Happy First Day of Fall

So today marks the first day of autumn. We are seeing some cool stuff around the office that I wanted to make a quick comment on....

First and foremost--2009 has been the year of the Fungus! I've seen all kinds of cool fungi this year including your garden variety mushrooms, dead man's fingers fungi, and my favorite--dog vomit fungi (it looks exactly how it sounds). Above are scenes of the mushrooms in our fall mums. And although I have asked (and made fun of...) to remove them, they will stay! They will only last a day or two and I think they add a cool feature to our landscape right now. So although a lot of people want to get rid of them they really are beneficial and our soils are getting better thanks to their decomposing help. So if you can stand them, leave them be, they are making the soil healthier for your plants.

Second, and even cooler still....snails. Hundreds of snails are emerging from their hiding places due to all the recent rain. The question has been "What can I do to get rid of them?" Unfortunately--nothing. Once the sun comes out and the rains stop the snails will go back into hiding. Be patient, it's very temporary.

Happy Autumn!

Crazy Weather

This year has been one of the hardest years to garden due to diseases. Vegetable diseases, fruit diseases, flower diseases....you get the picture. Nothing seems to be immune except for weeds which are thriving. The best management strategy begins with knowing exactly what's wrong. Although there are a lot of diseases running rampant this summer we are also seeing a lot of problems just due to the cool wet weather.

So the question is--how do I accurately diagnose what's wrong? The best first step is to contact the Extension Office, preferably by bringing in a sample for diagnosis. This is easily the best and fastest way. E-mail is always a great option as well. You can e-mail me questions (with pictures if you have them!) at carol.schreiber@uky.edu. You can also post your questions to this blog.

Another call I've also been getting lately is about bagworms. Lots of bagworms. And of course the question is--What can I spray? Unfortunately, the answer at this stage of the game is nothing but pick them off. For more information on controlling bagworms check out the following link to UK Entomology's Entfact 440--Controlling Bagworms in the Landscape at http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef440.asp.

July is coming very swiftly to a close andwe're heading into a new school year. Be careful on the streets as the students start back and have a great fall!

Gardening Season

Tomato season is upon us. Early tomatoes are starting to pop up at our local farmers' markets and many people are getting into gardening and tomatoes are the hot commodity. With more tomatoes in the ground more phone calls have been coming into the office. The following two publications from University of Kentucky and University of Tennessee will answer many of your questions as far as what might be going on with your tomatoes.

http://www.ca.uky.edu/agcollege/plantpathology/ext_files/PPFShtml/PPFS-VG-6.pdf

http://www.utextension.utk.edu/publications/spfiles/SP277-W.pdf

As the weather is warming up we will also start seeing bloom drop of tomatoes, peppers, and beans just to name a few. This is completely normal. When temperatures start consistently staying above 90 degrees during the day the plant will start to go into self-preservation mode. It will automatically drop some of it's flowers in an effort to conserve energy. No amount of water will fix this.

If vegetable gardening is not your cup of tea but you want fresh, locally produced fruits, vegetables, baked goods, crafts, flowers, and dairy products then the farmers' markets are for you. Bowling Green is lucky to have two large farmers' markets--the Bowling Green Farmers' Market in the Hobby Lobby parking lot and the SKY Market on 31-W in front of the Medical Center. Each market has a wide variety of products available each week.

Southern KY Regional Farmers’ Market
Tuesdays 7:00a.m.—1:00pm.
Saturdays 7:00 a.m.—Noon
The Medical Center at Riverside
31-W By Pass.

Bowling Green Farmers’ Market
Tuesdays 6:00a.m.—Sold out
Thursdays 6:00 a.m.-Sold out
Saturdays 6:00a.m.—Sold out
On Scottsville Road in front of Hobby Lobby

I hope to see you at the market!

Spring 2009

Spring has definitely sprung in Bowling Green. Sorry to anyone who has attempted to keep up, my plate got extremely full and frankly...I forgot to blog. Let me re-start this blog.

Hi. I'm Carol Schreiber, the Warren County Extension Agent for Horticulture. Many folks ask me what exactly is it that I do. Well, the technical answer is provide education and outreach to the citizens of Warren County in the areas of horticulture as well as community and economic development.

The real answer--I do a little of everything. My main job in the spring and summer months is answering a lot of questions, whether that is by phone, e-mail or face-to-face. I answer a lot of questions. My favorite questions always start off with, "This may be a strange question but..." Those are exactly the types of questions we answer. My very favorite question this spring started off this way and the the rest of the question was, "...how did you make the tulips bloom in Bowling Green so early in April?" He was a nice gentleman and we had a good discussion for about 10 minutes.

My purpose for this blog is to have another outlet to help you, the gardener. Whether beginning or experienced I hope you can learn something here.

The most common call of the month: Black "stuff" on fruit trees.

Never fear gardeners, this "black stuff" is a fungus called black knot. I know the title is not incredibly imaginative, but it is a fungus that you see primarily in late spring on fruit trees and fruit-like trees/shrubs (sand cherry, ornamental plum, crabapple--you get the picture). It's not horribly harmful to your tree and the best way to get rid of it is to simply prune it out. The following link is to the University of Kentucky Plant Disease Factsheet on Black Knot: http://www.ca.uky.edu/agcollege/plantpathology/ext_files/PPFShtml/PPFS-FR-T-4.pdf

The picture leading off this blog is of black knot taken by University of Minnesota Extension.