Category: Uncategorized

As I noted a few posts back, this summer marks the 10^th anniversary of the discovery of emerald ash borer (EAB) in southeast Michigan.  While a lot of progress has been made on many fronts in the battle against EAB, the outlook for ash trees in North America still looks bleak for the foreseeable future.  Ash trees, both green and white ash, were popular choices as street and landscape trees throughout the Midwest and elsewhere. … Continue reading this article “Demonstrating Diversity”

Over the weekend our blog was inaccessible.  The server room in Pullman (where this blog is housed) overheated and everything was shut down.  I apologize to those of you who tried to comment and/or post.  Things are back to normal, at least for the time being.

To those of you who don’t like Blue Oyster Cult, I’m sorry, I just couldn’t stop myself.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I spend some time flame weeding.  It’s a technique for getting rid of weeds by frying them using a 500,000 BTU (I’m not kidding – that’s how powerful this thing is rated) torch hooked up to a propane tank.  It’s not something I do a lot, just something that I get the urge to do periodically — when I need to feel macho.… Continue reading this article “I’m Burnin, I’m Burnin, I’m Burnin For You! — A Short Story Told With Pictures”

If you live anywhere east of Montana you know that two-thirds of the country has been roasting under record heat for the past few weeks.  While the weather has been a bane to farmers and many others, it has provided us with an ideal set of conditions to begin to look at the responses in the SoMeDedTREES project. 

To recap, we installed two experiments with 25-gallon container-grown ‘Bloodgood’ planetrees.  In both experiments we applied one of three treatments to the root systems at planting: 1) “Shaved” the outer  portion of the root system to remove  circling roots, 2) “Teased” apart the outer portion of the rootball to remove circling roots and 3) “Control” where we did nothing to the root system, or “Pop and drop” to use Linda’s terminology. … Continue reading this article “Making hay while the sun shines”

Many blue spruce trees in our area are suffering from a progressive decline.  This is more than the usual combination cytospora canker & rhizospaera needlecast that tend to make most mature blue spruce look crappy.   The current syndrome has been linked to phomopsis blight and affected trees show increasing branch die-back and in some cases trees go from a having a few dead branches to completely dead in a 3-4 years.  Because of this alarming and pervasive issue, I’ve been asked to put together a list of alternative selections for blue spruce as part of my extension duties.… Continue reading this article “A rose by any other name…”

Tuesday morning I started the day by going outside, lighting a propane torch, and doing a little bit of flame – weeding for a demonstration.  Then I went inside, answered a few e-mails, and worked on a paper.  Around 4:00 I decided to go get a haircut because Wednesday I was due to speak before a portion of the Minnesota congress, along with a Professor in the department of Plant Pathology, to seek funding for a project that we have which identifies Dutch elm disease resistant elms in Minnesota.… Continue reading this article “Bud Markhart”

Posted by Sara Tanis and Bert Cregg

NOTE: Last week I gave an update on the 10-year anniversary of the discovery of the emerald ash borer in the U.S.  In response to the post, Sonia John raised a couple of points:

“Please share your knowledge about the status of efforts to: 1. introduce insect species or other biocontrols that predate the EAB, and 2. evaluation of the degree of resistance to EAB of Asian (and European) Fraxinus spp.… Continue reading this article “Ten years of life with the Green Menace: Part 2”

I get things wrong sometimes – I’ve had slip ups when speaking and said things I didn’t intend to say.  I’ve written things that I wish I had the chance to rewrite because I explained things poorly.  I’ve even gotten my facts mixed up from time to time.   Still, it bothers me when someone who should know better delivers information that is blatantly wrong.

Yesterday I was looking at YouTube videos regarding compost tea.  As anyone who has ever looked up compost tea on YouTube knows, if you look long enough you’ll eventually come to videos of Dr.… Continue reading this article “This Really Bugs Me”

This summer marks an anniversary of sorts.  Shortly after I joined the faculty at Michigan State University in the fall of 1999 MSU Extension began to get reports of dead and declining ash trees in and around Detroit.  Since ash trees had relatively few serious pest issues and none that routinely caused mortality, the mysterious ash decline was attributed to cumulative environmental stresses, ash yellows or various site factors.  In the summer of 2002, however, a little-known exotic beetle from Asia, emerald ash borer (Agrilis planipennis) was identified as the causal organism.… Continue reading this article “Ten years of life with the Green Menace”

I performed a little demonstration the last few weeks which I thought you might be interested in seeing.   So here it is:

I took a little weedy spot of land out in the nursery and divided it into four sections.  Three weeks ago I applied Round-up to one of the sections and vinegar to another.  Then, a few days ago, I applied vinegar (again) to the third section and Round-up (again) to the fourth.… Continue reading this article “A Tale of Two Herbicides”