I have an extreme infestation. I am in a residential community in the south hills of Pgh and of all the homes mine is the only one that has stink bugs completely covering everything outside. I believe it is the huge tree we have out front that they nest in and have contemplated cutting it down. If you need somewhere to research this would be a researchers dream. I have sprayed every chemical out there, and used a trp but they are still attacking my family as we leave every day and it is getting so unbearable my husband wants to sell our home.
I have a large mound in Cass County (56452). I have a large planting on common milkweed on it. The roots are around 6" deep. Is that OK or should I pull them. Also, a number of those plants have large expanses of black on them. Looks nearly like soot; perhaps a mold/fungus. please advise.
Browning of European Pear Leaves: I am experiencing a foliar disease on an European pear. The variety is Starking Delicious which is meant to be fire blight resistant. I follow the MD extension service schedule for regular preventative spraying of pear trees with fungicides, using Mancozeb in early season and then Captan in the summer cover sprays.
In early July 2012 leaves on the tree started to become brown, with maybe 70% infection rate by the end of July. The infected leaves hang on the tree for a considerable period after they become brown but they do eventually fall off. The disease was not obvious in 2013. In July 2014 I am again starting to see the same browning of some leaves.
The browning of the leaves certainly resembles fire blight. However, I am very familiar with fire blight as 2012 and 2014 were bad fire blight years on some of my apples. I have been pruning out fire blight infected small branches from my apples since about two weeks post-bloom but the pear tree leaves have looked very healthy until early July. If my pear was infected by fire blight I think I would see some symptoms of "wilting" of young shoots but I saw no evidence of this in 2012 and none this year. Furthermore, the leaf die back with fire blight also generally starts at either a flower spur or the tip of the new shoots but with this pear tree there is no pattern to which leaves on the branch are starting to brown off. There is no evidence of any of the fruit shriveling as occurs with severe fire blight. Also, on my tree the discoloration in each leaf is initially very localized within each leaf. This seems more a characteristic of a fungus. With fire blight the entire leaf seems to discolor more uniformly throughout the leaf. I have an adjacent younger pear tree of the same variety and it is not affected at all. So it is odd that the disease is not infecting the other trees. I do not think that this a response to drought as 2014 has been a wet year. The soil is a well drained sand so the tree is not responding to a waterlogged soil
Thanks for your help
I asked this question 4 or 5 days ago but didn't get a response (I did check my junk email folder).
We have a small community garden in Arden Hills. We would like to increase pollination in the garden and someone heard that we could try to introduce Mason bees since they are stingless and wonderful pollinators. We know where to get "houses" for them but we heard that we need to be careful to get bees that have been raised in zone 4 so they can survive the climate. We don't know where to get them. I tried the Entomology department at the U but they referred me back to you.
Hello again, I have attached some figures below from a data logger. The manufacture can not help me to work out the Chilling hours between the dates on the data. I am surprised since they created the device and the soft ware. can you help me work it out please, thank you.
1
S/N 611356 Type TGU-4500 Description Cal
Run Property Temperature Logging Started 12 Sep
2012 09:19:05 Logging Ended 22 Feb
2013 15:49:00
Logging Duration 163
days 6 hours 29 minutes 54 seconds
Offload Operator Laurence
Tree Trigger Start No Start Delay 0
second Interval 15
minutes Stop Mode When
full
Run Id 6zkr kjc1 poq1
Last Calibrated 7 Apr
2011
Calibration Agency Manufacturer
Offload Time 24
Mar 2013 15:53:04
Number of Readings 15675
Stop Reason Still
Logging
Logging Mode Minutes
Mode
Statistics Start Time 14
Nov 2012 20:03:11 Statistics End Time 22
Feb 2013 15:49:00 Minimum Reading -3.6
°C Maximum Reading 28.4
°C Average Reading 6.4
°C
Mean Kinetic Temperature 7.3
°C
Time above 1.7 °C 86
days 18 hours 48 seconds
Area above 1.7 °C 11791.2
°C hour Time below 1.7 °C 13
days 1 hour 45 minutes
Area below 1.7 °C 537.4
°C hour Time above 7.2 °C 45
days 15 hours 30 minutes 48 seconds
Area above 7.2 °C 2774.9
°C hour
Time below 7.2 °C 54
days 4 hours 15 minutes
Area below 7.2 °C 4697.8
°C hour
$ amount of Ag Products, 2012, For the Christmas Valley, area, of the various Ag Products, like livestock, and alfalfa, etc. Thanks, Tom Boyd,<personal data hidden>
In the summer of 2012 I had a very successful yield of Yukon gold potatoes. This summer (2013) I had a good crop but almost one-third of the potatoes were heavily eaten by something below the ground. I did not have this problem in 2012. Could it have been mice? Please advise me as to what I should do to protect the anticipated potato crop of 2014 from underground pests.
Is there anywhere that I can purchase a 2013 & 2014 calendar without having to order them? I received a 2012 in Nov 2012 from attending several classess. Thank you
