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September/October 2014

Muscatine County

Heritage Day Wild Cat Den State Park Saturday, September 20

10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Master Gardeners take care of the gardens by the school house, which is near the Grist Mill in the park. We will be cleaning up this area on September 8 at 4:00 pm in preparation for Heritage Day, which will be September 20, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm. This is a great family activity and Master Gardeners usually have a display on this day. Master Gardeners are there to visit with people and answer questions. Ron and I set up the ISU canopy about 9:00 am on that day. We could use a couple people to help with this and several people to be there through the day and help take down the display. This is a fun way to get some volun-teer hours. You can work as few or as many hours as you want. Please call Joyce Gauger at 319-330-5235. Leave a message if I do not answer.

School Gardens at Wild Cat Den

Clean up at the school gardens will be Monday, September 8 at 4:00 pm. Any and all help would be appreciated. Bring rakes, pruners, baskets, etc. No need to call me, just come if this works for you.

Mark Your Calendar!

Monday, September 8 Clean up school gardens at Wild Cat Den State Park 4:00 pm

Tuesday, September 9 Board Meeting 6:30 pm at the Extension Office

Saturday, September 20 Heritage Day at Wild Cat Den State Park 10:00 am—4:00 pm

Tuesday, October 14 General Meeting for all members 6:30 pm at the Extension Office

Saturday, October 18 City-wide festival “Healthy Living in Your Own Back Yard”

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Chairperson’s Letter By Susan Cradick

Garden Walks

Special thanks to those who offered their gar-dens for the rest of us to enjoy and walk through. Darrell Orr’s walk was August 5 and his daylilies were a delight as well as the rest of his yard. Linda Wells’ walk was August 12 and her annuals and fairy gardens were delightful. Many Danner’s walk was August 21 and her gardens welcomed us with country charm.

It’s always a pleasure seeing the individual “personalities” come out in the various yards and we appreciate the extra time spent in getting them ready for these wonderful walk-throughs!

A garden stake and flag is given to these individuals in our ap-preciation. Volunteers Needed

Saturday, September 20 is Heritage Days at Wild Cat Den. No one is scheduled to work the Farmers’ Market that day but we will have our canopy and tables set up to welcome visitors and tell them about Master Gardeners. (See more information about this in Joyce’s article on page 1 of this newsletter.)

Saturday, October 18 is a city-wide festival for the Blue Zone project “Healthy Living in Your Own Back Yard”. Maryrose Pe-terschmidt would like us to set up a MG table with some infor-mation. Some volunteers will be needed to help with this booth. We can have some of the one-page vegetable/flower brochures available for those interested.

These are a couple of items that can give you some volunteer hours if needed to meet your requirements for the year. Farmers’ Market

I had my first opportunity to work the Farmers’ Market and am pleased with how it’s grown over the past year! Janet and I had our BLT dip ready and invited all who passed to try. We ran out of 50 recipes and promised more would be printed by next Saturday so all they had to do was ask for it the next week. Many look forward from week to week and tell that they love the recipes we give them. I would like to see us get our own MG tablecloth to promote us better rather than the Iowa State Extension one we currently use. If anyone has any other ideas to promote let us know.

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Fair Time 2014

Fair time came in a flash this year. Spring was later, so was planting, then a wet June. Satu-rated gardens, wet basements, storm damages, etc. made July come quickly. The Fair was on time though and it was a great show. We cleaned and set up the Floral Hall on July 7 with 17 people helping. Four of these people were Master Gardeners. Nine MGs hosted the build-ing during the fair logging 50 hours Thursday through Sunday. Our sign-in book in the Floral Hall had 846 signatures representing 24 towns plus West Liberty in Iowa and 10 other states showing 15 different cities. We had the best weather I can remember for many years. A large group helped put everything away from the hall into another building on Sunday evening. They started a little too quickly but I appreciated all the help. Exhibitors need a little time to gather up their things before we dismantle the hall. Many MGs exhibited and attended the judging to get an hour of education.

Next year’s Fair will be July 15-19, 2015. The flower show will be July 16. This is the earliest fair can be. Year 2016 it will drop back.

The annual Fair meeting will be October 28. This is a very informative meeting open to all. You may vote if you were a season ticket holder in 2014.

Current Emails and Addresses As a reminder – keep both the Extension Office and Susan Cradick current on any changes of e-mail addresses, phone numbers, or mailing ad-dresses. These are need to be current to keep our members informed.

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Leaf Streak by Bill Koellner, Muscatine County MG

One of the most common causes of yellow foliage is day-lily leaf streak, a fungal disease caused by Aureo-basidium microstictum. The symptoms are a yellowing along the mid-vein of the plant with brown or reddish flecks or oval areas within the yellow areas. The affected leaves may die, although generally the plant itself is not harmed. This is mostly an aesthetic problem. There are several steps to take to help prevent this dis-ease from spreading. First, remove the af-fected leaves and destroy them, and make sure to clean up dead daylily foliage in the fall so that the spores in them don’t overwinter.

Secondly, don’t overhead water the plants, and don’t work with them when they are wet. Also, make sure plants are not too closely spaced since greater air circu-lation helps decrease the humidity that fungi like. In se-vere cases, you can try using a fungicide such as chlorothalonil or mancozeb though this is best applied before the problem begins and every 7 to 14 days during wet or humid weather. Be sure to follow directions on the container and make sure it is safe for daylilies. Fi-nally, some daylily cultivars are more resistant than oth-ers to leaf streak.

Daylilies are a common ornamental plant in our area, but when infected with daylily leaf streak, this beautiful plant can be reduced to a withered mess. Daylily leaf streak disease is caused by the fungus Aureobasidium microstictum. It is most widespread under wet and cool conditions.

The disease is named after the streaks that run along the center vein of the leaf. These streaks are yellow in color, which can darken as the tissues die and form brown-colored, elongated areas on the leaves. The streaks are usually located at the tip of the leaves. In severe cases, the whole leaf may shrivel up and die. Care should be taken to differentiate daylily leaf streak from daylily rust. Both diseases have symptoms that are very similar in appearance, but daylily rust produces orange pustules.

To combat this disease, it is highly recommended that one concentrate on cultural controls. To manage daylily leaf streak disease, one should remove all of the past-year's foliage since the fungus can overwinter on old foliage. Because the fungus spreads through water,

growers could space plants further apart to minimize rain splash between plants and allow proper air circu-lation. Overcrowded growing situations are more likely to become diseased. This disease is more likely to be severe early in the growing season. It is also advisable to not work with the plants when they are wet. If you are watering, it should be done at the base of the plant, not from the top! This disease should not be a major issue if the weather is dry. Temperatures above 90 degrees limit disease development.

Other plants have issues much like the daylily in that the diseases found during the growing year fall on the soil from the dead plant material. They then over win-ter and are resident again the following year in the plant stock. It is so important to remove all dead plant material and burn the plant material. To put this material in a compost pile is dangerous, unless the heat in the bin is above 140 degrees for several days to kill the spores. I would not take the chance, but de-stroy the disease. Thin out plants that are to compact to allow air flow. During wet and cool periods, mildew and other diseases are more prevalent.

Garden Tips Late Summer (late August – September)

Lawn Reseed bare patches or new lawns. Aerate lawns in areas with compacted or heavy

clay soils. Fruits Harvest pears as their color changes to lighter

green. Prune suckers at ground level on grafted fruit trees.

Trees and shrubs Continue to water newly planted trees and shrubs

as needed. Plant evergreen trees and shrubs

Flowers Harvest flowers from celosia, globe amaranth, and

salvia for drying indoors Vegetables Continue harvesting beans, squash, cucumbers,

and tomatoes to keep plants productive. Plant seeds of lettuce, spinach, and radish for har-

vest in fall. Harvest potatoes and onions as the tops yellow and

die.

(Taken from RG 105 Revised July 2008)

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Here’s what happened at the

Garden Fair! Saturday, June 21

at Susan Cradick’s Home

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How to Care for Leggy Petunias by Bill Koellner, Muscatine County MG

Vince Ottaway and I water hanging baskets in West Lib-erty and we are faced with the baskets becoming very leggy. First the baskets were hung a week late this year due to the cool start of spring. I did some research on how to prevent Leggy Petunias, and this is what I found. Colorful petunia flowers grow in all climates as a warm-weather annual. Each plant flowers from late spring through fall, or until frost and cool weather cause the plants to decline and die. Healthy petunias have a bushy growth habit but they can become leggy and pro-duce weak, overgrown stems during the growing season.

Leggy petunias flower poorly and may die pre-maturely. Preventing legginess in new plants or curing legginess in mature plants extends the flowering season and can result in more blooms.

1. Move potted plants to an area that receives bright, all-day sun if they begin stretching their stems toward the light. Rotate the pots every one or two days so all sides of the petunia receive equal sun and to encourage straight, bushy stems.

2. Pinch back leggy stems on young plants before they begin to bloom or immediately after transplanting. Re-move the top portion of each weak stem to within 1/4 inch of the second or third leaf joint down from the tip. Petunia stems branch at the pinching point, resulting in stouter, bushier plants capable of producing more blooms.

3. Trim back petunias in midsummer if they become leggy, overgrown and begin flowering poorly. Remove half of the plant stem's length by cutting the petunias down with garden shears. Shearing back forces the petu-nias to send out new compact stems.

4. Water the petunias thoroughly after cutting them back. Apply a balanced fertilizer at the rate recom-mended on the package for the fertilizer type to replen-ish the nutrients and help encourage new growth. Wave petunias and Cool Wave pansies will get “hungry” each week. Because of their vigor, a regular application of liquid fertilizer spray every 10-14 days will keep them

well fed and blooming healthy all season.

Deadheading only has to be done on regular petunias that form seeds. Varieties such as Wave and Super Petunias don't make seeds so you don't have to dead-head. Deadheading is CLIPPING THE STEM below the spent flower. You have to remove developing seeds that are BELOW the flower. If you use scissors to clip the stem below the wilted flower you will be clipping off the seeds, and the plant will flower more in pursuit of making more seeds.

What should you do if your plant is "stemmy" or has stopped flowering? Clip the stems back by 2/3 and fertilize. You could clip all at once, or do a third at a time (randomly over the plant - clip a third every week or 10 days) so that the plant isn't cut back all at once. Either method will mean that the plant will take about three or four weeks to start blooming well again.

Garden Tips Early Fall (October)

Lawn Apply broadleaf herbicide to lawns.

Fruits Harvest apples and store at 32 to 35°F in humid

areas. Trees and shrubs Plant deciduous trees and shrubs.

Flowers Dig gladiolus corms and dahlia and canna roots for

winter storage. Harvest seed from cleome, poppies, zinnia, mari-

gold, and other flowers to scatter next spring. Plant tulip, daffodil, and other spring-flowering

bulbs before the ground freezes. Take cuttings of coleus and geraniums to grow in-

doors for the winter. Herbs Before frost, pot up tender herbs (such as sage and

rosemary) to grow indoors through the winter. Houseplants Inspect plants for pests or disease. Bring plants indoors before the first frost.

Vegetables Harvest pumpkin, winter squash, and gourds as

vines die from frost.

(Taken from RG 105 Revised July 2008)

Muscatine County Extension 1514 Isett Avenue Muscatine, IA 52761-4629 563-263-5701 or 800-992-0894

. . and justice for all

Iowa State University Extension programs are available to all without re-gard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, or disability.

Iowa State University and U.S. Department of Agriculture cooperating.

Iowa State University

Cooperative Extension

Muscatine County

1514 Isett Avenue

Muscatine IA 52761-4629

2014 Muscatine County

Master Gardener Board

Board Members Susan Cradick, Chairperson (15) Darrel Orr, Vice-Chair (14) Vickie Clark, Secretary/Treasurer (15) Bill Koellner (14) Vince Ottaway (14) Emma Mae Pruitt (15) Lynn Pruitt (15) Lani Willis (14) Louise Abdallah (Intern) Deidre Zihlman (Interrn)

Non-Profit Org

US Postage

PAID

Muscatine IA

Permit No. 80

Return Service Requested

Master Gardener History/Scrapbooks

A Volunteer(s) is needed to work on our history/scrap books! There are a couple of years of MG articles from the Muscatine Journal and a few other items that need to be cropped and mounted for the books. If you are interested and willing, please stop at the Extension and pick up the supplies.