What's wrong with my pine trees dropping needles?

My neighbor showed up on my doorstep, panicked about his pine tree. He brought a picture which showed needles changing color and falling off. What was wrong with the tree, was it dying? Looks scary, huh?

Homeowners will often see their needles on evergreen trees turning brown and falling off in the late summer or fall and become alarmed. Needle drop on pine trees is a naturally occurring phenomena. If pine needles turn brown from the interior of the tree, and the outer needless stay green, there is no cause for alarm.

Most people know that deciduous trees such as cottonwoods, oaks, or maples lose their leaves in the fall, but fewer people understand that evergreen trees also lose their old needles in the late summer or fall. Needle age at which drop occurs varies among evergreens and within species. Eastern white pine loses 2-year old needles. On the other extreme, bristle-cone pine sheds needles that are 14-17 years old.  If there is die-back or yellowing on the tips of branches or needles, there may be a problem. Consider drought, salts, root damage, herbicide damage, soil compaction, insects, or other factors. 

Occasionally, 'deciduous conifers' such as the bald cypress, larch, and dawn redwood are found in Idaho landscapes. 

These conifers all lose their needles every autumn, to be replaced the following spring. 

   Don't lose hope - it's normal!!! 

Chill Out! Cold Stratification for Native Plants

 

Cold stratification is an important step for growing many native plants in USDA Hardiness Zone 7. This process mimics winter conditions, helping seeds break dormancy and ensuring they germinate at the right time in spring. In the Treasure Valley area, which is situated in Ecoregion Level III 12 (Snake River Plain) and borders Ecoregion Level II 10.1 (Cold Deserts), you have a unique opportunity to cultivate a variety of native plants. Whether you’re interested in wild sunflowers, asters, goldenrods, lupines, purple coneflowers, milkweed, or penstemon, following these steps will help you successfully propagate these beautiful species in your garden.

Understanding the Ecoregion

Ecoregion 12 features a mix of desert and semi-arid environments, characterized by cold winters and warm, dry summers. The region's soils vary from sandy to clayey, which influences the native plant communities that thrive here. Plants in this area have adapted to withstand drought and temperature extremes, making them well-suited for home gardens that aim to support local wildlife and conserve water.

Starting Seeds Indoors or in a Greenhouse

Starting your native seeds indoors or in a greenhouse allows you to control conditions better. Follow these steps:

1. Gather Your Seeds: Collect seeds from native plants in the fall, ensuring they are fully mature and dry.

2. Prepare Your Pots: Use seed-starting pots filled with a seed-starting mix. Make sure the pots have drainage holes.

3. Moisten the Medium: Lightly moisten the seed-starting mix so it's damp but not soggy.

4. Cold Stratification:

• Option A: Directly in Pots: Sow the seeds in the pots, covering them lightly with soil only if they don’t require light to germinate. If they do need light, surface sow seeds and place the pots in the refrigerator for 4-12 weeks. Keep the pots in a plastic bag to retain moisture.

• Option B: Pre-soaking: Alternatively, mix seeds with a moist medium like sand or peat moss in a zip-top bag, refrigerate for 8-12 weeks, and then surface sow them in pots after stratification.

5. Move to Light: After the stratification period, move your pots to a well-lit area or greenhouse. Ensure they receive plenty of light but avoid direct, harsh sunlight at first.

6. Water Regularly: Keep the soil consistently moist (but not waterlogged) as the seeds begin to germinate.

7. Transplanting: Once the seedlings have a few true leaves and the danger of frost has passed, transplant them into your garden or larger containers.

Starting Seeds Outdoors in your garden or raised beds

1. Gather Seeds: Collect seeds in the fall from mature plants, ensuring they are fully dry. This timing allows you to utilize natural seasonal changes for germination.

2. Prepare the Planting Area: Choose a well-draining spot in your garden or raised beds. Loosen the soil and remove any weeds or debris.

3. Surface Sow: Scatter the seeds on the surface of the soil. Many native seeds benefit from light exposure to germinate, so avoid covering them deeply. If the seeds require some soil coverage, lightly sprinkle a thin layer of soil over them.

4. Watering: Gently water the area to help settle the seeds into the soil without washing them away. Ensure the soil stays consistently moist, especially during dry spells.

5. Winter Conditions: As winter arrives, the seeds will experience natural cold stratification, which helps break dormancy and prepares them for germination.

Benefits of Cold Stratification By cold stratifying your seeds, you help ensure healthy germination and align plants with their natural growing cycles. This process also supports local ecosystems by enhancing biodiversity, stabilizing soil, and conserving water.

With a little preparation, you can successfully cultivate beautiful native plants that thrive in your region, including wild sunflowers, asters, goldenrods, and lupines. 

Happy gardening!

A Purrfectly Wicked Reputation

A black cat crosses your path. Do you turn around? Knock on wood? Or simply wonder where it's headed?

For centuries, black cats have been blamed for everything from bad luck to witchcraft. They've been accused of casting spells, bringing misfortune, and keeping suspicious company.

All this from an animal that spends roughly half its life sleeping and the other half pretending it hasn't been fed.

So how did black cats get such a spooky reputation?

In medieval Europe, black cats became associated with witches. Some people believed witches could transform themselves into cats, while others thought the animals served as magical assistants, known as familiars.

Imagine being a perfectly ordinary cat, minding your own business, only to discover the entire village thinks you're practicing witchcraft.

Talk about bad publicity!

And if that weren't enough, stories of winged cats added another twist to feline folklore. These mysterious creatures, sometimes described as cats with batlike wings, sound as though they wandered straight out of a witch's spellbook.

A Bat Cat? Apparently, four paws and nine lives weren't mysterious enough!

But here's where the story takes an interesting turn.

Not everyone thought black cats were trouble.

In Scotland, a black cat arriving at your doorstep was traditionally considered a sign of prosperity. Japanese folklore has also associated black cats with good fortune. And sailors sometimes welcomed black cats aboard their ships as lucky companions.

Apparently, whether a black cat brings good luck or bad luck depends largely on where it happens to be walking.

The cat, of course, couldn't care less.

And what about Halloween?

By the time Halloween decorations became popular, black cats had found their permanent place alongside witches, broomsticks, and jack-o'-lanterns.

Vintage Halloween decorations from the early 1900s featured plenty of arched backs, glowing eyes, and mysterious black silhouettes.

Yet there's something rather wonderful about a creature once feared for its supposed supernatural powers becoming one of Halloween's most beloved symbols.

And perhaps black cats really do possess a little magic.

They can appear out of nowhere, vanish without a sound, see things we can't, and convince perfectly sensible humans to serve them dinner on demand.

Coincidence? We think not.

So, on October 29, National Cat Day, give those mysterious black felines a little appreciation.

And if a black cat crosses your garden path this Halloween, don't worry about bad luck.

It's probably just checking whether you've planted any fresh catnip.

Happy National Cat Day!

https://www.aaa.si.edu/blog/2017/10/the-good-the-bad-and-the-black-cat

Green Is So Last Season

Every fall, green leaves turn shades of yellow, orange, red and purple. It may look like the trees are putting on one last show before winter, but what we are really seeing is plant chemistry at work.

During spring and summer, leaves are dominated by chlorophyll, the green pigment essential for photosynthesis. Chlorophyll absorbs light energy that plants use to turn carbon dioxide and water into sugars. There are other pigments in the leaf all along, but the abundance of chlorophyll masks
many of their colors.

As autumn approaches, shorter days and cooler temperatures signal deciduous trees that winter is coming. The tree begins preparing to shed its leaves. Chlorophyll production slows and eventually stops, while existing chlorophyll breaks down.

As the green fades, pigments that were there all summer finally become visible.

Carotenoids produce yellow, gold and orange colors. These pigments help plants capture light and protect leaf tissues from excess light during the growing season. They are responsible for the yellow of aspens and the golden-orange colors seen in many other trees. Carotenoids are also what give carrots their orange color.

Red and purple fall colors work a little differently

Anthocyanins produce reds, purples and crimson shades. Unlike carote
noids, which are already present in the leaf, many anthocyanins are produced in late summer and fall. As the tree prepares to close off the connection between the leaf and branch, sugars can become trapped in the leaf. Bright, sunny days encourage sugar production, while cool—not freezing—nights slow the movement of those sugars out of the leaf. Under the right conditions, anthocyanin production increases.

That helps explain why fall color can be spectacular one year and less impressive the next.

Weather matters. A succession of sunny days and cool nights can favor brilliant reds. Drought, an early hard freeze, prolonged warm weather or storms that strip leaves from trees can shorten or dull the display

Eventually, the tree forms an abscission layer where the leaf stem joins the branch. This layer gradually cuts off the movement of water and nutrients. The leaf falls, leaving the tree better prepared to conserve resources through winter.

So when you see a tree changing from green to gold, orange or crimson, you aren't simply watching leaves “die.” You're seeing chlorophyll disappear, other pigments revealed or produced, sugars shift, and the tree carefully shut down a leaf it no longer needs.

Fall color is beautiful—but it is also a pretty impressive chemistry lesson happening right over our heads.

https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/flowers-fruits-and-frass/2025-10-21-science-and-splendor-fall-foliage

https://www.fs.usda.gov/visit/fall-colors/joy-and-science

Jams, Jellies, Marmalades - Yummy!

 Fresh, spreadable fruit in the form of jam, jelly, preserves, or marmalade, might possibly be summer's sweetest reward. The best part is that they are easy to make and can be enjoyed long after you put your garden to bed. So, what is the difference between each of these spreadable options? 

Before we dive in, it helps to know that there are two main factors that turn fruit into a thick, spreadable texture: heat (from cooking) and pectin. When fruit is heated, it will lose liquid, causing the fruit to reduce to a firmer state. Pectin is naturally-occurring in fruit and happens to also make fruit thicken when cooked. However, not all fruit contains enough pectin to reach a firm texture, so many spreadable fruit recipes call for additional pectin.

Jelly:
Jelly is the firmest and clearest of the sweet, spreadable options. The fruit is cooked and strained so only the juice ends up in the final product. Jelly is so firm that you could turn the jar over and slide the jelly out in one solid piece.

Jam:
Jam is a chunkier version of jelly. Jam has more fruit pieces and is slightly looser in texture. Chopped or pureed fruit is cooked with sugar, so pieces of fruit end up in the final product. Jams are not clear and not solid like their jelly cousin. Here's a video for strawberry freezer jam!

Preserves:
Preserves are like jam but contain more and bigger pieces of fruit. Preserves have the least gel-like consistency. They are great for serving with cheeses and meat dishes.

Marmalade:
Marmalade is a preserve, but it is made only with citrus. The whole fruit, rind and all, create a bitter-sweet spreadable delight. Lemon, orange, and grapefruit make great marmalades. Marmalades are aromatic with complex flavors and oils from the citrus peels.

Jam, jelly, preserves, and marmalade start out almost the same, but take different forms depending on how they are processed. Whether you like your fruit a spreadable solid, with small pieces of fruit, with large pieces of fruit, or you want the complex flavors of citrus, there is always something good you can choose to put on your toast. 

What Are All Those Flies in My Fall Garden?

If you’ve noticed an unusual number of large, bristly flies hanging around your flowers this fall, take a closer look before reaching for the fly swatter. They may be tachinid flies, and they are some of the good guys in the garden.

Tachinid flies are a large and diverse family of beneficial insects. More than 1,000 species are found in North America. Depending on the species, they can look a bit like an ordinary housefly—gray, brown or black—but many are noticeably bristly. Some are surprisingly large and robust.

 What makes them beneficial?

It’s what happens during their larval stage that makes tachinid flies important to gardeners.

Female tachinids use other insects as hosts for their young. Some lay eggs directly on a host, while others have different strategies for getting their larvae inside. Once there, the developing fly larva feeds within the host and eventually kills it.

Their hosts can include caterpillars, beetle larvae, grasshoppers, sawflies and true bugs. That means tachinids can help naturally suppress a number of insects we consider garden pests.

The adult flies are much more peaceful. They visit flowers for nectar and can also contribute to pollination. University of Idaho recommends flowering plants as a way to support tachinid flies and other beneficial insects.

Why am I seeing so many in fall?

You may barely notice tachinid flies earlier in the season and then suddenly find them everywhere in late summer or fall. There are many different tachinid species, with different life cycles and hosts, so their numbers and timing can vary considerably.

Late-season gardens can also make the adults much easier to notice. As the number of blooming plants dwindles, remaining flowers become busy gathering places for insects looking for nectar. A successful generation of tachinids developing from insects earlier in the growing season can also mean more adults appearing later.

So a sudden gathering on fall flowers doesn't necessarily mean something is wrong. It may simply mean your garden has provided both the insect hosts and the floral resources these beneficial flies need.

Let them stay awhile

If tachinid flies are visiting your garden, there’s generally nothing you need to do. Keep some flowers blooming as late into the season as possible and avoid unnecessary broad-spectrum insecticides that can kill beneficial insects along with pests.

They may not be as charming as a butterfly or as recognizable as a lady beetle, but tachinid flies are quietly doing some valuable work.

Sometimes a garden full of flies is actually a very good sign.

https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/tachinid-flies/

https://agsci.colostate.edu/agbio/ipm-pests/tachinid-flies/

https://treefruit.wsu.edu/crop-protection/opm/tachinids/

Successful Seed Selection, Saving, and Storage

A successful garden starts with a tiny seed, but selection, saving, and storing these seeds correctly can be much more complicated, and oftentimes overwhelming. This guide will introduce the different seed types and explain effective techniques for saving and storing until they are ready to be planted in the soil.

Types of Seeds

When selecting which type of seeds to plant it is important to understand the different methods of producing the seeds. 

GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) seeds have been genetically engineered to    introduce specific traits, such as pest resistance or herbicide tolerance. While they offer certain advantages, their long-term environmental and health implications are subjects of ongoing debate. GM seeds are not likely to be found in your home garden because no one sells genetically engineered seeds to home gardeners. GMO crops are expensive, and commercial farmers are required to sign a contract that protects the patented technology. These companies do not sell GM crops to the home garden market or to garden centers.

Hybrid seeds are produced by crossing plants of the same species. Hybrid seeds will potentially have the most desirable attributes of each variety, but they will not remain true to the parent line and therefore are not recommended for seed saving.

Open-pollinated seeds are produced through natural pollination by insects, wind, humans or other natural means. Open-pollinated varieties are well-suited for seed saving and offer a wider range of flavors, colors, and adaptations to local conditions.

How to Save Seeds
Once the plants have grown and fully matured, it is time to harvest and save the seeds. Different procedures apply whether you are collecting “wet” or “dry” seeds. 

Plants with wet seeds include tomato, eggplant, cucumber, melon, squash and pumpkin. These seeds need to be harvested when fruit is ripe and then processed to remove wet pulp or coatings. In order to do this, scoop the seeds out of fully ripe fruit and put them in a glass jar filled with water. Stir the mixture a couple of times a day. The mixture will ferment and viable seeds will sink to the bottom. Finally, pour out the liquid, rinse the seeds and set them out to dry. 

Dry seeds are much easier to save, remove any dirt or debris and spread them out to dry completely. Some of the easiest seeds to save are peas, beans, lettuce, tomatoes and arugula. Always remember to harvest from the healthiest plant with the most desired traits.

Storing Seeds
Store seeds in airtight containers in a cool, dark, and dry location to prevent moisture and oxygen from entering. Label each container with the seed variety, harvest date, and germination rate. Optimal storage conditions for seeds involve low temperatures (around 40°F or 4°C) and low humidity. Avoid exposing seeds to direct sunlight, as this can reduce their viability. It is a good idea to periodically check stored seeds for signs of mold, pests, or deterioration. 

By carefully selecting seeds, you can cultivate resilient and productive gardens in the Treasure Valley. Saving and storing open-pollinated seeds is a rewarding and useful way to contribute economically and sustainably to maintaining your garden.