Tuesday, September 1, 2020

September 1, 2020, Salsa Season

 Hi gardeners

I asked for a rain dance last week and some of you must have done it. I got some very good rains on Wednesday and Thursday of last week, and we are supposed to get more tonight and tomorrow.  The garden thanks you.


Can you believe it’s September?  Meteorologists count September as a fall month, although technically fall starts with the fall equinox on the 22nd.  If you are outside in the evening you definitely know the days are getting shorter. The plants know it too, the first seeping in of oranges, reds and purples has begun.

I am disappointed that my white anemone is not going to give me a good show this year. Usually it’s about 3 feet high and loaded with flowers, but this year either the late cold in the spring or something eating on it damaged the growing stems. I have a basal clump of foliage but the stems that did emerge are blackened and bare at the tips. A new pink anemone I planted this year does have buds, but the plant is only about 6 inches high.

I do have some dahlias that are just now beginning to bloom in the front beds that should help extend the color a bit longer. Autumn Joy sedum is starting to bloom. Toad lilies will bloom soon.  And the hardy hibiscus are doing their best to add color. Still in bloom are black eyed susan’s, one prolific purple daylily, mums, ligularia, hosta, and of course the annuals.

I was outside weeding last evening, and I was cutting back the browning ferns in the front bed. Ostrich ferns are lovely in the spring and summer although they do take over a bed. In the late summer and fall though they get crappy looking, especially when its dry. And they hide things, like the hydrangea plant I discovered when I cut some back.

I don’t remember planting a hydrangea in that spot.  I checked my records and nope, no mention of hydrangea. It’s a pretty large clump, doesn’t look like a seedling. Nice foliage about a foot high. The only thing I can think of is that I moved it from somewhere last fall but wracking my brain I can’t think of where that would have been.  So, a nice mystery. I am going to mark it and make sure it doesn’t get overwhelmed by ferns next year and maybe I’ll get blooms.

I am starting to look at the houseplants that went out for a summer vacation and wonder where I am going to put them all, now that most have grown a lot, when I bring them back in. I think I may have to thin out the ranks again this year.  I did buy a new growlight, a three-armed LED thing to replace some of my cobbled together contraptions. (There are lots of garden bargains right now, keep your eyes open.)  But there is only so much room in this tiny house.

I hope everyone has a good Labor Day holiday, but remember- social distance, wear a mask, and stay safe.

 

New information about powdery mildew on plants

Powdery mildew is a common fungal disease infecting many types of garden plants. It makes plants look bad and diminishes their vigor but seldom kills plants outright. Many people decide to ignore the fungal disease and hope plants will recover.  Fungal diseases can’t be cured once they start anyway.

But we may want to start rethinking how we treat plants with powdery mildew. There are numerous strains of powdery mildew. Some start early in the season, others later. Some infect one species of plants, some infect many. Plants can get more than one infection of the fungus. New findings published in the Aug. 31 issue of Nature Ecology & Evolution found that how we treat the first symptoms of powdery mildew may affect how healthy the plant will continue to be.

Plants that got powdery mildew early in the season were more likely to get another infection later in the season.  Researchers found that rather than the disease providing immunity to later infections, one infection makes plants more susceptible to other strains of powdery mildew. And some strains of powdery mildew are more likely to weaken the plants defenses if they occur first in the season.

Of course, any plant that’s weakened by disease might have trouble fending off the next assault. But it seems that in powdery mildew at least, early strains of the disease may actually facilitate later infections.

The takeaway here is that if gardeners want healthy plants, they may want to prevent fungal infections from happening. This can be by preventative sprays for susceptible plants, by providing good airflow in the garden and proper watering practices, and by planting varieties with resistance to powdery mildew. Preventing early infection may keep plants healthy later in the season.

Read more here

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200831112349.htm

 

September almanac

This month the various Farmers Almanacs come out for 2021. (There’s the Old Farmer’s almanac and Farmer’s Almanac.)  September is a month of transition, from summer to fall, back to school, back to sweatshirts and sweaters. Most gardeners will want to think about bringing in the houseplants, if they summered outside.

The Corn (full) moon occurs this month on September 4th. If it’s the closest full moon to the autumn equinox it’s also called the Harvest moon. This year the title of Harvest moon goes to the full moon on October 1.  Moon perigee is the 18th and apogee is the 6th.  Isn’t it funny that despite how “advanced we have become that people still track the phases of the moon? They are on most calendars, at least the full, new and quarter moons.

The autumn equinox, the start of fall is September 22nd.  We’ll be down to 12 hours of daylight then, give or take 8 minutes, depending on where you are.  On this day the sun sets exactly due west and rises due east of your home.  Go outside and position a marker or note it on a landmark and you will always know the true directions around your home.

September in my area is when the hummingbirds and orioles generally leave along with some other songbirds, for their winter hibernation areas. Many hawks will also be migrating south, they fly at night, so the flocks are rarely seen.  Some say woodchucks go into hibernation this month but here if it’s warm they will be out feeding through October.

The birth flower for September is the aster or in some places, the morning glory.  Asters are said to symbolize powerful love and morning glories just affection so choose the flower you give this month accordingly.  The September birthstone is sapphire.



September is Hispanic Heritage Month, National Chicken month, Honey month, Classical Music month, National Preparedness month, and International Square-Dancing month.

Besides Labor Day (7th ) holidays in September include Patriots day on the 11th, Grandparents day the 13th (who honors us grandparents anyway?) and the 13th is National Peanut day, the 14th is Pet Memorial Day, the 19th is National POW-MIA day, 21st is International Peace Day, the 26th is Native American Day and the 28th is both Good Neighbor Day and Ask a Stupid Question day. 

 

September garden chores

Clean up any veggie garden crops you have finished harvesting. Remove foliage and any fruits left to the compost pile to avoid overwintering pests and diseases in the garden.

Dig potatoes if the vines have died. Let them cure spread out in a shady spot outside for 24 hours before storing.

Harvest and prepare apples, grapes and other fruit for storage.

Start removing sod and weeds for any new gardens you plan to add next year. Fall prep gives you a head start.

Order spring blooming bulbs for later fall planting. Plant lily bulbs as soon as you receive them.

If any houseplants, whether presently outside or inside, need repotting, now is the time to do so. Treat houseplants with a systemic pesticide like Bonide before you bring them inside. This will help prevent problems with aphids, scale and other insects once plants are inside for the winter.

If you are going to overwinter any tender perennials like coleus, geraniums, sweet potato, gerbera daisy and so on you should be getting them potted if they are now in the ground. They can stay outside in pots until frost is predicted. Make sure to keep the pots watered.

 Collect seeds for saving. Store seeds in paper packets, not plastic.  Make sure they are ripe and dry before storage.

Take down hummingbird and jelly feeders when you feel hummers and orioles have left. Start feeding seed and suet if you don’t feed the birds all summer.

Those in northern zones should watch the weather predictions carefully now and be ready to cover or move plants inside if frost threatens. Many areas have frost by the end of September.

 Sneaky plants that cause sneezing

Goldenrod is beginning to bloom.  Before you start sneezing and laying blame on it, please understand goldenrod does not cause your seasonal allergies.  In late summer and fall, before a hard freeze, the primary culprit for seasonal allergies is ragweed, stinging nettles and amaranths.  Goldenrod, a beautiful showy flower is not the cause of allergies. 



Goldenrod pollen is heavy and doesn’t travel well on the wind.  Goldenrod is very beneficial for pollinators and it’s a pretty plant so leave it alone please. But if you have allergies don’t cut goldenrod and bring it inside.  Inside, in warm and dry conditions, the pollen dries out and may drift just enough to cause you problems.

There are several types of Goldenrod that can be found in the northeast but the two most common are Gray Goldenrod, Solidago nemoralis, and Tall Goldenrod, Solidago altissima.  Both have the sprays of tiny gold flowers for which the plant is named.  Gray Goldenrod is shorter, the flower sprays are not as wide and arched as Tall Goldenrod and each long narrow leaf has two short leaves by it where it attaches to the stem.  Tall Goldenrod can grow to 5 feet high in good conditions and the flower spikes tend to from a pyramidal shape at the top of the plant.  Both plants have rough, stiff stems and the leaves and stems are slightly hairy.

The sprays of gold are formed by hundreds of tiny yellow, daisy-like flowers which each have a nectar tube.  This nectar is an important food for butterflies fueling up to fly south and bees preparing for winter as is the abundant, heavy pollen.  Goldenrod begins blooming in late summer and blooms until a heavy frost. Goldenrod will grow almost anywhere, in sun and light shade, in moist or dry locations.  It’s a common roadside and field wildflower.

Ragweed

Ragweed is also blooming now, although most won’t notice its plain Jane flowers and it’s the cause of allergic symptoms for many people this time of year. Common Ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) has a Latin name many associate with something delightful, but this almost unnoticed plant is anything but delightful to millions of hay fever suffers. 

Ragweed was once confined to the east coast but has spread throughout the United States. Ragweed is an annual plant which begins growing from over-wintered seeds as soon as the soil warms above 50 degrees. Young Ragweed leaves have more rounded points to their divided leaves and may be spotted with purple. They are hairy on the leaf surface.



As ragweed grows, the leaves become more sharply divided. Many people mistake the Ragweed plants for marigolds or tomatoes as the fern-like leaves are similar. In cooler fall weather the leaves may take on a reddish or purplish tint at the edges. Ragweed plants can get quite large, up to 5 feet high and branching many times.  

In late summer, about the time goldenrod blooms, ragweed also blooms.  The small greenish flowers are clustered in long wands at the ends of branches and don’t draw much notice. The pollen that they release into the wind and which can float for miles, does make many notice it though. If you look at it under a microscope you could see the hooks and barbs each pollen piece carries, which can wreak havoc on human nasal and respiratory passages. 

Ragweed will grow in almost any soil, although it prefers heavy, moist soil.  It likes full sun but will tolerate some shade.  It is found in crops and gardens as a weed, on roadsides and in un-mowed fields.  The seeds of Ragweed can survive for more than 80 years in soil, waiting for the right time to germinate, so the plant is hard to eliminate.

Giant ragweed, (Ambrosia trifida), a relative of common ragweed, has 3 lobed (sometimes 5) palmate (hand like) leaves that remind some people of marihuana, hence the common name wild hemp. The margins of the leaflets are toothed, but not as obviously as those of true marihuana, and the leaflets much broader. And giant ragweed leaves do not have any of the pleasant qualities of marihuana. The leaves are arranged opposite each other on the woody stem. Both stems and leaves are covered with fine hairs.  The leaf stem is winged near the main stem. Some plants may have several large branches.  Plants have a short taproot and a large fibrous root mat.



The flowers of giant ragweed are greenish white and inconspicuous although the pollen they produce and release into the wind can cause much distress to hay fever sufferers.  Male flowers are produced on spikes at the top of the plant, so the pollen is better distributed into the wind. Female flowers are below them in short clusters in leaf axils.  Each female flower makes a single seed. 

The woody stems and seed pods of giant ragweed will persist well into winter. Plants will grow in sun or partial shade and prefer fertile, moist soil although they can pop up in many places. They grow from seed. It is a native plant and found throughout much of the US and Canada.

 

Stinging nettles

Stinging nettle pollen is also allergenic and it’s shedding pollen now too.  I know a lot of herbalists rave over stinging nettles and there’s much folklore involving cures but if you keep some around at least keep the flowers trimmed off so there won’t be pollen or seeds.

Stinging nettles is a tall (3-7 feet) sturdy perennial plant. The leaves are dark green, 1-6 inches long and heavily toothed on the edges. Leaves are arranged oppositely on the tough, squared stem. The plants usually aren’t branched. 



The surface of the leaves and stems are covered with hairs, some of which are larger and contain the poison that causes such misery. These hairs, called trichomes, are hollow, with a bulbous base that contains acetylcholine, histamine, 5-HT (serotonin), moroidin, leukotrienes, and possibly formic acid. They act like a needle to inject the poison as a defense. These hairs are meant to protect the plant from animals eating them and they do a good job. They also break off in human skin causing welts, stinging and itching.  When the plants are dried or cooked the poison disappears.

Stinging nettle flowers come in male and female versions on the same plant. They are small clusters of greenish white and appear in the leaf axils throughout the summer. The female flowers produce tiny egg-shaped seeds of tan to brown.

 

Amaranths, pigweed and others

Pigweeds, of which there are several types, began flowering in late June and bloom on and off until a hard frost. They can cause allergy symptoms when pollinating. Pigweeds belong to the amaranth family. This diverse family has some edible seeded varieties and some ornamental varieties such as Love Lies Bleeding, which allergy prone gardeners may want to avoid.  Lambsquarters, Chenopodium album, another common weed that blooms in late summer and fall can also cause allergy symptoms

Other than ornamental grasses and amaranths, most garden plants in the late summer garden do not cause any serious nasal allergy threat.  However, when some flowers are cut and brought indoors, the pollen dries out and has a greater tendency to cause nasal allergies, especially if allergy sensitive people are close to the cut flowers. Lilies, members of the daisy family and as mentioned, goldenrod are frequent culprits here. 

After a hard frost most pollen shedding will stop.  However, another nasal allergen trigger may then cause problems. Moldy tree leaves can trigger nasal allergies.  Plants that have heavy infestations of white fly, aphids or scale insects often develop sooty mold.  Sooty mold grows on sweet secretions or excrement from insects eating plant sap. Houseplants often have these pests and then can indirectly cause nasal allergies.

If your allergies peak in late summer, don’t blame goldenrod.  Instead look for the sneaky weeds that are the real culprits.

 

Catfacing, cracking and zippering in tomatoes

Catfacing is a term for tomatoes that seem to have constricted areas of flesh or cavities on the bottom of the tomato.  It may look like several tomatoes fused or that areas of gray, scabby tissue have divided the fruit. Catfacing may cause projections of flesh, often shown in photos where someone is giggling over the resemblance to a penis sticking out of the fruit.


                                                    Catfacing- photo credit Mississippi State Ext.

Another similar problem of tomatoes is zippering- it looks like the tomato has a zipper running up the side usually with a hole at one end of the “zipper”.  Zippering and catfacing often occur on the same fruit. They can be seen on green as well as ripe fruit.

Cracking usually occurs on the stem end and looks like scabby rings running around the tomato. Or cracks can radiate out from the stem downward, forming a star-like pattern at the fruit top. The fruit actually cracks open and heals in some cases, with the scabby cover forming or before it heals it may mold.  Both ripe and green fruit can crack, but ripe fruit is more likely to mold or rot after cracking.

All of these conditions are physiological disorders, that is they are not caused by disease. There is little you can do under garden conditions to prevent the problems.  Some varieties of tomatoes have more trouble with these problems, particularly large round fruited, older varieties. The fruits are lumpy and unappealing but perfectly edible. 

Catfacing and zippering are generally caused by interference with pollination/fertilization.  If tomato flowers don’t get pollinated correctly the fruit is misshapen.  Nights below 60 degrees during, or even for 3 weeks before flowering, or very hot and humid days during flowering are common causes. Insects feeding on flowers may damage reproductive parts, causing poor pollination.

If you are heavily pruning indeterminate plants, you may cause a lack of auxins (a plant hormone) which may also cause fruits to develop abnormally.  High levels of nitrogen may also be a cause.  Infrequently pesticide drift may be a cause.

Cracking is associated with water problems, usually too much water, sometimes by allowing the plant to get too dry and then watering heavily. If it’s hot and humid the cracks may develop mold and insects are attracted to the cracks also.

There is nothing you can add to the soil or put on the plants to solve these problems. Epsom salt or fertilizers will not help and can actually cause more problems. Choosing varieties resistant to the problems, like plum shaped tomatoes, could help if you frequently have these problems. The good news is that if the weather changes new fruit may not be affected.

Remove badly catfaced and all cracked tomatoes from the plant when you find them, so the plant doesn’t expend more energy on them and so they don’t attract insects. This will encourage more bloom, hopefully in better conditions.

Tomatoes affected by catfacing, cracking or zippering are safe to eat if they aren’t insect infested or moldy. Experts warn that they shouldn’t be used for canning though, as they may be hard to peel and harbor bacteria or be less acidic than normal tomatoes. Tomatoes with mild zippering are probably safe to use.  Canning is not for produce you don’t want to eat fresh; diseased, overripe, badly bruised or cracked produce should be used fresh or discarded.

 


Fresh salsa

When you have a lot of tomatoes at the end of the season you may want to consider making a quick batch of salsa. This salsa recipe doesn’t involve cooking and should be refrigerated if it isn’t eaten and saved for only a day or two. Don’t make too much, since it can’t be held long, but don’t underestimate how much you can scarf down with some good chips.

I don’t peel the tomatoes in this fresh salsa, and it works just fine.

Core some tomatoes and coarsely chop them. Measure what you have. 

For every 3 cups of chopped tomatoes add about a cup of chopped peppers and onion (combined).

For hot salsa use hot peppers, for milder salsa use bell peppers or sweet banana peppers. You can use any color peppers; many colors make for a pretty dish. Any onions can be used, I like yellow sweet onion like Vidalia in mine.

For about 4 cups of salsa add a ¼ cup vinegar, a teaspoon of sugar, salt to your taste and other seasonings.

Many people like the taste of cilantro in salsa so finely chop a bit and add it if you like it. Garlic is a good seasoning to add. Many people use a touch of cumin in salsa. Add some red pepper flakes if you want to up the heat. Play around with spices, add a bit at a time and taste until you get something you like.

I pulse the salsa a few times in a blender to smooth it out a bit. If you don’t mind coarsely chopped veggies you can skip this. Don’t over blend or you’ll have soup, just a pulse or two.  It will be very “juicy”. You can pour it through a strainer or simply pour a little of the fluid off.  I save this fluid for cooking, it’s great on steak or roast.

You can eat this salsa at once or cover it tightly and let it sit in the refrigerator for an hour or two to enhance the flavors. Tightly cover and refrigerate any leftover salsa. Toss out leftovers after two days.

 

“The old summer's-end melancholy nips at my heels. There's no school to go back to; no detail of my life will change come the onset of September; yet still, I feel the old trepidation.”


― Sara Baume, A Line Made by Walking

 

 

Kim Willis

All parts of this blog are copyrighted and may not be used without permission.

 

And So On….

 

Find Michigan garden events/classes here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/118847598146598/

(This is the Lapeer County Gardeners facebook page)

 

Newsletter/blog information

 

If you have a comment or opinion you’d like to share, send it to me or you can comment directly on the blog. Please state that you want to have the item published in my weekly blog if you email me. You must give your full name and what you say must be polite and not attack any individual. I am very open to ideas and opinions that don’t match mine, but I do reserve the right to publish what I want.

If you are on an email list for this blog and wish to be removed please contact me.

Contact me at KimWillis151@gmail.com

 

No comments:

Post a Comment