Hampshire Outdoors: November 2012

Friday, November 23, 2012

Gathering Osage Oranges

On a foggy morning my brother Brian and my nephew Luke transport the fruits of the Osage Orange (Maclura pomifera) to places along the flood plain where the seeds will be planted to develop a natural hedgerow/fence. We have dozens of these trees on our farm, and soon we'll begin seeing the deer and squirrels relying on them for food.

(Click on the photo for a larger image.)

Friday, November 16, 2012

Leonid meteor shower tonight

The Leonid meteor shower will peak between sunset November 16th and dawn on the 17th. It will be visible in all timezones.

This is one of the brightest meteor showers of the year.

The Leonids (named from the constellation Leo, are associated with the comet Tempel-Tuttle as Earth moves through its meteoroid stream of particles ejected as the comet's frozen gases evaporate under the heat of the Sun whenever it's anywhere closer than Jupiter. These tiny particles give off huge amounts of light when they impact Earth at over 70 km/s (that's 43 miles per SECOND).

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Milkweed along the South Branch

Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) along the South branch of the Potomac. Last year we began culturing milkweed for schools with butterfly programs.

Milkweed sap has toxins called cardiac glycosides. When the caterpillars of the Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) and other milkweed butterflies (subfamily Danainae in the family Nymphalidae) ingest the leaves of milkweed, the glycosides make the caterpillar poisonous to some predators. Adult butterflies retain the glycosides.

This useful table was prepared by students in Fairfax County Public Schools:

Animals Using as Food Source	Animals Using as Shelter	Associations With Other Plants	OTHER
Monarch	Goldenrod Spider	Silver Maple	Eastern Yellow Jacket Po
Milkweed Bug	American Dog Tick	Pokeweed	Chinese Mantid FP
Green Lacewing	Chinese Mantid	Smooth Crabgrass	American Dog TickFP
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail	American Goldfinch	Queen Anne's Lace	Ruby-throated Hummingbird Po
Painted Lady	Black and Yellow Argiope	Smooth Sumac	Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Po
Mourning Cloak	Carolina Chickadee	Red Clover	Clouded SulphurPo
Great Spangled Fritillary	Eastern Mole	Devil's Beggar-tick	Honey Bee Po
Buckeye	White-footed Mouse	Lamb's Quarters	Mourning Cloak Po
Eastern Black Swallowtail	Green Lacewing	Common Ragweed	Painted Lady Po
Pipevine Swallowtail		Jimsonweed	Golden Northern Bumble Bee Po
Pearl Crescent		Black-eyed Susan	Green LacewingFP
Honey Bee		Bushy Aster	Pipevine Swallowtail Po
Golden Northern Bumble Bee		Kentucky Bluegrass	Monarch Pa
Black Carpenter Ant		Common Mullein	Organ-pipe Mud Dauber Po
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Cicada Killer
Eastern Yellow Jacket
Fungus Gnat
Clouded Sulphur
Bald-faced Hornet

Monday, November 5, 2012

Smithsonian Chestnuts

I took my dad, who maintains the Boyd American Chestnut nursery in Pennsylvania, to help winterize the Smithsonian Museum's nursery near Front Royal, Virginia. Other members of the team recorded individual tree data.

The Smithsonian interns got practice driving in four-wheel drive on side slopes.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Training Young Trees

Structural pruning on young trees will prevent a lot of the storm damage in mature trees. Now University of California has a great on line video for home use.

Training Young Trees is simplified for home gardeners, but horticulture educators and green industry professionals can also benefit from this resource. The 18-minute video and its shorter chapters are available free at their YouTube Channel: http://tinyurl.com/trainingyoungtrees.