FOR RELEASE THE WEEK OF APRIL 1, 2001:
My arborvitae were damaged by snowloading this winter. How can I repair the splayed branches? If I cut them, will the brown areas inside the shrubs eventually green up?
If the splayed branches of your arborvitae aren't broken, your best strategy would be to simply tie them back into place, says Yvonne Carree Barkley, University of Idaho extension forestry associate. Species like arborvitae and juniper normally have internal branches with sparse or no foliage. These "dead zones" are caused when dense self-shading kills new twigs and buds or suppresses their development. You should avoid pruning into these leafless zones whenever you can. According to the American Horticultural Society, they seldom resprout.
If your arborvitae branches are not only splayed but broken, then you will unfortunately need to remove them, Barkley says. You'll wind up with a gap in the foliage, which the AHS recommends disguising by repositioning adjacent branches in front of it. Tie the branches in with rubber tree ties, soft tarred twine, Velcro plant ties or even nylon tights or stockings.
To avoid more episodes of splaying next winter, Barkley recommends wrapping any columnar-shaped trees or shrubs with twine and covering their tops before snow falls.
What can we do to prevent wireworm damage in our garden? The wireworms destroy our young corn, bean and pea seedlings and tunnel into our onions and potatoes.
As you have noticed, wireworms can do an impressive amount of damage to vegetable crops. They are the larval form of the click beetles we see in late summer. Each female adult lays about 350 eggs, which hatch into slender, white or yellow worms with dark heads and tail sections.
Wireworms, which can reach about 1 inch in length, are active at soil temperatures between 50 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. One way to reduce their numbers is to plow your garden plot in late summer and let it dry out. That will expose the pests to predators and to unfavorable hot, dry conditions, says Craig Baird, University of Idaho extension entomologist.
Crop rotation also helps. Don't plant the same vegetables in the same place year after year. Should pests become intolerable and if space allows, move the entire garden to a new location every two to three years.
Baird also recommends in-furrow applications of insecticides at planting. Insecticides like Diazinon form barriers between the wireworms and the crops. As you work up the soil this spring, Baird advises making a furrow where you intend to plant seeds. Spray or apply Diazinon granules to the furrow and close it up with a rake. Then re-make the same furrow into the treated soil, drop the seed into it and close it up again.
"Make sure the Diazinon product you intend to use lists the vegetables you want to grow on its label," Baird cautions. And be careful to apply the pesticide at the recommended rate--not in excess of it.
We live at the edge of town and our perennial borders fill up with cheatgrass each year. What can we do to get rid of it?
Although cheatgrass can be thick in Idaho landscapes, it's actually quite easy to manage, says Don Morishita, University of Idaho extension weed scientist.
If your perennials are broad-leaved and herbaceous, treatments of Fusilade or Grass-B-Gon can be very effective against cheatgrass--especially if they're applied in early spring before last fall's new, purplish crop develops seedheads. After the first application, watch for regrowth and retreat your cheatgrass if a cold snap prompts production of another round of seedheads.
If your perennials are woody, Morishita suggests that you use Fusilade or Grass-B-Gon in early spring, then prevent next fall's crop from emerging by sprinkling Casoron granules around your woody shrubs or other woody ornamentals in late summer or early fall. He cautions that Casoron can harm herbaceous perennials, and it won't work on cheatgrass once the weed has emerged.
Finally, if you don't like to use chemicals or if you have a lot of ornamental grasses--which are very susceptible to both Casoron and Grass-B-Gon damage--just pull or hoe out your cheatgrass. "Hand or mechanical removal will control it, even if it's done only once a year," Morishita says.
My sister and I are both trying to lose weight. She is on a high-protein diet and I am on a low-fat diet. We are both losing some pounds, but which one of us will have an easier time keeping them off?
As long as you keep your calorie intake to about 1,500 calories, both diets should continue to take off pounds, says Martha Raidl, University of Idaho extension nutrition specialist. But a study released in January by the USDA indicates that what keeps dieters from regaining weight is a moderate-fat, high-carbohydrate diet. Both the American Heart Association and Weight Watchers recommend this type of diet: they suggest that dieters consume 30 percent of their calories as fat and limit their protein intake to 20 percent.
"Consuming more fruits, vegetables and complex carbohydrates seems to help keep dieters full and ward off those hunger pangs," says Raidl.
Look for the March-April 2001 issue of the journal Obesity Research, which will publish the entire USDA study on www.obesityresearch.org.
[READERS: Do you have a question about your home, yard or garden? Send it to HomeWise, University of Idaho Ag Communications, Moscow, ID 83844-2332 or e-mail it to homewise@uidaho.edu. Mention of proprietary products or firms does not constitute endorsement by the University of Idaho Cooperative Extension System or imply approval to the exclusion of other suitable products or firms.]