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Roots, Shoots, Fruits & Flowers features archived horticulture articles by retired LSU AgCenter educator Keith Hawkins, covering common plant, pest, and landscape questions.
For this week, RSFF looks at how to test for soil pathogens, fungi identification, raised garden beds, quince rust(again) and cranberry fruit worms.
Several gardeners sent pictures for RSFF to identify: a green bee, rose rosette disease, and a beneficial weed, wild carrot.
RSFF looks at bean leaves with sunscald. A magnolia tree has top dieback, and blackberry flowers turned brown.
This week's RSFF corrects the misidentification of a tree, discusses problems with the Chinese parasol tree, and pests and their treatments.
Damage from a carpenterworm, fungus in the landscape, ID a tree and defoliated blueberries plants.
“Roots, Shoots, Fruits and Flowers” is a landscape blog that invites homeowners to submit questions about their plant and garden concerns.
Two pairs of topics are in this version of RSFF. There are two narratives about fig trees, and there are two about fruit and vegetable diseases.
RSFF discusses sycamore anthracnose, soil sampling, fig pruning and fire blight.
This week's blog looks at a tree protection practice, at a new fruit publication about mayhaws, and at blending flower and vegetetable gardening.
This RSFF covers a variety of topics including a diseased leaf, pear varieties, whitefly pest and the identification of yellow flowers.
Preserving valuable shade trees, a brief narrative on treating lawn weeds, June bugs seem to be a possible pest of fig leaves, and some stinging caterpillars.
RSFF help homeowners with Florida betony, soil sampling, hawk predation and a plant disease called aster yellow.
RSFF looks at different aspects of our lawn and gardens. Puffball fungi is a topic as well as blackberry varieties. The common lawn burweed and its treatments.
A gardener asked about a foraging honeybee, and another asked how to help native bees. A homeowner asked how to control fire ants near a pond.
RSFF looks at how to identify landscape trees, home tea production with hibiscus, and a gardener finds a community of native ground-nesting bees.
RSFF looks at new temperature zone map. A gardener's tree suffered from deer damage. There is a discussion about firewood regulations.
This version of RSFF could be titled "fruit and bugs' because it identifies a bee and a wasp. There are narratives about olives and satsumas.
RSFF addresses issues to pruning roses, planting acorns, growing cool season flowers, and treating an ailing blackberry plant.
A homeowner found a turtle, a weed was identified with control advice, tree planting advice and a vegetable seedling suffered from sunscald.
There are a couple of narratives about native insects and recommendations for planting a fig tree. A gardener also asked about how to sell her herbal products.
RSFF suspects a tomato plant has herbicide damage. There is an item about surviving a wildfire and more about a droughty hydrangea and a azalea.
RSFF discusses an infested holiday cactus, a stressed camellia shrub, A wood boring insect, a native lizard and cucumber beetles.
This weeks RSFF discusses some nasty insects like a venomous spider, bedbugs and more. Also, there is a predatory plant with red berries. Are they toxic?
This RSFF has some good news and some bad news. The good news a satsuma tree is making comeback. The bad news is that some vegetables are failing due to heat.
This BHB looks at two different questions about selling honey and about using systemic pesticides.
This week’s RSFF identifies a native fruit and a hawk, deer damage to roses and how to deal with them and a homeowner wants to eliminate an evergreen shrub.
Some topics include defective blackberries, using lake water for lawn irrigations, okra insect pests, and native fruit ID.
Beehive Buzz looks at a special nectar plant, manuka, as nectar source for medicinal honey.
RSSF looks at walnut caterpillars, unwanted honeybees, rabbit damage, lawn weeds, and nutrient deficiency.
This blog looks at quince rust, a harmless snake, wild petunia, leaf smut and an orange insect.
RSFF presents some caterpillars with "eyes", a damaged cucumber, a black rat snake and a vinca bloom with a possible infection.
RSFF looks at both bacterial and fungal infections on a blanket flower, squash plants, and an azalea.
RSFF looks at a tomato fruitworm, a green sweat bee, a carpenter bee and a juvenile assassin bug.
RSFF shares information about a native bee and about insect trapping. A gardener has an infected tomato.
RSFF shares a couple of images of a yellow butterfly. An extension agent asks about an invasive plant. A gardener asks thoughtful question about fertilizer.
This version of Beehive Buzz shares information for both homeowners and beekeepers regarding the humane removal of honeybees from home and other structures.
Here is an overdue edition of RSFF for your garden and landscape enthusiasts. There are plenty of plant IDs and some information on Louisiana medicinal plants.
RSFF looks at a longleaf beetle, at a carrion beetle and at honeybees feeding on honeydew.
RSFF looks at the fungus among us including iris leaf spots, swamp lily fungus, stinkhorn fungus and oyster mushroom.
RSFF looks at feeding honeybees with sugar syrup. treating aphids with soapy water, and treating unwanted bagworms.
Gardeners need help with a composter, patience after a freeze, planting zone information, and a beetle infestation.
A Louisiana gardener has both chickens and honeybees.
Harmless lizard, Oak tree roots damaging the side walk, and Celeste fig with a fungal-infected, beetle-infested wood.
RSFF looks a fungal leafspot disease, hackberry ID, yellow jacket ID, a turnip disorder and making a garden unfriendly to cats.
RSFF identifies a native moth and a native shrub. Also, a gardener has sooty mold and leaf damage on her citrus.
RSFF looks at a lawn weed, a perennial garden weed, and a popular caterpillar.
RSFF looks at planting trees, excluding cats from a garden, and avoiding soils with excessive salt.
RSS looks at a couple small trees for the landscape, pumpkin flowers and pecan shells.
The AgCenter hosted arborist training in August 2022 and this blog described the event.
Identifying a large woodpecker, dying lantana, keep ants out of her container garden and garlic in a fall garden.
A look at aphids and mealybugs. Treatment and IDs for a juvenile ladybeetle and for a grasshopper. A gardener asks for recommendations for cabbage varieties.
RSFF looks at fruits and vegetables especially, potatoes and squash.
Ancient peoples have used honey for medical purposes. Modern medicine uses a special grade of honey for treating wounds.
This week’s RSFF looks at trees. Some trees are drought-stressed and need irrigation. There are a couple of tree identifications and tree health.
Here is an article for beekeepers regarding honeybees and how they address queen distress.
RSFF discusses two harmful insects, white flies and woolly aphids. There is a beneficial, predatory assassin bug and a strange looking walkingstick insect.
RSFF mostly identifies elderberry, mulberry, and a tree fungus. There is a narrative about controlling crabgrass.
Beehive Buzz looks at several predatory insects including the cicada killer wasp, a robber fly and a long-legged assassin bug.
This week RSFF looks at vegetables and the questions of some gardeners like blossom end rot, potato scab, preventing insects, and a bacterial disease.
Many beekeepers know that honey is harmful to infants less than 12 months old, but they are unusually unaware of the reason.
This version of BHB looks at bees in the news around the world from bee behavior to varroa control to environmental concerns to bee nutrition.
This week’s RSFF looks at four flying insects including: horse guards, long-horned bee, leaf-cutting bee and bumblebee.
Topics include injury from weather conditions such too cold or to dry or to sunny. The last narrative identifies marsh parsley, a tropical, invasive weed.
This version of BHB looks at the Slovenian hive from the inside.
This blog looks at Southern Blight, a blue native wildflower, a robber fly and barklice.
The topics in this RSFF include a predatory stinkbug, a larval form of the grape flea beetle, a liriope infestation and Virginia buttonweed.
This RSFF looks at landscape trees stressed by drought and how to irrigate them. The rest of the blog looks at leaf-footed bugs and at male velvet wasps.
RSFF looks at Tomato wilts, bumps and fruit worms. Also, various asters have strange deformity.
Gardeners asked about goumi and maypop fruits while other gardeners asked to identify some plants, particularly burclover and wetland sedges.
RSFF answers questions about common chickweed, the identity of a juvenile long-horned beetle and of a caterpillar of the giant swallowtail butterfly.
This version of RSFF looks a hammerhead worm, a couple of garden snakes, a harmless flying insect, infected cedar branch and dandelion edibility.
RSFF discusses a common garden mushroom, black stinging caterpillars, a common lawn weed, and tiny plant mites.
This RSSF looks at carpenter ants and at spider mites. Also, a slime mold and a soil fungus are in this blog.
Readers of RSFF asked to identify a flower, causes of different types of tree damage, and cause of malformed carrots.
The topics for this RSFF include: home soil testing, azalea leaf spots, low magnesium and successful vegetable seedlings in a greenhouse.
RSFF looks at gardening on a concrete slab, leaf mulches, a couple of cool season weeds, and a productive greenhouse.
RSFF looks at a common tree caterpillar, the fall webworm. A gardener asks about gardening southern Louisiana and the invasiveness of gooseneck loosestrife.
Shortly after the USDA approved a plan for Louisiana to produce industrial hemp, some beekeepers asked me to research the possible effect on honeybees.
Questions about acorn production, Identification of a seed pod, blackberry pruning, and a new 811 law affecting the installation of new landscape.
RSFF answers questions about carpenter ants, sooty mold, crab apple trees and sawbriar roots.
An aspiring beekeeper asked for information to help her travel on the path to keeping honey bees and some resources for beekeepers.
Gardeners have questions about vegetables and mildew, nuisance geckos, slimy algae in garden ponds and tree roots heaving sidewalks and causing trip hazards.
This edition of RSFF looks at planting citrus trees, insuring live oak and other specimen trees, diagnosing bark damage on baldcypress trees, and more.
RSFF looks at several weeds including spurweed, nutsedge and vetch. Another person wants to control weeds in his groundcover, Asian jasmine.
This RSFF is intended to reach folks who want to garden in 2022. This blog looks at an upcoming Master Gardener class and at online gardening courses.
Lichens are back again, and there is a sick oak tree and an ailing muscadine vine. A gardener shared her comments about bird feeding habits at a feeders.
This RSFF discusses a couple of organic treatments for insects and for fungal infections. A fall wildflower, rose gentian, is identified, and a tomato plant has
Unpleasant talk about bird poop, an exotic, unwanted frog, and a spider egg sac which means baby spiders will be emerging. Finally, an ailing strawberry plant.
There are a couple of citrus questions, a plant ID and a question on soil improvement.
This RSFF looks at identifying a blackgum tree in call color, discusses a yellow jacket, a hairy caterpillar, and several citrus pests.
Beehive Buzz heard from a landowners about honeybees infesting an owl nesting box, and beekeepers remove the bees.
This week’s column includes fall wildflowers, an ailing aloe vera, a late season insect ID, and native black locust wood.
This week RSFF looks at various mushrooms, slime mold and rust fungi in the landscape.
This edition of Beehive Buzz identifies a European pollinator now in Louisiana.
Deformed persimmon, identifying berries, wild plum and fertlizing a lemon tree.
Mosquito control is an important health protection program for some local governments. However, mosquito control poses risks for honeybees.
Several homeowners and gardeners found non-venomous snakes in their gardens and landscapes and asked for ID. Another homeowner sent an image of a flatworm.
Homeowners want to know how to treat spurweed, help with a sick peace lily and identification of a native vine, peppervine.
Here is a blog about a different beehive design, the Slovenian beehive. This style of hive entails less lifting of bee equipment.
This version of RSFF is about harmless bark cattle, orange dog caterpillars, canna leafrollers, red bay ambrosia beetles and grape flea beetles.
