Master Gardener sign-ups begin this week
The University of Tennessee Extension Service Master Gardener Course will be held in McMinnville this winter starting on Thursday night, Jan. 13.
The course, which is held at the Warren County Administrative Building on Locust Street, starts each Thursday evening at 6:30 for 13 consecutive weeks.
The Master Gardener Course is an intensive educational program that offers 40 hours of instruction in many gardening and landscaping topics. Master Gardeners receive instruction from UT personnel and other horticulture experts in botany, soils, landscaping, flowers, vegetable gardening, lawn care and establishment, tree and small fruit production, ornamental trees and shrubs, and insect and disease problems and controls for the home garden and landscape. Master Gardeners also receive their personal copy of the TN Master Gardener Handbook.
Master Gardeners have the opportunity after completing the course to join others in the local Master Gardener Club in fulfilling their volunteer hour requirements. We hope that everyone who participates in the course will contribute 40 hours of volunteer service here in the community.
The cost of the course is $60.00 dollars and includes refreshments and your personal copy of the TN MASTER GARDENER HANDBOOK. Couples are welcome and this will be a good opportunity to meet others in our community who are interested in gardening and landscaping. Seating is limited, if you’d like a registration form or more information give me a call here at the Extension office (473-8484), or at home (668-3197). Don’t wait until the last minute to sign up. There are a limited number of manuals available for this year’s class.
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STOCK GRASS CARP TO CONTROL POND WEEDS
I’ve had many calls this year concerning pond weed control.
Many of our ponds are often infested with different types of algae and small aquatic weeds. There are many different pond or aquatic herbicides that are effective in controlling pond weeds.
Just as in any type of of weed control, you need to know something about which weeds you have and how they grow. There’s not much point in worrying about pond weeds this late in the year; the best time for most herbicide applications in farm ponds are spring and early summer. Cold weather will hold them back until spring.
An alternative to using herbicides for weed control is the use of grass carp or Chinese Amur. These fish can do a great job of controlling many pond weeds and they will not reproduce in our farm ponds. These fish are almost exclusively aquatic weed and algae eaters. Stocking carp in farm ponds is an effective way to control these pests without having to rely on expensive herbicides.
A myth about the Chinese Amur is that a few fish is all you need. It’s not true. Stock at least fifteen grass carp per surface acre in most ponds. Where a large crop of aquatic weeds is already established, a herbicide treatment may be required initially to get them under control. Then the grass carp should be able to help maintain a clean pond. In other words they won’t clean up a weedy pond. Put them in before the pond gets trashy.
In ponds where largemouth bass are already established, grass carp to be stocked should be 9 to 10 inches long or they will be eaten by the bass. Most of these will cost somewhere near a dollar per inch. Smaller grass carp can be stocked in new ponds or in ponds where not predator fish are present.
Once grass carp are very large (30-35 pounds) they become inefficient at weed control. They may be 6 or 7 years old by them. Catch these large fish and eat them as they are quite good, not at all like common carp. An Extension publication, Processing Chinese Grass Carp for Feed, SP422, tells how to dress these good fish and avoid the bones. As the large fish are harvested, replace them with 9- to 10-inch stockers in order to continue control of the weeds and algae.
For more information give us a call here at the Extension office and ask for the U.T. publication, SP 376-Q, Using Grass Carp in Aquaculture and Private Impoundments.
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LOOK AT YOUR PASTURES
We’ve had some heavy frost over the past week and you can get a pretty good idea about how much fescue and clover is in your pastures and hayfields because all the summer weeds have turned brown. The dallis grass, the crabgrass, johnsongrass and all the other weeds that are green in the summer and make us believe we’ve got good hayfields and pastures, have turned brown. If your pastures and hayfields are more than 40 percent brown you probably need to consider re-seeding that field next fall.
Don’t just look at those fields from the road. Drive out in them. Some of that green growth that you see may be from clover and that’s good. However, some of it may be from buttercups or thistles, or chickweed and that’s bad.
During the next month to six weeks we’ve got time to get those fields sprayed. Then if they really don’t have much grass you might consider running some clover on top of them in the spring.
Cattle prices are high and if you need ideas on where to spend that money, pasture investments probably pays a higher return than any other money spent on a cow farm.
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FARMER’S MARKET ANNUAL MEETING
The annual meeting of the Warren County Agriculture Producers Association will be held tomorrow night, Nov. 18, at the Warren County Administrative Building on Locust Street. This is the group that operates the local Farmer’s Market here in McMinnville.
The meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. with a covered dish supper. Call the Extension office(473-8484) to make reservations. The agenda for the meeting includes a discussion of the market’s financial statement and plans for the coming year. Give me a call here at the Extension office for more information.