Tree Care Advisor Newsletter

Inside This Issue:

See Red All Winter… By: Dave Hanson

1

Recipes Wanted! By: Rebecca Koetter

2

Five Tips... By: Gary Johnson 3

Picture Page 5

Talk to Us! By: Gary Johnson 6

Contacts and Story

Terminator 8

Volume 16 Number 4 Autumn 2009 Dave Hanson and Gary Johnson, Managing Editors http://

www.mntca.org

Sorry For The Delay! I’ve written that statement a few times in my career and I am sure that I will write it again... In the past year we have made some changes - have you seen the elec-tronic newsletter?

Some TCAs have seen several versions of the e-newsletter

and for those TCAs that haven’t - I need your e-mail address.

And, what you hold in your hands is a new approach to the printed newsletter... (shorter and in color).

During this transition and while I was finishing my thesis in pursuit of an MS in ur-ban and community forestry... a gap in the newsletters developed. Some of you may have noticed that lack of newsletters... Well, we’re getting back on track. Welcome to the Autumn 2009 TCA newsletter!

Seeing Red All Winter?

Will you be seeing red this winter for the right reason or are you simply angry be-cause it is winter? There is a shrub native to Minnesota that could provide you with a more pleasant way to see “red” through those winter months. Typically, this member of the holly family is found in moist soils bordering bogs, streams and lakes of eastern Minnesota. Welby Smith describes a second forest type to be surface-dry with a high water table. The plant does well in moist, acidic (pH 4.5 to 6), light or heavy soils in full sun or shade. Fruiting is typically better when planted in full sun. Fall color, while not spectacular, is a nice yellow to pur-ple-bronze. With these attributes the plant is a beautiful addition to a landscape. Most gardeners are not looking for additional deer browse for their landscapes, but this shrub is rated as a highly valued wildlife plant. The fruits are eaten by birds, small mammals, waterfowl and browsed by deer.

Continued on Page 7

Do you know this Minnesota

native? It could have you see-

ing red this winter. 10-09-09.

Page 2 Do you Cook? Recipes Wanted!!!

Currants Currant bushes are a great addition to your urban edible landscape because of their small size and overall ease of maintenance and care. These plants are versatile and forgiving with soil pH and sun location so can be a perfect fit!

General Plant Requirements:

Currant muffin cakes (for approximately 10 muffins) 1 ½ cups flour ½ cup sugar 2 tsp baking powder ½ tsp salt 1 egg, beaten lightly ½ cup milk ¼ cup vegetable oil 1 cup red currant (or more!) ½ tsp cinnamon

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl; create well in center of mixture. Combine liquid ingredients. Combine dry and liquid ingredients, stirring until just moistened. Gently stir in currents. Spoon into muffin pan- filling until 2/3 full. Bake at 400 F for 20-25 minutes.

Soil pH: 5.5 - 7 but can tolerate a higher pH

Sun: Full sun but will produce fruit in partial shade

Pollination requirements: Self fertile Pruning strategy: improve circulation

Available Varieties: ‘Pixwell’, ‘Red lake’, ‘Consort.’

TCAs I’m looking for more recipes of appetizers, dinners or desserts that include edible ingredients from woody plants. So far, I have received a few recipes - but I’m still looking for more. Consider the fruits in the side bar. An example is provided below, note the additional information that will be included for each tree and shrub with a recipe. We will also include things like pH and fer-tilization requirements. I am still looking for more suggestions, Your ideas are awe-some, welcomed and they may be included. If you’re interested in helping to re-search and write the care instructions, please let me know. Now, send in those recipes and cultural recommendations! Thanks in advance! Rebecca

Seeking recipes for the following fruits:

Apple, Apricot, Blueberry, Cherry,

Chokeberry, Chokecherry,

Cranberry, Currant, Elderberry, Grape,

Gooseberry, High-bush cranberry, Juneberry, Mulberry,

Pear, Plum.

Ribes sp. cultivar ‘Red Lake.’

Photo: Dave Hanson 9-11-2004

www.cooksunited.co/uk/recipes

Photo by user alexia.cu

Page 3 Five Tips for Successful Autumn Planting

1. Planting versus Transplanting. Planting is putting a new tree or shrub in the landscape. This may be purchased as Balled-and-Burlapped (B&B), containerized, or bare-rooted. The hole is dug, the root system is placed in the hole, it’s backfilled and watered. This can be done anytime the shovel can dig into the landscape soil. Transplanting is digging a plant in one spot and moving it to another. This involves removing a lot of roots during the process which results in transplant shock to some degree. With attentive care, most trees and shrub recover from transplant shock and develop a characteristic root system for the species and size of the plant. Some trees and shrubs that are transplanted in late autumn (e.g., later than mid-October) may suffer more winter damage and transplant shock than if they had been moved in late summer or early spring. As an example, pines and firs are conifers that generally are not transplanted late in the autumn. Maples, birches, crabapples and haw-thorns are generally not transplanted in late autumn. Death is not assured when these trees are late transplanted, but there will be a higher mortality rate and the plants can look pretty ratty for a couple years. So, unless it’s really necessary, avoid late autumn transplanting. Nope, there’s no book that lists which plants can be late autumn trans-planted and which shouldn’t. 2. Prepare the root system. This is more of an is-sue for containerized trees and shrubs. If you buy these plants in the autumn, the plants are much more likely to have severely pot-bound root systems. If the encircling roots are thick and woody, action needs to be taken be-fore planting.

First, probe through the top of the container soil until the first, main order root is found. It will be buried too deep. With an old pruning saw, remove the excess top soil.

Second, if the encircling pot-bound roots are thicker and woody (think of the

thickness of a pencil), “box” root system. With the saw, slice off one inch of soil and roots on all four sides and the bottom. Think of it as slicing off a root ball “gyro” instead of lamb! Then it’s ready to plant.

3. Water until the ground freezes. If there has been plenty of autumn rainfall and the planting soil stays nice and moist, watering may be less frequent, but it still will be necessary. That tree or shrub needs to go into winter well-hydrated and the more moisture there is in the soil, the slower it cools down and freezes. Do not listen to peo-ple that claim autumn watering delays “hardening off.” It’s not true.

4. Mulch immediately after planting and thoroughly wa-tering. As soon as the first watering is completed, mulch (preferably with an organic mulch) the entire planting area to a depth of 2-4 inches…but don’t pile the mulch against the stem. Two to four inches of mulch effectively reduces moisture loss by as much as 30%. Mulch also slows down the soil cooling process by trapping in the normally warmer soil temperatures. The longer the soil around the roots can stay above 40 degrees F, the longer the root system can grow and get established in the landscape.

Gary Johnson

UMN, Urban and

Community Forestry

Hand digging the tree in prepara-

tion for a transplant.

“Boxing” a containerized root

system to remove circling roots that developed at the media /

container interface.

Watering a newly planted tree and

trees during establishment periods

can be accomplished with a

Treegator® bag

Page 4 Five Tips... (continued)

5. Provide winter protection as necessary. Face it, rabbits, deer, field mice and voles will find your new tree or shrub and feed off of it. To protect stems from rabbits, mice and voles, install a cylinder of hardware cloth (1/4” to 3/8” mesh) around the stem, leaving 2-3 inches between the stem and the hardware cloth. Any hardware store or home im-provement center carries hardware cloth. Cut the cloth (actually, it’s a fine wire) to length, wrap around the stem, connect the ends with plastic twists or wire, drive a stake into the ground and attach the wire to the stake for security. Then put a cat in the cylin-der. Don’t do that last part…it’s tongue-in-cheek.

For smaller trees or those with few branches, installing tree shelters at planting time will protect the stems from hungry critters. To minimize deer rubbing their antlers against the stems, drive three, 3/8 inch re-bar into the ground around the stem. Leave a few inches between the stem and the re-bars. It does a pretty good job of minimizing deer antler rub damage. To protect growing tips from deer browse, “cap” the terminal shoots of the trees (mostly evergreens). Take an index card, fold it in half, place it around the terminal shoot and staple the card together. It’s not fool-proof, but it works pretty well.

Deer netting wrapped around the smaller evergreens works pretty well, too. The netting probably annoys the deer more than physically excluding them, but who cares as long as the deer walk on by. All winter critter protection should be installed in the autumn and removed in the spring or at least adjusted in the spring to make sure the materials don’t girdle the stems or ruin the form of the plants.

Chain link fencing will stop some larger critters from feeding on bark, but the finer hardware cloth is better

for mice, voles, rabbits.

I don’t really consider this as a better alternative to preventing deer and rabbits from browsing on lower foliage.

Unless deer and rabbits can use wire and bolt cutters, they’ll never get at this tree!

Page 5 Picture Page...

1) Ice storm damage in Missouri. Photo: Amy Hanson. 2) Birds moved out - wasps moved in. Photo: Janet McDaniel. 3) Washington County MGs - all about trees. Photo: Dave Paulson. 4) Pretty red mulch volcanoes. Photo: Janet McDaniel. 5) Stinkhorn anyone, a tropical species that shows up in Minnesota on occasion.

Photos Courtesy of Lynn Hagen. Check out: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/stinkhorn_fame.html

6) What’ wrong with my ash tree? Where should we start? Photo: Beth Jarvis. Beth was attempting a phone diagnostic - why is my ash tree dieing back - the caller did not mention the split and second attempt at the home cable job...

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3 4

5

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Page 6 “Talk to Us! We’re Lonely.”

Actually, we are lonely, but the real reason we want to hear from you is that your

voice is critical to the continuing success…maybe even survival…of the Tree Care

Advisor program. We need three things from you.

1. Quarterly reports of your volunteer hours. Our supporters: the Depart-

ment of Natural Resources, the Minnesota Department of Transportation, the US

Forest Service, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and the Minnesota Shade

Tree Advisory Committee will not be our supporters if they don’t believe that the

program is an effective volunteer program. Think about it realistically: your $85-98

registration fee for the core course or the $10-15 update training fee cannot sus-

tain the program.

Fewer than half of you report hours, yet I know most of you are engaging in

many activities. Dave has made the self-reporting process easy. County Extension

Offices do not cooperate when it comes to forwarding your Master Gardener

hours. They have enough to do without taking care of this business. Don’t expect

others to do the reporting for you; it’s up to you.

2. Give us some ideas for update training. Based on your volunteer experi-

ences, you know what type of training would help you. We have high expectations

and have opinions of what you need to know, but you know when you’ve been at a

disadvantage because you just didn’t know what to do.

3. How about writing an article to share? Write about a volunteer experi-

ence. Write about a skill you have and would like to share. Write up a recipe to

share. Cliff, write about working with buckthorn as a resource for woodworkers.

Chris, write about representing your fellow TCAs. Janet, write about sharing good

planting information with customers at garden centers.

Your stories don’t need to be long…

just incredibly interesting!

Gary

Year Hours

Reported

2006 5453.3

2007 4823.5

2008 3578.8

2009 732.9

Total as of

11/10/09 57469

TCA Hours

Page 7

When you do get around to shopping for this plant - be prepared to

purchase at least two, probably more... The plant is dioecious and

you should purchase at least one male plant for every 9-10 female

plants. Another resource suggested this ratio to be 1 male for

every 3-5 female plants and these ratios may be cultivar dependant.

Male cultivars ‘Jim Dandy’ and ‘Southern Gentleman’ are both rated

for zones 4-9 as are the female cultivars ‘Sparkleberry’, ‘Afterglow’,

‘Aurantiaca’, ‘Red Sprite’, and ‘Winter red.’

This species is planted for the bright red fruits as the fall colors

(yellow to purple-bronze) will not likely produce a dramatic fall dis-

play. Flowers, as stated above are dioecious and are not showy.

Female flowers are typically borne singly (2’s or3’s) on a short pe-

duncle (stalk) close to the stem while the male flowers are clustered

in groups of 6 or more in the leaf axils.

If you haven’t figured it out yet - the article is describing common

winterberry (Ilex verticillata). The straight species is available and is

rated for zones 3-9. Minnesota range maps describe the plant as

inhabiting the eastern 1/3 of the state from Iowa north to Canada.

Seeing Red... (cont.)

Flowers of common winterberry (Ilex verticillata).

Above: Female (ovulate) flowers of winterberry.

Below: Male (staminate) flowers of winterberry.

Photos: Dave Hanson July 3, 2009

Male shrubs planted to the interior of a mass planting... Photo: Dave Hanson October 09, 2009

Contact Phone Numbers Program Contacts: Gary Johnson – 612-625-3765 or grjonson@umn.edu Dave Hanson – 612-624-1226 or dlhanson@umn.edu Rebecca Koetter - 612-624-4261 or band0036@umn.edu Mailing Address for Dave, Gary and Rebecca: 115 Green Hall, 1530 Cleveland Ave. North, St. Paul, MN 55108 Contacts: Regional Extension Educators: Bob Mugaas— 651-480-7706 or mugaa001@umn.edu Gary Wyatt — 507-389-8325 or wyatt@umn.edu Larry Zilliox — 320-762-3890 or lzilliox@umn.edu County Contacts: Carver County (Jackie Smith) - 952-466-5309 or smith515@umn.edu Dakota County (Barb Stendahl) – 952-463-8002 or stend004@umn.edu Hennepin Cty (Terry Straub) - 612-596-2130 or strau097@umn.edu Olmstead County (Angie Gupta) – 507-285-8250 Ramsey County – 651-777-8156 Scott County (Jackie Smith) - (952) 492-5410 or smith515@umn.edu St. Louis County (Bob Olen) – 218-726-7512

TCA DirT Members:

Additional Reference Contacts: Debby Newman (Info-U) – 612-624-3263

Don Mueller, DNR Forestry – 651-772-6148 don.mueller@dnr.state.mn.us

Ken Holman, DNR Forestry – 651-296-9110 ken.holman@dnr.state.mn.us

Great River Greening – 651-665-9500

Polly Augustson Chris Johnson

Barb Gasterland Harriet Mason

Ada Hegion Sally McNamara

Mimi Hottinger Lu Schmidtke

Nancy Bjerke Rebecca Koetter

Story Terminator: Boxelder bugs...(Boisea trivittatus ) For the most part - simply a nuisance insect. While these insects do use boxelder trees during their life cycles, typically no dam-age to the tree occurs. The boxelder is a dioecious tree species. Meaning, there are male and female boxelder trees of which boxelder bugs show a preference for the females. And lastly, according to Jeff Hahn (Extension Professor in Enty-mology) boxelder bugs do not reproduce in your house. They simply congregate where there is warmth for the winter. So, get out the vacuum...

Boxelder bug nymph Photos: Dave Hanson

Boxelder bug adult

and nymphs