January 7, 2016

Good morning, It was really cool to see that the peas that I had germinated and planted about a week before Christmas have emerged. In fact I had to wait for the snow to melt before I could check on them. Not sure of the percentage but with spot checks I have made, the number of emerged plants does look most promising. It will be interesting to see if they catch up to the peas that were started back in October. It sure looks like peas, if they are given their druthers, will take cold soil over warm to hot soil. Yes it looks like I will have two stocked pea beds for spring harvest.

So many times when making an internet search, the hard part is asking the right question with the right wording. Well I finally did! This is in regards to the critter that is munching on my Asian greens. They are saw fly larvae. The Saw fly is a huge diverse species of insect. It really is not a fly but is closer related to the bee family. Although they do not have a stinger. As far as I can tell the whole species feeds on foliage when it is in the larvae stage of growth. The larvae take on many forms depending on the individual species. They can be just like slugs (slimy and all) with different transformations all the way to the appearance of caterpillars. A very interesting Family so to speak. The caterpillar form would give you the impression that the use of Bt. would work on them. But since they are not related to moths and butterflies it has no effect on them. Highly refined oil sprays and Cold pressed neem will work on them. Most oils take an aversion to being sprayed during cool to cold weather, it can gel in the sprayer (not good). I would like to use the neem because there would be two ways of attaching them: first the oil contact and then the hormones in the neem oil that the remaining larvae would feed on and then die.

I suspect that I let these little buggers into the bed on a sunny day when I was trying to attract some lady bugs to feed on some aphids that were attracted to the boc choi. Ah yes I have mentioned it on many occasion be careful that your exclusion does not become an inclusion. I have done just that. I am hoping for a warmer day so that I can spray them. There already is a fair amount of plant mortality and there just might be nothing to spray (foliage that is) when I can. I do have some alternate crops to go into this bed if this should happen.

Normally winter gardening is bug free except for aphids. That just has not been the case this winter or last. It just surprises me that there are insect larvae that are active at or below freezing. Just gotta love that learning curve. This is a prime case where a positive ID is critical. Until I made a positive ID the munching on the leaves left me with the impression it was a beetle or a caterpillar. Not seeing any scat gave me doubts that it was a caterpillar and not seeing beetles just added to the confusion. It appears that even at a very small size (not readily seen by the naked eye) they can wreak havoc on a plant. AHH but I know this bug now!!!

I hope to start harvesting the Sun chokes next week. The soil is a bit wet to do so for this week. I keep checking on the Brussels sprouts and hope to be harvesting them soon. I need to check my small crop of parsnips too.