Flowers (annual and perennial)

Flowering Tobacco

Most people know the flowering tobacco annual flowers. You can find them at the greenhouses or order the seed online. Easy to grow, coming in many colors: white, lavender, red, and shades in between.

I plant the variety Nicotiana alata, which grows up to 4 feet tall with white flowers opening at night giving off a jasmine order. Its main pollinator is the large sphinx moth which has been flying around at night with the fireflies. Being a bright white color, they seem to glow in the moonlight.

I started these indoors and wondered if they would germinate because the seed is smaller than sand. I did not cover them and they all popped up within a week. The wind does not seem to bother the plants much.

Being related to the regular tobacco plant, the nicotine in the leaves deter most insects and pests from munching on the leaves. Some varmint took a bite out of a leaf and spit it out, I believe it was a deer.

There is a variety of Nicotiana alata called Sensation which grows around 3 feet tall and is bushier. Then there are the Nicotiana sanderae which are the common greenhouse bedding plants growing around 15 inches tall with bright colored flowers.

This week's garden questions, Vegetable and Fruits

Tomato Problems

Most of the questions that will be coming in will relate to tomato problems, and earlier this summer, relate to tomato problems.

Septoria Leaf Spot

As in most years, the most frequent problem with tomatoes this year will be leaf spot and blight being so humid and hot along with the rain recently. There are several common fungal blights with Septoria leaf spot being the most common. It causes small dark spots on the leaves then the leaves tend to turn yellow and fall off. It usually starts at the bottom of the plant and works its way upwards. If you water your garden with overhead sprinklers, that can spread it too. This disease usually does not cause damage to the fruit, but the plant loses so many leaves that it cannot support a good crop of fruit and the remaining fruit can get sunscald.

Early Blight
Late Blight

The other two main diseases of tomatoes are late blight and early blight. They cause larger, blotchy spots to develop on the leaves and fruit. Early blight can happen now with late blight later in August. All three of these diseases can be controlled with a preventive fungicide spray especially when you start to see the early signs. Use an all-purpose garden fungicide Daconil.

Not common in our area are bacterial spot and bacterial speck. These bacterial diseases cause small dark spots to develop on the fruit and leaves. The spots are usually surrounded by a yellow halo at the initial stages of the disease. Unlike fungal diseases, fungicides are of little use in controlling bacterial disease problems.

Since I have mulch around the plants with plastic mulch, the problem has been reduced. Spacing plants apart and staking to allow for good air circulation is also helpful. Using tomato cages around plants can help too. Unfortunately, most of the inexpensive tomato cages that are sold are simply not that strong and usually collapse under the weight of a large plant in a windstorm, so I pound a tee post into the ground and tie it to the cage. A stronger cage or other support is more helpful. Using drip tube irrigation helps control foliage diseases by keeping them dry without having to overhead water.

House pests

Dog Ticks Around the House

This week there are questions about how to rid dog ticks around the house. Good question. Dog ticks survive in tall grassy areas with shade because they like humid, sheltered locations waiting for some animal to pick them up.

The easiest way to reduce the number of ticks is to keep the grass cut, especially under trees and shrubs. There is less population of ticks on a well-groomed lawn than on a weedy lawn. The broad leaf weeds provide more shade.

If you have overgrown shrubs, next spring prune them to open them to sunlight. It will be good for the health of the shrubs and hedges. Remove any trashy areas in the backyard.

If you wish to spray with a chemical, do it in the evening. We do not want to be killing beneficial insects like honeybees. Spray especially the brushy areas, along the perimeter of the lawn especially in the country, and groundcovers. Permectrin sprays are good as a repellent for the lawn.

One organic control is a spray with Metarhizium brunneum, which is a fungus found in the soils being effective in reducing tick populations. You would have to order this from a nursery catalog or online. According to consumer reports, the Wondercide yard spray with Natural Oils works as a treatment and repellent which is safe for pets and people.