Master Gardeners plan plant sales

0

Well, this could be a busy weekend for gardeners: Both the Clark County Master Gardeners and the Hardin County Master Gardeners are holding plant sales on Saturday, May 7.

Clark County will be holding their “Plant $ell-ebration!” at their new garden location, the Snyder Park Gardens and Arboretum (Snyder Park Clubhouse, 1900 Snyder Park Road, Springfield) from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. They will be selling annuals, perennials, vegetables, herbs, trees, shrubs, and garden gloves! They also offer free mini-seminars every 30 minutes. For more information, you can call OSUE Clark County at 937-521-3860 or go online at clark.osu.edu.

Hardin County will be participating in the 13th Annual Hardin County Plant Sale at the Arts & Crafts building on the Hardin County Fairgrounds (Kenton) from 9 a.m. to noon. Food and drinks are available beginning at 8:30 a.m. Plants available to choose from include flowers, bedding plants, roses, herbs, trees, and various other potted plants. This year there will also be water lilies and other water plants available. In addition to making healthy plants available to the public, there will be several volunteers on site to answer gardening questions and provide advice for possible landscaping and beautification projects.

The OSU South Centers at Piketon will be holding “First Friday Tours” again this year, beginning this Friday, May 6. This year’s focus will be on “Hops,” an increasingly popular crop in Ohio. Each session will be held 10 a.m. to noon (May 6, June 3, July 1).

The tours are part of the “Hop Production to Enhance Economic Opportunities for Farmers and Brewers” project. There will be a classroom session on hops and a tour of the hop fields at the Piketon facility. In addition to basic information on the ins and outs of hops production, topics addressed at the First Friday sessions will include hop yard construction, establishment costs, bine training, irrigation, variety selection, and fertilization. Interested parties must register by the Wednesday before the tour by contacting Charissa Gardner at 740-289-2071, ext. 132, or [email protected]. Registration is $15 per family or farm.

OSU Plant Pathology Professor Pierce Paul tells us that, over 12 years of his own efficacy trials in Ohio plus reviewing data from other areas of the country, “there is rarely ever a benefit to making more than one foliar fungicide application to wheat in Ohio.” So, if you must, “go with the one that is most likely to provide the greatest benefit in terms of disease control and return on your investment.”

If you need to apply for early-season diseases such as Septoria and powdery mildew, apply at flag leaf emergence for greatest benefit. Applications for mid- and late-season diseases such as rusts and Stagonospora leaf and glume blotch should be between boot and heading. If you see rust earlier, a “flag-leaf” application may be needed.

Single applications are better than split-applications: less chance for fungicide resistance to develop and fewer wheel tracks in the field. Be sure to save those best fungicides (Prosaro or Caramba) just in case we get head scab at flowering. (Each product should be used only once in the season; once again to avoid resistance development.) Head scab risk escalates during wet, humid conditions leading up to heading and flowering. Use of stobilurin fungicides past Boot Stage (Feekes 10) under these conditions can result in higher levels of vomitoxin contamination of the grain, so later applications of stobilurins should be avoided.

One advantage of working with great people is good food! Our Master Gardeners held their “Almost-the-End-of-the Training-Class” carry-in lunch last Thursday. The table was loaded! Lunch was great! Thanks!

http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/47/2016/05/web1_BrownDeborah-Reinhart_12.jpg

By Deborah Reinhart Brown

Ag update

The writer can be reached at the OSU Extension office (937-498-7239) or by email at [email protected].

No posts to display