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Hot
Weather Tough on Plants and Gardeners
Sultry summer weather
is not only tough on gardeners, but on our plants as well. In addition
to garden and landscape plants gasping for water, some vegetable
crops have trouble producing when under stress.
Tomatoes, peppers, melons,
squash, pumpkins, cucumbers and beans
often drop their blossoms without setting fruit when day temperatures
are above 90 degrees F. There's not much you can do but wait for
cooler
temperatures to prevail. As more favorable conditions return, the
plants
will resume normal fruit set.
Sweet corn is also likely
to have trouble setting fruit in such hot weather.
Unfortunately, you only get one flush of flowering with corn; so,
if your
plants just happen to be shedding pollen when the weather is stressful,
you can expect poor ear fill later.
Full
Story, http://www.extension.purdue.edu/gardentips/
Operation Thistle teaches horticulture to young
gardeners
Dr. Thistle kidnapped Queen Flora – or at least that is the
story Junior Master Gardeners in grades six through eight will hear
as part of Operation Thistle. The Junior Master Gardener program
educates children in horticulture and environmental science, as
well as teaching leadership and life skills.
The story starts as Col. Maranta, a praying mantis guide, briefs
Agent 9, also known as a Junior Master Gardener, on Operation Thistle.
Agent 9 must learn about plant growth and development in order to
rescue Queen Flora from Dr. Thistle's lair in the Black Spore Swamp.
"Thistle is no petunia," Col. Maranta said. "This
stickler means business."
Full
Story, http://www.extension.purdue.edu/gardentips/kids.html
 Hola
Bagworms
The best time to control these insects has passed (mid-June). However,
some control can still be achieved by using pyrethroid insecticide
applications or a new product called Spinosad.
http://www.ppdl.purdue.edu/ppdl/weeklypics/7-29-02-1.html
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