Plant Clinic Highlights

Published: 2019
By Sandy Perrin

The Missoula County Extension Plant Clinic provides leadership and educational opportunities to the public on the identification and integrated pest management practices (IPM) of plant diseases, pests and related plant health problems through the coordination and management of the Plant Clinic. • The MC plant clinic performed weekly scouting trips, checking on pest levels that challenge gardeners, landscapers and homeowners in maintaining healthy plant communities and environment. • Trapping for insects such as the codling moth, cherry fruit fly and spotted wing drosophila to give Missoula County residents timely information on when to spray for those pests to control damage to the fruit. This information helps reduce unwarranted pesticide use. Tracking Spotted Wing Drosophila emergence with two traps this year to help determine if there was any presence of larva in the fruit to determine if growers need to spray for this pest. • Assisted the staff Horticulturist in training 25 people on pruning fruit trees and discussed signs of Diseases and what to do about them. • The Plant Clinic provided information to 1600 calls, walk-in clients and emails this year including information on soil testing, pruning, plant identification, and pest control. • Assisted the City of Missoula Parks department train 12 volunteers how to maintain the plants in traffic circles • Partnering with FCS Agent Kelly Moore in teaching four Lunch and Learn classes subjects including: What are Haskaps, Edible Flowers, Your heart beats for Beets, Pizza from Scratch from the garden. • Collaborating with the Missoula Public library, presented a class on Eat Your Weeds • Working with our staff horticulturist on growing hot peppers, we conducted a pepper seed starting class in February with 16 people attending and held a hot pepper eating contest which we grew most of the peppers for at the Western Montana Fair. Eight brave people consumed the hot peppers with the winner eating 14 hot peppers in 30 seconds in the final round. • Taught a group of gardeners at the Northside community garden about insect pests in the garden. • Collected an insect sample from a concerned homeowner that turned out to be an invasive pine sawfly that had not been reported in Montana previously, working with The Montana Invasive Species Council and the MSU Schutter Lab.