Hedge-apples and Monkey brains! by Tina Clinefelter

This article explains the photo below (the large, green, brain-like fruit, called an Osage Orange!)
A recent request for information concerning a spider repellent led me on a far-ranging search of the Internet, tracking down the wily Osage orange, the fruit of Maclura pomifera.
Since Colonial times, this weird and wonderful fruit has been used to control various insect pests in the home, and now modern science is finally catching up with folk lore and discovering that, indeed, the pleasantly scented Osage orange is endowed with the chemical
2,3,4,5-tetrahydroxystilbene. The Iowa State University finds that this property repels the German cockroach, and others claim that it works against crickets, spiders, fleas, box elder bugs and ants! Merely place a whole, ripened fruit on the floor in the affected area, and it will repel for upwards of two months. Take care to protect the floor from staining, and discard when it turns completely brown.

The Osage orange tree is named for the Osage Indian tribe, and is native to a small area along the Red River Valley, in southern Oklahoma and northern Texas. The Indians used the extremely dense wood for crafting archery bows and war clubs, and it is still prized for tool handles, bows and musical instruments (harps).
It was one of the Osage orange’s other attributes, that caused it to be one of the most widely planted trees in the United States – its thorns!
Thousands of miles of closely spaced saplings were used to contain livestock, before the invention of barbed wire. A hedgerow had to be
‘horse-high, bull-strong and hog-tight’! Some very aggressive pruning formed a dense, impenetrable perimeter.
After barbed wire took over the job of enclosing land, the Osage orange trees provided the rot-resistant fence posts.

This botanical cousin of the Mulberry also has some other useful traits. The wood, for instance, yields a good yellow dye, and as firewood, it burns with a heat-producing capacity very close to coal.
I’m told that when burning fresh-cut wood, it provides entertainment with a firework-like sparkle display, and interesting flames; definitely not for closed fireplace use!
The worthy Martha Stewart even finds a decorative craft use for ‘Monkey balls’ (another common name). Wearing gloves to protect from the sticky and irritating sap, slice the fruit thinly with a serrated knife, and either air dry for a week, or dry in the oven for 5 hours, with just the pilot light on. During the drying process, shape the slices around a small ball of aluminum foil. Use in Thanksgiving table decorations, or any other way your heart desires!

I know of just one tree in this area that is a female, they being the only ones that produce fruit. If anyone wants to begin a new cottage industry, by farming these intriguing oddities, here is how to propagate them:
Soak seeds for 48 hours prior to sowing, or stratify in damp sand/peat for 30 days, or store the fruits outdoors, over winter, making sure to protect them from squirrels who ADORE them!
Sow the seeds in rows (or pots) a quarter to a half inch deep. Good luck!
Now, is there anything else you would like to know about the Osage orange?... Thanks, Pat, now…about those cookies…

All I Want for Christmas…by Tina Clinefelter

My two 6 year-old grand-daughters are singing this refrain this year, but hopefully their problems will be solved by the time corn-on-the-cob season arrives next year.

Here are my seasonal wishes for all of my gardening friends; may all your wishes come true, and if not, may you be a good sport!

Living here in central PA, we are blessed with heavy, rocky clay soil; may your soil become magically friable (akin to cutting butter into flour to the consistency of fine breadcrumbs), may its pH be perfect for all your veggies and flowers, may its fertility be sufficient that all you need to add is compost, may its tilth (texture) be tip-top, and may its organic matter be ‘just right’.

May the rains moisturize your garden with the perfect amount of one inch per week, preferably at the midnight hour during the growing season, and may your hoses rest in peace.

May the sun shine on your tomatoes with the proper amount of degrees and hours. Also, may the dreaded humidity be of tolerable level, and of short duration.

May all the beneficial bugs in your garden munch voraciously on the bad guys, and may there be no blights, wilts, leaf spots, fungi and unexplained weirdness affecting your plants.

May you win the war on weeds once and for all.

And may I be forgiven for being a ‘cock-eyed’ optimist, for if all the above came true, I’d be out of a job!

Merry Christmas to gardeners everywhere, and I hope, like me, you are enjoying the 2008 catalogs that are flooding the mail-box. So many treasures…so little time!

Containerized Christmas Trees by Tom Butzler

Many surveys have shown that the use of real Christmas trees in the home and office are being replaced with artificial trees . Reasons vary, such as the extra maintenance with a cut, live tree (keeping water in the stand and cleaning up needles), fire safety concerns, and the convenience factor. It is the time saving aspect that really intrigues me. Some friends, utilizing an artificial tree, will decorate the tree once and consider it decorated for life. They take the tree into the attic at the end of the season, ornaments and all, and bring it back down next year, ornaments and all.

For whatever the reason, growers see this rising interest in artificial trees and are putting up a fight. Christmas tree growers and their associations are using a variety of tools; from the humorous to the serious. The humorous angle can be seen when some groups talk about artificial trees looking like big “green toilet bowl brushes” (apparently, the first artificial Christmas tree was produced by a company that made toilet brushes) to the National Christmas Tree Association’s on-line game “Attack of the Mutant Artificial Trees”. The object of the game is to hit as many of the artificial trees with snowballs within a time frame.

Growers, recognizing the growing concern with environmental issues (especially global warming) are stating that their live trees are an earth-friendly choice. Trees are a renewable resource and soak up carbon dioxide (a compound linked to global warming) through photosynthesis whereas artificial trees are made up of petroleum.

Another tactic by growers and nurseries is to develop alternative Christmas tree products. One of these products is containerized, live trees. When you think of live (not cut) Christmas trees, the first thing that comes to mind is a ball and burlap (B & B) tree (roots and soil contained in burlap bag). These are usually in the 5-6 foot range and are heavy and unwieldy (let me emphasis the heavy for those who have a bad back)! B&B trees are then planted outside, but establishment rates are quite low once planted in the landscape.

Containerized Christmas trees are a nice alternative and are creating a niche market. They are smaller and lighter (not using soil around the roots but a soilless media) which results in a Christmas tree that is easy to move around.
As the containerized Christmas tree market grows, there are several items to take into consideration. Preliminary research from Penn State University is showing that the display of these containerized trees for over two weeks results in high mortality once placed in the landscape. So limit the amount of time these trees are in the heated house.

Containerized Christmas trees can add something new and to your holiday decorations and traditions. Picture of a dwarf Alberta spruce, Picea glauca `Conica'


PSU research also states that small containerized trees will survive best in the landscape if they are not planted after Christmas but overwintered inside where the temperature hovers between 35-40 F such (such as an unheated garage). B&B trees, just very large and heavy containerized trees, need to be planted shortly after Christmas as keeping them indoors is not an option.

Containerized Christmas trees are catching on because you can plant them in your garden or landscape once spring approaches. They are much lighter and easier to manipulate than the traditional ball and burlap trees. Picture of a containerized spruce tree, Picea pungens

Dirty Dozen Plus One

Photo shows leaves,fruits, and prickles of mile-a-minute weed

This being the Festive Season, a matriarch’s mind is mainly tuned to the baking of dozens of delicious cookies; (sand tarts are my specialty).
Speaking of dozens…a baker’s dozen numbers thirteen, and coincidently, that is the number of plants on Pennsylvania’s Noxious Weed Control List!
I hope that lead-in wasn’t too subtle for you…

By law, it is illegal to propagate, sell or transport the following weeds in the Commonwealth of PA:

1. Cannabis sativa, also known as Marijuana. Well… Duh! Whereas some may refer to it as a cash crop, the law sees it as a weed. I am going to leave this one right there!

2. Cirsium arvense, aka. Canadian thistle. This plant is a creeping perennial, with an extensive root system capable of sending up shoots in enough numbers to form very large colonies. It also reproduces by seed that may float away on the breeze for many a mile. Mowing before flowering is one of the best controls. Other controls are available, but space prevents an in depth coverage of each of the thirteen bad guys. Such information is available from the Extension Office upon request.

3. Rosa multiflora, aka. Multiflora rose. I bet you guessed that! This ‘happy to be here’ shrub was introduce from Japan in the late 1800’s as a rootstock for ornamental roses, then later used by the US Soil Conservation Service as an erosion control plant. It is well equipped to spread aggressively with yummy fruits to attract birds that joyfully spread the seeds, and a handy habit of layering itself when the tips of canes touch the ground, forming impenetrable thickets. Constant mowing (many times per growing season), is one control method.

4. Sorghum halepense, aka. Johnson grass. This is a perennial weed of not much concern to the home gardener. It is more of an agricultural problem.

5. Polygonum perfoliatum, aka. Mile-a-minute weed. This past year I found a specimen growing along the parking lot at the Mill Hall Post Office. At a mile-a-minute growth rate I have no idea where it will be next spring. It is a summer annual vine eagerly climbing over anything in its path, but watch out, it bears reflexed prickles along the stem which gives it another name: ‘Tear-thumb’.

6. Pueraria lobata, aka. Kudzu. Do you remember the ‘cloaking device’ used aboard the Star-ship Enterprise? That sums up Kudzu, and as the climate warms, it creeps ever closer to Pennsylvania, up over the borders of Delaware and Maryland. This is why it’s on the Noxious Weed list, but legislation alone won’t keep it out – vigilance is necessary.

7. Cirsium vulgare, aka. Bull Thistle, and
8. Carduus nutans, aka. Nodding or Musk Thistle are both spiny biennials that form a basal rosette in their first year, then send up a flower spike in the second year. Reproduction is by seed, wind dispersed. The seeds are beloved by goldfinches, but this is not sufficient to keep them off the Noxious List.

9. Sorghum bicolor, aka. Shattercane. Another grass type of agricultural importance, but this time its habit is that of an annual.

10. Datura stramonium, aka. Jimsonweed. This is a member of the nightshade family and therefore is highly toxic. Animals avoid eating the plant, so the danger exists when the seed becomes a contaminant in livestock feed (e.g. hay). Ornamental species are grown in gardens as ‘angel’s trumpets’; the seeds are especially toxic.

11. Lythrum salicaria, aka. Purple Loosestrife and its cultivars. The pretty, purple, spiky flower abounding along waterways and ditches really is a noxious weed. It forms huge, woody clumps that clog streams and crowd out other, more beneficial plants, and produces copious seeds that disperse via flowing water. All cultivated varieties are now known not to be reliably sterile, and are therefore on the list too.

12. Heracleum mantegazzianum, aka. Giant Hogweed. Wow, what a name, and it deserves every bit of it! It can top out at 15 feet tall, with a sap that can cause third degree burns if it comes in contact with the skin in the presence of sunlight. Wear full protective gear if intending to do battle with this monster.

13. Galega officinalis, aka. Goatsrue. This not-yet-invasive weed in the State of Pennsylvania is included because of the potential for invasion, and its status as a Federal Noxious weed. In Utah many acres are infested, making them unusable by livestock, due to Goatsrue’s ability to kill sheep and cattle. Some plants have become established in the vicinity of the Morris Arboretum, near Philadelphia.

Well, there you have it, a baker’s dozen of the worst weeds in the state. The lines have been drawn and the ‘War of the Weeds’ will commence with the introduction of a ‘Weed Garden’ at the Cooperative Extension Office next year, for identification purposes.
Note: No specimens of Cannabis sativa will be on display…Duh!

Well, back to baking; will it be sand tarts or some medicinal brownies…?

Quiz: What is it?

This question arises about this time each year.
Someone wanders into the Extension Office bearing one of these large, heavy, sticky objects, and poses the question.
The question will be answered in a blog in the near future.
Tina