Good morning, luckily last September when I sprained my ankle that there was a consistent amount of moisture. This allowed me to not to have to make trips to the garden to run the drip tape. The down side was that the weeds and grasses took over the garden. This caused a problem that I did not expect.
My garden was carved out of the natural grassland on my property. This is the home for any number of "would be" garden pests. Thrips and click beetles are a couple of them.
Thrips is only a problem when we experience a very dry spring and when the only green around is in the garden. This year I battled them all year. At best this was a draw. When it is warm, the egg to adult time is very short and it is measured in days not weeks. Row covers and a regular spray program will control them. For me it was the click beetles that will be the worst problem.
Click beetles are those guys that if you place them on their backs will “click” and this movement will right themselves. Like with butterflies and moths the adults are very benign, it is their larval stages that the problems develop.
There are several different “varieties” of click beetles. With each of them there are different maturity time lines. This means it can take from one to seven years for them to mature.
When I experienced wire worms aka click beetle larvae, I could not figure out what was putting holes in all of my root crops. It wasn’t until I harvested a sweet potato with a wire worm diligently eating a hole in the side of the sweet. A google search enlightened me as to what the critter was. Besides the above-mentioned maturity time line, I discovered that they are active at two different times of the year. In the spring and in the fall when the soil cools below 85. It is very easy on the spuds to determine as to when the damage was done. Early spring attacks are callused large monstrosities up to ½ inch in diameter. Where as the late attacks are maybe a 1/16 in diameter.
I had “matured out” my wire worm population and have not had any for several years. But this fall as I was harvesting sweets I noticed the tiny holes and several small cream colored “soon to be dead” wire worms.
Luckily, I only noticed them in a small portion of the last bed that I harvested.
There are various traps that can be used to lure them. I found, by accident, that if I keep grass in the garden area under control, that there are not adequate breeding grounds for these guys. Grassland is these guys “home turf” so to speak.
This is only an observation and speculation about the wire worms “maturing out” and not continuing to propagate. It is not something that I was hoping to test my theory but with a sprained ankle and abundant moister to get a fine stand of grass that has put me in this position.
My game plan is to not plant any root crops or cover crops in this particular bed for at least a year or two. This should not be a problem with the number of different veggies I grow. With luck they will be starved or matured out.
This could take up to 7 years to play out. Such is life and if agriculture was easy everyone would be doing it.
Last week I did get my greens cleaned up from the freeze damage. The boc choi, spinach, and Asian greens are making a very nice comeback. With luck they will soon be up to full production. The older chard bed will be making its next rising from the ashes. Last time it was caterpillars (darn ankle). Maybe start harvesting next week. My new replacement bed of chard/kale was not totally frozen out and will provide some harvest in the near future. I usually do not sow seeds in late November, but I had the seeds and thought "what the hey". The beds can't get any barer than what they already are. The jury is out on the cabbage and it looks like there could be some what of a harvest for the kohlrabi. Peas, carrots and green onions are doing fine. I am about ready to sow my second pea bed Next weekend. Long range forecasts have cool and most weather the last of December and first of January. It would be nice to have them up before this happens.
Who knows, I might get lucky. As for my ginger and turmeric, I did get some to grow for me this year. I plan to give it a whirl again next year and use the tubers from this year. Funny how they were doing "well" until our kitten really took a liking to that foliage. It looks sad now. He had a blast.
It has been a challenging year and it is nearly over. Ah yes there is next year!!!!!
Please place your orders and I will fill and only bill for what I do fill. Thank you for your patience.
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