If you have boxwoods on your property, bend over and take a listen. No, you haven’t suddenly become the plant whisperer! What you are hearing is not the boxwood talking, but the late-stage larvae of the boxwood leafminer, Monarthropalpusi flavus. It literally sounds like the snap, crackle and pop of a bowl of rice cereal. [Read more…]
April 2, 2013 Richard Buckley
Hold on to Your Needles!
As the weather warms, Christmas tree growers and nursery folks are beginning to get back into their fields to select trees for digging or to assess field conditions. Recent samples in the Plant Diagnostic Laboratory suggest it would be prudent to keep an eye out for disease symptoms and signs that would have appeared or intensified over the winter. [Read more…]
March 25, 2013 Richard Buckley
Don’t Burn Baby Burn!
Can’t tell by the weather today (not another snow storm!), but we are entering the window for our last opportunities to make dormant treatments of insecticidal oils. [Read more…]
March 25, 2013 Richard Buckley
Might be Mites on Your Spinach?
Tan lesions due to the fungus Cladosporium variable on spinach. Photo: Sabrina Tirpak, Rutgers PDL
Spinach samples were submitted to the Plant Diagnostic Laboratory today from a local organic grower. They were submitted for the diagnosis of a leaf spot disease, but closer evaluation revealed much more. [Read more…]
March 15, 2013 Richard Buckley
The Ides of March
I apologize for teasing you with a single post, then ignoring the blog site for three weeks. We didn’t mean to invite you all to a party and then not serve up any green beers! [Read more…]
February 13, 2013 Richard Buckley
Snow Molds?
The great blizzard of 2013, with all the snow and ice (and hype), has brought concerns about snow mold diseases in turfgrass. First thing first, I am glad I don’t live in Connecticut….40 inches! At any rate, snow cover provides an excellent environment for many fungi including some species of Pythium. In New Jersey we have the fungi Typhula incarnata, which causes the disease gray snow mold, and Microdochium nivale, which is the cause of pink snow mold (AKA: Fusarium patch).
Pink Snow Mold. Photo: Todd Clift, Country Club of Ithaca
