News
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — The leaves from the hackberry and catalpa in my yard have all dropped and Susan and I spent an hour this past weekend raking up all the leaves in preparation for the City of Grand Junction to sweep them up. I now have to mow the lawn back to its preferred height of two and one-half to three inches.
Leaves can pack and suffocate the grass. Leaving the grass longer than three inches can have the same results. Dead grass in the spring. Lawns cut shorter than two and one-half inches can suffer from the drying effects of the winter so don't cut the lawn any shorter.
The City of Grand Junction uses its sweeper to clean up the leaves in their parks. The rest of us typically have to rake our lawns or hire someone to do that task for us. Lawn care companies can pick up the leaves automatically when they do the last mowing of the season especially when they have a bagger on their mower. I could have used my mower to accomplish the same thing but find this procedure often packs down some of the leaves instead of picking them up. If you bag your leaves take them to the Mesa County Compost Facility at the Land Fill on Orchard Mesa. They need all the leaves they can get to make the Ultra Fine compost many people use to top dress their lawns after they aerate.
You can always keep the leaves and turn them into leaf mold yourself for your own use or work them directly into the garden. If you plan on using leaves as a mulch to protect your roses and other perennials this winter wait until three to four inches of frost have formed in the ground. In Grand Junction that normally occurs in mid-December. Mulching earlier can keep the ground warm and result in continued root growth. While this can help get the roots of fall-planted trees, shrubs and other plants established, it can weaken established plants by using up energy needed for winter survival.
CORYNEUM BLIGHT
If you have peach, nectarine, plum or other stone fruit trees and if there are still leaves on these trees, now is a great time to check for Coryneum blight. If this fungal disease becomes established in these trees it is very difficult to eradicate. This disease reduces shoot growth, spots leaves and even worse, causes large dimples in the fruit.
When you walk your orchard or check out your few stone fruit trees flag those trees that show signs of the disease. You should be checking the leaves to see if there are spots or holes where infected tissue has drop out of the leaf. Check the leaves on the ground also because Coryneum-infected leaves tend to drop earlier than non-infected leaves. Check this year's shoots for red or purple spots. If you see those you don't need to check out the leaves as you know your tree(s) have this disease.
Sprays of Bordeau mixture, copper sulfate, copper hydroxide, and other copper fungicides to cover this season's new shoots should be applied as soon as all of the leaves have fallen to the ground. A large number of these products have been approved for use in organic orchards so don't neglect this treatment just because you don't like sprays. There is no reason to spray the trunk with these products but be sure to coat all of the young shoots with one of these sprays.
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Dr. Curtis E. Swift is the area horticulture agent with the CSU Extension. Reach him at Curt.Swift@mesacounty.us, visit WesternSlopeGardening.org, or check out his blog at http://SwiftsGardeningBlog.blogspot.com.
Leaves can pack and suffocate the grass. Leaving the grass longer than three inches can have the same results. Dead grass in the spring. Lawns cut shorter than two and one-half inches can suffer from the drying effects of the winter so don't cut the lawn any shorter.
The City of Grand Junction uses its sweeper to clean up the leaves in their parks. The rest of us typically have to rake our lawns or hire someone to do that task for us. Lawn care companies can pick up the leaves automatically when they do the last mowing of the season especially when they have a bagger on their mower. I could have used my mower to accomplish the same thing but find this procedure often packs down some of the leaves instead of picking them up. If you bag your leaves take them to the Mesa County Compost Facility at the Land Fill on Orchard Mesa. They need all the leaves they can get to make the Ultra Fine compost many people use to top dress their lawns after they aerate.
You can always keep the leaves and turn them into leaf mold yourself for your own use or work them directly into the garden. If you plan on using leaves as a mulch to protect your roses and other perennials this winter wait until three to four inches of frost have formed in the ground. In Grand Junction that normally occurs in mid-December. Mulching earlier can keep the ground warm and result in continued root growth. While this can help get the roots of fall-planted trees, shrubs and other plants established, it can weaken established plants by using up energy needed for winter survival.
CORYNEUM BLIGHT
If you have peach, nectarine, plum or other stone fruit trees and if there are still leaves on these trees, now is a great time to check for Coryneum blight. If this fungal disease becomes established in these trees it is very difficult to eradicate. This disease reduces shoot growth, spots leaves and even worse, causes large dimples in the fruit.
When you walk your orchard or check out your few stone fruit trees flag those trees that show signs of the disease. You should be checking the leaves to see if there are spots or holes where infected tissue has drop out of the leaf. Check the leaves on the ground also because Coryneum-infected leaves tend to drop earlier than non-infected leaves. Check this year's shoots for red or purple spots. If you see those you don't need to check out the leaves as you know your tree(s) have this disease.
Sprays of Bordeau mixture, copper sulfate, copper hydroxide, and other copper fungicides to cover this season's new shoots should be applied as soon as all of the leaves have fallen to the ground. A large number of these products have been approved for use in organic orchards so don't neglect this treatment just because you don't like sprays. There is no reason to spray the trunk with these products but be sure to coat all of the young shoots with one of these sprays.
-------------------
Dr. Curtis E. Swift is the area horticulture agent with the CSU Extension. Reach him at Curt.Swift@mesacounty.us, visit WesternSlopeGardening.org, or check out his blog at http://SwiftsGardeningBlog.blogspot.com.
