Short Hort Notes
May 1, 2006
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IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM GARY FRANC, PLANT PATHOLOGY SPECIALIST:FYI: two items of potential interest are summarized below.
1. Potato Cyst Nematode Detected in Idaho - The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in coordination with the Idaho State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) announced a confirmed finding of potato cyst nematode in a soil sample collected from a potato processing facility in Idaho.
The nematode does not pose any threat to human health, but can reduce the yield of potatoes and other crops. There is no sign that the quality of tubers grown in Idaho has been affected. ISDA's early discovery of the potato cyst nematode is credited to the department's participation in the Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey (CAPS), a surveillance program managed jointly by USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and state departments of agriculture. Idaho and all other potato-producing states, including Wyoming, conduct routine surveillance and inspections for nematodes and other pests of concern.
As a result of these survey efforts, two cysts - the size of pinheads - were found in a soil sample sent for testing at the University of Idaho.
The university identified the cysts as that of the potato cyst nematode.
USDA's Agricultural Research Service confirmed the finding. This is the first time the potato cyst nematode has been found in the United States.
The university has conducted more than 9,000 soil sample tests since 2003. To date, no other cysts have been found in any other Idaho samples.
APHIS and ISDA scientists have isolated the origin of the cysts to two fields, totaling approximately 500 acres, on a farm in Idaho. APHIS is in the process of placing the two fields under quarantine and will conduct extensive sampling of the soil in cooperation with ISDA to determine whether additional potato cyst nematodes are present. APHIS and ISDA are also working to trace the origin of the seed that was planted in these fields. These finding have already affected international shipment of fresh potatoes from Idaho, including shipments to Japan and Mexico.
2. Gladiolus Rust (caused by Uromyces transversalis) has been found for the first time in the US. This disease was detected on leaves of cut gladiolus flowers coming from Florida that were shipped to Hawaii.
Trace-back of the interception in Hawaii, carried out on April 13, 2006, indicated that the rust-infected gladiolus originated from a gladiolus production farm, located in Manatee County, Florida.
Gladiolus rust is of plant quarantine importance in Europe and the United States. The fungus primarily attacks hybrid cultivars of gladiolus grown for flower production and could have significant impact if it became established or was transported into greenhouses or nurseries. This rust is apparently indigenous to eastern and southern Africa. It has also been reported from Morocco, southern Europe, South America (Argentina and Brazil), Martinique, Australia, New Zealand, and has recently been intercepted from Mexico.
"Rusts" are one of the easiest diseases to identify, because the fungus forms obvious raised powdery pustules that burst through the leaf surface. Uromyces transversalis is so named because, on certain hosts, it produces rust pustules across the width of the leaves, as compared to most rusts on monocots whose pustules are produced along the veins of the leaf.
The detection of Gladiolus Rust is unlikely to have significant impact in Wyoming, unless a greenhouse and nursery inadvertently brings infected plant material into their operation.
For more information, you may contact me at francg@uwyo.edu.
**** IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM ALEX LATCHININSKY, ENTOMOLOGY SPECIALIST:Together with Scott Shaw, I am currently working now on extension publication (a book of a field guide format) on Butterfly Gardening in Wyoming. The idea is to cover about 30-40 most common species of butterflies and moths providing photos of their adults and caterpillars, and information on their food plants. The photos of adult pinned specimens are not a problem. However, we are very much interested in the photos of adults in nature and, especially, the photos of caterpillars.
If somebody has such photos, please e-mail them to Alex Latchininsky (latchini@uwyo.edu). I cannot guarantee that each and every photo will be used in the book but certainly, authors of every published photo will be gratefully acknowledged.
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Second Horticulture/Master Gardener Train-the-Trainer Now Scheduled: Our second Horticulture Train-the-Trainer session is still scheduled for May 25 and 26 in Riverton at Central Wyoming College. If you have not received registration information yet, please let us know.There are five topics (one is a change): Weed ID and Management (Dr. Stephen Enloe), Consumer Pesticide Issues (Dr. Mark Ferrell), Master Gardener Guidelines (instead of vegetables) (Raina Spence), Turf (Dr. Justin Moss), and Woody Plants (Dr. Karen Panter). There is a $20 fee to cover breaks, lunch, and materials.
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*** Recent Questions:A - Muriatic acid is not a fertilizer but is hydrochloric acid, the same stuff that's in your stomach. To give you an idea of how potent it is, it is the active ingredient in concrete cleaners and has a very low pH. It is used in horticulture to temporarily lower the pH of soil, or in other words, to temporarily make it a bit more acid. What this does is temporarily make some plant nutrients more available to plants, especially micronutrients like iron and zinc.
A - It sounds very much like Cooley spruce gall - they almost look like small cones. They are very common and are caused by insects; it is not a disease. Ohio State has an excellent publication on it:
And Colorado State has two:
(UW does not have a publication on this problem online.....yet.) We have them on our spruce trees in the back yard. Spraying for them is difficult as the timing is important. A spring spray of a broad spectrum insecticide may help, with carbaryl or a pyrethroid type. Beware of carbaryl (Sevin), though, as it is highly toxic to beneficial bees. A dormant oil sprayed on in the late fall may also help. Unfortunately, dormant oils also have a tendency to discolor blue spruces.
We simply prune the galls out once they're obvious. They don't particularly harm trees but don't look very good and many people mistakenly think the galls will kill the trees, which they won't.
(*On August 22, the Rock Springs site had to be moved to Green River (WWCC).)
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In the Panter Back Yard: The peas and radishes are in and have sprouted. The carrots are in but we know how glacial they can be in germinating. We have had a veritable aviary in the back yard lately since we still have several feeders up - plus the birdbath. We've had at least one vireo (although they eat insects - we think they stop by to see what all the commotion is about), the usual house finches and sparrows, plus some white capped sparrows. They look like they have racing stripes on their heads - striped black and white. They feed on the ground so we always make sure there are some seeds accidentally spilled for them! There are even a few gold winged blackbirds hanging around, eating seeds along with their red winged cousins.The bird bath is busy all the time too. We filled it up yesterday morning and then watched as a couple of either very zealous or very dirty grackles splashed around, nearly emptying it.
We lost our 21-year-old cockatiel Pete a couple of weeks ago. The vets we talked to here were shocked to hear how old he was! He was quite geriatric and was suffering from what we suspect was the avian version of a stroke. He was very noisy (could whistle 'Yankee Doodle') and is very much missed.
The flowers are blooming like crazy - anemones, hyacinths, daffodils, Darwin tulips, and of course the cottonwoods and aspens (aaahhhhccchhhooo). The recent rain is welcome.
* Upcoming Events
*Horticulture Train-the-Trainer Program, May 25-26, 2006, Central Wyoming College, Main Hall room 133, Riverton. Contact:
kpanter@uwyo.edu.*American Society for Horticultural Science annual conference, July
27-30, 2006, Sheraton New Orleans Hotel, New Orleans, Louisiana. Contact: www.ashs.org.*American Society for Plasticulture Conference, November 2-5, 2006, San Antonio, Texas. Contact: www.plasticulture.org.
*Wyoming Groundskeepers and Growers Association Annual Conference, January 17-19, 2007, Parkway Plaza Hotel, Casper, Wyoming. Contact:
www.wgga.org.*ProGreen Expo, January 22-26, 2007, Colorado Convention Center, Denver, Colorado. Contact:
www.progreenexpo.com or info@progreenexpo.com.Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Glen Whipple, Director, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071.
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