The creepy-crawlies are all over your garden. The withering crud
is taking over your
bushes. Who you gonna call? Start with your county
Extension
Service agent.
The voice of the University of Georgia College of Agricultural
and Environmental
Sciences, your agent has years of experience and lots of
resources to back an
identification of weeds, diseases and insects.
But if your problem stumps the best of them, Taft Eaker is on
call.
“My job is to help and support county agents in dealing with
homeowners’ problems,”
said Eaker, the plant pathologist who identifies and diagnoses
samples that come into
the Homeowner IPM Clinic.
Since 1994, this clinic has worked only with home garden
problems. Samples from
farmers and other commercial sources go to the UGA Plant Disease
Clinic.
“This has been a record year so far,” Eaker said. “I’m sure it’s
due to the unusual
weather. The abnormally cool and wet spring brought on a lot of
problems.”
The clinic has handled almost 6,000 disease and insect samples
in the past three years.
It fields questions about crops, vegetables, fruits and nuts,
ornamentals, trees and
grasses.
Every year, home lawn diagnoses have led the way. But questions
about woody
ornamentals aren’t far behind.
“I definitely see a lot of turf, particularly centipede lawns
with problems,” Eaker said.
“And we get in a good many ornamentals — junipers, leyland
cypress, bradford pears.
And a lot of tomatoes and other vegetables. But the plants we
get run the gamut. They
could be anything.”
Once Eaker identifies the insects and diagnoses the diseases, he
and the agents apply
the “IPM” in the Clinic’s name. That stands for Integrated Pest
Management, a
technique to control problems with the least chemicals.
“If they don’t need to spray, we suggest cultural approaches,”
Eaker said. “We can
prevent a lot of lawn diseases simply by watering earlier in the
day so the grass dries
before nightfall.
“Homeowners can also do sanitation practices and select
resistant plant varieties,” he
said. “They have lots of choices besides chemicals.”
For samples submitted through the county agent, there’s no fee
for the clinic’s services.
If you submit it yourself or from out-of-state, the fee is
$25.
Eaker responds to the county agent with a simple, clear
explanation of the problem and
recommendations for control. Sometimes he refers the client to
an extension publication
for more information on the problem.
“I think the work this clinic does is critical,” Eaker
said. “For many homeowners, this
may be the first visit to their county agent’s office. So I want
to support that agent with
a quick, correct recommendation.”
Agents and World Wide Web-literate clientele can find out more
about the clinic’s
work. Just check the home page for the College of Agricultural
and Environmental
Sciences.
Under “department,” go to the plant pathology department’s home
page and click on
“Outbreaks and Updates.” You’ll find a monthly summary by county
of the clinic’s
samples.
Eaker prepares seasonal reports on problems and trends. He adds
a digital photograph
for easy identification of some diseases and insects.
The Web page address is
www.ces.uga/edu/agriculture/plantpath/docs/update.html.
