Golden Beetle on Sweet Potato Leaves

It's just about time to harvest the sweet potatoes, and in addition to the gold (sweet potatoes) underground, some gardeners may find flecks of gold on the leaves. Mottled tortoise beetles have been making holes in the leaves of the sweet potato plants for a while now, but they are mostly hidden, on the undersides of the leaves, making them difficult to see.

As the vines are pulled to clear the way for the harvest, the metallic gold of the beetles will become more apparent, glinting in the sun.

The BugGuide website has posted a closeup image of one of these beetles, and North Carolina State University reports, through its IPM section, that leaf damage from these beetles typically isn't severe enough to warrant spraying to control them.

Instead, gardeners can just enjoy the double-dose of gold offered up by the sweet potato bed.

Mottled tortoise beetle on back of a sweet potato leaf, late September.                                PHOTO/Amy Whitney

Plant Your Home Orchard Now

UGA Extension Specialist Bob Westerfield has written a couple of recent articles on planting a home orchard, pointing out in both that choosing the right trees for your area is an essential step toward a successful and productive orchard. Insect and disease resistance are important elements of that success, but so is timing.

In "Plant Fruit Trees Now to Create a Home Orchard," Westerfield points out that the best time is now.

The article explains much of what a homeowner needs to know to get a productive orchard started, including site selection -- emphasizing drainage and sunshine -- ground preparation, and planting. Usefully, it also explains how to select a healthy tree for planting. Westerfield recommends the purchase of one-year-old trees:

"A common mistake made by many homeowners is to select oversized or ready-to-bear nursery trees. Experience has shown that younger trees bear almost as soon, are easier to keep alive and develop into more healthy vigorous trees than do oversized stock. Older trees cost more to grow and are sold at higher prices, but are usually worth less."

In "Select Best Fruit Trees for Your Region of Georgia," Westerfield identifies fruit tree varieties that perform well in the different regions of the state.

Recommended apple trees for Cobb County include "Ginger Gold, Gala, Mollie’s Delicious, Ozark Gold, Golden Delicious, Mutzu, Yates and Granny Smith."

For pears, choose "Orient, Carrick Waite, Kieffer, Magness, Moonglow, Starking Delicious or Dawn."

For plums, he recommends the Japanese varieties  "Methley, Morris, AU Rubrum, AU Producer, Spring Satin, Byrongold and Rubysweet."

Apples hang from a tree at the University of Georgia - Mountain Research and Education Center in Blairsville, Ga. Image credit: University of Georgia.

In addition to the information in the two articles linked above, homeowners interested in starting a small orchard out in the yard can refer to the information in UGA Cooperative Extension's multiple fruit/orchard publications: "Minor Fruits and Nuts in Georgia"; "Home Garden Pears"; "Home Garden Apples"; "Home Garden Figs"; "Plums for Georgia Home Gardens"; and "Diagnostic Guide to Common Home Orchard Diseases", among others.

For additional information, or for UGA publications on fruits not listed here, contact the Cobb County Extension office at 770-528-4070.

Upcoming Events

Herbs

Friday, September 13, noon to 1:00 p.m. Free and open to the public. Learn how easy it is to grow herbs and ways to harvest and preserve them. Presented by Master Gardener Linda Hlozansky as part of the ongoing Lunch & Learn series of Cobb County Cooperative Extension’s Master Gardener Volunteers of Cobb County, at the Training Room of the Cobb County Water lab, 662 South Cobb Drive (at the intersection with Atlanta Rd.). 

Getting started with hypertufa

Friday, September 20, 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. Learn how to make your own unique, stone-like, hypertufa planters. Presented by Master Gardener Lee Culver, at the 2nd floor classroom of the Cobb Extension office, 678 South Cobb Drive, Marietta, 30060.  Free and open to the public, but spaces are limited; please preregister by sending an email to lculver123@aol.com.

 

Landscaping with plants and design for all seasons

Tuesday, September 24, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. Free and open to the public. Presented by Master Gardener David Cree, as part of the ongoing Gardeners Night Out presentation series of Cobb County Cooperative Extension's Master Gardener Volunteers of Cobb County, at West Cobb Regional Library, 1750 Dennis Kemp Lane NW, Kennesaw, 30152. 

Moving toward organics in the vegetable garden

Friday, October 4, noon to 1:00 p.m. Free and open to the public. Learn what organic gardening and farming really means and steps you can take to have a more environmentally friendly garden. . Presented by Cobb Extension staff member and Master Gardener Amy Whitney as part of the ongoing Lunch & Learn series of Cobb County Cooperative Extension’s Master Gardener Volunteers of Cobb County, at the Training Room of the Cobb County Water lab, 662 South Cobb Drive (at the intersection with Atlanta Rd.). 

Growing conifers in Georgia: Add another dimension to your landscape

Tuesday, October 22, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. Free and open to the public. Presented by Master Gardener Michele Browne, as part of the ongoing Gardeners Night Out presentation series of Cobb County Cooperative Extension's Master Gardener Volunteers of Cobb County, at South Cobb Regional Library, 805 Clay Road, Mableton, 30126.

ALSO, come meet Cooperative Extension staff and some of our Master Gardener Volunteers at the Marietta Square Farmer’s Market, the last Saturday of each month through October. We will be there on September 28 and October 26 to answer questions on canning, food preservation, and gardening. Bring sick plants (or large pieces of them) for help with diagnosis and treatment options, and bring bugs for identification.

Baldfaced Hornets: Nest Like a Paper Tornado

Baldfaced hornets are becoming more obvious in yards and parks as their nests and colonies have grown over the summer. Actually a form of yellow jacket wasp, these hornets build nests above ground, usually attached to branches in trees and shrubs.

Baldfaced hornet nest, empty of hornets and no longer attached to the tree.

If one of these colonies is in your yard, you are not alone! UGA's "Stinging and Biting Pests" tells that these colonial insects actually have a broad distribution, having been found in 46 states.

The hornets are fairly large, mostly black, and have, as described in the UGA publication, "white or light yellowish markings on the face, thorax and part of the abdomen."

In the section about controlling these insects, the publication explains, "Most social bees, wasps and hornets are beneficial and should not be controlled unless their nest and activities are close to humans and create a hazard."

Clemson's publication about Baldfaced Hornets points out that these insects act defensively to protect their nests: "Most social wasps vigorously defend their nests from perceived threats. Baldfaced hornets are known for their defensive behavior. People are often stung when they accidentally stumble upon a hidden nest or when the nest is located in areas adjacent to homes or places where there is human activity."

The hornets do have significant redeeming value. Clemson's publication opens with this positive note: "In nature, baldfaced hornets are extremely valuable because they kill many pests including flies, caterpillars, and spiders."

If removing a colony of baldfaced hornets is deemed necessary, it is recommended that a pest-control company be hired, since the task is fairly hazardous. However, all the hornets except new queens will die in winter, at which time a nest that has been left alone may be removed and disposed of safely.

Walk Georgia, starts Sept. 1

The onset of fall weather brings with it a wonderful opportunity to begin, renew, or rev-up the pace of an exercise program. One great motivator is the opportunity to log daily activities online and watch the miles add up!

UGA Cooperative Extension's Walk Georgia program provides that motivator, and its next 12-week session begins on September 1, with registration for the program opening on that same day.

Milestones are marked with virtual travel through the counties of Georgia. We have 159 counties, so there is plenty of ground to cover! Individual participants can also see, when logged in to the site, the mileage totals of the front-running individuals and teams in the state and in their home counties. Pondering how those people rack up the miles can be another source of entertainment!

The Walk Georgia program allows for more kinds of activity than just walking, running, and cycling - the activities that are more commonly thought of in terms of miles. It also converts other kinds of physical activity, such as yoga, weightlifting, and yard work, into "miles," so there are plenty of ways to get credit for a varied exercise program.

The goal of Walk Georgia is to get as many Georgians moving as possible, to enhance the health and well-being of the citizens of this state. Registration for the upcoming free session is open until October 9, which means there is plenty of time to get logged in and get moving. To register, visit the site linked here.

For more information, call Cobb County Cooperative Extension at 770-528-4070. 

Vegetable Growers Workshop in Griffin, GA

Vegetable Growers Workshop

Friday, September 20, 2013

9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

 

On the University of Georgia campus in Griffin, GA

This workshop for small-scale farmers and home gardeners interested in growing and marketing vegetables for profit will be taught by UGA Cooperative Extension vegetable horticulturist Bob Westerfield.

The class will cover the basics of how to begin earning extra income by growing and selling vegetables. Workshop topics will include which vegetables to grow, how to grow them, the use of plastic mulch and high tunnels, understanding soils, equipment selection, and pest identification and control.

The workshop is designed for beginning growers or homeowners who would like to sell their produce at a farmers market, at a roadside stand, or to individuals.

The program will be held from 9:00 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. at the UGA Research and Education Garden off Ellis Road in Griffin. 

The cost of the workshop is $39, which includes all materials, lunch, and break refreshments. 

For more information or to register, call Beth Horne at (770) 228-7214 or email her at bhorne@uga.edu.

Time to Plant the Fall Vegetable Garden

As summer's crops begin to flag in their production and look more and more ragged, the urge within many gardeners to tidy up and start anew is strong. Luckily, this is a good time to heed that urge.

UGA's Vegetable Planting Chart, which includes names of many vegetable varieties that are known to produce well in Georgia, shows planting dates for fall garden vegetables as well as for the spring garden. The planting dates are for "middle Georgia," some distance south of Atlanta, which means the dates will need to be adjusted for the cooler weather in Cobb County by bringing the fall planting dates deeper into the summer by two or three weeks.

South of Atlanta, the first frost is fairly reliably in mid-November or later, but it is closer to October's end in Cobb. In order for the plants to reach maturity in a timely manner (before next spring), we need to get our fall vegetables started sooner. For example, the chart shows fall planting dates for lettuce as falling between Aug. 1 and Sept. 1.  Adjusting those dates for our earlier first frost brings us to mid-August as being near the end of the best time to start lettuces from seed in the garden. This doesn't mean that lettuce started from seed in September will be a total bust, only that it might not reach its full size by the first frost.

The good news is that we usually get plenty of warm weather after the first frost, before winter really sets in, so vegetables will continue to mature past the frost date. However, growth will slow substantially, and any plants that are too young might not survive the first frost without protection.

Auburn University Cooperative Extension, in its publication Basics of Fall Vegetable Gardening, recommends similar planting dates for residents of Alabama. The publication also offers general advice about planning and planting for a successful fall garden and for protecting tender plants from a hard freeze. Click on the link (above) to read the full text (pdf format).

Rain is Still the Story in Home Gardens

All the vegetable gardeners whose gardens are not doing as well this year as usual have probably already thought that the excessive rain is at least partly to blame, but Dr. Elizabeth Little, plant pathologist with UGA, confirms all of our suspicions in her recent Georgia FACES article, "Wet conditions create perfect setting for tomato, cucurbit diseases."

This particular article focuses on the cucurbit family - the squash, melons, and cucumbers that are such a large part of the summer garden and summer mealtimes. In addition to short but useful descriptions of three fairly common diseases - downy mildew, powdery mildew, and anthracnose - she includes information about a less common disease, cucumber yellow vine, that is affecting crops in some parts of the state.

For all, she offers recommendations for reducing problems in future years. For example:

"Anthracnose is mainly a concern on cucumbers and melons. The symptoms include leaf spots, defoliation and sometimes fruit lesions. The diseases survive in the infected debris, so rotation and the destruction of plant debris at the end of the season are important preventative measures. Wet weather is a major contributing factor. Trellising and/or the use of high tunnels, especially with cucumbers, can help reduce infections."

For more information, visit the original article, linked above.

The wet weather is also causing bumper crops of all kinds of mushrooms to pop up in yards, gardens, and fields. Another UGA plant pathologist, Jean Williams-Woodward, has written in the Georgia FACES newsletter article "Recent rains have mushrooms popping up" that it is never safe to eat a mushroom that has not been identified by an expert:

"University of Georgia Cooperative Extension specialists say do not eat any mushrooms growing in lawns and certainly ones that have not been identified by a expert. Many are poisonous to some degree. At the very least, they will make you sick. At worst, you can die. Don't take the risk."

She adds, "To prevent accidental ingestion of mushrooms by pets and children, rake, mow over, or otherwise remove the mushrooms from your lawn."

Identifying mushrooms requires careful attention to the environment in which they are growing, what they are growing on, and much more, include their spore prints, which Williams-Woodward describes in her article, linked above.