Fighting Rust in my Backyard

By Vicky Barney, Steamboat Springs

The serviceberry bushes in my backyard look unhealthy.  The leaves are covered in brown spots and the berries look very dry.  Since I love the bushes because they feed the birds and the occasional bear, I decided to investigate the problem.

 

Rust on serviceberry leaves

Serviceberry and chokecherry bushes dominate the open space in my neighborhood.  In previous summers, a few brown spots were noticeable on some serviceberry leaves, but the bushes looked healthy overall.  This year, though, entire bushes look sickly and berry production has been poor.  Some research indicated that the bushes might have a fungus, if there was something more than brown spots on the leaves.  On closer inspection, I saw the brown spots had tendrils growing out of the back sides of the leaves, another indication of fungus. (See photo)  I took a branch from an infected bush to Barb, Christine, and Rozanne at the Master Gardener Office Hours last Thursday to confirm the diagnosis I suspected:  Rust.

Rust, or Gymnosperm Rust, is the name given to the Gymnosporangium fungus.  There are a number of species of fungi in the Rocky Mountain area, differentiated by the plants they attack. All require two host plants to complete their disease cycle.  One host is a juniper (including Rocky Mountain juniper, common juniper, and eastern redcedar) and the other a Rosaceous species (including apple, crabapple, hawthorn, Juneberry, and serviceberry).  My species of rust appears to be one with a serviceberry host.

As for the juniper host, the obvious candidate is a juniper tree hidden among the bushes on my property.  A slim tree about twelve feet tall, it is the only juniper tree in the area.  It appears healthy and has no noticeable fungus, but after studying the photos in an article about rusts (https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5347332.pdf), I found small galls on a number of its branches.

So how do I manage rust? I have a few choices.

1.     Ignore it.  Rust rarely kills the host plants and is less aggressive in dry years.  However, it may make the plants more susceptible to other diseases and in wet years, the fruit will be adversely impacted. 

2.     Use chemicals on the serviceberry bushes to break the disease cycle.  Spray the affected serviceberry bushes with fungicide in the spring at seven- to 10-day intervals beginning at blossom time.  The process will require professional help.

3.     Break the disease cycle mechanically on the juniper tree.  Prune out the juniper galls (where gelatinous spore horns emerge) in late winter or early spring.  Given the size of the tree, this option, too, will require professional help.

For more:  http://planttalk.colostate.edu/topics/insects-diseases/1450-juniper-hawthorn-rust/

To ensure the serviceberry bushes stay healthy and berry producing, I want to break the disease cycle.  I do not want to use chemicals as that will adversely affect the wildlife.  Neither do I want to spend the time and money pruning small juniper galls.  In hindsight, the best solution would have been to plant the juniper in another neighborhood, well away from any plants in the Rosaceous species. (A two mile separation is recommended.)  The tree would have grown beautifully in another location.

Thinking about location led to the realization that the juniper tree is not a vital part of the landscape and its removal will break the disease cycle immediately.  This tree has value, consuming carbon dioxide, producing oxygen, and benefitting wildlife, but the disease it is hosting is impacting  the health of dozens (maybe hundreds) of serviceberry bushes that also have value.

 

Choosing to cut down a tree is a surprisingly difficult decision.  Eliminating one host, though, and thus eliminating the fungus, will encourage a healthier landscape and a happier wildlife population.  I hope.

Vicky Barney gardens for wildlife and is a member of the Master Gardener Class of 2011.

CAN I GROW ONIONS AT ALTITUDE WITH A SHORT GROWING SEASON? By Ginger Baer

Onions form bulbs in response to daylength. When the number of daylight hours reaches a certain level, onion plants start forming bulbs. Long-day onions need about 14 to 15 hours of daylight to bulb. Short-day onions need 10 hours of daylight. Day-neutral onions form bulbs regardless of daylight hours and produce well in almost any region. As soon as daylength hits the 10-hour mark, a short-day onion starts forming a bulb. If the top of the plant hasn’t had enough time to grow big and lush, the resulting bulb will be small. Conversely, if you live where daylength never hits 14 hours, long-day onions will never form a bulb. All you’ll get are green leaves or possibly scallions. By choosing the right type of onion for your region, you’ll get healthy green stems that are large enough to fuel forming fat and tasty bulbs.

Which onion type you should plant depends on where you live. The general rule of thumb is:

·        In the North (the area north of a line drawn from San Francisco to Washington, D.C.), summer days are long. This region encompasses zone 6 and colder. If you garden in this area, grow long-day onions, however, there are some exceptions. See below.

·         In the South, summer days don’t vary as much in length from winter ones. This region includes zone 7 and warmer. If you garden in this area, grow short-day onions.

·        Day-neutral (sometimes called intermediate) onions form bulbs in any zone, but are especially suited for gardeners in zones 5 and 6.

·        In our mountain gardens, even if we are in the correct gardening zone, since our growing season is so short, the best onions to grow are day-neutral.

Types of Onions

Short-day onions (not suitable for our mountain region because of our short growing season and they cannot overwinter)

·        Form bulbs with 10 to 12 hours of daylight

·        Need mild winter climate (zone 7 or warmer)

·        Planted in fall, mature in late spring

·        Can be grown in the North, but bulbs don’t get as large

·        Matures in 110 days in the South with fall planting, 75 days in the North with spring planting

Day-neutral onions (best option for our mountain gardens)

·        Form bulbs with 12 to 14 hours of daylight

·        Planted in fall in mild winter climates and in early spring in northern regions

·        Usually sweet

·        Matures when the tops begin to yellow or fall over.

Long-day onions (not suitable for our mountain region due to short growing season)

·        Form bulbs with 14 to 16 hours of daylight

·        Typically grown in northern regions (zone 6 and colder)

·        Planted in late winter/early spring

·        Matures in 90 to 110 days

·        Stores well

What happens if you get your day lengths mixed up? If a northern gardener planted a short day variety, the onion plants would be exposed to enough daylight hours to initiate bulb formation so early in the season that big bulbs would never have the chance to form. And if a southern gardener planted a long-day variety, the onions would never be exposed to sufficiently long days to cause bulbs to form.

Modern plant breeding has helped out with what are known as intermediate day, or day neutral, onions. These varieties aren't as sensitive to day length and bulb up well in response to 12 to 14 hour days. They grow well across a broad range of the country. Day neutral onions are usually planted in the spring.

Last year I purchased onion sets not know if they were short, neutral or long day.  I called the company and was told that they were long day. I went ahead and planted them. I pulled the early ones and enjoyed them as scallions.  The ones that I harvested in mid-September did actually bulb up, but not with huge bulbs. More like “knob onions”, 2-3 inch bulbs.

This is what I got with my long day onions last year.

 This year I purchased onion plants that I knew were day neutral.  They arrived in the mail a few days before the May 21^st  2 foot snow storm we got here in Gilpin County. I managed to keep them alive, but had to hold on to them for about 2 weeks before I could get into my garden to plant them. They are growing, but very slowly. After about 2 months they are only the size of scallions.  I hope we can get another 30 days in our growing season to see what they do. Of course we are now also experiencing shorter days, just under 13.5 hours. Ah, the challenges of growing in the mountains!

This is what the day neutral onions are supposed to look like. We shall see.

My next experiment next year will be to grow onion sets alongside onion plants and see which do better. Stay tuned.