Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

The Newberry Sun, Newberry, S. C., Thursday, Dec. 17, 1970—PAGE 9 NOMINATED FOR YOUTH CONFERENCE State Rep. Travis Medlock, chairman of the S.C. White House Conference on Youth, an nounced Saturday the appoint ment of 12 whites, seven blacks and one Indian youth as nomi nees to attend the National Con ference at Estes Park, Colo, in 1971. Five of the twenty nominees will be chosen by the White House Conference staff to at tend the conference in the spring of 1971. Among the 20 nominees is Caroline Bridges Smith, daugh ter of Mr. and Mrs. C. M. Smith. The County Agents Column SWINE MEETINGS We would like to remind the Newberry County swine produ cers of the two swine meet ings to be held on December 17 at Chester and December 18 at Greenville. The Clemson University Live stock Committee has scheduled seven regional meetings over the state to present information to help swine producers meet the squeeze of declining prices and rising costs. One of the topics will be, “Hogs and Feed—What’s Ahead for 1971?” Also discussed will be: Build ing least cost rations using grain and protein sources; pro ducing quality hogs; types of facilities; controlling swine pol lution; types of scours and con trol through treatment and sa nitation; developing a quality market program; and new facts about pork. Chester, December 17, County Health Office. Greenville, December 18, County Health Center, next to Bell Tower Shopping Center. HOME FRUIT TIPS In your fruit garden there are several jobs very timely. Have you mulched your straw berries? If you haven’t apply fertilizer and then mulch. Pine needles, weathered small grain straw or coastal Bermuda hay are excellent mulching mate rials (small grain straw must be weathered to prevent the small grain and weed seeds from germinating in your straw berries). When fertilizing your strawberries, use about V/z pounds of a 10-10-10 fertilizer per 100 square feet or about 4-5 pounds per 100 feet of row. Be sure leaves are dry when applying fertiziler and brush off leaves with a burlap bag after applying. If you haven’t pruned your muscadine grapes, do so imme diately. This is particularly true if you would like to prevent bleeding. However, bleeding does not harm the plants. Prune all fruits as soon as possible and apply dormant sprays when necessary for scale insects of for leaf curl on stone fruits in the upper part of the state. Have you ordered the new fruit trees, vines', .and straw berry plants? If not, do so im mediately. Secure a copy of Ex tension Circular 123, “Growing Fruits at Home” from your county agent. This publication gives recommended varieties, cultural practices and pest con trol of all your fruit plants. Pay particular attention to the list of perfect flowered muscadine grapes. This type of plant will bear abundant crops of grapes and also pollinate the varieties you already have thus increas ing the crop. MAINTENANCE OF ORNAMENTAL PLANTS Maintenance of ornamentals can be defined as those prac tices that allow ornamental plants to exhibit their foremost beauty and usefulness. There fore, fertilizing, pruning, water ing, mulching, insect and di sease control, etc. are mainte nance practices. There is a definite trend to day. toward low maintenance. Labor is not available for yard work. A faster pace of living prevents homeowners from hav ing ample time to devote to yard work. The landscape de signer certainly must keep this in mind when suggesting de signs and plants. Designs that require constant pruning or shearing are not popular. Plants that require a great deal of at tention are becoming less popu lar. Many times maintenance pro blems are created at planting time. Plants vary in toleran ces to environmental conditions such as light, temperature, soil moisture, soil pH, etc. There fore, these factors should be considered when selecting a plant for a certain location. Maintenance practices can usually be broken down into the following categories: ferti lization, insect and disease con trol, watering, pruning, and mulching.. Detailed information on maintenance can be found in Extension Circular 430, “Care of Ornamental Plants” and Ex tension Circular 502, “Insects and Disease of Ornamentals, How to Control Them.” MULCHING The advantages of mulching far outweigh the disadvan tages, however one problem is often created in mulching plants. Shallow rooted plants such as azaleas often are kil led as a result of overmulching. When mulch is applied to plants year after year without remov ing the old mulch the root sys tem is “Pulled” out of the ground and into the mulch. Pro blems don’t usually occur until a serious drought. Then the or ganic mulch dries out leaving the root system essentially out of the ground with no means of obtaining water. PRUNING The greatest fault in pruning lies in the methods employed in pruning ornamentals. Shearing of most ornamentals is detri mental. Yet homeowners use the plants all to often. The reason being that they don’t know how to prune properly they feel they finish the job faster and they have seen so many boxwoods until they think all evergreens are suppose to be shaped as a boxwood. Shearing of course eventually leads to the defolia tion of the leaves inside the thick outer canopy caused from shearing. Ornamental plants should be allowed to grow in their natural form. By remov ing over grown long or shaggy branches one at a time the na tural shape won’t be destroyed. The branches should be remov ed at the point where they join onto a main stem or branch. This method of pruning will al so keep the plant open so that the foilage will remain thick throughout the plant. WATERING When ornamental shrubs are planted properly in the proper location, very little supplemen tal watering is required after they are established. However, during long dry periods it may be necessary to water, espe cially shallow rooted types such as azaleas. When supplemen tal watering is required it should be applied heavy rather than lightly. Light watering cause shallow root growth. ... iliil f Gif t Guide * } 5>V BIRTHSTONES - GOING STEADY RINGS - FOR HER ♦ BILLFOLDS - KEY PROTECTORS - FOR HIM W. E. TURNER JEWELER 1103 CALDWELL ST. 276-4714 NEWBERRY, S. C.