tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10562591559532318062024-03-27T23:21:17.501-07:00The Minnesota Rose GardenerThe Minnesota Rose Gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03173429356129992624noreply@blogger.comBlogger71125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056259155953231806.post-82980160962626988692018-04-21T20:15:00.000-07:002018-04-25T04:30:04.133-07:00Growing Roses in an Organic Environment, Part One<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Part One: What Organic-Environment Gardening Means</span></b></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“First… Do No Harm”:
Hippocrates, Greek Physician, 460-370 B.C.</i></div>
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That ancient mandate is one of the most fundamental and
sacred precepts of bioethics worldwide and, essentially, is what organic-environment
gardening is all about. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Why, then, do so many of us, whose lifetime-avocations
are growing the most beautiful flowers and gardens in the world, continue to violate
this sacred precept?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make no mistake
about it, spraying pesticides on your rose garden does great harm to the
environment and potentially to you, as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I know this from personal experience in both my parents’ rose gardens
and my own, over a span of nearly 75 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is only in the last five years or so that I have realized how
mistaken I was, largely from the encouragement of some of the readers of my
Minnesota Rose Gardener blog who advocate organic rose gardening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I give them full credit for showing me
the right way to garden, because you are never too old to learn and change.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But we have been consistently taught that it is right to
kill everything in our gardens, except the flowers, by some real rose experts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here's what McFarland and Pyle said in their
1937 classic, "How to Grow Roses": <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>"There is only one cure for insects which eat the
flowers and leaves; that is to poison them. It is, therefore, necessary
that the poison be on the leaves before the insect starts to chew. Since
there is no way of knowing when an insect wants to dine on a rose leaf, the
only way to prepare for <u>him</u> is to keep poison on the plant all the time…."
</i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">(Emphasis mine)</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><br />
</i>Note that the authors don't recognize that there may be good bugs and bad
bugs; just kill them all. But what about all the beneficial butterflies, lace
wings, lady beetles, predatory wasps and the hundreds of varieties of
pollinating bees?<o:p></o:p></div>
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And lest you believe that anything has changed in the 81
years since that book was written, here is an excerpt from the only article
devoted to rose care in the <i>2015 American Rose Annual:</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>"Pesticides such as insecticides, miticides and
fungicides are commonly applied by rosarians to control insect and mite pests
and diseases. <u>In fact, roses require extensive inputs from pesticides
in order to maintain the aesthetic quality of both the foliage and flowers</u>....
Examples of systemic insecticides that may be used on roses include acephate
(Orthene), imidacloprid (Merit) and thiamethoxam (Flagship)...." </i>(Emphasis
mine)<o:p></o:p></div>
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In my opinion, that statement is simply wrong. Roses do
not require “extensive inputs” of broad-spectrum, systemic pesticides to
maintain “aesthetic quality.” Orthene, kills virtually all beneficial insects and
pollinators in the garden, and the systemic neonicotinoid, imidacloprid, is
directly implicated in bee colony-collapse disorder and is banned in several
countries for that reason. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Here in the Twin Cities, where our horrible infestation
of Japanese Beetles (JBs) arrived in mid-June 2017 and didn’t go away until
early October (a new record), The Minnesota Rose Society (of which I am a
member) published this advice on their website last summer: “For quick knock
down use Spinosad or Carbaryl.” Of
course, Carbaryl (Sevin) will knock down today’s crop of JBs (but not
tomorrow’s) and it will also take out virtually every other beneficial insect
in the garden, including the all-important lady beetles, as well as predatory
wasps and bees. Spinosad (Conserve SC) is
not as potentially devastating to beneficials but it is also not labelled for
JBs; it is primarily used for thrips and may take out beneficial beetles, like
lady bugs. The underlying fallacy in spraying any insecticide on JBs is that it
must be done repeatedly, perhaps daily at times, to kill the waves of JBs that
keep coming into your garden for months, from as much as five miles away. And that kind of repeated spraying is terribly
devastating to all beneficial insect life in the garden.<o:p></o:p></div>
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However, JBs can definitely be controlled organically,
i.e. without harming beneficials and pollinators, but it takes some effort by
the gardener, both in companion plantings, which attract JBs away from the
roses, and in daily drowning of JBs that land on the roses. More on that in a
later installment but, in the meantime, please see my Minnesota
Rose Gardener Post: “Attacking Japanese Beetles – Organically”: <a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/07/attacking-japanese-beetles-organically.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/07/attacking-japanese-beetles-organically.html</a>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u>It’s Not No-Spray Gardening!</u></i></b></div>
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By my definition, growing roses in an organic environment
means simply “Do No Harm” and stop believing what we’ve had drilled into us for
more than 80 years: that all insects are bad and must be killed, in order
to grow beautiful roses. Nothing could be further from the truth! In other
words, organic-environment rose growing is not about what kind of fertilizer
you use (although organic fertilizers are preferable) and it’s not a “no-spray”
discipline. All of us need to spray fungicides from time to time but it’s important
to use the IPM approach and spray only when needed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it’s important to spray the right
fungicide, such as Manzate, which actually kills blackspot and anthracnose leaf-spot
spores.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s also very smart to plant only
rose cultivars that are blackspot-resistant and get rid of those that aren’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over the years, I have shovel-pruned many
plants that I considered “blackspot magnets” and my garden is much better for
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did not require a single fungicide
spray last year and I sprayed only once the year before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is a whole lot different for the
environment than my old, every 10-day, preventative spray routine. There are
many, beautiful, disease-resistant roses available.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have had good results with the Buck Roses
(especially Earth-Song) and the Bailey “Easy Elegance” roses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>William Radler (of “Knock Out” fame) is also
breeding roses to be both disease and insect-pest resistant and is paying
special attention to rose midge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be sure
and read his excellent article on page 94 of the “2017 American Rose Annual.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">I guarantee</b>
that once you establish yourself as an organic-environment gardener you will never
look back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But know this: organic-environment
gardening requires patience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When aphids
invade your garden this spring, as surely they will if you’ve been spraying
insecticides for years, your knee-jerk reaction will be to reach for the
Carbaryl or the insecticidal soap. Instead, get out your hose and spray nozzle
and wash the aphids off your plants several times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a short while, the beneficial insects
(like lady beetles) you are no longer killing will find the aphids left on your
plants and eat them for you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the
meantime, Syrphid flies, which love aphids, will start returning to your garden
to help the lady bugs, simply because you aren’t killing them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do the same thing with spider mites (wash
them off) and, if they persist, order in some predatory mites, which definitely
do the job (more on that later).<o:p></o:p></div>
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Pictured here is the Butchart Gardens Rose Garden in
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, which is the best example of a public, organic-environment,
rose garden of which I am aware. <span style="color: #222222; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Tracy Ferreira, IPM Coordinator of the garden describes it this
way:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The Butchart Gardens Rose garden is approximately 16,000 sq.ft. of
roses planted around a 4,000 sq.ft. lawn…. The fertilizers used are not fully
organic; however, we don’t use any insecticides or miticides. We may apply
fungicides depending on disease pressure and weather conditions. The
diseases that typically affect our roses are downy mildew, black spot and
powdery mildew.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Note the companion plantings in the Butchart rose garden and, in
particular, the border of alyssum around the rose beds, which, in addition to
being attractive, is there to attract beneficial insects, particularly syrphid
flies, which consume aphids, thrips, mealybugs and many small caterpillars. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8.0pt;">The Butchart Gardens Rose
Garden (Photo Courtesy of Butchart Gardens)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">The picture below is </span>one of Butchart’s perennial borders right next to their rose garden. In addition to being beautiful, this serves as an “insectary” garden, which attracts millions of beneficial insects, such as lady beetles, lacewings, predatory wasps and bees, most of which also make their way into the rose garden because there is no insecticide pressure on them anywhere in the gardens. Fortunately, Butchart has not yet encountered Japanese Beetles (JBs) but, if they do, the perennial insectary borders will take substantial JB pressure off the rose garden, which is a significant part of organic JB control.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;">A Butchart Gardens’ Perennial “Insectary” Border
(Photo</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> Courtesy of Butchart Gardens)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">On a smaller scale, below, is one of my rose gardens, also with
companion plantings and a border of “Snow Crystal” alyssum, which literally
teems with syrphid flies. Also, below, is one my several insectary gardens
(complete with an Eastern Black Swallowtail enjoying Verbena Bonariensis),
bordering my rose gardens in Edina, Minnesota.</span><span style="color: #222222;">
</span><span style="color: #222222;">This garden also attracts a large variety of bees and predatory wasps.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Once again, if you spray insecticides anywhere in your gardens
these beneficial insects will not be there; many will be dead and others simply
avoiding the chemicals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">One of my friendly, northern, readers of the “Minnesota Rose
Gardener” blog contends that honey bees (and bees in general) aren’t attracted
to roses. This experienced rosarian and
exhibitor follows the conventional practice of spraying Sevin (Carbaryl) and
other insecticides on his gardens to control everything, including JBs. I contend that the reason he and others don’t
see bees on their roses is that they are killing and/or deterring them. I see hundreds of bees on my roses, including
many honeybees. Here is a honeybee on
Earth Song last summer:</span><br />
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<b><i><u>The Two-Step Process for Pesticide-free Roses</u></i></b><o:p></o:p></div>
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These two steps should be taken simultaneously. First, establish "insectary
gardens" to attract beneficial insects, such as syrphid flies, lady
beetles, minute pirate bugs, lace wings and predatory wasps that attack
"bad bugs" such as spider mites, thrips and aphids. As long as you
don't spray things that kill them, these predators are quite easy to attract to
the garden with plantings, such as oregano, dill, bachelor buttons, verbena,
yarrow, zinnias, daisies, alyssum and cosmos.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The second, but equally important step, is to introduce
predatory mites in your gardens. The
several varieties of these tiny arachnids are very efficient predators for
pests such as two-spotted spider mites, eriophyid mites and thrips. Based on my several years of experience,
these mites perform as well or better than insecticides and miticides. I will go into more detail in my next
installment of this article but, for example, Stratiolaelaps (Ss) should
be the first mite to be introduced in rose gardens. It is a generalist
soil predator that feeds on pupating thrips and overwintering spider mites.
It is also known to feed on pupating rose midge but has not yet been
proven as a control. However, several
midge trials are underway, one of which is at Butchart Gardens (see below). The other predatory mites I recommend are
Fallacis and Cucumeris for spider mites and thrips, all available at
Rincon-Vitova Insectaries in southern California: <a href="http://www.rinconvitova.com/">http://www.rinconvitova.com/</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="MsoHyperlink">Here are further comments about
the use of predatory mites for rose midge, spider mites and thrips in the
Butchart Rose Garden:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #222222; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“We have rose
midge but have been able to keep it below our threshold of noticeable bloom
loss. In 2011 we began a program to reduce midge and thrips pressure on the
roses using predatory mites. For the past five years our predatory mite
releases have consisted of 150,000 soil dwelling mites (Stratiolaelaps and Gaeolaelaps), in the spring, after
pruning, followed by 500,000 Cucumeris on
the new foliage. We then release 300,000 Cucumeris monthly, until October. For spider mite issues we
do one release of Fallacis and
then use Persimilis if
there are any hot spots.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<u><b><i>Some Important Thoughts on Rose Rosette Disease (RRD)</i></b></u><br />
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<span class="MsoHyperlink">Rose Rosette Disease (RRD) is
causing justifiable concern among rosarians.
RRD</span> is caused by a virus transmitted by the eriophyid mite Phyllocoptes
fructiphilus, which is one of several hundred varieties of almost microscopic eriophyid
mites that affect trees and gardens. For
several years, I have battled an infestation of tiny eriophyid “acari” mites,
which damage new growth but, thankfully, do not transmit RRD. I have had good success in the last two years
controlling these mites with Fallacis and Cucumeris predatory mites (mentioned
above) and I have noted that increasing the numbers of these mites over the
growing season (as described in the Butchart quote above) has resulted in
improved control, such that, by the end of last summer, I was seeing very
little mite damage. This experience
leads me to speculate that Cucumeris
and Fallacis predatory mites, used in sufficient quantities annually in rose
gardens to routinely control spider mites and thrips, might also ultimately
control the eriophyid-mite carrier of RRD.
Since there is no known control for the eriophyid Phyllocoptes mite, it
stands to reason that fighting it with predators that prey on other eriophyid
mites just might work. I think it’s
worth a try; and it’s exactly what I would do if I encountered RRD. <span class="MsoHyperlink">I will dwell
extensively on the use of predatory mites in the next installment of this article.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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In the meantime, as your first step toward a
pesticide-free rose garden, I highly recommend an excellent book by Jessica
Walliser: "Attracting Beneficial Bugs to your Garden", which changed
my way of thinking about controlling insect pests in my gardens. It is
available in many public libraries, as well as both new and used on Amazon.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Also, if you would like to delve more deeply into this
subject, before my next installments of this article, please see my
post: “The Pesticide-Free Rose Garden”:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-pesticide-free-rose-garden.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-pesticide-free-rose-garden.html</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"> .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Please feel free to email me at <a href="mailto:jfalkersr@gmail.com">jfalkersr@gmail.com</a> with any questions you
may have.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Jack Falker<o:p></o:p></div>
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@mnrosegardener<o:p></o:p></div>
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Edina, Minnesota<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />The Minnesota Rose Gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03173429356129992624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056259155953231806.post-69186424239353067942017-07-20T21:20:00.000-07:002017-07-24T14:03:22.613-07:00"American Rose" Article on Organic Japanese Beetle Control<i>Here is an article about organic control of Japanese Beetles, which I wrote for the July/August <b>American Rose</b> magazine, in collaboration with rose gardener </i><i>extraordinaire and fellow organic gardener, Paul Zimmerman, who writes a regular column in the <b>American Rose</b>. I think it's very promising that the American Rose Society (ARS), of which I am a long-time member, is taking up the cause of organic rose gardening. ARS president, Pat Shanley, is also an organic gardener and I am encouraged that ARS is reflecting her leadership and commitment, something that has been a long time coming.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Someone asked me the other day what it means to be an "organic gardener", and that's a good question. I would say that you must first recognize that most destructive or invasive insects can be controlled by beneficial insects or, as in the case with Japanese Beetles, by methods that kill off or divert the JBs from their target food, such as roses. In other words, going organic means making a commitment to stop using insecticides, in order to stop killing-off the beneficial insects that then kill-off the destructive insects you are targeting. A simple example is having an infestation of aphids and believing (correctly) that you can squirt them off the plants with a sharp stream of water a few times, while awaiting the arrival of lady beetles which will take them out permanently. However, if you succumb to the knee-jerk reaction of spraying insecticidal soap or something stronger like carbaryl (Sevin), you will kill off both the lady beetles and the aphids, which will surely return and have no natural predators to hold them down. With Sevin you will also have killed off the bees and other pollinators, which begins a downward spiral toward creating a toxic waste site, which, unfortunately, many pretty rose gardens already are.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>The only exception I can think of is the use of a miticide to eliminate eriophyid mite infestations. Spider mites can usually be held down with regular water washings, but the hundreds of different eriophyid mites, including phyllocoptes fructiphilus, which carries the rose rosette virus, are far more difficult to control without a miticide like Abamectin (Avid). Miticides are different than other insecticides, however, in that they do not kill off most beneficial insects (except naturally occurring beneficial mites which can be reintroduced after the miticide is finished). In this regard, please read my most important blog post "The Pesticide-Free Rose Garden":</i><br />
<i><a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-pesticide-free-rose-garden.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-pesticide-free-rose-garden.html</a></i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>And now, here is our new <b>American Rose</b> article on organic control of JBs... a good place to begin an organic gardening journey:</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Organic
Japanese Beetle Control</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">By
Jack Falker “The Minnesota Rose Gardener” and Paul Zimmerman “Paul Zimmerman
Roses”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">JBs mating on Earth Song</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Using insecticides to control Japanese Beetles (JBs)
destroys beneficial insects (like lady beetles) and pollinators (like bees and
wasps) and accomplishes virtually nothing in controlling JBs, other than killing off the current cloud of invading critters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">To control JBs organically, you must know your enemy. First, understand that most of the JBs invading
your garden come from amazing distances, up to five miles away, where they
pupate in the rich turf of golf courses, cemeteries, parks, pretty neighborhood
lawns etc. In other words, the vast
majority of JBs you see during the four or five weeks they invade your garden do
not originate in your garden or lawn. So, you can spray them with insecticides
but you can’t stop them from coming; and you can treat your lawn with a grub
control like the milky spore bacteria to control the JB grubs for next year,
but unless everyone within a five-mile radius does the same thing, you can’t
stop them from coming and coming and coming.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The first step in organic JB control is pretty simple:
once in the morning and once in the evening, knock them off the buds and leaves
of your roses into a can of soapy water. Skin-tight surgical or milking gloves
help, if you’re squeamish about touching the JBs. You’ll soon realize that JBs have a dropping
instinct, which makes them easy to drown.
They’re harder to catch in the hot sun of mid-day, when they quickly fly
away. You’ll find that JBs are very docile and don’t sting or bite, leaving
only a little stain in your hand of what we’ll call “beetle juice”. Using a few
drops of dishwashing detergent in the water creates surface tension and impedes
them from making an emergency takeoff.
Here’s how that looks:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Drowning JBs in Soapy Water</span></div>
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This is important: <u>Don’t
be tempted to squish JBs!</u> When you squish a female JB, her sex-
pheromone is spewed out and brings in every male in the neighborhood! This is also why JB traps are not a good idea,
at least in your own garden. Here’s a quote from the University of
Minnesota on JB traps:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>“Pheromone
traps contain the sex pheromone of the JB female.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><u>The pheromone is very powerful and will call in beetles from a few
thousand feet.</u></i> <span class="apple-converted-space"><i> </i></span><i>Research
demonstrated that more beetles fly toward traps than are caught, resulting in
surplus beetles that feed on your plants. Think twice before purchasing and
installing a pheromone trap.”<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></i> <o:p></o:p></div>
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JBs are
amazingly canny critters and it's useful to observe what they do as they
approach your garden. When a JB arrives in the garden, it hovers, like a
helicopter, looking for a suitable place to land. Almost always, it will land
on a flower or leaf that has one or more JBs already on it, or on a flower or
leaf that has been previously chewed by other JBs; obviously attracted to the sexual
pheromone of other JBs. Therefore, it's
important to get rid of tainted leaves and flowers, whenever possible. It’s hard
to pluck a brand-new bud that has two JBs imbedded in it but it's necessary, in
order to stop it from attracting incoming beetles. <span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></span>Using the old-fashioned, thumb and forefinger method of
dead-heading, while drowning JBs, is very effective in encouraging rapid growth
on roses, which is indicative of the positive multiplier-effect that organic
gardening always has.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Nowhere
is this more evident than in the mid-south, where the infestation of JBs is huge.
In 2016, an organic rose-gardener in Virginia was ready to succumb to
commercial spraying of the pyrethroid Demand CS to remedy a seemingly
uncontrollable infestation of JBs. Here
is the classic organic-gardening advice she received from rose-gardener extraordinaire,
Paul Zimmerman, who gardens in South Carolina:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
“As organic gardeners, we don't use insecticides. We
build a host environment for beneficials and let them take care of it. That
works for native pests but, of course, JBs are not native so they have no
enemy.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br />
“Around here the JBs appear in early June, which is after our spring flush.
When the JBs are out in full force, we clean up the gardens from the spring
flush and get them ready for fall. We trim the roses back, do a thorough
deadheading and clean out dead and weak wood. <u>Essentially, we’re cleaning
out a lot of the parts of the roses the JBs like, during normal maintenance</u>.
As the beetles start to wind down, the roses wake back up again. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br />
“We’ve also added perennials amongst the roses. This was for aesthetics but
more so to help create a host environment for beneficials. The JBs seem to
flock to the perennials and, while there is some damage, it's not as noticeable
as on the roses. Essentially, we work with the JBs that way, using their
arrival as part of normal summer cleanup, and plant other plants they find more
attractive.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">An Ultra-Beneficial Lady Beetle on a Companion-planting Echinacea in my rose garden</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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As in
South Carolina, we use companion plantings in and around our Minnesota organic rose
gardens, for both insectary and aesthetic purposes. We have beds of
zinnias where the JBs gather and we now drown more JBs on the zinnias than on
the roses; lots of chewed leaves but they’re very fast-growing and keep ahead
of the JBs. We also have big shrub-roses in our tomato/insectary garden, away
from the main rose gardens, that attract clusters of JBs, which we drown, eight
and ten at a time. The shrub they really like is Dr. David Zlesak's
amazing "Above and Beyond" and, since it's done blooming for the
year, we cut it back, making it far less attractive. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">JBs love Zinnias more than Roses (so plant zinnias)</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
The key
element in organic gardening is PATIENCE! Remember that JBs only last about
four weeks and, if you work hard to deter them organically, they ultimately go
away, leaving you with lots of beneficials and pollinators, as well as fully
fertilized and dead-headed rose gardens for the rest of the growing season.
Remember that every JB you drown is a monster-bug that can't breed more
monster-bugs next year. It’s particularly enjoyable taking them down when
they’re atop one another, stopping the breeding cycle.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
For more
information, see these “Minnesota Rose Gardener” blog posts:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2017/07/controlling-japanese-beetles-organically.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2017/07/controlling-japanese-beetles-organically.html</a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-beetles-are-coming-beetles-are.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-beetles-are-coming-beetles-are.html</a></div>
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The Minnesota Rose Gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03173429356129992624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056259155953231806.post-45486882307903662782017-07-10T22:41:00.001-07:002017-08-08T12:24:29.268-07:00Controlling Japanese Beetles Organically<i>Author's note: One month after posting this, the JBs are the worst I've ever seen; very unlike how they started out. That obviates what I said in the first paragraph below but doesn't change my conclusion that drowning them and</i><i> distracting them with other plantings is the only viable solution. But I really hope they'll be gone soon. I'm currently drowning several hundred daily, including those pictured on David Zlesak's "Gaye Hammond" below:</i><br />
<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">JBs on "Gaye Hammond" 8/8/17; they drowned immediately after posing.</span></div>
<br />
<br />
I saw my first JB on June 19th this year, the same date as 2016 but, unlike last year, I saw very few in the next two weeks, until after the 4th of July, when they started to show up in earnest. They're still not at the levels of previous years, however, which makes me wonder what might be happening here in east-central Minnesota this year. My best guess is that the four golf courses (and one cemetery) within a five-mile radius of my garden have started <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">using grub control on their fairways and lawns. Unfortunately, that probably means they are using neonicotinoids, like imidicloprid, which have been strongly implicated in bee colony collapse disorder.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">In the last few days, I also noted that a Master Consulting Rosarian in the Minnesota Rose Society said on Facebook that he is spraying JBs with carbaryl (Sevin), apparently </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">unconcerned</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> (or</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> unaware</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> ) that Sevin kills bees, lady beetles, predatory wasps, syrphid flies, lace wings and virtually every other beneficial insect in the garden. I also noted that the Minnesota Rose Society posted the same advice on their website.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
In my mind, spraying JBs with an insecticide like Sevin is the classic "fool's errand" because what you spray today affects the JBs (and pollinators) in your garden for a day or so and has no effect on the thousands of JBs arriving in your garden from somewhere within a five-mile radius of your garden for the next six or eight weeks. This is also true of the pyrethroids, which linger longer in the garden. The implication is that, ultimately, one would have to spray again and again, creating, for all intents and purposes, a toxic waste site, devoid of all life except roses. (Confession: I know this so well because I sprayed insecticides, especially the pyrethroids, to control JBs, until I became aware of the damage I was doing. It has taken several years for the beneficial insects to return and, happily, they are back in force.)<br />
<br />
<b><i>The irony in all of this is that organic control of JBs is extremely easy and totally non-disruptive to the eco-system of your garden.</i></b><br />
<b><i><br /></i></b>
<img height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYwMtgxpjebOA2pj3zY0z8PrHWxIDeTl-1KpndF4iGNSVhvXNCi0dtHFlsKuLamqGEvAbiBduMrFvEG5qDUjPJgG0esI-2-lBCyYkhsCv2ERJ7sc1XhJY_UnfFlQsSx-AJrMqYu4I9TA/s640/Japanese+Beetles+2015.JPG" width="480" /><br />
<br />
<b><u>Know Your Enemy</u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">To control JBs organically, you must know your enemy. First, understand that most of the JBs invading
your garden come from amazing distances, up to five miles away, where they
pupate in the rich turf of golf courses, cemeteries, parks, pretty neighborhood
lawns etc. In other words, the vast
majority of JBs you see during the four or five weeks they invade your garden do
not originate in your garden or lawn. So, you can spray them with insecticides
but you can’t stop them from coming; and you can treat your lawn with a neonicotonoid grub control, like imidicloprid, or a biological control like the milky spore bacteria to control the JB grubs for next year,
but unless everyone within a five-mile radius does the same thing, you can’t
stop them from coming and coming and coming.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Here's an article I wrote one year ago: "Attacking Japanese Beetles -- Know Your Enemy":<br />
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<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/07/attacking-japanese-beetles-know-your.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/07/attacking-japanese-beetles-know-your.html</a></div>
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<b><u>Organic JB Control</u></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The first annual step in organic JB control is pretty simple:
once in the morning and once in the evening, knock them or pick them off the buds and leaves
of your roses into a can or bucket of soapy water. Skin-tight surgical or milking gloves
help, if you’re squeamish about touching the JBs. You’ll soon realize that JBs have a dropping
instinct, which makes them easy to drown.
They’re harder to catch in the hot sun of mid-day, when they quickly fly
away. You’ll find that JBs are very docile and don’t sting or bite, leaving
only a little stain in your hand of what we’ll call “beetle juice”, so I seldom wear gloves when working on them. Using a few
drops of dish-washing detergent in the water creates surface tension and impedes
them from making an emergency takeoff. Here's what that looks like:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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The second step (actually it should be the first overall step) is to redesign and prepare your garden for organic JB control. I call it varying and mitigating the JB target so they don't land solely on the roses. Having a variety of perennials, annuals and herbs, like oregano and cilantro, among your roses gives the JBs somewhere else to land and the damage is not nearly as noticeable as it is on the roses. I have beds of zinnias where the JBs gather and I now drown as many JBs on the zinnias as on the roses; lots of chewed leaves but they’re very fast-growing and keep ahead of the JBs. Here's a recent picture (just before that mess of JBs got knocked into the soapy water.):<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">JBs Love Zinnias (so plant zinnias with your roses)</span></div>
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I also plant patches of oregano in each rose bed to attract beneficial insects, particularly predatory wasps, into the garden. The JBs like that too, which makes it doubly effective, and they certainly can't hurt the oregano! Here's how that looks right now (and that JB bit the dust too, after posing for me):</div>
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I also have big shrub-roses in my tomato/insectary garden, away from the main rose gardens, that attract clusters of JBs, which I drown, eight and ten at a time. The shrub they really like is Dr. David Zlesak's amazing "Above and Beyond" and, since it's done blooming for the year, I cut it back with my electric hedge clipper, making it far less attractive. <br />
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Step three is to aggressively dead-head your roses while attacking the JBs. One of the things I have noticed is how JBs tend to cluster on spent blooms that are losing their petals. I don't know why that may be but it's a very good reason to get all of those spent blooms off the plants. And, while you're doing that, you're setting up your roses for the next flush of bloom, when the JBs are finished. Here's what I mean by spent bloom clustering. If you look carefully, you can see the sexual activity resulting from the JB female pheromone:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWo2Gvk6gU7VlCxKZT4UXBBf4v5FgBYbu4xIBPTJ2CLfx10mxV7p9FqNr1W3kRD5heVfmT31w_q4NLIZqFgopjKpvm2rBf_CsZYfIfaHfI-7RbVywnPFaw0Pc0pc6AGCrLeGRVUtbsNw/s1600/IMG_0504.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWo2Gvk6gU7VlCxKZT4UXBBf4v5FgBYbu4xIBPTJ2CLfx10mxV7p9FqNr1W3kRD5heVfmT31w_q4NLIZqFgopjKpvm2rBf_CsZYfIfaHfI-7RbVywnPFaw0Pc0pc6AGCrLeGRVUtbsNw/s640/IMG_0504.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">JBs Mating on Earth Song</span></div>
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If you don't panic, there's a bit of sport in this too. JBs are amazingly canny critters and it's useful to observe what they do, especially in the heat of mid-day, as they approach your garden. When a JB arrives in the garden, it hovers, like a helicopter, looking for a suitable place to land. And, almost always, it will land on a flower or leaf that has one or more JBs already on it, or on a flower or leaf that has been previously chewed by other JBs; obviously attracted to the sexual pheromone of other JBs. (I've actually gotten pretty good at grabbing them in mid-air as they look for a sexy place to land, and that's fun.) So, it's important to get rid of tainted leaves and flowers, whenever possible. It’s really hard to dead-head a brand-new bud that has a JB embedded in it but it's necessary, in order to stop it from attracting incoming beetles.<span style="font-size: 18px;"> </span>Using the old-fashioned, thumb and forefinger method of dead-heading, while drowning JBs, is very effective in encouraging rapid growth on roses, which is indicative of the positive multiplier-effect that organic gardening always has. There will be more new buds!<br />
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This is important: <u>Don’t
be tempted to squish JBs!</u> When you squish a female JB, her sex-
pheromone is spewed out and brings in every male in the neighborhood! This is also why JB traps are not a good idea,
at least in your own garden. Here’s a quote from the University of
Minnesota on JB traps:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>“Pheromone
traps contain the sex pheromone of the JB female.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><u>The pheromone is very powerful and will call in beetles from a few
thousand feet.</u></i> <span class="apple-converted-space"><i> </i></span><i>Research
demonstrated that more beetles fly toward traps than are caught, resulting in
surplus beetles that feed on your plants. Think twice before purchasing and
installing a pheromone trap.”<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></i> <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><span class="apple-converted-space"><br /></span></i></div>
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For more information on this, please take a look at my article from last year: "Attacking Japanese Beetles -- Organically":</div>
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<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/07/attacking-japanese-beetles-organically.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/07/attacking-japanese-beetles-organically.html</a></div>
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Also, please take a look at my most important blog post of all "The Pesticide-Free Rose Garden":</div>
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<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-pesticide-free-rose-garden.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-pesticide-free-rose-garden.html</a></div>
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And finally, please remember that the key
element in organic gardening is PATIENCE!</div>
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Don't panic; JBs only last about
four weeks and, if you work hard to deter them organically, they ultimately go
away, leaving you with lots of beneficials and pollinators, as well as fully dead-headed rose gardens, ready for the rest of the growing season. And remember that every JB you drown is a monster-bug that can't breed more
monster-bugs next year. It’s particularly enjoyable taking them down when
they’re atop one another, stopping the breeding cycle.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Jack Falker</div>
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@mnrosegardener</div>
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Edina, Minnesota</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
612 385-6226</div>
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<br />The Minnesota Rose Gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03173429356129992624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056259155953231806.post-9309016605978742182016-12-25T18:36:00.001-08:002020-09-18T12:08:11.331-07:00Christmas Thaw... Plus Thunder!One week ago today, here in Minneapolis, we woke up to temperatures of -20 F (-29 C), with wind chills around -35 F (-37 C). And we had upwards of a foot of fluffy snow, which was blowing and drifting in the wind. Now, lest you dismiss this as being normal for Minnesota, in the third week of December, you are mistaken; it is not! This was the Polar Vortex, that shifting of super-cold air from around the north pole, pushed southward, with the jet-stream, by temperatures in the Arctic Circle, which have been hovering right around freezing for several weeks, a departure from normal polar temps of -25 to -35 F. (-32 to -37 C). In other words, as counterintuitive as it may seem, the shift of the polar vortex southward into North America and Siberia is the effect of global warming in the polar region. See my December 2016 blog:<br />
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/12/here-comes-polar-vortex-again.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/12/here-comes-polar-vortex-again.html</a><br />
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Now, on Christmas day (and for the last several days), with the Polar Vortex past, we are experiencing unusually warm temperatures for late-December and our once-fluffy snow is melting fast. Right now, at noon, I am looking out my window at wind-blown steady rain, with the air temperature hovering just above freezing. Thunderstorms and temperatures in the 40s are predicted for later in the day, with upwards to an inch of rain, and it's likely that most of our snow cover will be gone by tomorrow.<br />
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Thunderstorms on Christmas Day in Minnesota? No one can remember this happening before, but it serves as a very good example of what winter-protecting your roses is all about, if you live some place where winter (and especially the Polar Vortex these days) affects your garden. Last week at this time, my roses were frozen solid, probably at least a foot or more below the surface (it doesn't take long for that to happen at -20 F (-29 C). Now, with temperatures well above freezing and rain coming down, the ground surface will start to thaw after the snow melts, but I know my roses will stay frozen solid because they are mounded with dirt and insulated with leaves and/or marsh hay. Likewise, tomorrow morning, when temperatures fall and the surface re-freezes, they will be unaffected, because they did not thaw.<br />
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Now, for example, if you live near St. Louis, Detroit, Indianapolis, Louisville, Boston or New York, and your ground and roses were certainly not frozen before the Polar Vortex came through last week, but you had at least mounded them and your bud unions are planted several inches below the ground, it is very unlikely that they froze from that short blast of polar temperatures (which we may see again in January or February). So, like mine, they are just fine for exactly the same reason: they were winter-protected from freezing and thawing. <b>The only difference is that mine didn't thaw and yours didn't freeze; so no problem either way.</b> If you haven't already seen it, please read my recent blog: "Five Important Steps to Winter-Protecting Your Roses". Here is that address:<br />
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/08/five-important-steps-to-winter.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/08/five-important-steps-to-winter.html</a> .<br />
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As I have said repeatedly in the last few years, you can debate why global warming is happening but the facts clearly demonstrate that it is; the Polar Vortex notwithstanding. As mentioned earlier, the Polar Vortex is caused by extreme warming of the polar regions pushing cold air southward into Siberia or North America (or both this year), via the jet-stream. And because it is still unusually warm in the Arctic, we can expect the Polar Vortex to re-emerge in any winter going forward, particularly in January or February (December was a surprise). Please see my March 2014 blog "What the Heck Was Wrong with this Winter":<br />
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2014/03/what-heck-is-wrong-with-this-winter_5.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2014/03/what-heck-is-wrong-with-this-winter_5.html</a> ,<br />
as well as my October 2014 blog: "Winter-Protecting Roses in a Climate-Change Environment".<br />
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2014/10/winter-protecting-roses-in-climate.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2014/10/winter-protecting-roses-in-climate.html</a><br />
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Bottom line? If you live in any zone where winter comes along at some point each year, do something to winter-protect your roses, even if it's only planting your bud unions several inches below ground and providing some mounding with mulch or dirt around your plants each fall, because we can now say, with a fairly high degree of certainty, that the Polar Vortex will strike again in North America, in any year going forward.<br />
<br />
Jack Falker<br />
@mnrosegardener<br />
jfalkersr@gmail.com<br />
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<br />The Minnesota Rose Gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03173429356129992624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056259155953231806.post-75809873245831801382016-12-14T19:16:00.002-08:002016-12-15T15:24:00.542-08:00Here Comes the Polar Vortex... Again!The last time the dreaded Polar Vortex invaded the lower 48 states was nearly three years ago, in January 2014, and it was pretty rough, especially for rosarians in parts of the country who aren't used to deep cold, as we are here in the Upper Midwest. I remember writing back then that we would probably see a vortex invasion again, because it's something that's always circulating up there at the north pole, and it would be just a matter of time before it found its way south again, especially with the weather anomalies we are experiencing on a regular basis these days. I also cautioned readers in my previous blog "Five Important Steps for Winterizing Your Roses": "Don't forget the Polar Vortex of a couple of years ago (and act accordingly)!"<br />
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/08/five-important-steps-to-winter.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/08/five-important-steps-to-winter.html</a><br />
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Well, I hope you did, because here it comes again! However, for those in zones 6 and 7, If you didn't get all your winter work done, you may have a few more days to protect your roses from the effects of freezing and thawing. See the animated map below to see when the vortex will strike your area.<br />
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The good news is that this particular polar vortex incursion isn't going to last too long. Obviously, we can't know for sure, but there seems to be a pretty good chance that the vortex will not repeat itself in January, when the the polar air is considerably colder<br />
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This is all from my friend Paul Douglas' blog, which I read daily:<br />
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<strong style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;">What Is The Polar Vortex?</strong><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;"> NOAA has a very </span><a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/cold/polar_vortex.shtml" href="http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/cold/polar_vortex.shtml" style="color: #888888; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px; text-decoration: none;">good explainer</a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;">, separating fact from hype: "...</span><em style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;">The polar vortex is a large area of low pressure and cold air surrounding both of the Earth’s poles. It ALWAYS exists near the poles, but weakens in summer and strengthens in winter. The term "vortex" refers to the counter-clockwise flow of air that helps keep the colder air near the Poles. Many times during winter in the northern hemisphere, the polar vortex will expand, sending cold air southward with the jet stream (see graphic above). This occurs fairly regularly during wintertime and is often associated with large outbreaks of Arctic air in the United States. The one that occurred January 2014 is similar to many other cold outbreaks that have occurred in the past, including several notable colder outbreaks in 1977, 1982, 1985 and 1989. There are several things the polar vortex is NOT. Polar vortexes are not something new. The term “polar vortex” has only recently been popularized, bringing attention to a weather feature that has always been present.</em><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;">.."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;">Here's the full description:</span></div>
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And here is an excellent,timely article from the New York Times: "Feeling a Chill? Blame the Polar Vortex. And Global Warming".</div>
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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/science/feeling-a-chill-blame-the-polar-vortex-and-global-warming.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0">http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/science/feeling-a-chill-blame-the-polar-vortex-and-global-warming.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0</a></div>
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And here is Paul Douglas' take on the odds of this happening again this winter:</div>
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<i><strong style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;">Late-Month Moderation</strong><span 13.2px="" 18.48px="" arial="" font-family:="" font-size:="" freesans="" helvetica="" line-height:="" quot="" sans-serif="" tahoma="">. I want to see a few more model runs, but GFS 500 mb predicted winds looking out 2 weeks suggests a more zonal flow for the USA with temperatures at or above average for late December. The question is not: will we endure more arctic fronts. We will. The question is how pervasive will bitter air be east of the Rockies? Will the polar vortex weaken and break down, allowing subzero air to consistently flood south? I'm still not convinced it's going to be nearly as numbing as it was 3 years ago.</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;"><span 13.2px="" 18.48px="" line-height:="">Thank Heaven! But it's better to be safe than sorry.</span></span><br />
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The map below tracks the polar vortex incursion through the end of December:</div>
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The Minnesota Rose Gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03173429356129992624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056259155953231806.post-70214095544250139202016-08-29T11:48:00.000-07:002016-09-15T21:23:17.519-07:00Five Important Steps to Winter-Protecting Your RosesThere is a continuing misconception among many folks who grow roses in the "cold zones" (i.e. USDA zones 3, 4, 5 and 6), that "winter protection" means protection against freezing. That's not right in zones where the ground freezes solid. No matter how much protection you add to your roses (and that includes the "Minnesota Tip"), it's impossible to stop them from freezing when the ground freezes down one or two feet (or sometimes more here in Minnesota).<br />
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So, it's not the freezing that kills roses, it's the repeated thawing and re-freezing at the surface, when temperatures go above freezing in the daytime and fall back below freezing at night. So our winter-protection objective must be to stop repeated freezing and thawing. By the way, this principle applies equally to more temperate zones where the ground doesn't consistently freeze, but winter temperatures hover around freezing for weeks at a time. In a way, I think that the winter-cover methods described below, <u>or some variant thereof</u>, may be at least as important (or perhaps even more so) for gardeners in zones 6 and 7, where the ground often doesn't stay frozen and freezing and thawing is very fickle. Don't forget the "Polar Vortex" of a couple of years ago (and act accordingly)!<br />
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For example, here is a beautiful picture of Teresa and Greg Byington's home and garden at the height of the "Polar Vortex", near Indianapolis (zone 6, per National Arbor Day 2015 data), in January 2014. The extreme minimum temperature (EMT) in Indianapolis was -15, i.e., right in the middle of zone 5 that year. That means that the ground froze solid in Indiana, during that period, and likely thawed out and froze again, judging from the bright sunshine in this picture. In St. Louis, zone 7, their EMT was -8, putting them in zone 6, so the ground froze solid, before thawing, there too. That's why some form of aggressive winter protection is also important in both zones 6 and 7.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Q2Qe4KqrAfbBhToxnzQpKQQKhWbXwvBQvCFAkCsYXRTUdPnKqLZjGxZx6ec-cJVTJftcEScanPKcr4X3RAbOxsA5-vcK0TO9RGl7h3Ew60LBNN7vJTA_P_MsoH8dHJQjZU98I4slOg/s1600/TeresaBHouse2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Q2Qe4KqrAfbBhToxnzQpKQQKhWbXwvBQvCFAkCsYXRTUdPnKqLZjGxZx6ec-cJVTJftcEScanPKcr4X3RAbOxsA5-vcK0TO9RGl7h3Ew60LBNN7vJTA_P_MsoH8dHJQjZU98I4slOg/s640/TeresaBHouse2.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b>Here are my five important steps to stop the killing effects of freezing and thawing:</b><br />
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1. Always plant the bud unions of your grafted roses, or the crowns of your own-root roses, at least three inches below the ground. Not only does this help insulate the bud unions from freezing and thawing, but it's also good horticultural practice, no matter whether you garden in a cold zone or a warm zone. <br />
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2. In the six weeks prior to the first hard freeze in your area (25 degrees f. or below), harden off the canes of your roses by giving them a weekly potassium feast. See my blog:<br />
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2014/09/potassium-feast-for-your-roses.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2014/09/potassium-feast-for-your-roses.html</a><br />
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3. A couple of weeks before the first hard freeze, mound your roses, up ten inches or so, with several shovels of compost or black dirt. This cone of soil, which should be frequently watered and is the first to freeze, further insulates the bud unions and crowns of your plants (which should already be below ground level). In zones 6 and 7 (where I grew up), the extent of mounding might be reduced somewhat, perhaps to just a heavy mulching that stays put over the winter and is naturally worked into the soil in the spring. Again, however, remember what happened with the "polar vortex" and act accordingly. It can't hurt to use more mulch.<br />
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4. Next, at about the time the soil freezes (late November or early December in Minneapolis) or, in the warmer zones, when you anticipate consistent night-time temperatures below 25 degrees (probably early January), put some leaf or hay cover over your mounded roses. I like half-filled bags of mulched leaves, which I slit open on the bottom and push down over my plants. At this point, the plants have been cut back to about 18 inches and bundled up with twine, so as not to hinder placement of the bags. You can also use wire fence cylinders filled with leaves but I think the slitted leaf bags work better; a practice that has been used in the Chicago area for many years. In Detroit (zone 6), where my parents grew roses, we simply raked leaves over our rose beds, without mounding, for winter cover. I also remember that they replaced several roses each year, so it must have not been quite sufficient. However, I believe that the combination of mounding and generally covering your beds with leaves or hay would probably work just fine in zone 6, <u>as long as your bud unions are planted below ground level.</u> For much greater detail, please see my blogs "Winter Protecting Your Roses" and "The Big Coverup":<br />
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2013/09/winter-protecting-your-roses.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2013/09/winter-protecting-your-roses.html</a><br />
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-big-coverup.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-big-coverup.html</a><br />
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5. Finally, if this isn't already enough, you must now protect your roses from voles, those voracious rodent pests that are to winter gardening what japanese beetles are to summer gardening. This must be done just before you place leaf cover on your plants, i.e. just before they freeze. Castor oil and rodent bait should be strategically applied, as described in these two Minnesota Rose Gardener blogs:<br />
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2015/11/protecting-roses-from-vole-damage.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2015/11/protecting-roses-from-vole-damage.html</a><br />
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2012/10/voles-and-roses.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2012/10/voles-and-roses.html</a><br />
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Here is a picture of my Earth Song bed, all put to bed on Christmas day 2013, with each of the five steps above performed, plus a natural eight inches of snow for added insulation. The now-dreaded Polar Vortex would begin in the next month, with more than 50 nights below zero and a one-night EMT of -23 (zone 4), but I suffered no losses in 2014.<br />
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<img height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioIioDWf6Q7XQoDxvaZdsJ-hsmNqArDxJ5EUeeHOIRb1-fy56GVqXs9pa9KN-hIbXW-gwx5htW8SdEoysK-DwaSb8W-7kJjSJ2t8TsCL43Br5lfJq-b1IUZJaaU0j_YToqfk0G7Y9ttiI/s640/Winter+Earthsong.JPG" width="480" /><br />
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So now your fall work is cut out for you! Please let me know if you have a question.<br />
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Jack Falker<br />
@mnrosegardener<br />
jfalkersr@gmail.com<br />
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<br />The Minnesota Rose Gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03173429356129992624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056259155953231806.post-5518461714281538812016-08-19T20:56:00.001-07:002016-08-19T20:56:35.016-07:00Attacking Japanese Beetles -- Victory!The JBs arrived early this year, on June 19th, and they have been the worst ever. Over the last two months, on many days I have drowned several hundred in soapy water, but today I drowned only one. While I fully expect to see a few more in the next couple of weeks, I think we can now declare victory for 2016!<br />
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I calculate, roughly, that I killed upwards of 5,000 JBs, entirely organically, while preserving the lives and habitat of all pollinating insects, like the hundreds of varieties of bees, and the beneficial predatory insects in my garden, including lady beetles, predatory wasps, lace wings etc., by not spraying insecticides; and I am proud of that! Those 5,000 JBs will never find their way into my lawn to produce more JBs next year and that is better than all the grub control or milky spore treatments one could muster.<br />
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My rose gardens have been extensively dead-headed, chewed-up leaves removed, fertilized, and positioned to quickly outgrow and outbloom the effects of the JBs, over the next couple of months. That's a pretty good result, I believe, and that's what organic gardening is all about.<br />
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If you haven't read my earlier posts on JBs this year, take a look at "Attacking Japanese Beetles--Know Your Enemy", which also includes the addresses of my several other blogs on JBs:<br />
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/07/attacking-japanese-beetles-know-your.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/07/attacking-japanese-beetles-know-your.html</a><br />
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I would be interested in knowing how it has gone for my readers this year. I know, for example that JBs made it further north in Minnesota than ever before; the result of changes in Minnesota's climate, which is warming faster than anywhere else in the country, other than Alaska. Let me know how it has gone for you. Have JBs made it to Europe or South America for example? I look forward to hearing from you.<br />
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Jack Falker<br />
@mnrosegardener<br />
jfalkersr@gmail.com<br />
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<br />The Minnesota Rose Gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03173429356129992624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056259155953231806.post-42188003721235469082016-07-21T20:30:00.000-07:002016-07-21T20:30:52.509-07:00Attacking Japanese Beetles -- Know Your Enemy<i>Author's note: If you haven't read my last post: "Attacking Japanese Beetles -- Organically", please take a look at it. You will learn more from this post if you read my last one first: </i><br />
<i><a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/07/attacking-japanese-beetles-organically.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/07/attacking-japanese-beetles-organically.html</a></i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYwMtgxpjebOA2pj3zY0z8PrHWxIDeTl-1KpndF4iGNSVhvXNCi0dtHFlsKuLamqGEvAbiBduMrFvEG5qDUjPJgG0esI-2-lBCyYkhsCv2ERJ7sc1XhJY_UnfFlQsSx-AJrMqYu4I9TA/s1600/Japanese+Beetles+2015.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYwMtgxpjebOA2pj3zY0z8PrHWxIDeTl-1KpndF4iGNSVhvXNCi0dtHFlsKuLamqGEvAbiBduMrFvEG5qDUjPJgG0esI-2-lBCyYkhsCv2ERJ7sc1XhJY_UnfFlQsSx-AJrMqYu4I9TA/s640/Japanese+Beetles+2015.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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JBs on Earth Song</div>
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To get to know the JB enemy, let's consider again where JBs originate. The adult beetles mate in the process of feeding on their favorite foods (like roses, many trees and other flowers like zinnias) and you can see this happening if you observe them clustering. The female JB then finds a lush bit of turf and deposits her eggs. The eggs hatch as grubs and feed on the grass roots. If enough JB grubs populate your lawn, you will develop areas of dead turf, which, when dug up, will have one-inch, white, JB grubs clustered in the roots. That whole area of your lawn will die unless you apply grub control in the fall or early spring. This is one of the things that golf course managers have learned and why they have been using huge amounts of imidacloprid, as the most effective grub control, over the last several years here in Minnesota. I had this problem myself, several years ago, and applied granular imidacloprid to save my lawn. You can bet that this is part of the reason that we have seen such an upswing in bee colony collapse disorder, which has been directly linked to imidacloprid. One extreme example of this is Orem City, Utah, which applied imidacloprid across all neighborhoods of the city, several years ago, when JBs began to affect the floraculture and nursery industries. They even went so far as to warn homeowners not to eat any of the produce of their fruit trees, because of the systemic nature of imidacloprid. It worked, but I can't even contemplate the extent of the damage to honey bees and other beneficial insects, like lady beetles, in Utah, as the result of this extreme measure. Here's the Utah story:<br />
<a href="http://ag.utah.gov/home/blog/518-how-we-stopped-the-japanese-beetle.html">http://ag.utah.gov/home/blog/518-how-we-stopped-the-japanese-beetle.html</a><br />
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I also want to point out that as soon as we began to see JBs in the Twin Cities, I made the rather sizable investment in Milky Spore, with a special tubular applicator and all, and went all over my lawn and portions of my neighbors' lawns laboriously applying patches of it, exactly as specified (and I breathed-in a lot of it, as well). I watched, hopefully, for the next few years to see what the milky spore infection would do to the JB population on my roses and <b>I can say with certainty that it did virtually nothing to significantly reduce the population of beetles in my gardens! </b>Oh, I'm sure that Milky Spore and a subsequent, equally expensive, application of nematodes knocked off a bunch of JB grubs in my lawn over the next few years, and they still may be doing so, but that's not where the great majority of JBs landing in my gardens are originating.<br />
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Please see quotes from the University of Minnesota about the ineffectiveness of Milky Spore here:<br />
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-beetles-are-coming-beetles-are.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-beetles-are-coming-beetles-are.html</a><br />
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<b>Fact: </b>JBs travel amazing distances, from where they pupate, to find the plant foods they relish (like your roses). There is evidence that they may fly as much as five miles to reach your plants, so unless all the turf within a five-mile radius of your garden is treated with Milky Spore or imidacloprid (like in Utah!) there is no way that what you alone do to your lawn will stop JBs from invading your gardens. Milky Spore and imidacloprid can protect your lawn from dying, but they can't stop the vast majority of JBs from flying your way each summer. Save your money and concentrate on killing the JBs as they arrive, before they can lay eggs in your lawn. As I point out in my earlier blog posts, pyrethroid insecticides, like Demand CS, work well, but they also kill beneficial insects such as lady beetles and pollinators. That is why I advocate the organic approach of manually drowning JBs. Either way you decide to go, it's far more important to concentrate on attacking and killing JBs than it is to try and prevent them from hatching on your property.<br />
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<b>Fact: </b>If you haven't already figured this out, JBs are amazingly canny critters. To effectively attack them, it's useful to observe what they do as they approach your garden. When you have as many as I do, it's interesting to observe their behavior (just before drowning them!). When a JB arrives in one of my rose beds it hovers around the bed, like a helicopter, looking for a suitable place to land. Almost always, it will land on a flower or leaf that has one or more JBs already on it, or on a flower or leaf that has been previously chewed by other JBs. So, obviously, the JBs arriving in my garden, from some distance, perhaps miles away, are attracted to the scent of other JBs, presumably by the female sexual pheromone, which is all kind of amazing to me. So, it's important to get rid of tainted leafs and flowers, whenever possible. I know how hard it is to pluck a brand new bud that has two JBs imbedded in it, but it's important to do that in order not to let it attract incoming beetles (I did it just a few minutes ago and it is painful). Interesingly, when they can't find an old leaf or flower to land on, they seem momentarily confused and can be easily picked off. Also, believe it or not, while they are hovering around looking for a place to land, I have been quite successful in grabbing them in mid-air! That actually makes the whole exercise kind of fun once in a while.<br />
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The good news is that JB season should soon be over. They started early this year (June 19th) so they should soon be finished. Better days ahead.<br />
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Jack Falker<br />
@mnrosegardener<br />
July 21, 2016<br />
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<br />The Minnesota Rose Gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03173429356129992624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056259155953231806.post-55096341664484836632016-07-09T23:08:00.000-07:002016-07-09T23:08:33.606-07:00Attacking Japanese Beetles--Organically<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
On the theory that a picture is worth a thousand words, here's what organic JB control looks like:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQt045-TTDQ9KJegr52yAuuxkl5CeokEeF3SaJ6l3QOnnB-k_nzF3yzuvcveS_lHVoJ3aDebTAJrW7TKc-R0XUya-cBfv1x-X_isdWHVqIS8LiFBmjAqqzWcKQr4C2BNIcrB452hILtQ/s1600/JB+2016.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQt045-TTDQ9KJegr52yAuuxkl5CeokEeF3SaJ6l3QOnnB-k_nzF3yzuvcveS_lHVoJ3aDebTAJrW7TKc-R0XUya-cBfv1x-X_isdWHVqIS8LiFBmjAqqzWcKQr4C2BNIcrB452hILtQ/s640/JB+2016.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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That's one day's catch of JBs in my garden; a couple hundred of the monsters, now dead, <u>organically</u>.<br />
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There is more to this than meets the eye. When you attack JBs organically, rather than with pesticides, you not only spare all the important beneficial insects in your garden, especially lady beetles that do so much for us, but you also enhance the health of your garden.<br />
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Here's why. When you knock JBs off your plants into soapy water, or pick them off with your fingers every day, you should naturally be dead-heading your roses at the same time. Any bloom that has more than one JB on it, or appears to have been previously chewed by multiple JBs, should be plucked off between your thumb and forefinger and thrown away (after you drown the JBs, of course). That's because those blooms, no matter how nice they still might look, likely have the JB sexual pheromone on them and will attract male beetles from long distances away. Actually, the old-fashioned, thumb and forefinger method of dead-heading is very effective in encouraging rapid growth in your garden, so that's what you're accomplishing here. Here is one of my early blogs about what my mother taught me about dead-heading:<br />
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<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2012/06/deadheading-or-things-my-mother-told-me.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2012/06/deadheading-or-things-my-mother-told-me.html</a><br />
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The attraction of the JB female sexual pheromone is also the reason that JB traps are not a good idea. They contain the JB sexual pheromone as an attractant and when they fill up with JBs that pheromone is multiplied hundreds, if not thousands, of times by the JBs themselves. And it's important to understand that the JB is a very sophisticated organism (really all insects are, but we miss that with our kill, crush, destroy mentality). There is recent evidence showing that JBs actually travel as much as five miles, from the turf in which they pupate, to the foods they seek (especially roses).<br />
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That's also why I think it's fruitless to try and control JBs with organic Milky Spore on your lawn. In deference to my compatriate rosarian friend, Paul Zimmerman, whom I quote below, It's no doubt useful in killing off JB grubs, in your lawn, over time, but it really can't stop JBs from attacking your rose garden, simply because they come in hordes from up to five miles away. So, unless everyone in a five mile radius uses Milky Spore (especially golf courses), it does not help and you have spent a lot of money (it's pretty expensive). I used it extensively, years ago, when JBs first found their way to Minnesota, and it did not help.<br />
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Please read one of my most recent blogs on JBs which includes quotes from the University of Minnesota on both JB traps and Milky Spore:<br />
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<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-beetles-are-coming-beetles-are.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-beetles-are-coming-beetles-are.html</a><br />
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Last week, I received a question from Michelle, in Virginia, who was at her wit's end with a huge infestation of JBs and was about to succomb to the use of the pyrethroid, Demand CS (Lambda Cyhalothrin), which, as I mention in my blog above, does a pretty good job of deterring JBs but also wipes out beneficials and pollinators in the garden. Not having experienced her level of JB infestation in the middle-south, I referred Michelle to Paul Zimmerman, who is a dedicated organic gardener in South Carolina, for his advice. Paul posted this response on his "Paul Zimmerman Roses" Facebook page. While we don't necessarily see eye-to-eye on the use of milky spore and traps (but I know Paul will see my logic above), I really like his ideas on garden clean up, deadheading and the use of companion plantings for both insectary benefits and attracting JBs away from the roses. This is really the essence organic gardening. Here's Paul's answer:<br />
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<i><span 12px="" 16.08px="" arial="" d2129="" font-family:="" font-size:="" helvetica="" line-height:="" sans-serif=""><span style="font-family: inherit;">"Regarding Japanese Beetles. Milky Spore bacteria </span></span><span 12px="" 16.08px="" arial="" d2129="" font-family:="" font-size:="" helvetica="" line-height:="" sans-serif=""><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">has been proven to work so yes, use it. Takes about 2-3 years to become totally effective but it's a good first step. </span></span></span></i><br />
<i><span 12px="" 16.08px="" arial="" d2129="" font-family:="" font-size:="" helvetica="" line-height:="" sans-serif=""><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span 12px="" 16.08px="" arial="" color:="" d2129="" font-family:="" font-size:="" helvetica="" line-height:="" quot="" sans-serif="">However, here is how I've dealt with the problem for the last 16 years. I'm an organic garden so I don't use insecticides of any kind. I build a host environment for beneficials and let them take care of it. That works great for all native pests but of course JBs are not native so they have no native enemy.</span></i><br />
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<span 12px="" 16.08px="" arial="" color:="" d2129="" f6f7f9="" font-family:="" font-size:="" helvetica="" line-height:="" quot="" sans-serif=""><i>Around here the JBs appear in late early June and continue for around 4 weeks. For me this is after my spring flush. When I see the JBs out in full force I use that as an opportunity to clean up my garden from the spring flush and get it ready for the fall one. I go through the roses, trim them back, clean out dead wood, weak wood and do a thorough deadheading. Essentially I'm cleaning out a lot of the parts of the roses the JBs like during my normal maintenance.</i></span><br />
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<span 12px="" 16.08px="" arial="" color:="" d2129="" font-family:="" font-size:="" helvetica="" line-height:="" quot="" sans-serif=""><i>As the beetles start to wind down the roses wake back up again. I'll go over them again to do another light clean up and that's that.</i></span><br />
<i><br 12px="" 16.08px="" arial="" d2129="" font-family:="" font-size:="" helvetica="" line-height:="" sans-serif="" /></i>
<span 12px="" 16.08px="" arial="" d2129="" font-family:="" font-size:="" helvetica="" line-height:="" quot="" sans-serif=""><i>Another thing I've done over the last several years is adding lots of perennials to my gardens. In and amongst the roses. This was for aesthetics but more so to help create that host environment for beneficials. I've noticed the JBs seem to flock to the perennials and while there is some damage it's not as noticeable as on the roses.</i></span><br />
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<span 12px="" 16.08px="" arial="" d2129="" font-family:="" font-size:="" helvetica="" line-height:="" quot="" sans-serif=""><i>Essentially I work with them that way. Use their arrival as part of normal summer cleanup and plant other plants they may find more attractive.</i></span><br />
<i><span 12px="" 16.08px="" arial="" d2129="" font-family:="" font-size:="" helvetica="" line-height:="" quot="" sans-serif=""><br /></span>
<span 12px="" 16.08px="" arial="" d2129="" font-family:="" font-size:="" helvetica="" line-height:="" quot="" sans-serif=""><span 12px="" 16.08px="" arial="" d2129="" font-family:="" font-size:="" helvetica="" line-height:="" sans-serif="">PS. Regarding traps. They do help but hang them away from the garden areas."</span></span></i><br />
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Seconding Paul's statements above, I have a lot of companion plantings in and around my rose gardens for both insectary and aesthetic purposes. For example, I have patches of dill, oregano and cilantro growing in every one of my rose gardens, which are inundated by beneficials. I also have two beds of zinnias growing close-by and that's where the JBs really gather. Believe it or not, I've actually found something (zinnia foliage) that JBs like more than roses and I'm actually drowning more JBs on the zinnias than on the roses! Lots of chewed leaves, but these plants are fast-growing right now and can keep ahead of the JBs. I also have several big shrub roses planted in my vegetable/tomato/insectary garden, away from my main rose gardens, that attract clusters of JBs, which are very easy to drown, eight and ten at a time. The shrub they really like is David Zlesak's "Above and Beyond" and, since it's done blooming for the year, I have fully dead-headed it and cut it back, which has made if far less attractive (exactly what Paul was talking about above).<br />
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So, as I point out in my recent blog post "The Pesticide-Free Rose Garden",<br />
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-pesticide-free-rose-garden.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-pesticide-free-rose-garden.html</a>, the key element in organic rose gardening is PATIENCE! Remember, as Paul points out above, JBs only last about four weeks and, if you work hard to deter them organically, they ultimately go away, leaving you with lots of beneficials and pollinators, as well as fully dead-headed and healthy roses for the rest of the growing season (also a great time to fertilize again). My JBs started early this year, around the middle of June and, as we approach the middle of July, I think I can see them beginning to taper off. Remember that every JB you drown right now is a monster-bug that can't breed more monster-bugs for next year. I particularly enjoy taking them down when they are atop one another, stopping the breeding cycle. Tonight at dusk, I nailed two breeding pairs on my zinnias, with my bare right hand. It felt good to feel the four of them wriggle before they hit the soapy water. Take that you monsters!<br />
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Jack Falker<br />
July 9, 2016<br />
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<br />The Minnesota Rose Gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03173429356129992624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056259155953231806.post-20362570781542947722016-06-20T20:05:00.001-07:002016-06-20T20:05:23.600-07:00Japanese Beetles 2016 - The Infestation BeginsI drowned my first JB yesterday, June 19th, and my second today, on June 20th. This is at least a week earlier than last year and a good two weeks earlier than previous years, when we anticipated their arrival around the 4th of July. This is likely the result of climate change and probably portends that JBs will find their way further north in Minnesota (and in states like Wisconsin and Michigan), compared with last year.<br />
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Here's an excerpt from my 2015 blog "The Beetles are Coming! The Beetles are Coming!" discussing that phenomenon:<br />
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<i>It's interesting that there seems to be a north/south line of demarcation in the Twin Cities for JBs. We live in the southwestern part of the metro area and have been seeing JBs for just the last six or seven years, peaking in 2012, as our winters have become less severe, statistically moving us into the range of USDA zone 5. Most gardeners in the northern suburbs, roughly 10 miles from us, as well as gardeners in St. Cloud, northwest of us, have never seen JBs. That would indicate that JBs are harbingers of climate change, as are many other insect species. Since 2012, we have had lighter infestations, until this year, which is quite heavy, approaching the levels of 2012, at least here in Edina.</i><br />
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I'm virtually positive that folks will see them further north this year, given their earliest-ever arrival here. I will be very interested in receiving confirmation of my prediction. (In the last few days, I have received reports from two rosarians, one in a northern suburb, Andover, and another way up north in Fergus Falls, of large black beetles that look a little like JBs, but are the wrong color and definitely not the monsters). Please don't be shy in reporting and send cell phone pictures, if you can, for confirmation.<br />
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The most important thing to know about controlling these monster buggers (which I hate so much) is that trying to use insecticides in the average rose garden is the wrong approach, because you will kill virtually all of the beneficial insects in the garden at the same time, including, most importantly, lady beetles and bees, while the JBs just keep on coming from several miles away. The right way of controlling JBs is to patrol the garden each day (morning and evening are best because they're sluggish) and drown them in a can of soapy water. It's a daily job, but it's effective because JBs have a dropping instinct that makes them vulnerable to falling into the water. <br />
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Here is my complete discussion from last year's blog, which tells you everything you need to know about JBs for 2016:<br />
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<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-beetles-are-coming-beetles-are.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-beetles-are-coming-beetles-are.html</a><br />
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Here, also is my May 2016 presentation to the Minnesota Rose Society on pesticide-free rose gardening, which contains several useful slides about JB control:<br />
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<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/05/minnesota-rose-society-presentation.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/05/minnesota-rose-society-presentation.html</a><br />
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I would say "enjoy" but this ain't enjoyable. Good JB Hunting and please keep me posted.<br />
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Jack Falker<br />
@mnrosegardener<br />
jfalkersr@gmail.com<br />
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June 20, 2016<br />
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<br />The Minnesota Rose Gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03173429356129992624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056259155953231806.post-10073011764245571822016-05-16T21:31:00.000-07:002020-09-18T12:08:38.181-07:00Minnesota Rose Society Presentation -"The Pesticide-Free Rose Garden"- May 2016<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Here is the PowerPoint presentation I made to the Minnesota Rose Society, on May 14, 2016, based on my blog "The Pesticide-Free Rose Garden", published May 13, 2016.</div>
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The bullet-point slides are a little more succinct than the blog itself. I also go into greater detail on Japanese Beetles in this presentation. Here's the address of the blog: <a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-pesticide-free-rose-garden.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-pesticide-free-rose-garden.html</a></div>
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I received a very nice comment about the blog from Brian Spencer, President of Applied Bio-nomics, the Canadian company that generates the predatory mites that are shown and recommended in the presentation. Brian says:<i>"<span 16px="" arial="" font-family:="" font-size:="" sans-serif="">...</span><span 16px="" arial="" font-family:="" font-size:="" sans-serif="">That is an excellent summary. I can find nothing to add or edit. </span><span 16px="" arial="" font-family:="" font-size:="" sans-serif="">You have done a great service to Rose growers."</span></i></div>
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That's just how my dad looked "dusting" his roses. Note that Rockwell's only protection was his hat and his pipe, and look at the cloud of dust right in front of his face. He was breathing in whatever he was applying. It's also worth noting that those roses don't look very good.<br />
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I highly recommend this book. It is available both new and used on Amazon.<br />
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I'm at my happiest when I'm among the pollinators and beneficials in my insectary gardens. When this picture was taken on a hot, August afternoon in 2015, the garden was swarming with bees, butterflies, predatory wasps and a variety of flies, lacewings, lady beetles etc. This was not true in my gardens two years earlier.<br />
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Note that many of these plants/seeds are available on-line from Prairie Moon Nursery in Winona, MN: <a href="https://www.prairiemoon.com/seeds/wildflowers-forbs/">https://www.prairiemoon.com/seeds/wildflowers-forbs/</a><br />
<br />
For my Minnesota readers, several of these plants (Angelica and Lovage for example), are available at Shady Acres Herb Farm (a very nice place) in Chaska:<br />
<a href="http://www.shadyacres.com/">http://www.shadyacres.com/</a><br />
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<br />The Minnesota Rose Gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03173429356129992624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056259155953231806.post-20600479177492740652016-05-13T19:22:00.002-07:002020-09-18T12:09:28.316-07:00The Pesticide-Free Rose Garden<i>Author's note: This is the most important blog I have written. I am advocating a new way of growing roses; contradicting the conventional wisdom set forth in virtually every rose book of the last century, including, most recently, the "2015 American Rose Annual". </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>I have received excellent encouragement and advice, over the last two years, from Applied Bio-nomics in British Columbia, Rincon-Vitova Insectaries in California, and the IPM director of Butchart Gardens in British Columbia.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>I know there are others trying to do what I advocate with varying degrees of success but, to my knowledge, there is nothing in the rose literature that provides instructions on how to grow roses organically, with beneficial insects and predatory mites completely taking the place of pesticides.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>It is my intention to change the way roses are grown. This is not a perfect process and it requires patience to let nature take her own course, given what we've all had drilled into our heads about pesticides. But I can say conclusively that growing roses organically works, based on my experience of the last two years, plus the growing body of evidence from organic farming practices globally.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Please join me in this adventure. You will be pleasantly surprised and rewarded for your efforts and patience. I will be writing about this often and I encourage your questions and observations.</i><br />
<br />
<b>The Pesticide Culture</b><br />
<br />
I grew up in a rose garden; beautiful and full of pesticides. I remember the acrid smell, as my dad "dusted" his roses with fungicides and insecticides. And, of course, that meant we were all breathing the poisonous dust. Making matters worse, ours was just one of three neighborhood rose gardens, within less than 100 feet of each other in Detroit, and everyone was doing the same thing. My dad even had a crank duster that spewed out the pesticides, and he wore no protection. Here's a picture of F.F. Rockwell, author of "The Rockwell Complete Book of Roses", dated 1963, which has been one of my rose "bibles", showing us how to do exactly what my dad did in the 1940s and '50s, with no protection but his hat and his pipe! (Note the cloud of dust right in front of his face.)<br />
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I have a
collection of rose books, some of which date back to the 1930s and 40s, and
they all say virtually the same thing about the need for pesticides.
Here's what McFarland and Pyle said in their 1937 classic, "How to
Grow Roses": <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br />
<i>"There is only one cure for insects which eat the flowers and leaves;
that is to poison them. It is, therefore, necessary that the poison be on
the leaves before the insect starts to chew. Since there is no way of
knowing when an insect wants to dine on a rose leaf, the only way to prepare
for him is to keep poison on the plant all the time." </i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><br />
</i>Notice they don't recognize that there may
be good bugs and bad bugs; just kill them all. But what about all the
butterflies, lace wings, lady beetles and the hundreds of different varieties
of pollinating bees and wasps?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br />
Lest you believe that anything has changed in the nearly 80 years since that
book was written, please note that the <u>only</u> article devoted to
rose care in the <i>2015 American Rose Annual</i> (which is essentially
a pretty travelogue of rose gardens) is "How to Improve Performance of
Pesticides: Timing, Coverage and Frequency". Plus, at the beginning of the
Annual, the American Rose Society endorses seven pesticides. Here are
excerpts from that pesticide article (by a Ph.D no less):<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br />
<i>"Pesticides such as insecticides, miticides and fungicides are commonly
applied by rosarians to control insect and mite pests and diseases. <u>In
fact, roses require extensive inputs from pesticides in order to maintain the
aesthetic quality of both the foliage and flowers</u>.... Examples of systemic
insecticides that may be used on roses include acephate (Orthene), imidacloprid
(Merit) and thiamethoxam (Flagship)...." </i>(Emphasis mine)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><br />
</i>So nothing has changed. In fact, things
may have gotten worse. Here we have an article in the "2015 American Rose
Annual" telling you to spray Orthene, an organophosphate, which is one of
the most dangerous insecticides on the market (i.e. it kills everything that
touches it, like bees, butterflies, lacewings, lady beetles etc.), and
imidacloprid, the Bayer neonicotinoid, which is strongly implicated in bee
colony collapse disorder and is already banned in several countries.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br />
What's happening here is that we, as rosarians, have been consistently told that
all insects are bad and must be killed, in order to grow beautiful roses.
Nothing could be further from the truth!<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
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<b>Spray Nothing!</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />
I finally realized, after many years of spraying all of the above, including Orthene, imidacloprid and pyrethroids like Demand CS (which is what I thought I was supposed to do to control everything from aphids to Japanese beetles), that what I was really doing was wiping out every naturally occurring beneficial and predator insect in my garden, not to mention pollinators like bees and wasps . For example, I suddenly realized that I no longer saw lady beetles and lacewings, which are natural predators for spider mites. It's no wonder because, instead of tediously picking Japanese beetles off my plants and drowning them in soapy water, I sprayed them with Demand CS, which works really well, but also wipes out all other beetles (like lady bugs), as well as every other predatory insect in the garden. As a result, I ended up with a massive infestation of aphids (something I hadn't seen in years) because I had destroyed all their predators, in my efforts to deter Japanese beetles.<br />
<br />
About two years ago, my compatriot-rosarian friend Paul Zimmerman mentioned a new book by Jessica Walliser, "Attracting Beneficial Bugs to your Garden", which changed my way of thinking about controlling insect pests in my gardens. Here's a link to that book, which is available in many public libraries, as well as both new and used on Amazon:<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Attracting-Beneficial-Bugs-Your-Garden/dp/1604693886/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417916500&sr=8-1&keywords=attracting+beneficial+bugs+to+your+garden">http://www.amazon.com/Attracting-Beneficial-Bugs-Your-Garden/dp/1604693886/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417916500&sr=8-1&keywords=attracting+beneficial+bugs+to+your+garden</a><br />
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<i><br /></i>What Jessica advocates is the establishment of "insectary gardens" to attract beneficial insects (good bugs), such as syrphid flies, lady beetles, minute pirate bugs, lace wings and predatory wasps that attack "bad bugs" such as spider mites, thrips and aphids. As long as you don't spray things that kill them, these predators are very easy to attract to the garden with plantings, such as oregano, dill, bachelor buttons, lobelia, yarrow, daisies, alyssum and cosmos (and many others cited in the book).<br />
<br />
<b><u><i>The Two-Step Process for Pesticide-free Roses</i></u></b><br />
<b><u><i><br /></i></u></b>
<i>Please note that these steps should be accomplished almost simultaneously, with predatory mites being introduced in warm weather, right after insectary gardens have been planted.</i><br />
<b><br /></b><b>Insectaries</b><br />
<br />
To get started, I found several areas in my yard that could be converted to insectaries. My first was a sizable spot where we had previously grown raspberries; my second was a new garden that I planted for the first time in 2015. Then, I opened up small areas in each of my rose gardens for insectary plantings. In one case, I removed several roses and replaced them with insectary plants. Here's how that little garden segment looked in 2014, with oregano, bachelor buttons, cosmos, dill, yarrow and a few other things to attract beneficials (Buck's Prairie Harvest is to the right). When I took this picture, the insectary was teeming with wasps, bees and other beneficial insects that were nowhere to be found in my gardens the previous year:<br />
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<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-Q8izuGGkNFp41FYVVrURTYha2s4JdF5rvgfn2lx8Ee5W1o_yIsdH8tuA6BJRMtCAnn62cbMCNPCVPe3lOO8dvPCC2AETPwn00CaA5ttkMUWu5QkF4v34KzjPzDcNJXZc1FQqxf11Pkk/s1600/Insectary.jpg" /><br />
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Below is the insectary garden that replaced my raspberry patch. Note the mating Monarchs on the lobelia; a great example of what happens in an insectary garden.<br />
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Below is my new insectary bed, which was planted in 2015;<br />
complete with an Eastern Black Swallowtail.<br />
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And Here is a picture of an Angelica plant in action in the "raspberry" insectary, in 2015. This one attracts large numbers of parasitic wasps, minute pirate bugs, lady beetles, syrphid flies and tachinid flies; all very important beneficials in the fight against spider mites, thrips, aphids etc. Note that there were at least three wasp varieties on the plant when this picture was taken.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0IsKpQYja5ZO9Bk-2JO2EBOkYzkNXtz7Ajum-cHbuwZ4PXrXfudTsAAkC0v41iLZte_makL0TsGPePUxW2r9EyNb438shEdnI7s-12k27OUT2TaCBXq_c0trbk4KmTdrWXXwz884Heg/s1600/Insectary+Angelica.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0IsKpQYja5ZO9Bk-2JO2EBOkYzkNXtz7Ajum-cHbuwZ4PXrXfudTsAAkC0v41iLZte_makL0TsGPePUxW2r9EyNb438shEdnI7s-12k27OUT2TaCBXq_c0trbk4KmTdrWXXwz884Heg/s640/Insectary+Angelica.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
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I should also note that, because oregano attracts so many beneficial insects, I have planted a little patch of it, right in the middle of each of my rose gardens. Of course it spreads quickly, so I have to chop it back and transplant pieces elsewhere in the garden, each spring. When it blooms, it is literally covered with beneficials, which, of course find their way onto every rose plant and bloom.<br />
<br />
And here is the old Minnesota Rose Gardener showing off one of my insectaries, with zinnias, lobelia and cleome. I find that I am never happier than when I am in the garden, among the bees, wasps, butterflies, and other pollinators and beneficials.<br />
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<b>Patience</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
One of the most important things Jessica Walliser talks about in her book is the importance of patience. When there is an infestation of insects like aphids, thrips or spider mites, it takes time to build up enough predatory mites and beneficial insects to feed on them. In the meantime, while being patient, use the first line of defense for aphids and spider mites, which is washing the bugs off with water. I have learned that spider mites succomb to a fine mist of water, thereby not washing off beneficial mites with a sharp stream of water. Thrips are harder to deal with, so the first line of defense is always to pick and dispose of affected blooms in such a way (as in a covered can) that the thrips can't fly back into the garden. Here is the kind of thrips-infected bloom that should always be immediately removed.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwfJVtLAkE_oPcefOyjJKFGXK_EKic9CjMMG-bmpeFUuCM0X4n2pp987Z3sMkQjVBirFiRZ0RgrI25aDDcB4BV5jpX4z8hg0zq42G1Of2kF4r1-VepNlWgO4b19CawvMWo4SewRB4q1w/s1600/Earthsong+thrips.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwfJVtLAkE_oPcefOyjJKFGXK_EKic9CjMMG-bmpeFUuCM0X4n2pp987Z3sMkQjVBirFiRZ0RgrI25aDDcB4BV5jpX4z8hg0zq42G1Of2kF4r1-VepNlWgO4b19CawvMWo4SewRB4q1w/s640/Earthsong+thrips.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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For Japanese Beetles, pick or shake them off into a can of soapy water (more on this later). But by no means should you give in to the temptation to spray an insecticide, because that will ruin the entire process underway in your garden. In short, just remember that <b>predatory mites and insectaries really work, if you give them a little time! And Japanese Beetles must be handled seperately.</b><br />
<b><br /></b><b>Predatory Mites</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
The several varieties of these tiny arachnids are very efficient predators for pests such as two-spotted spider mites, eriophyid mites and thrips.<br />
<br />
<u>Stratiolaelaps</u> (Ss) should be the first mite to be introduced in rose gardens. It is a generalist soil predator that feeds on pupating thrips and overwintering spider mites. It is also known to feed on pupating rose midge, but it it has not yet been proven as a control, and several midge trials are underway. It has been very effective on thrips in my gardens, in just one year, and it is known to overwinter in both Canada and the United States. Here is a good description and video from Applied Bio-nomics, in Victoria, British Columbia:<br />
<a href="http://www.appliedbio-nomics.com/products/stratiolaelaps/">http://www.appliedbio-nomics.com/products/stratiolaelaps/</a><br />
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And here's what Ss looks like in the soil:<br />
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<u><br /></u>
<u>Cucumeris</u> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span 20px="">feed on thrips larvae. They sense thrips emerging from leaf tissue and wait to bite the heads off the emerging thrips. However, Cucumeris is a true generalist, capable of providing preventive control against the Two-spotted Spider Mite, and also an effective Biocontrol for Broad and Straw Mites. It also eats whitefly eggs. It does not overwinter in northern climates and must be re-introduced each year.</span><span 20px=""> Here is Applied Bio-nomics' description and video:</span></span><br />
<a href="http://www.appliedbio-nomics.com/products/cucumeris/">http://www.appliedbio-nomics.com/products/cucumeris/</a><br />
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And here is a really good picture of Cucumeris feeding on Thrips:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifjYUYc4rflZjvldQm1E__V-29SzFIneswajdh3E-aJ8pS6tOPEoMa_RHuMlwSNhptC2nVah1_964fGd7obCXIv56-3VFaXq5CI96B8AsIhGcnPSp7aLXhh6b_dx7jl9PQgL-fC8AlXA/s1600/Cucumeris.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifjYUYc4rflZjvldQm1E__V-29SzFIneswajdh3E-aJ8pS6tOPEoMa_RHuMlwSNhptC2nVah1_964fGd7obCXIv56-3VFaXq5CI96B8AsIhGcnPSp7aLXhh6b_dx7jl9PQgL-fC8AlXA/s640/Cucumeris.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<u>Fallacis</u> is the most effective preventer of spider mites available. <u>Applied Bio-nomics hasn't found a mite that Fallacis wont control.</u> This is very important because, in my garden I found (with the help of Applied Bio-nomics) that I was fighting both Two-spotted Spider Mites, plus some type of Eriophyid mite; most likely the "Broad" mite. Some Eriophyid mites carry Rose Rosette disease (fortunately not the one I've been fighting) and this makes the presence of Fallacis all the more significant in rose gardens. Fallacis overwinters everywhere in the continental United States and as far north as northern Quebec in Canada. Here is Applied Bio-nomics' video description of Fallacis:<br />
<a href="http://www.appliedbio-nomics.com/products/fallacis/">http://www.appliedbio-nomics.com/products/fallacis/</a><br />
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And here is a picture of Fallacis at work feeding on a Citrus Red Mite:<br />
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Here is a picture of Earth Song in my garden, showing damage by Eriophyid mites, which I mistook for Spider Mite damage. Fortunately, Fallacis had a big impact on this mite in my gardens last summer.<br />
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<u><br /></u>
<u>Persimilis</u> targets Two-spotted Spider Mites and is one of the oldest and best beneficials in use. It is capable of complete eradication of its prey. Like Cucumeris, it does not overwinter but, in all likelihood, if you use it in combination with Fallacis, you will not need to reapply it the following year, since spider mites should be under continuing control with overwintering Fallacis. Here is Applied Bio-nomics description and video:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/.http://www.appliedbio-nomics.com/products/persimilis-max/">.http://www.appliedbio-nomics.com/products/persimilis-max/</a><br />
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And here is a picture of Persimilis at work:<br />
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<u>Summarizing</u>, Stratiolaelaps (Ss) is basic to contolling thrips and spider mites and should be introduced first, in the spring warmup. It should only have to introduced once, as it should stay in the soil for many years. Next, if Spider or Eriophyid mites are present, Fallacis should be introduced, to overwinter in the garden with Ss. If Thrips are present, Cucumeris should be introduced in warm weather, as both a Thrips and Spider Mite control. Finally, if Spider Mites have been a recurring problem, as they were for me, Persimilis can be added. Remember that neither Cucumeris or Persimilis overwinter, so, if needed, they must be introduced again the following growing season. In my own case, Thrips were a persistent problem until late in 2015. In the event I see them again in 2016, I will immediately introduce Cucumeris for another growing season.<br />
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<b>Sourcing Predatory Mites</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
The distributor for Applied Bio-nomics mites, that I have used, is Rincon-Vitova Insectaries in Southern California. <a href="http://www.rinconvitova.com/">http://www.rinconvitova.com/</a><br />
<br />
Rincon's pricing on Applied Bio-nomics' products is quite reasonable; however, product pricing is overshadowed by the cost of necessary overnight shipping. This can be mitigated by combining orders, as much as possible. For example, if you are ordering product in late spring or early summer, Sratiolaelaps, Fallacis and Cucumeris can be ordered at the same time to save on shipping. This should be discussed specifically with Rincon.<br />
<br />
I have always taken into consideration the high cost of miticides and insecticides and recognized that I am ultimately eliminating them with predatory mites and beneficial insects. Based on my experience of the last two years, I believe it's well worth the up-front cost of predatory mites and any other beneficial insects you might choose to import.<br />
<br />
My primary contacts at Rincon-Vitova have been Gabriel or Kyra at 800 248-2847. They will be expecting calls from rosarians. <br />
<br />
Here is a list of Applied Bio-nomics distributors, worldwide:<br />
<a href="http://www.appliedbio-nomics.com/distributor-map/">http://www.appliedbio-nomics.com/distributor-map/</a> .<br />
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<b>Japanese Beetles</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
I believe the most viable way of dealing with Japanese Beetles (JBs) is knocking them off the plants into soapy water, i.e. without insecticides. Unless you are running a very large public or commercial garden and have no other alternative, the repeated use of insecticides on JBs is just too devastating to everything else in the garden. Here is an excerpt from the 2015 revision of my JB blog post:<br />
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<i>After several years of experimenting with insecticide control of JBs, I am firmly convinced that it is the wrong approach in the home or small public garden for the simple reason that it massacres all other beetles in the garden, most notably the lady beetle, which is perhaps the most important beneficial bug for controlling a variety of insect garden pests. Also, all of these insecticides harm pollinators, especially bees, as well as virtually all other beneficials such as wasps, syrphid flies, lacewings, minute pirate bugs etc., as well as predatory mites, which attack a large variety of pests such as aphids, thrips and two-spotted spider mites. Once I began controlling JBs with insecticides, many of my bees disappeared and I experienced an infestation of all the pests listed above; a lesson well learned! It has taken me two years to re-establish beneficial bugs in my gardens and I will never again spray insecticides to control JBs. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
And here is the entire text of that 2015 JB blog post:<br />
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-beetles-are-coming-beetles-are.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-beetles-are-coming-beetles-are.html</a><br />
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<b>Fungicides</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Generally, fungicides and the spreader/stickers that accompany them do not completely devastate beneficial insects or predatory mites, although it is obviously better to not use anything toxic. However, my experience is that it is virtually impossible to eliminate fungicides altogether in the rose garden, even though planting roses that are resistant to the blackspot fungus (e.g. Earth-Kind and Buck roses) goes a long way toward minimizing the necessity of spraying. Also, if you must spray, it's very important to spray the right fungicide, i.e. one that kills blackspot spores, rather than simply deterring them. Only one fungicide, Manzate/Mancozeb, is known to actually kill blackspot spores, so using it minimizes the need for repeated spraying.<br />
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Here is my 2012 blog "There's a Fungusamongus!" that deals extensively with this subject:<br />
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2012/07/theres-fungusamongus.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2012/07/theres-fungusamongus.html</a><br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
Here is a partial list of the beneficial insects we all want in our gardens:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Bees of all varieties (there are more than 400 bee species in Minnesota).</li>
<li>Predatory Beetles, especially Lady Beetles</li>
<li>Syrphid Flies</li>
<li>Minute Pirate Bugs</li>
<li>Lace Wings</li>
<li>Predatory Wasps</li>
<li>Butterflies</li>
</ul>
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And here is a list of some of the plants that attract beneficial insects:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Oregano (I have a little patch in the middle of every rose bed)</li>
<li>Dill</li>
<li>Angelica</li>
<li>Lovage</li>
<li>Daisies</li>
<li>Yellow Cone Flowers</li>
<li>Sunflowers (both annual and perennial)</li>
<li>Bachelor Buttons</li>
<li>Alyssum (On the edge of every rose bed to attract Syrphid Flies)</li>
<li>Verbena Bonariensis</li>
<li>Zinnias</li>
<li>Boneset</li>
<li>Cosmos</li>
<li>Coreopsis </li>
<li>Monarda</li>
<li>Rudbeckia (Black-eyed Susans)</li>
<li>Aster</li>
<li>Yarrow</li>
<li>Anice Hysop</li>
</ul>
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An excellent mail-order source for some of the less common plants listed above and in Jessica Walliser's book is Prairie Moon Nursery in Winona, Minnesota.<br />
<a href="https://www.prairiemoon.com/">https://www.prairiemoon.com/</a><br />
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Please send me your comments and questions.<br />
<br />
Jack Falker<br />
@mnrosegardener<br />
jfalkersr@gmail.com<br />
<br />
May 2016<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>The Minnesota Rose Gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03173429356129992624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056259155953231806.post-74825802350206435352016-03-07T18:54:00.000-08:002017-03-18T15:05:17.619-07:00When to Uncover Your Roses (Or Not)<span style="font-size: normal;"><i>If you live in the Upper Midwest, the simple answer is not yet! Here in Minneapolis/St. Paul, we have had a very light winter, courtesy, first, of our well-documented climate-change, which is literally the most extreme in the United States; and second, the ubiquitous El Nino, which made our winter even milder (all the heavy winter weather went south and east). Our extreme minimum temperatures (EMT) this winter occurred on January 17th (-14 f) and 18th, (-13 f), just above the midpoint of USDA zone 5. All of our other night-time lows were in zone 6 or warmer. So, if you live in the Twin Cities and you heavily protected your roses for a zone 4 winter (i.e. the Minnesota Tip), it was sheer overkill, as predicted in my December 11, 2015, Minnesota Rose Gardener blog: "What's Happening to Winter?"</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: normal;"><i><a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2015/12/whats-happening-to-winter.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2015/12/whats-happening-to-winter.html</a></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: normal;"><i>Even if you live in the outer-ring suburbs of the Twin Cities, or some of the towns in more-rural, southern Minnesota, you would have only barely touched zone 4 this winter. For example, Rochester, MN had an EMT of -21 F on January 18th. All other EMTs were zone 5 or warmer. Covering your roses by mounding and leaf bags, as discussed below, is ample protection for these low temperatures, as long as your hybrid-tea bud unions are planted correctly, i.e. below ground-level.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: normal;"><i>Nonetheless, getting back to my thesis, it is still far too early to uncover your roses, regardless how warm our weather in March might be. Looking ahead in the 16-day weather model, it is expected that the low temperature on March 21st will be in the low 20s; too cold for newly uncovered, tender canes. As emphasized below, it's freezing and thawing that kills roses, not simply freezing. And keeping your roses covered in warming weather will not harm them in any way. So, before you make the decision to uncover, be sure and check the long-range, night-time lows. Yahoo weather is one of the most reliable sources for a ten-day forecast at your exact location, anywhere in the country. Paul Douglas' weather blog is also an excellent resource for the long-range Twin Cities' forecast. Note his discussion of a distinct cooling trend in late March:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: normal;"><i><a href="http://pauldouglasweather.blogspot.com/">pauldouglasweather.blogspot.com</a></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: normal;"><i>And here is a replay of last year's April 1, 2015, blog:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><br /></span>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: normal;"><b>Uncovering Your Roses and When to Prune</b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: normal;">When to uncover your roses in the Spring is really quite easy to determine, if you remember the reason for covering them in the first place. That is, to keep them from freezing and thawing repeatedly over the winter months, which is what kills them. In the Upper Midwest, where I live, we finish covering our roses at the point when the ground freezes and it is our objective to keep them frozen all winter. Let me repeat that: <b>In the Upper Midwest, we don't cover our roses to stop them from freezing; we cover them to keep them frozen. </b> Every method of winter protection in this climate, including the Minnesota Tip, has that same objective, and I am always surprised when people don't understand that. Our ground freezes generally at least two feet down and sometimes, as in the winter of 2013-14, it freezes down as much as four feet. So it shouldn't be hard to understand that everything planted at the surface freezes, regardless of how you insulate.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: normal;">For folks in warmer areas, like the warmer parts of zone 6 and throughout zone 7, where the ground freezes down a few inches and then repeatedly thaws and refreezes throughout the winter, the purpose of winter cover would be the same, i.e. to keep the roses from repeatedly freezing and thawing, but in this case it would be to insulate them to prevent them from freezing in the first place. It really amounts to the same thing, however.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: normal;">Given these principles, when to uncover your roses should be obvious, wherever you live. <b>It is simply when the danger of freezing and thawing has passed. </b> Around here, that usually occurs sometime in the first two weeks of April but virtually never in March, regardless how warm it might get for a few days. Let me give you a recent example. In the spring of 2012 we had 70 and 80 degree weather in mid-March causing fruit trees to blossom etc., but in the next week we had 10 degree weather followed by at least two weeks of below freezing weather. This caused the loss of almost the entire apple crop in Minnesota and Wisconsin and virtually the entire cherry crop in western Michigan. If you had uncovered your roses in March 2012, thereby allowing them to thaw out, you would have suffered severe damage when they froze again.</span><br />
<span style="font-size:normal;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: normal;">I realize that it is very tempting to uncover your roses when it first warms up in the spring. If you use the leaf bag method, which I have advocated in my blogs, you can choose to partially uncover your roses by rolling the leaf bags back but leaving them ready to replace, if the weather turns cold again. This approach allows the plants to begin thawing and to soak up spring rains, while keeping your options open for easy recovering. I would say that I use some form of this approach almost every year, especially when it starts to rain (vs snow!).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: normal;">Today, April 1st, it was 82 degrees and we are expecting thunderstorms tonight so I decided to go out and roll the bags off my roses, while keeping them close-by, if I have to roll them back</span><br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: normal;">Wherever you live, my suggestion is to watch the seven-day weather forecasts in early April and try to determine when your nights stay consistently above 25 F (-4 C). If you keep the mounds around your plants, even if you pull the bags back, temps down to 25 F will not refreeze your plants. If you are in doubt, just keep your plants covered until mid-April, around here. It won't hurt them.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:normal;">And here's a quote from Paul Douglas' weather blog (on April 1, 2015):</span><br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><br /><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>"Another Relapse</b></span> After a May-like temperature swoon today temperatures cool off later this week, a taste of early March shaping up for early next week with readings struggling to reach 40F Monday and Tuesday. European guidance is even hinting at a rain/snow mix, especially north of the Twin Cities. Don't rule out more slush before the daffodils arrive."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: normal;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: normal;">On the theory that a picture is worth a thousand words, here is how my beds look after rolling back the leaf bags this afternoon. Note that the roses still have plenty of leaves and mulch around them and the bags are right there if I want to roll them back over the plants. Incidentally, most of those leaves around the plants will get pushed back in the bags and be transported to my compost pile, when it's time to finally uncover the beds, which will probably be in 10 to 14 days, when Paul Douglas is no longer warning about slush and freezing temps.</span><br />
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<b style="font-size: normal;">Pruning</b><br />
<span style="font-size: normal;">I always laugh when I hear someone say you should prune your roses when the forsythia blooms. Suppose it had bloomed in mid-March 2012, as mentioned above, when your roses were still covered? When the forsythia blooms really has nothing to do with when you should prune your roses. Pruning for me is a two step process. First, right after I uncover my roses (i.e. mid-April), I begin by cutting off all the dead wood, right down to where the canes begin turning green. This is a very rough, quick cut that I do with my battery-powered Black & Decker hedge trimmer. I don' t worry about rough cuts on the canes because I know I'm coming back later to make my final pruning and shaping cut. All I want to do is to take off the "overhead" of dead wood to clear the way for new growth that will come from the green canes. Once I can see that nodes on the green canes are starting to swell, in anticipation of setting new leaves, then I begin my second cuts to shape the plants and eliminate any weak, wispy growth from last year.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: normal;">So, in summary, you should first cut off all the "overhead" dead wood and then, when the plants show signs of growing, make your second cut and seal it off to stop saw-fly wasps from burrowing into the fresh wood to lay eggs. I use Elmer's school glue for my sealant, which works very well and is quite inexpensive. And the forsythia may or may not have bloomed when you finish. We're talking roses here, not flowering shrubs!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Jack Falker</span><br />
<span style="font-size: normal;">April 1, 2015</span>The Minnesota Rose Gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03173429356129992624noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056259155953231806.post-71661286052217232932015-12-11T22:47:00.001-08:002015-12-12T13:30:32.822-08:00What's Happening to Winter?The United States has just experienced its warmest autumn in history. In Minneapolis-St. Paul, temperatures in December are running about 20 degrees (f) above average; an average already pulled much warmer over 50-plus years. December in the Twin Cities is when our miriad of shallow ponds freeze, with our deeper lakes not far behind. Not this year; what ice had accumulated has all but disappeared and what would normally be a deepening snow pack is all in the form of rain or slush. Golf courses are open and my greening lawn looks like it could use a cutting. And we're expecting up to an inch of rain over the weekend (which would be a foot or more of snow, if it were about five degrees colder)!<br />
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In his December 12th weather blog, my friend Paul Douglas, founder of Aeris Weather and WeatherNation says: "...<i> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><span 18.48px="" color:="" line-height:="">What makes our current stretch of (irrational) warmth unusual is the sheer persistence of the mild signal: day after day, week after week, month after month.... </span><span 18.48px="" color:="" line-height:="">Since </span><span 18.48px="" class="aBn" color:="" data-term="goog_819401220" line-height:="" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">September 1,</span></span><span 18.48px="" color:="" line-height:=""> over 80 percent of the days have been warmer than average, according to (Minnesota state climatologist) Mark Seeley. Further, if you add in the first 10 days of December, the stretch of days from September 1, 2015 to December 10th is the warmest in state history, a remarkable run of warmth."</span></span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><span 18.48px="" color:="" line-height:=""><br /></span></span></i>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">And here is a Climate Central map that Paul published:</span><br />
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<img src="http://apps.startribune.com/blogs/user_images/pauldouglas_1449889165_30.jpg" height="424" width="640" /><br />
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Here is the address of Paul's weather blog, in case you would like to read more: <a href="http://pauldouglasweather.blogspot.com/">http://pauldouglasweather.blogspot.com/</a><br />
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Something is going on here. It looks like we could have a St. Louis winter (USDA Zone 7) in the Twin Cities (i.e. not below zero). And in St. Louis? How about an Atlanta winter, and so on. For the last several years, I have been developing and analyzing extreme minimum temperature trend lines, extending over the last 55 years, for Midwest cities, and my conclusion has been that the upper Midwest is warming faster than any other area of the country and that winters would become warmer still over the next several years. I just didn't think it would happen quite this soon.<br />
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As a long-time, cold-zone rose gardener, I have been lightening up on my winter protection a little each year. This year, anticipating a massive, climate-change-driven El Nino, I decided to use only compost-mounding, with no insulating leaves; a process that I might have used in Detroit (Zone 6), 40 years ago. For several years, I have been writing that using the Minnesota-Tip winter protection procedure in the Twin Cities is a lot of unnecessary hard work and a horiticulturally unsound practice, given the trend of our winters (see my blog: "No Tipping Please").<br />
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2012/08/no-tipping-please.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2012/08/no-tipping-please.html</a><br />
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What surprises (and amuses) me is how many people around the Twin Cities still tip their roses. Even the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum still tips their roses (courtesy of the strong backs of the Minnesota Rose Society). The reason for this, I believe, is that, in order to effectively use the "tip" method, the bud unions of hybrid tea roses must be grown at or above ground level, which, in itself, is a horticulturally unsound practice (wherever you live). So, in order to get out from under the "tip" method, you have to re-plant your bud unions deeper, which is a simple, one-time procedure (I know, I did it). Also, old habits (and fears) die hard, but people just need to stop and recognize what's happening around them, and trust the statistical evidence.<br />
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I am also amused by articles written in local rose newsletters this past year referring to our brutally cold Zone 4 winters. The extreme minimum temperature last winter (2014-15) was -11, only one degree shy of being in Zone 6. Our coldest winter in many years, 2013-14 (with the horrible polar-vortex effect) had only one night falling a few degrees into Zone 4, at -23. All other night-time temps were Zone 5 or Zone 6. People who dispute these facts are probably thinking about wind chills, which have nothing whatsoever to do with plants. See my blog "Don't Sweat the Wind Chill":<br />
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2015/01/dont-sweat-wind-chill-on-your-roses.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2015/01/dont-sweat-wind-chill-on-your-roses.html</a><br />
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<b>The Statistical Facts</b><br />
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The mathematical study of statistics focuses on the probabilities that certain events will happen (or not). Put another way, statistical analysis can be predictive. So, when we perform valid statistical analysis on regional winter weather, over many years, and we can see very clear trends developing, we are positioned to make predictions about future winters. As cold-climate rose gardeners, this is pretty important because it allows us to make informed decisions about which roses to plant and how to winter-protect them most effectively.</div>
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For several years now, I have been doing 50-plus year statistical analysis on Minneapolis-St. Paul winters and comparing them with winters in other upper-Midwest cities. The results are pretty amazing in that we can see very distinct warming trends developing. And it has become much easier to predict that these trends will continue and that we will see warmer winters going forward. The meteorological winter of 2015-16 began on December 1st and what we are now seeing is exactly what the trend line shows we should expect: temperatures are much warmer than average, an average which itself has been pulled significantly upward over the last 55 years. Below is my chart for the 55 winters beginning in 1961, through 2015, in the Twin Cities. What it shows is that since year 2000, all but three of our winters have been in USDA Zone 5 or higher, even though the USDA continues to rate MSP as Zone 4 (based on data that is now 10 years old). What's most important here is the upward slope of the trend-line, which, as mentioned above, is predictive. What the trend-line shows, if you extend it, is that MSP will be firmly in Zone 6 within the next three or four years. Right now, based on what we are seeing, I believe we will see a Zone 6 winter in 2016, for the second time in history, and there is a distinct possibility that it could be Zone 7, i.e. not below zero at all, which would be a first.<br />
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Below is the 55 year trend line for Chicago. Note that while Chicago has moved firmly into Zone 6, the slope of the trend line is shallower than the MSP line. In other words, while Chicago is warming, it is warming more slowly than MSP. Interesting that Chicago's 2015 low temperature was -10, right at the lower edge of Zone 6, while MSP's low was -11, right at the upper edge of Zone 5; virtually no difference.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ_kPsYDs4hXLslB9e718L-gzREzx7cMSuVSz13Oj18iCdd2Gu4sufD0JkIxq1Ni570OSbDSplLptIXNSLAAkaICLEem_kZdhiXKmWRg3Pbrcqo4_w5rUsMcrQBm8x8nwu9k4MYY6nAw/s1600/Chicago+O%2527Hare+2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ_kPsYDs4hXLslB9e718L-gzREzx7cMSuVSz13Oj18iCdd2Gu4sufD0JkIxq1Ni570OSbDSplLptIXNSLAAkaICLEem_kZdhiXKmWRg3Pbrcqo4_w5rUsMcrQBm8x8nwu9k4MYY6nAw/s640/Chicago+O%2527Hare+2015.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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And below is the 55 year EMT trend line for St. Louis to give us some idea of what a Zone 7 winter might look like.<br />
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The differing slope of these trend lines is born out in Climate Central's chart below. Note that the MSP area and points north along the Minnesota/Wisconsin border, as well as the Red River Valley in Northwestern Minnesota, have warmed more than any other area in the country.<br />
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<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfOo23GLS1VezR9oY9SHKcDKUR9uq3NOxF1ErBwdm4x1xVgHnERXFGZV7gd-v4Mt7jZDZ9YC83ioFuyDfN7Euw4YgMfKssNpqDNvy1y6wXcmS0ZLCIzOS44R9-TH6L1TXHeH_7DXu8w8o/s1600/WinterTempTrends.jpg" /><br />
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Finally, let's look at NOAA's Winter Outlook for 2015-2016 and note that most of Minnesota is projected to be 50-60% warmer than average this winter. In the short term, this is attributed to El Nino ("the child"), but it is important to recognize that the phenomenon of El Nino is itself the "child" of long-term climate change. In other words, it is becoming impossible to differentiate short-term from long-term effects. If you go back and look at all of these graphs and charts together, there is a great deal of similarity in the pace of warming in the northern tier of states. And this is exactly what the trend lines above are pointing toward.<br />
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<img alt="(credit: NOAA) " height="499" src="https://cbsminnesota.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/el-nino-forecast.jpg?w=420&h=328" width="640" /><br />
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There is growing evidence that, with the extreme warming of the oceans, El Nino could become a long-term phenomenon. Here is another snippet from Paul Douglas' weather blog, quoting a climatologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory:<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><strong 18.48px="" arial="" color:="" font-family:="" freesans="" helvetica="" line-height:="" sans-serif="" tahoma="">"Monster" El Nino Could Usher In Decade of More and Stronger Events</strong><span 18.48px="" arial="" color:="" font-family:="" freesans="" helvetica="" line-height:="" quot="" sans-serif="" tahoma="">. A sign of things to come? </span><span 18.48px="" arial="" color:="" font-family:="" freesans="" helvetica="" line-height:="" quot="" sans-serif="" tahoma=""> "...</span><em 18.48px="" arial="" color:="" font-family:="" freesans="" helvetica="" line-height:="" sans-serif="" tahoma="">While El Nino oscillates on a more or less yearly cycle, another dynamic in Pacific Ocean water temperatures, known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), has the potential to accelerate global warming and increase the severity of El Nino episodes, scientists said. The last time the PDO was, as it may be now, in a prolonged positive, or "warm" phase, it corresponded with two of the strongest El Ninos on record. "When you really have a monster El Nino, it could be enough to flip the PDO into a new phase for a decade or so," said William Patzert, a climatologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. "Keep your eyeballs peeled because maybe we're in for a decadal shift</em><span 18.48px="" arial="" color:="" font-family:="" freesans="" helvetica="" line-height:="" quot="" sans-serif="" tahoma="">..." </span></span><br />
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While this may be good news for rose gardeners, it is very bad news for our planet. In the meantime, my advice to upper-Midwest gardeners is to plant your bud unions a couple of inches below ground and forget about uprooting and tipping your roses. For northern-gardeners, like myself, who keep our roses firmly planted and mounded in the winter, it may be time to lighten up a little, but winter cover will still be important. It still gets cold in Zone 6 and freezing and thawing (the roses' winter enemy) is an even bigger problem in a warmer winter environment.<br />
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Jack Falker<br />
@mnrosegardener<br />
jfalkersr@gmail.com<br />
December 12, 2015<br />
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<br />The Minnesota Rose Gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03173429356129992624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056259155953231806.post-36423631151609993092015-11-13T20:42:00.001-08:002020-11-18T08:03:03.488-08:00Protecting Roses from Vole DamageRight now, as the ground freezes, is the perfect time to protect your roses from vole damage during the coming winter. The correct approach is two-pronged: First, voles are deterred by castor oil applied to the ground in areas where they burrow, so applying castor oil, in the right dilution as winter sets in, should be your first line of defense. Next, the strategic placement of vole baits to kill those varmints that might make their way through your castor oil deterrent is your second line of defense.<br />
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Today (November 13th), I made my application of castor oil, which I buy inexpensively from Wal-Mart in their health and beauty area. It is also available from several vendors on line, if you do not have access to a Wal-Mart store. Please note that it is important to mix castor oil with liquid detergent as you dilute it with water in the proportions given below. The soap helps the oil dissolve in the cold water so that it doesn't stick to your sprinkling can. I inadvertently mixed some once, without the soap, and it gets very sticky and messy.<br />
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I discuss this two-pronged approach very thoroughly, plus much more, in my October 2012 blog post: "Voles". Here is the address of that blog:<br />
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2012/10/voles-and-roses.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2012/10/voles-and-roses.html</a><br />
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And here are a couple of excerpts from that blog post:<br />
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<i><strong>Castor Oil</strong>: This is the most effective solution I have found. Voles really don't like castor oil; apparently, from what I have read, it makes them sick, and they avoid an area on which it has been applied. <b>Mix one or two teaspoons of castor oil (I use more rather than less) and one teaspoon of liquid detergent, per gallon of water,</b> and apply it liberally around the bases of your roses and generally around your rose beds, where the voles might travel/burrow in the winter. The best time to do this is in late Fall, when the ground is lightly frozen, just before putting your final mulch or leaf cover around your roses. Around here, that would be in mid to late-November. I mix it in a 30-gallon trash container, pump it out with a sump pump, and apply it with a hose and watering wand, exactly like I do liquid fertilizers and potassium. You can also use a sprinkling can to apply it, if your garden isn't too big.</i><br />
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<b>Note: Two teaspoons of castor oil per gallon in 30 gallons of water amounts to 10 ounces of castor oil. Wal-Mart's castor oil comes in 6 ounce bottles, so it takes a little more than 1 1/2 bottles for a 30 gallon trash can of the oil/soap/water mixture. A friend in Wisconsin reports that he is using one tablespoon (3 TSP) of castor oil and one tablespoon of soap per gallon and that's just fine. In this case, more is better to deter these little monsters. In fact, in 2017, I just used 2-bottles (12 oz.) of castor oil and 30 TBP of dish soap per 30 gallon can, just to keep it simple. This should give you some idea of how much to buy.</b><br />
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<b>Pour the castor oil and soap into the 30 gallon can and then add water, stirring while you go. I also think it goes on just as easy with a sprinkling can as it does with a pump, so that's what I'm using now.</b><br />
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<i><strong>Rodent Baits: </strong>Killing voles is desirable, before they over-run you, but this is a touchy subject because rodent baits can also affect other animals, like neighborhood cats and dogs. The common rodent bait that you find in most stores is an anti-coagulant poison, which, when eaten a couple of times, stays in the intestines, causes massive internal bleeding and kills the animal. I used it in my rose beds for years, without thinking, until about five years ago when we got a new kitten and he managed to find a mouse or vole that had eaten it, in among the winter-protected roses. I will save you the terrible details, but it resulted in a very large emergency veterinary bill.... After that experience, </i><i>I went to work researching what other non-coagulant rodent baits might be on the market, and I found one. <b>The brand name is "Eraze", made by Motomco, the same company that makes the anti-coagulant baits. The active ingredient in this one is Zinc Phosphide, which is nonetheless a poison, but acts in a different way, killing small animals immediately after ingestion. </b></i><i> There are conflicting opinions on this, but an article by Michigan State University indicates that it is less lethal to larger animals, such as cats and dogs, because their normal reaction after ingesting it would be to regurgitate it rather than digest it. </i><br />
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I have written a couple of other articles about vole protection, which contain several other comments and ideas. Here is my September 2013 post:<br />
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2013/09/voles-and-castor-oil.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2013/09/voles-and-castor-oil.html</a><br />
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As always, please send your questions or comments to: jfalkersr@gmail.com .<br />
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Jack Falker<br />
November 13, 2015<br />
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<br />The Minnesota Rose Gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03173429356129992624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056259155953231806.post-1017125612607715932015-10-07T17:21:00.000-07:002015-10-07T17:40:00.192-07:00Winter-Protecting Your Roses<i>Here is an article I wrote for the October 2015 Twin Cities Rose Club Newsletter. While I reference Minnesota winter conditions, it is applicable anywhere in the upper-midwest and to virtually any kind of roses. The key message is to prevent your roses from repeatedly freezing and thawing. In a cold zone (3,4,5) that means keeping them frozen all winter. </i><br />
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<b>Winter-Protecting Your Roses<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Jack Falker</div>
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@mnrosegardener</div>
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Everyone in Minnesota knows they have to do something to
winter-protect their roses. However, not
everyone seems to know exactly what they’re supposed to accomplish and, thus,
what the best method might be. So let’s start with the one
basic principle that applies in all cold zones, i.e. USDA Zones 3, 4, 5 and
parts of 6, and to virtually all types of roses, whether they be hybrid teas or
shrubs; grafted or own-root. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Fact: The primary objective of winter protection in
the cold zones is to keep your roses frozen, not to keep them from freezing. </b>There
seems to be a lot of confusion about this and, unbelievably, we still have
nurseries selling styrofoam rose cones, which serve as little ovens in the
winter, when the sun shines on them, causing plants to freeze and thaw
repeatedly, thereby killing them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There are two basic ways of
keeping roses frozen where we live: (1) the Minnesota Tip and (2) mounding with
compost and insulating with leaves or hay.
Let’s be clear about the “tip” method:
When you tip your roses over in a trench, bury them in dirt and compost,
and put leaves on top, they are definitely going to freeze solid in the ground,
as the frost permeates down several inches. In fact, many Minnesota-tippers
soak their tipped roses, before turning off their water for the winter, so they
will be contained in blocks of ice. In
other words, the objective of the “tip” method is to freeze roses solid and
keep them frozen until spring<o:p></o:p></div>
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I personally believe that keeping
my roses standing upright and firmly planted, while mounding and insulating them,
is the best way to winter-protect. I tipped my roses for many years but always
felt that it was not horticulturally sound to partially uproot the plants and
cover them with dirt in mid to late October, when many of them were still in
bloom. The longer I did it, the more my gardening instincts (not to
mention my back) kept telling me I should be doing something
different. Take a look at my August 2012 Minnesota Rose Gardener blog
post "No Tipping Please”:</div>
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<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2012/08/no-tipping-please.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2012/08/no-tipping-please.html</a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Many people, who have been tipping
their roses for years, feel trapped in the procedure because the bud unions of
their grafted hybrid teas are above the surface of the ground. This is a
basic problem, which is endemic to the tipping procedure. For a variety of sound horticultural reasons,
the bud unions of grafted roses and the crowns of own-root roses should not be
above ground, regardless of where you live, warm or cold. My advice to these
folks is: Instead of tipping your roses this year, dig them out entirely,
taking a good root ball, heel them into a trench, a foot or so deep, and cover
them with a good layer of dirt and mulch (to keep them frozen). Then in
the spring replant them in the same place, except this time plant them with the
bud unions several inches below the surface. If your garden is large, you
might do this in stages, some this year, some next year etc. Another
alternative might be to raise the level of soil in your beds so that your bud
unions are at least slightly below grade.<o:p></o:p></div>
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With your
roses properly planted, here is what I recommend for winter protection. First,
in mid-September and for six successive weeks, give your roses a potassium
feast to help their canes harden off, before the first hard freeze. It’s too late to start the feast this year
(I’m about to do my fourth application) but I believe potassium is important in
winter protection. For future reference,
here is the address of my most recent blog on the potassium feast: <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2015/09/its-time-to-put-potassium-on-your-roses.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2015/09/its-time-to-put-potassium-on-your-roses.html</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Next,
gather any wood chips or other clean mulch in your beds and mound it around
your plants. Then, mound several shovels
of compost around every plant, so that the plant crowns are thoroughly covered.
My compost is primarily shredded oak leaves from last fall and hundreds
of pounds of composted Starbucks coffee grounds that I collect regularly. This
compost is full of worms and worm castings, so it's just what the roses need in
the spring, when I spread out the mounds and work the compost into the ground.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Next,
when it starts getting cold and your roses have stopped blooming, cut them down
to about 12 inches and bind them into tight bundles. One other thing you might
do, especially if you’ve had spider mites this summer, is to strip the leaves
off the plants and spray them with horticultural oil. (Don't worry, you're not
losing anything here; what you want is the strong new growth you’ll get in the
spring.)<span class="apple-converted-space"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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The final
step is to prepare enough half-full plastic leaf bags to cover each of your
roses. (Don't use the new compostable bags; they break down over the
winter and leave you with piles of leaves to clean up!) Now, wait until
the ground freezes and, with the objective of keeping your roses frozen, slit
open the bottoms of your leaf bags and shove them down over each of your tightly
bundled plants, flush with the mounds.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
So, can
you see how this approach will keep your roses frozen? When you start to
carefully roll the bags off your roses in the spring (to keep as many of the
leaves in the bags as possible for disposal or mulching), you will
find that many of the bags are still frozen to the mounds and that your roses
are encased in blocks of ice; exactly as you wanted them to be. In fact,
depending on how quickly it warms up, it may actually take longer for these
mounds to thaw than roses that have been tipped.<span class="apple-converted-space"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space">Regardless of how you choose to winter-protect your roses,
please keep firmly in mind that your objective in the cold zones is to keep them
frozen all winter. The other alternative, of course, would be to move to a warmer
zone, where your objective would be the opposite, i.e. to keep your roses from
freezing in the first place. No such
luck for me!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span class="apple-converted-space">Jack Falker (@mnrosegardener)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span class="apple-converted-space">10/01/2015<o:p></o:p></span></div>
The Minnesota Rose Gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03173429356129992624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056259155953231806.post-18067995098012657822015-09-18T10:47:00.000-07:002015-09-18T13:42:49.540-07:00Time to Put Potassium on Your Roses<div style="margin: 0in;">
For those of us in the cold zones, i.e. USDA zones 3-6 (and maybe zone 7, given the vagaries of winter with recent polar vortex incursions), now is the time to begin feeding your roses a six week diet of potassium. Here is a quote from my posting on this subject in September 2013.<br />
<br />
<i>"In the six weeks before the first hard freeze (i.e., down to about 25 F. at night), give your roses a weekly "potassium feast" in each of those six weeks. Potassium blocks the growth-promoting effects of nitrogen and phosphorous, thereby hardening the canes in time for winter. I've been doing this for more than 20 years and I honestly can't remember the last time I lost a rose to winter weather here in Minnesota.</i><span class="apple-converted-space"><i> Of course, I do other things to protect my roses from the Minnesota winter, as well. Here is my 2013 article on winter protecting your roses:</i></span><br />
<span class="apple-converted-space"> <a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2013/09/winter-protecting-your-roses.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2013/09/winter-protecting-your-roses.html</a></span> .</div>
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<br /></div>
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I learned this little trick in one of my first rose books: Burpee’s American Gardening Series,<span class="apple-converted-space"> "</span><i>Roses"</i>, by Suzanne Frutig Bales. Here's a quote from Suzanne's chapter on winter protection:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>“Potassium is an important mineral for sturdy stems and foliage. <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Weekly feeds of a gallon of liquid potassium <b>(1 tablespoon of muriate of potash (0-0-62), dissolved in 3 gallons of water)</b> per bush, or a granulated feeding of potash magnesium (0-0-22), during the six weeks before the bushes go dormant, will give the bushes an additional boost for winter,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><b><u>extending their hardiness into another hardiness zone, perhaps two.</u><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></b> Excess potassium, when available in greater amounts than nitrogen and phosphorus, is known as the ‘potassium feast’. <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>It will block the growth-promoting effects of nitrogen and phosphorus, hardening the canes in time for winter.”<span class="apple-converted-space"> <o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i><br /></i>I did a little independent research on this, a couple of years ago, by talking to Dr. Peter Bierman, retired University of Minnesota Professor of Soil, Water and Climate. Peter told me that "... <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">winter hardiness is one of the most important functions of potassium" and that the amounts recommended above..."</span><span font-family:="" new="" roman="" serif="" times="">would be a reasonable amount to apply for winter hardiness insurance and wouldn't be an excessive amount in terms of adding high salts." That squares with my 20 years-plus experience in administering the potassium feast to my roses each fall. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<b>To clarify: The proportions are: 1 TBP muriate of potash per 3 gallons of water (or 1 TSP per gallon). So mixing in a 30 gallon trash container, you would use 10 TBP. Apply one gallon of this mixture on each rose every week. That’s not very much, but remember you’re repeating it six times. I also don't think the exact amount is critical and I usually err a bit on the side of a little more rather than less. (Please see my notes on using Potassium Sulfate below)</b><br />
<b><br /></b>Several folks have asked me if they could "cheat" and do only three or four applications, using proportionally higher doses of potassium. My answer is always: "I don't know, but it's probably better than not doing it at all." However, my observations are that the roses harden off slowly, as the potassium applications continue over the six weeks and the weather gets colder. By the end of six weeks, the canes have turned a lovely shade of red and look ready for the winter ahead. With the canes thus hardened-off, they are less susceptible to the freeze-drying winter winds and naturally suffer less die back than if they their tissues were still soft. I don't know if the roses will harden off as well with fewer, larger applications of potassium, but I suspect not. However, don't let that discourage you if you get started late. A couple of applications will be better than nothing. Just try to get started earlier next year!<br />
<br />
Another question is: where one can get potassium immediately to get started? The answer to that is farm stores that sell fertilizers to farmers, who use potassium (potash) as an agricultural fertilizer. Another source is suppliers to commercial growers and greenhouses. In the Twin Cities, the primary sources for me have been Waconia UFC Farm Supply and BFG Supply in St. Paul (formerly J.R. Johnson Supply). It's sold in 50 pound bags for about $.40/lb. <br />
<br />
<b>It was pointed out to me by a reader in England that a very good alternative to muriate of potash would be potassium sulfate (0-0-50), which is 50% potassium and 18% sulfur. This is interesting because adding sulfur to your roses in the fall has the effect of lowering the pH of your soil, which is desirable for most of us. A slightly acid pH around 6.0 (plus or minus) is best for roses. (See my posting "Mind your pH":</b><br />
<b><a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2013/06/mind-your-ph.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2013/06/mind-your-ph.html</a>.)</b><br />
<b>Since potassium sulfate has a bit less potassium, i.e. 50%, compared with muriate of postash at 60%, you would use a little more potassium sulfate, perhaps 1.25 or 1.5 tsp per gallon. Again, I don't think the amount is super critical, so I would use 1.5 tsp/gallon to simplify things.</b><br />
<br />
In any event, whatever form of potassium you use, I think this first step in the winterizing process is very important and I'm always amazed that many rosarians aren't aware of it. Mid to late September is the right time for most of us to get started, so find some potassium and begin your roses' feast very soon (I made my first application last week). I think you will be as pleasantly surprised by the results, as I have been over the years.<br />
<br />
Here are two other articles on the potassium feast that I have previously published:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2012/08/potassium-special-k-ration-feast-for.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2012/08/potassium-special-k-ration-feast-for.html</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2013/10/rose-potassium-feast-application-6.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2013/10/rose-potassium-feast-application-6.html</a><br />
<br />
<br />
Jack Falker<br />
@mnrosegardener<br />
jfalkersr@gmail.com<br />
<br /></div>
The Minnesota Rose Gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03173429356129992624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056259155953231806.post-90785904271483289912015-09-17T20:00:00.000-07:002015-09-17T20:36:53.267-07:00How Winter Affects Roses (Revisited)<i>This is the time of year when everyone in the cold zones should start thinking about winter-protecting their roses. The sooner you get going, the easier the task will be in a couple of months. I think this blog post, written in the winter of 2013/14, is worth revisiting for those of my readers who may have missed it. I would particularly call your attention to my articles referenced herein about the annual postassium feast, which should begin in mid-September, in time to "harden off" your roses for winter.</i><br />
<br />
At the peak of winter here in the cold zones, our roses are "winter-protected" to help them survive the sub-zero temperatures of USDA zones 4, 5, and 6. Most folks look out at their roses covered (hopefully) with a nice layer of snow and believe their roses are dormant; just waiting to thaw out, break dormancy and start growing again. But wait.... Did you know that only species roses, such as <i>Rosa Rugosa, Rosa Glauca, Rosa Gallica</i> etc. go through a dormancy cycle and that all modern, repeat-blooming, "remontant" roses do not? So what's going on here with modern roses in winter?<br />
<br />
Before I try to answer that question, I want to say that I recently learned much of this from "Dormancy in Roses", an excellent four-part series in the <i>American Rose, </i>during 2013 and early 2014, by Dr. Gary Ritchie of Olympia, Washington (see footnote below). I will quote Gary several times in this post and want to give him full credit for his research and opinions. However, I also want to note that Gary's articles have raised some important issues for me, based on my many years of successfully growing modern roses in Minnesota; in particular, why keeping modern roses frozen hard in the winter is what keeps them alive, rather than killing them outright. This seems somewhat contrary to the conclusion of Part 4 of Gary's article, where he says:<br />
<br />
<i>"I've not seen data on specific cold hardiness of modern roses but experience indicates that it is modest at best. So, while we enjoy continuous bloom throughout the summer, we face the annual chore of winter protecting our roses. Here in the moderate coastal Northwest, this requires no more than mounding up our plants in fall. But in more extreme climates winter protection can be much more difficult and problematic -- sometimes even requiring burying the plants underground to assure their over-winter survival." </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Here is how I would re-phrase Gary’s quote (above) from my perspective in zone 4/5:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<i>"I've not seen data on specific cold hardiness of modern roses, but experience indicates that, with good winter protection, most modern roses, including budded hybrid-teas, are very cold-hardy,</i> <i>as long as they are allowed to freeze solid and stay frozen all winter. Here in Minnesota (zones 3, 4, and 5), winter protection begins with planting bud unions four to six inches deep, mounding with dirt or compost in the fall, and subsequently winter-protecting with leaves or hay after the ground freezes in late fall or early winter. Another alternative is the Minnesota Tip method of burying plants underground. Both methods have as their objective keeping roses frozen throughout the winter; not to keep them from freezing, which is virtually impossible in our zone 4/5 winters." (JRF Quote)</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
In other words, the whole purpose of winter-protecting roses in the cold zones, where the ground freezes from several inches to more than a foot down, is to keep roses from repeatedly freezing and thawing. The only exception to this might be the use of insulated R7.5 construction blankets, which are gaining popularity in Minnesota. My friend and TCRC mainstay, Deb Keiser, who manages the Virginia Clemens Rose Garden in St. Cloud, believes that putting construction blankets down before the ground freezes keeps her roses from freezing in the first place (which is quite an achievement in St. Cloud!). But the principle is the same, whether the ground freezes under the blankets or not: i.e., to keep your roses from repeatedly freezing and thawing. This can be problematic here in the Twin Cities (now in zone 5) and even more so in zones 6 and 7, where mid-winter thaws are more frequent. Take a look at my recent article on winter protection:<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2013/09/winter-protecting-your-roses.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2013/09/winter-protecting-your-roses.html</a><br />
<br />
<br />
Here is how two of my rose beds looked on Christmas Day 2013:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
Buck Earth Songs under a foot of snow insulation</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioIioDWf6Q7XQoDxvaZdsJ-hsmNqArDxJ5EUeeHOIRb1-fy56GVqXs9pa9KN-hIbXW-gwx5htW8SdEoysK-DwaSb8W-7kJjSJ2t8TsCL43Br5lfJq-b1IUZJaaU0j_YToqfk0G7Y9ttiI/s1600/Winter+Earthsong.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioIioDWf6Q7XQoDxvaZdsJ-hsmNqArDxJ5EUeeHOIRb1-fy56GVqXs9pa9KN-hIbXW-gwx5htW8SdEoysK-DwaSb8W-7kJjSJ2t8TsCL43Br5lfJq-b1IUZJaaU0j_YToqfk0G7Y9ttiI/s640/Winter+Earthsong.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Terraced Canadians and Bucks</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXWPgL9u2MwAu05vchV742H75kLtPIAPgdUEsbmFrBVETlprwo_XJxlveLMhJ8SuINlRFN6lDQMh_wB_OO6SdAWyeLIBKIZI2MZHFijMdU850o517MSkfqSK-b9AlFeMRnTDLAivLlEY0/s1600/Winter+Terrace.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXWPgL9u2MwAu05vchV742H75kLtPIAPgdUEsbmFrBVETlprwo_XJxlveLMhJ8SuINlRFN6lDQMh_wB_OO6SdAWyeLIBKIZI2MZHFijMdU850o517MSkfqSK-b9AlFeMRnTDLAivLlEY0/s640/Winter+Terrace.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Now, just in case I have given the impression that I'm not growing hybrid teas in Minnesota winters, here is my winter-protected Elina on a -2 F. afternoon in Edina. The reason the leaf bag is showing under the snow is that we had a record-breaking 48 F. the day before I took this picture; a 50 degree swing! And that's what winter protection is all about in zone 4/5: to keep the roses from thawing and re-freezing in these crazy temperature swings!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBjhfp8CwYnC-o-ShPoxsM4eSItCy2okD6cpjN4GK-9bN16Pp-HWfRoWCo2a6E3x80jgc_GUu0OVH1jd_AHzopgoMPiMd15eNCPJg1V_iUMiiNpApZAqeFTsPwjIeQ6oZ-AQDJ_qGoUTw/s1600/elina+(2).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBjhfp8CwYnC-o-ShPoxsM4eSItCy2okD6cpjN4GK-9bN16Pp-HWfRoWCo2a6E3x80jgc_GUu0OVH1jd_AHzopgoMPiMd15eNCPJg1V_iUMiiNpApZAqeFTsPwjIeQ6oZ-AQDJ_qGoUTw/s640/elina+(2).JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Above: Elina in a Minnesota Winter</div>
<br />
Dr. Gary Ritchie's point about modern roses not going into dormancy is obviously correct. Unlike woody perennials like Rhododendron or lilacs, roses apparently do not have a dormancy "chilling requirement" in order to generate next season's bloom cycle. Rather, as Gary says, modern roses, as remontant, repeat-blooming plants, "by their very nature, fail to go dormant in winter. So they have a much-reduced ability to cold harden." In other words, rose canes die back in winter because they do not sufficiently "cold harden" and this die-back can only be controlled at the crown or bud union levels by proper winter-protection, as described above. This affirms something that I have advocated for many years, i.e., repeated applications of potassium in the fall to "cold-harden" rose canes before the first hard freeze. My experience, over more than 20 years, is that hardening rose canes off with a potassium feast has the effect of significantly reducing cane die back in the winter. Please see my several articles about the "potassium feast":<br />
<br />
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2014/09/potassium-feast-for-your-roses.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2014/09/potassium-feast-for-your-roses.html</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2012/08/potassium-special-k-ration-feast-for.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2012/08/potassium-special-k-ration-feast-for.html</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>But something else seems to be happening here</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Over the last several years, as the Twin Cities metro has moved solidly into zone 5, my observations indicate that modern roses may exhibit a characteristic, which may be related to the chilling requirement inherent in plants that experience dormancy in winter.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Even though our winters are warmer, in terms of extreme minimum temperatures (EMT), they seem to be just as long, or perhaps even longer in certain years, thereby keeping our roses frozen for a longer period of time. For example, our ground (and therefore our roses) stayed frozen into late April or early May in 2013, and we had snow on the ground into early May. This is 2-4 weeks later than normal. What happened in May, once the ground thawed out, was that the roses had a very hard time getting started and there seemed to be more die-back than usual, even with shrubs that are zone 3 and 4 hardy. One of our husband-wife TCRC members,who have had good success over the years planting their hybrid tea and shrub roses with bud-unions and root crowns six inches below ground level, and using minimal winter protection above ground, lost a number of roses in 2013, even though the same method had worked perfectly in colder EMT winters.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
In other words, with a 2013 EMT of -13 (well above the median for zone 5), our roses actually seemed like they had been through a much harder winter. So it would appear that the length of time roses are frozen, not just the low temperature in a given year, impacts survivability. After all, if you think about it, frozen is frozen; the only thing that happens with a lower temperature is that the ground freezes deeper and the roses take longer to thaw out and start growing in the new season. But what happens to them when the winter is so long that they can't start growing again in a timely way? To my knowledge there is no scientific reasoning for this phenomenon. However, I found a clue in Part III of Gary Ritchie's series, where he speaks of cold weather breaking dormancy in plants. Speaking of dormant plants in the first person, he says:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<i> "...One way would be somehow to keep track of the amount of cold weather to which you had been exposed during winter. After a certain number of hours or days of cold exposure had occurred you would have a clear indication that winter was finally over and it was safe to resume growth. This is exactly what plants do...."</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<i><br /></i>What he is saying is that dormant plants apparently have an internal clock mechanism buried deep in their DNA that tells them it's time to start growing again, after they have been exposed to a certain number of hours or days of cold weather. However, what happens if that internal clock tells them it's time to grow and they're still frozen solid?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Now, this is pure conjecture on my part but, based on my observations in the past year, I would theorize that (1) modern roses, although they do not experience dormancy, might share a similar DNA clock mechanism with plants that do, such as their first-cousins, the species roses; and (2) the growth signal coming from within the plant might be distorted by longer than historically normal periods of remaining frozen, such that the plant's internal growth pattern is interrupted, or even curtailed altogether, thereby causing much slower growth or even plant death. This could account for what I and a number of Minnesota friends experienced in our warmer, but longer than normal, winter of 2013. This was truly something I had never seen in my near-lifetime of growing roses in zones 4, 5 and 6.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
I had been thinking about this since last spring and Gary Ritchie's four-part series in the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>American Rose </i>was such an “a-ha” moment for me, that I couldn't wait for the next installment to come<i>. </i>Gary might not agree, but it seems logical to me that, while modern (non-species) roses do not experience dormancy, per se, they might share some form of the so called "chilling requirement" of species roses. There is much we don't know about the effects of winter on roses but, by observing the effects of the weather anomalies we are currently experiencing, we can learn a lot about what makes our roses tick and how we can better protect them in winter. Unfortunately, we can't do much about the undue length of some winters, except to realize that not all winter effects on roses are related to extreme low temperatures.<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
I would be very interested in the reactions of readers to the theories I have set forth in this article. My findings are 100% empirical and can be enhanced by the observations of others growing roses in cold zones. As always, please let me know what you think.<br />
<br />
Jack Falker<br />
jfalkersr@gmail.com<br />
September 17, 2015<br />
<br />
Note: Dr. Gary Ritchie's four articles on Dormancy appeared in the May/June, July/August, and September/October, 2013, and the January/February 2014 issues of the <i>American Rose. </i>By the way, articles like these, written by outstanding rose-scientists like Gary Ritchie, are one more reason that all rosarians should be members of the American Rose Society!<br />
<br />The Minnesota Rose Gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03173429356129992624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056259155953231806.post-31220025683770927432015-07-12T16:53:00.002-07:002019-07-23T19:24:28.479-07:00The Beetles Are Coming! The Beetles Are Coming! 2015 Edition<em>Note: This is a revised version of my previous JB posts from May 2012 and January 2013. In particular, it changes my conclusions on pesticides, particularly </em><em>imidacloprid, which has recently been implicated in bee colony collapse disorder, and </em><em>the pyrethroid Demand CS (Lambda Cyhalothrin).</em><br />
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Japanese Beetles are the scourge of Twin Cities rose gardens, as well as virtually everywhere south of Minnesota.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From my perch in Edina, Minnesota they are, without a doubt, my biggest problem as a rose grower.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reason is that there are so many of them – thousands and thousands -- and there is so little I can do about stopping them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is nothing more frustrating than admiring a perfect new rose bud and finding a couple of ugly Japanese Beetles (JBs) burrowing deeply inside the bud, eating it from the inside out… sickening.<br />
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I hate these bugs! Here's how they looked in two of my beds this afternoon. Normally I would have been on JB patrol in my gardens sooner but I was busy with other things and this was the result by late afternoon:<br />
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And here's how they looked after they joined their predecessors of today, in my can of soapy water, which I carry wherever I go on JB patrol in the garden during July and August. This is kind of time consuming, but absolutely the right way to deal with JBs, at least in a home or small public garden. Much more on that later.<br />
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It's interesting that there seems to be a north/south line of demarcation in the Twin Cities for JBs. We live in the southwestern part of the metro area and have been seeing JBs for just the last six or seven years, peaking in 2012, as our winters have become less severe, statistically moving us into the range of USDA zone 5. Most gardeners in the northern suburbs, roughly 10 miles from us, as well as gardeners in St. Cloud, northwest of us, have never seen JBs. That would indicate that JBs are harbingers of climate change, as are many other insect species. Since 2012, we have had lighter infestations, until this year, which is quite heavy, approaching the levels of 2012, at least here in Edina.<br />
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To understand what we can and can't do about these garden monsters, let’s first understand how JBs function. JBs emerge in June from grubs in lawn turf, the eggs of which were laid in the lawn the previous summer by JB adults.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is a very good diagram, prepared by the University of Minnesota, showing what happens:<br />
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<img alt="life cycle" border="0" src="https://www1.extension.umn.edu/garden/insects/find/japanese-beetles/img/7664f08.jpg" height="258" width="550"><br />
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<b>Life cycle of Japanese beetle: egg, grub, and adult stages. In June, the grub turns into a pupa. It emerges from the soil in late June and July as an adult, to mate and lay eggs. Females live for a few weeks feeding on trees, shrubs and roses in the morning, returning to the turf in the afternoon to lay more eggs. Eggs hatch in July and grubs are almost full grown by late August. Grubs dig deep in the soil for the winter months and then move upward in spring as the soil warms. Grubs do best in warm, slightly moist soil that has plenty of organic matter and tender grasses. However, they can survive in almost any soil.</b><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Note that the grubs are coming to the surface in April and May and are feeding on the roots of your lawn as we speak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So there is something you can do about the grubs in <u>your lawn</u> right now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you turn over a couple of square feet of turf around your rose garden and find one inch long white grubs, you can apply a grub control product, such as “Grubex” or “Menard’s Grub Control” to <u>your lawn</u> right now and probably kill them off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have been doing this (and other things like Milky Spore and nematode treatments) for the last seven or eight years and I can simply say that I have wasted my time and money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, I’m sure I killed off the JB grubs in <u>my lawn</u>, but what about the thousands and thousands of grubs in <u>my neighbors’ lawns</u> and in the turf of <u>several golf courses</u> in my vicinity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The U of M says that JBs fly thousands of feet from where they emerge (think roughly a mile here) and they are looking for their favorite food… read ROSES!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So it might make me feel good to think I killed off the JB grubs in my lawn, but I am completely helpless when it comes to killing off the grubs in neighboring lawns and golf courses a mile away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t mean to say that you shouldn’t try to kill the grubs in your lawn (especially, the “U” says, in August and September each year), but that is probably more important in preserving the quality of your lawn than keeping JBs from eating your roses.<br />
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As mentioned above, Milky Spore has not proven effective, probably for the same reasons, i.e. it might work on the grubs in my lawn but the majority of invading JBs come from a five mile radius around me, not from my property. Here's what the University of Minnesota JB article says about it:<br />
<strong style="color: #191919; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 20px;">Milky spore disease</strong><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 20px;"> </span><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 20px;">– is caused by the bacteria Bacillus popilliae and is sold under the names of Japidemic Doom and Milky Spore. Recent trials with these formulations have not reduced Japanese beetle grub numbers in turf.</span></div>
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<o:p> </o:p>By the way, the U of M article I’m quoting is definitely the best I’ve seen on JBs (Go Gophers) and is available at this address: <a href="http://www1.extension.umn.edu/garden/insects/find/japanese-beetles/"><span style="color: blue;">http://www1.extension.umn.edu/garden/insects/find/japanese-beetles/</span></a></div>
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That said; let’s take a look at how to try to control adult JBs on your roses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Note I said “try” because there is really no completely satisfactory solution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, here’s the most important point of this article: The best way to control JBs is with your fingers and soapy water!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t be fooled by the easy solutions presented by insecticides; just like killing the grubs in your lawn, the JB adults you kill with insecticides are just the tip of the iceberg that is flowing up and down your street into your garden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only sure-fire way to deal with JBs is to pick or shake them off your roses into a can of soapy water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>JBs are really quite vulnerable to this method because their primary defense mechanism is to simply drop off the plant they are destroying, down to the dirt or grass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They don’t sting or bite and they move pretty slowly, <u>especially early in the morning and at dusk,</u> so the “trick” here is to hold your can under the target JBs and pick or shake them off the plant into the soapy-water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m as squeamish as the next person about picking bugs with my fingers, so I wear nitrile surgical or milking gloves (that I get in the dairy-farm department at Fleet Farm) and I use a plastic 2 lb. coffee can, which has a built-in handle and a big opening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I squirt a little dishwashing soap in the can and fill it about half-full with water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The soap breaks the surface tension of the water and they are very helpless once they hit it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While this process is laborious, especially because it goes on for two months, through thousands of JBs, there is some pleasure in watching the little demons meet their end, knowing that every JB you drown will never fertilize or lay an egg for next year’s hatch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each night, I dispose of the dead JBs either by flushing them down a toilet or putting them in my yard-waste bin (covered).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Note that they become very smelly if you leave them in the soap-water overnight.</div>
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<b>This is important!</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t be tempted to squish JBs and throw them on the ground after you pick them off your roses (even though it would give you (and me) so much pleasure to do so).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you squish a female JB her sexual-attractant pheromone is spewed out and brings in every male in the neighborhood!</div>
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<b>Likewise, don’t buy JB traps.</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They use that same sexual pheromone to bring JBs to the traps, and many more JBs come into your yard than ever find their way into the traps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you are just compelled to buy traps, buy them for your neighbors and keep them out of your own yard!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh, and be sure to empty your neighbors’ traps every day, because all those dead JB females just keep attracting more suitors, which are bound to find<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>your roses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here’s what the “U” has to say about JB traps:</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"JB traps: are they useful in controlling JB adults?"<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Pheromone traps contain a lure with the scent of geraniums and rose (geraniol) and the sex pheromone of the JB female. <u><b>The pheromone is very powerful and will call in beetles from a few thousand feet.</b></u> Research demonstrated that more beetles fly toward traps than are caught, resulting in surplus beetles that feed on your plants. Think twice before purchasing and installing a pheromone trap.” </i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Emphasis mine.)</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Insecticide Control of JB Adults<o:p></o:p></b><br />
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<i><b>Note: After several years of experimenting with insecticide control of JBs, I am firmly convinced that it is the wrong approach in the home or small public garden for the simple reason that it massacres all other beetles in the garden, most notably the lady beetle, which is perhaps the most important beneficial bug for controlling a variety of insect garden pests. Also, all of these insecticides harm pollinators, especially bees, as well as virtually all other beneficials such as wasps, syrphid flies, lacewings, minute pirate bugs etc., as well as predatory mites, which attack a large variety of pests such as aphids, thrips and two-spotted spider mites. Once I began controlling JBs with insecticides, many of my bees disappeared and I experienced an infestation of all the pests listed above; a lesson well learned! It has taken me two years to re-establish beneficial bugs in my gardens and I will never again spray insecticides to control JBs. </b></i></div>
<span style="color: black; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Having said that, there comes a time in very large public gardens and the gardens of commercial growers when JB infestation occurs and it’s just too hard and time consuming to hand pick them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> I vividly remember a visit in 2007 to the lovely Elizabeth Park Rose Garden in Hartford, CT, in which the JB infestation was absolutely shocking, and nothing was being done to stop it. The garden was literally in ruins, which was unacceptable. That same situation occurs with commercial rose growers who cannot let their crops be ruined. At some point, these large gardens and nursery farms must </span></span>revert to insecticide control, unfortunately at the expense of killing off beneficial insects; i.e., the lesser of two evils.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
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Until recently, the only insecticides that were even mildly effective on JBs (i.e. imidacloprid and carbaryl) were also very hard on the environment, particularly on bees and other beneficials.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, they just killed the JBs that landed in the first couple of days, while swarms of these monsters just kept on coming.<br />
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<span style="color: black; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In 2011, it was brought to my attention by a commercial pesticide applicator that one of the pyrethroids, Lambda Cyhalothrin, sold as Demand CS, might be effective in controlling JBs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I tested it in the summer of 2012 and was very surprised and pleased at how effective it was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I used it the first time, I had an infestation of hundreds of beetles in my beds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Immediately upon spraying, the beetles literally went away and did not come back for upwards of five days, at which time their numbers were few enough that I could resume picking and drowning them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After about a week, I sprayed again and the process repeated itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I continued to do this for the rest of the summer until the JBs were finished hatching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: black; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Demand CS </span>utilizes a unique capsule suspension of the Lambda-Cyhalothrin which keeps it active on the roses for upwards of a week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This apparently acts as a repellant to JBs, since they will not land on the plants when the insecticide is present.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The University of Minnesota website on JBs mentions the Pyrethroids (and Lambda Cyhalothrin specifically) as effective control insecticides for JBs. Here's that URL again:<br />
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<a href="http://www1.extension.umn.edu/garden/insects/find/japanese-beetles/"><span style="color: blue;">http://www1.extension.umn.edu/garden/insects/find/japanese-beetles/</span></a> .<br />
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Note, in particular, that the "U" does not mention toxicity to bees with Lambda Cyhalothrin, whereas most other pyrethroids are shown to be toxic to bees and other beneficial insects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> However, </span>I noted, subsequent to my trials in 2012, that there was, indeed, an effect on beneficial insects in my gardens, especially on lady beetles and, to a lesser extent, bees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> In particular, I experienced the worst infestation of aphids I have ever seen, causing us to take other insecticide steps. In a large public or commercial garden that may be the lesser of two evils and a price worth paying to control the JBs. In any event, our experience would indicate that Lambda Cyhalothrin is the best all-around insecticide alternative for JB control.</span></div>
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Imidacloprid (Merit) is still useful in JB control as a way of killing JB grubs in the turf and as a systemic in trees, particularly against emerald ash borer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It can also be used as a systemic in roses, applied as a soil drench in May, but note that it is only effective if the JBs land on the stems and leaves of the plants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, it is not effective in the blooms, which is where most JBs (and bees) land.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Please note that imidacloprid (Merit) has been shown to be toxic to bees and is suspected as a leading factor in bee colony collapse disorder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For that reason it has been banned in Europe and parts of Canada and there is a move afoot to ban it in the U.S. In my opinion, therefore, it should be used only as a turf grub control, if at all.<span style="color: black; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> One caution:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you use Imidacloprid on your lawn to kill JB grubs, <u>do not apply it around any edible fruit trees you might have</u>, since it is absorbed by the fruit and you will end up eating it; not a good idea.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Conclusion<o:p></o:p></b><br />
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<span style="color: black; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There is only one completely safe solution to JB control in the rose garden: i.e., pick them off and drown the buggers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> A beneficial side-effect of that method is that it requires you to be in the rose garden at least twice a day and results in a more thorough job of deadheading and assessing other issues, not to mention enjoying the beauty of your roses. For large public gardens and commercial nursery farming operations, </span>Lambda Cyhalothrin (Demand CS) works better than other insecticides I have tried and appears to be the lesser of evils in damaging beneficials, despite the fact that it wipes out all beneficial beetles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">By all means, also read the University of Minnesota piece, at the URL address cited earlier in the article.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can also find it by doing a Google search for: Japanese Beetles, Minnesota.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: black; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If you have questions or ideas, please let me know. at: </span><a href="mailto:jack@falkerinvestments.com"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: blue;">jfalkersr@gmail.com</span></span></a><span style="color: black; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> or 612 385-6226.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jack Falker</span><br />
<span style="color: black; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">August 5, 2015</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056259155953231806.post-40297503006411932602015-04-01T16:08:00.000-07:002015-04-01T20:00:11.926-07:00Uncovering Your Roses and When to Prune<span style="font-size: x-small;">When to uncover your roses in the Spring is really quite easy to determine if you remember the reason for covering them in the first place. That is, to keep them from freezing and thawing repeatedly over the winter months, which is what kills them. In the Upper Midwest, where I live, we finish covering our roses at the point when the ground freezes and it is our objective to keep them frozen all winter. Let me repeat that: <b>In the Upper Midwest, we don't cover our roses to stop them from freezing; we cover them to keep them frozen. </b> Every method of winter protection in this climate, including the Minnesota Tip, has that same objective, and I am always surprised when people don't understand that. Our ground freezes generally at least two feet down and sometimes, as in the winter of 2013-14, it freezes down as much as four feet. So it shouldn't be hard to understand that everything planted at the surface freezes, regardless of how you insulate.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">For folks in warmer areas, like the warmer parts of zone 6 and throughout zone 7, where the ground freezes down a few inches and then repeatedly thaws and refreezes throughout the winter, the purpose of winter cover would be the same, i.e. to keep the roses from repeatedly freezing and thawing, but in this case it would be to insulate them to prevent them from freezing in the first place. It really amounts to the same thing, however.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Given these principles, when to uncover your roses should be obvious, wherever you live. <b>It is simply when the danger of freezing and thawing has passed. </b> Around here, that usually occurs sometime in the first two weeks of April but virtually never in March, regardless how warm it might get for a few days. Let me give you a recent example. In the spring of 2012 we had 70 and 80 degree weather in mid-March causing fruit trees to blossom etc., but in the next week we had 10 degree weather followed by at least two weeks of below freezing weather. This caused the loss of almost the entire apple crop in Minnesota and Wisconsin and virtually the entire cherry crop in western Michigan. If you had uncovered your roses in March 2012, thereby allowing them to thaw out, you would have suffered severe damage when they froze again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">I realize that it is very tempting to uncover your roses when it first warms up in the spring. If you use the leaf bag method, which I have advocated in my blogs, you can choose to partially uncover your roses by rolling the leaf bags back but leaving them ready to replace, if the weather turns cold again. This approach allows the plants to begin thawing and to soak up spring rains, while keeping your options open for easy recovering. I would say that I use some form of this approach almost every year, especially when it starts to rain (vs snow!).</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Today, April 1st, it was 82 degrees and we are expecting thunderstorms tonight so I decided to go out and roll the bags off my roses, while keeping them close-by, if I have to roll them back</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Wherever you live, my suggestion is to watch the seven-day weather forecasts in early April and try to determine when your nights stay consistently above 25 F (-4 C). If you keep the mounds around your plants, even if you pull the bags back, temps down to 25 F will not refreeze your plants. If you are in doubt, just keep your plants covered until mid-April, around here. It won't hurt them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">And here's a quote from Paul Douglas' weather blog today:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>"Another Relapse</b></span> After a May-like temperature swoon today temperatures cool off later this week, a taste of early March shaping up for early next week with readings struggling to reach 40F Monday and Tuesday. European guidance is even hinting at a rain/snow mix, especially north of the Twin Cities. Don't rule out more slush before the daffodils arrive."</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">On the theory that a picture is worth a thousand words, here is how my beds look after rolling back the leaf bags this afternoon. Note that the roses still have plenty of leaves and mulch around them and the bags are right there if I want to roll them back over the plants. Incidentally, most of those leaves around the plants will get pushed back in the bags and be transported to my compost pile, when it's time to finally uncover the beds, which will probably be in 10 to 14 days, when Paul Douglas is no longer warning about slush and freezing temps.</span><br />
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<b style="font-size: small;">Pruning</b><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">I always laugh when I hear someone say you should prune your roses when the forsythia blooms. Suppose it had bloomed in mid-March 2012, as mentioned above, when your roses were still covered? When the forsythia blooms really has nothing to do with when you should prune your roses. Pruning for me is a two step process. First, right after I uncover my roses (i.e. mid-April), I begin by cutting off all the dead wood, right down to where the canes begin turning green. This is a very rough, quick cut that I do with my battery-powered Black & Decker hedge trimmer. I don' t worry about rough cuts on the canes because I know I'm coming back later to make my final pruning and shaping cut. All I want to do is to take off the "overhead" of dead wood to clear the way for new growth that will come from the green canes. Once I can see that nodes on the green canes are starting to swell, in anticipation of setting new leaves, then I begin my second cuts to shape the plants and eliminate any weak, wispy growth from last year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">So, in summary, you should first cut off all the "overhead" dead wood and then, when the plants show signs of growing, make your second cut and seal it off to stop saw-fly wasps from burrowing into the fresh wood to lay eggs. I use Elmer's school glue for my sealant, which works very well and is quite inexpensive. And the forsythia may or may not have bloomed when you finish. We're talking roses here, not flowering shrubs!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Jack Falker</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">April 1, 2015</span>The Minnesota Rose Gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03173429356129992624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056259155953231806.post-2965823941583064532015-02-05T17:27:00.001-08:002015-02-05T17:27:58.610-08:00Climate Change Is More Extreme Up NorthReaders of of my December 2014 blog: "How Winters Are Changing":<br />
( <a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2014/12/how-winters-are-changing.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2014/12/how-winters-are-changing.html</a> )<br />
will recall that national climatology statistics clearly show that climate change is more pronounced in the northern latitudes and, in particular, Minnesota. My 53-year Extreme Minimum Temperature (EMT) trend lines (1962-2014 inclusive) statistically predict that the Twin Cities area will consistently be in USDA Zone 6 (where St. Louis, Detroit and Louisville used to be), within the next seven or eight years. In fact, the EMT recorded in early January for the winter of 2015 was -11 F, which is above the trend line and within one degree of Zone 6. In fact, most of our winters since the year 2000 have been in Zone 5, with only three in Zone 4, including last year, which was an anomaly all over the northern states. Yet, the USDA persists in rating the Twin Cities in Zone 4, based on 2005 data, now 10 years out of date. Close enough for government work? Not in my book!<br />
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This week, Minnesota Public Radio published a special report on the phenomenon of northern climate change with the article: "Climate Change in Minnesota: 23 Signs". And even though many of my readers don't live in Minnesota, or even in the United States, this makes very interesting reading. I will conclude with a sentence that I have written repeatedly:<br />
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<i>"You might argue <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">why</b> it’s warmer in Minnesota these days, but you can’t deny the fact that it <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">is</b> warmer, and that has important implications for Northern Gardeners."</i><br />
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Here's that excellent Minnesota Public Radio article; enjoy and let me know what you think:<br />
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<a href="http://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/02/02/climate-change-primer">http://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/02/02/climate-change-primer</a><br />
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Jack Falker<br />
February 2015<br />
jrfalkersr@gmail.com<br />
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<br />The Minnesota Rose Gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03173429356129992624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056259155953231806.post-47127775385558940442015-01-29T19:24:00.000-08:002015-01-29T19:26:08.419-08:00Composting in Winter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Composting isn't just for warm weather. It can be a year-round activity, which, in the winter months, allows you to compost "green" kitchen scraps and lots of coffee grounds for use on your roses in the spring. Even here in Minnesota, where the ground usually freezes hard and deep in winter, compost piles will generally remain mostly unfrozen beneath the snow because of the heat generated in the decomposition process. If you dig through the snow and open up holes in the pile, you can keep adding to it all winter. But that hasn't been necessary here this winter, as you can see in the picture below. Our low temperature in January was -11 f., which puts us almost in USDA Zone 6. We had a lot of days above freezing in late December and throughout January, and what little snow we had is just about gone.</div>
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As usual, some folks in Minnesota go to extremes. I heard a funny story in mid-November, when it was actually much colder and snowier than was in December and January. Someone, here in Minneapolis, had moved their composting operation into their basement for the winter, in one of those fancy (and expensive) rotating drums. I guess I was kind of incredulous and asked what they were going to do with it in the basement. The guy was kind of put out when I asked him why they just didn't leave it outside to compost naturally. I really can't imagine having that decomposition process going on in my basement. I just make a pile outside, where everything happens naturally, and the earthworms have a field day, leaving their castings (down deep where it's warm), year-round.</div>
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Today, I dumped about 200 lb. of Starbucks coffee grounds in my pile, along with lots of green kitchen scraps. When I opened up the pile, a cloud of steam puffed out; proof positive that the composting process is alive and well in mid-winter. Here's how it looked, after I finished pulling the shredded oak leaves back on top. Note the lack of snow and the two Christmas trees behind the pile doing double duty as a habitat for birds and other winter critters. The white stake in the foreground is a terminal post for my electric fence, which comes up from underground at that point for use in the summer. The small white stakes to the left, in the little bit of snow that's left, mark spots where I have seeded pollinating plants for stratification over the winter. This area around my mulch pile is one of several insectaries, designed to attract bees and other beneficial insects to my rose gardens. (See <a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2014/12/bugs-and-roses.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2014/12/bugs-and-roses.html</a> ).</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056259155953231806.post-3202116945644963892015-01-06T19:17:00.000-08:002018-01-06T19:05:56.059-08:00Don't "Sweat" the Wind-Chill on Your Roses!Tonight is likely to be the coldest night of winter 2015, in the Twin Cities. Temperatures are predicted to fall to -13 F (-25 C) at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport, which, in the context of winter history in Minnesota, is no big deal (It's 0 F [-18 C] right now at 9 PM). That will put us in the upper reaches of USDA Zone 5 for the year, i.e. approaching Zone 6, when the USDA still has us listed in Zone 4 (incorrect in my opinion).<br />
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<i>Author's note: The actual low temperature recorded on the night mentioned above (January 6, 2015) was -11 F, which should be the extreme minimum temperature (EMT) for 2015. This puts the Twin Cities (MSP) just one degree shy of a USDA Zone 6 winter in 2015. </i><br />
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But to listen to the apoplectic, Twin Cities TV weather folks creating "shock and awe" among their listeners, the real news is that wind-chills are going to reach a "dangerous" -30 to -35 F (-34 to -37 C) by tomorrow morning. By doing this every day in the winter, they have created the idea among a very large number of people that temperatures are much colder than they really are. In point of fact, wind-chill is only relevant to the cooling of the exposed flesh of warm-blooded animals (with no fur like us, unless you grow a beard). It has nothing to do with the temperature of cars or houses or, most importantly, plants, which in our case means ROSES! (For a full explanation of the effects of windchill on roses, see the quotes below from my wind-chill blog of last January).<br />
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Looking at it another way, if you're foolish enough to run around outside in your birthday-suit tomorrow morning in Minneapolis you're going to freeze your "you-know-what" off in the "relative" -30 to -35 F wind-chill, because of the effect of the cold temperatures on your exposed flesh, plus the wind which doesn't allow your body to warm itself. But if you dress warmly with a coat, hat, gloves, ear-protection and maybe a scarf over your nose, you have nothing to worry about, except the real ambient temperature of -13, which is cold enough, without trying to make it sound worse.<br />
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Here a couple of images of one of my Buck Earthsong beds taken last year at this time, when we had a lot more snow than we have now, which was a good thing then:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8HCZHAhc9nJfZgxKW-x_Xvkm4HoCbs-xBIkU2dTl9jRwmICCpY-fjbNYwF0nw6TFRKB03-HdXvZHGUe9I3Oy-TiC0W71jtc60_BiVWIJa5EBwnBI3MhBNeDEBQ_JWus0-9PTfliyJer0/s1600/Winter+Earthsong.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8HCZHAhc9nJfZgxKW-x_Xvkm4HoCbs-xBIkU2dTl9jRwmICCpY-fjbNYwF0nw6TFRKB03-HdXvZHGUe9I3Oy-TiC0W71jtc60_BiVWIJa5EBwnBI3MhBNeDEBQ_JWus0-9PTfliyJer0/s1600/Winter+Earthsong.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhawAnfgpff5E6KN_ReDjmZRgI1USbWGdXPH4OFuGe0pbxuDNiKb8Rz9xmkIipEYlz-7MqWhk95IQXIgC2BGz0xXXjo1REpRiI2FOOVb3V2GwODUJLRu93yCPZBpKxP8Ufs58GckZBaBVc/s1600/Winter+Earthsong+Bed.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhawAnfgpff5E6KN_ReDjmZRgI1USbWGdXPH4OFuGe0pbxuDNiKb8Rz9xmkIipEYlz-7MqWhk95IQXIgC2BGz0xXXjo1REpRiI2FOOVb3V2GwODUJLRu93yCPZBpKxP8Ufs58GckZBaBVc/s1600/Winter+Earthsong+Bed.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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And here are several quotes from my article "How Windchill Affects Roses" from last year at this time:<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">First, from a National Weather Service article:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>"Wind chill is the term used to describe the rate of heat loss on the human body resulting from the combined effect of low temperature and wind. As winds increase, heat is carried away from the body at a faster rate, driving down both the skin temperature and eventually the internal body temperature. While exposure to low wind chills can be life threatening to both humans and animals alike, the only effect that wind chill has on inanimate objects, such as vehicles, is that it shortens the time that it takes the object to cool to the actual air temperature (it cannot cool the object down below that temperature)."</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And from a Kansas State University article:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><strong><i>Plants Don’t Care if the Wind Chill Tanks</i></strong><br />
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<i>"When wind chill temperatures plummet, gardeners chafe about their landscape and fruit plants' odds for survival. Some gardeners worry too much.... Cold can be a killer if people are growing marginally hardy plants or if air temperatures drop well below what's usual where they live. Hard freezes are particularly destructive when plants aren't fully dormant. But cold and wind chill aren't the same thing. Wind chill only affects warm-blooded animals -- including people. It's an indexed, scientific measure of how wind speed and air temperature combine to impact animal heat loss.... We know, for example, that our heat-loss rate will speed up as the air temperature drops. The faster the wind is blowing, however, the more dramatic that heat loss is going to be .... Wind chill has no meaning for plants. Unlike warm-blooded animals, they don't try to maintain a particular body temperature year-round".</i><br />
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And another:<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>"Of course, we know that roses feel the winter cold and die back according to the level of protection afforded them. And winter-winds do, of course, have an effect on that die-back, desiccating the canes, but the important thing to understand is that wind does not make a plant "feel" colder than the actual temperature, even though it shortens the time it takes for the plant to reach that temperature.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And this one is important:</span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here's an example: Suppose that the ambient temperature is 35 F and the wind is blowing 30 MPH. According to an NWS chart, the wind chill is 22 F. So are your roses freezing? Or, better yet, are the puddles in your garden freezing? Of course not, because the freezing point of water is 32 F. However, if you go out in your garden without a hat and jacket, you will feel like it is 22, not 35, because of the combined effects of the cold temperature and the high wind on your flesh."</span></i><br />
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And here's that whole article from last January:<br />
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<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2014/01/how-windchill-affects-roses.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2014/01/how-windchill-affects-roses.html</a><br />
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Let me know if you have any questions. I'll be safely bundled up tomorrow morning when I go outside.<br />
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Jack Falker<br />
@mnrosegardener<br />
jack@falkerinvestments.com<br />
01/06/2014<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056259155953231806.post-28770089923696145082014-12-21T20:07:00.000-08:002014-12-21T21:10:57.268-08:00How Winters Are ChangingClimate Central (CC), an independent organization that surveys and conducts research on climate change, recently published a series of maps showing the relative extent of climate change in all regions of the United States. What's most notable about these maps is that the northern tier of states has experienced the most winter-warming since 1970, and that the upper-midwest, especially Minnesota, has warmed more than the any other area. Here's that article:<br />
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<a href="http://www.climatecentral.org/news/winter-climate-trends-18409">http://www.climatecentral.org/news/winter-climate-trends-18409</a><br />
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What really jumped out at me when I saw CC's maps was that they show exactly (and not surprisingly) what my own trend-line graphs of Extreme Minimum Temperatures (EMT) indicate, which is (1) that the whole northern tier of states has gotten significantly warmer and (2) that the further north you go the sharper the change. The difference between CC's work and mine is that the Minnesota Rose Gardener graphs cover a longer period, i.e. since 1962 vs.1970, and that my graphs are dynamic, in that the trend lines, being statistically valid, are predictive of the future.<br />
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Here is CC's map of the United States:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfOo23GLS1VezR9oY9SHKcDKUR9uq3NOxF1ErBwdm4x1xVgHnERXFGZV7gd-v4Mt7jZDZ9YC83ioFuyDfN7Euw4YgMfKssNpqDNvy1y6wXcmS0ZLCIzOS44R9-TH6L1TXHeH_7DXu8w8o/s1600/WinterTempTrends.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfOo23GLS1VezR9oY9SHKcDKUR9uq3NOxF1ErBwdm4x1xVgHnERXFGZV7gd-v4Mt7jZDZ9YC83ioFuyDfN7Euw4YgMfKssNpqDNvy1y6wXcmS0ZLCIzOS44R9-TH6L1TXHeH_7DXu8w8o/s1600/WinterTempTrends.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a><br />
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Note that the upper-midwest generally has warmed more than the rest of the country and that the areas around and just north of the Twin Cities, and in the northwest corner of Minnesota, have warmed more than just about anywhere else in the country (my upstate NY and New Hampshire readers will be happy to note they are paralleling the upper-midwest).<br />
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This is very clear when you look at my 53 year EMT trend-line graph for the Twin Cities. Note the relatively sharp slope of the line and how it points upwards to USDA Zone 6. I will show several other cities' EMT graphs below, which show definite warming, but with shallower trend lines than Minnesota, just as the CC map shows.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCtggk5BWFO9AZGCyXquM5ebqWcihX0fT_uMyAfQkxYQTVmVnpiIsc1kH2306G8xRZZ27vgb1OTTfmRMgkZ06bQTB1Jf75vagYV432udYz82mzmpaaKuNvaULMyBAzrMBmBR74ChqhDeo/s1600/Twin+Cities+2014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCtggk5BWFO9AZGCyXquM5ebqWcihX0fT_uMyAfQkxYQTVmVnpiIsc1kH2306G8xRZZ27vgb1OTTfmRMgkZ06bQTB1Jf75vagYV432udYz82mzmpaaKuNvaULMyBAzrMBmBR74ChqhDeo/s1600/Twin+Cities+2014.jpg" height="392" width="640" /></a><br />
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Here is a regional close-up of the upper-midwest from CC's article:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijhJ3C7VDML9WvWwH9MIkN5xtR2g18nNho0smcI6vgmKKpWCNvuykNrQhEDLzqJsTtkA_gpiNp_VDKHhcMd6bijBNXZcf_9esgiDAs8D60GxsZGneYlMTnZgsDLwEioQi2kkGSoS-U_SI/s1600/WinterTempTrends_UpperMidwest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijhJ3C7VDML9WvWwH9MIkN5xtR2g18nNho0smcI6vgmKKpWCNvuykNrQhEDLzqJsTtkA_gpiNp_VDKHhcMd6bijBNXZcf_9esgiDAs8D60GxsZGneYlMTnZgsDLwEioQi2kkGSoS-U_SI/s1600/WinterTempTrends_UpperMidwest.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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And now let's look at the EMT chart for Milwaukee to see the difference in the slope of their warming trend-line:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWPkDahAi9c4Pz3dX9BYPn01Rr3ORIIjdP-pwCtYJo2zSYZjnW9sq803tZAQ2J4J-Qcq90MtpHcl2BakXSSH5s49LOG6BedVKrYMMvkoqsU30MtBa7FwXtXRLTnbRbKwCMiemuGD_6tPQ/s1600/Milwaukee+Mitchell+2014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWPkDahAi9c4Pz3dX9BYPn01Rr3ORIIjdP-pwCtYJo2zSYZjnW9sq803tZAQ2J4J-Qcq90MtpHcl2BakXSSH5s49LOG6BedVKrYMMvkoqsU30MtBa7FwXtXRLTnbRbKwCMiemuGD_6tPQ/s1600/Milwaukee+Mitchell+2014.jpg" height="378" width="640" /></a></div>
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Note that the slope of the trend-line, while definitely upward, is not quite as sharp as the Twin Cities' line and, while they've had two winters solidly in USDA Zone 7 in this decade, the line predicts that it will be quite a few years before they move into Zone 7.<br />
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Here is Detroit, which has now crossed into Zone 7, as predicted by the trend line, albeit with a very shallow slope over quite a few years. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxPh9zVMA3fEIYZ57SzpiONqXkqYx1oe8mob5Vt5hvWktNKH60uPw26l6trGbVqQSTSKJC8hNDZ03NHiaj0KkiOuhm67PceG65J9SUX4RW2Ne_xOUK-D9KwK8oXfaw60h0PLjgjW74AcI/s1600/Detroit+City+AP+2014.jpg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxPh9zVMA3fEIYZ57SzpiONqXkqYx1oe8mob5Vt5hvWktNKH60uPw26l6trGbVqQSTSKJC8hNDZ03NHiaj0KkiOuhm67PceG65J9SUX4RW2Ne_xOUK-D9KwK8oXfaw60h0PLjgjW74AcI/s1600/Detroit+City+AP+2014.jpg.png" height="392" width="640" /></a></div>
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Here is CC's regional close-up of the Ohio Valley:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQd635-kQ36AbWo-zKciJCKXR6dIlC5yai5quBXgLs2EwL0J68v3bX2_7WSIHm0vdxo0BsdVuoE3iXdCJMRQXtIXd0X0sRIljjTEbzHDbkAAUvQtmF0ikKT1LeFAEnxAkqlQ6QR3G87Qc/s1600/WinterTempTrends_OhioValley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQd635-kQ36AbWo-zKciJCKXR6dIlC5yai5quBXgLs2EwL0J68v3bX2_7WSIHm0vdxo0BsdVuoE3iXdCJMRQXtIXd0X0sRIljjTEbzHDbkAAUvQtmF0ikKT1LeFAEnxAkqlQ6QR3G87Qc/s1600/WinterTempTrends_OhioValley.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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And here is my EMT graph of St. Louis, which has moved solidly into Zone 7, with a fairly sharp upward trend:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwi02TLLy8HvDQYtkl4t-QsGS5Q4ggnbYr9jcc-ePBdvaOR6HWdcnv1RR1NVH-BeEAgcCAYbm0VyzsE6cX5yMiStSMDwyJfNbx8eeHray9EhG3pOQTX1vsZsjdV4gguAweEWgk5OW9_bM/s1600/St.+Louis+Lambert+2014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwi02TLLy8HvDQYtkl4t-QsGS5Q4ggnbYr9jcc-ePBdvaOR6HWdcnv1RR1NVH-BeEAgcCAYbm0VyzsE6cX5yMiStSMDwyJfNbx8eeHray9EhG3pOQTX1vsZsjdV4gguAweEWgk5OW9_bM/s1600/St.+Louis+Lambert+2014.jpg" height="392" width="640" /></a></div>
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And here is Chicago, which perennially was in Zone 5 but now has moved solidly into Zone 6. Note that the slope of its trend line is very similar to Milwaukee's, which should be no surprise, but they too are quite a long way from being consistently in Zone 7.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6ENlbOgjgqOI8_Hd1SkED3_Ez_n-Fxiv3Uz_aBU2P7OKQK9clY2f4A2Ew4yJ1T65bJhc34IZEdGUQZ_AjKjnzPnKbSiL-zj2Svgd388SSpdwOP0ul19_pDfxrvHpWF9h9euerAZk61_k/s1600/Chicago+O'Hare%2B2014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6ENlbOgjgqOI8_Hd1SkED3_Ez_n-Fxiv3Uz_aBU2P7OKQK9clY2f4A2Ew4yJ1T65bJhc34IZEdGUQZ_AjKjnzPnKbSiL-zj2Svgd388SSpdwOP0ul19_pDfxrvHpWF9h9euerAZk61_k/s1600/Chicago+O'Hare%2B2014.jpg" height="378" width="640" /></a></div>
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Finally, here is Indianapolis, which has a trend line a bit shallower than Chicago or Milwaukee, but the line projects that it is almost in Zone 7 (and actually had a Zone 8 winter in 2012).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjliLk8Z5abZQnLTyhBlyhNvDkmZpDKuDqEHifhzwFgur7hTV0aGchWlWik_Gj6EoVBGZ9wv3R1xik3JzWTB-xocGnuLEqUQ5F1JVdhE3ChnbHpuNItXMxlghUF8uAQV75dnRRlt0b3QU4/s1600/Indianapolis+2014.jpg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjliLk8Z5abZQnLTyhBlyhNvDkmZpDKuDqEHifhzwFgur7hTV0aGchWlWik_Gj6EoVBGZ9wv3R1xik3JzWTB-xocGnuLEqUQ5F1JVdhE3ChnbHpuNItXMxlghUF8uAQV75dnRRlt0b3QU4/s1600/Indianapolis+2014.jpg.png" height="392" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b>So What Happened Last Winter?</b><br />
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That's a perfectly logical question, in the face of all the trend line evidence of warming. Most climate scientists believe that the "polar vortex" phenomenon we experienced last year was (or is) a product of climate change and that it is unlikely to repeat itself with regularity. However, that is certainly not to say that it won't happen again or that we might not see variations of it. Note in the graphs above that last winter was a big departure from all trend lines, especially in some of the warmer midwest cities like Detroit, St. Louis and Indianapolis. With a developing El Nino, which is also a child of climate change, it seems unlikely that we could see another major vortex incursion in the winter of 2014-15. For a more detailed explanation of the polar vortex and its presumed causes, please see my October 2014 blog: "Winter Protecting Roses in a Climate Change Environment".<br />
<a href="http://jack-rosarian.blogspot.com/2014/10/winter-protecting-roses-in-climate.html">http://jack-rosarian.blogspot.com/2014/10/winter-protecting-roses-in-climate.html</a> .<br />
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<b>Conclusion</b><br />
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Finally, I would like to emphasize the statistical validity of the trend-lines generated on the graphs in this article. As mentioned earlier, these trends are both predictive and dynamic, in that you should be able to extend them into the future with a fair degree of accuracy, regardless of one year anomalies in either direction. For example, it is logical to conclude that the Twin Cities will see more winters in Zone 6 than in Zone 4 in coming years and that, within the next seven or eight years we will see consistent Zone 6 winters. This can be clearly seen on the St. Louis graph, as it progressed along its trend line to where it crossed into Zone 7. And the same can be seen on the Detroit chart, although its change was more gradual and over more years.<br />
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Having said all of this, I am not implying that winter-protecting roses isn't important to prevent the inevitable freeze-thaw cycle. Rather, I am saying that extreme measures, such as the Minnesota Tip, are unnecessary, if sensitive roses are properly planted with bud unions below ground. Please see the article cited above, as well as my September 2013 article "Winter Protecting Your Roses" for more complete explanations:<br />
<a href="http://jack-rosarian.blogspot.com/2013/09/winter-protecting-your-roses.html">http://jack-rosarian.blogspot.com/2013/09/winter-protecting-your-roses.html</a> .<br />
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Jack Falker<br />
@mnrosegardener<br />
jack@falkerinvestments.com<br />
December 2014<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056259155953231806.post-4013513623963810372014-12-08T15:19:00.002-08:002016-08-26T12:03:48.331-07:00"Bugs and Roses"<br />
<i>This is part two of my July 2014 article "Controlling Spider Mites and Thrips on Roses Without Insecticides-- Part One". In case you haven't seen it, here's that article:</i><br />
<a href="http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2014/07/controlling-spider-mites-and-thrips-on.html">http://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2014/07/controlling-spider-mites-and-thrips-on.html</a><br />
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<i>The underlying purpose of these two articles is to demonstrate that attracting, introducing and nurturing beneficial and predatory insects to control common pests like spider mites and thrips is both possible and desirable in a rose garden. I finally realized, after many years of spraying everything from organophosphates like Orthene, neonicotinoids like imidicloprid (Merit) and pyrethroids like Demand CS (which is what I thought I was supposed to do to control everything from aphids to Japanese beetles), that what I was really doing was wiping out naturally occurring beneficial and predator insects. For example, I suddenly realized that I no longer was seeing lady beetles and lacewings, which are natural predators for spider mites. It's no wonder because, instead of tediously picking Japanese beetles off my plants and drowning them in soapy water, I sprayed them with Demand CS, which works really well, but also wipes out all other beetles (like lady bugs) and just about every other predatory insect in the garden. As a result, I ended up with a massive infestation of aphids (something I hadn't seen in many years) because I had destroyed all their predators, in my efforts to deter Japanese beetles.</i><br />
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<i>Then, early in 2014, my compatriot-rosarian Paul Zimmerman mentioned a new book by Jessica Walliser, "Attracting Beneficial Bugs to your Garden", which changed my way of thinking about controlling insect pests in my gardens. Here's a link to that book, which is available both new and used on Amazon:</i><br />
<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Attracting-Beneficial-Bugs-Your-Garden/dp/1604693886/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417916500&sr=8-1&keywords=attracting+beneficial+bugs+to+your+garden">http://www.amazon.com/Attracting-Beneficial-Bugs-Your-Garden/dp/1604693886/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417916500&sr=8-1&keywords=attracting+beneficial+bugs+to+your+garden</a></i><br />
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Well, after reading Jessica's book multiple times, I decided I had to try what she advocates, and I learned a lot. First, the good news: I was very successful in controlling thrips without insecticides all last summer and, as a direct result, beneficial insects, including honey bees, bumble bees, mason bees, syrphid flies, lacewings and predatory wasps have flourished, on their own. Second, the relatively bad news: spider mites were harder to control than I thought, when I wrote my July article, above.<br />
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I washed my roses at least every other day and I just couldn't get rid of the spider mites altogether. Just when I thought I had the upper hand (as I did in July when I wrote the article) they would come back, not to the extent where I would see a lot of webbing, but just to where they would appear on new growth. If you were to look with a magnifying glass at the wilted leaf just under the bud in the picture below, you would find just a thread or two of mite webbing. So the wilted leaf is a tell-tale sign; something it has taken me a long time to understand. Those leaves die and become "crispy", as the mites multiply and move on to other new growth. I was able to control the mites by cutting off that leaf stem and washing the plant, but they continued to pop up elsewhere on other new growth, no matter how much I washed.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir2UjDTvIcJ5gW83GdCIUQtW6CI7EisQx5AietbLmIU3F9ccVRflaIfvZkCg086QfsLrrb-fSS3ilMxuTqGokjjQiFbwBRTT2mnHqDWRN11byoH4zaJ27mE1U0hK6viCA5p-tWKn95hI8/s1600/Earthsong+with+mites.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir2UjDTvIcJ5gW83GdCIUQtW6CI7EisQx5AietbLmIU3F9ccVRflaIfvZkCg086QfsLrrb-fSS3ilMxuTqGokjjQiFbwBRTT2mnHqDWRN11byoH4zaJ27mE1U0hK6viCA5p-tWKn95hI8/s1600/Earthsong+with+mites.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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I really didn't want to use a miticide because I had imported large quantities of predatory mites (at least 100,000 cucumeris and fallacis mites) from California and I wanted them to do their job on both the mites and thrips, before applying a miticide, which would likely take down most of the mites, including predators. I made it until late August without using anything but water, but finally I had to do something because even my most resistant roses were succumbing to blackspot from the constant washing. In August, I made one application of Floramite and that took care of the spider mites. I won't know until spring if I killed all the predators (Fallacis mites are supposed to be hardy enough to overwinter in Minnesota) so we'll have to wait and see. I'm not giving up on this, however. Next spring I will start washing earlier and, if I can't control the mites with existing predators, such as lady beetles, which I didn't have in 2014, I will reintroduce more predatory mites. I still believe it will work if I get enough predators on the plants</div>
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<b>Thrips (both singular and plural, i.e., one insect is called a thrips)</b></div>
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Given the persistence of spider mites, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was able to control thrips with the beneficials I was able to introduce and/or attract to my garden this summer. Here's what a Carefree Beauty bud with thrips running around in it looked before my beneficials got to work. By the way, any bud that looks like this gets plucked and disposed of someplace where the thrips can't fly back into the garden. That's the first line of defense when you're not spraying insecticides.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv07icYjDDfgMt89Xj3g2j25KOKcDEXvn7WbBCAMsxgK_VpXOkQY2IWtAstJhO5ecw30gRHaPYTp1VnGe5yq2KF2TLo7E8lWOZVQlD-dIjfE8wfYjBjUMAjW2S6VJKmgzgSRuYZA3ptX8/s1600/Earthsong+thrips.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv07icYjDDfgMt89Xj3g2j25KOKcDEXvn7WbBCAMsxgK_VpXOkQY2IWtAstJhO5ecw30gRHaPYTp1VnGe5yq2KF2TLo7E8lWOZVQlD-dIjfE8wfYjBjUMAjW2S6VJKmgzgSRuYZA3ptX8/s1600/Earthsong+thrips.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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As long as you don't spray things that kill them, natural thrips predators, such as minute pirate bugs and syrphid flies are fairly easy to attract to the garden with plantings, such as oregano, yarrow, alyssum and cosmos. And predatory mites can be imported from an insectary, such as Rincon-Vitova in California. In talking to Jan Dietrick, who runs Rincon-Vitova, I also learned that beneficial nematodes released in the soil of each rose bed will feast on the pupa of thrips, eliminating something like 80% of them before they become active on the plants. I ordered millions of the nematodes Jan recommended, as well as thousands of cucumeris predatory mites and 500 minute pirate bugs, in addition to 500 lady bugs for spider mite control. By the way, these beneficials aren't terribly expensive, compared with what I've been spending on insecticides. However, the required overnight shipping is quite expensive so it's advisable to combine as much as you can in one shipment. Here's Rincon-Vitova's website: <a href="http://www.rinconvitova.com/">http://www.rinconvitova.com/</a></div>
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I'm not sure exactly what did the trick on the thrips but, after they got off to a head start on me (see the picture above), I was able to control them from mid-summer onward. I'm pretty confident that the nematodes were effective and I could see the syrphid flies, which arrived in droves, probing around in the flowers, so I believe the combination of those two worked. The minute pirate bugs arrived too late to become well established, but I'm sure they will be around next summer, and I'm not sure about the predatory mites because they were too hard to see but I saw enough of them with my magnifying glass to know they were there.</div>
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Here's an interesting statement from an article on thrips by Applied Bio-Nomics, the producer of the predatory mites I purchased from Rincon-Vitova: <i>"The first thing to know is that I do not believe that a single thrip has died from an insecticide registered against thrips for the past three </i></div>
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<i> </i><i>years .... </i><i>I will bet<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>you that they died from the soap effect of the spreaders and<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> the stickers rather than the active ingredients. So,don’t even think about using chemicals against thrips.... Another even more important reason not to use chemicals is because there is now considerable research that shows that sub-lethal<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>chemical attacks actually induce the thrips to lay more eggs. "</i></div>
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You can find this article and several other equally interesting articles on Applied Bio-Nomics' website: <a href="http://www.appliedbio-nomics.com/">http://www.appliedbio-nomics.com/</a></div>
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So, according to this expert, a chemical like Conserve SC (spinosad), the insecticide of choice for thrips, doesn't kill thrips, it just kills the beneficials like syrphid flies and minute pirate bugs that attack thrips. This is completely opposite to what we have been taught to believe as gardeners.</div>
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<b>Insectary Effects</b></div>
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Here's how a little insectary corner of one of my rose gardens looked last summer, with oregano, bachelor buttons, cosmos, dill, yarrow and a few other things to attract beneficials (Buck's Prairie Harvest is to the right). When I took this picture, this little garden was teeming with wasps, bees and other beneficial insects that were nowhere to be found in my garden last year. The idea of doing this, as well as directions on what to plant to attract various beneficials, came directly from Jessica Walliser's book, mentioned earlier. I plan to expand my insectary efforts next year, which will include removing several more roses to make room for more beneficial bug-attracting plants. In short, <b>this really works!</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-Q8izuGGkNFp41FYVVrURTYha2s4JdF5rvgfn2lx8Ee5W1o_yIsdH8tuA6BJRMtCAnn62cbMCNPCVPe3lOO8dvPCC2AETPwn00CaA5ttkMUWu5QkF4v34KzjPzDcNJXZc1FQqxf11Pkk/s1600/Insectary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-Q8izuGGkNFp41FYVVrURTYha2s4JdF5rvgfn2lx8Ee5W1o_yIsdH8tuA6BJRMtCAnn62cbMCNPCVPe3lOO8dvPCC2AETPwn00CaA5ttkMUWu5QkF4v34KzjPzDcNJXZc1FQqxf11Pkk/s1600/Insectary.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Here's a picture of a bumble bee on one of my Earth Song plants last summer. I was really amazed at how many bees showed up in my gardens after I stopped spraying. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFOa_6h1hst7yWIbxjhIp05nBax4lrBKxYHdjQSKnP77OuPQurYA1MBDelOgEbRqknxmVCKqPAbfy9w7lQybQDhM9cqx9vxM7GGIF6KSoYldApwNLbZsRs8lVmcKDseZRnZvAyA0mC-20/s1600/Earthsong+and+bee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFOa_6h1hst7yWIbxjhIp05nBax4lrBKxYHdjQSKnP77OuPQurYA1MBDelOgEbRqknxmVCKqPAbfy9w7lQybQDhM9cqx9vxM7GGIF6KSoYldApwNLbZsRs8lVmcKDseZRnZvAyA0mC-20/s1600/Earthsong+and+bee.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Here's another bumble bee on one of the many sunflowers I planted last summer to attract beneficials. I have no idea where all the varieties of bees (including many honey bees) came from but I did notice, with great interest, that the bumble bees were going in and out of a nest they had made alongside a drain pipe, just a few feet from where I had planted a stand of sunflowers to attract them. No coincidence there!<br />
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One of the most important things Jessica Walliser talks about early in "Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden" is the need to be patient. When there is a large infestation of insects like aphids or spider mites, it takes time to build up enough predator mites and insects to feed on them. I believe that's what my experience was with the spider mites this summer because I had killed off so many beneficial predators over the years, especially in my efforts to control an infestation of Japanese Beetles, which was especially bad in 2012. I have written several articles about that effort, but I now recognize that the use of the pyrethroid, Demand CS, which is very effective in deterring the beetles, comes at the price of eliminating many beneficial insects (about which a knowledgeable rosarian from the TCRC, Sue Youngdahl, gently reminded me at the time). I'm not going to use it again in my garden, as well as other insecticides, with the possible exception of an occasional miticide, as I did this summer but would really like to have done without. However, it is understandable that large public gardens and commercial growers do not have that luxury in their need to control Japanese beetles on a large scale, where picking them one at a time off the plants would be impossible (and those bugs are really awful and terribly destructive). For example, I noted that the University of Minnesota Arboretum was using a pyrethroid in their rose gardens last summer, which is completely understandable.</div>
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What I achieved in one growing season was remarkable and these results have made me want to try even harder next year. Nature is exceptionally responsive to our efforts to protect it, and my own most important lesson is that patience is everything, as we change our practices. The rewards are well worth the inconvenience and extra effort. I'll have more to say about this as we go along, so stay tuned and feel free to ask questions. We can learn together!</div>
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Jack</div>
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@mnrosegardener (Twitter)</div>
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<a href="mailto:jack@falkerinvestments.com">jack@falkerinvestments.com</a></div>
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December 2014</div>
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