August 26 2006 Timely Tips

GARDENING CALENDAR

TEXAS COOPERATIVE EXTENSION

BEXAR COUNTY

BY DAVID RODRIGUEZ

August 26, 2006

  • Start planting your fall vegetable garden. Use transplants for tomatoes, eggplant and peppers and direct seed corn, winter squash, summer squash, cucumber and beans. Protect the young transplants from the hot sun with a light fabric like Gro-web.
  • This is the second-best time to prune live oak trees. The oak wilt fungus spores and nitilid beetles are not active in extreme hot or cold weather. Be sure to immediately paint any cuts you make with a latex paint.
  • If you have scale problems with your shrubs, use light summer oil or an Acephate product. Please follow label instructions.
  • Fall webworms may appear on mulberry, pecan, ash, persimmon, and other trees. The biological spray Bacillus theringiensus (B.t.) provides control but a new, longer-lasting fungal metabolite is now available. It is an insect nerve agent named Spinosad. It is also labeled for use on fire ants.
  • It has been dry and hot. To attract butterflies and hummingbirds, as well as have great color throughout most of the year consider planting pentas, firebush, Esperanza, Mexican Bird of Paradise and Dwarf Pomegranate.

David Rodriguez is County Extension Agent-Horticulture with Texas Cooperative Extension in Bexar County. For more information, call the Master Gardener “Hotline” (210) 467-6575 or visit our County Extension website at http://bexar-tx.tamu.edu

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