Field and Garden: Apply now for NDSU's Master Gardener Program

Perhaps you saw the announcement that NDSU Extension will offer the Master Gardener Program again this winter.

If the possibility of becoming a certified Master Gardener interests you, don’t wait any longer to sign-up. The application deadline is this Tuesday, Oct. 25.

Applicants must complete two steps to become a certified Master Gardener.

The first step is to complete a 40-hour training course online. The training covers a wide variety of topics related to lawns, gardens and to a lesser extent, house plants.

The second step is to complete 48 hours of horticulture-related volunteer service within a two-year period.

Potential volunteer projects include answering garden questions, raising and donating produce to the food pantry and helping the garden club care for the flower planters on Main Street.

The program fee for the 2023 class is $225 plus an application fee of $35.

The application can be completed at this website: https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/extension/programs/master-gardener

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Mark your calendars and plan to attend Central Dakota Ag Day.

The annual winter meeting will be held at the Carrington REC on Friday, Dec. 16.

The event aims to provide farmers and ranchers with the latest research-based information from NDSU.

This year’s program also includes several seminars of interest to people outside of agriculture.

One presenter will be Sue Balcom, who regularly speaks about the community, family and cultural traditions of North Dakota on Prairie Public’s show “Main Street Eats.”

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Here are two questions that I’ve encountered recently:

Q: What are the white spots on the needles of our pine tree?

The tree is infected with pine needle scale.

Scale insects feed by sucking sap from trees and shrubs.

When heavy infestations occur, all or part of the plant may be killed.

Scale insects are difficult to control because the white, cotton-like covering serves as a protective barrier to traditional contact insecticides.

The best time to control the pest is immediately after the eggs hatch next spring.

Insecticidal soaps are recommended because they won’t harm beneficial insects such as lady beetles which prey on scale insects.

Insecticidal soap has no residual effect, so multiple applications may be required.

Make sure to monitor the other trees in your yard too. Pine needle scale can also attack spruce trees.

Q: What should I do to get my lawn ready for winter?

The recommendation is to mow the lawn at normal height or slightly lower. A tall lawn is attractive to unwanted pests such as voles.

In most cases, it’s not necessary to rake leaves. Simply run the lawn mower over the leaves, chopping them into fine pieces.

If you can see the grass blades when you’ve finished, the lawn will be fine without raking.

It’s too late to apply fertilizer or chemical weed control to the lawn. Those practices will need to wait until spring.

There is time, however, to dormant seed bare areas in your lawn.

Scratch the soil surface with a stiff rake, apply the seed and then moisten the soil.

Don’t apply crabgrass preventer to these areas in spring. In addition to crabgrass, the chemical will also kill the germinating grass seedlings.