8
in other words
june21
2018
Diggin’ in the Dirt: It’s Really Dry
By Chip Bubl
Oregon State University
Extension Service - Columbia County
Soil crusting
Some seeds really have to strug-
gle. Carrot, lettuce, dill, beet, and chard
all have to work to get through soils that
have formed a significant crust. Given
our standard clay-based soils and any
rainfall or sprinkler irrigation, crusting
is a fact of life.
The enterprising gardener will
plan for crusts. Sensitive seed should
be sowed in furrows and covered with
potting mix instead of the soil. Floating
row covers, which are useful in keeping
the carrot rust fly out of the carrot patch,
also intercept the drops of rain and allow
the water to float softly to earth, slowing
the crusting process.
It is really dry
We have a rain gauge at the Ex-
tension office. The total for May is less
than two tenths of an inch. This is almost
an inch and a half less than normal. The
recent June rains helped but from Janu-
ary to the present, we are still about four
inches short. I recently had to dig a hole
about two feet deep. There was much
less moisture in the lower levels than I
expected. What will this mean for gar-
deners? Trees and shrubs planted this
spring or last year will need water soon.
Overwintering crops like garlic, which
rarely need water in the spring, will need
some. Transplants like tomatoes, squash,
cabbage, and peppers will need lon-
ger irrigations to move moisture lower.
Blueberries should be watered from now
until fall. Blackberry varieties like Mari-
ons, Boysens, and Logans are deeper
rooted but still will need water soon. So
will apples on some of the more “dwarf-
ing” rootstocks.
Garlic looks good
Garlic generally benefits from
drier springs. There are far less leaf and
bulb disease issues. One watering now
should carry garlic through until har-
vest in July. For those of you that grow
“hardneck” garlic, the flower scapes are
starting to show. There are two reasons
to remove them. First, they take energy
away from bulb growth. Early scape
removal will give you larger bulbs at
harvest. Equally important, scapes are
great. Chefs in Portland love scapes and
they are sold for quite a bit of money as a
seasonal food. As they mature, the scape
stems become fibrous and are less ed-
ible. With drier conditions, some garlic
might be ready a bit earlier than usual.
Start looking closely at the end of June.
Elephant garlic could easily be ready in
the last week of June. Normal harvest for
regular garlic is mid-July but that might
be bumped up a week or so this year.
Flea beetles active – guard your
cabbage and tomato family crops
Flea beetles sometime show
up in bunches. This seems to be one of
those years. Flea beetles are small, dark
bronze to black jumpers that chew pin-
hole sized holes in your crop leaves.
Their larva also have chewing mouth-
parts and they feed underground, gnaw-
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ing away the fine and not so fine roots.
Larva do significant damage to potatoes.
Flea beetles are most damaging on seed-
lings and transplants. They are quite ca-
pable of eliminating an entire planting
almost overnight. Flea beetles are very
mobile and are capable of migrating to
better crops (from their standpoint) by
smell and a great deal of enthusiasm.
There can be one (cabbage flea beetle)
to three (potato flea beetle) generations
per summer. Adults overwinter and
start feeding and mating as the weather
warms in mid to late spring.
With hungry mobile adults and
larva that feed on seedling roots, you can
probably guess they are hard to manage.
Crop rotation can help but that is less
true for gardens where everything is in
closer proximity than commercial farms.
Row covers can help if they are tightly
fitted to the ground and aren’t covering
an area where there was flea beetle dam-
age last year. There is some evidence
that loose straw mulch laid between the
crop rows, can harbor predatory insects
and spiders, and might help. Commer-
cial organic growers are using cabbage
family varieties that cabbage flea beetles
really love as a trap crop to either di-
vert their attention or concentrate them
where they can be sprayed with an or-
ganic spinosad-based insecticide. The
same insecticide has been used as a crop
protectant directly with decent results.
For more information on flea beetles see
http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/
PNW640/PNW640.pdf and http://www.
maine.gov/dacf/php/gotpests/bugs/fact-
sheets/flea-beetles-oreg.pdf
What are those small red “cones” that
covered my roof, deck, and driveway?
I got a number of calls the last
several weeks about papery, small (1/4-
1/2 inch), red-brown cones covering
roofs and driveways. Most callers sus-
pected they were from Douglas fir trees
and they were right. What we have seen
is a prodigious number of “pollen cones”
coming off fir trees. Douglas fir is one of
those plants that have male (pollen shed-
ding) and female (pollen receiving and
where the egg is fertilized) flowers on
the same plant. This is not at all uncom-
mon in the plant world. It is found in the
Vernonia’s Voice is published
twice each month on the 1st
and 3rd Thursday. Look for
our next issue on July 5.
squash family, hazelnuts, alders, birches,
and a number of other species.
The amount of pollen cones is
determined by the conditions for growth
the previous spring. If you remember, it
rained a lot in April and May last year,
prime time for the growth of new Doug-
las fir shoots. The better the conditions,
the more pollen and seed “cone” buds
are produced. They develop slowly and
don’t shed pollen, or for the females, get
fertilized until the following spring. In
tough conditions, the cell structures that
had been programmed to become cones
convert to shoot growth. That increases
the light capture and helps the tree grow
more shoots and roots. Anyway, condi-
tions for cone initiation were very good
in the spring of 2017 and thus, we had
an extraordinary number of male cones
blown off by the wind recently when
their work of shedding their yellow-or-
ange pollen was done. There should also
be a heavy seed cone crop this fall. The
total process from cone initiation to seed
ripeness takes about 17 months. Douglas
fir usually doesn’t start flowering (cone
making) until they are 12-15 years old.
Take excess produce to the food bank,
senior centers, or community meals
programs. Cash donations to buy food
are also greatly appreciated.
The Extension Service offers its pro-
grams and materials equally to all
people.
Free newsletter
The Oregon State University
Extension office in Columbia County
publishes a monthly newsletter on gar-
dening and farming topics (called Coun-
try Living) written/edited by yours truly.
All you need to do is ask for it and it will
be mailed to you. Call (503) 397-3462 to
be put on the list. Alternatively, you can
sign up for email notification of when
to find the latest edition on the web at
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/colum-
bia/.
Contact information
for the Extension office
Oregon State University
Extension Service – Columbia County
505 N. Columbia River Highway (across
from the Legacy clinic)
St. Helens, OR 97051
(503) 397-3462
Email: chip.bubl@oregonstate.edu
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