Weekly Gardening Outlook: Dog Days

This will be a continuing series where we look ahead at the coming week in gardening for the Northwest Arkansas area.

Chloe and chicks

Might as well get the bad news out of the way first.  After two years without harming a bird, the dogs killed two of my young hens.  They haven't bothered the full grown hens, but the little ones darting about apparently stimulated their inner carnivore.  I looked out the window and saw them bouncing around having a great time with one of the hens in Crash's (our male) mouth.  They were harshly reprimanded, shown the dead bird, and then reprimanded again whenever they showed interest in it.  I've kept them chained up when I'm not in the backyard.  It's going to be hard to trust them around the birds again.

Confined dogs

Insect Report:

Flea beetles on an eggplant

Flea beetles attack my eggplants every year, making the small holes in the leaves that you can see in the picture above.  Unless the population really gets out of control, they don't really seem to hurt the plants much.  They are interesting beetles in that, when disturbed, they can hop very quickly like the fleas they are named after.  A dose of neem oil mixed with pyrethrin (aka NeemII) gets rid of them.  These are both organic treatments.

Japanese beetles eating an okra leaf

Japanese beetles minutes after an application of NeemII

The Japanese beetles are out and trying to eat my green bean vines, apple trees, blueberry bushes, okra, basil, etc.  Above, you can graphically see the effects of the aforementioned neem oil/pyrethrin mix.  The beetles are only out for 3 weeks or so a year, so two or three applications spread over that time will keep them off of my crops.

Japanese beetle on sweet basil

Pyrethrin kills a broad spectrum of insects, including beneficial insects.  The way to protect beneficial insects is to target the beetles by applying it in the late evening after most beneficial insects have quit flying.  Pyrethrin is biodegradable and breaks down quickly when exposed to oxygen.  Neem oil on the other hand lasts for up to a week, but only kills insects that eat plant leaves.  

Butterfly on flowering sweet basil

These basil plants were treated with NeemII less than 24 hours before this picture and video were taken.  They are covered in butterflies and literally hundreds of hoverflies.  The video doeesn't fully capture the swarm of activity, but it's the best I could do.  It's important to use a pest management system that doesn't harm these beneficial insects.  Both butterflies and hoverflies are excellent pollinators (meaning more fruit for you) and the larva of many hoverflies eat harmful insects like aphids.  If I had just dusted these in Sevin dust, I would have destroyed both.

Caterpillar hiding in damaged onion leaf

Closeup of caterpillar in the onion leaf

Looking at my onions, I noticed the ends of a few leaves were missing.  Upon closer inspection, I caught this guy red-handed inside one of the leaves.  I believe it's a leek moth larvae.  I could treat the onions with Bacillis thuringiensis (BT), but after inspecting them closely I only found a few and the onions are nearing the end of their growing season anyway.  I'll just keep an eye on it for now and smash any that I find.  Interestingly, they have not affected my two-year-old evergreen bunching onions.

Garden Report:

Okra

The okra is still in the vegetative growing phase and has not put on fruit yet.  This variety (Perkins Long Pod) will get up to 5-6 feet tall with trunks as big around as my wrist before they are done.  You can see a definite size difference between the plants on the south (left) end of the bed and those on the north (right).  The plants on the north end get less sunlight because they are shaded somewhat by the plants to the south.

Tomatoes

Cherry tomatoes

Roma tomatoes

The Roma tomato plants may not get tall (~2 feet), but they are loaded with fruit.  None of which are ripe yet.  The cherry tomato plant (Super Sweet 100) has just begun to give a few ripe fruit.  Like the Romas, it is loaded with green fruit and blossoms.  No evidence of blossom-end rot this year.  The crushed egg shells (calcium) and straw mulch (conserving soil moisture) seem to be working.

Jalapenos

Bell peppers

The peppers are also loaded with fruit.  The straw mulch has really improved the health of my plants.

Flowering eggplant

No fruit on the eggplants yet, but they are putting on plenty of purple flowers.

Onions with an eggplant in the background

The onions are ready to harvest.  This is indicated when the foliage begins to fall down as seen above.  Click HERE for a previous post on harvesting and drying onions.

Young butternut squash

Butternut squash vine on a trellis

I have had such problems with squash vine borer (SVB) in the past, that the only squash I'm growing this year is the butternut squash.  Butternut squash is said to be resistant to the SVB.  So far so good.  The vines are 3-5 feet long and are growing up my cattle panel trellises.  

Swiss chard

The chard is doing what chard does.  It's growing with little care or maintenance.  Such a great crop.

Purple-podded pole beans on a trellis

The pole beans are 3-4 feet long and have yet to flower.  The only problem I've had with this variety in the past is with Japanese beetles defoliating them.  I have the NeemII ready...

Turnip

The warm season growing of turnips has been a huge success.  No maintenance and they are ready to harvest.

New growth on the apple tree

The apple tree is putting on some new growth after being hit hard by cedar-apple rust.  I've treated it with Serenade and this is a promising sign.  I plan preventive treatments next spring starting in April.

Blueberry bush

The two blueberry bushes are growing gangbusters.  I mulched them with straw and that seems t have really helped keep the pots from drying out between waterings.

Dead strawberry plants

Speaking of drying out between waterings, the lack of rain combined with 100 degree temperatures and my neglect have killed about two-thirds of my strawberry plants.  The cinderblocks being porous and having one side exposed to air, dry out easily.  They are easily harvested because of the accesibility, but be aware of the drawback to planting inside the cinderblocks.  Being the low maintence gardener that I am, I am ok with this.  The strawberry plants that remain can obviously handle drought better than those that died off, so as the years go on, the genetics of my plants will exhibit drought tolerance.

Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes)

Amongst those weeds is a stand of sunchokes about 4 feet tall.  They will put on a beautiful display of small yellow flowers in a month and after it freezes, I will harvest the potato-like tubers.


Chicken and Egg Report:

Juvenile laying hen next to a juvenile meat bird

Again, the size differential between these birds who were born the same day and fed the same feed is astounding.

2"x4" wire barrier

The white cornish/rock meat birds have become so heavy that they cannot haul themselves back up the ramp to get to the food and water.  I put a 2"x4" wire mesh across the end to keep them up top, while allowing the hens access to the nest boxes.  The hen's production has leveled off to about 4 eggs per day.

Out in the proverbial cold

When I put the wire in a week ago, more than half of the egg laying chicks were able to squeeze through the wire and come and go as they pleased.  Just a week later, they have grown such that only two of them can still fit through.  The ones that can't fit through, spend their days foraging in the yard for insects, worms, and vegetation.  We've mysteriously lost two more of them (down to 7).  I can't blame the dogs.  Since I found no feathers or other remains, my money is on hawks.  I'm going to let the dogs run free again as a deterrent to the hawks.  We'll see how that goes.

Weather Outlook:

-We finally got a break from the heat and got a little rain to boot!  Temperatures will remain in the mid to upper 90s this week with little further chance of rain.  Keep your gardens watered.

-Ten day forecast

What's Being Harvested:

-Cherry tomatoes
-Turnips
-Herbs

-Serrano, jalapeno, and bell peppers

-Green, yellow, and purple onions

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A Dispatch from the Insect War Front

Homemade NeemII

Blasting them off with water slowed the aphids down, but they were still there today.  In addition to the squash vines, bean vines, and blueberry bushes, I also found them on the new growth of my apple trees.  I didn't find any squash bugs on the squash vines, but I know they are there.

This morning I mixed up a sprayer full of an organic pesticide known as NeemII and treated the affected crops.  It's cheaper to buy neem oil and pyrethrin and mix them together on your own, but if you have a small garden it probably makes sense to buy the premix.  The pyrethrin is extracted from the seed cases of chrysanthemums.   It kills many insects on contact and biodegrades very quickly so its effects are not long lasting.  Neem oil is extracted from the seeds of the neem tree and is a perfect complement to pyrethrin.  While it may not have the quick killing power of pyrethrin, it lasts for up to a week and provides long term protection.

To make the mix, I follow the label instructions for each and dilute them in the same water.  Note that I am not a chemist and do not guarantee that this is safe or replicates NeemII exactly.  I just know it works well for me and other people.  I use a pump-up, quart-sized hand-held sprayer, which works great.  With traditional sprayers that require a trigger pull with each squirt, it can get quite tedious and tiring for a very large application.  Once mixed in the sprayer, I pump it up and spray the undersides of all the leaves that I want to protect.  Most insects hide out on the underside and since pyrethrin is a contact killer, simply showering it down on the leaf tops will not work.  I shake the sprayer often as I go to keep the ingredients mixed.  Even though the ingredients are organic, I wear cheap nitrile gloves when handling the concentrates and spraying the plants.  It should be fine, but I'm just cautious.

Weekly Gardening Outlook: Insect Fighting and Makeshift Nest Boxes

This will be a continuing series where we look ahead at the coming week in gardening for the Northwest Arkansas area.

Aphids on a bean vine

Aphids on a blueberry bush

I noticed an unusual number of ants on my bean vines, blueberry bushes, and squash vines.  I looked closer and found that aphids were beginning to infest my crops.  Aphids are small, soft bodied insects that suck the juices from plants.  In small numbers, they aren't a problem.  If not nipped in the bud early though, the population can explode and harm crops.  The reason the ants alerted me to their presence, was that ants are known to "farm" aphids.  The aphids secrete a sweet liquids from their anus' called honeydew, which ants feed upon.  In exchange, the ants protect the aphids from predators.  Quite the system.

A low tech, organic treatment is to spray the aphids off with a stream of water.  They are fairly immobile and if knocked off the plants, cannot return and will die in the soil.  I did that this morning.  If they continue to be a problem, a treatment of an organic pesticide called NeemII (Neem oil + pyrethrin) will take care of it.

Squash bug eggs on a butternut squash vine

While spraying the aphids off of my squash vines, I also found these squash bug eggs.  A stream of water and a scrape of the fingernail and they are gone too.

Squash bug on a butternut squash vine

The water causes any adult squash bugs present to climb to higher ground where I smashed them by hand.  This is a good way to flush them out.  If necessary, a treatment of the previously mentioned NeemII will knock them back.

Turnips

The turnips have finally poked up above the mulch.  They do quite well planted four per square foot, but we don't eat a ton of turnips so I planted only one per square foot.  As they get pulled, I will replace them by succession planting radishes.

Immature cherry tomatoes

Immature Roma tomatoes

Tomatoes are coming!  Can't wait.

Eggplant

The eggplants are doing fine.  Flea beetles have put a few holes in the leaves, but that won't hurt them.

Young okra

The okra gets a whole bed to itself.  These will grow into 6 foot tall plants with treelike stalks 2-3" thick at the base.

Serrano peppers

Jalapeno peppers

Onions

Yellow onions

Purple onion

The peppers and onions are ready.  I'm making salsa today with store bought tomatoes.  Can't wait for mine to start ripening.  Gotta have the salsa!

Ripening blueberries

While not nearly as numerous as the blueberries from the farm, these are a nice treat each morning in the garden.  An explosion of flavor as they're eaten straight from the bush.

Sweet basil

Thyme, oregano, and lemon thyme (left to right)

Coriander (cilantro seeds)

Herbs are just so easy.  Most originated in the Mediterranean area and will tolerate poor soils and somewhat dry conditions.  It's a lot of fun to bring in fresh herbs for cooking with.  There's no reason why a person shouldn't have them in the garden.  The oregano continues it's spread through the bed.  It will be time to harvest the coriander soon.

Swiss chard

Chard is another one of those plants every garden should have as a spinach replacement.  Young, tender leaves are good in salads.  Older leaves are good for cooking anywhere you would use spinach.  It grows through the hot summer and well into the fall.  It will grow through the entire winter if surrounded by a cold frame.

Pole bean vines

The pole beans haven't been too affected by the aphids.  They are usually a big target of the Japanese beetle when it emerges.  They will be treated with NeemII when I see the first beetles of the year.

Chicken and Egg Report:

5 gallon buckets serve as makeshift nesting boxes

The chicks were getting crowded in their space and began pecking at one another leaving small, bloody spots.  To give them more room, I took the divider out and gave them free run of the entire top of the chicken house. The only problem is that that cut off access to the nest boxes for the hens.  Clean 5 gallon buckets are serving as temporary nesting boxes for the hens during the next few weeks.  We had been getting 4-5 eggs per day.  It will be interesting to see how the hens adapt to this change.  Generally, environmental changes will temporarily diminish egg production.

Weather Outlook:

-Cooling down, with highs in the mid 80's through the week.  30-40% chance of rain every day, with a 60% chance early next week.

-Watch the amount of rain received and water accordingly.  A popup rain shower, usually doesn't water the garden much.

-Ten day forecast

What's Being Harvested:

-Herbs

-Serrano and jalapeno peppers

-Green, yellow, and purple onions

-Blueberries