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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 15, 2022)
10 In Other Words September 15 2022 Diggin’ in the Dirt: Heading into Fall By Chip Bubl Oregon State University Extension Service – Columbia County The OSU Extension Office is fully reopened. The best way to reach me directly is with the email below but calls are always welcome. Conifer needle loss – is it normal or something bad? All conifers have needle shedding cycles. Some like coastal redwoods, do it all of the sudden, starting right about now. The older the redwood, the more dramatic it is since a lot of interior needles turn red-orange all at once and drop to the forest floor. The bigger the drop, the more robust growth the tree had the year they were formed. I have had clients that bought homes with a coastal redwood in the landscape who are panicked that they have done something wrong in how they watered or something else. They are happy to know the tree will be fine. Normal interior needle drop in western red cedars is similar but more concealed by the way their drooping tree limbs grow, so there is less alarm. Western red cedars have normal “flagging” that is quite evident and scattered around the outer portion of the tree but has never been correlated with insect or disease issues. Douglas fir and western hemlock are very subtle, dropping needles gradually in the year they are due to drop. You might ask, why do they drop them at all? It’s all about sun. A shaded needle gathers no sunlight so it makes no sugars that drive tree growth. The tree extracts what it http://nwconifers.com/ can from the needles and lets them go to renew the forest duff. However, trees in trouble will, at their end stage, have needles that usually turn off color (a gray-green often) and then dry out to a red-brow color. It is not limited to older needles and is often systemic through the tree. Often the top thins first followed by the lower limbs. Most of the problems are from several root diseases that attack slowly and then pick up speed. There is sometimes genetic resistance for individual conifers on a pocket of trees that are in trouble. Location and moisture stress can also play a role. There is no cure. As you may have heard, dry springs (though this year was not at all dry) have led to the decline of western red cedars from moisture stress. Many dying trees have been closely looked at and no disease has been found. Vernonia and higher coast range elevations are seeing less western red cedar death than lower elevations closer to the Columbia River. There is scientific speculation that the historic range of the western red cedar is changing, both moving north and surviving at higher elevations that get more coastal rainfall. But there is great concern that moving isn’t easy and climate may change faster than these trees can move without human help. For more information on this issue see https://tinyurl.com/cczh4fxh . Heading into fall After the challenging spring, summer has really been quite nice. There have been more hot days than the historic norm (see this graphic from NOAA and the Oregonian: https://tinyurl.com/ mrzrdejz) but not the blistering heat of 2021. Squash are doing well and tomatoes have started fruit big time. So far not enough rain to incite late blight disease but stay alert to the upcoming weather. Peppers are outdoing themselves and there is an uptick on hot peppers being grown. Sweet corn is nice. Potatoes are mostly ready for harvest. Stop watering potatoes once they have flowered. Make sure you get them before the field mice (voles). Same warning for carrots and beets. There is still time to plant kale, arugula, radishes, and possibly lettuce and chard. Garlic can be planted now through January though most are planted by October. The beds can be “prepped” now (lime, organic materials like compost, and a little fertilizer) for later planting. They can be covered to reduce weeds and keep them dry enough to plant into. After planting, mulch the bed surface lightly with sawdust or shredded leaves. Garlic mites have been an increasing problem, causing harvested cloves to shrivel and dry. If that is a problem in your harvest, separate the best cloves for replanting and dust them with powdered sulfur to reduce the mite population. The cloves can be stored in a zip lock bag in the refrigerator until planted. Best long term storage for garlic that is showing mite activity is in freezer cartons in the freezer. Despite some comments that it changes the flavor, I don’t think that is true. They will store indefinitely that way and can be easily chopped or smashed as needed in the kitchen. This is also the time to remove the spent fruiting canes from Marion and Boysen blackberries. The new canes are growing vigorously and need space on the trellis to themselves for next year’s crop. Remove the canes that bore fruit this year and tie the new ones up. For raspberries that only fruit once in July, remove those canes and tie the new ones on the trellis. If it bears both in August and July, remove the July canes that bore fruit but leave the ones that fruited recently. The recent fruiting ones will die back a bit from the top but will produce a second crop next July and then die for good. Finally, think about advance planning for emergencies. Our weather seems incredibly unstable. It is such a challenge for long-term weather forecasting. We have always been turbulent but it is more intense now. So be prepared for fire for the next several weeks and then as we move into winter, for more cycles of serious rain. Everyone should maintain a month’s worth of food and have some capacity to prepare it and have household heat if electricity is out for an extended period of time. 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 programs and materials equally to all people. Contact information for the Extension office Oregon State University Extension Service – Columbia County 505 N. Columbia River Highway St. Helens, OR 97051 503-397-3462 Email: chip.bubl@oregonstate.edu Poppino Painting 902 Bridge Street 971-533-4908 Tim Poppino 19025 Woods Road Vernonia, OR 97064 Licensed Bonded Insured CCM#90548 Vernonia, Oregon 97064 Elmer Rivas Owner 971-227-0462 egrivas70@yahoo.com Firewood For Sale at Pihl’s Wood Yard 2.5 miles south of Vernonia on Hwy 47 Many options to choose from Keeping Vernonia employed! Call/text Lindsay Pihl (503) 781-0710 or Call the office (503) 429-1470
