Posts Tagged: maintenance
How to Keep on Gardening as We Get Older
“Gardening becomes increasingly difficult as we age, yet the garden beckons as strongly as...
Scheduled server downtime: Thursday, July 6, 2023 (6-8 a.m.)
ANR Community,
IT has scheduled an outage of our public server infrastructure on Thursday, July 6, between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. During this window, all public-facing websites and remote access will be unavailable.
The purpose of this outage is to move our public-facing server to a new firewall to enhance security and reliability of our systems.
Please note the following details regarding the server outage:
Date: Thursday, July 6, 2023
Time: 6-8 a.m.
Duration: Approximately 2 hours
Impact: During this period, all public-facing website access will be temporarily unavailable.
We apologize for any disruption this may cause. IT will work to minimize the duration of the outage and restore normal operations as quickly as possible.
Should you have any urgent matters that require immediate attention during the scheduled downtime, please contact our support team at help@ucanr.edu.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Sree Mada
UC ANR Chief Information Officer
Jaki Hsieh Wojan
UC ANR Chief Information Security Officer
Firewise Landscape Maintenance
Even when homeowners have created a defensible space, the job of protecting their home from fire is...
Garden Tool Care
Evenings are growing dark and maybe it's too cold and wet to work in the garden. What better time for tool care? It's also a great time of year to drop some hints to friends and family for those expensive new pruning shears you've been wanting.
Tool care does not come naturally to many gardeners, but it's straightforward and you'll be rewarded with years of good service. Dull, dirty blades can crush plant tissue, damaging the cambium and creating an entry point for pests and diseases.
Here is a summary:
• Clean and sharpen dull blades.
• Lubricate garden tools and repair damaged grips.
• Cleaning can be done with soapy water and a wire brush or steel wool; air dry and apply a light coat of oil to prevent corrosion.
• Tools with wood handles can be sanded and rubbed down with linseed oil.
• File cutting tools, including shovel blades, to sharpen.
• Store tools in a dry, covered area.
• Have your lawn mower serviced to get a jump on spring tasks.
Tools may need some repair in addition to cleaning. Pruners can be taken apart for repair or cleaning.
Cleaning includes removing soil and grit, rust, sap (which could be from an infected canker), and disinfecting. Disinfection is essential to prevent the transmission of disease from one plant to another.
Sharpening does not have to be scary. You can buy a cheap, easy-to-use hand-held carbide sharpener or file from most hardware stores.
After sharpening, all metal surfaces should be oiled to prevent rust.
As you will see from the links below, there is more than one way to clean and sharpen your tools, but the principles are the same. There is some disagreement about disinfecting tools. If you know you used your tool on a diseased plant, debris must be removed first followed by several minutes of soaking in a 10% bleach solution. Lysol or Pine-Sol 10% solutions or 70% alcohol soaks have also been shown to work. Be sure to rinse the bleach solution off to prevent corrosion. Don't forget to disinfect or dispose of the items used to remove infected debris!
Detailed articles on tool cleaning and care:
https://mgsantaclara.ucanr.edu/garden-help/tool-care-tips/
https://ucanr.edu/datastoreFiles/268-723.pdf
Articles on disinfectants:
https://calag.ucanr.edu/Archive/?article=ca.v045n04p21
https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/403/2015/03/Pruning.pdf
Excellent videos on tool cleaning and care:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMy_jtmihEQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vROuLbOuYq0
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County (EAS)
Prune Apricot and Cherry Trees in August
Prune Apricot and Cherry Trees in August
If you have apricot, cherry, or related hybrid tree varieties such as aprium and pluot in your yard, plan to prune them before the end of August. This timing will help prevent infection by a deadly fungal disease called Eutypa Dieback that can kill these trees as well as grape vines.
When infected by Eutypa, branches or entire trees wilt and die suddenly, often with the leaves still attached.
Apricot tree with branch killed by Eutypa
Signs that your tree may be infected by Eutypa include darkly discolored cankers on the branches and oozing of amber colored gummy sap.
Eutypa cankers on apricot branch
Oozing Sap on Cherry Tree from Eutypa Infection
[Editorial Note: apricot photos downloaded from UC Repository. Cherry tree photocopied from UC ANR blog article by Chuck Ingels, UCCE Sacramento, https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=16014 ]
Many other varieties of trees and shrubs can become infected with the Eutypa fungus without showing disease symptoms or progressing to the dieback stage. These other tree and shrub varieties can serve as store houses for the Eutypa pathogens that could potentially spread to your grape vines and apricot, cherry, aprium and pluot trees. Trees and shrubs that can serve as reservoirs for the disease include almond, apple, blueberry, crabapple, honeysuckle, kiwi, oleander, pear, and certain native plants such as big leaf maple, California buckeye, ceanothus, and willow.
Eutypa disease is spread from an infected tree, shrub or vine to uninfected trees by splashing water from sprinklers or rain. The splashing water allows the fungal spores to enter through pruning or other wounds. Pruning vulnerable tree varieties by the end of August allows pruning wounds to heal and close before the typical start of the rainy season in Contra Costa County in late October. Also, avoid using sprinklers near recently pruned trees since water from sprinklers can also spread infections. Using these precautions will reduce the risk of infection for your trees.
Studies have shown that the Eutypa pathogens can also be spread on pruning tools that have been used to prune infected trees and shrubs. To prevent such transmission, be sure to disinfect your pruning tools before and after pruning.
To disinfect tools, soak them for thirty minutes in a 10% bleach solution (nine parts water to one part bleach). Bleach is corrosive so be sure to rinse the tools thoroughly with water after soaking. Then oil them. The bleach solution loses 50% of its effectiveness after two hours, so be sure to use a freshly mixed batch.
As an alternative to bleach, you can disinfect pruning tools with 70% isopropyl alcohol. Just spray it on your tools and it will kill any pathogens almost immediately. Alcohol is not corrosive, so you don't need to rinse it off tools.
An internet search for “how to prune apricot [or cherry, aprium or pluot] trees” will help you find videos that demonstrate good pruning techniques. Just be aware that most pruning videos are filmed when the trees are dormant. With no leaves, the branches can be more easily shown in the video to demonstrate pruning techniques. In California, you don't want to wait until the dormant season to prune these vulnerable trees because that increases the risk of an Eutypa infection. So, you'll need to adapt the pruning techniques to a tree that still has leaves.
For more information on Eutypa disease, visit this University of California IPM website: http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/FRUIT/DISEASE/eutypadieback.html