C4-Lancaster Firming, Saturday, April 7,1990 NEWARK, Del.—The flower ing dogwood tree is full-colored throughout three seasons and a popular choice for home landscap ing. A beautiful showy display of flowers in the spring is followed by crisp green foliage in the sum mer that, in the autumn, turns to a rich brocade of red and crimson. According to Margaret L. Moor, Delaware State College Cooperative Extension agent, you can choose from several varieties of flowering dogwood trees for a bright landscaping effect. Moor recommends several types of the American or eastern dogwood, native to the eastern United States: • Pink Flowering blooms before leaves appear and thrives in sun or partial shade. Red to purple foliage and red berries appear in the autumn. • Cloud 9 is an extremely abun dant, spreading bloomer. Two year-old trees may have up to 75 blooms, which are large and clean white in color. • Cherokee Chief is one of the best known of all dogwood variet ies. Blooms are a beautiful deep ruby red that hold their color throughout the glooming period. In the autumn the Cherokee Chief is brilliant scarlet, shading to purple and green. • Rainbow is a white-flowering dogwood that produces bright yel low and green leaves in the spring and summer. Red berries and pink-red-purple-colored leaves appear in autumn. Moor also suggests another t>pe of dogwood known as the Oriental, native to China, Japan and Korea. Oriental dogwoods spread as they grow and tend to be multi-trunked. Two of the more popular varieties are: • Milky Way is a vigorously growing tree that has star-shaped blooms which appear after leaves are out in May and June. Reddish fall foliage, large, red, strawberry- Plant Dogwood Trees For Color And Effect like fruit and exfoliating bark cre ate a fascinating year-round effect, according to Moor. • National has large, creamy white star-shaped blooms that pro vide an exceptional contrast against the dark green foliage. Large, red, strawberry-like fruit appears in the fall. A vigorous grower, this variety forms a vase shaped tree. In the winter, the branching habit and exfoliating bark of large trees create a sculp tured effect. Moor said it is best to transplant dogwood trees when they are fully dormant. Balled-and-burlapped plants can be planted November through April. Bareroot dogwoods should be planted early in the spring. Select a well-drained site. Dig a hole one and a half to two times wider than the ball of soil, or the spread of the root of the bareroot plants. Don’t dig much deeper unless backfill soil is packed in the Soybean Test Reports Are In Soybean tests are conducted annually to provide interested per sons with information regarding the performance of soybeans grown in Pennsylvania. The 1989 report is now available in county extension offices. The following characteristics were measured/evaluated for the varieties grown: • Yield - calculated after all the sklC/(S HEALTH KICK bottom of the hole to prevent settling. Leave the burlap or wire basket on the ball, but remove any plastic strings tied around the base of the trunk and slit any treated or plastic burlap. For the first growing season, water thoroughly once a week unless rainfall is ample and evenly distributed. Less water will be needed on well-mulched trees than on unmulched ones, said Moor. If the planting site has reaso nably fertile soil, well supplied with organic matter, fertilizer is usually not needed the first year. Dogwoods are not heavy feeders and excess fertilizer can damage their roots. The fleshy, soft, delicately branching root system of a dog wood tree grows near the soil’s surface. Moor said to watch for damage from drying out, mechan ical injury, oxygen starvation, insects and disease. seed weights were adjusted to 13 percent moisture. • Maturity - when approximate ly 95 percent of pods were ripe. • Height - average length of plants from the ground to the tip of the main stem. • Lodging. • Seed quality and purple stain. • Seed size - the approximate number of seeds in one pound. New Corn Uses Grab Spotlight GREENSBORO, N.C. New uses for com and its by-products are the focus of the third annual Corn Utilitzation Conference (CUC III). The conference, scheduled for June 19-21 in St. Louis, Mo., brings together top corn-use researchers and industry leaders for an exchange of information dial in the past has led to new com uses. “Since the first utilization con ference in June 1987, the number of universities that research new com uses has increased signific antly,” said Dr. Gene lannotti, CUC 111 chairman and associate professor, University of Missouri, Columbia. “I get excited when I see the progress we’ve made in three years. We expect CUC 111 to spur even more developments. At the conference, sponsored by Ciba-Geigy Seed Division and the National Com Growers Asso ciation (NCGA), experts from around the world will present pap ers on various advances in com use. “Poly saccharides, either starch or cellulose, can be economical sources for raw materials used to produce commodity chemicals,” says Dr. James Gaddy, department of chemical engineering, Univer sity of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and chairman of the Chemicals From Corn session. “There is great potential for chemicals ranging from alcohols to acids, ketones and aldehydes to be made from com.” The feasibility of using com to produce calcium megnesium ace tate (CMA), a non-corrosive road de-icer, will be a key presentation in Gaddy’s session. Com also can be used as part of many plastic products. Dr. Helena Li Chum, manager, chemical con version research branch. Solar Energy Research Institute, Gol den, Colo., will chair sessions on polymers and their environmental degradation. “Compatibility is an issue when cornstarch and cornstarch-derived polymers are used with high volume thermoplastics,” said Chum. “We’ll discuss research on these materials and chemical approaches to increase compatibility.” Research on the biodegradation of these materials also will be highlighted. One presentation will focus on the findings of a field scale composting experiment in Urbana, 111. A discussion of the pros and cons of composting will follow the presentation. Dr. Ron Phillips, department of agronomy and plant genetics, Uni versity of Minnesota, St. Paul, will chair a session on biotechnology that examines the many advan tages available today. “This session captures the excitement of recent biotechno logical developments and future expectations,” said Phillips. “The concerns that often accompany such rapid change will be addressed, as will federal regulations.” Featured biotechnology includes the use of genetically engineered bacteria to protect the com plant, the monitoring of com crosses with new molecular gene tic markers called restriction frag ment length polymorphisms (RFLPs), and the use of tissue cul ture to select com hybrids with special attributes. For more information on CUC 111, contact Ann Beime, NCGA, 1000 Executive Parkway, Suite 105, St. Louis, MO 63141-6397, (314) 275-9915.
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