Central Gorge Master Gardeners - OSU

Central Gorge Master Gardeners - OSU The Master Gardeners of the Central Gorge are here to provide free research-based information to the public to answer plant & gardening questions.

Training to serve as a Master Gardener volunteer is held annually Feb thru Apr. Submit a plant question: https://tinyurl.com/3w46sk2h

🫧 If the leaves on your squash, pumpkin, or cucumber vines are starting to look dusted in white, you're not imagining it...
08/28/2026

🫧 If the leaves on your squash, pumpkin, or cucumber vines are starting to look dusted in white, you're not imagining it. Powdery mildew is active in Gorge gardens right now, and late summer's cooling nights and lingering humidity are exactly the conditions it favors.

The disease shows up first as small white circular spots on leaf surfaces, usually starting on older or shaded leaves, then spreads to cover most of the leaf and eventually kills it off. (It appears on both vegetables and ornamentals.) It won't touch the fruit directly, but heavily infected plants lose the leaf cover that protects fruit from sunscald and won't finish ripening as well.

🌿 There's no cure, but you can slow it down. Remove and destroy the worst-affected leaves rather than composting them, avoid overhead watering that wets the foliage, and increase airflow by thinning out crowded growth. A baking soda spray (about 4 teaspoons per 2 gallons of water) applied every 7-10 days can also help suppress it.

🥒 If you're planting cucurbits again next year, look for varieties bred with some resistance, it won't stop the disease entirely, but it buys you more time before symptoms take over.

🧐 Search "OSU powdery mildew squash" for full identification photos and control options. Garden questions? call 541-386-3343 or visit extension.oregonstate.edu/mg/hoodriver. The Central Gorge Master Gardener program is a service of OSU Hood River County Extension.

For garden inspiration and motivation, join our 3rd Annual Hood River Garden Tour on Saturday September 12th!

🌺 Visit our website to learn more and see details and this year's map!

💫 What inspires your gardening? Beauty? Innovation? Artistry and design? Or productivity and sustenance? Join us in cele...
08/27/2026

💫 What inspires your gardening? Beauty? Innovation? Artistry and design? Or productivity and sustenance? Join us in celebrating the edible gardening, native plants, pollinators, and the fall harvest season from within your own community.
Saturday September 12th from 9am to noon.

🚶Walk, bike, roll, or stroll your way through the neighborhoods of the Hood River as you visit gardens and learn how to transform water-thirsty lawns into more sustainable and nourishing landscapes for humans and pollinators alike.

🌺 Visit our website to learn more and see this year's map!

https://extension.oregonstate.edu/hoodriver/events/2026-hood-river-front-yard-garden-tour

🌺 It's that magnificent time of the year again!!! The 2026 Hood River Front Yard Garden Tour is coming up Sep 12 from 9:...
08/23/2026

🌺 It's that magnificent time of the year again!!! The 2026 Hood River Front Yard Garden Tour is coming up Sep 12 from 9:00 am - 1:00 pm

🌻Join us in celebrating edible gardening, native plants, pollinators, community engagement and the fall harvest season in the 3rd annual FREE tour.

🚶‍♀️‍➡️🚶‍➡️Walk, bike, roll, or stroll your way through the neighborhoods of the Hood River as you visit gardens and learn how to transform water-thirsty lawns into more sustainable and nourishing landscapes for humans and pollinators alike!

🌼*Garden Map here: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?ll=45.70260437857021%2C-121.53806939470212&z=16&mid=1uu40k-bDWNGLj66eEQi-DzioK90qFdM

📜Or printed maps will also be available for pick up at the Hood River County Extension Office located at 2990 Experiment Station Drive, Hood River, OR, 97031 between Tuesday, September 1st and Friday, September 11th as well as at each garden site on the day of the tour.

Come check out your neighbor's gardens, get inspired, and explore what our region can grow! 🌿

🍅 TOMORROW!! 🍅 Saturday, August 22, 2026 10amOSU Hood River Extension Office🫛 Preserving Your Bountiful Harvest - A Free...
08/21/2026

🍅 TOMORROW!! 🍅 Saturday, August 22, 2026 10am
OSU Hood River Extension Office

🫛 Preserving Your Bountiful Harvest - A Free Workshop:
The Good, the Bad, and the Challenges of Food Preservation

🥕 Have a garden overflowing with fresh fruits and vegetables? Learn how to enjoy
your harvest long after the growing season ends in this informative workshop. Whether you're new to preserving food or looking to expand your skills, this
presentation will explore a variety of safe and effective preservation techniques.

Participants will learn:
● Why preserving your harvest is worthwhile
● Common challenges—and how to avoid them
● Tips and tricks to make food preservation easier and more successful
● Best practices for storing your preserved foods

Presented by Central Gorge Master Gardeners Diane Parrot and Mary Parrot,
the workshop will cover:
● Canning: Methods, equipment, and safety basics
● Freezing: Tips for preserving produce, freezer organization, and storage
● Dehydrating: Different drying methods and long-term storage options
Participants will receive helpful handouts covering each preservation method,
along with recipes and additional resources.

🌽 The Central Gorge Master Gardener Association welcomes gardeners of all
experience levels to its Garden Gathering series of free educational workshops.
Held monthly from March through October, these interactive programs provide
practical, research-based gardening information for home gardeners throughout
the Columbia Gorge.

Upcoming 2026 Garden Gathering topics include plant propagation, marigolds,
marigold wreath and garland making, and the annual Garden Tour on
September 12.

To learn more about upcoming workshops, visit the Central Gorge Master
Gardener Association website at https://centralgorgemga.org/
Keep growing!

🥗 A lot of us in the Gorge have been eyeing that empty row where the garlic just came out and thinking: why not just gro...
08/21/2026

🥗 A lot of us in the Gorge have been eyeing that empty row where the garlic just came out and thinking: why not just grow our own salad? The good news is, you still have a window, and it's wider than just lettuce.

☀️ Right now you can direct-seed lettuce, spinach, arugula, mustard and other Asian greens, radishes, and a second round of peas, whether you're on the valley floor or up at Trout Lake elevation where nights are already cooling off. Baby turnips and beets are also worth a shot for anyone willing to thin and eat the greens if the roots run out of season. These crops mature fast (as little as 30-45 days for baby greens and radishes) and actually prefer the milder temperatures of late summer into fall over the heat of July.

🥦 If you'd rather start with transplants than seed, this is also the window to get kale, broccoli, cauliflower, and Chinese cabbage starts in the ground for a fall harvest.

🌱 A few keys to success: direct-seed in the cooler morning hours, keep the seedbed consistently moist until germination, and consider a light shade cloth for the first week or two if we're still seeing 90-degree afternoons. Succession-plant a short row of any of these every week or two and you'll have a steady harvest instead of one big flush.

💫 Search "OSU Extension succession planting" for variety picks and a full fall vegetable timeline suited to our region. OSU Extension's August Garden Calendar (EM 9539) covers what else to be doing in the garden this time of year.

For garden questions, visit extension.oregonstate.edu/mg/hoodriver or call 541-386-3343. The Central Gorge Master Gardener program is a service of OSU Hood River County Extension.

AND!! Check out our next class: 🍅 Preserving Your Bountiful Harvest
A Free Workshop: The Good, the Bad, and the Challenges of Food Preservation
Saturday, August 22, 2026
10:00 a.m.
OSU Hood River Extension Office
2990 Experiment Station Drive, Hood River, OR

🍅 Small Batch Is the Whole Point 🍅 It’s not a shortcut. Not "less than." Just right-sized. Whatever you've got today is ...
08/14/2026

🍅 Small Batch Is the Whole Point 🍅 It’s not a shortcut. Not "less than." Just right-sized. Whatever you've got today is enough to start!

🫐There's a version of canning that lives in most of our heads: a hot kitchen, a whole Saturday gone, forty pounds of tomatoes, and a grandmother who made it look effortless. It's easy to assume canning isn't for you. It is. You've just been picturing the wrong batch size.

🥒 One jar of pickles from the four cucumbers your plant actually gave you this week is a complete, finished thing. A pint of jam from the raspberries you picked on your way in from the mailbox is real preserving, not a warm-up for the "real" version.

🥕 The whole reason small-batch works, for freezing and fermenting too, not just canning, is that it matches how food actually shows up in a home garden: a little at a time, whenever it's ready, not all at once on a schedule. You can even freeze what you have until you have enough for a bigger batch!

If you want recipes, times, or ratios, visit or search the OSU Extension Master Food Preserver site , come to our next Preservation Class on August 22nd, or visit the National Center for Home Food Preservation (all tested and current). For other garden questions, reach us here at the Hood River OSU Extension office.

The Central Gorge Master Gardener program is a service of the OSU Hood River County Extension.

🍅 Preserving Your Bountiful Harvest
A Free Workshop: The Good, the Bad, and the Challenges of Food Preservation
Saturday, August 22, 2026
10:00 a.m.
OSU Hood River Extension Office
2990 Experiment Station Drive, Hood River, OR

🌅 At 100°, we know a lot of you are wondering how to help your garden through this stretch -because a little care now go...
08/07/2026

🌅 At 100°, we know a lot of you are wondering how to help your garden through this stretch -because a little care now goes a long way.

🧐 First, know what you're looking at. Leaf rolling or cupping (common in tomatoes and corn) is a normal defense, plants minimize their surface area to reduce moisture loss. Wilting that recovers by evening is typically just heat stress; wilting that doesn't bounce back is more concerning. 🍂 Dry edges on big leaves like squash or pumpkin can look alarming but often the rest of the leaf is still working fine.

💦 Here's what helps: water deeply rather than shallowly, and if a plant is visibly wilted, water it as soon as you reasonably can rather than waiting for morning. Mulch (2–3 inches) slows evaporation and buffers soil temperature. 🌳 Move containers into shade if you can, and give pruning, fertilizing, and transplanting a rest until it cools off.

🌿 Weeding's the one exception - weeds handle heat better than your veggies and will out-compete them for water if left alone.

☀️ Now, the heat-plus-smoke question: when high heat and wildfire smoke combine, it can cause ozone damage - dry brown spots between leaf veins on tomatoes, or bleached, dry-looking leaves on squash and cucumbers. It's easy to mistake for disease, so here's the tell: bacterial leaf spot has a 💫 yellow "halo" around the spot; ozone damage doesn't. Worth knowing before you reach for a fungicide you don't need. If ash lands on your produce, rinse it outside, then again indoors, no need to worry.

📖 Full guide: search online for "OSU EM 9556" (Nicole Sanchez, OSU Extension horticulturist).

☎️ For garden questions, visit extension.oregonstate.edu/mg/hoodriver or call 541-386-3343. The Central Gorge Master Gardener program is a service of OSU Hood River County Extension.

🥗 Our gardens are still producing, thanks to our wonderful volunteers! Richard Larson, Master Gardener since 2007, seen...
08/05/2026

🥗 Our gardens are still producing, thanks to our wonderful volunteers! Richard Larson, Master Gardener since 2007, seen here seeding lettuce at the FISH Food Bank Garden. Thank you Richard!!

🫛 TONIGHT! Tuesday, August 4th at 6:30pm 🍅 Preserving Your Bountiful Harvest - A Free Workshop: The Good, the Bad, and t...
08/04/2026

🫛 TONIGHT! Tuesday, August 4th at 6:30pm 🍅 Preserving Your Bountiful Harvest - A Free Workshop: The Good, the Bad, and the Challenges of Food Preservation - White Salmon Library
🥕 Learn how to enjoy your harvest long after the growing season ends in this informative workshop. All are welcome, no experience necessary. We will cover:
● Canning: Methods, equipment, and safety basics
● Freezing: Tips for preserving produce, freezer organization, and storage
● Dehydrating: Different drying methods and long-term storage options
Participants will receive helpful handouts covering each preservation method,
along with recipes and additional resources.

Next Session:
Saturday, August 22, 2026
10:00 a.m.
OSU Hood River Extension Office
2990 Experiment Station Drive, Hood River, OR

📸 Oregon State University Extension Services

🥒 This is one of the most common mid-summer questions we receive, why are my cucumber flowers dropping off? 💚 Cucumber p...
07/31/2026

🥒 This is one of the most common mid-summer questions we receive, why are my cucumber flowers dropping off?

💚 Cucumber plants produce male flowers first, often by a week or two, before female flowers appear. Those early male flowers will fall off. This is completely normal and not a sign of anything wrong with your plant.

🧐 Here is how to tell the difference: female flowers have a tiny proto-cucumber at the base of the flower. Male flowers have a simple stem. Both are needed. Male flowers provide the pollen, female flowers set the fruit.

⭐ If female flowers are present and still dropping without setting fruit, the cause is usually poor pollination. This can happen when pollinators are scarce, when pesticides are affecting bees, or during very hot weather above 90 degrees when pollen becomes less viable.

🌞 Solutions: hand-pollinate by transferring pollen from a male to a female flower with a small brush or cotton swab. Plant flowering plants nearby to attract bees. And avoid any pesticide applications during bloom.

📚 OSU Extension's Growing Cucumbers in the Home Garden (EC 1308) walks through the full growing cycle and is a lovely read for any cucumber grower. Search "OSU EC 1308" to find it.

📞 For garden questions, visit extension.oregonstate.edu/mg/hoodriver or call 541-386-3343. The Central Gorge Master Gardener program is a service of OSU Hood River County Extension.

Address

2990 Experiment Station Drive
Hood River, OR
97031

Opening Hours

Monday 1pm - 4pm
Thursday 1pm - 4pm

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