CO-Horts

CO-Horts Blog

Monday, March 27, 2017

Rose Slugs or Lace Bugs - That is the Question



 Posted by Mary Small, CSU Extension Master Gardener Coordinator

With that title, you might wonder about me – yes, I’m aware it’s still March! And dealing with those guys is a bit down the road yet. But here’s the deal:
I recently returned from a family gathering in Missouri. While there I was asked about a plant problem. I’m usually pretty wishy-washy about identifying out of state plant problems because conditions and pests can be so different. But I fearlessly dove in. It went something like this.

FM (Family Member): What would make the leaves on a rose look lacy? Do you think the recent cold weather would kill it altogether? (I determined she meant would the cold have killed the overwintering stages.)
Me: (visibly annoying the FM by not giving an immediate, decisive answer):  It sounds like rose slug to me, but I don’t know what pests you have here. I really need to figure out what the pest is first.
 Lace bug damage, Whitney Cranshaw, CSU Extension
FM: The garden center said it was lacebug. They feed on the leaf undersides – and it’s hard to treat there, so I’m not sure I killed them.
Me: (While hastily looking up symptoms of lace bug damage on that state’s Extension web site): Did the garden center staff person see the damage?
FM: No, but that’s what they thought it was.
Me: Well, here’s a picture of lacebug damage. Is this what it looked like?
FM (looking at the pictures on my phone): Well, not quite, well, maybe. Maybe there are still some leaves under the roses that you can look at.
Me: (Trudge outside, poke around under the rosebushes and find some leaves with- ta da- pretty heavy-duty rose slug damage. Go inside and show my “find”.) “Is this the damage you were seeing?”
FM: Yes, that’s it!
Image result for rose slug damage
Rose slug damage, Ask An Expert
Me: Okay, you have rose slugs, not lacebugs.
FM: Will the pesticide in the garage kill them?
Me: Trudge out to the garage – mercifully there is only one pesticide to examine. It contains spinosad and roses are on the label. Woo hoo – the FM’s good to go with their annihilation plans.
Then the pesky overwintering question- and I found the answer in a research-based source - “When spraying, be sure to spray both sides of the leaf and the ground below the plant as the larvae pupate in the soil prior to overwintering.” 
Having not taken some of these steps, the FM will need to do a bit of scouting this spring for the newly emerged larvae. Then treat, continue to scout and possibly re-treat.
This late winter- time exchange reminded me the importance of one of those early diagnostic steps – “examine the plant”.  And while I kinda doubted lacebug was the culprit – I checked my research-based resources to confirm. This story will come in very handy shortly when I teach our Master Gardeners about the diagnostic process.
And now I better send off the information about rose slugs to the FM.

Monday, March 20, 2017

Drought has Sprung



 By Irene Shonle, CSU Extension Gilpin County

Happy Spring!

While today (March 20) is the first official day of spring, it has felt spring-like in Colorado for weeks now.  We have had record-breaking high temperatures in February (DIA reached 80 on Feb 10), and stunningly high temperatures through much of March.  Crazy to see sunbathers, people in shorts and tank-tops, and even one hardy soul swimming! 

And the warm temperatures were widespread- it was the second-warmest February on record (2016 was the hottest). (https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2564/february-2017-was-second-warmest-february-on-record/).



We have missed our usual snows so far in March (usually the snowiest month on the Front Range), and the winds and warm temperatures have quickly sent the eastern half of the State into at least moderate drought conditions, with some portions of Larimer, Boulder, Weld, Denver, Jefferson, Adams, and Lincoln Counties in severe drought. A portion of Baca County even just entered the extreme drought category! (http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Home/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?CO). 

Drought monitor for Colorado, March 14, 2017.  Yellow= abnormally dry, beige= D1 (moderate) drought, orange = D2 (severe) drought, orange-red = D3 (extreme) drought.
How can this be, when we had some epic snows in the high country, and, in fact, still have above-average precipitation (116% statewide, 108% in the South Platte River Basin up to 130% in the Gunnison River Basin)? (https://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/ftpref/data/water/wcs/gis/maps/co_swepctnormal_update.pdf)


This is because drought conditions are based on the water content in the soils, and that (except for irrigated land), comes only from precipitation.  The snowpack in the high country will melt, and the spring runoff will help to fill the rivers and the reservoirs, which is great news for water managers and farmers (and probably gardeners as well, since water supply forecasts currently indicate no water supply shortages for the growing season), but it won’t do much for the forests, rangelands, and unirrigated areas. 

We have already seen the effects of the droughts in these areas by the number of wildfires we have had already.  As I write, they are just lifting evacuations from the Sunshine Fire in Boulder, and there have been numerous, impactful wildfires in Colorado already this year (Sterling, South Table Mountain, Weld County, Idaho Springs, one in SE Fort Collins, just to name some. In 2017. And we haven't even reached the end of the first quarter.)

Sunshine Fire -- image from Jackson Barnett/CU Independent)
 In the past, we had a fire season in Colorado. With temperatures on the rise globally, we now have fire season year round.  At least it looks like there’s a little precipitation forecast for the next week.