Winter protection of ornamentals
their respective showmanship classes were:
Grades 4-6: Ava Grace Crump, Gordon County 4-H
Grades 7-8: Kylie Hurd, Gordon County 4-H
Grades 9-10: Rebekah McElrath, Gordon County 4-H
Grades 11-12: Olivia Tierce, Gordon County 4-H
Kylie Hurd received Champion Overall Showman.
The heifer show was split into three divisions, Registered British, Registered European, and Commercial. In this year’s steer show, Thaed Gunn of LOF FFA exhibited the Grand Champion Steer and Hannah McElrath exhibited the Reserve Champion Steer. Winning Grand Champion Registered British was Brent McDaniel of Gordon County 4-H and Reserve Champion Registered British was Olivia Tierce of Gordon County 4-H. Olivia Tierce also won Grand Champion European Breeds while Jazmine Ralston of Gordon County 4-H won Reserve European Breeds. Grand Champion Commercial Heifer was awarded to Kylie Hurd of Gordon County 4-H and Reserve Grand Champion Commercial wwent to Gabrielle Ralston of Gordon County 4-H. Ending the show was the selection of the Overall Grand Champion and Overall Reserve Grand Champion; those honors went to Kylie Hurd and Olivia Tierce, respectively.
The final show of the fair was the swine show, held on Saturday, Sept. 14. There were 28 youth who exhibited 42 pigs in the show. Winning their grade level showmanship class were:
Grades 4-6: Bryson Allen, Pickens FFA
Grades 7-8: Abbi Allen, Pickens FFA
Grades 9-10: Matthew Chastain, Pickens FFA
Grades 11-12: Mackenzie Hancock, Pickens FFA
Champion Overall Showman was awarded to Matthew Chastain.
The hog show was split into two divisions: market hog and breeding gilt. The market hog show consisted of 31 hogs, while 11 hogs were shown in the breeding gilt show. Grand Champion Market Hog honors went to Matthew Chastain and Reserve Grand Champion Market Hog was shown by Roberto Romero of Gordon County 4-H. The Grand Champion Breeding Gilt was exhibited by Taylor Dobson of Pickens FFA and Reserve Grand Champion Breeding Gilt was shown by parker Fleming, Pickens FFA.
The livestock judging contest was held on Thursday, Sept. 12, and recognized the top ten individuals in high school and elementary/middle school for their livestock evaluation skills. In order to be recognized with top honors in the livestock judging contest, the student must evaluate four species from which the contest could compose classes: cattle, swine, sheep, and goats. At the contest, youth from 4th- 12th grades competed in two divisions Jr. (grade 4-8) and Sr. (grades 9-12).
Six classes of livestock, consisting of three cattle, two goat, and one lamb were evaluated. In addition to these classes, youth were required to answer questions on one particular class. The top ten individuals in the Junior Division were Lowry Duggin, Hannah Newton, Angelina Grizzle, Jacob Beddington, Addison Waters, Carley Ware, Bryson Allen, Mackenna Jarrett, Kensley Poole and Seth Carr. Senior individuals in the top ten were Rebekah McElrath, Colton Williams, Jazmine Ralston, Hunter Petty, Cash Goble, Sheyenne Tritt, Chloe Mays, Zachary Gentry, Breana Manning, and Emma Long. Overall Individual in Questions was Jazmine Ralston.
Calendar:
Sept. 19-22 – Southern Regional Teen Leader Conference
Sept. 21 – Rivers Alive Sept. 27-Oct. 2 – National 4-H Dairy Judging Contest
School Club Meetings:
Thursday, Sept. 19: Red Bud Elementary – 5th grade
Friday, Sept. 20: W.L. Swain Elementary – 4th grade
Friday, Sept. 20 – Thursday, Sept. 26: Calhoun Elementary – 4th and 5th grade
Wednesday, Sept. 25: Belwood Elementary — 5th grade: Tolbert Elementary — 5th grade; Thursday, Sept. 26; Red Bud Elementary – 4th grade
Within the last decade, we had a couple of winters that brought cold and snowy weather. I remember one of those winters well because we were having baby goats born on the farm with about six inches of snow on the ground.
I can remember one spring after one of those winters where I received many phone calls and conducted numerous site visits because of cold damage to woody ornamentals. The cause of the winter damage most of the time was improper pruning time by the property owner. The clients had been pruning at the wrong time for years and the real cold and snowy weather of that winter finally caught up to them.
Today I am going to share information on winter protection of your ornamentals by use of a UGA publication by Bob Westerfield, UGA Extension horticulturist, and Orville Lindstrom, professor of horticulture.
With the extreme heat and dry weather right now, thinking about winter protection of your ornamentals may not be high on the list. Keep in mind that in late summer and early fall plants will start preparing themselves for winter by cold acclimation. This activity is started by cooler temperatures and the shorter day lengths that will happen this time of year. Note that cold acclimation needs to happen in a timely fashion. If the acclimation happens too early, the growing season of the ornamental will be shortened. If the acclimation happens too late, the plants can be hurt or killed by early frosts.
Our information states that local weather conditions, the plants selected and plant maintenance activities in the growing season can affect the timing and extent of cold acclimation. I am not going to go into detail on the types of cold damage, but just know that cold injury can happened on all parts of a plant.
You can see cold injury on fruit, stems, leaves, trunks and roots. Some injuries you can see such as to the leaves. If the roots are injured, you may not notice until the plants do not leaf out in spring.
How can you help prevent cold damage to your ornamentals? One of the first tips in prevention is in the actual section of the plants themselves and the area you choose to plant them in the landscape.
Try to select plants that can handle the cold temperatures in the area where you live. Look for plants that meet the minimum cold hardy requirements for your part of the state. I will add that you not only consider cold weather, but select plants that can handle the summer heat too.
Do not forget planting site selection. Investigate your property to figure out the locations that get the coldest and the warmest. A tip is that during the winter, the coldest spots are normally found on the north and northwest sides of the property and also in low areas where the cold air will settle. On the flipside, the southern part of the property will normally be the warmest. Keep microclimates in mind too. This is where you can place your cold sensitive plants near the part of the house that gets more southern exposure or even near larger plants or other structure types.
Proper plant nutrition can help a plant be more tolerant to cold. This includes fertilizing at the right time of year too. Note that fertilizing after August or September with a high nitrogen fertilizer can cause problems. This can cause a lot of new growth which will be more susceptible to cold damage.
I mentioned this in the opening paragraph, but proper pruning is important. Pruning in the late summer or early fall can cause a flush of new growth that is more susceptible to cold injury. I remember for years keeping a pruning chart for the various landscape items at my computer. Make sure you know the proper pruning time for your ornamental plants. Do not forget about proper transplanting too.
Note that plants transplanted in the late fall or early winter have a greater chance of cold injury due to possible lack of acclimation. You need to transplant in early fall. Windbreaks can be beneficial. Our info states that fences, buildings, evergreen plantings and even temporary structures can help protect plants from cold. Windbreaks give more help with cold winds and what we call advective freezes. This type of freeze is when temps drop because of invasion of cold air masses.
Windbreaks normally help if on the northwest side of the ornamental planting. There are other preventative tips that our space will not allow to cover today, but do keep one thing in mind on container plants. If you leave container plants outside, you can push those containers together. Mulch or cover them to decrease heat loss. You can even wrap the container bases in plastic, burlap or blankets to help trap heat too. Covering plants with sheets, blankets or even cardboard boxes are suggested in times of cold weather. We do not recommend covering with plastic.