Guarding the garden

Times Contributor 

 

Gardeners in the Town of Strathmore should be on the lookout for Fire blight in their bushes and trees. Commercial growers say it is the number one killer for their product in Southern Alberta.

“We get Fire blight in the area every year,” said Karen Wournell, Supervisor at Eagle Lake Garden Centre. “With lots of rain, you get lots of different bacteria and fungus popping up.”

The blight is a bacterium that affects mainly apple, crab apple, hawthorn, pear and mountain ash trees, as well as cotoneasters, raspberry, saskatoon, almond and rose shrubs. 

Check closely if you see browning of flowers, buds, or brown/black stems and bark. It often affects the plant by curling the tips of new growth into a shape that looks like a Shepherd’s hook. The bacterium does overwinter and new shoots will grow through the hook, spreading to new growth.

Fire blight spreads from plant to plant, through rain, carried by insects (bees) and wind, or can spread via pruning shears. Damage and open wounds on trees let bacteria settle in the weakened unprotected area and infect it.

It is difficult to treat, but some people use copper sulphate sprays in the spring to contain the spores. Wournell said application has to be timed just right when using the spray. She recommends the preferred and more successful method, which is to cut six inches below the infected site and burn the branches. If you don’t have a fire pit, wrap up the cuttings and place the sealed package in the garbage. Don’t dispose of the branches in compost or a recycle site, as the disease will recycle itself. Usually chips are used as ground cover for other trees and the bacteria will spread to the new site.

Be sure to clean your tools after each cut by dipping them in bleach or alcohol, so you don’t spread anything to successive cuts.

Black Knot fungus is also on the loose in local gardens. Its favourite house is mayday and chokecherry tree branches. You can spot it on branches by its black clumping, giving the branch a barbed wire resemblance. Use the same procedure described for Fire blight removal. 

Every year, Wheatland County posts the prohibited and noxious weed list on the County Website, where pictures of weeds that need to be pulled can be seen. 

Some grow in flower beds and seem pretty, like the noxious weed Himalayan Balsam and sweet chamomile, but if they aren’t removed seeds travel and infest crops. Farmers must employ costly weed killers to eradicate them. In case you aren’t convinced, the Alberta government site has an interactive map, showing where in the province prohibited weeds have spread and are most common. See www.agric.gov.ab.ca/app68/listings/weeds/weeds_map.jsp 

The Town of Strathmore will be doing their part to keep weeds down and will be spraying starting Aug. 20. The areas they will be covering are linked in a map at www.townofstrathmore.ca/news .

A little vigilance in the garden can help our gardens and trees flourish, for the enjoyment of everyone and protect the livelihood of our rural neighbours.