In the case of these chrysanthemums, the young basal sprouts were wilting obviously because of a lack of water. I could see and feel the dry soil. Plants need water, just as we do, to grow and survive. Water is necessary for photosynthesis. It moves nutrients and photosynthates throughout the plant, it acts as a coolant and it gives a plant turgor along with many other less obvious but just as important plant functions. One might suppose that limited quantities of either natural precipitation or human supplied water would be the primary reason a plant would wilt. While it is a major one, there are three other situations where wilting could commonly occur – at least when dealing with houseplants.

Overwatering will cause a houseplant to wilt. In fact, I recall seeing somewhere that overwatering was the number one cause of houseplant death. Many houseplant owners like schedules (as a good number of us do) and water accordingly. So, if today is Saturday, it is time to water the houseplants. The problem is, the houseplants may or may not need water. When to water depends on the type and size of plant, the size of the pot, indoor temperatures, exposure to light, and the plant’s growth cycle among other factors. If heat is provided all or in part by a wood or pellet stove and plants are in this area, they will dry out faster and may need more than once a week watering. Those plants kept in a cooler, dimly lit area might only need water every 10 or 14 days. Our watering houseplant fact sheet (at www.soiltest.uconn.edu) may be of interest to new houseplant owners.

If plants receive too much water, the potting mix they are growing in becomes saturated. As this happens, any air in the root zone is pushed out and replaced by water. While this sounds counterintuitive to non-plant people, a plant’s roots need oxygen in the root zone to take up water. Once all the oxygen in the potting mix is replaced by water, the plant cannot take up water so they wilt. Usually the response to seeing a plant wilt is to add more water, thus exacerbating the problem.

What’s wrong with this plant?

Few roots, brown, unhealthy and overwatered.

Another scenario for wilting is caused by overfertilizing, especially with synthetic fertilizers, either in water-soluble or granular formulations. Fertilizers are primarily composed of nutrient salts. We use sodium chloride as our table salt at mealtimes, while some examples of fertilizer salts that are used to supply nutrients to plants include potassium chloride, ammonium nitrate and superphosphate.

You may have heard it mentioned that nature is always striving to reach an equilibrium (no matter how short lived it may be!). Well, if there are more nutrients in the potting mix, because of over-fertilization, than in the plant, curiously, the plant will release some of its water to try to dilute these salts so that the concentrations within the plant and surrounding the plant’s roots are more in line with one another, i.e. in equilibrium. In doing so, the plant loses water and wilts. On top of that the fertilizer salts can cause physical injury by the ‘burning’ or desiccation of plant root tissue. As plant roots die, there are less healthy ones to take up water so plants may still look water-deprived. Also injured roots because of overwatering or overfertilizing become susceptible to a variety of rot diseases.

Lastly, that plant that needs water on a daily basis probably is trying to tell you it needs to be repotted. There are so many roots growing in a restricted area that more water than you can supply it is needed. If plants are repotted on a regular basis, they are typically moved into pots that are one to two inches in diameter larger than the one they are presently growing in. If the roots are terribly overcrowded, you might select a pot that is 4 to 6 inches wider if the roots are not cut back. Do untangle or slice through encircling roots before repotting.

Spider plants need to be divided regularly to avoid overcrowding.

It is up to you, the houseplant caregiver, to figure out why your plant is wilting. Start by knocking the plant out of the pot and looking at the roots. They should be nice and white and crisp and the potting mix should be moderately moist but not dripping water or desert dry. If this is not so, try to figure out what has gone wrong. If you are stuck, please give us a call. Find our contact info at www.ladybug.uconn.edu

Happy Gardening,

Dawn

Great Horned Owl HopiakCLO photo

Recently while visiting my daughter in Massachusetts, I heard the hooting of an owl breaking the silence of the night inside the house. Out on the deck, his call could be heard much more clearly. Her house abuts a large wetland filled with tall pines and maples. I looked up owl calls on the internet and identified the call as coming from a Great Horned Owl. Listen to several different owl calls at this link. owl calls

Great Horned Owls are plentiful in New England. They are known to eat around 250 different species of mammals , fish and reptiles. Lizards, frogs, fish and salamanders are wetland prey the owl I heard was probably seeking. Raccoons, squirrels and rodents are not safe from Great Horned Owls during their nocturnal hunts either. Other foods sources are large insects, crayfish, scorpions, centipedes,  worms, spiders, and road killed animals. The Great Horned Owl will regurgitate pellets of indigestible parts of animal six to ten hours after eating. Naturalists and scientists look for the pellets to dissect giving them clues to the owls’ diet.  I remember doing just that in an elementary school science class many years ago, and sparked my curiosity of owls.

The most recognizable feature of the Great Horned Owl, Bubo virginianus, is the tufts of feathers looking like horns or ears, called plumicorns. They are neither ears nor horns just longer feathers. The name plumicorn comes from the Latin pluma meaning feather and cornu meaning horn. The Great Horned Owl is a large bird 18 to 24 inches tall and can weigh over 5 pounds. They nest in hollow trees and cliffs or the abandoned nests of other large birds, preferring not to make their own. Mating season for an owl couple is January and February annually. The female will two or three eggs that will hatch in about four weeks. Both the mother and father will sit on the eggs and feed the owlets. Baby owls will venture out of the nest by hopping between one and two months old. They learn to fly around 10 weeks old. There is only one generation each year.

-Carol Quish

Owl Pellets, sfjc.edu

Cranefly adult photo: Pamm Cooper

The extremely wet conditions of 2011 may have encouraged a new invasive insect to the turf grasses of Connecticut.  Although not confirmed, a few golf courses in the state reported that crane fly larvae were actively feeding in the turf. Tipula oleracea which is sometimes referred to as the marsh or giant common crane fly is the suspected invasive (distinguishing species of crane flies is difficult, a confirmation of the larval species is usually made by an entomologist.)    Dr. Pat Vittum turf entomologist for the UMass turf program  reported in her early December turf newsletter that several  golf course superintendents on the eastern end of Cape Cod, found invasive cranefly larvae Tipula oleraceae,  active on many parts of the golf courses.  She also reports that this invasive species has probably has been present in the southeastern part of Massachusetts for several years.  In 2005, New York State reported that two exotic species, the European crane fly (Tipula paludosa) and the marsh cranefly (T. oleracea), invaded New York State.

european crane fly larva rear end protruberences Nov 2011 photo: Pamm Cooper

The crane fly larvae can severely damage all types of turfgrass and forage grass species.  In addition they have been known to attack nursery seedlings as well as many small fruit and vegetable crops.

Cranefly larva photo: Pamm Cooper

Dr Vittum’s report states that “The “common” cranefly often experiences two generations per year, with the first generation laying eggs in late April or early May, and larvae (large olive green, legless maggots with some noticeable projections on the tip of the abdomen) feed through the summer months. Adults fly in late August or early September, lay eggs, and the emerging larvae (of the second generation) feed through the fall.”

Craneflies thrive when soil moisture levels are very high, especially during egg-laying. Last year was one of the wettest in New England, providing the right conditions for large numbers of larvae to survive. Fall also brought unseasonably mild temperatures that probably enhanced the larvae’s’ opportunity to forage.

Entomologists from the west coast report that the larvae can be active any time the ground is not frozen, they resume active feeding as the frost leaves the ground in late winter and can cause additional damage before pupating in the spring.

The adults emerge in the early fall, however  it is the larvae in the early spring, and late fall, that devour roots and cause yellow spots and bare patches in grass.

The adults are poor fliers and have a short lifespan, therefore do not travel very far on their own.  It is thought that introduction of theses invasives may be due to movement of infested soil.

LA

Dr vittum’s turf newsletter:

http://extension.umass.edu/turf/management-updates

.

Impatiens look cheery in this partially rotted stump.

In Connecticut this year, many of us lost some of our large trees to storm damage.  If you can use firewood, the hardwood trees can be put to good use.  An option for stumps or sections with a little rot in the center or an interesting form can be used as natural looking planters.  If there is no rot present, the center can be hollowed out.   Stumps can be used in place or cut off at ground level and moved to a different location.

From: http://naturagardens.com

J Allen

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 70,000 times in 2011. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 3 days for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

From: allaboutbirds.org

I enjoy just about every bird that visits, except for English sparrows, and I might even tolerate them if they would leave my nesting bluebirds alone. One of my absolute favorites is the blue jay. Yes, they are large, raucous souls and, they eat a lot of bird seed. My first close encounter with a blue jay was at my mom’s hairdresser’s house. Back then, a lot of ladies set up hair styling salons in their homes. Her house was located along my walk to the elementary school (my siblings and I walked 1 7/8 miles to school each way – you had to be at least 2 miles away to be bused!) and occasionally I would stop by for a hair cut on my way home. Not only did our hairdresser have two very beautiful and very vocal Siamese cats (with their own, fully-enclosed, outdoor cat run!), and an attic filled with plant lights and African violets, but she also had Bobby, the blue jay.

She had rescued Bobby from either a fall or an animal attack, I don’t quite rightly remember, when he (or perhaps she) was a fledgling. His wing was broken and she had splinted and bandaged it. He thrived under her care and became quite the favorite with her customers. His name was bestowed upon him because after his wing healed, he would half fly – half hop around the beauty salon and collect shiny things like bobby pins and hair clips and stow them away for safe keeping, I suppose. He had a large cage in the shop area and could come out when there were folks around to keep an eye on him.

He loved to eat. Bobby would gobble down canned dog food, hamburger-rice mixtures, cooked vegetables, peanuts, apples, and all sorts of bird seed. As he got older, the hairdresser had set his cage first on the porch, then in a tree, and eventually he could come and go as he pleased. He hung around her house for the longest time all the while making friends with some of the other neighborhood blue jays. Bobby would often return to her window feeder for treats and would take food from her hand. I don’t know whatever became of him as we moved the summer after 5^th grade but I am hoping he lived a good long life.

Since our yard is pretty much surrounded by oak forests, blue jays visit our feeders and bird baths a lot. Acorns are one of their favorite foods and blue jays will collect and store caches of acorns for later feedings. One study found 6 blue jays had each collected and stored between 3,000 and 5,000 acorns during the course of one fall! Reportedly they are quite good at selecting acorns that are insect free and so many a forgotten acorn is healthy, fully intact, and will sprout come springtime. In fact, this tendency for blue jays to unwittingly ‘plant’ oak trees is thought to be one reason oaks became so widespread in northern regions following the last glacial period.

Like Bobby, our resident blue jays savor a wide assortment of food items. They are omnivores and as such consume fruits, seeds, nuts, insects, and dead or injured small vertebrates. This is where they derived their unfounded reputation for attacking and consuming the eggs and young of other avian species. Truth be known, after analyzing the stomach contents of a number of blue jays something like 1% or less were found to contain the traces of bird eggs or nestlings. These could just as well be consumed when already killed, disturbed or destroyed by other animals. My cockatoo, for instance, devours omelets and the marrow of chicken bones, being the opportunist that he is. So, sometimes conclusions should not be drawn until all the facts are in.

Blue jays are social birds. You rarely see one by itself but rather, they appear in small flocks either with its mate (with whom there is usually a life-long bond), extended family, or other groups of jays. The blue jays’ migration patterns are still a mystery. Some blue jays migrate to warmer climes, some stay but no factor that predicts their migratory behavior has been found.

These birds have a variety of calls with some even mimicking hawks. Apparently since blue jays are relatively slow flyers, they are often targeted by hawks. I have seen this several times in my yard and although I know hawks need to eat too, I must say it is a somewhat disturbing site to see a beautiful blue jay killed right in front of you. The hawk calls are thought to either serve as a warning to others that hawks are near, or to fake out potential bird food competitors so they will leave the feeding area. I have looked for hawks when I hear them but to tell you the truth, I can’t tell why they make this noise either.

While many lament the aggressiveness of blue jays when it comes to taking their turn at the bird feeder, I think that their feelings are ill-founded. I have a window feeder and I must say that those quietly cooing mourning doves as well as those sunny yellow goldfinches, male cardinals, and even the punch-drunk grey squirrels are all much meaner and more aggressive when seeking a meal at the feeder than the loud but intelligent blue jay is. I sort of consider him the Rodney Dangerfield of the bird feeder – despite his size and loud vocalizations; he ‘can’t get no respect’.

One more tidbit of information about blue jays. When we moved into our old, white house in 1989, I did notice that blue jays were pecking at the paint. I thought that this indicated an insect problem but found an article at the Cornell University website that indicted paint manufacturer’s use of calcium carbonate (limestone) in paint as a pigment extender (2001). After we had the house redone with vinyl siding, of course the problem stopped. Apparently the birds were seeking a source of calcium and even now, after hard-boiling eggs, I will separate the shells and, occasionally leave them in an area where birds can get to them (as opposed to the compost pile).

If you enjoy attracting and watching birds, I strongly suggest considering participation in the Great Backyard Bird Count, February 17 – 20, 2012. This event is sponsored by Cornell University, the National Audubon Society, Bird Studies Canada and Wild Birds Unlimited. You can count birds for as little or as long as you like over this 4 day period and your observations will be valued by researchers as they seek to study bird populations on a yearly basis. Go to: www.birdsource.org/gbbc for more information.

Happy Horticultural New Year!

Dawn

Fall-planted evergreens wrapped for winter Photo: U of Minnesota

Wrapping larger plants, such as fig, with insulating material (burlap or other fabric) will help them survive the winter in the milder areas of the state (Fairfield County and the Connecticut River Valley). Wrapping is also a good practice for evergreens that were planted in the fall or are exposed to windy sites; both conditions make these shrubs vulnerable to winter desiccation.  Avoid plastic as a wrap material; it can create a greenhouse effect on sunny days which could cause the plant to lose dormancy, making it vulnerable to cold damage. To avoid this, protection must be removed toward the end of the winter while the weather is still cold. It may be necessary to replace the covering quickly if late, extremely cold weather is expected.

An easier option may be to grow marginally-hardy plants in a container and once they’re dormant, move them into a garage or cellar with a temperature consistently close to freezing. Occasional light watering is the only care necessary until it’s time to move the plant back outside in the spring. Oleander and geranium (Pelargonium) can also be overwintered this way.

Gladiolus 'Mykones' Photo: D. Pettinelli

Plants that produce bulbs, corms, rhizomes and tubers when dormant (but aren’t hardy in our area) can be stored for the winter and replanted in the spring. The most common (and rewarding) are:

Gladiolus

Loosen the soil around the base of the plant with a garden fork. This late in the season, the leaves will probably fall away from the corm easily, so a little fishing in the soil may be necessary.  Let the corms dry indoors on newspaper or screen for a few days. The cormels (babies) can be removed from the corm and saved for additional stock. Store the dried corms in paper bags or onion sacks. Label the bags and hang them in a cool, 40-50 degree dry location, away from marauding rodents, until spring.

If gladiolus is grown in a cluster, it may be worthwhile experimenting with a deep mulch of leaves for winter protection. The first year, do this with a few glads that you’re willing to risk losing.

Dahlia

Dig dahlia clumps carefully, as tubers break easily. Allow the clump to dry on sheets of newspaper or cardboard. Pack the tubers in dry sand, peat moss, wood chips or granular vermiculite. A storage temperature of about 45 degrees is ideal. Small tubers can be kept in a zip lock bag or wrapped in plastic in the vegetable bin of your refrigerator. Check periodically for rot. A dusting of sulfur will help to prevent bacteria or mold from developing.

Dahlia 'Forty-Niner' Photo: Stanford University

Canna

To store cannas for the winter, use the same process as for dahlias. Unlike gladiolas, which should be stored cool and dry, the rhizomes of dahlia and canna need to retain some moisture; they should not be allowed to dry and shrivel during storage.

Before the fierce winds of winter begin to blow, protect those perennials and shrubs that may benefit from a blanket. If the ground isn’t frozen, glads, cannas and dahlias can still be lifted. Seize the moment!

James McInnis

wood-chemwiki-ucdavis-edu.gif

Heating your home with wood is a practical alternative to high oil and electricity prices. Some people heat completely with wood and some burn wood in addition to their conventional heating system.  Either way, knowledge of different woods or how they burn will make the whole process more economical and cost efficient. Different ways to burn wood affect the efficiency as well. Indoor wood stoves, fireplaces and outdoor wood fired furnaces provide varying levels of heat.

A roaring fire in the fireplace gives a beautiful site but not much in the way of heat. Most heat goes up the chimney with only an average of 10% of the available heat making its way into your home. More heat is lost through the open flue after the fire burns down but is not cool enough to handle the damper. The newer generation of wood stoves claim efficiency of 50 to 75% or higher. Outdoor wood fired furnaces are located outside of the home in a contained shed. Water is heated in pipes by the outdoor furnace then pumped back into the home via underground piping. The hot water is circulated through the home heating pipe system. When the water cools down it is pumped back into the outdoor furnace pipes to be heated again. Efficiency levels are low, in the 25 to 50% range. They burn a large amount of wood at a low temperature creating a lot of smoke. State and local regulations restrict use and placement of wood burning appliances. Check with your town’s building or fire marshal for any restrictions and requirements.

The type of wood burned and level of moisture of the wood effect the heat produced. Freshly cut wood contains high levels of moisture. Wood must “season” or dry out for several dry months until the cells release the moisture before burning. The nature of wood combustion is such that the moisture within the wood must be released as steam then the volatile portion of the wood can burn releasing heat. So wet or “green” wood spends too much energy on releasing moisture to make it worth while.

Wood is normally measured and sold in cords. A cord is a pile of wood, bark and air spaces equal to the measurements of four feet high, four feet wide and 8 feet long, or 128 cubic feet. A tightly packed cord of wood will contain more pieces of wood than a loosely pack one. The actual weight of the wood will vary with the moisture content and the type of tree.

Heat is measured in British Thermal Units or BTUs. One BTU is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water one degree F. One pound of any type of wood dried to equal levels will produce the same amount of heat when burned, 8,600 BTUs. The heavier or denser the wood is, the better the heat value. Hard woods like maple and oak will be heavier than soft woods such as pine and fir. Likewise, a cord of hard wood will weigh more than a cord of soft wood. It will take larger amounts of soft wood than hard wood to produce the same amount of BTUs.

Hardwoods are beech, some maples, hickory, locust, ash and oak. Softwoods are pine, spruce, cedar and willow. The soft woods contain more resin which will catch fire faster. These are ideal for kindling.

Store all firewood outdoors a few inches off the ground to prevent moisture from wicking up. Keep the top of the pile dry with the sides open for good air circulation. Fire wood stored inside can bring unwanted insects into your home. Some insects find the split wood a great place to spend the winter until they experience the unexpected warmth of your home and decide it is spring, ending their winter sleep.

-Carol Quish

Cranberries are plants that aren’t too widely grown in home gardens, creating some mystery about what the plants look like, how the berries are harvested, and maybe even whether they CAN be grown in the home garden.  (They can!)  Look for garden cranberry varieties (no bog needed) in fruit catalogs or online.

The natural habitat for cranberry is a boggy site high in organic matter.  They are very low growing, long lived plants with tiny leaves.  I recently had a chance to visit a cranberry shipping facility (transfer from the bog to the processor) and a cranberry bog, right during harvest season and it was really interesting.

Low growing cranberry plants.

The cranberries are grown in a vast network of sunken areas that can be flooded at the time of harvest.  Flooding (and draining) of the fields is achieved nearly 100% using gravity and water from a nearby river. There are little ‘flood gates’ built into the dirt ‘walls’ surrounding the fields/bogs that can be opened or closed to control the water flow.  Cranberries can be harvested in more than one way and we learned about two.  One is using a wooden, hand-crafted tined scoop that is placed on the ground adjacent to the plant and pulled through the stems, removing and lifting the berries from the plants.  See photo.  We got to try this and bring home some berries.  Some of mine went into my favorite cranberry bread recipe, obtained from my oldest son’s preschool (circa 1988).  I’ll give you the recipe at the end of the blog.

Cranberry Scoop

Back to harvesting.  The other, more efficient and commercial method is still appealing and unmechanized by today’s standards.  A walk-behind machine (non-motorized) with a large egg-beater-like apparatus on the front is pushed by a person in chest waders through the flooded bog.  The ‘egg-beater’ turns and loosens the cranberries which float to the top of the water, creating a scene like the one in the Ocean Spray commercials.  See photo.

Flooded Cranberry Bog

Once the entire bog has been picked, an inflatable tube like those used to contain oil spills is floated on the surface to corral the berries into a corner where they are removed and placed on a truck using a conveyor belt.  The trucks haul them to the shipping facility where they are washed and crated for the trip to the processing plant.  See photos!Rounding up the cranberries to load on the truck.

Berries are dumped from the truck into a large washing area.

I never thought cranberries would be very enjoyable to eat fresh but they were.  We ate some right in the bog, with no sugar, and now I have a new healthy snack.

Pat’s Preschool Cranberry Nutbread

Ingredients

1 cup chopped fresh cranberries
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 Tblsp. grated orange peel
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
11/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 Tblsp. shortening
3/4 cup orange juice
1 egg, well beaten
Preheat oven to 350°. Grease & flour 9x5x3" loaf pan. Prepare
cranberries, nuts and orange peel. In a bowl mix flour, sugar, baking
powder, and baking soda. Cut in shortening. Stir in orange juice, egg
and orange peel mixing just to moisten. Fold in cranberries and nuts.
Spoon into pan and bake for 60 minutes.

J Allen