Local Interest
By Nebraska Extension Horticulture Educator Kathleen Cue
The most important thing to understand about Japanese beetles is their feeding doesn’t kill trees, shrubs and flowers. Granted, it isn’t fun to see the lacy leaves they’ve created, but pesticide management options require thought and planning before you set out for revenge.
Systemic insecticides, for instance those containing the active ingredient imidacloprid, are taken in by plant tissues. Systemics may have a label for application to trees and shrubs but before these are used, the applicator should make sure the plant is past its flowering stage in order to protect pollinators. Also, a systemic product can never be used on linden trees.
By Nebraska Extension Horticulture Educator Kathleen Cue, Dodge County
Twisting, curling, and cupping of leaves are often symptomatic of herbicide damage on vegetable plants. The culprits that most readily cause this type of damage include 2,4-D (used to kill broadleaf weeds in lawns and pastures), dicamba (lawn and crop broadleaf weeds) and picloram (pasture broadleaf weeds). These herbicides are plant growth regulators, killing weeds by stimulating excessive growth and exhausting the plant’s carbohydrate reserves. When vegetable plants are exposed to smaller amounts of these herbicides, then distortion of growth results.
Maple Bladder Galls—“Freckles” on the Leaves
By Kathleen Cue, Nebraska Extension Horticulture Educator
If you have a sliver or red maple tree, you’ve most likely noticed small raised bumps on the leaves. Tree owners will call them “freckles”, “measles” and sometimes even “zits”. Whatever they are called, maple bladder galls are caused by a very tiny mite. The galls themselves are made up of plant tissue and are a part of the leaf. Maple bladder gall mites live, eat and mate inside the galls and are well-protected from any application of a miticide.
By Kathleen Cue, Nebraska Extension Horticulture Educator
One third of our food supply exists because a pollinator moved pollen from one flower to another. Their quest for nectar and pollen means we reap the benefits by harvesting fruits, vegetables, and legumes. Despite the necessity of pollinators for a reliable food supply for humans, pollinator habitat is in jeopardy because of reduced food sources and chemically-dependent pristine landscapes.
Helping pollinators is a local issue. Gardeners can make a difference for pollinator health by planting more flowers, supplying a water source, reducing the number of insecticides used and leaving a few dandelions and white clover for them to feed on.
By Kathleen Cue, Nebraska Extension Horticulture Educator
You’ve seen this before—mulch piled so high around a tree that it resembles a volcano with a stick coming out of the center. So goes the plight of trees trying to survive under such conditions. Despite the research indicating how bad this is for trees, we see it time and again.
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The “Engaging Agriculture” articles are written weekly by and for Engagement Zone 1 Nebraska Extension Educators, who cover the 11 counties in the Panhandle.