Looking for ways to cut energy costs for heating this winter
By ROBERT KESSLER Penn State Cooperative Extension Franklin County office

COMING EVENTS

Sept. 13 - 10 a.m., Pasture Walk, Phil Risser Farm, Greencastle

Sept. 15 - 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., Backyard Habitat Workshop, Horticulture Gardens, Franklin Farm Lane, Chambersburg.

Sept. 22 - 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., Preparing Yard for new year, Franklin County Cooperative Extension, Chambersburg

Sept. 29 - 10 a.m., Pavers Workshop - Horticultureal Garden Center, Franklin County Cooperative Extension, Call 263-9226.

Oct. 2 through Nov. 13 - 7 to 9:30 p.m., Principles of Landscape Design Classes, Franklin County Master Gardners, Franklin County Human Service Building, Call 263- 9226 for information.

Oct. 6 - 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., House Plants and Propagation, Franklin County Cooperative Extension, Franklin Farm Lane, Chambersburg.

Oct. 13 - 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Fall Bus Trip, Bartram's Fardens and Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania, Call 263-9226 for information.

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ENERGY COSTS

Are you looking for ways to cut your energy cost for heating this winter? Maybe you purchased a stove to burn corn last winter and now with the higher cost of corn you wonder if you should buy corn or burn oil. The answer to this is not easy, but here are a few things to consider.

- Any fuel we use can be compared on the amount of BTUs it provides you for the dollars you spend. This is the only way to compare fuels. As an example, if you compare coal and wood (if you can buy a cord of wood for $150), you could afford to pay over $200 for a ton of coal because it has more BTUs than a cord of wood.

- If we compare BTUs per pound, wood pellets provide 8,200 BTUs and coal provides 13,100 BTUs. Corn provides 6,970 BTUs per pound. A gallon of fuel oil provides 139,400 BTUs and a gallon of propane has 91,600 BTUs.

- To put these comparisons in other terms that can help you, let's use fuel oil to start. If fuel oil is $2.80 a gallon, you can pay about $2.60 for propane and have comparable value. If propane can be purchased for less than $2.60, then this is a cheaper energy source. Comparing to coal, the comparable value of coal is $480 per ton, $320 per ton for wood pellets and about $6.45 for 50 pounds of corn. If you get electric for less than 8.5 cents per kilowatt, then this is a cheaper and easier heat than the other choices.

- Of course there are lots of other things to consider when you look at alternative heat sources. You can not burn wood, coal, pellets or corn without a stove, chimney and your insurance company's approval of your installation. And some of these choices can be messy and you have ashes to get rid of. I have an all electric house, so I also have to worry about a loss of power in a storm that could take days to recover from. Should a person have a back up heat source for emergencies?

- If you are thinking of an alternative heat source in your future, be sure to consider all the factors before you make your purchase. If you need additional information, go to http://energy.cas.psu.edu/ and check out the information there.

FUNGUS IN OUR YARDS

There are several fungi we will see from time to time in our yard. If we use wood as mulch, there are several we may see and one that we may have that we can't easily see.

We may see mushrooms / toadstools show up in our mulch from time to time. Our mulch is a wood product and in our yards, this wood product will decay with the help of fungi and bacteria. The fungi get their energy from the break down of the wood. These fungi are natural to see and are not harmful unless you eat them. My personal philosophy is that all fungi that grow in the yards are toadstools and should never be eaten. I know that there are people that will disagree with me, but I will never tell anyone that it is okay to eat something growing in a yard. In fact if you have a small dog, you must make sure that they never eat a toadstool in your yard or you will have very expensive vet bills if you are going to save your dog. The best thing to do if you see fungi in your yard is give it a kick or use a broom to dislodge it so it will dry up.

One unique fungus you will see is one of the slime molds. It is brightly colored, either yellow or orange and will grow over the surface of your mulch. It is generally described as looking like dog vomit, which is a good name to call it. It can grow to be larger than a foot across. They will dry out very fast when the sun hits them.

A much smaller fungus you may have in your mulch but probably never notice it is the artillery fungus of cannon fungus or shotgun fungus. It is very small brown cap about one-tenth of an inch in diameter. It can contain a black "egg." The artillery fungus will shoot this black egg, which is actually a spore mass into the air with a little help from the breeze it can travel 20 feet into the air. The big problem with this fungus is the spore mass is sticky plus it likes to shoot it at brightness, which often means the side of your house. If you have ever noticed small black dots on the siding of your house, this is from the artillery fungus. It has also been known to shoot them at light colored cars.

The black spots are very difficult to remove from your house. Some people have had luck with cleaners, but once they have been on your siding for a long period of time, it is fairly permanent.

To prevent the artillery fungus, you need to loosen up your mulch in the spring to destroy last year's fungal growth that supports the potential cup or spore. If you do this every year, you will not have this problem. You can also prevent it by using any mulch that doesn't have pieces of hard wood mixed in the mulch. Some research is being conducted to better understand this fungus, but we do know that it seems to need pieces of hardwood to feed on to complete its life cycle. If you use pine mulch or cedar mulch, you will not have this problem. There are no fungicide recommendations for its control.

PEST RESISTANT

ORNAMENTAL PLANTS

If you would like to lean about some new developments of plant varieties and how they compare for disease and insect resistance, then join the Franklin County Master Gardeners for a teleconference presentation by Stanton Gill, Regional Extension Specialist in Integrated Pest management at the Central Maryland Research and Education Center of the University of Maryland. The program will be presented at the Penn State Extension office at 181 Franklin Farm Lane; Chambersburg on Tuesday, September 25 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. There will be time for questions.

If you have an interest in planting plants that are resistant to disease and insect damage and how research is helping develop these plants that you can use in the landscape, then you should register for this free program. Space is limited, so call (717) 263-9226 to reserve your seat.