Fort Dodge Messenger, IA
03-17-07
Ash borers, organics are garden forum topics
Tiny pest isn’t a problem — yet
By MICHAEL NEARY, Messenger staff writer
The emerald ash borer has yet to be discovered in Iowa, but that doesn’t mean
agricultural experts aren’t watching for it.
‘‘This is not an insect we have now,’’ said Jim Patton, the Webster County
Extension education director, speaking at the Fort Dodge Area Gardeners’ 29th
annual Garden Seminar on Saturday morning.
The seminar, featuring three speakers, was hosted by Iowa Central Community
College in the Triton Inn Bistro. About 60 people attended.
Patton said the tiny green emerald ash borer, whose length doesn’t reach the
diameter of a penny, has yet to be spotted west of Kane County in Illinois — a
county just west of Chicago. But he said the beetles might be able to enter the
state nestled in a shipment of wood or clinging to the wooden pallets of a truck.
The ash borer, an Asian beetle whose first U.S. destination was southeast
Michigan, has devastated thousands of ash trees since it arrived in 2002,
according to Patton.
Patton said the Iowa State University Extension and other agricultural
agencies will be asking people to keep a watch for symptoms of the beetle on
Ash trees. These include a thinning crown, sprouts circling the trunk of the tree,
lots of woodpecker activity (as the birds seek out the larvae under the bark) and
splits in the bark.
Patton said experts are not recommending preventive measures — particularly
spraying.
‘‘People ask, ’Who can I hire to spray my tree?’’’ he said. ‘‘The recommendation
is, ’Don’t waste your money.’’’
Patton said coverage is unlikely to be thorough enough to prevent the beetles
from entering the tree.
He noted that officials are monitoring the area by doing surveys and creating
‘‘sentinel trees.’’ These are ash trees, he explained, that are weakened and
placed under stress in order to become magnets for the ash borers. The thinking
is that if there are ash borers nearby, they will gravitate to such trees.
Patton said a ‘‘significant’’ population of ash trees exists in the area, though he
noted that estimates vary widely.
Earlier in the seminar Steve Wright — a Master Gardener in rural Story City —
delivered a talk on organic gardening, characterizing it as ‘‘a system of growing
(without) using synthetic products.’’
He also called it ‘‘good old-fashioned common sense.’’
Wright said the process of becoming certified as an organic gardener is rigorous,
involving three years of keeping a field free from synthetic materials. Though he
didn’t emphasize the legal process in his talk, he did stress that concrete steps a
gardener or a farmer could take to move toward organic growing.
One step is exchanging synthetic fertilizer for much larger quantities of the
natural kind, such as ‘‘225 pounds of goat or rabbit manure.’’
He said that sort of switch requires a commitment — and some connections.
‘‘You’d want to get hooked up with a whole bunch of kids that raise rabbits — and
someone that raises sheep,’’ he said.
When someone in the audience asked about horse manure, Wright said that, too,
could work as fertilizer. But he said not just any horse manure would do.
‘‘Well rotted horse manure’’ is necessary, he explained. ‘‘A horse’s stomach
doesn’t process seed (and other ingredients) the way other animals do.’’
Prompted by another question, Wright noted that the animals themselves would
have to be free of growth hormones and other synthetic materials in order to
produce organic fertilizer.
Wright said that growers who want to move toward organic methods might have
to adjust their ‘‘thresholds’’ of insect control.
‘‘How many tomato hornworms bother you?’’ he asked.
He said the occasional bug or the gnawed cabbage leaf does not have to be a
red flag in the eyes of the organic grower — even if such produce lacks the
glossy sheen of grocery store items.
‘‘That’s what we’re used to,’’ he said, ‘‘(but) it’s not necessarily what’s best for us,
or what’s most tasty.’’
Diane Madoerin, a Webster City Master Gardener who came out to the seminar,
said the talk reminded her of the usefulness of some simple actions. She
mentioned creating compost piles and bringing in lady bugs to keep other pests
at bay.
‘‘Even if we don’t do (organic gardening) completely, we can do small things,’’
she said.
The aesthetic side of gardening emerged in Jane Hogue’s presentation,
‘‘Gardening Ornaments.’’
Hogue and her husband run a large garden and gift shop called Prairie Pedlar in
Odebolt.
Hogue displayed slides of urns, sundials, bird feeders, wheel barrows and many
other items she said people could use to decorate their gardens. She mentioned
the way a little ingenuity could enliven ordinary objects, like old chipped dishes
passed on from parents.
‘‘It’s a fun way to recycle something that’s part of your heritage,’’ she said,
pointing to series of plates neatly framing the section of a garden.
Hogue’s slides included many shots of her own garden.
Conjuring images of the dreaded pink swan, Hogue said it’s possible to sprinkle
too many objects in the garden. But she said some items were staples — like the
scarecrow.
‘‘There’s something about a scarecrow in the garden that makes people realize
that the gardener has a sense of humor,’’ she said.
She contended that all gardeners are collectors, but she also said the initial spark
for the gardening impulse could range from an example set by grandparents to
the ‘‘flower we couldn’t let die.’’
Jana Baldwin, president of the Fort Dodge Area Gardeners, said past topics for
the seminar have included herbs, shade gardens and wineries. She said the
presentations are designed to appeal to the enthusiast, but not just to the expert.
‘‘We try to find things that are topical,’’ she said, ‘‘something that any gardener
can understand.’’
Contact Michael Neary at (515) 573-2141 or mneary@messengernews.net