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.