June 11,
2013 - Kim’s Weekly Garden Newsletter
From Kim Willis
These weekly garden notes are
written by Kim Willis, unless another author is noted, and the opinions
expressed in these notes are her opinions and do not represent any other
individual, group or organizations opinions.
Hi Gardeners
The sun is again out and a quick glance at the garden a little
while ago shows how much the plants appreciated the rain. They always look so nice and perky after a
shower. We got 8/10th of an
inch, a good but not overwhelming rain. My
lettuce is ready to harvest finally and I have strawberries turning color. The corn is growing well and my potatoes are beginning
to flower- they really love the new garden. It’s not too late to plant some tomatoes or
peppers, or even sweet corn if you haven’t done it.
 |
| Columbine near Marlette MI. |
Black locust, high bush cranberry and currants are blooming
in the woods. My trumpet vine is
starting to bloom, which pleases the hummingbirds. I have been passing a truly spectacular
columbine growing in the strip of lawn between the sidewalk and road on my way
into Marlette. It looks like a bush and
is loaded with flowers. There’s no other plants around it.
The roses are just starting to reach
their peak. I have many coming into
bloom. My sage, lavender and chives are
blooming. Shasta daisies are beginning
to bloom. It’s a pretty time of year.
If you follow this newsletter or know
me you know about my battles with the red squirrels and how much I dislike
them. However babies will get you every time
and I fell victim to their charm yesterday.
I came in from the barn last night and while taking my wet clothes off
on the porch I heard scratching coming from the metal trash can where I store
my wild birdseed. I had taken some
sunflower out earlier in the day, but had replaced the lid. Obviously the lid wasn’t down securely
though, because inside were 3 tiny baby red squirrels. They were all eyes and red fluff, just out of
the nest. I reclosed the lid and went in
to ask my husband what to do. He just
looked at me and smiled.
So I went back out there, fully
intending to dispatch the little varmints, but I couldn’t, they were just so
helpless and cute. So I put a broom in
there so they could climb out and out they went, back into my ceiling above the
porch. They left behind several nibbled
on black walnuts, totally strange that they carried nuts to a can full of
birdseed. I told them as they struggled to
climb back up to their nest that this was their one free pass, next time I see
them I will be calling for some dogs. I
hope they remember.
Iris Care
Now is the time to examine iris leaves for tunnels or “tracks”
indicating that a borer larvae is working its way down to the rhizome. If you see a tunnel squeeze it hard at the
lowest point to kill the little worm. As
soon as the irises have finished blooming they can be divided. They need to be
divided every3-4 years to keep them healthy and blooming. If you want to remember a color or name you
can simply write it on the iris leaf with a magic marker.
Dig up the clumps and wash off the soil gently. Look at the rhizomes for any holes or soft
spots. If an iris borer has already
found its way to the rhizome you may find a hole with a big pink worm
inside. Areas with borers should be cut
out and discarded. Cut up the clump of
iris with a sharp knife, leaving one or two healthy firm rhizome segments and
some leaves ( a fan) with each
division. It’s best to let the divisions
sit for a day or two in a sunny spot before re-planting them, this discourages
mold and rot. Throw out old shriveled
rhizomes or soft rotted ones.
Most people trim the leaves back to about 3 inches before
re-planting the divisions. Plant the
iris so that the top of the rhizome is just barely covered with soil. Divisions may not bloom next spring so to
avoid having no iris blooming in the garden, divide only a few clumps each
year.
Butterfly news
A new North American species of butterfly has been identified,
possibly the last new species that will be found in North America. Vicroy's Ministreak is a tiny gray butterfly
with distinctive olive green eyes. It is
found in Texas and other parts of the Southwest.
Some researchers at Yale found that female butterflies are
drawn to males with the most “flash.” They
found that male butterflies that had bigger or more colorful spots from
mutations tended to attract more females than their normal brothers, even
though females are pre-programmed to look for a certain pattern which
determines their species.
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| Monarch and Milkweed. |
And a long held idea
about what caused butterflies to develop distinctive markings and spots to
avoid predation has been challenged. For
hundreds of years it was thought that birds, a big predator of butterflies,
determined what patterns developed in butterfly species. Now research points to a smaller foe, spiders
that don’t make webs, as driving force in butterfly patterns, particularly a
pattern where a spot on the wings resembles a head or eye.
Spiders sneak around butterflies that land on flowers and
attack their heads, where the venom they inject will be the most lethal. If a butterfly has a spot on its wings that
resembles a head the spiders often strike there and their venom is basically useless. The butterfly escapes, sometimes with a hole
in the wing. After observing the
behavior in lab experiments, researchers studied hundreds of museum specimens, and
often found damage to the wings where there were false “heads”.
In other butterfly news researchers found that female
butterflies avoid mating with inbred males by smelling them with their antenna
and refusing to mate with butterflies that had less male sex hormones, which is
caused by inbreeding. Inbred butterflies
are not as healthy or strong as normal butterflies and further inbreeding
results in sterility, which is bad for the butterfly race.
It’s how scientists
determined this tidbit of information that fascinates me. They had to breed butterflies that were
inbred and some that were not inbred.
Then they dusted the male butterflies rear ends with different colored
powders so they could tell which butterfly mated with a female. They also coated the antennas of some
butterflies with nail polish so they couldn’t “smell” and then released them
all in a cage and observed and recorded the results.
Can you imagine describing your job as a butterfly butt
duster?
Rhubarb recipes
Do you have rhubarb in your garden? It’s an easy plant to grow and the flowers
are even quite ornamental. It prefers
full sun in good soil and is usually started as a plant. Don’t harvest any stalks the first year but
after that up to half the stalks can be removed at a time. If you want rhubarb for eating keep the
flower stalks cut off to prolong stalk harvest.
I let it flower because I like the beautiful white blooms. Rhubarb needs to be divided every 3-5 years.
 |
| Rhubarb and pineapple cake. |
I don’t care much for
the taste of rhubarb although my husband loves it. As a child I did chew on a stalk in the
spring along with the other kids, we raided my grandmother’s rhubarb patch
quite regularly. My husband likes to
pick a stalk to chew on but he would much rather have rhubarb pie or cake. You
can dip a stalk in sugar or honey to mellow the tartness, as kids we also
dipped it in sweetened orange juice.
Only the rhubarb stalks are safe to eat, the leaves contain
a lot of oxalic acid and would make you quite ill. You can eat stalks anytime they are crisp and
young, although the taste isn’t great after the weather gets warm and the plant
flowers. Stalk color varies from deep
red to greenish red and color really isn’t a determining factor for whether
rhubarb tastes good. Rhubarb is high in fiber and antioxidants, it’s also high in calcium, manganese and vitamins A and
C. Rhubarb can be canned or frozen to
use out of season. Here’s a link to my article on how to can and
freeze rhubarb. http://www.examiner.com/article/cooking-and-preserving-rhubarb
I like to mix rhubarb with other fruits; it blends well with
pineapple, orange, and strawberries.
Since strawberries are generally ripening at the same time rhubarb is
available, strawberry rhubarb pies and jams are quit common. Here’s a link to my recipe for a great
rhubarb and pineapple cake. http://www.examiner.com/article/rhubarb-and-pineapple-cake
 |
| Rhubarb flowers. |
While most people now only think of rhubarb as a pie or jam
ingredient, rhubarb is used medicinally, especially in Chinese medicine. The roots are usually dried and ground for
use as an herbal remedy. It’s used as a
laxative, for menstrual problems and skin diseases. Externally rhubarb elixir is used on burns
and for its antiseptic qualities.
A paste of mashed rhubarb stalks and leaves can be used to
clean burnt matter off pots and pans. A
golden hair coloring can be made from boiled rhubarb roots. Some organic
gardening recipes use rhubarb leaf tea or crushed rhubarb leaves as an
insecticide.
Cattails
There is a Native American saying that where there are
cattails a man will never go hungry. All
parts of the cattail (Typha sp.) are
edible. Even the pollen of the plants
can be used as a fine flour, that doesn’t need grinding. The roots can be dug and eaten, even in the
winter. The leaves of cattails are woven
into baskets and mats. The down or fluff
that carries cattail seeds aloft is used as an insulation and padding. Cattails are used to purify water at waste
treatment plants.
Modern research has developed a new use for cattails. Researchers
at the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP in Valley have developed a
building panel, similar to pressed board from chopped cattail leaves and stems,(
patent pending). This panel is
lightweight, very strong, has good insulation and sound proofing qualities and
is water and mold resistant. Builders
who have used the panels are very enthusiastic about them. The
price of the panels is very competitive with other building materials.
Cattails are common
across the US and in Europe. They grow
in wet areas unsuitable for other crops and as they grow they sequester carbon,
clean the soil and water and provide a habitat for hundreds of creatures. They require few or no pesticides and fertilizers
to grow and will make an excellent green alternative to traditional wood
products. An ancient friend to man is
proving useful again.
Lichens may be cure
for unusual diseases
Lichens are the lacy green, gray and yellow growths often
seen on trees. They are a combination of
algae, bacteria and a fungus working together and they are
perfectly harmless to whatever they grow on.
They are used by over 50 species of songbirds either as a source of food
or nesting material and by many other animals.
Lichens grow only where the air is fairly clean.
Christopher Johnson, Ph.D., a scientist at the USGS National
Wildlife Health Center has found another use for lichens. He has identified an enzyme in lichens that
breaks down the proteins found in Chronic Wasting Disease, a deadly disease of
deer and elk caused by “prions”. Prions
are infectious proteins that work similar to viruses and that are very
difficult to kill. It is thought that
the enzyme will also break down scrapies, a prion disease of sheep, and that it
could be useful in treating “mad cow disease.”
Scientists believe that lichens create an unusual range of enzymes
and chemicals to aid in their survival.
These are just beginning to be studied and may yield many useful properties. They are now conducting research to see if
feeding lichens to animals with prion diseases will cure them.
Using diatomaceous
earth in the garden safely
Many organic gardening articles recommend the use of
diatomaceous earth as a non-toxic way to control insects, particularly soft
bodied ones like caterpillars, and slugs.
Diatomaceous earth is actually tiny shells of sea creatures and the
sharp edges are said to cut soft insect bodies opening them to infection and
diseases. You sprinkle the product
around or on plants. People also feed it
to animals to control intestinal worms and give it to chickens to take dust
baths in. It’s also used in swimming
pool filters.
While the product is a natural one there are some dangers to
the gardener using diatomaceous earth. If inhaled the dust from diatomaceous earth
can cause a serious lung problem called silicosis. Purchase food grade diatomaceous
earth as it is slightly less dusty. If you already have lung problems do not use diatomaceous
earth. Wear a mask when applying the
product. Wear gloves as it will seriously dry out your hands. Be careful working where you have applied the
product so as not to raise a dust. You
can apply the dust in water, most packages sold in garden stores will have
directions as to mixing it and this lessens the chance you will inhale it.
Remember that diatomaceous earth will harm beneficial as
well as harmful insects. While some
gardeners say that it is effective for them, many also say it does
nothing. I have tried it and found no
great benefit. Many researchers note
that when it is moistened and mixes with soil it is mostly useless.
Go make a strawberry-rhubarb pie.
Kim
Garden as though you will live forever. William Kent
More Information
Imprelis update for spring 2013
Posted on June 6, 2013 by Bert Cregg,
Michigan State University Extension, Departments of Horticulture and Forestry
June 2013
marks the two-year anniversary of the first signs of problems associated with
Imprelis, a turf herbicide released by DuPont in fall 2010, but first widely
used in spring 2011. Shortly after lawn care operators, landscapers and golf
course professionals began applying Imprelis in spring 2011, damage to adjacent
trees quickly became apparent.
The active
ingredient in Imprelis, aminocyclopyrachlor, is highly effective on many
difficult to control turf weeds such as ground ivy since, unlike most common
turf weed killers, the compound is actively taken up by roots. While this
property helped Imprelis take out tough weeds, it also resulted in severe
damage and death to trees, especially Norway spruce and eastern white pine
trees.
Following
initial reports of damage by university extension services and media, including
the Detroit FreePress and New York Times, the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency issued a stop-sale order for Imprelis in July. After the product was
pulled from the market, DuPont established a claims process for affected
property owners and received over 30,000 damage claims. Total damage estimates
range in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Although Imprelis was only
applied for a very short window of time in fall 2010 and spring 2011, Michigan
State University Extension continues to receive inquiries from homeowners and
others concerned about possible Imprelis exposure and related issues. Here are
some of the key outstanding issues.
Tree recovery
Predicting
the ability of trees to recover from herbicide exposure is difficult even when
dealing with well-known compounds: the amount and timing of exposure, tree
condition, soil factors and weather before and after exposure all act and
interact to determine the tree’s response. With Imprelis, this inexact equation
was further complicated since there were no published studies available on the
compound’s effect on trees. In many cases, Imprelis killed trees outright; in
others, trees were so severely damaged they obviously needed to be removed.
Developing a prognosis for trees with minor damage has been difficult and, in
some instances, trees that did not show symptoms of damage in 2011 showed
abnormal growth in 2012 and growth anomalies continue to appear.
For example,
MSU Extension educator Beth Clawson received images from a homeowner this
spring that showed club-like callus formation on terminal shoots of a pine
exposed to Imprelis. The prospect of tree recovery was further complicated by
extreme weather events in 2012. In the upper Midwest, where the greater number
of Imprelis damage cases occurred, warm early spring weather in 2012 was
followed by a series of frosts resulting in late frost damage to many trees.
This was followed by a record-setting July heat wave and severe drought in much
of the region, adding further stress to trees struggling to recover from
Imprelis exposure. Although it is difficult to say with certainty, it seems
reasonable to assume that weather extremes in 2012 prolonged the recovery time
needed for many Imprelis-affected trees.
Soil and plant residual
Based on
published information, Imprelis in soil has a half-life (time for concentration
to decrease by one-half) of 35 to 100 days. If we assume the slowest decay rate
(100 days), that means we are roughly seven half-lives out from most Imprelis
applications two years ago. Therefore, current soil concentrations should be
less than 1/100th the initial concentration. (For you math purists out there,
the calculation is 1 divided by 2 to the 7th power.)
The Indiana
Office of the State Chemist tested soil from Imprelis-treated sites in 2011,
2012 and 2013 and the concentrations have generally followed this decay. In
2013, they did not find detectable amounts of Imprelis in six out of 11 samples
and in the other five, Imprelis was detectable but not quantifiable, indicating
levels were extremely low.
While
Imprelis levels in soil have largely dissipated, Imprelis in tree tissues
appears to be breaking down much more slowly. Gail Ruhl, senior plant diagnostician at Purdue
University, reports their group was able to find Imprelis residues from in
leachate from container-grown tomato plants that were mulched with ground
branches from Imprelis-affected trees. The tomato plants also showed signs of
abnormal growth. This information is important as Imprelis-related tree
removals continue. Waste material from Imprelis-affected trees should be burned
or landfilled, but not mulched.
Settlement process
DuPont’s
claims settlement process has been a source of frustration for many homeowners
and others with trees that were damaged or killed. As one would expect in a
process involving 30,000 claims in dozens of states, claims settlement has been
complex and fraught with delays. Claims were settled based on the extent of
damage and the size of the tree affected. Property owners received up to $7,000
for trees 40 feet or taller that were killed or damaged to the point that
removal was required. Owners of trees that were damaged but not removed are
eligible for a tree service package to restoration.
Dr. Cregg’s
work is funded in part by MSU‘s AgBioResearch.
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