Greetings, Why does the applesauce recipe from NCHFP NOT call for vinegar, but the apple butter recipe does? https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/canning-fruits-and-fruit-products/applesauce/ https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/canning-fruits-and-fruit-products/apple-butter/ Many thanks! Kim

Hello, I am dormant seeding a portion of our lawn. I did this last year and without snow coverage, the straw was blown away, the squirrels dug up the dirt, and the birds ate the seeds. We are repeating the process this fall. Do you recommend putting down any netting, or just more seed and straw, with hopes of adequate snow coverage? Thank you.

Hello. I recently brought a potted rosebush inside to overwinter (a first time try) and I see spider webs encasing the leaf groups with many tiny dots - presumably soon-to-be spiders - spread throughout the webs. How do I best get rid of them, and protect the part of the plant not yet affected?

Our property is on the McKenzie river. From top to bottom, we have gardens/grass, a sloped, sharp drop of about 2.5 feet, and a grassy riverbank that floods. I’ve battled the bindweed out of the upper areas without using chemicals but it is prolific on the slope and in the lower grass. I’ve planted trees and shrubs below. How can I both hold in that slope and battle bindweed on the lower grassy area?

I have found several groups of these gray bugs on the leaves of my Brussel sprouts. Under a lens they look like they might be aphids, but I'm not sure. I also have a few whiteflies on my plants, but they don't seem to be the same as these gray bugs. Can you help me identify them? Thanks, Robert

Good morning, I need your advice on Winter Crane Flies. At present and for the last month and half, we have an overabundance of Winter Crane Flies. They are everywhere in the yard. For background… We have a small suburban yard. Property is equipped with an irrigation system, so the property is well hydrated throughout the growing season. We have a significant bird population due to many trees on the property and several that have berries & fruit. There is water, cover and we feed the birds during the winter months. They are at present consuming many of the Winter Crane Flies. We use Scott’s Grub-Ex the first week of July for grubs and cinch bugs. It’s my understanding that this product also works for Winter Crane Flies? We did have some unusual browning of the lawn this summer that I have not seen over the last 50 years living here. I do not know if this is related to the Winter Crane Flies or something else? I just wanted to share the information with you. Can you advise how I can treat for them? What product besides Grub-Ex would be beneficial? What else could/should we be doing? Thanks in advance for your help.

How do I go about getting my well water tested? Thank you in advance for any help.

We are trying to determine if our flowering currant plant has a disease of if the symptoms are related to weather or something else. The plant had been very healthy and grew very quickly and was quite large. It's about 2 years old and is planted in a sunny spot and during the summer got regular water. Then around late September we noticed that some of the leaves on one side of the plant were drying up and some were falling off. None of the branches were wilting. The leaves on the other side of the plant looked normal and there are still some green ones in that area. Although many of the leaves are now gone there are lots of healthy looking buds on the leafless branches. We thinned out some of the branches but are unsure of anything else we should do. I have included 3 photos that show some of what I described. First, a wide shot of the plant showing dying branches on the left and green ones on the right. Second, a close-up of a branch with dead dried up leaves and some leafless branches with buds. Third, some green leaves with dried brown areas on the edges. I have more photos available. Thank you for any assistance with this.

My daughter bought a house in St Paul that has an apple tree that is about 35 feet tall. It had tons of apples on it which started falling in late July and just finished in the last week or so. We have no way of knowing what variety of apples they are, but delicious for fresh eating and make great apple sauce that needs no added sugar. How can we go about identifying the sort of apples they are? See photos. A strange characteristic is that they start to smell fishy when stored in the refrigerator. Thanks, Mary PS. I suspect the tree is quite old.

Just had a soil test done everything looked good except two things that I don't remember happening in last years soil test the Phosphorous level came out at 41.3 ppm normal levels. 8.0--20.0, potassium 109.84 normal levels 38.0-80.0 can I plant a. Nitrogen fixing legume to bring the P & K levels back to a reasonable number and what legume would you plant at this time of the year. The only other numbers that where off where nitrogen very low and sulfur a little bit low. To be expected