Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (June 17, 2010)
Page 6 The INDEPENDENT, June 17, 2010 Can You Dig It? By Chip Bubl, Columbia County Extension Educator Agriculture/Staff Chair The excess of rain is over (we hope) Jet streams have aligned and realigned over the last month such that every avail- able moisture-rich storm sys- tem was funneled our way. This has made gardening diffi- cult. Soils became saturated, leaving many gardens still untilled. Some vegetable gardeners who planted corn, beans, and squash sev- eral weeks ago are discovering that their rows have lots of gaps, if seeds came up at all. Planted tomatoes and (especially) peppers are looking rather peaked. Night temperatures below 58 degrees alter normal plant growth in peppers, leaving them in stunned sub- mission even after warmer weather finally gets here. Is there still time to plant or replant? Without a doubt, yes, assuming you can find the seed. Most of the standard garden vegetables will mature, albeit with smaller yields on crops like winter squash. I would skip melons this year. Short season corn (65-75 days) might be a good bet. It helps to warm the soil with sheets of clear plastic if the planting area isn’t too large. This helps even if you haven’t tilled yet. Make sure you fertilize adequately since you are trying to hurry the vegetables along a little bit. As the weather improves, tomatoes and peppers will grow normally. If you see diseased looking lower leaves on your toma- toes, pull them off. Many trees and shrubs are showing disease infec- tions that have been stimulated by the warmish, wet weather. Lombardy poplars at the Fairgrounds look like someone took a blowtorch to them. They should recover when the weather improves. Likewise with photinia, flowering plums, and cherries. Often the up- per parts of trees are all right, since they have better air circulation, but the lower or interior limbs are hard hit. You should rake up and destroy the infected leaves that dropped and, once the weather improves and new leaves emerge, prune out limbs/twigs that show no re- newed growth. If you have questions about how to handle specific plants, don’t hesitate to call. Close your eyes and thin Gardeners hate to thin. My precious seeds have struggled to the surface and now you are asking me to rip some of them out. I feel their pain. I won’t do it. You must. Many vegetables and flowers will not de- velop normally unless they have room to grow. Leav- ing plants crowded in their rows or beds can result in stunted, poorly developed plants. Competition for sunlight (that precious commodity that drives all plant growth) is the main source of prob- lems. Unless there is enough sunlight reaching the leaves, there will reduced leaf and root growth. If that continues for any period of time, the plant may never recover. Commercial growers of leafy greens know that one plant given enough room will produce more than four plants occupying the same space. Corn must be thinned or you may not get ears, ex- cept on the outside of the patch where there is enough sun. Root crops must be thinned so their leaves can gather enough sun to make the carbohydrates that are stored in the roots and bulbs. Beets must always be thinned because their “seed “ is a compound seed with several seeds inside. Don’t try to avoid thinning by planting less. If the weather is bad after planting, you will lose a certain percentage of what you plant. If you skimped on seed, you might not have a planting worth saving. So buy enough seed, plant enough, and thin. Follow instruc- tions on the seed packet, or information from reputable gardening publications. The thinnings can often be transplanted to give you a later maturing crop. Safety video contest for students The Oregon Seed Council and Oregon Farm Bureau are co-sponsoring a contest to cre- ate a video promoting safety while driving and sharing the roads with farm equipment. The contest is open to Oregon high school students or clubs. Participants are encouraged to use this summer’s harvest season while farm equipment is on the roadways to create a video. “We decided to announce the contest now so students will have the summer to work on the videos,” said Nick Bow- ers, chair if the Oregon Seed Council Public Relations Com- mittee. “Our goal is to use this contest to create video ads to raise the awareness of the gen- eral public when sharing the roads with large, slow-moving farm equipment.” “While other organizations have the resources and profes- sional staff to create their safe- ty message,” said Shawn Cleave of Oregon Farm Bu- reau, “we thought we would try a different approach and stimu- late the creative minds of Ore- gon students.” Entries are due by Novem- ber 15. The first-place winner will receive a prize of $1,000. All videos will be featured at the Oregon Seed Council booth during the Oregon Seed League meeting scheduled in Salem on December 6-7, 2010. Winners will be notified prior to the meeting and prizes will be awarded at the Oregon Seed League annual banquet on Monday, December 6. For a complete list of contest rules, visit oregonseedcouncil. org and look for the contest rules on the link page, or visit oregonfb.org. Oregon Seed Council and Oregon Farm Bureau will retain all rights to use any or all video entries in the future. Spittlebugs I’m sure that many of you have noticed the frothy globs on a lot of plants. The character responsible is the spittlebug, which builds the glob to protect their young from predation. The glob is constructed from the sucked juices of the plant. In most cases, this is not a serious concern. Strawberry growers, though, can suf- fer quite a yield reduction if the quantities of the bugs are high enough. It is fairly easy to wash spittlebugs off with a directed water spray. You can control them with an insecti- cide, but this needs to be applied before the glob forms. That would mean an application around the first part of May. For small prob- lems, washing is much easier. Free newsletter The Oregon State University Extension office in Co- lumbia County publishes a monthly newsletter on gar- dening and farming topics (called County Living) writ- ten/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 find it on the web at http://extension.oregonstate.edu/columbia/ , click on newsletters. 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 Church Directory V ERNONIA F OURSQUARE C HURCH S T . M ARY ' S C ATHOLIC C HURCH P IONEER B APTIST F ELLOWSHIP Carl Pense, Pastor 850 Madison Avenue, Vernonia 503 429-1103 Sunday Worship Service: 10:30 a.m. Children’s Sunday School Rev. Luan Tran, Administrator 960 Missouri Avenue, Vernonia 503 429-8841 Mass Sunday 12:00 Noon Religious Educ. Sunday 10:30 a.m. John Cahill, Pastor 939 Bridge Street, Vernonia 503-429-1161 Sunday School 9:45 a.m. Sunday Morning Worship 11:00 a.m. Wednesday Prayer 7:00 p.m. S EVENTH D AY A DVENTIST V ERNONIA C OMMUNITY C HURCH Larry Gibson, Pastor 2nd Ave. and Nehalem St., Vernonia 503 429-8301 Morning Worship, 11:00 a.m. Sabbath School 9:30 a.m. Grant Williams, Pastor 957 State Avenue, Vernonia 503 429-6790 Sunday Breakfast 9:00 a.m. Morning Worship 9:45 a.m. Children and Nursery 10:00 a.m. Youth Group 6:00 p.m. Preschool Mon. & Wed. 9:00 a.m. Wednesday Prayer 6:00 p.m. Tues. & Fri. Adult Volleyball 7:00 p.m. A SSEMBLY OF G OD Wayne and Maureene Marr 662 Jefferson Ave., Vernonia, 503 429-0373 Sunday School 9:45 a.m. Morning Worship 11:00 a.m F IRST B APTIST C HURCH 359 “A” Street, Vernonia 503 429-4027 Sunday School 9:45 a.m. Sunday Worship Service 11:00 a.m. Wednesday Prayer Meeting 7:00 p.m. V ERNONIA C HRISTIAN C HURCH Sam Hough, Minister 410 North Street, Vernonia 503 429-6522 Sunday School 9:45 a.m. Sunday Worship 11:00 a.m. (meets in Youth & Family Center) Home Group Meeting throughout the week at various locations N EHALEM V ALLEY B IBLE C HURCH C HURCH OF J ESUS C HRIST OF L ATTER D AY S AINTS Gary Taylor, Pastor Grant & North Streets, Vernonia 503 429-5378 Sunday School 10:00 a.m. Morning Worship 11:00 a.m. Nursery available Wednesday Service 7:00 p.m. Marc Farmer, Branch President 1350 E. Knott Street, Vernonia 503 429-7151 Sacrament Meeting, Sunday 10 a.m. Sunday School & Primary 11:20 a.m. Relief Society, Priesthood and Young Women, Sunday 12:10 p.m.