Lessons from 2011 Gardening - Part 2

Pest Control
As with any year it’s important to record your pests and how you handled them. This year we had 2 main kinds 1)Japanese beetles and 2) yellow jackets.

Japanese Beetles – Last year we had beetles bad and almost lost all my fruit trees so I didn’t bother to research or plan for beetles this year since I heard they are an every OTHER year pest. Not true at all. We had more beetles this year than any other year. Turns out we will need to treat our yard to kill the babies as worms. Beetles LOVE grapes, raspberries, blackberries, peppers and okra all of which I grow. After half of a summer looking we have a nice little home remedy for the darned beetles. Pots of chives and cat nip/mint placed threw out my garden. We had tried multiple natural sprays involving pepper which would work for a day or 2 but not much more. Storms, water, dew all of that knocks the sprays off the plant. When you grow as much fruit as I do that’s a lot of spraying and a lot of hours. I bet I did 1hr a day for a week before I gave up for solution #2.

Now some might ask why not use chemicals? Good question. Most fruit have delicate skin and crevices like raspberries and blackberries. You cannot get chemicals out of those areas. The delicate skin will absorb the chemicals and become part of the fruit you eat. I will never advocate putting chemicals on any fruit. Better to lose the crop and find a natural solution than to put chemicals into what will become your body.

We did find out that we caused a portion of the beetle infestation. We plant marigolds to prevent deer and aphids out of our garden and they got out of control. Almost EVERY box has a perimeter of marigolds. Now 80% of garden pests HATE that smell but there’s 1 bug that it’s their favorite scent and that’s beetles. With all the rain we had this summer our marigolds grew as tall as some plants which turned out to be a bad thing. They brought in the beetles and our pest #2 yellow jackets.

Yellow jackets might not seem like a pest but they are. They are extremely territorial and nested in one of my beds beside my cantaloupe and the overgrown marigolds. They had their main 2 food sources there and weren’t leaving. I managed to save one cantaloupe but they devoured the others and chased anyone that came near the bed. That meant I lost 32ft of great planting soil. I had no choice but to wait it out and start pulling marigolds. Once the cantaloupe season was over they left on their own and took my cantaloupe with them.

The only other pests we had this year were birds that ate ALL of my grapes. Right before Hurricane Irene the grapes were nice but not quite ready; they needed about another week or two before they were finished. The very weekend after Irene the grapes were all gone. Lesson learned: net the grapes prior to them getting ripe. We really didn’t think our crop that was in it’s 2nd year was big enough to worry about birds but we were wrong.

Pruning and Pests in your Garden

Hopefully your garden is starting to get "big" in size. It's time for you to check for pests and begin to prune the plants back.

Pests - It's during this time that baby squash bugs are hatched. How can you tell if you have baby squash bugs? Look for eggs. Eggs are usually found under leaves and at the base of stalks. If you see eggs then you have babies you'll just have to find them. Baby squash bugs only come out in the cool of the morning or the cool of the evening. They are never found in the heat of the day. When adult squash bugs are laying eggs they like to hide below the base of the plant on the ground or in the loose dirt around the roots. Usually the colony can't be seen unless you have an infestation. Great isn't it. Plants of choices are mainly zucchini and squash but they also like tomatoes. Below are pictures.

Pruning - As your plants get bigger the bottom leaves will start to hit the ground. It's not good to have leaves of your plants on the ground. Most plants do not do well when watered top down so it make sense that if the leaves are left on the wet ground it will affect the plant to. Most plants prefer water at their roots only. How to know when to prune a leaf. 1- if it's touching the ground prune it. Water can cause rot or disease. I usually cut back somewhere on the stalk if possible. 2- if the leaf is starting to change colors cut it. You should only leave healthy leaves on a plant. Anything less makes the plant susceptible to disease.

Pruning tomatoes - Tomatoes usually produce stems in a Y shape. 1 part goes up, a new growth comes out in the middle of the Y and the 2nd part of the Y is the leaf stem. So the Y turns into a W when the inner new growth comes up. I prune the leaf part of the stem or 2nd part of the Y in my example. Tomatoes need to breathe (air to flow through out the plant) and sun needs to hit the ground around the plant to fight off disease. Pruning the leaf stem does not reduce the fruit production and provides room for air and sun. If you prune off the new growth you can potentially lose tomato production.

Pruning squash and zucchini - I have a previous post regarding this that includes pictures but I'll recap here. Squash and zucchini grow out from 1 root. New growth comes from the front of the plant away from the root. Prune the old leaves at the root pushing the plant forward. Also prune leaves on ground and those that are turning colors. Pruning will make these plants produce until you are sick of them. Picture 1 - Squash bug eggs on a stem
Picture 2 - Squash bug eggs on bottom of a leaf
Picture 3 & 4 - Baby squash bug
Picture 5 - Colony of baby squash bugs. Infestation is beginning