Cummings and Goings in Agriculture
Plan Your Entry For Fish Tasting Buffet
By Steve Cummings
Once again Yalobusha County dodged a bullet with the weather this past weekend. Basically the county received much more rain than we needed, but we didn’t have the damages other counties had. Hopefully, we will go through this weekend without the storms.
Fortunately, we got last Friday night’s horse show in before the bad weather set in. There’s another timed event horse show this Friday night. Training barrels start at 6:30 p.m. and the show starts at 8:00 p.m. As usual, the horse show is free and open to the public.
The first time Fish Tasting Buffet and tour of the fish hatchery will be May 20th. Two things you need to do this week pertaining to this event are to buy your tickets and plan your entrée for the fish tasting contest. Tickets are available at the Fish Hatchery, the Yalobusha county NRCS and the Yalobusha County Extension Service at the Multi-Purpose Building. Tickets are $2.00 in advance and $3.00 at the door. This includes a catfish dinner. I know Yalobusha County has tremendous cooks and I am sure that most have great-tasting fish dishes. So start planning your entry into the fish tasting buffet.
On May 25th there will be a pine-thinning workshop at the Multi-Purpose Building starting at 8:30 a.m. Please call the Yalobusha County Extension office at 675-2730 to make reservations.
Horticulture Tip:
Temperatures are getting warm, days are getting longer, and Spring is about half over. This is prime growing time for almost all of the vegetables in the garden. It is getting warm for greens, strawberries and other holdovers from the cool season, but warm days and cool nights are ideal for tomatoes, corn, beans, and other vegetables.
Observe lower leaves for signs of yellowing. This can be the normal sequence of top leaves shading lower leaves, but it can be a sign that there are not enough nutrients in the soil to meet the needs of the plant. Sunlight striking yellow leaves is a good sign that the nutrition needs of the plant are not being met. Adding a little quick-release fertilizer such as manure tea, fish emulsion, or commercial granular or water soluble fertilizer will improve the productivity and disease resistance of the plants.
Slow Spring Turf Growth and Association with the “150 Rule”
Most warm-season grasses have been slow this spring to transition from winter dormancy to active growth. While we may be somewhat eager and impatient to see our lawns, sports fields, golf courses, etc., turn from their winter brown to a healthy, solid green it just will not happen until we have temperatures that are much more conducive to warm-season turf species growth.
A “rule-of-thumb” guideline that many of us use to predict when our turf will really get active is the “150 rule”. This rule is derived by taken the night time lowest temperature and adding it to the daytime high. The sum of which should be near or above 150. As we look back to the month of April we had some very nice warm sunny days with day temperatures reaching into the high 70’s and low 80’s. However, the night time lows most often were in the 40’s or lower 50’s making the sums of the highs and lows far from the optimum 150 or higher.
Therefore, we must just remain patient and look forward to warmer temperatures which will soon provide our turf conditions much more favorable for active growth.
