Earlier this week, I came across a large collection of soil "mining bees" while on a hike in a park in southwest Ohio. Surprisingly, the "colony" was located right on and along a park trail with numerous males making their low-level flights in search of females.

Organic mulch can provide wonderful benefits to landscape trees and shrubs as well as enhancing landscape aesthetics. Or it can slyly take the form of a horticultural horror cunningly robbing woody ornamentals of their vigor.

Periodical Cicadas (Magicicada spp.) take either 17 or 13 years to complete their development out-of-site in the soil. Brood X (10) of the 17-year periodical cicada is one of the largest based on geographical distribution. Cicadas of this Brood are poised to emerge this spring.

Nursery and greenhouse growers can once again apply for USDA CFAP 2 payments on beginning on April 5, 2021.

Earlier this week, I was participating on a Virtual Zoom presentation for Master Gardener Volunteers in Lucas County. This year's interns were treated to a Plant Pathology presentation by OSU's Plant and Pest Diagnostic Clinic's Program Director, Joy Pierzynski, Ph.D. While there were a lot of words that Joy shared with this new group of OSU volunteers, I picked one that I just love to hear. 

A quarantine is established to contain, or reduce the potential spread, of an identified pest. Recently, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) has expanded their spotted lanternfly (SLF) (Lycorma delicatula) quarantine to include 8 new counties. Those counties include: Cambria, Cameron, Franklin, Lackawanna, Montour, Pike, Wayne and Westmoreland. This brings up the total number of PA Counties under quarantine to 34. This is just over 1/2 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties. 

Check out the first edition of the Turfgrass Times in 2021. A special shout out to the following OSU Turfgrass Team members that made this week's video possible: Dr. David Gardner; Dr. Ed Nangle; Joe Rimelspach; and Dr. Dave Shetlar (aka the Bug Doc); Dr. Pamela Sherratt; and Michael O'Keeffe.

Changing EAB rules, oak wilt, invasive species management, and more! This spring’s EABU webinar series will cover a wide range of topics and see the start of a new series of 30-min All You Need to Know videos! Join us Thursdays at 11:00 AM ET starting March 18th. Details below!  

Growing Degree Days (GDD) are a measurement of the growth and development of plants and insects during the growing season. Development does not occur at this time unless the temperature is above a minimum threshold value, or what is also referred to as the base temperature. This base temperature can vary for different organisms and is determined through research and experimentation.

This week's word of the week is DAMPING-OFF. Dictionary.com defines damping-off as a disease of seedlings, occurring either before or immediately after emerging from the soil, characterized by rotting of the stem at soil level and eventual collapse of the plant, caused by any of several soil fungi. 

 

As gardeners eagerly await the official beginning of the spring season, there will be lots of seeds being sowed at home, or commercially in greenhouses across Ohio to support gardeners efforts in growing food, supporting pollinators and creating beauty in gardens and...