Friendship Farms & Gardens: Pest Patrol

Advice from our Pest Control Advisers on how to respond to damage in the garden, as pictured.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Squash Bugs and Squash Vine Borers are real problems for Piedmont gardeners. I suggest looking up both so you know what you're looking for.

Control comes in the form of removing adults by hand, destroying eggs that are small, tan or brown, round eggs laid on the underside of leaves in a group or line usually where leaf meets stem.

Also, covering the squash beds with black plastic at time of planting, and proper spacing of plants, or inter-planting their row with other vegetables. I always overplant squash because I love to eat them and forget to realize just how big they'll get.

Once infested, they're hard to control. Harvest fruit early so you eat it before they do.

The young fruit possibly looks like a victim of rot. That blossom end seems to hold water, and in damp conditions, touching damp soil is a rot recipe for sure.

It is also possible the fruit didn't get pollinated, though this one looks a little big for that. This does happen sometimes. The fun part is, you can help. If the natural pollinators aren't doing the job, you can hand pollinate using the boy flower's parts on the girl flower's parts. Just be gentle. I find hand pollinating also works well with cucumbers.

– Jason Loseke

Other garden notes for the end of June

Trim off those lower leaves that might be turning yellow or black on tomato plants and destroy them, do not compost. They are diseased and spreading spores as we speak.

Increase calcium in the soil by sprinkling Epsom salts, lawn lime or a ton of eggshells when planting AND prevent splashing soil with mulch, water the soil not the leaves and next year try a resistant variety.

While you're at it, thin out the tomato plant as a whole. I take up to 50% of the leaf stems off the plant, especially from the center of the plant. This allows sun and air into the plant slowing the formation of disease, fungus and helps to form and ripen fruit.

By this time in the season, most plants have more than enough fruiting stems that you can start trimming or pinching off the new growth shoots. These are not the leaf branches nor the flowering branches that come off the main stem, they are the shoots that start from the joint of leaf branch and main stem. They will eventually be an entire growing, flowering stem of the tomato vine, but with so much growth going on, your plants energy is going to all leaves and stem. I'd rather eat tomatoes. If you're like most people, you'll have more than enough tomatoes as it is.

On an indeterminate (one that keeps growing until frost) type of tomato like Brandywine does great with 3-5 main stems producing half a dozen fruit branches each, with 3-7 fruit per bunch and the plant will easily be seven foot tall by October. That's a lot of tomato!

They will also want to grow UP, not back on top of themselves. I use wood or bamboo teepees about 7 foot high, sunk at least 1 foot into the soil. I use old pantyhose cut into strips to secure the vine to the teepee every foot or two. They're like flexible, stretchy twist-ties that are ultra cheap and won't cut through the stem as it grows.

– Jason Loseke

Friday, May 15, 2009

I've seen this little green fly in my garden as well. Hard to know exactly, as there are hundreds of fly species, but I think this is the beneficial Longlegged Fly. It does have a piercing mouthpart, but the adults and larvae use it to attack small, soft bodied pests such as aphids!

From the DirtDoctor:

"Small shinny flies with metallic green, blue or copper colored and bristly bodies.... Adults capture and eat many small soft-bodied troublesome insects. Adults are effective predators of mosquito larvae and many other soft-bodied insects."

– Jason Loseke

Monday, April 27, 2009

If there is nothing living inside that curled-up leaf, that damage, to me, looks like the leaf was damaged during transport or planting maybe.

Any damaged leaf in this recent heat wave would show up quickly. Unless it is the only leaf on the plant, any damage should probably be removed. I

In cases of disease, you help to stop the spread by removing it. Otherwise, removing it will help the plant put energy into new growth instead of trying to heal itself.

Hard to tell from the photo, but this plant may have been planted a little deep. Peppers, tomatoes, broccoli among a few other vegetables benefit from being deeply planted up to 75% of their height. Just remove leaves below soil line.

Be sure to mulch so you avoid splashing dirt- and soil-borne diseases.

– Jason Loseke