Early start this year for Turf and Tree Team

Our 2018 Tree and Turf team

With above average temperatures in the valley this early Spring, the local trees and plants are getting head start on their growing season. With that in mind, the newly combined Turf and Tree team of Master Gardeners from Univ. of Idaho Canyon County Extension office is getting its earliest start to the new year.  

We now have higher than normal volume from area residents giving us a call as well as emailing the team with their questions and concerns.

The new team got started back in early March with series of turf training classes taught by local University educator Rich Guggenheim. 

New sod being cut and rolled up

We followed the training classes up with field trip out to local DG turf farm. There, the owner, John went through what it takes to run a turf farm and different varieties of turf he has available.                         

     

Middleton fruit tree visit

With the classes and field trip behind us, we were all eager to get started. We had our first site visit out to Middleton to visit a local resident that had many questions about her recently planted fruit trees. She had many questions from watering schedules, to proper pruning and when to start fertilizing. We spent a good couple hour answering her questions and looking at each of her 20 trees individually for any unique issues or problems.  

    

     

The affected spruce tree

After the Middleton visit, we made dash down to south Nampa to another site to check out some Spruces that were feeling the blues. The owner had several Spruces that appeared to have dieback that was impacting his trees. The team took several pictures and small clipping samples from couple of trees to take back to office/lab for further evaluation. What's wrong with my trees blog Part 1

Here's Part 2 - The following Monday, the Turf/Tree team started investigating possible causes to Spruce tree impact including hooking up microscope to take closer look at needles. We also used several University “.edu” web sites looking for clues. During our search a new client walked in extension office door with very similar problem with her Spruce trees.  After giving her what we believe was the answer to the problem with her Spruce trees Rhizosphaera Needle Cast, we were also able to answer other questions she had on turf maintenance and how to get rid of gophers. We put together an email detailing each of her issues that was found thru Penn State and Colorado State Extension web sites. She seemed thrilled at the quick response to all her questions and concerns...and she left with a smile.

Well this next week doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down at all. We have several emails requesting more information from several new clients needing help with their trees and lawns. We are doing site visits to conduct LISA for a 20$ fee (Lawn Irrigation System Audit) if you have concerns about your lawn. Looks like we're going to have really busy summer.  So, till next month, keep on pruning.