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November 10, 2005 Hortiscope
Q: My oak tree leaves have brown spots. Is this a fungus? Can it be treated and with what? Maybe it is from the wet spring we had. Thanks and I enjoy your column. (Portland, N.D.)
Q: I had a gorgeous silver birch in my front yard. I was getting very sick and discovered that I was allergic to the tree. To my regret, we had it cut down and the stump ground down. My problem is that there are millions of baby birch trees coming up in my yard. How can I get rid of them? I continue to get very sick. Even walking on my lawn and stepping on them give me a severe allergic reaction. I hope and pray that you can help me get rid of the baby trees and give me relief from my allergies. Any ideas are welcome. (e-mail reference)
Q: Are horseradish leaves safe to use? I was told to put the leaves in a crock when making crock dill pickles, but I also was told they could be poisonous. (e-mail reference)
Q: We would like to plant thuja evergreens, but don’t know if they will survive in our climate. When is the best time to plant? We have tried evergreens before, but without luck. (Lehr, N.D.)
Q: My husband bought two potentilla (goldfinger) shrubs at a local nursery during the first week of June. I planted them a few days later. I was concerned with all the hot weather we had, so I began to water them every other day by placing a small trickle at the base of the plant for a short time. They never flowered and recently have turned brown, but still seem to have life in the stems. I fertilized after a few weeks, thinking they would come back, but they never looked better. What am I doing wrong? I feel like I am doing too much or not enough of something. How do I know if they are dead? It is so hard to tell. (e-mail reference)
Q: I have a peace lily. I replanted it to a bigger pot and ever since then it looks like it is dying. It has yellow leaves and looks like it is in distress. What should I do? I try not to water it every day, but I spray the leaves every day with water. (e-mail reference)
Q: What is the best way to view and/or order various publications that are produced by your department? An example is the publication on strawberries (H-16). Can it be viewed online and printed out or is requesting a hard copy from your department the best way to go? (Valley City, N.D.)
Q: Can you please tell me what vegetables have a short root system? I have an area behind my house that used to be an ally, so the soil is very hard. I put 6 to 7 inches of dirt on top of the hard soil, so I want to plant something that has “short roots.” (e-mail reference)
Q: My mother gave me a jade plant last winter when she moved into an apartment and didn’t have room for it. It was a good-sized plant with four main stems that were about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. The soil in the pot was down, so I repotted it. I was watering it, but it got quite dry on top. It was looking good, but there were some leaves that were shriveled, so that told me it needed more water. I started giving it more water, but still waited until it was dry on top and always turned it so it would get plenty of light on all sides. The leaves plumped up, so I thought I was on the right track. The last couple of weeks it has been so hot, so I put up a curtain in the door where I had it so the room won’t get so hot. I opened the curtain when I got home from work in the late afternoon. A few days ago, I came home and there were two big branches snapped off and lying on the floor. They were the main branches from the center of the plant. The center of the branch didn’t seem to be soft, so I am not sure what happen. I am just sick. I never have had a jade plant before, so I am not sure what to do or how to start a new one. Can I take the branches that broke off and put them in new soil? I have noticed there are a few leaves that have little white, dry specks on them that can be rubbed off. (e-mail reference)
Q: I have raspberry canes that suddenly started wilting and dying. There are healthy canes among the dead ones. I could not find borers or girdlers, but did find many brown, rotting roots. Could this be rhizoctonia? The planting is at least five years old. Any suggestions on how to rejuvenate the canes? (e-mail reference)
Q: We have a silver maple that is doing fine, but has an irregular shape. The branches in the center of the tree have not grown as fast as those on the bottom and top. Is there anything that can be done to even out the shape of the tree? (Moorhead, Minn.)
Q: I have an amur maple. It has done well until recently, when its leaves started to turn a lighter green. Now I have several leaves with black or dark brown around the edges. Another amur maple a short distance away does not have these symptoms. Any ideas about the problem? Should I trim off the branches that show these symptoms? (e-mail reference)
Q: Much as I like fishing and acknowledge the necessity of nightcrawlers for that purpose, I have just discovered that I have them in my lawn. Do you have any tips for eradicating these pests? (Turtle Lake, N.D.)
Q: My petunias turned yellow in August. It looks like iron deficiency. My purple wave plants do not get this problem as easily as other waves or other varieties. I also have wave petunias in baskets in soil substitute. They are fine. The area with the petunias had fresh peat moss incorporated into the soil this spring. This yellowing is a yearly problem. I had hoped that watering with rural water would help, but it didn’t. I fertilized every 10 days with Miracle-Gro. Is there a product that I can utilize before planting that will have long-term results? Should I also spray with a stemic to control leafhoppers? As I said, the purple waves growing in soil are not affected. (Langdon/Wales, N.D.)
Q: Some people told me that cats like spider plants because it affects them like LSD. Did you find that to be true? I don’t have a cat, but I have a hamster that will do anything to get near my spider plants. If you could give me some insight into spider plants and cats, it would be very helpful! (e-mail reference)
Q: I read your column with interest and appreciate the advice and suggestions. I have a rather large plot in a Fargo community garden. This garden was flooded in June and my particular area was under Red River water for a day and a half. I had about 500 onion plants that, on average, were about the size of a pencil at the time of the flood. Most of the plants survived. In addition, I have been hearing some warning about the water possibly contaminating plants that were flooded, so I have avoided eating the onions. My question is whether there might be concern for eating the onion bulbs after they reached maturity, dried and were readied for storage. Would the two months time in the sun and rain eliminate any contamination? Some people irrigate their gardens with water straight out of the river and I haven’t heard of any problems. I realize that during a flood certain barnyard or other contaminants might have entered the river water. I suppose that cooking the onions would give more protection than eating them raw. Finally, if contamination might be an issue, is there any service where I could have the onions tested? (e-mail reference)
### Source: Ron
Smith, (701) 231-8161, ronsmith@ndsuext.nodak.edu |
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