think of harming them, but many people don't know that they are doing just that. Root compaction is the number one killer of trees in lawns and new construction. This is generally caused by traffic over the root system. In order to avoid this one should mulch to the edge of the drip line if possible to exclude vehicles and constant foot traffic from the main root system of a tree. In a construction setting one should fence off the tree root area to protect it from compaction and root damage.

Raising and lowering the grade of the soil around the tree can also lead to mortality. If one wants to raise the grade of the soil more than 4 inches then aeration must be provided. This can be done by creating a dry well. This simply means building areas up with rock or other materials to prevent the new soil from being added to this area. There is no cure for lowering the grade. Simply put, if you lower the grade of the soil you will remove roots. If more than 30% of the roots are removed the tree may begin to lean, get sick or die.

Trenching is also another problem that can be avoided. Many times we may need to bury a cable or pipe and we take a ditch witch and dig a trench. If we run this machine right past a tree we are cutting off many of the tree's roots. It would be much better to move outside the drip line (edge of outermost branches) of the tree in order to limit the number of severed roots. We could also bore under the tree instead of trenching in order to preserve roots.

If for some reason you do need to damage roots there are certain steps you can take to help the tree to recover. The first of those is to water. Watering is the most important activity you need to undertake to save the tree. Pruning out dead and disease wood, crossing branches and undesirable limbs will also help the tree. Depending on the amount of roots damaged the tree will likely go into decline, but if these steps are taken you could possibly save the damaged tree.

Trees are extremely valuable so take care of them. Protect them from harm and and you will enjoy them for years to come.

Lawns - I missed September can I do my lawn care in October?

The quick answer is YES, but you should do it quickly.

In our area, fescue lawns really start to grow again in the middle of September. This is the time that you should be fertilizing your lawn. If you have missed the start point of the growth, don't fret! Simply get out and apply one pound of Nitrogen per 1000 sqft of lawn. This is equal to 10 pounds of 10-10-10 fertilizer per 1000 sqft. Some of you may ask why I recommend the standard 10-10-10 fertilizer over other types. Well, the other types have different ratios but in general, you can get more bang for your buck by applying the standard as I have mentioned.

By applying the fertilizer late you can expect to not get as much growth as you would if it was applied earlier but you will still be getting a good benefit from doing it. It's better to do it late than not at all.

One thing you should do prior to fertilizing is to take a soil sample. This is simply done by collecting soil from across your lawn, mixing it together and then placing it in a sample box (they are available at your local cooperative extension office) and sending it to our lab in Raleigh. In about a week or so you will receive a report informing you what nutrients you have in the soil and how you can fix it for what you are trying to grow. This knowledge can save you a lot of money by allowing you to apply exactly what you need and nothing more!

You will also be informed of your Ph level in the soil. This is an important number as it determines how and if your plants can use the nutrients you are providing them. If the Ph number is out of the proper range, then your plants may have all the nutrients they need but they won't be able to use them. It's always good to try to have a Ph around 6.5. This would be slightly acid. The soil test will inform how to accomplish this.

Fall gardens are growing but watch out for those moths!!

By the end of September the fall garden should be well underway. If yours looks anything like ours here at the Davidson County Agriculture Center Demo Garden then you are very pleased up to this point. Yesterday I did my daily scout of the garden and to my surprise I found many eggs on the leaves of my cole crops laid by cabbage moths. Below is what the eggs of these moths look like. These eggs are generally laid on the underside of the leaves. I was surprised at the number of eggs present due to the fact that these moths are generally the most active in the spring. I have seen very few moths near the garden but it only takes one to totally devastate your crop. The two moths you need to look out for are shown below. The first one is the imported cabbage worm moth. These are noticed most commonly due to their white color. The second picture is of the cabbage looper moth.

These moths lay their eggs and when the eggs hatch the resulting worms eat the plants leaves until little is left.






The cabbage looper

The imported
cabbage worm




Infestation can be prevented by using row covers or by simply scouting your crop each day and rubbing out the eggs. These two measure are simple and easy on a small crop but for a bigger crop one my need to spray. The best way to control these worms is through use of bacillus thugensis or bt for short. This is a bacteria that infects the worms causing them to die. The bacteria is harmless to humans although one would not want to spray it on themselves. It can be purchased at most farm type stores under the name of Dipel or Thuricide. Dipel is generally sold as a powder and Thuricide is a concentrated liquid. These pesticides would need to be applied after each rain because the rain water will wash of the effective bacteria.

So if you see the moths, eggs or worms. Be ready to take action or you will end up with nothing more than a plant that is shot full of holes. Nobody said growing crops was easy but we have the means to deal with most problems so use them to the fullest!

Fall is for planting

I always wonder why all the big box stores stock so many landscape plants in the spring when it is really the totally wrong time to be planting any woody shrubs and trees. I suppose the simple answer is that that's when we want to get out and work in the yard. I know it's tempting to buy a bunch of shrubs and redo the landscape in May but it is a BIG mistake!!

Planting is always best done in the fall for woody plants like trees and shrubs. Why is this you may ask? Well I'm about to tell you. First of all in the spring the plants you are wanting to put out are in the process of growing and this can spell disaster if you disturb the plant's roots to too great of a degree. The other reasons....well I'll make a list of why spring is not the best time to plant.

• Frost! - this can cause major damage to plants that have been protected all winter in a nursery
• Summer heat - How is that little plant going to survive the hot summer sun with a scrawny root system
• Drought - Small root system = huge chance of the plant dying in the summer dry times
• Root growth - Roots grow best in the cool fall and spring. If i plant in the spring I only get one chance for roots to grow before summer. If i plant in fall i get much more root growth and time for the plant to establish itself.
• Care - many people plant in the spring only to stop caring for the tree or shrub during the hot summer. This leads to death!!

So the bottom line here is that if you can find shrubs and trees in the fall, consider yourself lucky and plant them. Do not wait until spring. I know you will be much happier with the results.

Now that you know when to plant, lets talk about how to plant. Most of us have heard that we should amend the soil in our planting holes but this is a terrible idea. This is especially true in clay soils. If you dig a hole and plant a tree in compost and peat moss all are doing is creating a mud pit that will hold water around your plants roots and it will drown! The key to planting right is to make sure the hole is no deeper than the root ball but make the hole much wider. This will give the roots some softer soil to grow into....but make sure you plant the tree in native soil and not amended soil! Truly the only thing you may want to do is to had a cup or two of lime and a handful of phosphorus fertilizer. This will help get the roots off to a good start. Also keep in mind that the roots have been growing in a pot most likely and you will need to cut or unbind them in some way. As you can see from the photo on the left, if you don't "fix" the roots your plant will eventually decline and die due to the roots girdling the plant. So don't be afraid to beat, bang and cut those roots so you get fresh straight root growth!

Plant at the right time, use the right techniques and you will have a thriving landscape from the beginning. Plant in the spring and you'll be fighting heat and drought for several years before your plants will truly become established. If you have the bug to plant in the spring; buy lots of annual flowers and compost and plant to your hearts desire!! Leave the trees and shrubs to until the fall.

Fall is a time for growth!

When we think of fall, we generally think of falling leaves and things on the decline but we can change that perception. This has been the first year of our new vegetable demonstration garden here at the Davidson County Cooperative Extension Center and as the summer crops have passed I have now planted our fall garden. One look at the garden can change the mind of even the worst skeptic about fall gardening. The plants look great this year. It's amazing what good seed, a soil test and enough water can accomplish!

As you can see from the photos the plants are looking healthy. I did a thorough scouting of the garden earlier today and found no bugs at all nor did I find any disease or fungal infections. Fall is a great time to grow and if you are looking to start a fall vegetable garden it isn't too late! Get to your local nursery or farm store and get some transplants of cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and any other cool season vegetable. With proper care you will have a bountiful harvest!