An article in the July/August, 1938, National 4-H News entitled “Thrills for Camera Fans” recounts the experiences of delegates to the recent National 4-H Club Camp in Washington, DC, taking pictures of famous buildings, historic sites and camp life.

Photo from the July 2015 issue of the 4-H History Preservation Newsletter

1928 National 4-H Club Conference delegates line up to photograph Mount Vernon.

National 4-H week is being celebrated all over America, just as it has been for the last 100 years. Look for window Displays and posters all over our County. Photograph (at bottom) shows Alexander Valley 4-H in front of their Window Display. This is the time of year that 4-H members and volunteer leaders take the time to give a special shout out to the program.

Sonoma County 4-H is a youth development program which allows young people a chance to learn new skills, gain self-confidence, and contribute to their communities.  Backed by the knowledge and research base of University of California, extension educators' work with adult and teen volunteers to design educational, leadership and citizenship experiences for youth.  These programs are delivered at the local and county level through clubs, schools, after school programs and other community venues.

Sonoma County 4-H empowers youth for the future by involving them in civic activity and actively engaging them in meaningful roles.  Through volunteer leaders youth are taught how to assess and improve their projects and activities.  In addition, youth learn to build interpersonal relations through communications, negotiations, group and personal decision making and how to deal effectively with conflict.  Most importantly they learn how to improve their personal leadership skills and how to apply what they learn.

Did you know?

• 4-H helps kids to do better in school, learn to help others, feel more capable and responsible.
• 4-H is the largest out of school youth organization in the United States.
• 4-H members are more involved in community volunteerism than other youth their age across the state.
• They are also less likely to partake in alcohol, damage property, or smoke cigarettes than other youth in their same age group.
• 4-H'ers are more involved in sports and arts activities and were less likely to have spent six or more hours watching television or playing video games each day. (Tuft study)

The disease is caused by a bacteria called Erwinia amylovera.  It primarily effects Apples (Malus), Pears (Pyrus), and Quince (Cydonia), but it can also attack Hawthorn (Crataegus), Loquat (Eriobotria), Pyracantha and a few others.  It has been really bad this year for two reasons.  Number one is that we had a winter with very little effective chilling.  This caused many tree species to leaf out abnormally and to flower sporadically over months instead of a few weeks.  In fact it was common on apple and pear trees to see large fruit and flowering at the same time even into mid-summer.  Prolonged bloom is bad because most fire blight infections get into the tree via the blossoms.  Consequently, the longer the bloom period the more susceptible the trees are to infection.  The second reason is that we had several, abnormal, light, rainfall periods accompanied by high humidity and warm temperatures this spring and early summer.  Fire blight flourishes under wet conditions with temperatures in the 60^oF range. 

Commercial apple and pear farmers have traditionally used protective copper or antibiotic (bacteriacide) sprays during bloom followed by daily pruning cuts to immediately take out strikes that had gotten into the blossom spurs or new shoots.  This year for the first time, organic growers were no longer able to use traditional antibiotics, but fortunately there are several alternative, organically acceptable products that work quite well – just as well as the old antibiotics or copper sprays. 

HOME GARDENERS

For home fruit gardeners or those who have ornamental pear trees that they feel need protection, the most practical control is to prune out overwintering cankers and then spray the trees with a copper fungicide as the first blossoms come out.    

COMMERCIAL FARMERS

For commercial farmers, these are some of the options for control using organically acceptable methods: 

1. This winter when the trees are dormant, the branches and trunks should be checked carefully for sunken bark cankers where the bacteria overwinters. Those branches should be removed or the cankers should be cut out down to clean wood and sprayed with a copper fungicide. 
2. Next spring – at bud break (green tip), apply one of the fixed copper sprays for sanitation.  Copper sprays have been shown to reduce the bacteria by at least half. 
3. At the early bloom stage apply a biological protectant like ‘Blossom Protect', which is a yeast that colonizes flowers during bloom and protects them. Other effective products include “Bloomtime Biological', ‘Serenade Optima', ‘Blight Ban 506', which are antagonistic bacteria, or copper products such as 'Cueva', ‘Kocide', ‘Nordox', ‘COCS', ‘Badge', Bordeaux, etc. when weather conditions are correct.  Several protective sprays may be necessary if wet weather persists.  Care must be taken to avoid products that cause fruit russeting. 
   CAUTION: Remember to check the product label.  Labels change.  The label is the document that governs the legal use of the product.  Also, check to see if the product is acceptable for organic certification, if you are an organic grower.     

For more information see the following links:

• UC IPM: Fire Blight
• UC IPM: Fire Blight – Apples 
• UC IPM: Fire Blight – Pears 
• UC publication: Integrated Pest Management for Apples and Pears, 2nd Edition  
• eXtension: Webinars by eOrganic 
• eXtension: Non-Antibiotic Control of Fire Blight: What Works As We Head Into a New Era 

2015 Search for Excellence Award

They were there to accept the first place award in the 'Community Service' category of the IMG's Search for Excellence for the Garden Sense program.  They were proud to represent the hard work & commitment of all of the Garden Sense consultants who make the water conservation program such a huge success.  There were over 900 Master Gardeners in attendance at the conference from the United States, Canada and South Korea.

Pictured are Missy Gable, California Statewide MG Office Director, Ann Trump Daniels, California Statewide MG Office Fundraising Coordinator, Mimi Enright & Susan Foley. Photo by Lauren Snowden.

Master Gardeners Susan Shaw and Kathy Matonak construct teepees for vertical gardening in a demonstration bed.

The Food Gardening Specialists (FGS) of the UCCE Sonoma Master Gardeners are excited to present water-wise food gardening strategies.Given our hot, dry summers along with the prediction of extended drought, we can't afford to waste a drop.

This video demonstrates how home and community gardeners can grow a thriving vegetable garden with less water. In addition, this video is complemented by a planting scheme and a drip system instruction and shopping list that reflects the 4x8-foot demonstration vegetable bed in the video. 

For people wondering if they can have a food garden with limited available water, the Food Gardening Specialists (FGS) of the UCCE Sonoma Master Gardeners believe that the answer is, “Yes!”  All you need to do is to scale planting to your family's likes and needs and to apply water-wise strategies to your vegetable garden.  The video, along with helpful water-wise publications, is available for viewing on the SCMG website: Food Gardening with Less Water. 

You CAN have a bountiful, water-wise vegetable garden in a drought!