- Posted By: Amy Breschini
- Written by: Ann Dozier
Tomato Extravaganza
By Ann Dozier
It’s high summer and how are your tomatoes doing? Wish you’d known
which varieties give best results locally? Did you plant the best tasting varieties?
Come, taste and find out. At their annual Tomato Extravaganza, Master Gardeners are celebrating the luscious red (or maybe striped or purple) tomato, queen of summer’s bounty. Saturday, August 20, all things tomato will be the focus at the Seven Sisters demonstration garden at
View Larger Map">2156 Sierra Way in San Luis Obispo.
At this free “edible festival” you can taste ripe home-grown tomatoes and vote for your favorite. Basil is a perfect companion for tomatoes – and several varieties (Thai, cinnamon, purple, etc.) will also be part of the tasting.
As well as tastings, local experts will be offering mini-seminars. You can learn to cook up a great tomato dish or make flavorful vinegars for gifts. Find out how to graft tomatoes or maybe find out what ate your plants this year!
Seminar Program:
10-11 AM Learn to Grow Your Own Gazpacho
A cooking demo with Joe Thomas of Thomas Hill Organics
11:15-11:45 Tomato Grafting- find out about the 'Mighty Mato'
with the California Rare Fruit Growers
Noon-12:30 The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Integrated Pest Management of Insects in the Garden
12:30-1 PM Flavored Wine Vinegar and growing grapes
Worm Bins will be available all day! $98- Includes the full kit with instruction booklet, education table set up all day to help you get one set up, and red wigglers! We recommend reserving one now by clicking here.
If all this has worked up your appetite, you may want to purchase some tomato-based treats cooked up for the occasion by local chef Rochelle Harringer. Children who attend will have fun making tomato heads to take home. To find the Tomato Extravanza Poster, scroll to the bottom of this post and click on the underlined attachment.
Got a Gardening Question?
Contact the University of California Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners: at 781-5939 from 1 to 5 p.m. on Monday and Thursday; at 473-7190 from 10 a.m. to noon in Arroyo Grande; and at 434-4105 from 9 a.m. to noon on Wednesday in Templeton. Visit the UCCE Master Gardeners Web site at groups.ucanr.org/slomg/ or e-mail mgsanluisobispo@ucdavis.edu
Tomato Extravaganza Poster
Tomato Extravaganza Press Release PDF
- Posted By: Amy Breschini
- Written by: Ann Dozier
July Advice to Grow By
By Ann Dozier
Are you tired of climbing ladders to reach the crop on your fruit trees? How can you keep backyard fruit trees at an easy to care for height? How should you shape young trees?
Summer pruning is an easy and convenient method of controlling the growth of backyard fruit trees. Some advocates of this kind of pruning recommend keeping fruit trees at a height of around 12 feet which allows for ease of care and harvesting. Pruning of rampant spring growth also allows light and air to reach lower branches. This improved air circulation may reduce disease, and additional light can help promote lower growing fruit.
In comparison to traditional winter pruning, pruning when there is fruit on the tree serves to thin an overabundant crop. It also makes apparent on what age wood the tree sets fruit (one, two or three year old wood, e.g.) Keeping trees at a smaller size makes available nutrients more likely to be used for fruit production rather than foliage.
This coming Saturday, July 16, you can attend a free presentation on summer pruning given by Master Gardeners at their Seven Sisters demonstration garden, 2156 Sierra Way, San Luis Obispo, from 10 AM until noon. Demonstrations of pruning the garden’s young trees (which have been planted with two or three varieties in one hole) will take place. Master Gardeners will also talk about more traditional winter pruning and give pointers for reducing size of older trees. Come prepared with sunscreen, water and hats and bring a folding chair if possible.
For more information on summer pruning, check out the website of Dave Wilson Nursery, http://www.davewilson.com/homegrown/BOC_explained.html. Basic information on pruning and on shaping of neglected fruit trees can be found on:
http://homeorchard.ucdavis.edu/The_Big_Picture/Pruning_&_Training/
Got a Gardening Question?
Contact the University of California Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners: at 781-5939 from 1 to 5 p.m. on Monday and Thursday; at 473-7190 from 10 a.m. to noon in Arroyo Grande; and at 434-4105 from 9 a.m. to noon on Wednesday in Templeton. Visit the UCCE Master Gardeners Web site at groups.ucanr.org/slomg/ or e-mail mgsanluisobispo@ucdavis.edu
- Author: Amy Breschini
Grass bug, Arhyssus sp. (Photo by Rodney Cooper, USDA-ARS, Shafter)
The following information is from Dr. Surendra Dara, UCCE Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo
Several specimens of grass bugs have been brought to our office in the recent weeks. These are of varying sizes (about 7-12 mm), but identified by the CDFA systematist, Rosser Garrison as Arhyssus sp. They belong to the family Rhopalidae (Order Hemiptera), members of which are commonly known as scentless plant bugs. They mostly feed on xeric (require less water or adapted to dry habitats) and other weed plants. Sometimes they enter homes in search of protected places.
Grass bugs are similar to coreids or leaf-footed bugs except they do not have well-developed scent glands and smaller than coreids. These can be confused with false chinch bug, Nysius raphanus (family Lygaeidae) which are also found in weedy or grassy areas and migrate to homes.
Damage: They usually do not cause any serious damage in the home gardens. However, they can be a nuisance when entering the homes in large numbers.
Management: Sealing the windows, keeping the doors closed or using the screen doors, and vacuuming are the best practices to keep them out or clean them up.
- Author: Amy Breschini
On March 19, 2011, Mark Gaskell, UCCE Farm Advisor, led a blueberry workshop at the UCCE Auditorium, our back up location on a rainy day for the Garden of the Seven Sisters.
Photo by Brenda Dawson, UC Davis
Here are some helpful links to more information about growing blueberries:
Mark Gaskell has all of his information for small farm blueberry production here.
If that link didn't work, his page can always be found at: http://cesantabarbara.ucdavis.edu
Check out the UC ANR general information for backyard gardening of berries here.
Thank you Mark!
- Author: Amy Breschini
Article by George Frisch
UC Master Gardener
San Luis Obispo County
A hardy, rapidly growing, maintenance-free, reasonably drought tolerant, evergreen ground cover with attractive leaves and lovely flowers -- is there such a plant?
Yes, there are a few, but one is no longer recommended!
Myoporum pacificum is a member of a family (Myoplraceae) widely planted in residential and commercial landscapes and along many miles of California highway hillsides for erosion control. Native to Australia and New Zealand, this attractive and popular family of plants has been virtually pest free. Since 2005, however, a new and exotic genus of thrips (Klambothrips) and its single species (Klambothrips myopori Mound and Morris) has been moving its way north along the coast from San Diego County and has recently appeared here in SLO County.
Less than 120th of an inch in length, the adult black-bodied Myoporum thrips and its orangish hued larvae cause severe damage, particularly to new growth which they prefer. The female thrips inserts eggs into the leaf where the larvae feed, eventually causing terminal gall and severe swelling, curling and leaf distortion.
Managing Myoporum Thrips is difficult. They have no known predator in California. Their tiny size, hidden feeding behavior, mobility and protected egg and pupal stages make most insecticides available to the home gardener ineffective. Pesticides available through licensed pesticide applicators have shown limited control of the thrips. Pruning out the diseased foliage and destroying (not composting) is effective but impractical for landscape plantings. Severely infested plants may have to be removed and destroyed.
Fortunately, there is a native alternative to be found in the Ceanothus (California Lilac) family. Among the many Ceanothus species, try one that is native to the Central Coast called Carmel Creeper (Ceanothus griseus horizontalis) for a dense, dark green groundcover with long, abundant sky blue flowers and no Myoporum thrips.
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