Garden almanac, Garden Pests

Aphids are Becoming a Problem this Week

Aphids on a tomato leaf

Aphids are becoming a problem this week. If the plants (vegetables or flowers) are becoming deformed, look underneath the leaf and see if you have tiny green, black, or reddish “bugs”. If so, use Neem oil or insecticide soap to kill them. Be sure you get the undersides of the leaves to rid yourselves of these tiny pests. Sometimes they cause witch’s broom in some shrubs like cotoneaster and honeysuckle, which looks like distorted growth on the tips of the branches. On ornamentals, you can use a systemic insecticide.

Picture of a young grasshopper nymph
Common Field Grasshopper (Chorthippus brunneus) 2nd instar nymph

If the rains (few and far between) have not killed the little grasshoppers (nymphs), you may have a problem. The small they are the easier they are to kill. In the flowerbed or garden use Seven. Grasshopper baits around the perimeter of these areas help. Keep the weeds and grass around the garden mowed. It gives me great pleasure seeing the mowing and chopping of these insects up!

Cabbage looper eating a leaf

Cabbage butterflies are out in abundance which will lay eggs on the Cole crops, then the eggs hatch into little green caterpillars which can wipe out the crop. Used Sevin on a schedule to control them. Better yet is a product called Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) which is a biological chemical killing young worms without harm to the environment. I have not found this product around the area, however, it can be ordered through any online garden store. These worms are hard to see being the same color as the vegetable, so most likely you will see the holes and damage first.

Blossom end rot on tomatoes

Blossom end rot is showing up in tomatoes and peppers as a large leathery brown spot on the bottom of the fruit. The problem is a calcium (and magnesium) tie-up in the soil due to dry and warm conditions. To prevent this use a mulch and keep your watering even.

Skin cracking of a tomato

Another water problem is the cracking of the tomato fruit usually along the top and shoulders. The cause is water going to the fruit faster than the skin can compensate for it. Again, even watering and mulch help. Some varieties are more susceptible to this condition like the cherry tomatoes and varieties like Early Girl with thinner skins. As the summer goes on this condition should decrease unless we get a heavy summer rain.

Purslane "weed."

A few questions about purslane showing up in gardens and flowerbeds. Do not use any herbicides this time of year. Pull and remove it because they will root down again if left in contact with the soil. Better yet, use it as a garnish with any salad you make. They were grown and used as food at one time. You can buy cultivars as blooming plants in the greenhouses in yellows and reds.

Garden almanac, Garden Pests

This Week in the Garden

This week in the garden. There have been questions about why my vine crops like cucumbers and summer squash are blooming but not setting fruit. Vine crops have male and female flowers and only the female flower produces fruit after being pollinated. The first flush of flowers is usually male then followed by female flowers. If you look at the flower, the female flower has a little fruit behind the blossom and the male flowers have a straight stem connected to the vine.

Some of the fruits may have a rotting end on the fruit. Most likely this is caused by improper fertilization, particularly in vine crops. This should cure itself in time.

Now let’s talk about cross-pollination between like a pumpkin and a cucumber. The answer is no. The plants have to be in the same Genus to cross-pollinate. For instance, different varieties of cucumbers will pollinate together as will squash. I planted yellow and green zucchini and got a few striped fruits, which was still good. Some varieties of melons will cross-pollinate among varieties. The odd fruit will show especially if you save the seeds from the fruit and plant the seeds next year or if a volunteer plant germinates and grows producing the odd fruit. That is why you buy new seeds every year or use up what is left from last year.

If your grass tips turn brown after mowing, this is most likely due to a dull or chipped mower blade. Sometimes mowing during the heat of the day causes the cut tip to dry out quickly.

Black spots on rose leaves is a fungus that spreads rapidly among certain varieties of roses. Use an ornamental fungicide to protect against the spread of this fungus. There are rose varieties resistant to this fungus.

Iron chlorosis is showing on some shrubs and trees. Some varieties show yellowing leaves with green margins. Our high soil pH sometimes ties up the iron (and magnesium) in our soils especially when the soil is dry. Treatment of liquid iron to the foliage or soil helps. Silver and Amur maples are particularly susceptible to this condition.

It is still not too late to plant or replace most vegetables in the garden due to hail or insect damage. Hopefully, we have at least 100 days till frost.

Astronomy

Night Sky this Week

Venus cannot be missed in the western sky and get brighter as the “evening star” is the brightest object in the night sky beside the moon in the night sky this week. Venus sets around 12:07 AM. It is as high above the western horizon and will start to set earlier each day.

Mars, the red planet, is much dimmer than Venus to the upper left of Venus. Mars sets around 12:19 AM this week. Venus along with the dimmer Mars, dominates the western skies after sunset.

Jupiter, which rises after Saturn around 3:14 AM, is the brightest object in the early morning sky except for the moon.

Farther to Jupiter’s upper right is Saturn rising around 1:01 AM in the constellation Aquarius. It is easy to spot in the southeast a few hours before sunrise since there are no bright stars around the planet.

On Thursday and Friday, the waxing moon slides through Scorpius the scorpion. Scorpius is one of the constellations that look like what is supposed to be, a scorpion. Scorpius sits on top of the southern horizon through the summer months. The Sumerians were the first to see these stars as a scorpion over 5000 years ago. The Greeks told the story of the scorpion stinging Orion the hunter. So, as Orion sets the scorpion rises chasing the hunter across the skies. The red star that makes up the heart of Scorpius is called Antares the super-giant red star. If you were to place Antares in our solar system, the outer diameter would be beyond Mar’s orbit.

Looking southwest the Summer Triangle is rising with three of the brightest summer stars: Vega (the Lyre), Deneb (the swan), and Altair (the Eagle). These three stars shine even with the moon close by.

Through the week of June 30th.