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Horticultural Happenings
Summer
2016
Prairie County
Ornamental and Landscape Gardening
Dates to remember:
Gardening on the Prairie
June 11
10:00am –2:00 pm
Hazen United
Methodist Church
Rice Expo
August 10
Grand Prairie Center
Stuttgart, AR
Contact:
Amy G Carroll
CEA-AG
Brent Griffin
CEA-Staff Chair
Shea Wilson
CEA-FCS/4-H
Prairie County Cooperative Extension
PO Box 388 De Valls Bluff, AR
870-998-2614
Sweet Summertime
Summer time is upon us, but the we
have had considerable amounts of
rain this spring. These rains have
brought on several diseases that
have been seen through out the
county.
Most will go away when rainy condi-
tions transition into our normal hot,
dry summer time weather pattern
that Arkansas has during the months
of June, July, and August. Although,
they can persist if the plants are not
cared for properly.
Tips to remember:
Do not water over head. This
creates the same condition as
rain fall.
Do not stress plants. Even
though your plants are estab-
lished , they need fertilizer for
optimum growth.
If it is a treatable disease contact
your local county agent for iden-
tification and proper treatment
advice.
Summer bloomers
Our goal as gardeners is to have some-
thing blooming in your landscape all
year long. In plant selection we should
take into consideration the Arkansas
heat and humidity.
Here are some plants that are awe-
some summer bloomers and can with
stand Arkansas conditions.
Salvia leucantha Mexican bush sage
Daylilies
Joe Pye Weed – ‘Little Joe’ Eupato-
rium fistulosum
Gaillardia – Blanket Flower
Hardy Hibiscus
Homestead Purple Verbena
Candytuft (Iberis sempervirens)
Another option for your landscape is
ornamental grasses.
Pennisetum
Miscanthus
Feather Reed Grass
Vegetable Gardening Vegetable gardening is in full swing here on the
Prairie. Several homeowner calls have been com-
ing in dealing with problems in their gardens.
Here are some of the problems we are seeing.
Diseases
Bacterial Spot– Tomato and Pepper
Non-curable disease, but in less severe cases
plants should out grow disease.
Blossom End Rot-Tomatoes
It is caused by a combination of calcium deficiency
and wide fluctuations in soil moisture.
Anthracnose-Cucumber
A common leaf spot called anthracnose can quickly defoliate a plant. This disease is caused by a fungus and can be controlled by foliar applications of a suggested fungicide.
Insects
Perhaps the greatest limitation to vegetable production in home gardens is the pest com-plex, including insects, weeds and plant diseas-es. Insects damage home gardens in many ways, such as direct feeding on edible parts, feeding that decreases plant vigor, transmitting plant diseases and contaminating harvested vegetables.
Integrated Pest Management
Insect management in home gardens should be based on a combination of tactics that are envi-ronmentally friendly, are safe to the producer and consumer and are economically practical – a concept labeled integrated pest management or IPM.
Pest management tools used in IPM programs are generally categorized into the following groups.
Host Plant Resistance – utilizing cultivars that resist insect feeding or are more toler-ant to insect damage.
Biological Control – the use of naturally oc-curring organisms that control pest insects and include insect predators, parasites and pathogens.
Cultural Control – the use of insect screens to limit exposure of plants to insect attack, hand removal of insects, planting date ad-justments and many others.
Chemical Control.
Scouting
Scouting for insects throughout the production season can often detect low pest numbers while management is still practical.
Harvest time!
Vegetable Gardening Pecan Phylloxera
The pecan phylloxera overwinters as eggs located inside the
dead body of a female adult, which is in protected places on
the branches of pecan trees. Soon after bud break, the eggs
hatch and the young insects migrate to opening buds or leaf
tissue to feed on expanding new growth. The individuals
that hatch from the overwintering eggs are known as stem
mothers. Feeding by the stem mothers stimulates the de-
velopment of galls, which enclose the stem mother in a few
days. Inside the gall, the stem mother matures, lays her
eggs and dies. Eggs laid by the stem mother hatch within
the gall, and these nymphs feed within the gall until they
mature.
In early July, the galls split open and the mature nymphs
emerge as winged, asexual adults. These adults migrate to
other trees or other parts of the same tree and lay eggs that
are of two sizes. The smaller eggs hatch into male sexuals,
and the larger eggs hatch into female sexuals. Male and
female sexuals do not feed; their sole purpose is to mate
and produce the overwintering egg. After mating, female
sexuals seek out sheltered places on a tree, where they die
with a fertilized egg inside them, protected for the winter.
The adults and nymphs are small, one-eighth inch long, soft-
bodied and cream-colored. They resemble aphids without
cornicles (the protruding tubes located on the dorsal end of
aphids). You'll need a hand lens to observe and identify
them.
Because the galls are seen easily, pecan phylloxera infesta-
tions often appear worse than they are. Once the galls ap-
pear, it is too late to control pecan phylloxera for the sea-
son. However, in most cases it is not necessary to be of
much concern, since they usually do not cause enough dam-
age to pecan trees to warrant an insecticide application. If
you would like to apply an insecticide try Bayer Advanced
Tree and Shrub Insect Control for systemic control that re-
quires no spray application. Only the trees that were infest-
ed the previous year will need treatment, not the entire
orchard. Certain native trees and grafted varieties within an
orchard become more heavily infested than other trees.
Like us on Facebook : Amy Greenwalt Carroll UAEX Prairie Co Agri/4H agent
UAEX PRAIRIE COUNTY
Prairie County Master Gardeners