Choosing a Christmas Tree

Do you need some guidance in choosing a Christmas tree? Trying to decide artificial or real? As another holiday season approaches, here are some considerations to guide you:

In general, artificial trees are easier to manage and are less messy than real ones. They are also hypoallergenic. Artificial trees can be used for many years to come, spreading their cost out. They never need watering either. However, as they become worn, damaged or outdated, they end up in landfills. They will spend centuries of holiday seasons buried, taking up valuable space.

Choosing a real Christmas tree is important for Pennsylvania. There are about 2,000 Christmas tree farms in the state, adding to the local economies. These farms cover 35,000 acres producing 1.2 million cut trees each year. Almost fourteen million dollars in sales are generated by PA Christmas tree farms.

These farms also stabilize the environment. The land itself is productive, preserving habitats lost in development. Plus soil erosion is reduced and trees are great air purifiers and give off oxygen. Tree farms help abate soil erosion, storm water runoff, and add aesthetically to the areas around the farm.

Ready to shop for a real tree? There are many varieties of trees from which you can choose. Seventy percent of PA Christmas trees are Douglas fir and Fraser fir. The Fraser fir is usually the top choice due its fragrance and needle retention.

• Balsam Fir: soft, dark green foliage, with flattened needles about three-quarters of an inch in length, has a distinctive “balsam” aroma, excellent needle retention.
• Colorado Blue Spruce: stout, three-sided needles about three-quarters of an inch in length. Its foliage can vary in color from dark green to indigo blue. Its sturdy branching and good needle retention make it a desirable Christmas tree, while its excellent form and outstanding color make it the premier ornamental evergreen.
• Douglas Fir: widely used as a Christmas tree in the Northeast. Its lush, blue-green foliage, with needles about one inch in length, and outstanding needle retention make this a holiday favorite.
• Scotch Pine: one of the first farm-grown Christmas trees in the United States. Its sharp, blue-green foliage, with needles about two to three inches in length. It conical shape, excellent color, and needle retention made it the Christmas tree of choice for many years.
• White Pine: native to the Northeast, has soft, lacy, blue-green foliage with needles about three to four inches in length. A very graceful-looking evergreen, it fragrance and excellent needle retention made it a popular Christmas tree.
• Fraser Fir: closely related to Douglas Fir. Its soft, emerald-green needles with silvery undersides are about three-quarters of an inch in length. Its bottlebrush texture, sturdy branching, and outstanding needle retention make it a superb Christmas tree whose popularity has grown rapidly in recent years.

Just as importantly, care is crucial for you to get the most out of your selection. For more information on Christmas tree selection, please contact the Penn State Master Gardeners in Lackawanna County at 570 963-6842 or email: LackawannaMG@psu.edu and ask for the publication “Caring for Your Cut Christmas Tree”.

Steve Ward
Master Gardener Coordinator
Lackawanna County

Purple Loosestrife

The color purple has substantial force associated with it. For ages in history, this hue has been the color of royalty. As an expensive dye, purple was only affordable to the elite. It has other connotations, such as religious clothing and decorations around holidays from Mardi Gras to Easter. This color has a special place in pop culture too, “The Color Purple” and “Purple Rain” are movies, plus countless songs.

In the home landscape, purple is a prominent color. Throughout the seasons, we can find various shades in perennials and annuals. Who doesn’t like seeing the hyacinth and crocus in the late winter? And the endless charm of Johnny Jump Ups, the tall purple coneflowers in the summer, and the purple winter creeper covering barren ground in the dead of cold are among the sights of purple’s majesty.

There is one purple threat though, Lythrum salicaria, or purple loosestrife. This invasive plant is an aggressive danger to wetlands. It replaces valuable native plants eliminating food and shelter for wildlife and can choke water ways. It offers no value to wildlife as it throttles the hiding and nesting areas of native species. Purple loosestrife can be found in all major watersheds in Pennsylvania and about half of the wetlands.
Compounding this dilemma, over the years some home owners have planted purple loosestrife in their gardens, attracted to its beauty and stature. Purple loosestrife can generate one million seeds in just one year. Plus it can grow from broken pieces left in moist areas and its underground root system.

To compound this purple threat, there are no native controls to hamper its spread. Purple loosestrife was introduced here from Europe in the 1800’s. As a result, all natural enemies, pests and diseases were left behind. An active part of controlling this noxious plant is active gardeners. As scouts and managers, they can be on the front line of defense. The Penn State Master Gardeners in Lackawanna County are holding a workshop on purple loosestrife highlighting this struggle in Northeast Pa. It will be held Monday May 10th from 7:30 – 8:30 pm at the Moscow Borough Building, 124 Van Brunt St. Moscow. For more information on this or any other home horticulture topic, please contact the Penn State Master Gardeners at (570) 963-6842 or email: LackawannaMG@psu.edu


Steve Ward
Master Gardener Coordinator
Penn State Cooperative Extension in Lackawanna County
Penn State is committed to affirmative action, equal opportunity, and the diversity of its workforce

Pruning Peach Trees

The best time to prune peach trees is the middle of April. Pruning earlier, before bud swell, makes the tree susceptible to damage from the disease cystospora canker. A pruned peach tree is less susceptible to the disease brown rot. Brown rot is that brown fuzzy disease that grows on peach fruit as it ripens.

A peach tree should have 3 or 4 main limbs called scaffolds. The tree should have a bowl shaped appearance when pruning is complete. Prune annually to ensure uniform growth and fruit production. Always use sharp, clean pruners.

First, remove broken or diseased branches. Second, cut out vigorous upright shoots that developed on the inside of the main limbs. This is referred to as open center pruning. Finally, once the 3 or 4 main scaffolds have developed, allow secondary branches to develop off of the main scaffolds. Secondary branches should be spaced about 8” apart. Continue to keep upright shoots from developing on the inside of the scaffold limbs. As the tree matures, head back or cut off the ends of secondary branches to a side shoot so new fruiting wood is encouraged to develop. Remove all pruned wood and decayed fruit from around the tree.

For more information contact your local cooperative extension office. In Lackawanna County call 963-6842 and ask for the Garden Helpline or email LackawannaMG@psu.edu


John Esslinger, Extension Educator
Penn State Cooperative Extension
Penn State is committed to affirmative action, equal opportunity, and the diversity of its workforce.

Save Your Trees, Your Back and Your Wallet From Mulch Volcanoes!

Spring time is right around the corner so it must be time to start piling on the mulch around our trees … right? Wrong! Mounds of mulch around the trunk encourages rodents and diseases and inhibits oxygen from getting down to the roots (yes, roots need to breathe too!). Now don’t get me wrong, mulch is part of good tree management; just not heaps of mulch. But, you say, professional landscapers do it so it must be beneficial! Sorry, not true. And if your landscaper suggests otherwise, you may want to suggest that they brush up on the topic (show them the website below!) rather than charging you for time and materials to make “mulch volcanoes” that can only harm your trees, not help them.

Tree trunks are meant to be above ground and open to the air, right down to where the trunk flares out at the soil line. What flare, you ask? Well, the root flare is the zone where the tree trunk turns into the root system and the flare should be right at the soil line. If your tree trunk at ground level looks as straight as a telephone pole then the tree is planted too deep. But that’s for another article. Now back to mulching trees.

Proper mulching is good for trees. So, how do we mulch trees properly?

• Keep mulch at least 3-4 inches away from the tree trunk.
• Mulch out to the "drip line" of the tree. The tree (and the grass that you eliminate) will thank you. Must have lawn under your tree? Make the mulched area as large as you can.
• Layer fine-textured mulch no more than 2 inches deep and coarse-textured mulch no more than 4 inches deep.
• Occasionally fluff the mulch layer, especially before putting on new mulch. Remember that the entire mulch layer (old plus new) should be only 2 to 4 inches deep.

For more information on mulching trees and lots of other tree related topics, visit www.patrees.org. Questions? Contact your local cooperative extension office. In Lackawanna County ask for the Garden Help line at 963-6842 or email LackawannaMG@psu.edu.


Terry Schettini, Extension Educator
Penn State Cooperative Extension in Lackawanna County
Penn State is committed to affirmative action, equal opportunity, and the diversity of its workforce.

Can't Stand Ants!

Even though winter is slow in leaving NEPA, the days are warming up. You may notice some unwelcome guests in and around your kitchen. Ants, like other insects, are cold blooded; so as the temperatures rise, so does their activity.

Ants infesting homes are ‘social’ insects, meaning they live in colonies. Colonies consist of thousands of ‘workers’ and one or more ‘queens’. The queens produce all the eggs in the nest. Eggs hatch into hungry larvae, which in turn become the wingless, worker females. These are the ants we see running around in our houses. The worker ants’ job is to go collect food for the other ants. When ants find a good source of food, they ‘tell’ their sisters in the colony by leaving a chemical trail for them to follow. This is why one or two ants quickly become a swarm.

SO if you can’t stand ants, here are some hints to manage them:

• Follow the ants’ trail to see to the food source and clean it up
• Follow the ants’ trail to see and plug the entry point in your house
• Ants leave a chemical trail so other worker ants can find the food source. Wipe up their path with soap and water or vinegar and water. Without the trail the ants will be lost
• Vacuum any worker ants stranded in the house
• If a chemical is necessary, use only enclosed bait traps. Look for ones containing borax or abamectin. Please read and follow the directions; remember, they are poison. Also do not use a spray to kill the ants. Air and food contamination are very likely.

While this information deals with the small nuisance ants, there are more serious species, such as carpenter ants and even termites. They need more aggressive attention. If you can’t stand ants, please contact the Penn State Master Gardener Helpline at (570) 963-6842 or email LackawannaMG@psu.edu.



Steve Ward
Master Gardener Coordinator
Penn State Cooperative Extension in Lackawanna County
Penn State is committed to affirmative action, equal opportunity, and the diversity of its workforce

Blueberries!

You’ve heard that blueberries are good for you, have you considered growing your own? It is not hard. Some of the varieties that have done well in our area are Patriot, Sunrise, Bluecrop, Bluejay, Chandler and Aurora. Blueberries are easy to grow if you do the proper soil preparation. Blueberries grow in soil with a pH of 4.5 to 5.0. It is advised to get a soil test a year before you plant. Adjust the soil pH a year before you plant. When planting, mix peat moss in with the soil (50/50 mixture) you are filling in around the plant. Place about 3” of mulch around each plant. Replenish the mulch each spring as needed. No fertilizer is needed the first year. Apply fertilizer each May starting the second year. Remove all blossoms the first year and half of the blossoms the second year. This allows the plant to establish itself.

When the plants are around 5 years old you will need to prune out the largest canes. A rule of thumb is to remove one large old cane for every 6 canes the plant contains. If the plant has 12 canes, prune out the two oldest. Prune in March or April.

Be prepared to protect the fruit from birds. Blueberries will turn blue before their flavor is fully developed. Be patient. Let the fruit fully ripen before harvest.

For more information contact your local cooperative extension office. In Lackawanna County call 963-6842 and ask for the Garden Helpline or email LackawannaMG@psu.edu



John Esslinger, Extension Educator
Penn State Cooperative Extension
Penn State is committed to affirmative action, equal opportunity, and the diversity of its workforce.

Spiders... Friends or Foe?

There are many things that come across the Penn Master Gardener’s desk, pest or insect identification is one of the more unpredictable. Some are easy to identify, some have lots of legs and eyes and wings and segmented body parts, and some are just plain scary. One of the more misunderstood varieties is the spider. Are they really all that bad? Depends on whom you ask. It is important that any understanding must come from research based information.

As scary as these eight-legged creatures are, they are beneficial to us, our homes, and our gardens. In and around the house, spiders consume large amounts of other pests long before the human residents see them. Spiders are not a sign of poor housekeeping.

Most spiders indigenous to Pennsylvania will enter the home. Found often in crawl spaces and basements, the common house spider, Achaearanea tepidariorum, is known to cause grief. It frequently abandons one web to build a new one nearby and produces many webs in a short period of time.

Even though spiders can be helpful, it is unsettling to see them around. Consider preventative measures before reaching for the can of insecticide. Sprays are rarely effective in controlling the population, and are harmful indoors. Except in the rare occasion of a black widow or brown recluse (contact a registered insect control company or us about these two), there are easy steps you can take to manage these eight-footers.

• Vacuum - Instead of spraying vacuum both the webs and the spiders. The dust inside the bag will suffocate the spiders.
• Get rid of the web - If you can tolerate the idea of sharing your home with these beneficial bugs, you can just vacuum the web and leave the spiders to do their pest control work.
• Reduce their food supply – This time of year, most often fruit flies are the spiders’ meal. Keep fruit in a closed paper bag.
• Transplant – If you come across a spider, give it a change of scenery. Capture the spider in a container and release it outside.

Often misunderstood and intimidating, the spider is a good neighbor to have around. With some low impact management practices, we can have them working for us. For more information on spiders, contact the Penn State Master Gardeners in Lackawanna County at (570) 963-6842 and request “Commonly Encountered Pennsylvania Spiders.” This publication is also available in PDF format, email us at LackawannaMG@psu.edu and we can send it electronically.


Steve Ward
Master Gardener Coordinator
Penn State Cooperative Extension in Lackawanna County
Penn State is committed to affirmative action, equal opportunity, and the diversity of its workforce.