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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 17, 2017)
in other words august17 2017 9 Diggin’ in the Dirt: Japanese Beetles By Chip Bubl Oregon State University Extension Service - Columbia County 2017 OSU Extension Canning Class Come learn how to safely pre- serve foods from your garden this sea- son! Participants will practice making and canning recipes in the kitchen, and will process a jar to take home. Space is limited, so call soon to reserve your spot! Pre-registration is required. Where: Columbia Soil and Water Con- servation District 35285 Millard Road, St. Helens, OR 97051 When (all classes 9:00 am-12:00 pm): Friday, August 18 ~ Canning Tomatoes and Salsa Cost: $25 per class. Scholarships are also available. Registration: Call the OSU Extension Service: (503) 397-3462 or register on- line at: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/ columbia. Garden topics This has been great weather. Many gardens have corn in full tassel. All you need to do now is keep the water going, fertilize with something like urea or blood meal along the corn row if the leaf color is too yellow-green and wait for harvest. That waiting isn’t easy. I have had several calls about blossom end rot on tomatoes. This isn’t surprising given the heat recently. There is a rumor going around that tomatoes need to be under-watered to produce the best (or earliest) crops. This isn’t true! All you will do is increase the blossom end rot. If the soil is short of moisture, especially in a high temperature stress situation, the plant can’t move enough calcium to support both the leaves and developing fruit. The lack of adequate calcium causes the end rot. The biggest fruits are often the most affected. Lim- ing isn’t enough. The plant roots need enough water to move it around. The recent blistering weather can affect pollination of several crops. Beans are the most likely to drop flow- ers. Tomatoes will also lose some flow- ers as temperatures neared 100˚ F. Even corn may show some incomplete “cob fill” due to the high temperatures. All the above mentioned crops will recover to produce more flowers and beans, to- matoes, or corn. Squash family crops are generally just fine. So are peppers. Lettuce, however, turns bitter and bolts to seed this time of year anyway. It just went faster with the extreme weather of early August. tions available for free It is easy to have too download. Just go to https:// many zucchinis, cucumbers catalog.extension.oregon- or green beans. However, it state.edu/. Click on publica- is important to continue to tions and start exploring. remove the fruit from the Take excess produce to the plants. Otherwise, new flow- food bank, senior centers, er, and thus fruit production, or community meals pro- is slowed. Keep the plant grams. Cash donations to picked and your plants will buy food are also greatly produce longer. appreciated. I tried the sugar solu- tion mentioned last month on The Extension Service blueberries as a bird repellent. offers its programs and For the fruit foraging birds we Illustration from Oregon Department of Agriculture materials equally to all have (robins, towhees, and people. and eliminated in small infestations over Stellar’s jays) it was a bust. No impact. Back to netting. We don’t the years but this one dwarfed all of Free newsletter The Oregon State University have starlings yet and they may be more those. Over 2,000 home yards and com- mercial landscapes were sprayed with an Extension office in Columbia County dissuaded by the treatment. As I write this, there are good insecticide to stop their spread. It is dis- publishes a monthly newsletter on gar- weather forecasts. But sun can turn to couraging that over 4,000 beetles have dening and farming topics (called Coun- drizzle quickly in western Oregon. For been trapped after the spraying, some try Living) written/edited by yours truly. those of us growing tomatoes, this is outside what had thought to have been All you need to do is ask for it and it will not comforting. If rain or drizzle per- their boundary. Clearly, this a big, long- be mailed to you. Call (503) 397-3462 to be put on the list. Alternatively, you can sists more than a day (or two at most), term problem. All gardeners need to learn to sign up for email notification of when our tomatoes and potatoes are at risk for late blight infections. Peppers are less af- identify this beetle. And don’t bring to find the latest edition on the web at fected. A full-blown infection can cause back any plants dug up from anywhere http://extension.oregonstate.edu/colum- the plants to look like they have been near Cedar Mill, SW Portland, Tigard bia/. blow-torched and all the fruit is ruined. or Beaverton! For pictures and more in- Contact information for the Extension Potatoes developing in the ground can formation on Japanese beetles, go to the office also be infected. So keep a sharp eye on following sites: http://www.oregon.gov/ Oregon State University the long term forecasts. If drizzle or rain ODA/shared/Documents/Publications/ Extension Service – Columbia County 505 N. Columbia River Highway forecast looks possible, consider spray- IPPM/JBThreatAndOpportunity.pdf ing your plants with a copper fungicide Many Extension publications avail- (across from the Legacy clinic) St. Helens, OR 97051 (most are considered “organic”) before able online the rain sets in. Are you putting up salsa, saving 503 397-3462 Irrigation is so important. De- seeds, or thinking about planting grapes? Email: chip.bubl@oregonstate.edu spite the drizzle in April and May, total OSU has a large number of its publica- rainfall for June and July is well below normal. At this writing, we haven’t had any rain in St. Helens for 48 days. Take a shovel or a post-hole digger to the soil and you will find it very dry. Subsurface moisture is largely depleted now, tem- QUALITY FABRICATION & INSTALLATION peratures have been hot and plants are at crucial stages of growth. We gener- ally get very little rain in August. Most gardens and lawns will need an inch and a quarter of water or more per week to keep going. Trees or shrubs planted this spring need even more water because their root systems are not well devel- oped. Absolute MARBLE Japanese beetle update If you have been following the news and this newsletter, you know about the massive infestation of Japanese beetles discovered in the Cedar Mill area straddling Washington and Multnomah Counties. The insects had been found MARBLE GRANITE TRAVERTINE FREE ESTIMATES Kitchen Countertops Fireplace & Furniture Tubs & Vanities Mariolino’s Pizza & Grill Do you believe that people and communities have a basic right to healthy environments and economies? Then come check out Clean Columbia County! We hold meetings the second Thursday of every month. Columbia Soil and Water Conservation District (Old Warren Grange) 35285 Millard Road St. Helens, OR 97051 (503)-799-6968 info@cleancolumbiacounty.info and check us out on Facebook! Serving breakfast, lunch & dinner Ice cream - cones, shakes & sundaes Daily Specials Family owned and operated for over 40 years. 721 Madison Avenue, Vernonia (503) 429-5018 CCB#204480 Phone 503-429-2617 AbsoluteMarble@frontier.com Farmwoman’s Nursery Lorna Poetter (503) 429-8200 2121 N Mist Drive (503) 369-09 2 3 PoetterFarm@gmail.com FB: Farmwoman’s Nursery
