AMES, Iowa - Farmers, researchers and native plant aficionados are invited to a one-day workshop exploring how to enhance the ecosystem services provided by beneficial insects. Iowa State University's Departments of Entomology and Natural Resource Ecology and Management, with support from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, will host the workshop on Aug. 4.

Beneficial insects provide services like pollination and the suppression of pests. Farmers and gardeners can encourage these insects by creating a refuge that supplies them a source of pollenand nectar. At the workshop, participants will learn how to identify helpful insects and the native plants that attract them. Experts will discuss how to create resilient landscapes that provide multiple services, and federal and state programs that help support this form of conservation.

Participants will have a chance to examine insect specimens and visit the Field Extension Education Laboratory (FEEL), where researchers are testing the ability of native plants to attract helpful species, like bees and lady beetles.

Speakers include Iowa State's Lisa Schulte and Mary Harris, natural resource ecology and management, Kelly Seman and Matt O'Neal, entomology, Meghann Jarchow, agronomy and Practical Farmers of Iowa representative, Sarah Carlson.

The workshop will take place at FEEL, five miles west of Ames. Register by July 15 at www.aep.iastate.edu/ent. Reduced hotel rates are available for out-of-town visitors through the ISU Memorial Union. Lunch will be provided.

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Trees are one of the most valuable assets in a landscape. All properties enjoy the benefits of having healthy and beautiful trees. In addition to the aesthetic appeal, a healthy tree can add value to a property. Home gardeners with questions about the management of other tree diseases may contact the experts by emailing or calling the ISU Extension horticulture hotline at hortline@iastate.edu or 515-294-3108.

My crabapple has begun to drop some of its leaves. Why?
The leaf drop is probably due to apple scab. Apple scab is a fungal disease caused by the fungus Venturia inaequalis.Cool, wet weather in spring favors apple scab development. Crabapple varieties differ in their susceptibility to apple scab. Some varieties are very susceptible to the disease, while others are resistant to apple scab.

Apple scab appears as velvety, olive-green to black spots on the crabapple leaves. Heavily infected leaves turn yellow and fall from the tree. Highly susceptible crabapple varieties may lose a large percentage of their leaves by mid-summer. Fortunately, apple scab does not kill affected trees. The damage is mainly aesthetic.

Apple scab can be prevented by applying fungicides from bud break through mid-June. For most home gardeners, however, controlling apple scab with fungicides is not practical. Sanitation also plays a role in controlling apple scab. Raking and destroying the leaves as soon as they fall should help reduce the severity of the infection next season. However, the best way to prevent apple scab is to plant scab-resistant crabapple varieties.

Why are the leaves on my pin oak yellow-green?
In Iowa, the foliage of the pin oak (Quercus palustris) often turns a sickly yellow-green. The yellow-green foliage isdue to a deficiency of iron. The problem is referred to as iron chlorosis. (A close examination of chlorotic leaves will show that while most of the leaf is yellow-green, the tissue around the major veins is a darker green.) Most soils in Iowa contain sufficient amounts of iron. However, in alkaline soils (those with a pH above 7.0), the pin oak is unable to absorb adequate amounts of iron because much of it is in an insoluble form. Since many soils in Iowa are alkaline, chlorotic pinoaks are common in Iowa. Wet soil conditions make absorption of iron even more difficult.

Correcting an iron chlorosis problem is difficult. Applying additional iron to the soil usually doesn't help. The soil already contains sufficient amounts of iron. Adding more iron doesn't overcome the problem. Lowering the soil pH to 6.0 to 6.5 would allow the roots of the pin oak to more readily absorb iron in the soil. Unfortunately, lowering the soil pH isextremely difficult, if not impossible. As a result, homeowner efforts to treat iron chlorosis are often unsuccessful.

One strategy that sometimes works is to have an arborist or other tree care professional inject an iron containing compound directly into the trunks of chlorotic pin oak trees. The effects of a trunk injection may last three or four years.

Why is my sycamore tree dropping its leaves?
The leaf drop is likely due to anthracnose. Anthracnose is a common fungal disease of sycamore, ash, maple, oak and other trees. Anthracnose is most severe in years with cool, wet spring weather. While anthracnose may cause extensive defoliation, it does not cause serious harm to healthy, well-established trees.

Symptoms of anthracnose on sycamores include brown blotches on the leaves, death of young buds and shoots, and leaf drop. In cool, wet springs, affected sycamores may lose most of their initial foliage.

Fortunately, the sycamore trees will continue to produce additional leaves and shoots through early summer. Foliage that develops in late spring and early summer shouldn't become infected as warmer, drier weather suppresses anthracnose. Most sycamores should have a good canopy of leaves by late June or early July. 

Since anthracnose does not cause serious harm to sycamores, fungicide treatments are rarely warranted.

The leaves on my peach tree are puckered and reddish in color. What is the problem?
The symptoms are those of peach leaf curl. Peach leaf curl is a fungal disease. The disease is caused by the fungusTaphrina deformans. Infections occur as the peach tree buds begin to swell in spring.

A single fungicide application will control peach leaf curl. Fungicides, such as lime sulfur, Bordeaux mixture or chlorothalonil, should be applied in fall after leaf drop or in late March before the buds begin to swell. To achieve control, all branches and twigs must be thoroughly sprayed.

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AMES, Iowa -- Some people see cooperatives as the way electricity gets to their rural home, or how local crops get from grain bins to the market, or the way to buy fresh, locally grown foods. Some people call cooperatives a business model,but college students and graduates who have had experiences with cooperatives see them as a way to gain valuable work experiences, scholarships and the means to addressing community needs.

Members benefit
Mingwei Huang, Director of Education and Training at North American Students of Cooperation (NASCO), lived in a housing co-op as a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The housing co-op was not only a beneficial living situation, it was also an educational experience.

"My co-op was in the heart of campus, but was not entirely a student co-op," Huang said. "In fact, it was about half student and half community and workers. This was very grounding for me since it's easy for students to live in a bubble. I learned a lot and developed many great relationships while living with so many great, interesting people."
In fact, skills like basic budgeting, communication, handling conflict, minor maintenance and accountability were skills she learned while living in the housing co-op that remain valuable to her today.

Member ownership and control
A housing co-op is significantly different from an apartment building, rental house or sorority or fraternity. As a member-owner, each resident contributes to the house labor and has a say in how it's run and managed. Huang used her time in a housing co-op to become involved on its board as vice president and in member education. These responsibilities gave her leadership experience, in addition to teaching her about collaboration, democracy and accountability.

"In our society, we are taught to think and act independently or in our own interests," she said. "We tend to organize our relations with others as sole independent people rather than interdependent groups and networks."

The ability for any cooperative to succeed depends on a collective effort, which Huang says is accomplished through healthy communication and navigation of power dynamics. These skills can carry over into the personal and professional realms.

Huang's experience with her housing co-op demonstrate three principles that are widely recognized and practiced by cooperatives: member benefits, member ownership and member control. According to www.eXtension.org, an educational partnership of 74 land-grant universities, these principles distinguish a cooperative from other kinds of businesses. The member-benefits principle is carried out when members unite to produce services otherwise not available, gain access to markets, or other mutually beneficial reasons. The member-owner principle is simple; members own the cooperative and have the financial and operational obligations and rewards of an owner. The member-control principle is exercised when members vote at membership meetings and serve on the board of directors.

Jesse Martin applies cooperative principles to the daily operations of Martin's Native Lumber of Dayton, Va., even though the business is a private, fourth-generation, family-owned business.

Communicating through one-on-one employee meetings and offering profit-sharing retirement portfolios are two practices Martin applies that reflect the cooperative business model.

"Cooperative education has allowed me to consider the world of business with a far more open mind," Martinsaid. "Often, I approach items in my own business with principles learned through the co-op education programs. I have found that if we think of our customers as owners and having a vested interest in our company, that we provide higher quality service."

Martin became involved with cooperatives after attending a conference during college and later becoming selected as the National Institute of Cooperative Education's chairman. The National Institute on Cooperative Education (NICE) is a youth scholar program that provides educational and social activities. The goals of the institute include increasing the understanding of basic cooperative principles, the challenges faced by cooperatives and the opportunities provided by cooperatives.

Expanding cooperative education
A leadership team made up of university faculty and researchers has created the eXtension Cooperative Community of Practice to increase the visibility of the cooperative business model with information they contribute to the website.

Leah Henkes, an Iowa State University senior in dairy science, contributed to the development of the cooperatives one Xtension website during her initial involvement with cooperatives.

"I think it is extremely beneficial for young people to learn about the cooperative business model because it gives them the chance to help network their abilities and resources," Henkes said. "By working with others to accomplish a goal it is easier to reach that goal."

Three Iowa State University students from Ron Deiter's Cooperatives class had the opportunity to attend the 2011 College Conference on Cooperatives (CCOC), a three-day program offered by the National Farmers Union (NFU) and the cooperative community of the upper Midwest on Feb. 19-21. The conference helps college students gain a more thorough understanding of cooperatives and the career opportunities available. It exposes attendees to the many areas of the economy stimulated by cooperatives - beyond agriculture.

Students wanting to be more engaged with local cooperatives, thinking of starting a cooperative, or wanting a better understanding of the responsibilities of a board member, can explore the resources available at the eXtension Cooperatives Community of Practice website. Leadership programs, local job opportunities, scholarships and careers offered by cooperatives are featured on the site.

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AMES, Iowa - Proper water management is an essential skill for fruit and vegetable high tunnel growers. Since the plastic film covering prevents rain water from reaching the crop, the environment underneath is virtually a desert. Water is typically provided by drip irrigation lines placed beside the crops. Drip irrigation waters only the crop root zone, keeping the foliage dry which results in less incidence of foliage diseases associated with water on the leaves.

However, an estimated 1,800 gallons of water runs off a 30 x 96 foot high tunnel with each inch of rain. That volume tends to puddle around the sides of a high tunnel or requires drainage. Rather than letting water create a saturated area around the high tunnel, erode the soil around the high tunnelor go unused, Iowa State University Extension specialists have developed a system to collect the rain water and store it for reuse on the crops in the high tunnel. The system demonstrates a water collection system that was retrofitted on a Quonset style high tunnel with both electric and solar powered pumps.

The public is invited to a field day to learn more about this system and see the production and drip irrigation system in the high tunnel. The field day will be held on July 12 at 6:30 p.m. at the Armstrong Research and Demonstration Farm, 53020 Hitchcock Avenue, Lewis, Iowa. The farm is located 11 miles southwest of Atlantic.
For more information, contact Linda Naeve at 515-294-8946 or via email at lnaeve@iastate.edu.

Practical Farmers of Iowa also will be hosting a field day in central Iowa for high tunnel water catchment installed on a new gothic-style high tunnel. The field day will be held July 18 at the Nature Road Farm, 753 Nature Road, Boone, Iowa. For more information go to page 8 of 2011 Field Day Schedule and Guide at www.practicalfarmers.org/events/field-days.html.

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