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Jim's Corner •
Horticulture Survey •
Overseeding Turfgrass
Preparations • Horticulture Department News
• Research Reports •
What's Up • Plant Profile •
New
Extension Publications
Jim’s Corner
It was a typical August for me attending both the Southern
Nursery Association research conference and trade show in Atlanta and then at
the end of the month touring nurseries in Portland, Oregon, in preparation for
next year’s tour that I will host. I always find these trips to be
tremendously motivational since I hear lots of new ideas or see lots of plants
to bring back to Arkansas. From what I could gather, Arkansas had a pretty good
spring relative to many other parts of the country. I also sensed a
"softening" in the market, especially on certain species and
smaller-sized material.
Getting away also allows a person uninterrupted time to reflect
and think about aspects of their job or home. Sometimes we get so close to our
work that we miss the obvious things. How many of you have ever asked a new
employee what their first impression of your business was? Have you ever stopped
to see your business through the eyes of your customers? What does the signage
and front of your business tell your customers? Do the people that answer your
telephones, or your recorded telephone message, sound professional? What caught
my eye in Portland and Atlanta was how many restaurants were enticing customers
through the "curbside" appeal of their landscaping.
Horticulture Survey
I am excited to inform you that our new Extension economist, Ron
Rainey, and I are planning to conduct a thorough survey of the horticulture
businesses in Arkansas in spring 2002. Why do we feel a survey is necessary?
Most of you already know that the USDA routinely surveys the production side of
horticulture. This would include acres of peaches, acres of nursery stock and
square feet of greenhouse crops.
Horticulture, especially ornamental horticulture, is much more
than that. Ron and I are certain, based on studies conducted in other states,
that we are undervaluing horticulture by hundreds of millions of dollars. Areas
such as garden center sales, landscape installation and maintenance, mowing and
chemical use on roadways, florist shops, tree maintenance and more are not being
tracked. Key administrative and legislative individuals need to know the full
impact of horticulture in Arkansas.
With this in mind, we want to encourage ALL of you to
participate in the survey when it is administered in spring 2002. This is your
chance to let your voice be heard. Ron and I have worked very hard to ensure the
confidentiality of your data so it will not be accessed by anyone. Only
summarized data will be available in reports and presentations.
Overseeding
Turfgrass Preparations
Extension Horticulturist Tom Koske,
Louisiana State University
Before long, superintendents will be
overseeding their bermudagrass. We overseed at the end of September or early
October in far north Louisiana and about November 1 in New Orleans. It is said
that overseeding first starts with growing a healthy Bermuda turf. That takes
all summer long. If we core aerate prior to overseeding, it is done at least 30
days before overseeding and could go longer than that.
Overseeding may consist of various cool
season grass mixtures or blends, but I won’t go into all that. Most will
choose a perennial ryegrass or a rough bluegrass – Poa trivialis. The
trick in overseeding is to protect the overseed from annual bluegrass invasion
before the overseed has gotten thick enough to take care of itself.
One excellent control has been to use the
fungicide Rubigan AS as specified in its supplemental label. You will also get
good disease control as a lagniappe. In order to have good results (90 percent
control) with this pricey product, you must do it properly, and that takes time,
skill and knowledge. The label specifies two or three split applications at 14
days apart. The last application is made 2 weeks before seeding the rye or 4
weeks before seeding a Poa trivialis or bentgrass. With these
restrictions, you will start the first application either 4, 6 or 8 weeks prior
to actual overseeding. When using a Poa or bent, choose the three
applications per 8-week program.
Some also like to slow the Bermuda more than normal
cooling temperatures would do naturally. The use of liquid Primo plant growth
regulator as a foliar spray can be used to do this. It can be used at a lot less
than the label’s rate for "overseeding bermuda" (23 ounces per
acre). You should apply about 3 to 8 ounces per acre 3 to 5 days prior to
opening up the sward before planting. Rate depends on the bermudagrass cultivar.
Horticulture Department News
1. During a visit to Asheville, North Carolina, this summer I
saw my first landscape beds mulched with colored rubber mulch! Finally, at SNA
in August I found a supplier for this new mulch material. International Mulch
Company, based out of St. Louis, is interested in telling you more about colored
"Rubberific
Mulch." The company can be contacted at 1-866-WE-MULCH
(936-8524).
An Arkansas company is also manufacturing and distributing
colored rubber mulch products. If interested, contact Clint Black of the Rubber
Tree Co. in Clarksville at 501-754-1138.
2. For those that love American Composting’s (Little Rock, Arkansas)
products in bulk, you can now get their compost (1 ft2) and Supersoil (40 lb, 1
ft2) products in a bagged form. Contact them at 501-945-8888.
Research Reports
Daylily Rust
Dr. Steve Vann, Extension Plant Pathologist
During August of this year, Arkansas was added to the growing
number of states where daylily rust (Puccinia hemerocallidis) has been
reported. The rust fungus, which is native to Asia, was first identified in
Georgia in August 2000. So far, symptoms of daylily rust have been observed on
leaves and the flower scape. The same fungus will also infect members of the
genus Patrinia, which is also an ornamental. This plant may be important
in the completion of the fungal life cycle. Although Hosta spp. were
reported in the literature as a host for the rust, no Hosta plant has been
infected by the rust by inoculation studies conducted in Georgia, and at this
point Hosta is not considered a host for the rust fungus.
Symptoms
The rust spores are bright orange-yellow and are produced on
both upper and lower leaf surfaces in raised pustules. Pustules have also been
observed on the scape. Initial symptoms include water-soaked spots that are
circular to elongated. The spores are spread by wind and splashing water.
Initial symptoms may appear 3 to 5 days after infection (very fast!). Pustules
can be viewed in the field with a simple 10X hand lens. Suspected pustules can
be wiped with an ordinary white facial tissue. An orange-yellow stain on the
tissue will result if the rust pustules are present. Daylily rust may be
confused with other leaf problems such as insect damage (e.g., mites, aphids)
and leaf streak which is caused by another unrelated fungus. Leaf spots
associated with leaf streak disease will not yield the yellow stain on a white
cloth.
At this time the State Plant Board considers this a quality
pest. Should daylily rust be found at a nursery or dealer, affected plants may
be placed under a "stop sale" order. Properly treated plants may be
released for sale when "clean." A USDA task force is presently
reviewing regulatory options for this new disease, so changes may be
forthcoming. The persistence of this pest in the industry will be in direct
relationship to each grower’s efforts to treat infected plants and to sell
only "clean" material.
The Cooperative Extension Service will release a fact sheet (FSA-7525) on this problem in late September and copies can be obtained from
your local office.
Other internet
sites include:
If you suspect daylily rust, contact your local Extension office
or call the Disease Clinic at Lonoke at (501) 676-3124 and ask for Dr. Vann.
What’s Up?
Interesting websites!
The
Ramsey Nursery (Harrison, Arkansas), has been updated recently. Their site offers a virtual tour of
some of their landscape jobs. Nice marketing idea!
Involved with Sports Turf maintenance or construction? Check out
the University
of Missouri site.
Again, I cannot say enough quality things about the programs
offered through the various Small Business Development Centers affiliated with
the University
of Arkansas at Little Rock. Check out their training sessions.
Valuable Book
Diseases of Woody Ornamentals and Trees in Nurseries, 2001,
edited by Ronald K. Jones and D. Michael
Benson, APS Press, The American Phytopathological Society, St.
Paul, MN 55121-2097, is an excellent resource for those in nursery production
enterprises.
In addition to discussion of diseases specific to plant genus
there is a section, disease management, which includes horticulture practices
to reduce disease development, tissue culture and disease
management for nurseries using recycling irrigation systems, to mention a few of
the 16 chapters in this section.
The book can be ordered online at
APS
Press or by calling 1-800-328-7560.
Plant Profile
Rhus chinensis Mill.
– Chinese Sumac
Dr. Jon Lindstrom, Horticulture Department, University of Arkansas
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Many summer and fall-flowering shrubs get
shorted in the garden. Gardeners are willing to spend large sums of money on
crape myrtle yet these same people seem unaware of the just as desirable Heptacodium
miconioides (seven-son flower) or Rhus chinensis (chinese sumac). In
flower now (early September), and in flower with an exclamation point, is Rhus
chinensis "September Beauty." The cultivar September Beauty was
selected by Dr. Elwin Orton at Rutgers University and is noted for its large,
drooping panicles of creamy greenish-white flowers. The species is native to
China but does very well in the heat of northwest Arkansas. The large leaves are
pinnately compound like our native sumacs but are perhaps twice the size. Grown
as a large shrub or small tree, the Chinese sumac will reach 15 to 20 feet high
and wide with time. Plants perform best when grown in full sun and planted in
well-drained soils; excessively wet sites will not be tolerated well by this
plant. Few diseases or pests bother the plant in Fayetteville, but it did suffer
some injury in the 2000-2001 winter, primarily because the plants had not
hardened off before December’s record cold.
In spring, I propagate "September
Beauty" by digging up the root suckers that are abundantly produced by this
plant. This preponderance to sucker is the biggest problem with the plant. As a
specimen in a lawn, the lawnmower will take care of the suckers, but in a bed or
border, hand pulling will be necessary. Suckers dug for propagation will
normally flower the next year, although some of the larger suckers will flower
the same year. Although I have not tried it, I suspect that root cuttings taken
in fall or winter would work well with this species.
The season for chrysanthemums is here and
customer traffic is picking up in the garden center. Along with the mums,
remember to highlight shrubs that flower in late summer and fall. The Chinese
sumac, seven-son flower and blue mist shrub (Caryopteris) are all plants
deserving greater use in the late summer and early fall garden.
New Extension Publications
FSA
6099 - Ornamental Horticulture Business: Licenses
By: Jim Robbins, Extension Specialist -
Ornamental Horticulture
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