Hi Gardeners
It’s looking like we won’t have a white Christmas
here although we may get a bit of snow either Friday or Sunday and it’s
possible it will stick. That’s fine with
me, I am not a snow worshipper and I don’t care anymore if Christmas is
white. I read that some of you are
likely to get a lot of snow-or rain – over the holiday. I hope it doesn’t ruin any of your plans and everyone
stays safe.
Today it’s sunny and 36 degrees here with a brisk
wind. It’s cold outside with the wind but I can look out the window at green
grass. And I did get out with my dog today
for a quick tour of the yard. My
chickens are roaming, scratching through the damp leaves and finding green
things to eat so they are happy too.
We couldn’t see the meteor showers or comet this past
week because it was either cloudy or foggy every night. I heard they were impressive in some areas of
the country. I hope some of you enjoyed the celestial display.
Today, the 18th, is Bake Cookies Day. I
have been busy baking this week. The 21st
is winter solstice, start of the holiday season and everyone needs comfort food
and yummy sweets to celebrate but I like to be done with preparations by
solstice so that I can properly experience it and Christmas. This year solstice arrives with a full moon
and close to moon perigee so it’s even more impressive.
Because of Christmas there will be no blog post on
the 25th. But I’ll be back
with a post on January 2. No matter what
holiday you celebrate this season I hope you have a good one.
Winter
Solstice
There was a time when winter solstice was the most sacred
holiday of the year. The calendar revolved around it. Ancient people made it a
point to know when winter solstice occurred.
This was the time when the sun stopped its descent to the horizon and
began to climb again in the sky. The
ancients knew that the sun was the key to life.
When the sun “turned and began to come back” it was a signal that life
continued. The celebration was a symbol
of hope and joy, rebirth and a new year.
While some of man’s earliest ancestors may not have been
aware of the cyclic nature of the sun because of their closeness to the
equator, where there is no seasonal difference, by the time they appeared in
Northern Africa, they had grasped the significance. The pyramids and other
monuments that track the sun’s journey are proof.
But by the time humans migrated to more northerly areas of
the middle east and Europe they became very aware of the sun’s seasonal
fluctuations. The days grow shorter and
the sun is lower on the horizon and its warmth wanes. The people felt great relief when they could
determine that that cycle was reversing.
Over generations they learned to determine this turning point at almost
the instant it happens. That still seems
amazing, that they could pinpoint the start of solstice, without any of our
modern instruments and our knowledge of how the earth revolves around the sun
and turns on its axis.
Long, long before Christmas our ancestors celebrated
winter solstice. It was believed that
man was closest to the spiritual realm in the days around winter solstice. It was a solemn time of meditation and
reflection, a time to relinquish fears and cares in the old year and look
forward to better times in the new. Fires were lit to symbolically burn fears,
cares and transgressions. Sacrifices and
promises were made.
At the end of about 3 days of solemn retrospection, there
was feasting and visiting with the community to celebrate life and the promise
of the new year. Small gifts were given,
mostly for luck in the new year, which is the probable origin of gift giving at
this time of year.
In all the bustle that precedes and follows winter
solstice now, the Christian, Jewish, and other cultural rituals co-opted from
earlier ones, it’s important to remember the significance of winter solstice.
Life on earth is going to continue for our species, (at least for a while),
because there is a familiar, constant and comforting law of nature.
The ancients had it right when they believed that this time
of the year, the winter solstice, should be a time for reflection on the past
year. It’s a time to examine our lives
and decide how we want to live going forward, with the coming of a new
year. We should take 3 days of every
year, beginning at solstice to be introspective, spiritual and thoughtful. Have
a bonfire and burn your cares and worries. Make your resolutions at this time,
when the new year truly begins.
After the period of reflection, the joyful celebration
can begin. It would be wonderful if that
could be less about material things and more about connecting to others and
being glad to be alive and having a fresh start. May you have a spiritual, reflective solstice
and a joyous and fulfilling new year.
Aphids
on houseplants
Aphids are small egg-shaped insects that come in white,
black and every color in between, depending on the species. Adult aphids have wings, but aphids don’t
usually fly very far. Aphids can be
found in the garden, the greenhouse and on houseplants. There are species of aphids that prefer
certain plant species and some that are generalists. Some plants are very susceptible
to aphid infestations and other plants rarely host them.
Houseplants that are more susceptible to aphids include; asparagus
fern, cyclamen, Fatshedera, Fatsia, fuchsia, impatiens, kalanchoe, ornamental
peppers, roses, schefflera, streptocarpus, and tropical hibiscus. Some plants that rarely get aphids are
succulents, spider plants, pothos, ferns, sanseveria, and Norfolk pines. Many types of plants occasionally get aphids.
Aphids suck plant juices and usually concentrate on areas
of the plant that are young and tender, like new shoots and flower buds. Their feeding can cause some plant stress and
they sometimes carry diseases from plant to plant. Their poop is called honeydew, it’s a sticky
substance that is often found on the lower leaves of plants and on things next
to plants. It can mold, turning black (sooty
mold), which is unsightly and blocks light from plant leaves and impedes their respiration.
Outside aphids have many natural predators and they
rarely become too abundant. On plants in
the house though, natural predators and heavy rains that wash them off plants
are absent, so they can build up into huge populations. Houseplants may get aphids when they are outside
for summer vacations but even plants that have never been outside may get
aphids. Greenhouses also have problems
with aphids and they are often brought home on new plants. Seasonal plants like poinsettias and Easter
lilies may even give them a ride inside.
 |
| Aphid giving birth |
Once they get inside a home aphids can reproduce
rapidly. Most aphids inside reproduce by
giving birth to nymphs, baby aphids that look like smaller adults without wings. Some aphids outside lay eggs. To find aphids look at new shoots, and buds
for clusters of tiny insects of varied colors.
Look under curled or yellowed leaves for aphids that may be hiding there
too. The sticky “honeydew” aphids produce can look shiny when fresh or like
blackened areas if it molds. (Scale
insects also produce honeydew.)
Aphids are not the tiny insects flying around in your
home in most cases. Those are gnats or whiteflies. Aphids can fly but prefer to crawl from plant
to plant. Even when touched they rarely
fly.
Aphids rarely kill a plant although they make it look
sickly. Leaves may yellow and curl. Buds
may drop off or flowers may look deformed.
Most gardeners want to control them.
Control
indoors
If you are able to move your potted plants into the
shower easily, simply set them in the shower and spray them vigorously with
warm water. Concentrate on young growth
and buds if any. With light infestations
you may be able to use a spray bottle with plain water to spray plants too
large to move easily. You may have to do this several times until
you cut the population.
If you just have a few clusters of aphids on your plants,
you may be able to just clip off those areas and dispose of them aphids and
all. You may miss a few but you will
help control the population this way. If
you don’t want to trim plants there are other things you can do.
You can spray the plants with an insecticidal soap
solution. This is not something you mix
up in the sink with dish detergent. Don’t
let anyone convince you that Dawn dish detergent is the same thing. Dawn or other dish detergents strip the oils
off leaf surfaces and make it easier for aphids to feed. You’ll need to purchase the insecticidal soap
from a horticultural supply store. Mix it according to label directions.
Horticultural oils are also an option but since they affect
some plants adversely check the label to see if it’s safe for the plants you
want to spray and can be used indoors. Neem
oil is an insecticidal oil that’s fairly safe to use indoors too. Protect
things around the plants you spray so the oil doesn’t stain them.
Most spray type or contact insecticides aren’t safe to
use inside. Check all pesticides for the label directions and only use them
inside if the label says you can. If you
have a place you can move the plants to when you spray them, so that the spray
isn’t in the household air you are breathing, that would probably be the best
way to use these pesticides. They only need to remain isolated until the spray
dries. Remember some of these sprays might harm pets if they chew treated
leaves.
You could opt to use a systemic insecticide product to
kill the aphids. Systemics are poured on
the soil and the plant roots take them up and the plant distributes the
pesticides through its whole system. It
takes 2 weeks or more for these products to start working but then they protect
the plants for a long time and there are no pesticides in the air to breathe.
Most systemics are in the neonicotinoid
class of pesticides and can harm pollinators.
If you are treating plants that never go outside or that don’t flower
this is probably not a problem. Neonicotinoids like Imidacloprid remain
in soil or potting medium a long time. Don’t dump any treated soil outside because
plants nearby could take up the pesticide and theoretically harm pollinators. This class of pesticides is
practically non-toxic to mammals if used as directed so most pets shouldn’t be
affected.
I have found that if you can keep the aphid population
low without using pesticides through the winter, your plants will survive until
warm weather when you can move them outside.
Outside the aphid problem is generally quickly resolved and plant
recovery rapid.
Plants
may someday charge your phone
Some fascinating new research has revealed that when the
wind blows across a plant the plant produces electricity. Plants strengthen their stems when wind moves
them as many growers know. Evidently it
is an electrical stimulus that cause the plants to “bulk up”. When wind moves across the leaf surface it
produces an electrical charge on the surface which is immediately transported
into plant tissues and moved to other parts of the plant.
Researchers at IIT-(Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia) in
Pisa, Italy found that a single leaf being brushed by the wind can produce 150
volts of electricity. Researchers were able to capture the electricity by
making artificial “plants” whose leaves touched the real leaves of an oleander
plant. Electricity then flowed through
the artificial plant to be metered or to power LED lights. A single plant leaf blowing in the wind can
light up 150 LED bulbs.
The researchers have a project where they are making a
robot that will make “growing motions” and they hope to at least partially
power the robot with plant produced electricity. Sounds complicated but this project has opened
up a whole new area of research into green energy.
One day we may simply plug into plants to light our homes
or charge up that phone. Maybe you could
carry a special plug when you are hiking in the wilderness, so you can plug
your phone into a friendly tree to charge it.
You might have to stand there and blow on some leaves if the wind isn’t
blowing -LOL-.
There’s no data that I saw on whether harnessing the
electricity the plant is producing and diverting it for our use would harm the
plant. But if a tree has millions of
leaves that might not be a major problem unless we got greedy. Just plant a few trees by the house and
voila!- no electric bills.
We used to do a 4-H project where several potatoes
powered a small clock and they weren’t even blowing in the wind. The potatoes
were able to power the clock for several days while on exhibit at the
fair. (And the potatoes were still
edible when they stopped producing energy).
I guess you could say the potato tubers were the batteries where the
potato plant stored electricity. So, it makes sense that if we found the right
way to harness and store energy from plants, we could become even less
dependent on fossil fuel energy.
More reading
Plants
don’t like to be touched
If you are a person who constantly fusses with your
plants, shining their leaves, stroking and poking them-beware, you are
stressing them out. And when plants are stressed,
they don’t grow as well, and their immune system is less effective.
Research
published this month in the The Plant Journal (https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.14183) found
that every time a plant is touched stress hormones are triggered
which are energy intensive for the plant to produce. To a plant touch is not pleasurable, rather
it signifies that something is going eat them, so they need to defend
themselves. Even
when other plants touch a plant it causes stress.
The more
a plant is touched the less energy it has for other functions like growth and
reproduction. Plants that are frequently
touched are not as healthy as plants who aren’t touched. The research found that plants whose
nutritional needs were well met had less of a setback, but that touch was still
not a good thing for plants.
Preliminary
research suggests plants can’t differentiate types of touches, good touches,
like in pollination, and bad, like a grasshopper landing on them. We may discover eventually that they
can. Research also hasn’t determined if
different plant species have different levels of response to touching. However, since the stress caused by touching
causes a change in gene expression, researchers think that it might be possible
to breed plants that handle touch better.
I don’t
know what this means for the idea of harnessing electricity from plants- see
the article above-because that involves touching leaves with a fake leaf. I suppose we’ll weigh the pros and cons and
choose what’s best for us. However, all
you gardeners who want healthy plants should do your best to keep your green
thumbs off them.
More reading;
New
tick species to watch out for
In 2017 a foreign tick was discovered in New Jersey. The tick, called the Asian Longhorned tick (a
stupid name because it is so similar to Asian Longhorn beetle, another recent
invasive species) was found in these additional states this year: Arkansas,
Connecticut, Maryland, North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and
West Virginia. A new study warns that
the tick will probably spread to many more states rather quickly.
This tick has some tolerance for cold and will probably
spread as far north as southern Canada.
It does not like hot, dry areas and the southwest is the least likely place
it will spread. This tick can reproduce
without mating (parthenogenic) and is quite prolific. It will feed on wildlife, livestock, pets and
humans. It likes the same habitat as other species of ticks.
The Haemaphysalis longicornis tick is native to
East Asia but is also well established in Australia and New Zealand. It’s a prominent livestock pest and that may
be how it arrived here. Thousands may be found on one animal, severely
weakening it.
In Asia it transmits several tick-borne diseases to
livestock and humans. So far, the CDC
has not found any Asian Longhorned ticks in the US that are infected with
disease. Entomologists say that is
likely to change.
As far as identifying the species, that is hard for the
layperson to do. It’s a plain reddish-
brown tick. You can see pictures in the
link below. The CDC and USDA-APHIS would
like people to submit ticks that they don’t recognize so they can track the
spread and test them for disease. There
are directions in the fact sheets below for how to do this. If you have been bitten by a tick- it
attached to you and fed on you- should contact your doctor or the local health
department.
Soil
ingredient might help you lose weight
Did you eat dirt as a child? You may have been on the right track to a
svelte body. As part of research on the best delivery of certain drugs to the
human system, scientists in Australia stumbled upon the discovery that a
substance found in some soils, smectite, a form of non-metallic clay, may
someday help people lose weight by absorbing fat in the digestive system.
Smectite is also known as montmorillonite or sodium
bentonite and is composed of hydrated sodium calcium aluminum silicate. It is
produced by the weathering of volcanic ash. The form the researchers were using
had been spray dried. The substance is
harmless to humans and passes through the digestive system. Sodium bentonite is
used to seal porous soils to make a liner for ponds and sewage lagoons. It’s also used in kitty litter.
Sodium bentonite has been used in medicine to absorb
toxins from the body and treat diarrhea. Various folk remedies using it exist.
There are studies that suggest it might help promote good gut bacteria. It’s
also used in cosmetics. Overdose though,
can interfere with blood electrolytes.
The researchers were using the clay to improve the
delivery of certain medications when they discovered that it soaked up fat
goblets in the digestive system and then carried them out of the body. They decided to compare smectite with
Orlistat, a weight loss drug, in animal studies. They found the clay caused more weight loss than
Orlistat.
Researchers at the University of South Australia then
decided to combine smectite clay with Orlistat.
Orlistat does cause weight loss by blocking the absorption of fat by the
body. However, some people can’t tolerate it because the excess fat in the
digestive system causes severe diarrhea.
In animal studies the combination of Orlistat and smectite caused weight
loss without gastrointestinal distress. Human studies of the combination will
soon be starting. In the meantime, don’t
start eating soil or kitty litter, there could be other complications.
More reading
"So the shortest day came, and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive,
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - Listen!!
All the long echoes sing the same delight,
This shortest day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, fest, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!!"
- Susan Cooper, The
Shortest Day
May you have a spiritual solstice, a merry Christmas or the
wonderful holiday of your choosing. See
you next year.
Kim Willis
All parts of this blog are copyrighted and may not be used without
permission.
And So On….
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I write this because I
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