DROP BOX AVAILABLE!!!
At the South entrance of the county build-ing is a drop-box, labeled payment box. Label whatever you are putting in it for the Extension office and you can drop things off AFTER HOURS!
Find our Website: https://extension.purdue.edu/Marshall
Ag & Natural Resources Educator
Krystyna Hyrczyk,
ANR Secretary
Purdue Extension Marshall County Ag & Natural Resources www.facebook.com/marshallanr
Purdue Extension Marshall County Health & Human Sciences www.facebook.com/marshallhhs P URDU E UN IV E R S IT Y CO O P E R A T IV E E X T E NS IO N S E R V IC E Ma rs h a ll C o u n ty 11 2 W . J ef fer son S t. Rm . 3 04 P ly m ou th , IN 46 5 63 C o o p er a ting with U.S . De p a rt m en t o f Ag ric u ltu re A dd res s S erv ic e Re qu es te d
Marshall County Master Gardener
January Meeting Recap
Our January meeting had a great turn out! Several Master Gardeners joined our meeting in person and on Zoom. During the meeting several topics were covered and awards were presented to those that had achieved a new MG level or just entered the intern program.
Currently, board members Mary Kay Millar, Deb Howard, Amy Heinke, and Ken Waite will continue on the board for 2021. Donna Napier, President. Barb White, Vice Presi-dent, and Shirley DeMatteo, Secretary will also continue their roles in 2021 until re-election. Elections were post-poned until the February meeting.
The attendees also discussed upcoming trip ideas and projects for the upcoming year. Covid-19 may limit partici-pation until the weather gets more favorable for outdoor activities. One prospective project will include the four-corner site where the old Subway existed several years ago. This will become the new “Crossroads of America” park. Sarah Perschbacher has agreed to be the point per-son on this to keep us up to date on this project.
The educational portion of this meeting focused on soil health and soil microbes. The video presentation by Lori Hoagland went into recent research involving carrots, to-matoes, and pepper crops. The key points from the presentation were that beneficial microbes in the soil can help promote positive growth on vegetable crops.
February
8— Master Gardener Monthly Meeting 7PM
2021 Master Gardener Officers President: Donna Napier, 574-360-1135 Vice President: Barbara White, 574-936-6725
Secretary: Shirley DeMatteo, Treasurer: Carol Nelson, 574-315-5577
Board Members Amy Heinke
Ken Waite Mary Kay Millar Deborah Howard
https://www.purdue.edu/dffs/
smallfarms/
Looking for more Master Gardener resources?
Local event information, PARP events, webinar series offered by Purdue and digital resources can be found on our Facebook page and Marshall County extension website and through our Smore digital publication. Add, subscribe, and follow us to stay up to date!
www.facebook.com/marshallanr
https://www.smore.com/u/purdueboilermaker https://extension.purdue.edu/Marshall
Master Gardener volunteer and educational
hours should be submitted regularly. You
can report your hours by email to
[email protected] or by submitting online
through the Master Gardener portal.
https://www.purdue.edu/mg-volunteer/login.php
If you would like to mail or call in your hours in to our office to
be recorded you send them to:
Krystyna Hyrczyk
112 W Jefferson St. Rm 304
Plymouth, IN 46563
574-935-8545
Master Gardener at Home– Composting….………..4
Indiana Invasive-Purple Loosestrife.……….…………...…...5
Manage Indoor Plant Pests-Part 2………...………...…...6-7 MG Call Ou/ Tree Damage...8
Out-of-Season Bulb Sprouting………...………..……....9
Purdue Plant Doc. App…...….………..……….………..…...10-11 Free Lunch and Learn Series………..…………..……….………...12
Master Gardener Basic Training 2021..……...…..…………..……….………...13
Did you Know?? Volunteer Hours………...…..…………..……….………...14
Small Crops Conference………....……..……….………...15
February Master Gardener Meeting
Date: February 8, 2021
Location: 112 W Jefferson St, Room 203 Plymouth IN 46563
We will resume elections.
Education topics to include tree trimming and weather damage protocols for tree cultivars. Please email any photos you have of tree damage in your yards. We will discuss those during the meeting. Face masks and
so-cial distancing will be followed during the meeting in person.
If you cannot attend the meeting in person please feel free to join us via Zoom. Use the link below to access the meeting. Krystyna will moderate the meeting and we encourage those on Zoom to ask questions and be
engaged in the discussion.
Master Gardener at Home
Our January meeting showed a video on the importance of
soil health and soil microbes to the productiveness of your
plants. Here is a great article from Cornell Cooperative
Ex-tension regarding leaf composting. This is a great
amend-ment for your soil and can help improve soil’s overall
health.
If you know of anyone who may be
interest-ed in the next Master Gardener Basic
Train-ing course, please have them contact our
office for an application! Applications are
due February 12th. They can call
574-935-8545 or email [email protected].
Purple loosestrife, known for its beautiful pur-ple flowers and landscape value, was brought to the United States from Europe in the 1800's. It has become a serious pest to native wetland communities where it out-competes native plants. Native plants are vital to wetland wildlife for food and shelter. Each year, more than a million acres of wetlands in the U.S. are taken over by this plant.
To control the spread of purple loosestrife, a state law was enacted on July 1, 1996, that prohibits the sale of ALL forms of purple loose-strife (any variety, species, horticultural variety, cultivar), or other members of the
ge-nus Lythrum, whether reportedly sterile or not.
The Department of Natural Resources has also been releasing insects to control purple loosestrife where it has successfully escaped into wetlands.
Article from: https://www.in.gov/dnr/entomolo/4529.htm
Purple loosestrife Lythrum salicar-ia Purple loosestrife grows 3-7 feet tall and puts up several spikes of purple flowers in June-July. It spreads aggres-sively by seed and by rhizome. Even “sterile”
cultivars can still produce viable seed. Purple loosestrife has invaded wetlands in northern Indiana, forming pure stands that choke out native vegetation. It has also been found in parts of central and southern Indi-ana. It is ILLEGAL to buy, sell, or plant pur-ple loosestrife in Indiana.
Article from indiananativeplants.org For more information visit https://
indiananativeplants.org/invasive-plants/ meet-indianas-bad-guys/
[Excerpt] Least-Toxic Control Methods to
Manage Indoor Plant Pests
Bruce A. Barrett
Department of Entomology, University of Missouri
This publication discusses some of the least-toxic control options you can use for pests of houseplants, home greenhouses and interior plantscapes. Many of these tactics are recommended for homeowners who want to manage pests without using broad-spectrum synthetic pesticides.
Spider mites
Spider mites, or red-spiders, appear as tiny dots moving over the plant surface. They have fine piercing/sucking mouthparts and feed by sucking out plant fluids. Their feeding activity on plant tissue results in a browning of the foliage ("bronzing") due to the loss of chlorophyll. You can see silken webbing over parts of the plant when populations are high. Hot, dry weather favors rapid spider mite development, whereas low temperature, high humidi-ty and excess moisture are unfavorable.
Hosts
A commonly encountered spider mite is the twospotted spider mite. It attacks a wide variety of field, garden, greenhouse, nursery and ornamental plants as well as several weed species. It can be found on all areas of the plant.
Control options
Chemical
Apply an insecticidal soap.
Apply a 2 percent solution of horticultural oil.
Sulfur sprays and dusts can be helpful (greenhouse only).
Biological
Various predatory mite species (e.g., Phytoseiulus persimilis, Amblyseius
californi-cus) are available commercially for release on mite-infested plants in the home and
greenhouse. They cannot bite people, and they do not leave the plants.
Mechanical
Wash plants with soapy water (2 teaspoons mild detergent per gallon of water) and a soft brush, making sure to wash the undersides of leaves.
Hosing tough plants with a forceful spray of water knocks off mites and destroys their webs.
Cultural
Mist plant foliage periodically to increase humidity around the plant, and avoid high temperatures and soil-moisture stress.
Quarantine new plants and treat before placing them among established plants. Consider carefully if plant species particularly susceptible to spider mite infestations are worth their keep. Continue Page 7
The Purdue Turf Doctor app provides quick access to the latest science-based recom-mendations from experts on how to manage over 135 turfgrass disorders. Use integrated filters to refine diagnoses by problem type, time of year, turfgrass species, field patter, symptoms, signs, weed type, flower color, weed growth habit and weed life cycle. Identi-fication made easier with hundreds of high resolution photos to reference!
The Purdue Perennial Doctor app helps identify flower problems by matching dam-age plant parts to over 600 high resolution photos. You can search information by flow-er or by pest and are provided unbiased rec-ommendations from Purdue University ex-perts to manage those pest problems. This app focuses on perennial plants within the Midwestern and Eastern United States. The Purdue Annual Doctor app has been
developed to help consumers and home owners better identify and manage insect, diseases, and environmental problems you find on your annual bedding plants. More than 60 commonly planted annual flowers are featured. Landscape professional and garden center personnel can use this app to improve communications with their cus-tomers.
By: Krystyna Hyrczyk
The Purdue Plant Doctor App Suite was made possible by a grant through the United States Department of Agriculture National In-stitutes of Food and Agriculture. The goal of these mobile apps is to provide consumers with critical information where and when it is needed, right in the palm of their hands. Formats available for Apple iOs and Android powered devices and can be downloaded individually. Apps include: Purdue Tree Doctor, Purdue Shrub
Doctor, Purdue Perennial Flower Doctor, Purdue Annual Flower Doctor, Purdue Tomato Doctor, Purdue Turf Doctor.
The Purdue Tree Doctor app can help you identify and manage problems on trees. Using the app, you can match damaged plant parts with over 1,000 high resolution photos. Check your visual diagnoses by following links on each photo to detailed scriptions of damage and stages of problem de-velopment. Search for information by tree or pest and get recommendations on how to man-age more than 175 problems on 60+ kinds of trees. The app focuses on the most common problems of trees in the Midwestern and Eastern United States.
The Purdue Shrub Doctor app can also help identify and manage pest, diseases and oth-er shrub problems by matching plants parts to over 1000 high-resolution photos. You can check diagnoses with detailed descrip-tions and get the latest unbiased recommen-dations from Purdue University experts on how to manage these problems. Information for over 200 shrub problems on over 100 kinds of shrubs
The Purdue Tomato Doctor app features iden-tifying tomato related problems by matching photos of almost 500 images. Check diagno-sis through detailed descriptions and even identify beneficial insects so you don’t harm them! Recommendations available on how to manage the most common tomato problems facing gardeners and growers throughout the United States.
Scale insects are among the most destructive plant-feeding insects. Heavily infested plants often are cov-ered with small, disklike or waxy coverings, and under-neath each covering is the scale organism feeding on the juices of the plant. Two types of scale attack indoor plants: soft scales and armored scales. Soft scales produce honeydew, and armored scales do not. Feed-ing activity results in the distortFeed-ing, stuntFeed-ing and yellow-ing of foliage.
Hosts
Scale insects are common pests of many indoor, greenhouse and ornamental plants as well as many trees and shrubs. They typically are found on the under-sides of leaves and stems.
Control options
Chemical
Apply an insecticidal soap.
Apply a 2 percent solution of horticultural oil.
Biological
Beneficial parasitic wasps and predators (e.g., lacewings and lady beetles) that control scale in greenhouses are available from commercial sources.
Mechanical
Scales can be rubbed off plants by hand using garden gloves, a toothbrush or a dry or alcohol-dipped cotton swab. However, this treatment may not be adequate when scale are present in large numbers.
Wash plants with soapy water (2 teaspoons mild detergent per gallon of water) and a soft brush, making sure to wash the infested parts.
Prune heavily infested plant parts
Cultural
Mist frequently to dislodge crawlers (newly hatched scale).
Use slow-release fertilizers with moderate proportions of nitrogen. Scale, like mealybugs and aphids, thrive on plants with overly succulent growth (often due to high nitrogen levels). Do not overfertilize.
Quarantine new plants and treat before placing them among established plants. Discard heavily infested plants.
Article from: https://extension.missouri.edu/g7273?
Trees That are Susceptible to Storm and Ice Damage
There are several tree species that tend to be more likely to
suffer damage from high winds and weight occurring from
ice storms. Homeowners should be careful on site locations
selected for these species, since debris and large limbs
fall-ing can be very common.
Storm damage susceptible trees in our area include
Bass-wood, Birch (both river and paper), Beech, Boxelder, Black
Cherry, Black locust, Bradford Pear, Crabapple, Elm
culti-vars (Chinese, Slippery, or Siberian), Hackberry, Magnolia,
Silver Maple, Virginia Pine, and Willow.
Eastern White Pine, Eastern Red Cedar, and Arborvitae can
also suffer damage even though they are considered
inter-mediately resistance to storm damage. Proper pruning and
tree health can reduce a tree’s susceptibility to storm
dam-age.
Robert Yoder, ANR Educator
Call out! Master Gardener
Contributing Authors
We love highlighting local stories from our Master Gar-deners. Did you have a successful season? Did you
learn something new? Did you have a problem in your garden that you worked out? Share your story!
If you have an article that you would like us to feature and are interested in contributing in a future newsletter,
please let us know by the 15th of each month by emailing [email protected] or [email protected].
Each article submitted will count toward your volunteer
hours and help you achieve your next Master Gardener
level! It will also share our local stories to other Master
