2008 Agricultural Water Use Survey

As part of the Governor's drought legislation that was passed earlier this year. NCDA&CS Ag Statistics has asked us to partner with them to get the word out about the January 2009 survey. This link Water Use Survey will take you to the latest information. Stay tuned as this survey will be a valuable tool to monitor.


For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

North Carolina Farm Energy Efficiency Project

Energy Efficiency is high on the minds of all of us in the green industry. Consider attending the following program:

North Carolina Farm Bureau will host a series of meetings to discuss a new program to make your farm more energy efficient. Presentations will highlight the program and elaborate on how NCFB can provide extremely low cost farm energy assessments. Representatives from USDA will be on hand to discuss how this program leads into their 9007 (REAP) program which provides grants and loan guarantees for energy.
Visit this link for more information:
FEEP or Contact: Scott Welborn 919-782-1705 ex. 8209
scott.welborn@NCFB.org

For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

Dear Green Industry Professionals ;

There are a series of regional commodity meetings scheduled this fall with Dean Johnny Wynne of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University. One is scheduled at the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center for December 3, 2008 beginning at 11 a.m. ending at 2 p.m. A sponsored luncheon is included.

Many of you are members of the various state commodity organizations and we would like to have you attend. We have sent the invitation to all the commodity groups in the state. If you serve as liaison to any of the commodity organizations located in western NC please remind them of this opportunity. Dean Wynne invites you also to attend this meeting.

Participants can register on line for the meeting at
Meeting Registration

For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

Cold Front/ Frosty Air on the Way

Colder weather may be on tap as we move into October. Growers may want to move to protect tender or cold sensitive plants, from light frosts, before next weekend.
Retailers need to move house plants and tropical foliage into heated greenhouse space. Autumn is definitely here and we can expect to see frost on the pumpkins real soon.

This in from the NOAA Weather service.....

There is remarkable agreement among medium range models and ensembles alike indicating a sharp turn to a strongly positive PNA pattern...which supports a deep trough over the eastern US. Look at the plunge in the 1000-850 mb thicknesses late Thursday once the front swings through. If these verify...we could see min temperatures Friday morning of next week in the upper 30s to lower 40s. If this pattern holds, we will really need to undercut MOS guidance during this period. Notice this pattern is projected to hold through nearly the first half of October. It should be interesting to see if this does indeed hold up and if we will need to break out those sweaters.

Please refer back to the following link. NC NOAA

For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

Water Wise Works

During this time of drought and limited water resources please consider sharing the following brochure with your clients:
Water Wise Works
You may print them off and add them to your marketing materials. Cooperative Extension offices have a limited supply of pre-printed copies. While more are being printed you may find that printing some of your own or sending this link to your customers just one more way to get out the message.
For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

New Irrigation Contractor's Law

New Irrigation Contractor's Law
Come hear the review of the new law and get a better understanding as to what you need to do to comply. Help us determine
the needed venues to provide additional training. Hosted by Cooperative Extension with sponsorship supplied by John Deere
Landscapes and the Green Industry Council.
Where: Mountain Horticulture Crops Research and Extension Center- off Old Fanning Bridge Road, Mills River NC.
When: September 15th 3:00-5:00 p.m.
Please help us with the head-count by RSVP- call to confirm 828-697-4891



For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

Green Tips

The August newsletter
Green Tips has now been posted.


For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

Rain Barrel Sale

The Henderson County Master Gardeners are selling Rain barrels to help customers deal with the drought. Call the Henderson County office at 828-697-4891 for more information and down load the brochure at Rain Barrels
to share with clients/customers who may be interested

For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

BRCC Offers evening horticulture classes

Blue Ridge Community College will begin to offer one of their horticulture certificate programs at night, this fall. The certificate program being offered will be the Landscape Design Certificate consisting of 2 semesters of Landscape Design and 2 semesters of Plant Identification. Landscape Design 1 and Plant Materials 1 are both slated to be offered this fall as evening classes. For more information contact Carolyn Evans at BRCC- cm_evans@blueridge.edu or (828) 694-1840.


For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

Water Restrictions in Hendersonville

FYI
For those of you selling plants and/or installing plants for customers in Henderson County, in particular to individuals buying water from the city of Hendersonville, please be aware of the new Water Restrictions as indicated in the links to the following website:
Water Restrictions A public meeting will be held on Thursday, August 7th at 5:45 p.m. to allow for public comment regarding these restrictions. Water Restriction Ruling If you feel that this issue is one on which your voice must be heard, I suggest trying to make the meeting at City Hall.

For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.