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Feature Article:
A Tribute to
Roy Lewis (1952-2020)
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During his life, Roy Lewis was many things to many people; a man, a son, a brother, a husband, a father, a friend, a farmer, a poultryman, a contractor, a caterer, a lawn mower and turf specialist, a landscaper, a salesman, and a Master Gardener (MG). Roy was the quintessential Renaissance man with varied interests and the foresight and vision to both visualize and create function and beauty from a barren slate.
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Although Roy had a great depth of knowledge in many things, his passion, which he pursued in his later years, was teaching. He loved to share his gardening knowledge with anyone and everyone and would always take the time to answer questions. I became acquainted with Roy mostly through his Gardening A-Z class which he taught at the Clayton Community Center from 2012 to 2020. The last several years of his life, he also taught horticulture and life's lessons to the men at the Johnston Correctional Institute prison off Highway 70. He wrote articles for the Weekend Gardener magazine and was a frequent guest on the companion Saturday morning radio show, "The Weekend Gardener" on WPTF.
The lessons Roy taught me about gardening and even life will never be forgotten by me - he made a lasting impression. A really great teacher is one whose lessons are remembered time and time again. Roy was such a teacher.
Roy had a vision for the Clayton Community Garden (CCG) which I consider to be his legacy. Interestingly, he never put his vision down on paper, it was simply in his mind and he set about bringing it to fruition to the amazement of most of us. A starter garden landscape such as the CCG, blossomed from a little sprout of a garden to an extensive one of lush bounty under his able direction. Roy was particularly proud of the rain garden that was put in just this year. And as a result of his mentoring and tutoring of fellow master gardeners and volunteers who worked together tirelessly, greater yields and higher goals for the CCG garden were attained under Roy's leadership. He would be so pleased to see the continued growth and improvement of the CCG from current MG's, future MG's and volunteers. All were and are always welcome in the Town of Clayton CCG.
I leave you with Roy's signature farewell, "Happy Gardening".
By Jyl Burgener, Johnston County Master Gardener Volunteer
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Veggie Tales:
What's happening to my tomatoes?
By Rodger & Rose Crickenberger, Johnston County Master Gardener Volunteers
For at least three years now a neighbor has had problems with his tomatoes wilting and dying five or six weeks after transplanting. The first year, the problem occurred when plants were grown in his regular garden area, which has been in the vegetable garden for over 15 years. By the time the problem occurred, daytime temperatures were consistently in the mid-80s or above.
We discussed the potential for some soil-borne problem, so the second year (2019) he built three nice raised beds with good drainage and filled them with soil purchased from a big box store. He layered sand in the bottom, followed by purchased soil followed by composted material. A light layer of straw was used for mulch on top of the beds. We thought perhaps if he was dealing with a soil-borne problem, moving to new beds might eliminate the problem. He also obtained his transplants from a different source.
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Photos By Rodger & Rose Crickenberger
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Because soil in boxes or tubs is sometimes difficult to keep thoroughly watered, he watered them daily. After transplanting, tomatoes in the raised beds greened up and were growing beautifully. After four to five weeks, we were beginning to get infrequent heavy rains and temperatures of 85 degrees and above.
Plants began to wilt when the soil was apparently adequately moist, and death of the plants were complete within a week. Eventually over a couple of weeks, all plants in the raised beds as well as ones in his regular garden area were dead, all with the same symptoms and general timeline.
In preparation for the 2020 season, we submitted soil samples to the NCDA&CS lab; results showed normal pH and the only fertilizer needed was nitrogen and sulfur. We also reviewed his watering scheme since the raised beds are located where ground and potential roof runoff could be adding excess water to the raised bed area, but we decided that was unlikely.
Transplants were obtained from the same source as in 2019, including several varieties. Plants were transplanted the last week in April, and with lots of rain and increasing temperatures to the mid-80s, the transplants thrived and began blooming. He reduced the watering frequency and amount, but still kept the plants uniformly moist, considering the rainfall we'd had. Then about five weeks in, BANG, the tomatoes began wilting and dying.
In his main garden area, he had put in some new soil to raise a corner of the garden that had eroded. In this area and another area with some new soil, he planted additional plants from the same group of plants. So far in late June, those plants have not had problems.
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So, we began looking at every factor that might be responsible for the problem. Eventually, all nine plants in the raised beds wilted and were removed. We had focused on excess moisture because of drainage around the raised beds. After the first couple of plants wilted, we sent photos of affected plants to the NCSU Plant Disease and Insect Clinic (PDIC), and they suggested in the absence of obvious disease symptoms, we might be dealing with excess moisture and a resulting physiological, not disease, problem. |
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As plants continued to wilt and die, my determination to find the cause got worse. We had a conversation with our Extension Agent, who suggested a simple "stem in a jar of water test" to check for bacterial wilt (this information was in a fact sheet provided by PDIC, but did I read and catch that? Noooo!)
So out come the plant shears. I cut a stem near the ground and placed it into a pint jar of water. Within 15 to 20 minutes, the characteristic cloudy, smoky strands were coming out of the cut stem and could be seen clearly in the jar.
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So with that information, we then knew we were dealing with Ralstonia solanacearum (bacterial wilt), a soil-borne bacterium that resides in the soil essentially forever, in the eyes of a tomato grower. Resistance has not been bred into common tomato varieties and there is no soil treatment to eliminate it. If you plant tomatoes where it exists, you will be proud of them until temperatures are in the mid-80s. Some success has occurred with growing popular varieties grafted onto resistant rootstocks. Information on that is given in the fact sheet referenced below.
We suspect that the new raised beds were either filled with contaminated soil, or the new soil was contaminated by using the same garden tools in the new raised beds as in the regular garden, without disinfection. The neighbor was instructed to remove and destroy all affected plants. If raised beds are to be used for tomatoes in the future, they will need to be emptied, disinfected, and refilled with new, clean soil. Disinfection of tools will be required as well, to avoid recontamination
What did we learn?
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When you have suspected plant disease or physiological problems, contact your Extension Agent and NCSU PDIC as early as possible.
2.
Carefully read, understand and follow up on information they provide (we may have caught the water test earlier).
3.
What we first thought was a simple water problem ended up being a water problem caused by the bacterial wilt organism; it colonizes in the plant tissue and prevents water uptake.
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When you have a plant problem, carefully think about and explore as many factors as possible that might be related to what you are observing.
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When filling raised beds, make sure you use soil that has no chance of being contaminated.
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Be careful about cross-contamination of soil and plants with gardening tools.
7.
Read the information in the following fact sheet:
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Grow Native:
Agastache foeniculum
, Anise Hyssop
by: Dianne Willett,
Johnston County Extension Master Gardener Volunteer (Student)
This months grow native plant is the beautiful Agastache foeniculum; also known as Anise Hyssop or Blue Giant Hyssop. Anise Hyssop is a herbaceous perennial in the Lamiaceae (mint) family, has no serious pest or disease problems, and can grow 2 ½ to 5 feet tall, which makes it a perfect backdrop for the flower or herb garden.
Anise Hyssop's native habitat is northern prairies and dry thickets (Peterson). In the garden, plant Anise Hyssop in full sun to light shade, 12-24" apart. Soil should be mesic (requiring a moderate amount of water) to dry conditions. This member of the mint family is more resistant to drought.
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Photo courtesy of Dianne Willett
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The stem is square, as is common for the Lamiaceae family. The leaves are opposite with small petioles and the shape is broadly lanceolate with a crenate-serrate margin. The leaves have an anise or licorice scent and can be used as a flavoring in salads and teas. The Native Americans were reported to have used the leaves for fevers, colds, and coughs. However, Hyssopus officinalis is the plant used for medicine, not Anise Hyssop.
Anise Hyssop flowers from June to September and the color of the flowers range from violet to blue. The flowers occur in the axils of bracts, forming an interrupted spike. Two pairs of protruding stamens; one pair curving upward, the other downward, crossing each other. The plants will self-seed in the garden and will overwinter well. Pollinators such as butterflies, honeybees, and bumblebees love to visit.
Cultivars/Varieties of Anise Hyssop for this area are 'Blue Blazes', 'Blue Fortune' or 'Golden Jubilee.'
Foster and Duke.
Peterson Field Guides, Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, New York, 1990. Page 190, Plate 29; 30.
Peterson and McKenny. A Field Guide to Wildflowers of North Eastern and North Central North America. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1968. Page 348.
Peterson, Lee Allen. Peterson Field Guides Edible Wild Plants. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1977. Page 140.
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Ask an Expert:
Stink Bugs
By Tiffany Whichard, Johnston County Extension Master Gardener Volunteer
When I was a little girl in grade school, I have distinct memories of the boys in my class finding stink bugs and deliberately stomping them. The smell the bugs gave off when disturbed was something of legend and my friends and I would all run away shrieking. As a grown woman and a gardener, these meddlesome insects continue to wreak havoc, this time in my vegetable plots.
Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs are an invasive species. They are shield-shaped, medium bugs with sloping shoulders, a speckled brownish-gray back, and alternating bands of white and dark on the edges of their wings.
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Photo by Debbie Roos
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1st-instar BMSB nymphs hatching from egg mass.
Steve Schoof, NC State University
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The adults will take shelter in leaf debris or under tree bark during the winter. As spring weathers warm to 60 degrees and beyond, they emerge and began mating and laying eggs, producing up to 3 generations per year.
Aside from beans, chard, corn, okra, peppers, and tomatoes they also bother a few fruits, field crops, and ornamentals. They feed on both the leaves and tissue of plants, causing damage. In tomatoes, for example, this creates a white corky blemish to develop beneath the skin. This part is inedible and must be cut out.
Stink bug damage on ripe tomato
Steve Schoof, NC State University
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Green Stink Bug
Photo By Debbie Roos
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Green Stink Bug nymph
Photo By Debbie Roos
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To combat these troublemakers, there are plenty of things you can do. To minimize egg-laying, you'll want to keep the area neat and tidy, especially during the fall and winter. Mow regularly and remove weeds. Next, you can exclude egg-laying females by using a lightweight fabric row cover. Additionally, you can pick off the clusters of barrel-shaped eggs. Growing flowering herbs will also attract beneficial insects some of which will prey on stinkbugs when they are young.
For active infestations, I handpick the bugs and either stomp them or dispatch them in a soapy pail of water. If that isn't something you're comfortable with, you can also use insecticidal soap on them. Whatever method you choose, know that patience and persistence will be your path to success. And of course, if you have any questions, you are welcome to contact us!
Additional resources of information:
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Quick Tip:
"Food Safety in the Heat of Summer"
By:
Cassidy Hall
Area Agent, Family and Consumer Sciences
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Did you know that cooking foods do not make them sterile? Cooking to the proper temperature reduces the load of pathogens present to levels your immune system can fight off. Leaving foods at room temperature is ideal for pathogens to begin growing again. Chill foods within two hours. If foods are left in a hot car or in an environment of 90 degrees, foods are no longer safe after one hour in these conditions.
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Got Gardening Questions?
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Our Johnston County Extension Master Gardener Volunteers (EMGV) can help with various horticulture questions.
Email the EMGV at jcemastergardener@gmail.com
or call (919) 989-5380
to speak with one of our
Master Gardener Volunteers.
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GENERAL IDEAS
- Water deeply but infrequently, this will encourage deep rooting of plants for better drought resistance.
- Control fungal diseases which flourish in hot and humid weather by keeping irrigation water off foliage. The best time to water is early morning. This allows the sun to dry water from foliage. Watering in early evening creates damp foliage all night which encourages the development of fungal diseases.
- Help reduce the mosquito population by emptying any containers with standing water. Mosquito larva can grow in shallow water, like plant saucers that do not dry completely.
LAWN CARE
- When should you water your lawn? When the grass blades are just starting to curl and your footprints remain on the lawn when you walk on it. Watering too often encourages a lawn with a shallow root system that cannot handle drought well. Apply an inch of water, in the early morning. Set your timer for 4 am if you can.
- Grasses vary in their needs. Check out the Lawn Maintenance Calendar for your grass and learn how best to care for it, month by month...
Click on each type of grass for individual maintenance calendar:
- Keep fescue mowed at a height of 3 - 3 1/2 inches to help it survive hot, dry periods. The growth of the cool season grass slows down in the summer. If it is cut too short, the tender roots will be exposed to extreme heat which will certainly damage, if not kill them. It is also difficult for fescue to recover from cutting too short as it is not actively growing at this time.
- Repair Warm-Season Lawns: Bermuda, Zoysia, and centipede are growing strong by now, making it easy to see spots that are weak or weedy. Pull weeds and patch bare spots if you haven't already.
- Established fescue lawns naturally go semi-dormant in the heat of July. Established fescue can survive up to three weeks without water, but will need a drink if it doesn't rain by then! Water only when grass shows sign of wilt (footprints show when grass is walked on). Fescue planted last fall will need watering every week. See the Fescue Lawn Maintenance Calendar (link above).
TREES, SHRUBS & ORNAMENTALS
- When you visit your roses, clip off leaves that show early evidence of blackspot - a common fungal disease that causes black spots on leaves. Put the spotted leaves in the garbage (not in the compost pile.)
- When gathering cut flowers to bring indoors, cut stems early in the day. Bring them indoors and recut the ends while they are submerged in a sink of water.
- Don't use Japanese beetle traps. The pheromones in the traps often attract beetles that would not otherwise visit the area. To control a particularly pesky group of beetles, go hunting for them in early morning and shake them into a bowl of soapy water to get rid of them.
- Keep potted plants watered! Plants in pots outside may need daily watering in the heat of summer.
- Pinch out the tips of garden mums to encourage lower, compact plants with many flowers.
- Start stem cuttings of geraniums and leaf cuttings of succulents to be potted for use as house plants this winter.
- Propagate shrubs by rooting cuttings. Semi-hardwood cuttings of Azalea, Camellia, and Holly can be taken this month. The wood should be hardened enough that the stem breaks when bent.
- Prune spent crape myrtle blossoms to prolong the flowering period.
- Sooty Mold on the crape myrtles will make the leaves appear dark and sooty or almost uniformly charcoal gray. Sooty mold grows on honeydew (the sticky leftovers) from aphids. Control the aphids, and the mold will wash off.
- Powdery Mildew makes leaves appear gray and powdery. It's a common problem which disfigures the foliage, but doesn't kill the tree.
- Hand-pick bagworms off evergreens. Pesticides are not effective once the caterpillars are safe in their bags.
- Remove vigorous upright sprouts growing from tree roots ("suckers"), or from the upper surfaces of tree branches ("water sprouts"). Pruning the sprouts out directs the tree's energy into desirable growth.
- Weed when it's easy. Weeds are easier to pull when the soil is moist, so wait until after a soaking rain or irrigate the area first. The roots of desirable plants can be injured by pulling large weeds nearby so pull those weeds in late afternoon or on cloudy days, and water the area afterward to help injured plants recover.
- Start seeds for cool-weather annuals indoors in July/August for fall planting. Try foxglove, pansy, alyssum, snapdragons, ornamental cabbage (kale), and primroses. Pansy seeds germinate well when stored in the refrigerator (not freezer) for 10-14 days before planting.
FRUITS & VEGGIES
- Pinch out the tips of blackberry shoots when they reach about 4 feet tall. This helps produce more berries and forms a tidier hedgerow for easy picking next year.
- Soon after tomatoes begin to set fruit, give them a boost of fertilizer to keep them vigorous and productive. Most of the new varieties are heavy producers if provided with good nutrition and adequate soil moisture.
- Watch out for slugs. These soft, slimy, slender pests have a special taste for tender young crops. Holes in leaves or on the leaf margins and a silvery slime trail in the morning indicate a slug feast the previous night. Slugs hide under boards, stones or debris during the day.
- Warmer temperatures and longer days send a signal to spring greens that it is time to flower (bolt). At this point leaves generally do not taste as good. Once this quick process starts, there is no turning back. To delay bolting try the following. Cover spring salad greens with a cardboard box in mid-afternoon. Remove it after sunset and give the plants a slurp of water to cool them down. This procedure fools the plants into thinking the days are shorter than they actually are and can delay bolting by a couple of weeks.
LANDSCAPE IDEAS
- Deckscape: Play with colors, textures, and the placement of furniture on your deck or patio. Use container-grown plants, windsocks and sculptures to change or fine-tune your color scheme and overall feel.
- Think strategy. Now that deciduous trees and shrubs are in leaf, survey your landscape critically. Do you have too much? too little? are plants too low where screening is needed? So tall a view is blocked? Take photographs and make plans to add or move shrubs this fall. Don't plant it now, wait until fall.
WILDLIFE
- Put out a bird-bath. Keep it filled with fresh water. Change it once a week to minimize mosquitoes. Birds will pay you back by eating lots of insects!
- Think twice about squashing caterpillars; many turn into butterflies. Swallowtail caterpillars love parsley, so set out a few extra plants to share with them. A pan of moistened pebbles or sand will attract butterflies.
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Cool Connections:
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Aerial Photo of Johnston County Ag. Center 4-H Pollinator Garden
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Helpful Links from Johnston County Cooperative Extension
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Announcements:
Updated Soil Testing Info.
NCDA&CS Soil Sampling Facility labs are now accepting routine soil samples!
The NCDA&CS Soil Sampling Facility labs will be operating under reduced staffing. Although longer than normal sample turnaround times may be expected, we are accepting all routine client samples (soil, nematode, plant, waste, solution and soilless media) except waste samples covered by the NCDEQ waiver on liquid animal waste .
See website link for more information.
The Master Gardener Annual Plant Sale
Will be held on October 10th
, 2020
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For more information visit:
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