 |
Ramsey County |
Howdy!!!!!!
What a week we had last weeeeeeek. I thought the rain was
over and all it last week was stay cloudy and in some cases.
I took a vacation day last Tuesday to help out on the farm and before the
day was over we ended up with a quarter inch of rain.
Enough rain to stop us from planting and cultivating for the rest of day.
This sure has been wonderful weather to start grass in.
Usually grass should be planted in late April or early May, but because
of circumstances beyond my control my grass was planted only two weeks ago.
I installed a sprinkler system in the area and planted grass and does it
ever look good. The cloudy weather
for the past several weeks has made for perfect grass establishment.
I also finished planting my numerous perennials shrubs this past week.
Like I mentioned last week, it will be very interesting watching these
plants materialize into a plant of beauty.
It is almost time for me to venture out fishing but one more project, a
deck.
Protecting your
spruce trees!!!!!!!!!
Every year we get many phone calls on applying fungicides
on our spruce trees. First off make
sure you have what you think you have. When
you hire an applicator make sure he will be doing the job that you are asking
him to do. This last year a case
happened in another county where an applicator convinced everyone that their
tree needed to be treated for aphids and spider mites.
The problem being, it was the wrong time of year for those insects.
The people that come to your home to treat your trees/yards should be
commercially certified applicators, through the state pesticide program and have
updated credentials. There are very capable applicators in our community, just
make sure you are hiring who you think you are hiring.
Planting trees!!!!!!
I drove a yard that had freshly moved in spruce trees.
I was very disappointed that the trees were planted about 15 feet apart.
We have been talking about the spruce disease problems for many years and
explaining how trees need space to grow. Now,
don’t get me wrong single spruce trees can also be infected but have a lesser
chance of infection than trees that are planted to close together.
Black Hills spruce are a great substitute for Colorado spruce and are
more resistant than Colorado’s but if we insist on planting to close we will
be promoting new strains of Rhizopharea to infect these trees.
I don’t mean to harp but we do need to be cautious of the many
different diseases and insects that affect our trees and proper management can
help alleviate some of those problems.
Growing Grapes?????????
A question came into the office this morning about growing
grapes. He said his grapes vines
were always dead in the spring but would always grow back from the roots.
He also stated that he never gets any grapes on the new vines.
First off, planting grapes is the easy part, but you do need to make sure
they are winter hardy for our area. Many
grapes will grow fine here but our harsh winters will beat up the weak if not
properly protected. Grapes need to
be protected from the harsh winter months.
I would suggest laying the vines on the ground and covering them up.
This will help get them through the winter months but may create an area
for rodents to enter and possibly destroy the vines.
The next thing we need to do is to prune our vines.
We do not want to prune anything less than 4 buds but would prefer 6-8
buds in length. We do need to have
healthy old vines to get grapes as new vines will not offer any fruit the first
year.
Calendar Dates!!!!!!
June 1 -Producer Coffee Meeting - 8 am - Lake Region Grain, Starkweather
June 6- Producer
Coffee Meeting - 8:30 am Brocket Elevator
June 7, 8, 9
Tractor Safety School
June 11 Ramsey County T.U.F.F. horse show
June 25 4-H Achievement Day Horse Show
524 4th Ave NE #5, 2nd Floor Ramsey County Courthouse
Devils Lake ND 58301
701-662-7027
email - ramsey@ndsuext.nodak.edu
Return to Back Home Index
Return to Ramsey Extension Home Page