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

agcarroll@uaex.edu

Brent Griffin

CEA-Staff Chair

cbgriffin@uaex.edu

Shea Wilson

CEA-FCS/4-H

smwilson@uaex.edu

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.

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