Don't just read the headline

By Richard C. Snell

Barton County Extension Agent, agriculture

Kansas

For goodness sake, don't just read the headline. You are only taking one bite of salad instead of getting to the meat. By reading the headline only, you may be missing the important stuff.

There are several reasons I am telling you this. One is that each week I try to write something of importance to not only farmers but also to homeowners that live in town or country. Even if you don't farm or garden, there is likely something that can help you.

The second thing is that I usually write several stories in a column. Good or bad, I learned this from Charlie Smith who was the agricultural agent in Cowley County where I grew up.

I usually have a lead story, followed by several short segments. However, once in awhile I get on a roll and one story consumes the entire column. Most good writers will probably say stick to one subject per week. But, I have too many things going at once that I like to call to your attention in the form of what you need to be doing or looking for or what events you need to participate in.

When it comes to reading, this is one of those do as I say and not as I do. Take time to smell the flowers, take it all in. If you just read the headline and decide, this doesn't concern me, you may be missing out on an unexpected surprise. Hopefully, it is a pleasant one.

Act soon to control pine diseases

We have some sick looking pines in Barton and our surrounding counties. We have had so much press about pine wilt disease that now everybody thinks that's what they have. In most cases they don't. There are several devastating diseases on pines.

Pine wilt is perhaps the worst, but not nearly the most common. As a matter of fact, we have only had four confirmed cases of pine wilt in Barton County. Are there more out there? I'm sure there are.

Let me give some background first to discourage people from growing pines at all. Kansas is the only state in the USA that does not have a native pine. That should tell us something right there. Although pine trees are not native to Kansas, they have been widely planted for ornamental and windbreak purposes.

For years we planted Scots or Scotch pine but pine tip moth became a problem as it was heavily planted for Christmas trees. This is also the one that has been hit hard by pine wilt so we don't recommend it. Then, several years we switched to recommending Austrian pine because of their resistance to pine tip moth. That worked great until we had so many that they seemed to attract the next problem. That was Diplodia or Sphaeropsis tip blight.

Actually this disease is a funny one because they keep changing the scientific name of it. When I first got into extension, the disease was called Diplodia. Then about 20 years ago, they made a big deal that all the scientists had got together and decided to call it Sphaeropsis. Then this year, we went to our agent update on diseases and they tell us it is back to Diplodia. Sounds confusing, doesn't it? Just call it pine tip blight and forgot the scientific word and realize that whether you hear Diplodia or Sphaeropsis, it's all the same disease.

What is the point of this long discussion about pine tip blight? Well, probably 90 percent of our Austrian pines have this disease. This is a fungus disease that is infected during wet springs. By the book, the first symptoms show up in early summer but my experience tells me that it doesn't show up until hot weather stress in mid to late summer. The disease is worsened by injuries such as from insects, hail or broken limbs from strong winds or ice storms. So, watch out this year again.

All of our pines that we currently have such as Austrian, ponderosa, Scots and mugo are susceptible to this disease although it is most severe on mature Austrian pines that are 25 years old or more. With tip blight, new, developing shoots fail to elongate properly. New shoot growth eventually dies, but in most cases the needles remain attached to the branches. Dead shoots are more common in the lower portion of the tree. Trees are not typically killed from one or two years of the disease. However, trees which have repeated infections over several years can have dead shoots and branches throughout the tree. Usually, there will be scattered areas of green and brown through out the tree. Black fruiting structures show up on the needles in late summer or fall.

This disease fungus survives from year to year on dead shoots, branches and pine cones. Removal of dead shoots will improve the appearance of diseased trees, but it will not prevent infection.

Trees attacked by tip blight should be adequately watered or fertilized. Unlike most tree diseases that you can't do anything about, there are steps you can take to prevent the disease. Since tip blight is a fungus disease, you can spray a fungicide in the spring as a preventative.

This is not going to be economical for most windbreaks but you can call an aerial applicator. The problem is getting thorough enough coverage in the lower portions of the trees. It is quite expensive if you have to get someone else to treat the tree. Most trees are tall enough that it is difficult to reach the top, even with a hose end sprayer.

If you have one or two pines that you really want to protect, the first application of fungicide for tip blight needs to be made the third week in April. A second spraying should be made about two weeks later.

Next week, I will cover fungicide products and also more on pine wilt.

4/21/08
2 Star EK\8-B

Date: 4/17/08

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