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
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Do you believe that people and communities have a basic
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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
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