News & Alerts

The Ohio Woodland Stewards newsletter, Ohio Woodlands, Water and Wildlife, is produced three times a year.  It provides subcribers with updates on the latest issues related to woodland management, including insect and disease or invasive plant issues.  Articles are also geared towards expanding a readers knowledge base on a wide variety of topics related to our Ohio woodlands and the management and care of them.  Subscribers can access the newsletter online at any time.  When new issues are released it is available in either hard copy or electronic - just let us know which version...

The 83rd Ohio Plant Diagnostics Workshop: September 9!  New diseases. Old insects. Plant ID challenges. Becoming more alert to BYGL. And ODA, ONLA and ISA credits, including Core pesticide credits with ODA for the added talk of “Why Pesticide Labels Matter…for Plant Diagnostics.”

  Hey, where have I been? What happened to the 82nd Workshop, scheduled in Wooster on September 9? Well, we are so enmeshed in “all diagnostics – all the  time” that we have already migrated to #83. Just last Friday there were 70+ Woodland Stewards in Mansfield, Joe Boggs continues his BYGLive! Diagnostic Workshops in southwest Ohio each month (coming as well to central Ohio next year), bygl-alerts are constantly talking diagnostics, and on and on. But you can never get enough diagnostic training and perspectives, as we realize every time we go outside or check out another new website....

  From Dogwood diseases to doghouse damage, from beetlemania to bot rot, literally from Aster yellows to Zinnia powdery mildew, diagnostic workshops are where it’s at. Please come to Wooster in the late, late summer sun.  Samples galore and clinic catharsis, a few short talks, a diagnostic walkabout at Secrest Arboretum six years after the storm, the Secrest sound system blaring out Townes van Zandt, Johnny Cash, and Leadbelly. Yowser. Registration information is coming soon, but for now highlight with stars and multicolored magic markers, from the Ohio State University Extension...

This was one of many tomato questions submitted to Ask an Expert and Ask a Master Gardener, OSU Extension's on-line service providing Ohioans answers to horticulture questions and other topics.  This started a discussion on how providing a definitive answer is not always possible. Even when more details are provided, one diagnostic solution is not always the answer; there can be several things all happening at the same time.  In this particular case, we reviewed the many possible causes for tomato wilt.  These include:

 

• lack of water,
• tomato spotted wilt...

On Tuesday, June 14, 2016 the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) announced that they will begin aerial treatments designed to disrupt gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar) mating this summer in central Ohio. 

 

The gypsy moth is a non-native species that feeds on more than 300 different trees and shrubs, and is especially fond of oaks (Quercus spp.) while in its devastating caterpillar stage.  While healthy plants can usually withstand one or two years of defoliation, repeat feeding injury coupled with a drought or other pest pressures, can cause host plant ...