Our president (of McLennan County Master Gardeners) sent your question to several of us, and I decided to see if I could answer your question. You asked if it is feasible to grow potatoes in Hewitt in the fall. Yes, it is feasible, but no, it is not practical. Here are some of the problems you face: Potatoes take about 100 days to mature. There is not a 100 day growing season between the end of the fiercely hot summer weather and the first frost (about mid-November). You… Read More →

WACO — It’s called an “evapotranspiration tower”. A weather system that measures rainfall, humidity, solar radiation and wind. “It’s access able on the web so anyone can look at that data and it’s got a little calculator on there that tells you, you choose what kind of grass you have and it takes the data that it has recorded and tells you ‘you need to water or you don’t need to water’,” said Jonathan Echols, spokesman for Waco Water Utilities. He said the system is about conserving. “It’ll help people get a… Read More →

Expert: Drought is only part of the story Writer: Robert Burns,903-834-6191, rd-burns@tamu.edu OVERTON – Although drought is often the cause, trees can die for other reasons besides lack of soil moisture, said Dr. Eric Taylor, Texas AgriLife Extension Service forestry specialist, Overton. “Drought is the primary contributor to tree kill, but it may not be exactly the way you might be thinking,” Taylor said. “You may find this hard to believe, but relatively few trees likely died directly from dehydration in 2011. Instead, the 2011 drought severely weakened… Read More →

Texas AgriLife Extension           TEXAS PECAN PEST MANAGEMENT NEWSLETTER                                      Bill Ree, Extension Program Specialist II – IPM (Pecan)                           June 29, 2012                                                       P.O. Box 2150, Bryan, TX  77806-2150                                                                                                      Ph: 979-845-6800                                                                                                              # 12-4                                                      Email: w-ree@tamu.edu                                                      http://pecan.ipmPIPE.org                                                      http://pecankernel.tamu.edu http://pncforecast.tamu.edu                                                   ******************************************************************************************** TEXAS  PECAN  GROWERS  ASSOC. 4348 Carter Creek, Suite 101 Bryan, TX 77802 Ph: 979-846-3285 www.tpga.org ******************************************************************************************* GENERAL From the orchards I have visited I am still seeing a good to very good crop. However, much… Read More →

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT LIVE OAK DECLINE (Be sure to check the Texas A&M Plant Pathology home page at: http://plantpathology.tamu.edu/Texlab/oakwilt.html and http://plantpathology.tamu.edu/Texlab/trees/tree4.html for more information.) Fall (October) is a great time to plant trees, but it is also important that we protect the trees that we have. The major disease threat to live and red oak trees in our area is oak wilt. The disease is expressed in red oaks (Texas, Schumard, Blackjack) by a healthy tree showing fall-like coloring in late spring or early fall and… Read More →

McLennan County Master Gardener Annual Plant Sale May 19, 9 am to 3 pm. 4605 W. Waco Drive (vacant lot beside Mocek’s TV)   (Sharing  plants from our yards to yours)

Many calls have come into the Extension Office about trees dying in home landscapes, particularly oaks. More often than not the cause is related to drought stress. The damage caused by the recurring droughts of last 10 to 15 years result in trees in yards and open forests declining, and even dying throughout Central Texas and the rest of the state. Unfortunately, there is little that can be done to reverse the process of a dying tree. For future drought-related problems, if you catch them early enough, it… Read More →