ECGDallas Weblog

The July 2008 issue of the Seedling report is now available from the ECG website. Click here for the shortcut to the newsletter page.

Late last Friday, the sign guy came and put up a new sign, moving the current ECG sign off to the right. This new sign reflect the change in the name of the Agriculture Program (Texas A&M System) agencies. It also displays the new logo. The two agencies affected were Texas Cooperative Extension (now known as Texas AgriLife Extension Service) and Texas Agriculture Experiment Station (now known as AgriLife Research). The Texas A&M Research and Extension Center in Dallas is now officially known as the AgriLife Research and Extension Center Urban Solutions Center in Dallas. Our web address remains the same at http://dallas.tamu.edu.

This morning, my son and I led a disease safari as a part of the 3rd Saturday education program. We saw a few diseases in the garden. This is quite surprising as we have had moist conditions as well as relatively warm temperatures. Participants did get to see some squash wilting. Unfortunately (or fortunately), not due to bacterial wilt but due to insect problems (squash borers). There were a few tomatoes which were exhibiting blossom end rot, a problem due to nutritional imbalance. There was powdery mildew on summer squash, zucchini, gourd plants. And on the grape, just a little "tar spot". Interestingly, quite a few tomato plants were also exhibiting abnormal growth of new plant tissue (also known as epinasty). I am not entirely sure why this is happening, I don't think its due to herbicides though. It is probably a response to fertility and the high fluctuation in temperature we had in the last few weeks (Just a guess!). In all, the safari proceeded on a day that was rather pleasant. Don't miss the next 3rd Saturday program. We are taking a break in July and will continue in August with Ms. Kim Schofield talking about good and bad bugs.

The newly completed rain garden is almost functioning the way that we would like it to. However, we still have some hiccups along the way. Some plant are in the rain garden, but we hope that several more, as they get establish, will help with the integrity of the structure. Last night storms dumped 1.64 inches of water at the Center, as a result a part of the berm constructed to detain the water in the rain garden failed. Dr. Jaber is intently studying this breach as he comes up with another plan to deal with the water issue. We are all waiting for a break in the weather to put in more of the water loving plants in the rain garden. Don't forget that the 3rd Saturday education program in April is about rain gardens. For more information, call 972.952.9210.

A quarter of 2008 is almost done. Finally there is some updates to the factsheets on plant problems. Check out sickplants.tamu.edu for these factsheets. They include items on seedling diseases (damping off) and the live oak leaf drop situation, as well as a spanish translation of the Cedar-Apple rust factsheet. Also, do not forget to check out the educationcommunitygardens.org website for the various 3rd saturday program that is being presented. Next one up is "Creating rain gardens" with Dr. Fouad Jaber (Extension Stormwater Water Specialist).