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by Rett Davis | |
Gardening Q&A by Rett Davis appears in
Alamance County's daily newspaper, The Times-News,
every Sunday in the Accent section. Each week's installment is
posted to this
website, beginning with January of this year. Scroll to the bottom of
this page to navigate to other Gardening Q&As. Please contact
Rett via e-mail with questions
or
comments in regard to this column.
Question:
We dug our sweet potatoes last week and were surprised to find that the skin was not a pretty orange. Why do our sweet potatoes have dark blotches on the skin?
Answer:
There are many disorders of sweet potato that will affect the skin color and shape of a sweet potato. The ones you brought to our office were infected with scurf. Scurf is caused by a fungus that causes the potato to develop brown to black irregular blotches over the surface of the potato. It detracts from the appearance of the potato making it difficult to sell. However, the inside is still pretty and certainly edible. The disease most likely came from infected plants that you purchased in the spring. Those young slips (plants) grew from a scurf infected seed source. Next year, plant your sweet potatoes in a new area and purchase sweet potato slips that were cut from the seed potato, not pulled. Ask the seller if these are cut slips from certified seed. As for this year's crop, put them into pies and casseroles and no one will ever know or taste the difference.
Question:
My hibiscus plant is full of tiny insects crawling all around on the leaves. I need to bring this plant indoors soon but I can't with all those bugs. What can I do?
Answer:
Careful examination of plants is the order of the day for all plants that must find their way back inside before colder weather arrives. Houseplants that have spent all summer on your deck and patio may have hitchhikers ready to move indoors too. Insects are just a few of the unwanted creatures. In your case, you need to spray to control those pests more than once. For soft bodied insects such as mites and aphids you can use Insecticidal soap or products such as Bayers Rose and Flower Insect Killer. Finding insecticides just for houseplants is not easy. Most of the products on the market are for outdoor plants and are too strong for most houseplants. It overwhelms me too when I look at all the products to choose from. Look for products that contain pyrethrum, cyfluthrin, and imidacloprid. Ask for help from the vendor. Spray the entire plant, one week apart. I would also advise you to slip the entire plant, roots and all, out of the pot. Look carefully for slugs and snakes. Believe me, stepping on a slug barefoot is not fun at 2 am, when all you wanted was a glass of water from the refrigerator.
Question:
My new grass is up and and the leaves are falling down. I am afraid to rake for fear of pulling the grass up. What can I do?
Answer:
Mow you grass with either a bagger or blow the leaves off first. Mulching mowers work fine too in early season and the ground up leaves will not hurt the grass. Set your mower for the highest mowing height and mow about every 5-7 days. This works fine in early fall until the leaves become too much for the mower and begin to smother the lawn. At this point the grass will be able to handle light raking or you can use a leaf blower before you mow. Do not let leaves lay long on newly emerging grass seedlings.
Question:
I have just finished cleaning up my vegetable garden for the winter. What kind of cover crop can I plant on it to protect it over the winter and add organic matter to my soil?
Answer:
The choice of ground covers is not an easy one. It all depends on what kind of garden equipment and other resources you have available to you. If you own a tractor, bush-hog, and a harrow, then you can consider growing either wheat, oats, or rye. Austrian winter peas would also be a good choice. These cover crops produce a tremendous amounts of biomass and require farm equipment to mow them down and turn then under. No mantis or Troy Built tiller can handle these cover crops. If you are back yard gardener, then consider covering the garden with shredded leaves, animal manures, or compost. You may go around the neighborhood and collect the shredded leaves people have put out for pickup. If you have access to people that have cows or horses, see if you can get a load of older manure especially if it is mixed with shavings or straw. Cover the soil with at least 2 inches of this organic matter and till it in this fall. If you have neither a pickup truck or access to one, you can always purchase composted animal manures such as Black Cow or Black Chicken. These are safer to haul home in the family SUV.
MASTER GARDENER CLASS OF 2007
Do you want to learn more about the growing and care of plants? The Master Gardener program is designed to do just that. The classes start the second Wednesday of January and run through the second Wednesday of April. We meet from 9 am until noon. Classes topics include botany, plant identification, vegetables, herbs, soils, pesticides, insects, diseases, fruits, and perennials. Cost of the program is $75. All classes are taught in the Agricultural Building, 209 North Graham Hopedale Rd. in Burlington. Applications are available at the Ag Building, online at www.ces.ncsu.edu/alamance or by calling our office at 336-570-6740 and have one mailed to you.
North Carolina State University and North Carolina A&T State University commitment themselves to positive action to secure equal opportunity regardless of race, color, creed, national origin, religion, sex, age, or disability. In addition, the two Universities welcome all persons without regard to sexual orientation, North Carolina State University, North Carolina A&;T State University, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and local governments cooperating.