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Jim's Corner • Product Profile • Plant Profile • What's Up? • Upcoming Events

Jim’s Corner

Congratulations to Donna Pittman King for being featured in the December 1, 2002, issue of the prestigious American Nurseryman trade magazine. Great national visibility for Donna, the Pittman firm and Arkansas.

Horticulture Survey Update

Agricultural Statistics mailed out nearly 4,100 surveys to all sectors of horticulture (fruits, vegetables, ornamentals and turf) within Arkansas. The 7 survey categories are:

1. Fruit and vegetable production (8 percent)
2. Ornamental production (10 percent)
3. Turf production (13 percent)
4. Fruit and vegetable processing/sales (18 percent)
5. Ornamental sales and service (9 percent)
6. Golf course management (7 percent)
7. Landscape architects (13 percent)

At the time of this writing, the overall response rate is approximately 9 percent. Fruit and vegetable processors had the highest return rate at 18 percent (response rate by group is indicated in the parenthesis). A second mailing is planned, and we hope that results in a higher response rate. Once the Arkansas Agriculture Statistics Service condenses the raw data to protect confidentiality, Dr. Ron Rainey and I will begin preparing reports. If you did not receive a survey or you did not receive the correct survey, you still have time. Call Doug Rundle or Kevin Mills at 1-800-327-2970 and request a survey.

January/February Are Meeting Months

One of the reasons the newsletter is going out early is to advertise the many meetings in early 2003. The Arkansas Turfgrass Association (ATA) has its annual conference and trade show at the Hot Springs Convention Center on January 7-8. Contact ATA at 501-224-4840 or www.arkansasturf.org for details.

The Arkansas Green Industry Association (AGIA) has its Landscape and Nursery Conference and Trade Show at the Hot Springs Convention Center on  February 7-8. Contact AGIA at 501-225-0029 or www.argia.org.

Dr. Gerald Klingaman and I will again offer an opportunity for turf and ornamental businesses to get their employees up to speed before the spring rush. Our annual Spring Tune-up is scheduled for February 25 from 6-9 p.m. This year we will beam the program from Little Rock to four satellite locations: Fayetteville, Hope, Jonesboro and Pine Bluff. This broadcast approach will make the program more accessible to you. We have reduced the presentations to three areas. Dr. John Boyd will focus on turf weed control, Dr. Gus Lorenz will focus on ornamental insects and Dr. Steve Vann will focus on turf insects. You will receive registration material by mail in January for this program.

Product Profile

I’m sure many of you were, like me, wondering what kind of future we had in pest control with the significant loss of common insecticides like Diazinon and Dursban. The industry has certainly responded by offering us new products with exciting potential.  One product that has caught our attention is imidacloprid. Having said that, I asked Stephanie Darnell of Bayer Crop Science to fill you in on products for both the homeowner and professional markets. In addition to their products, you can find the same active ingredient in the professional products Marathon™ (Marathon II, Marathon 1G, Marathon 60WP) from Olympic Horticultural Products.

Bayer Advanced Garden™ Tree and Shrub Insect Control is a liquid drench formulation of imidacloprid (1.47 percent) currently available to the homeowner. The soil drench application is a convenient method that does not require technical expertise or highly priced equipment. With this application method, the homeowner measures the circumference of the tree or the height of the plant and adds the recommended amount in a gallon of water and pours the solution directly around the base of the tree or shrub. This formulation provides up to 12 months of residual protection against damaging insects including leafminers, adelgids, aphids, scales, beetles and borers.

The best time to apply Bayer Advanced Garden™ Tree and Shrub Insect Control is when the plant is actively growing. The insecticide is absorbed by the roots and moves up through the plant into the new growth. For best results, base application timing on the target pest to be controlled. For example, to control pests that occur later in the growing season, such as lace bugs on azaleas and Japanese beetle adults, an early spring application would be appropriate. Translocation of the imidacloprid to where the pests are feeding may require one week to three months, depending on the size of the plant, environmental conditions and the plant health.

Imidacloprid is also available to the professional market in several different formulations. Depending on the imidacloprid formulation, application can made by foliar or soil applications, including soil injection, drenches or broadcast. All formulations have systemic activity, translocate throughout the plant and provide an extended residual period for insect control. The liquid formulations include Merit 75 WSP and Merit 75 WP. Granular formulations of imidacloprid include Merit 0.5 G and Merit 2.5 G. 

Merit 2.5 G is a recent introduction to the professional market. This ready-to-use granular formulation provides a convenient application for professionals to control insects on ornamental shrubs and small trees in outdoor landscapes and interior plantscapes. Merit  2.5 G is an excellent option for the professional who has only a few plants to treat in a given area. The rate is measured out according to the size of the plant and applied directly beneath the plant at the base. No mixing or spraying is required.

 For more information on the consumer product, Bayer Advanced Garden™ Tree and Shrub Insect Control, please visit www.bayeradvanced.com. For labels and MSDS on the professional products listed above, please visit www.bayerprocentral.com.

Plant Profile

Sarcococca hookeriana v. humilis Rehd. and Wils. – Sweetbox
Jon T. Lindstrom, Department of Horticulture,
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701
tranell@uark.edu 

Sweetbox is best appreciated in late winter when the insignificant white flowers open and release their fragrance, helping to chase away the last of winter. Allowing the plant to colonize by a path or a door where passersby can appreciate the fragrance is the best way to use this plant. In the landscape it functions as a broadleaf evergreen ground cover, perhaps a foot in stature and spreading slowly by underground stems. The leaves are dark green in color and the flowers are found hidden in the axil of the leaf. Following the flowers is a small black fruit that is seldom seen in the landscape.

Finding Sweetbox is not as easy as finding another member of the Buxaceae family, Pachysandra. Division can be used to obtain small quantities of plants. Summer cuttings should also work. Although I have not rooted Sweetbox, the related but less hardy S. orientalis can root in one month under intermittent mist after treatment with a 1:10 dilution of Dip ‘n Grow.

Here in Fayetteville, Sweetbox has been planted in our shade garden near the Plant Sciences Building. After a recent move due to imminent utility reconstruction, the plant is settling into a new location under shade provided by maples and birches. The move had little effect on growth. The plants are prospering in filtered shade, growing in a moist, well-drained soil, high in organic material. In a sunnier location the foliage yellows unattractively. For a shade groundcover, the evergreen leaves and slow, spreading habit make Sweetbox the plant of choice for a shady Arkansas landscape. It would be hardy in all the USDA hardiness zones (6-8) found in the state. Its merits deserve it as much use as other shade ground covers such as Vinca and Pachysandra.

What’s Up?

We have received a great deal of interest from around the country on our extension web site http://daylilies.uaex.edu/ (this site is no longer in service) for our 2001 Inventory of Daylily Rust Susceptibility. It is critical to understand that this inventory was collected on August 31, 2001, at one location in central Arkansas. Gardeners in other areas or at later dates might find results that differ from our observations. We repeated the rating project again in November and that information will be posted to our web site in January. As a part of this process, we have identified other good daylily rust web sites: http://www.daylilies.org/ahs_dictionary/daylily_rust.html and http://www.ncf.ca/~ah748/rust.html.

For those that attended our annual "Retailer Spring Tune-up" workshop in February, 2002, the Cooperative Extension Service has begun putting those Powerpoint presentations up on the web for you to view and use 24/7. Dr. Gus Lorenz’s presentation on insect problems is there: http://www.aragriculture.org/insects/default.htm.

From the U.S. Forest Service, the latest on red oak borers in the Ozarks: http://www.srs.fs.fed.us/about/newsrelease/nr_2002-11-17-oak_borers.htm

From the Greenbeam News Center (http://www.greenbeam.com/) the first week of November: "There’s good news for growers and retailers who heat greenhouses through winter: Univ. of Okla. researchers say warm ocean surface temperatures between South America and Australia will keep gas prices between $3.80 and $4 per 1,000 cu. ft. Their predictions are based on the assumption that it’s going to be a mild winter across much of the nation. A cold spell can cause prices to spike, which happened two winters ago. The researchers cited record gas inventories and long-range projections calling for warmer-than-normal-temperatures for most of the country."

While looking on the internet, I found this web site that covers chemical structure and common names for many chemicals: http://www.hclrss.demon.co.uk/index.html.

The Plant Board reminds you that starting December 31, 2002, "All retail sales of Diazinon containing products for indoor use must cease."

Upcoming Events

January 7-8 – Arkansas Turfgrass Assoc. 15th Annual Conf. and Trade Show, Hot Springs Conv. Cntr. Contact ATA at 501-224-4840 or their new web site www.arkansasturf.org.

January 10-11 – 22nd Annual Horticulture Industries Show (HIS), Holiday Inn, Springdale. For details contact http://home.okstate.edu/Okstate/dasnr/hort/hortlahome.nfs/toc/HIS.

January 18-20 – Tennessee Nursery and Landscape Association Trade Show and Conference, Chattanooga Convention Center, Chattanooga, TN. Contact TNLA, 931-473-3951; e-mail, tnurseryassn@blomand.net url, http://www.tnla.com.

January 23 – 23rd Annual U of A Landscape Maintenance Seminar, Echols Conference Center, U of A - Fort Smith. Contact Sebastian (479-782-4947) or Crawford (479-474-5286) County Cooperative Extension offices.

February 7-8 – Professional Landscape and Nursery Trade Show. Hot Springs Convention Center Contact A.G.I.A. at 501-225-0029 or www.argia.org.

February 25 – Spring Tune-up Workshop, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Arkansas, 6-9 pm. Locations: Hope, Fayetteville, Jonesboro Pine Bluff, and Little Rock.

February 28-March 2 – Arkansas Flower and Garden Show, Little Rock Convention Center. Contact 800-459-SHOW.

April 4-6 – Arkansas River Valley Lawn and Garden Show, Ft. Smith Convention Center. Contact Larry Fullbright (918-427-0612) or Bill Huskison (479-452-9030).

No endorsement is implied or discrimination intended for firms or references included or excluded from this list.

By: Jim Robbins, Extension Specialist - Ornamental Horticulture

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