Coming Events
April 25, Spring Affair, 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m., Lancaster Event Center, Lincoln
April 29, Eileen Krumbach’s Retirement Reception, 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., 4-H Building
Eileen Krumbach Retirement Reception
Many of you may or may not know that Eileen Krumbach will be retiring the end of this month. We’ve planned a retirement reception for her on Wednesday, April 29, from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in the 4-H Building here in York.
Those of you that have worked with Eileen are invited to stop by and wish Eileen good luck in her future endeavors. Over the years she’s conducted many programs and has touched many people both youth and adults. If you have a chance, plan to stop by and with her good luck on the 29th!
Cropping Update
It was nice to get a little additional rain as producers just get started planting corn and soybeans. I had about ¾ “ of rain over the three days.
We’ve had a little corn planted, but not a lot yet. I’m sure things will change as it dries up a little and soil temperatures warmup. I checked CropWatch for the latest soil temperatures and for the past week they’ve averaged 56.1° F compared to our normal of 52.3° F. It does not look like temperatures are going to warm up very fast, but it’s the last half of April, so I’m sure we’ll start to see lots of planning going on!
I hope you’ll continue to check CropWatch http://cropwatch.unl.edu for the latest cropping information. We’ve got several updated stories on the importance of early planning for soybeans and our summary of soybean populations on yields.
LEAD Candidates Wanted
I mentioned it last week, but want to mention it again! Terry Henjy, Director of the Nebraska LEAD Program was in the other day and shared application forms for LEAD Class 35 which will begin this fall. They’re looking for thirty highly motivated Nebraskans involved in agriculture who want to develop their leadership skills. Applications are due June 15, 2015.
The goal of the program is to accelerate leadership development and improve leadership skills and abilities of Nebraska’s future leaders; increase knowledge of state, national and international affairs; and prepare the problem solvers, decision makers and spokespersons for the agriculture industry, while establishing a network of highly motivated leaders.
Once accepted, the program will include twelve three-day, theme-driven seminars are conducted monthly from mid-September through early April. Year one focus is on local, state and national issues, with a ten-day national study/travel tour in February.
Second year focus is on the international community and include a 14-16 day international study/travel seminar.
Selected participants are expected to attend all seminars, secure spouse’s and employer’s full support for the program, possess a sincere commitment to self-improvement, maintain an open mind and interest and pay a modest annual participation fee.
For more information, check out this website: http://lead.unl.edu/ or give me a call at 402-362-5508, I’d be glad to visit with you.
I hope we have several applicant from our area!
Lawn and Garden Update
I’m beginning to see some flowers show up in our lawns that were not sprayed last fall. I’m seeing some yellow (dandelions) as well as some purple (henbit) and other flowers. Broadleaf weeds are the most common and bothersome pests in turf. Good cultural practices can help promote a healthy actively growing turf and cut down the weeds that invade your grass.
Some good practices consider include mowing between 3 – 3.5â€, following the 1/3 rule and not removing more than 1/3 of the turfgrass leaf surface, deep and infrequent watering and applying 2-4 pounds of N/1,000 ft2/year.
Back to those troublesome weeds, several products are labeled to control them. It’s important to follow the labeled directions and watch the wind so that you don’t drift on to sensitive plants. Our preferred time to control weeds is the fall, but spring time is the 2nd best time. Check out our Turf webpages for more information and our many factsheets: http://turf.unl.edu/turf-fact-sheets-nebguides.
With the cool wet weather, it’s really important to stay on top of your mowing. I’m glad I have not fertilized or applied my crabgrass control products yet….the grass is growing rapidly enough without having fertilized it yet. As I’ve mentioned in the past that fall fertilization is always the most important one. You can tell the lawns that have been fertilized in the fall. They are off to a good start this spring. I hope to make my first fertilizer/crab grass control application the end of this month or early May.
I’ve had our Forester out this past week and looked at a few pine trees. Many of the pine trees that have brown needles especially on the lower portions of the tree have a combination of two diseases. Diplodia and dothistroma needle blight. The most distinguishing characteristic of Diplodia blight is the presence of dead, stunted needles at the tips of branches (hence the common name, “tip blightâ€). The needles die in spring when the developing shoots are attacked and killed by the fungal pathogens. Another identifying characteristic is the presence of tiny black structures resembling pepper grains on the base of stunted needles and on the ends of cone scales. This is the reproductive stage of the Diplodia fungus. These structures release billions of spores that can initiate new infections.
The second disease we’ve seen is Dothistroma needle blight. If you are wanting to control these two diseases, several fungicides will do the job, but timing is important. We would suggest applications made about the third week of April just before the needles emerge, about 14 days later with a third application in late June.
For more information about products and controlling these diseases, goto:
Click to access Diplodia%202012%20June.pdf
Click to access diseasesevergreen.pdf
How’s your garden doing? Most of my cool season crops are in and beginning to take off. Once the soil dries a little, it will be time to begin planting our warm season crops like snap beans, cucumbers, summer squash, melons and transplanting some of our favorite plants like tomatoes, peppers, and sweet potatoes. Our typical last spring 32 F date is April 22nd in our area, but we all know that we can have frost well into May! But if we cover our transplants with milk jugs or some other material we’ll typically keep them warm enough to get by with our freezing. We’ll have to see how this spring goes? For a copy my suggested planting guide goto: http://york.unl.edu/water-environment and click on the appropriate link.
Happy Gardening! If you have yard and garden questions, feel free to call our office 402-326-5508 or email me a gary.zoubek@unl.edu.
