Shelby Shopper Shelby NC
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Thursday, March 24-March 30, 2022 www.shelbyinfo.com 704/484-1047 - shelby shopper & info - Page 19 By Loretta Cozart City of Shelby Mayor Stan Anthony brought members the State of the City address in his half-hour presentation to the Cleveland County Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, March 16 at 11:30 a.m. at the Earl Scruggs Center in Shelby. Executive Director of the Earl Scruggs Center Mary Beth Martin welcomed guests to the host venue, followed by remarks given by paying spon- sor Damon Scott. Members gathered for networking until 12:15, when lunch was served. The monthly chamber meet- ing affords members the op- portunity to network, meet new members, and gain knowledge from speakers on current is- sues that are important to the business community. Other chamber events throughout the month includes an Ambassador's Meeting, a Membership Matters for new members, an Ambassador Mixer, Lunch and Learn on pertinent topics, and a Business After Hours event. The first Friday of the month, in part- nership with NC Works, the chamber also sponsors a Career Cafe. Chamber mem- bers receive a table for display, collateral for employment inquiries at no charge, and provides a private office for interviews. For more information about chamber activities or membership, call 704-487- 8521. Shelby mayor speaks at chamber luncheon Kings Mountain City Councilman Keith Miller listens as Shelby City Manager Rick Howell speaks. Shelby Mayor Stan Anthony gives a presentation during the chamber's luncheon. Photos Cleveland County Chamber of Commerce. Jewel Reavis speaks about Southern Arts Society events as Christine Cobb looks on. The time to plant toma- toes is rapidly approaching. Here are some timely tips on that succulent subject. By Mary Brennanen The lovely summer tomato, what could be better sliced thickly and served up on a sandwich or as a side? Begin planning now for better toma- toes. There are good cultural practices which can be used in your garden to prolong the life of your tomatoes into the summer. The first step is to carefully consider choosing va- rieties, also referred to as culti- vars, which have resistance to disease. Many of our preferred tomato cultivars that we plant in our gardens are heirloom vari- eties which are very susceptible to disease and often die by late July. There are tomato cultivars which have been developed at the NC State University Moun- tain Horticultural Crops Re- search and Extension Center in Mills River by Randy Gardner, Tomato Breeder and Professor Emeritus, Horticultural Science with disease resistances to late blight, Fusarium wilt race 3, and tomato spotted wilt virus. The breeding program, currently led by Dilip R. Panthee, Ph.D. Is also breeding for horticultural traits including earliness, large fruit size, firmness, color, flavor, smoothness, crack resistance, shelf life and high tempera- ture fruit set. Combinations of quality features and disease resistance are sought in a va- riety of types (large-fruited, Roma, cherry, grape) and in red and yellow fruit colors in the breeding program. Some of the varieties available from the breeding program are 'Moun- tain Glory', 'Mountain M a g i c ' , 'Mountain M a j e s t y ' and 'Moun- tain Pride' for slicing tomatoes. Other va- rieties with some dis- ease resistance are 2 cherry types 'Sun Gold' and 'Mountain Belle'. A plum type with disease resistance is 'Plum Crimson' and a grape type with disease resistance is 'Mountain Honey'. If you save seed from heirloom types, such as a 'German John- son' or 'Cherokee Purple', it is recommended that you make sure the seed is clean of any disease inoculums, which eas- ily overwinters on seed. Threat the seed by dipping it in a so- lution containing 1 quart of household bleach and 4 quarts of water plus one-half teaspoon of mild dish soap for 1 minute. Constantly stir the solution and then wash the seed in running water for 5 minutes and dry the seed thoroughly. The final rinse should be done with a gallon of water with 1 ounce of vinegar. Dry the seed after the final rinse. Consider the nutri- tion requirements of tomatoes and how you will meet those to keep the plants healthy. Hope- fully you are using your soil test report to determine how much fertility to add to the soil for tomatoes. Soil test kits are available at our office between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. and testing is free from April 1 until November 30. Be sure to plant tomatoes when the soil has warmed to 60 de- grees Fahrenheit, the appro- priate temperature for healthy root growth. In our area, this will depend more on the weather and less on the calendar date, although most tomatoes will be set as transplants from mid April to mid May. Choose healthy transplants that are not showing signs of disease or in- sect pests. It is best to choose plants that are not blooming and are not root bound in the container. Do not plant your tomatoes where other plants in the Solanaceae family were planted within the last 2 years. By rotating crop families, you can help to break disease and pest cycles associated with the soil. Eggplants and Pep- pers are other solanaceous plants often grown in our sum- mer gardens. Plant tomatoes spaced at least 2 feet apart so that there will be good air flow to aid in pollination and drying of leaves after showers and heavy dew events. Trellis your tomatoes on sanitized stakes or cages. Plan to prune your to- matoes by suckering them and removing leaves below fruit set. Make sure the plants are re- ceiving at least 1 inch of water a week during the growing sea- son. Only water your tomatoes at the base of the plant. Drip ir- rigation or soaker hoses can be used to aid in proper watering technique. If disease symptoms appear, remove the plant parts showing signs of disease and dispose of them in the trash- can. You may need to rogue out entire diseased plants, in- cluding the roots, to protect the rest of your tomatoes. Mulch your tomatoes to cover the soil, to protect against soil splash, to suppress weeds and to main- tain soil moisture. Organic ma- terials such as wheat, fescue, or alfalfa straw can be used. Many produce farmers use plastic mulch with drip irriga- tion to create optimum growing conditions for their tomatoes. There are new biodegradable mulches available which can be used. Plan to regularly scout your tomatoes for the presence of insect damage and signs of disease. Using Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a sys- tematic way to manage pests. Many small insects like leaf- hoppers are vectors for viral diseases. Rather than listing insects and diseases which could be possible pests and then matching them with a pesti- cide, Cooperative Extension promotes a system of pest management called Integrated Pest Management or IPM. IPM is an approach that uses knowledge about pests and their life cycles, cultural prac- tices, nonchemical methods and pesticides to manage pest problems. It is recommended that you start with prevention in mind by doing all of the good cultural practices that you can to minimize the incidence of pests. Good cultural practices such as choosing disease- resistant varieties, using soil test results for fertility inputs, planting in well-prepared soil at the proper time, and water- ing properly will go a long way in reducing pest problems. The IPM steps that are followed in a systematic way along with using good cultural practices in order of practice are next using mechanical and physical tactics for prevention, third, using bio- rational insecticide or fungicide applications prior to outbreak status. If you wait until outbreak status when you have an infes- tation of insects or a full-blown disease taking the plant down, you may need to use a more persistent pesticide for control. Pesticides which are persistent are more long lasting in the en- vironment and typically do not readily biodegrade. Biorational pesticides are less persistent in the environment and do biode- grade. Some of the insect pests you are likely to see on toma- toes are flea beetles early in the season, Colorado potato beetle if you are also grow- ing a lot of potatoes, tomato fruit worm, armyworm, tomato pinworm, stink bugs, thrips, white flies, and mites. Be sure to keep weedy borders mowed and plant flowers to attract ben- eficial insects which will prey on some of the pests. Thor- oughly scout fields and spray only when necessary. For flea beetles, use insecticidal oil, neem, spinosad, or parasitic nematodes as a soil drench. For Colorado potato beetles, use neem oil, spinosad, and pyrethrin for larval control. For tomato fruit worm, also known as the corn earworm, use insecticidal oil, neem, Bacil- lus thruringiensis, insecticidal soap, and Chromobacterium (Grandevo). For armyworm, including beet, southern, and yellow-striped armyworm, use spinosad, Bacillus thruringien- sis, Chromobacterium, Spod-X, and kaolin clay as a repellant. For stinkbugs use Chromobac- terium, insecticidal oil, and py- rethrin. For thrips use spinosad, insecticidal soap, and paraffinic oil. For white flies use neem oil, insecticidal soap, and Chro- mobacterium. Always read the product labels and follow the exact directions for amounts and timing of applications. Re- member, using pesticides is the last step in the IPM system. Dis- eases you may encounter with tomatoes are bacterial canker, bacterial spot and speck, early blight, late blight, powdery mil- dew, septoria leaf spot, south- ern blight, and tobacco mosaic virus. Some strategies to use to prevent disease are to use resistant varieties, use dis- ease-free see and transplants, rotate crop families, control so- lanaceous weeds, use cover crops the season before, de- stroy crop residue, rogue out diseased plants, promote good air flow by using the proper spacing, do not handle plants when they are wet, water at the base of the plant and ensure that proper fertility is provided based on soil report. Biorational fungicides for use are Bacillus subtilis (Nutria organic control), copper products, lime-sulfur, paraffinic oil, potassium bicar- bonate, neem oil, and sulfur products. It is recommended that you alternate the fungicide that you use to avoid the devel- opment of disease resistance in the causal organism. How to grow better tomatoes