April 23, 2018

  What with the cold weather last winter I am not seeing any huge over wintered grasshoppers like a “winter” one year ago. There was some cold weather and it seemed to last more than 24 hours. At the time it seemed bothersome but I think it may have “thinned” the bug population.

Now I have seen a few blister beetles and a couple spotted cucumber beetles but even for it being somewhat cool, they all looked and acted like they were in bad shape and were all easily dispatched.

There is an area of concern though, I have been seeing some freshly hatched grasshoppers. This is a bit confusing to me because other than .05 of an inch of rain a month or so back, there has been no rain. Rain is what is needed to hatch insects. All I can figure is they are hatching from my irrigation water. It is the only regular source of water to hatch them.

I am hoping that we do not have a “buggy” year but it does not hurt to be prepared. If your garden is protected with covers or other chicken proof means, it is not wise to let fowl into your garden. They not only do a good job on the bugs but on your garden too. Most likely your garden would be the only source of greenery since it is soooo dry (chance maybe this week of rain).

It is always a good idea to be well in informed about bugs before disposing them. One very good example is hover fly’s. Mature hover flies are pollinators but their larvae (maggots) are ferocious eaters of aphids. Because they look like a bad guy can be unknowingly dispatched. A good book to study that has both the good guys and bad guys is “The Texas Bug Book” by Howard Garrett and C. Malcom Beck. I highly recommend it.

Sometimes push comes to shove and you find yourself in a need to dispatch bugs more aggressively. I find for most bugs cold pressed neem oil works the best. Other than the oil property of neem oil when it is first sprayed there is no other effect on beneficial insects. For the neem oil to do its magic it has to be devoured. When this happens, the bugs stop molting and also stop eating. I recommend 3 sprays 7 fays apart. I have found with grasshoppers after the second spray you can pick them off plant at noon. They are sick puppies. Cold pressed neem oil has to be ordered on line, all that is available locally is clarified hydrophobic neem oil. This not even close to cold pressed because the hormone’s that dispatch the bugs has been removed. This works on most bugs but cucumber beetles are a different story. I have not had as good a success with them using cold pressed.

It must be noted that because it is not the neem oil directly that kills the bugs but the hormones, bugs cannot build up immunity to cold pressed. This is not so with other pesticides. All the rest are what are called contact killers and must be rotated with other pesticides so that immunity is not developed in the targeted bug.

I like to rotate between Pyganic (derived from a flower) and Mycotrol (derived form a soil borne bacteria).

As always before you use a pesticide read the label carefully, use proper protection and follow the directions. Even though these are organic it does not mean there are not any consequences for improper use.

To protect beneficial insects spraying of an evening is when they are least active.

April 12, 2018

Good morning, If you are a gardener and have never had aphids, it could easily be assumed that you have not been gardening long.  If you garden you will have aphids.

Aphids do not need males to reproduce. Each aphid is born with fertilized eggs. and are able to give birth to ever more aphids in a brief amount of time. As the temperature rises so does the speed at which they can reproduce. Uncontrolled populations can very quickly explode.

It is only when the populations get too dense that they begin to grow wings and then disperse further. but this is not the only way that they disperse. Quite frequently small ants will relocate them to farm them and harvest the honey dew that they produce. Any time that you see an ant trail going up into a tree or any other plant, you can bet that there are aphids somewhere. These ants can be quite aggressive at protecting their "farm" so to speak.

Depending on population sizes and temperatures natural predators can and will take care of them. And during the spring it is not uncommon to see the "tracks" of the aphidius wasp. These are little gray-green bumps on the underside of leaves. they are usually located in the middle of a bunch of aphids.

Aphidius wasps will lay an egg inside of an aphid which then turns the aphid into a mummy. I have not seen a population of aphids that these cannot control. it wasn't too many winters back when I thought I was going to spray an explosion of aphids on my spinach only to see them gone the next week in totality. I have never seen the wasp but their handy work is very obvious.

Lady bugs control aphids as long as they are garden naturals. In the past I have purchased lady bugs with iffy results. My beds are covered so this helps keep them "confined" some what. What works best is on the day of their arrival spritz the cloth bag they are in so that they can get a drink. Then over the course of 3 nights first water the foliage and then release 1/3 of the bugs. The water fabric and night time release will keep a portion but  still find them leaving. What has worked best for me is to find a population in the garden and transplant some of these lady bugs into the desired bed.

In the spring I have found that the English house sparrows (that I curse at the rest of the year)  can  clean up an aphid infestation in a morning quite easily.

My beds are covered most of the time. Part of this is due to a pair of guinea fowl that insists on "harvesting" anything green in the garden. I can leave the covers off if I am in the garden, otherwise.... , so I do resort to sprays on occasion. 

It is wise to rotate with any pesticide (even organic) so that the bugs do not build up immunity. There is one that I know of that insects can't build an immunity to and that is cold pressed neem oil (NOT to be confused with clarified  hydrophobic neem oil). It is the hormones within cold pressed that kills the bugs, they just stop feeding and molting. Cold pressed usually takes some time to show results.

Other sprays include: Pyganic, this has impressive knock down capabilities. It is a pyrethrin spray derived from a flower. After using this I will use either Cold pressed neem or mycotrol which is derived from a soil bacteria.

Sprays are used reluctantly and with proper personal protection. Although it is very interesting to note. Since starting to use Cold pressed neem oil I have found that beneficial insect have increased quite dramatically in the garden. Save for when the oil is sprayed it only targets the insects that feed on the plants. Since beneficial insects do not feed on the plants they are unaffected

When spraying I highly recommend only doing it of an evening because this is when MOST of the good guys are least active. .  

April 9, 2018

I start today's missive with a quote from Wikipedia. 

Hot, dry conditions are often associated with population build-up of spider mites. Under optimal conditions (approximately 80 °F or 27 °C), the two-spotted spider mite can hatch in as little as 3 days, and become sexually mature in as little as 5 days. One female can lay up to 20 eggs per day and can live for 2 to 4 weeks, laying hundreds of eggs. This accelerated reproductive rate allows spider mite populations to adapt quickly to resist pesticides, so chemical control methods can become somewhat ineffectual when the same pesticide is used over a prolonged period.^[3]

Spider mites, like hymenopterans and some scale insects, are arrhenotochous: females are diploid and males are haploid.^[4]When mated, females avoid the fecundation of some eggs to produce males. Fertilized eggs produce diploid females. Unmated, unfertilized females still lay eggs that originate exclusively haploid males. 

These are some pictures of spider mite's and their damage.   https://www.google.com/search?q=spider+mite+veggie+damage&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=1NuB1eNtpzMQUM%253A%252CT7GPz2qbRvTtEM%252C_&usg=__fPfA5XAcrva4ZxoNihL6SnfM27U%3D&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiIxIiKwKraAhVq04MKHVPJBLwQ9QEILzAC#imgrc=1NuB1eNtpzMQUM:

As one can see if you have spider mites in your garden and there is warm temperatures forecast (80 degrees and warmer), The gardener CANNOT procrastinate. What ever veggie is under attach will be dead in very little time. Recently while harvesting my snow peas I noticed a small population of spiders. While examining this population I noticed that even though the rest of the bed was quite damp this area was pretty dry. Something that spider mites love. Flushing the drip tape took care of the dry but time was of the essence to deal with these guys. First I hit them with Pyganic an organic pyrethrum spray, followed up the next day with Trilogy (distilled neem oil spray). I am not a huge fan of clarified  hydrophobic neem oil but I have found this product to be very good on spider mites and thrips. The oil sufficates the mites. I will then evaluate as to whether there are any  signs of spider mites and if there are I will use either Mycotrol (derived from a soil borne bacteria) or Cold pressed Neem Oil. Soap spray can also be used, but I have experienced a photo toxicity where any soap residue on plants causes the sun to burn the plant. By using multiple tools the mites can be attached aggressively. Most sprays are not recommended to be used again within the next day. Usually there is a waiting period of 2 to 3 days. If the first spay does not have a total kill of the population, spiders could very easily be back up to where you started with the first spray. A large population on one veggie may not be able to be saved but it is imperative that the infestation be eradicated so that it does not spread to the rest of your garden. As noted before spider mites abhor water. Very small populations can be controlled with just thoroughly spraying the infected plants with water. With this method it is very easy to drown your plants. Spider mites WILL ALWAYS be found at the top of  the plant and on the south side. These are the warmest and driest locations. Pole beans and bush beans I have found to be the most susceptible to mites. I have also found that the native prickly Poppies are very attractive to spider mites and can be used as a trap crop to lure the mites away from your garden . And thus can be irradicated before getting into your garden.

April 5, 2018

Good morning,  How surprising when talking to a fellow gardener that he has a variety of okra that sustained a good frost, survived and continued to produce pods. I was a bit gob smacked. This fellow is going to give me some seeds to try. This could make a lot of my okra fans pretty happy. It would be nice to have a very late okra. I look forward to trying it and seeing if I can replicate what he experienced. 

I think back a few years when I attempted to try and over winter some solanaceae (eggplants and chilies) along with some okra. The plants were all cut back to only a few leaves before a  freeze and then mulched very heavily.

All was going well until that winter we sustained several ice storms. The melt water was very effective at chilling the soil several inches down into the horizon. I think this was the folly for most of these over wintered plants.

Once things started to warm in the spring it was discovered that 5 of the six eggplants had  survived. These eggplants were slow to resume growth and were far behind the new plantings of eggplants. But once they they began producing they were quite prolific.

It really did surprise me that anything survived.

As with all experiments there is the evaluation to see if there is a tid bit of information that can be gleaned from the experiment. From evaluating everything, I feel, the biggest reason for most of these plants not overwintering was due to the severe soil chill down.

My experience with okra is that it abhors soils cooler than 60 degrees. It would be interesting to see if between 60 and 50 degrees the roots go dormant. And below 50 they die.

Now skipping back to the previously mentioned frosted okra, did it survive because the soil was still warm or is it resistant to cooler weather. This would be fun to find out.

In Africa where okra is from, it is a perennial plant. 

My experience with okra is that it grows like a rocket until it stops growth. It then seems to enter a brief resting period and then latent buds at the base start to grow. Sometimes it is the very lowest branches but mostly buds at ground level.

Soooo, in the mildest of winters like the winter before last, okra could be over wintered?

There would be a game plan. A soil thermometer to monitor winter soil temps. This would be used to test the 50 / 60 degree soil dormancy (a critical element). Most years the soil 5-6 inches down is near 50 degrees. There would be greenhouse film on the side in case of an impending ice storm. The okra would be pruned down to the lowest leaves or branches. Then heavily mulched.

One would say why the bother? For me it is purely the curiosity of whether this can be done. After all there was the success with eggplants which are also supposed to be temperamental will cool  conditions. Then there is the potential for very early harvests.

This so intrigues me and I always love a challenge.May have to try this once again and especially if I get some of the above mentioned cold "tolerant" okra. The plants will be in the ground, so it will just be a mater of preparing for winter then set back and watch. The worst thing that can happen is it doesn't work and the okra stumps become compost.