Questions and
Answers
By: Kevin D. Starr
County Extension Director
N.C. Cooperative Extension Service
 Folks
have a lot of questions about
horticultural plants. There are an
unbelievable number of different plants
and varieties out there. No one is an
expert on all of them.
But there are a lot of good sources of
information. I also want to encourage you
to ask yourself three questions when you
consider paying for any horticultural
product or service:
1) Will it help you achieve your desired
goal?
2) Is it cost-effective?
3) Is it environmentally friendly?
With that in mind, I want to share
several questions and answers that may be
of interest to you.
Question: I noticed that many people had
their trees topped this winter.
How does this help the trees?
Answer: It doesn't! In fact, this is a
terribly destructive practice.
Apparently, many homeowners have trees
close to their houses topped in hopes of
preventing possible storm damage in the
future. However, this doesn't explain why
trees far away from a house are topped.
Either way, the practice inflicts great
damage on a tree, creating large wounds
which can't heal properly. It also
removes most of the leaf buds which were
produced the previous growing season. The
growing season after topping, the tree
must generate new buds and eventually
leaves so it can manufacture food for
itself. Even when trees
"recover" from topping, they
have a very unnatural appearance. There
are very legitimate reasons for pruning
trees such as the desire to prevent storm
damage. If you have trees you are
concerned about, consult with a qualified
arborist before having any work done.
Question: I'm trying to garden for the
first time in this area and I don't know
what to do with this red clay soil. How
can I improve it?
Answer: Our clay soils do present some
challenges. A good place to start is with
the addition of organic matter. Materials
such as compost or finely ground pine
bark (soil conditioner) can really help
loosen up our soils. Sand is not the
answer. Another material which is not the
answer is gypsum (calcium sulfate). It
does benefit some types of clay soils but
not the ones in our area of the country.
We have a naturally low pH in this area,
so make sure you get the pH at the right
level for the type of crop you are
growing. Most vegetables and flowers like
the soil slightly acidic (about pH
6.0-6.5) but other plants such as
blueberries and azaleas prefer a lower
pH. Regular dolomitic lime in either the
pelleted or powdered form is used to
raise the pH. We recommend a soil test to
check the pH and nutrient levels of the
soils prior to planting. The NC
Department of Agriculture and Consumer
Services analyzes the samples for free.
We can furnish you with the necessary
sample boxes and information sheets.
Question: When I go to the garden center,
I get confused by all the pesticides that
are available. Some of the chemicals I
used in the past are no longer available.
How can I know which product is best?
Answer: It's easy to get confused. The
best place to start is with the proper
identification of the pest you want to
control. Then you need to determine if a
pesticide is needed to control it. Read
the label before you buy the pesticide to
make sure it is the appropriate product.
If it is, be sure to follow the label
instructions. If Cooperative Extension
can be of assistance with identifying
pests or making pesticide
recommendations, please call us at
704-736-8452.
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