Fall insects

Fall insects of 12 spot cucumber beetles and cabbage loopers.

http://aptgroup.hort.oregonstate.edu/content/vegnet-regional-pest-trends-week-septmeber-26th-2016

8-20-2016

Cabbage loopers are out in big numbers.  See the following web site:

http://horticulture.oregonstate.edu/content/vegnet-regional-pest-trends-week-august-15th-2016

With the extra heat the past two weeks and especially this weekend, berries, tree fruits, nuts and vegetables will need additional water.

Dig a hole 18 inches deep for tree fruits and berries and 12 inches for vegetables, grab the soil.  If the soil falls apart;  time to water;  if the soil  hold together  and is moist when squished with the hand - all is good.

Most lawns are in the "brown mode" - just wait until September when the rains start

Second crop of figs is sizing nicely.

Gravensteins apples - mostly done.  Peaches - good year.  Italian prunes - ready this weekend or early next week.  Bartlett pears - still green on the tree but starting to turn color.

5-18-2016

Off to Kyrgyzstan, near Lake Issykul for a week and a half. Posts may be fewer.

5-12-2016

Grass seed and grains are heading out.
Most tree fruits are done with bloom.
The insect, codling moth emerged around the Lane County
        area four days ago;  right on historical timing.
Berries blooming, strawberries and even some blackberries
        blooming.
Even with the heat, many soils are still pretty wet.

5-9-2016

Rhodes out in full bloom.

Irises blooming, peonies - near done blooming.  Flowering
plants look extra good over the dark green lawns.

Thin peaches, apples and pears.

Codling moth expected out soon.

Strawberries looking good.

Lots of insects and diseases out.

5-7-2016 PM

Be aware that if there is standing water;  mosquitoes, first
generation are in the water and wiggling.

5-7-2016

Apples and pears need thinning.

Grapes had a good bloom period and it looks like a good
grape crop at this point.

I had a call that there may be either san jose or oyster shell
scale on cherry trees in and around Lane County.  Be observant.

Even with the wet weather, scab does not seen to be too bad.

Codling moth emergence is expected any time now.

April - for fertilizing tree fruits.  

5-6-2016

Pat Patterson - Rust on the quince and mountain ash already.

Ross Penhallegon - Just found a lot of rust on popular trees. It is starting to be a diseas year.

May 2nd, 2016

Eugene - Mixed weather sun, rain, and cloudy weather for the next 10 days.  Hi - 86 and lows - 48.
Early strawberries showing up.  Tree fruits finishing the bloom period.  Figure for apples, 21 days after full bloom to monitor for the codling moth.

Still seeing wet weather and temps above 60, which means more apple and pear scab infection periods.

Lots of veg starts in the market for planting.

Bend area - Highs 76 and lows, 41.  Two days cloudy, 2 days rain, two days clouds, and two days nice.  If wet and warm, means apple and pear scab on the tree fruit.  Fruit trees in full bloom with some nearing the end of bloom.

This week

Off to Tajikistan to share pruning knowledge with the villagers there. My posts may be fewer for two weeks depending in internet and coverage. More to come!

Spring

Spring weather for now, actually more than spring weather
with temps in the up 70's.
Pears and apples coming into full bloom.
Prunes - blooming.
Hazelnut - leafing out.  The less rain means less eastern filbert
sprays to apply.
Peaches - near done blooming.
Lawn - mowed three times already.

Peony - expanding buds.
Tulips - full wonder.
Noxious weed, less celandine (Ficaria verna) blooming so it is easy to ID
and remove from the landscape.

Myanmar 2016

Only a few more hours and  start my long trip back to the US, by way of Hong Kong, San Fran and then Eugene.

This time the USAID work was thru an organization called Winrock, and I volunteer thru the farmer to farmer  program - helping people to grow food.

The big event was helping the growers - 47 to learn how to do grafting and how to do budding.  I would draw no the board what needed to be done, but showing how to graft,  was difficult to a large crowd, so I would wonder around and show small groups how to do the grafting cuts; then later the budding cuts.  Almost everyone did a really good job.  I was very proud that they understand and then were able to do the proper techniques.

Phunom, Myanmar

The orchards in Phunom are on hills with at least a 50 degree slope.  Almost impossible to walk up or down.  The trees are pretty short so they didn’t need a lot of pruning.

The road to Phunom from either Teddim or Kalay, is on the top of the ridge, shale; and there are landsides everywhere.  You can see where the road has fallen off or is starting to move.  The road is 2 lanes but mainly ½ a lane.  So you get to drive …very… close… to… the side of the road, and in looking down, it is a long, way to the bottom of the canyon.  In most places, the bottom is ½ to over a mile straight down.

We drove the road six times without any incidents.

Now Phunom village is on one of these hillsides.  Along the roadway, houses are built on stilts so the houses can hang over the edge of the road.  Some had a 30 foot drop.

I was told there would be 35 in the classes.  40-47 showed up.  So the last day, everyone got a grafting knife.  I had to pull out every knife I had since there were 12 extra people.  There were 5 villages so each village got a Corona saw.  I only brought three pruners so the host, the interpreter and the local Extension agent got a long handled pruner that they were to SHARE with others.  The people were happy campers.

Caterpillars

The western tent caterpillar webpage at the PNW Nursery IPM website has been updated because the egg hatch occurs at bud break of its hosts. About now. Robin

 

http://oregonstate.edu/dept/nurspest/tent_caterpillars.htm

Myanmar

TODAY  - Yangon, Myanmar.  From my hotel window I could see where there used to be 12 plus greenhouses, they are now in various degrees of demolition.  Workers everywhere taking down the metal frames, breaking up the concrete floor, saving the red brick and stacking the metal side panels into piles.  The size of the greenhouses looked like they were probably for flower production, like the old Chase flower garden by Autzen Stadium, which has also gone away.  This story repeats itself, again.

Now it is 6:38 pm, dark.  Two small fires are burning on the property.  Two groups of people look like they are preparing their evening meals. They live on the demolition site.  The fire was from wood from broken trees branches.  Their home – unsellable pieces of cardboard or broken metal.  They were working out in temps that ranged from 65F in the AM to 97F during the major part of the day.

7pm.  Fires are done.  The temp is a nice 84 degrees. Found out the two groups live on the property so others don’t come and rob the demo site.

Each time I come into my room after watching the workers, I turn down the air conditioning unit.  Three times now.  Does it matter, does it help?  One room out of 513 rooms, no, but I feel that I helped out a tiny bit!

Off for a while

Off to Myanmar for two weeks. Part of that time will be in the mountains without electricity. Hum, fun!!?? Commons and posts may be few.

3-5-2016

Friday March 4

There's lots of WIND and rain on the way, and yes, plenty of mountain snow.

Today will be pleasant and dry, before a wet and blustery weekend arrives. California will be slammed with potentially damaging wind and heavy rain late Saturday; strong wind over Oregon.  Cool showers to follow the front, so no drying expected into early next week.   

Overnight Monday another system will approach the PNW, so rain returns. Wednesday night a strong storm will skirt up the coast, ushering in more WIND (esp NW WA) and rain across the region. No break in the action because early Fri a powerful storm may strike the west coast yet again. Therefore, strong WINDS, heavy rain and piles of mountain snow (blizzard type event possible) over an extended period from Fri Mar 11 through late Tue Mar 15.

The rain bucket will get full.  Vancouver Island will continue to be slammed with rain as the week of Mar 14 ends, the rest of the PNW may get a tiny break in the storm action. The weekend of Mar 19, 20 in trending WET, BLUSTERY.

Generally, the rough weather will benefit the snow pack for all of the west coast. At the valley level, colder air this time of year usually presents heavy showers after passage of the cold fronts, with HAIL possible. Travel over the mountains will be a challenge.   Rufus