Around the County: Rainfall ends drought around the county

Due to repeated rainfall, Eddy County as well as most of the state is no longer suffering from a drought. I started reporting rainfall in Sheyenne and New Rockford as part of the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow network (CoCoRahs) on April 15 (CoCoRahs.org). Total precipitation for the period of April 15 to June 11 for the surrounding area was 8.53 inches in New Rockford, 7.92 inches in Sheyenne, 7.22 inches eight miles north of McHenry, and 8.16 inches four miles north of Carrington. Total precipitation for the last week was 0.13 inches in New Rockford, 0.24 inches in Sheyenne, 0.04 inches eight miles north of McHenry, and 0.15 inches four miles north of Carrington. Planting continues to be difficult and corn and soybeans have been slow to emerge. I hope that everyone can finish planting soon before the next round of light rains Saturday through Tuesday.

Please call the Extension Office at (701) 947-2454 if you are having disease problems in your crops or pastures. I started taking and uploading field and pasture pictures on April 15, which is the start of the Condition Monitoring Observer Report period for the 2024 season. Feel free to send field or pasture pictures for me to upload to [email protected].

I also help with lawn, garden and tree/shrub problems. It is a good idea to check your trees and shrubs periodically for pests. Because of the cool, wet spring, ash tree anthracnose is widespread with leaf spots, cupped or curled leaves, and leaves falling to the ground. When the weather warms up, trees will replace lost leaves. Right now, if you look closely at the male flowers on ash trees you can see round green growths on the flowers which will turn brown and stay on the tree. Ash flower gall mite damage on male ash trees is a bit ugly but will not hurt the tree. I have found and been shown maple and ash tree leaves, with leaf galls that look like little bumps on the leaves which also do not affect tree health. I found Eastern tent caterpillars in my chokecherries. They typically do not cause much damage, but I did remove the nest because the tree was small and many leaves had been eaten.

We have been busy replanting the gardens around the Extension Office with some grant money from NDSU. We have a pizza garden on the east side with tomatoes, peppers, wheat and herbs. On the south side by the parking lot, we have a new pollinator garden. In the front we are working on another flower garden. Please stop by to see them and let us know if you need help with a home pollinator garden or bee lawn.