On a bright, sunny Thursday morning in October, ANR Extension Educators, Carrie Brown of Fairfield County and Dan Lima of Belmont County, teamed up with the North American Pawpaw Growers Association (NAPGA) and the Ohio Nut Growers Association (ONGA) to establish a grove of pawpaw trees at the Mansfield Correctional Institution.

Time and again I have heard, “I miss the old OSU Nursery Short Course where we could talk about landscape plants, bugs, diseases and what might impact our industry next!”  Well, stop dreaming of the good old days and get back into understanding potential future landscape plants and challenges!!  A great landscape educational experience can be discovered at the Ohio State University Short Course.  Why call it the OSU Short Course??  Because the OSU Short Course is exactly that— a short, intensive course of educational classes and updates that are all landscape related!...

What a spectacular year for fall color! From red maples reminiscent of a sailor’s sunset and gingko as bright as the sun shining on them, it’s difficult not to become entranced by the majestic display tendered by changing autumn leaves. Offering an explosion for the senses, what we are really experiencing is chemistry happing right before our eyes! Let’s take a closer look at some of this year’s highlights.

“Invasive Plants and Global Change: Addressing the Challenges of Tomorrow” was this year’s theme of the Ohio Invasive Plants Council Research Conference held on Friday, October 27th, 2023, in Columbus, Ohio.

There have been 7 BYGL Alerts this season dedicated to aphids on trees and shrubs. This will be the 8th. The unusual abundance of aphids this season caused us to declare 2023 “The Year of the Aphid” in an Alert posted on June 16 [see “The Year of the Aphid. Is Help on the Way?”].

This is the time of the year when we typically receive complaints of large numbers of stink bugs, lady beetles, and a few other insects flooding into homes. However, it’s been more of a trickle rather than a flood this fall, at least thus far.

Beautiful peony displays are sometimes marred by several diseases with the most notorious being Peony Leaf Blotch caused by the fungus Graphiopsis chlorocephala (formerly Cladosporium paeoniae). The fungus is also responsible for producing other diseases on peonies with different common names depending on the symptoms.

The latest edition of the OSU turf team times is out.  As the season is windy down, so is this educational outreach resource. This edition highlights include grubs, sod vs seed, and fall herbicides. 

This time of year can reveal some pretty striking brow patches on evergreen trees and shrubs. The question always comes up “Is the browning indicating a decline in the plant? Is the plant going to be OK?” the answer is “It depends……”

One of my favorite times of year has arrived and the colors of leaves have begun to change.  Some trees are a riot of colors while others are just downright… blah-blah.  So, let’s review the science behind why leaves change colors and then maybe you can forecast your own potential fall spectrum of color chances!

 

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