Turf and Tree Summer Season

New season for Turf and Tree team 2019

This is Turf and Tree teams 3rd season where we meet every Monday morning to go through local residents call-ins or emails asking for help with their turf or tree problems. So far we have stayed quite busy with site visits to clients properties throughout the county and steady stream of call-ins/emails to extension office.  Unfortunately the team is having to struggle again with a small group of dedicated members to get through a long list of clients needing help. But we have been able to manage and so far the folks we have visited and talked with on the phone seems very much appreciative of what we are doing for them.

This update will cover a couple of site visits we did recently that took us to large acre home site in south Caldwell and winery in Sunnyslope area. We’ll cover what looks to be our biggest issues so far this season.

      

  The cottony scale name comes from the shape and color that is on the tree branches that looks like cotton balls glued to branches. These so called cotton balls are egg sacks filled with harmful insect. This issue seems to be more prone to silver and red maple trees. There are multiple ways to control this issue by cultural control or Biological control. 

                

The other big issue we are seeing is either severe over watering or having your water emitters/sprinklers in the wrong spot. The picture on the left shows maple tree where the water emitter is in the wrong spot for the tree to take in water. It should be at the tree's dripline near the end of the branches where they extent out. This is where our trees are taking in and release vidal water and nutrients. The picture in the middle shows this tree under stress and trying to protect itself by releasing sap to try to drive the attacking insects out. The picture on the right shows signs of severe overwatering causing iron nutrient not to be taken up through tree roots that causes iron chlorosis. 

         

           Emitter in wrong spot       Sap from tree     Over watering causing 

Iron chlorosis 

Above data from following sources:

From Ohio State Extension: On Cottony Scale

From University of Idaho extension: Proper watering needs for your lawn

From Utah State extension: Placing your water emitters

From Idaho Growin blog: On Iron Chlorosis

From US forest division: On Iron Chlorosis

Raised Beds for Your Gardening Ease!

Wouldn’t it be nice to work in your garden on those beautiful sunny days without your back or knees giving out?

Building raised beds is a simple DIY project that could relieve your nagging pains, as well as enhance your garden experience and beauty.

In just a few hours, with a quick trip to your local home-improvement store or lumber yard, you can have elevated raise beds ready for your next planting.

Keep reading for a supply list and tips on planning and building raised beds.  You will also find information on soil selection and planting.

1. Planning: Determine where to install the raised bed(s).  Look for a place where the new bed will have at least 8 hours of summer sun.      

Also, determine the desired size of the raised bed.  For width, consider what is easiest for you to reach across and for height, consider what is easiest for you to lean over, if at all.  A typical standard size is approximately 3.5' x 8.5' x 18".

2. Supply List: For a raised bed of the above mentioned dimensions, the following is needed:
Qty 2: 2" x 12" x 12'
Qty 2: 2" x 6" x 12'Qty 1: 4" x 4" x 8' Corner Post
Large box of Deck Screws #8 x 3"
Tools: miter saw or compound saw; drill bits for pilot holes; screwdriver for drill bit

3. Assembly: 

a. Cut the 12'-length boards to 8.5'; leaving 3.5' for the end piece.
b. From the corner post, cut four 18" sections that you will attach the other boards to.
Note: If you do not want to deal with the assembly process with the 4" x 4" posts, you can try slider connectors or brackets.  With the connectors, you can just slide your board through and use deck screws to secure.

4. Placement: Once the bed is assembled, place it in the desired location in your garden.  If you are placing it in an area that still has sod/grass, a good option is to lay old cardboard boxes down first.

5. Soil Preparation: Compost mixture you’ll be putting inside.  A great place to start is a mixture of 30% compost and 70% topsoil.  To calculate the amount of mixture for the above bed dimensions:

Multiply 3.5 x 8.5 x 1.5 to get 31.25 cubic feet of total soil mixture.  As 27 cubic feet equals 1 cubic yard, it is safe to get 1 yard of topsoil along with 1/3 of yard of compost.  Allow a few days for the soil to settle.  Happy Planting!

Troubles with your Summer Lawn

The Turf/Tree Team recently had a couple of site visits where our clients are having issues with their lawns. The 1st was fungal issue called Brown Patch, where the grass looked dead and the 2nd issue was an over watering issue where it was impacting his lawn. We also believe the over watering was also impacting the surrounding trees that were under stress. We’ll cover both issue and talk about how to avoid these problems going forward.

Let’s look at Brown Patch impacting a large area of the local neighbors lawn:

    

      No insect problems, just a fungal issue.

Our client swore she was having insect problem, but after we pulled up a large sample of the impacted lawn and took it back to office for analysis. We found both the crown and roots to be intact,  we also found no insect issue, because most insects such as billbugs would be eating away on roots and crown.

What we did find was good soil full of worm eggs and casting and a lot of small roly-polies. The grass though was thin with large patches of light brown grass. Our client had many unfavorable conditions that were going on from overwatering, from causing humidity levels to spike, to having a lawn service come out for multiple fertilizer applications to her lawn. All this added up for a severe case of Brown Patch to develop.  

So we followed up by researching from multiple educational websites that address Brown Patch and how to prevent Brown Patch from happening next year. Those articles included attention to cultural practices, such as avoiding excess nitrogen during the summer heat, which can contribute to reducing disease pressure and help improve fungicide performance on intensively managed turf. Improving air circulation and scheduling irrigation times to avoid long dew periods to also help suppress Brown Patch outbreaks.

There are also numerous effective fungicides that are registered for Brown Patch control. When selecting a fungicide, be aware of other turf disease threats and apply fungicides for these threats at the same time to minimize costs and other potential disease problems.

Our next site visit took us out to West Caldwell where the client was having what appeared to be dieback on multiple trees such as Ash, Pecan and Willow. At the time we didn’t have a answer for his tree problems. But after walking around his lawn area looking at the trees, we notice how soft and spongy the lawn felt. Looking around closer, we found large areas of yellowing grass and when we bent over and tugged at the lawn, we felt the crown area separating from the soil surface. We then ask about his watering and fertilizing schedule. We found out he was watering for nearly hour in each zone every other day and his local lawn care service was out frequently applying multiple applications.

     

          Light Yellowing of grass blades

We talked for awhile about how much water his lawn really needs during the summer months and that his lawn care service may be over doing it. He did turn off the watering station to allow his lawn to dry out some while we were there.

When we got back to office we followed up by putting together a Lawn Maintenance Schedule that included how often to water and what his lawn fertilizing needs were for a whole year. He seemed pretty happy with the follow-up schedule. We also sent an older article we found from USDA where over applying the amount of Nitrogen could be causing problems with his Pecan tree. Even though I wouldn’t rule out the 3 story tall tree house surrounding the pecan tree, it may also be impacting on the life of tree.

So far this summer the Turf/Tree Team has been fairly busy with site visits and providing research based answers to the clients. They have enjoyed the opportunity to provide this service which is part of the Master Gardener Program, Canyon County Extension of the University of Idaho.

Turf/Tree Team Part 2

The Tree and Turf Team has been busy so far this summer. Part 2

Our next site visit was near Greenleaf to help answer the question on why a resident’s spruce tree was showing signs of failing health. What we found was a single spruce tree next to a barn where it was starving for water, which was making the tree unhealthy. That in turn attracted Spruce Beetles which started their slow death of the tree. Look at 3rd photo below where bark is missing, also notice the 4th photo below of a neighbor’s spruce tree with severe beetle damage. We took a small walk around and noticed several more spruce trees in neighborhood with similar signs of beetle damage.

Signs of beetle damage are where the needles on infested trees may turn a pale yellowish-green color and tend to drop to the ground after high winds, but rarely turn rust colored on the tree. Needles typically drop from branches the second summer after the tree has been infested. Boring dust, produced when beetles bore new entry holes, may accumulate in bark crevices and around the base of the tree. Streams of resin along the main trunk are often associated with recently attacked trees.

What can you do to help protect your spruce tree?

• Maintain the health and vigor of trees: The Spruce Bark Beetle prefers to attack weaker trees or ones that have fallen so maintaining the health and vigor of your trees is important. Tree culturing activities such as watering and fertilizing trees early in the growing season will help develop and maintain healthy trees.
• Prune lower branches to retain a fully crowned tree. Topping mature evergreen trees as illustrated in the pruning link, page 6, sets a tree up for disease and damage: Pruning should be done in the fall and the branches removed from the site if disease is present.
• Spray the tree with an insecticide registered for use on spruce trees to prevent Spruce Beetle attacks: This should be done in spring by early May to protect the tree prior to the beetle’s emergence and dispersal flight.

Severe dieback

Spruce tree next to barn

   

Neighbors tree with severe beetle damage

Noticeable beetle damage

           

Spruce beetle impact: from Colorado State forest management

https://csfs.colostate.edu/forest-management/common-forest-insects-diseases/spruce-bark-beetle/

Turf/Tree Team Part 1

The Tree and Turf Team has been busy so far this summer.
Part 1.

There hasn’t been a slow down with mid-summer fast approaching for Tree & Turf Team.

The team has been all over the valley visiting multiple issues impacting resident’s trees and lawns. We’ll cover a few of our visits in detail, giving what we found, we will show some photos of damage and what advice we gave to help the owners.

Our 1st visit takes us out to Melba where a couple have 2-acre 180 fruit tree orchard that turned out to be a lot of note taking. The couple called into Canyon County Extension Office asking for help with their apple, pear and cherry trees, each with a different problem. The apple trees were being impacted by a severe aphid infestation. “see photo’s 1 and 2”. At this point there wasn’t much we could do because the aphids would soon be gone for the summer eating grasses but they  could return in fall. We made comments about using horticultural oil before bud break next year to help control future outbreaks.  

Aphids causing the leaves to curl

Notice small black spots on the back of leaf

The second tree variety “pears” appeared to be impacted by fireblight. Fireblight is a really nasty bacteria that ends up killing large areas of the tree. The only way to try saving what’s left of the tree is cutting the impacted branch below the infected area and disposing of it. It’s important to get these limbs removed right away because the bacteria can move from blighted spurs and shoots through the vascular system into larger limbs and tree trunk. Death of the tree could result within one season if not properly taken care of.

Signs of fireblight is wilted leaves turning black

Several branches impacted with fireblight               

The third tree issue impacting the orchard was their cherry trees. Research is still ongoing, but we are suspecting a fungal disease called Brown Rot Blossom Blight. The branch tips die back, leaving clusters of dead, brown leaves. Fungus spores infect the tree blossoms in the spring, when the blooms begin to age. Many tiny black spores begin to cover the dying flowers. The spores become active and start to kill the branch tip and work back towards the trunk. Once the dieback begins, the disease cannot be controlled. The only recourse is to prune off the dead portions of the branches and dispose of them in the trash. However, you can help prevent the reinfection of your plants by cleaning up all ground litter from all around the base of the tree.

Clusters of brown dead leaves

Backed off to notice dead branch dieback

Last pieces of advice we gave them was about their drip water system, which was to move emitters out further toward tree drip line instead of directly next to trunk. The 2nd item was to bring in a few truck load of wood chips that could help in retaining moisture and better temperature control under the tree canopy.

Check out some of these links.

Data Reference:

Aphids impact on apples trees:  from Utah State Extension

https://utahpests.usu.edu/uppdl/files-ou/factsheet/aphids-apple.pdf

Fire blight on pear trees: from University of California Extension

http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7414.html

Cherry tree fungus blight: from Penn State Extension

https://extension.psu.edu/ornamental-cherry-diseases

No slowing down for Tree & Turf Team this season

Well, things aren’t slowing down for Tree and Turf team this season. After the earliest start for team back in March, the newly combined team has been meeting weekly at Caldwell Extension office going through new client call-ins, emails and walk-ins. We’ve stayed busy researching through numerous education web sites, reading through extension office library books to come up with best answers to help with client’s questions.  A good part of weekly meeting involves research and follow ups with clients.
  

LISA Training

Setting out measuring cups

The team has also continued the process of its own learning by taking class at Rich’s house back in early May. The new educational service called LISA “Lawn Irrigation System Audit” allows anyone to call extension office and schedule Master Gardener to come out to their home.  The MG can perform water irrigation test that determines how well your lawn irrigation system is performing across your whole lawn. So, if you notice any dry brown areas or soggy wet areas in your lawn, this service could be a benefit that could help determine if you need to move or adjust your irrigation water flow.

then measuring each cup

Watering for a set amount of time

The service is reasonably priced at $20.00 per call.  The overall  time to do the whole service at the client’s place is about an hour.

What we have seen lately are clients calling a professional landscape person to help in planting a new tree into their yard. Then a short time later [4 to 12 months], the tree starts the slow die-off process because it was improperly planted.  They then call the Extension Office asking "Why is my tree dying?". Notice the triangle wires sticking out of the ground, this is part of wire basket in which the tree was shipped.⇓

We’ve had several clients call in the past month where landscaper dug too small of hole for that size tree. Then just rolled the root ball wrapped in burlap sack along with thick wire basket into hole. This didn’t allow roots to grow and be healthy, instead the roots were stuck in very small space and tree started slow death.

This is what you want to remove before putting your tree root into the ground:  All of the Wire rack and burlap sack ⇒⇒

I’ve included a couple of very good Education web sites that show the proper way to plant new trees and a good maintenance schedule to help your tree stay healthy.

Monday is just around the corner for us with more new client questions to research for right answers. 

So, until next month, keep on digging!

The Tree and Turf Team

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.