July 27, 2021 - stormy weather

Do you see the photo bomber?

First, I would like to say to all of you who had their gardens damaged or ruined in the past couple weeks by the awful weather, I feel for you, I'm sorry. Plants are resilient though and you may be surprised how well they will recover. Many people have much greater problems than a ruined garden from the weather. Take care of yourself and your family first. There can always be another garden. I’m wishing you hope and luck and a speedy recovery.

If you had wind damage to the garden and plants were blown over, especially sweet corn, see the article below.

Here in Michigan this past week 4 tornadoes touched down and did extensive damage. Across the country there have been storms, floods, fires, and drought. It’s a good year to evaluate how you might change your garden or gardening practices to reflect the changing weather patterns.  Should you move the garden to higher ground, add drainage tiles, or make raised beds?  Should you shift your landscape plants to drought tolerant species? Should you install a fire break or roof sprinklers? Planning and implementing some changes can help mitigate garden damage in the next garden season and beyond.

Monday was a beautiful typical Michigan summer day. It was hot, but it’s that time of year. It was sunny and there was no smoke from the wildfires. I went out early to do a little weeding and got to watch a mamma Eastern phoebe feeding a baby in our cedar tree. I got some pictures of both birds, but not together.

The bees were really busy, they were visiting hosta flowers primarily. People forget that hosta flowers attract both bees and hummingbirds.  There has been a lot of butterflies around lately too.  I saw Tiger swallowtails, a black swallowtail, red spotted purples, viceroys, a monarch, and a bunch of small butterflies I think are meadow fritillaries.

Blooming here now are cannas, rudbeckia, daylilies, coreopsis, roses, orienpet lilies, tiger lilies, hollyhock, hosta, beebalm, garden phlox, anise hyssop, lavender, and a whole range of annuals. The rose of Sharon are beginning to bloom. Three of the five new dahlias are beginning to bloom, the other two have buds.

The violet stemmed taro leaves are getting huge, but my elephant ear is not very big this year. Neither is the canna ‘Tropicana’. I’ve had that canna for 3 years now and it’s never gotten more than a foot tall with a couple leaves. Time to try a new plant and discard that one, I guess.  Some plants are just bummers.

Violet stemmed taro and canna

In the vegetable garden I am struggling with fungal diseases as are so many gardeners this year. MSU states that cucurbit downy mildew (see below) has been found in several Michigan counties, including mine and I believe my cucumbers and pumpkins may have it. I’ll decide in the next day or so whether to pull them and discard them.  My cukes are not elongating, they turn into little balls with a shriveled tail. I picked a few and they are bitter when eaten.  This could be a heat/pollination problem or from disease.

I am getting some nice tomatoes, but many are splitting from excess water.  And the plants have Septoria leaf blight, so they won’t be at their best.  They are loaded with tomatoes though.  We are eating Goliath tomatoes now and they are yummy.

I found a tiny watermelon starting on one of my melon plants. They don’t seem to be affected by any problems- yet.  The peppers seem to be doing well.  And my pot plant is growing like the weed it is.

Today its cloudy and we may get some rain. Even though it rained 6/10 of an inch Saturday, Monday evening I was watering all the pots. It’s amazing how quick they dry out.  And through today we have had less than 3 inches of rain in August but just to the south of us they have had 15 inches through the month. It’s just so strange.

Cucurbit Downy mildew

Cucurbit Downy mildew is a serious disease of cucumbers, squash, pumpkins and melons. It is different from powdery mildew, which is a common problem but less destructive.  There are 5 strains of this fungus.  It is most common in wet weather.

Symptoms of downy mildew are light green to yellow angular spots on the top of leaves.  Spots eventually start running together, turn brown and the leaves dry out and fall off. The bottom of the leaves will have black, water-soaked looking areas, then a purple-brown dusty or fuzzy appearance to the bottom of leaves when spores appear. Usually, spots appear on older leaves first.

Downy mildew on cucumber
Photo UMass, J. Higgins

 

Downy mildew on back of leaf.
UMass, J. Higgins

                                                   

Cucumber plants quickly seem to dry up and die. Squash and melons are damaged but often continue growing. Downy mildew is carried to crops by the wind and usually begins in hot, wet or humid weather.  Once in your garden it will spread rapidly. 

Cucumber plants rapidly die from the disease.  Melons have greatly reduced production.  Squash and pumpkins survive but grow more slowly and are less productive.

The best thing to do is to prevent downy mildew by applying protective fungicides. IF YOU ARE IN MICHIGAN YOU MAY WANT TO DO THIS NOW. The Extension office in your county should be able to tell you if downy mildew is a problem in commercial fields in your area. If commercial growers have it, it will soon be in home gardens.  You can check this national map for infections also https://cdm.ipmpipe.org/

Look for home garden fungicides that have chlorothalonil or mancozeb in the ingredients and apply as directed.  If started and applied regularly before the infection gets to your garden, you may save your crop. If caught early fungicides may help crops that are lightly infected. Heavily infected crops won’t be helped. There are no organic products that are effective for downy mildew.  Baking soda, milk, Epsom salts, dish soap and so on are useless. 

If you can’t bring yourself to use a conventional fungicide on plants infected with downy mildew, then pull the plants once they are infected and bury them away from the garden or put them in plastic bags for the landfill.  Don’t mess around with home remedies, allowing the disease to continue spreading.  Don’t compost infected plants at home. Don’t plant in the same spot next year and make sure all plant residue is removed from the garden in the fall.  Next year look for varieties that are resistant to downy mildew.

There is also a strain of downy mildew that also infects and quickly kills impatiens plants.

 

Lodging (blow over) of corn and other plants

When we get summer storms with wind and rain tall plants can get blown over – or “lodged”. This often happens to corn when storms happen after the tasseling stage. It can also happen to tall garden plants with heavy blooms, like lilies, sunflowers and phlox.

After the storm has passed examine your garden carefully for blown over plants. When you see a big patch of sweet corn just starting to get ears lying on the ground you may be ready to cry, but don’t despair, you can often fix things.  If plants are just blown over and stems aren’t snapped, you have a good chance for repairs to work.

Sweet corn blown over by storm

Let it dry out a bit before you attempt to do repairs- it won’t hurt to wait a day or two. Don’t wait too long though. Find some nice stakes- maybe you can cut some from tree limbs that also fell in the storm. Farm stores sell electric fence stakes in various sizes and garden stores sell bamboo stakes.  You may need twine or soft rope for tying up individual plants or rolls of wire for rows of corn.

For individual plants like lilies, put the stake behind it – far enough back you won’t stab the bulb, and then lift the plant slowly and carefully and tie it to the stake. You may be able to put stakes around a clump of plants and then run wire or rope around the stakes – but its hard to get several plants lifted up at the same time and then run wire around them.

Be very careful lifting up blown over plants. If you snap the stems, it’s all over. That’s why you put the stakes in first – so you aren’t holding them up and trying to insert a stake. It can be helpful to have a helper if you have a lot of plants to stake.  If they have exposed roots on one side gently scoop some soil over them after staking and lightly press the roots down on that side.

Farmers whose field corn has lodged are advised just to leave it. In many cases the corn will try to right itself- bending and growing upward again. It’s harder to harvest corn this way though. You can try this with sweet corn and you may still get a decent crop- or it may rot on the ground.

I have had sweet corn lodge before, and this is what I did.  It’s a lot of work but it will help you get a harvest. Start behind the last row of corn- where the wind has blown it away from where you are standing. Put stakes every 8-10 feet – they can be 3-4 feet tall. Then run wire or rope across your stakes- attach it so its taut and the wire/rope won’t slide down the post when weight is put on it.  The wire/rope should be at least 3 feet above ground.

You may need something like fence post insulators that screw on the post.  I have seen people use duct tape wrapped around the post in a thick layer and then the wire/rope goes above that.  A notch near the top of a wood post or a nail sticking out can work. You want to keep the wire/rope from sliding down.

I happened to have electric wire and posts with insulators on hand but if you can’t find something to use and have to buy the supplies you may want to weigh the cost and effort against just buying sweet corn at the farm market later. I spent most of a day one year lifting the sweet corn after lodging, but I thought it was worth it.

After the posts and wire/rope is up, go down the row lifting the corn plants and leaning them against the wire.  Then put up a second set of posts and wire/rope and repeat and so on. If your rows are close together this won’t be easy.

If you can’t get into your patch to do this, you may as well just leave the corn and hope for the best. It should look better after two weeks. If it doesn’t, if it yellows or starts looking black and moldy just pull it and call time of death. Pollination is harder with lodged corn so if the corn is blown over when it’s tasseling and it doesn’t right itself quickly, you won’t get much of a crop. 

You’ll find that after a couple weeks most corn won’t need the wire to stay upright but taking it down will be a hassle, so leave it until after harvest. 

 

Color for late summer gardens

In April, standing in the garden, August seems so far away. In April, hungry for color, we stride through the garden center, grabbing up perennials already in bloom, or looking as if they will bloom soon. We want a garden -now. The garden centers know this and the perennials they put out to tempt you are weeks ahead of when they normally bloom. Some are grown in greenhouses; some are grown in the far south under hoops and trucked north. But they are nice, big plants, some with blooms.

If we in the north were choosing perennials in April grown locally outside, they would probably be sprouts in a pot. Some gardeners would be experienced enough to know these are a good choice.  But would we choose them, if sitting next to them was the same plant only larger with buds and blooms? My experience in retail says people naturally go for the bigger, blooming plants. Your mind tells you one thing, but your eyes direct your hands to pick up the bigger plant with flowers.

Is there anything wrong with this? Other than having to protect those more developed plants from late frosts things will probably be fine. Next year they will come up and bloom in your garden when the normal time for them to do so comes. But there is one disadvantage to this cheating the season scenario. Many gardens end up lacking late summer color, both in the current year and in years to come.

Even with tricks to advance bloom, the late summer bloomers may not be quite as big and pretty in April as the early summer bloomers. The gardener sees colorful Siberian iris, daylilies, poppies, bleeding heart, Asiatic lilies, creeping phlox, columbines and delphiniums and chooses them. Some gardeners are unaware that most perennials bloom for a short period and then quit.

If you want color in the late summer garden, you need to plan for it. In the spring those late bloomers may not seem like they are contributing much, but you’ll be happy to see them later. Luckily many of the common garden perennials that begin bloom after the summer equinox do have long bloom periods, taking the color into fall.

Garden mums, echinacea (coneflowers), monarda (beebalm) rudbeckia (black eyed Susans- and others), coreopsis, helenium, hardy hibiscus, rose of Sharon, buddleia, sedums, hollyhocks, asters, tall garden phlox and goldenrod are all plants that either have a long summer blooming period or bloom late in the season.

For shadier gardens late summer color can be provided by fall blooming anemones, toad lilies, cimicifuga (snakeroot) and even hostas. Many hosta have beautiful blooms. Hosta varieties have a varied bloom time, with some blooming in June or July and some in August. If you need late summer color look for late blooming varieties.

One thing the gardener can do is incorporate bulbs and tubers into the garden like cannas, dahlias, crocosmia, peacock orchids, glads, and late blooming lilies. Many of these have long bloom times and will take the color to the first hard frost.

Some bulbs need to be dug up and stored, depending on your garden zone if you want them for the next year. Many gardeners treat them like annuals, however. And of course, bedding annuals can really be helpful for fall color, with things like geraniums and petunias even surviving light frosts. (Actually those examples are tender perennials treated like annuals.)

If your garden is running out of steam and starting to look drab and you don’t think you planted things that are going to bloom in August and beyond, don’t despair. This is a good excuse to head right back to that garden center. A good garden center will be featuring hardy hibiscus with their flamboyant blooms, garden mums, buddleias, Joe Pye plant, sedums and other plants that you can pop into the garden.  Just remember to keep them watered after transplanting.  And the good thing is that they will come back next year, with any luck.

Having a beautiful, blooming garden in late summer keeps you interested in keeping it weeded and watered, which is a win for both you and the plants. Keep that color coming.

  

 "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass... Life is about learning to dance in the rain."

- Vivian Greene.

 

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. Contact me at KimWillis151@gmail.com

 

 

July 20, 2021 killing fairies

Trumpet vine flowers

 We are a month past summer equinox now and late summer is creeping up on us. The change is subtle at first, then it hurries along as we get further into August. This year’s wild weather is going to keep us all on our toes.  Will we have an early frost and end to the gardens or a prolonged fall?  Will the next few weeks be hot and dry or cool and wet?

Last evening when I was outside watering, I could see the smoke from the wildfires in the west and Canada hanging over the fields like fog.  But you could smell the smoke, it wasn’t fog. Those fires are hundreds of miles away, yet the smoke last night would make you think it’s just a few miles away. Today it’s a little less visible and I am hoping rain this afternoon will wash it out of the air.

I listened to the medium range agricultural weather forecast last week.  They were predicting the next couple weeks the weather in Michigan would revert to dry and hot. Yet I look at the forecast for this week and see several chances for rain. Doesn’t mean it will happen, especially here in the thumb, where we aren’t getting the rain the rest of you seem to be getting.  Our last good rain was the 13^th.  But the point is the weather forecasters have already changed the forecast.

To me it seems weather forecasting has gotten worse, not better with technology improvements in the last few years. I pay little attention to forecasts other than for the same day and next day because they constantly change. Maybe that’s good, because technology is fine tuning itself, but it is frustrating when you are trying to plan outside work or recreation.

How is my garden handling climate change? After a late cold start everything jumped ahead and bloom times for my perennials are 1-2 weeks earlier than last year. The Rose of Sharon’s are starting to bloom. I already have mums in bloom. The lilies will be done by August when just a few years ago they didn’t start blooming until August.  Garden phlox are now blooming.

I have a lot of hosta in bloom right now. Hosta can actually be quite pretty in bloom and some are fragrant. They were actually grown for their flowers before they became popular foliage plants. And the flowers attract hummingbirds as well as bees. Other things blooming right now that attract hummingbirds are the trumpet vines and the jewel weed.

Jewelweed is a pain in the butt, it will come up everywhere once you get it in your garden. It shoots it’s seeds from the pod and those seeds must have a 100 percent germination rate. It’s one native plant you should think three times about before planting.  It pulls up easily even though another plant will spring up in its place almost immediately. 

Trumpet vine is a pain to keep confined too, it’s everywhere in my yard. Maybe that’s why I’m not big into native plants, most of them seem way too aggressive for gardens.

I am a little upset that the morning glories I planted that were supposed to be “Heavenly Blue”, are just plain old purple like the ones on the back fence, well at least the first one to bloom is. I was trying to get some new colors of morning glories in here as mine have all reverted to wild purple.

Speaking of early, what used to be a sign fall was coming was a tiny fluffy insect called the fairy fly or woolly aphid, I saw some this weekend visiting the gerbera daisies on my porch of all things.

The woolly aphid Prociphilus or Eriosoma species

Have you ever seen what appears to be a bit of fluff motoring around your plants? Not drifting but actually flitting back and forth, landing and taking off again. If you look closely the tiny blueish white things with a fat, oval purple body will remind you of a fairy with feathery wings. They are probably how the whole fairy thing got started.  Sometimes they are actually called Fairy Flies.

These aren’t fairies or a bug with good intentions, however. They are actually the adult flying stage of the woolly aphid. Woolly aphids are close relatives of true aphids, those common garden invaders. Except these buggers are covered with white waxy hairs which protect them.

When a whole bunch of woolly aphid nymphs get together it looks like wool or a fuzzy white layer on a tree branch or inside a curled leaf. When flying through the air as individuals it looks like someone has remote control over dandelion fluff.  Both the nymph or non-flying stage and the flying stage have fluffy hairs covering them.

Woolly aphid or fairyfly
Bugguide.net

Like most aphids, woolly aphids have mouthparts like tiny needles that they stick into plants to suck up plant juices. There are several species of woolly aphids and different species prefer different plants, although most woolly aphids attack trees and shrubs. In home landscapes they are often found on apple and crabapple trees or beech trees. Hackberries, maples, elms, alders and some other trees and shrubs can be attacked. Some species have two hosts, a primary one and a secondary one.

The sap sucking is done on all parts of the plant, even sometimes on roots. When tree bark has been wounded by pruning or other damage they may concentrate there. Where cicadas have slit open tree bark woolly aphids may cluster around the wound.

The feeding causes leaves on trees to curl and yellow, and twigs to look deformed. Trees and shrubs are weakened but rarely die from the damage. When woolly aphids feed on the roots of young trees it’s a more serious problem and can cause death of the young tree.  This often happens in apple orchards and orchard owners take steps to control the pests.

Another sign of woolly aphids is the “honey dew” they excrete. Honey dew is a polite word for fairyfly poop. Its sticky and obnoxious and often turns black from sooty mold. It can damage cars and other things if it gets on them. Bees and flies are attracted to fairyfly poop because it’s sweet from the tree sugars.

Woolly aphids have another weird attribute. Sometimes when colonies of the fluffy buggers are disturbed, they raise their butts in unison and waggle them as a threat. Is it a threat? Well, many people say the fluffy fairyflies sting and researchers found this to be true. But woolly aphids don’t chase people to sting them, you would need to handle them to get a poke and it’s harmless. They also do not want to be in your house or eat people food.

Woolly aphids lay eggs and also produce live babies. The wingless aphids feeding on a plant generally produce live young. The flying stage is usually the last stage of the life cycle and usually occurs in late summer or fall.  Flying female woolly aphids lay an egg, covered in white fluff, on the bark of a tree species they prefer, which will overwinter and start new colonies in the spring. In some species colonies of wingless woolly aphids also have the ability to overwinter.

Control of fairyflies or woolly aphids usually isn’t needed because the feeding damage isn’t lethal.  Control is hard to accomplish. Things like neem oil and dish soap don’t kill them because their waxy fluff protects them. Other contact insecticides also work poorly on them. A strong stream of water can wash thick colonies off and kill them in some instances. Systemic pesticides will kill them, but many people do not want to use those on landscape plants because they damage pollinators. If you have apple trees you need to protect, ask a county Extension office for recommendations for your area.

Using a fly swatter on flying fairyflies or clapping them in your hands is effective and somewhat satisfying if you dislike fairy hyperbole. You can train the kids to kill fairies this way.

 

Changes in the garden

I was out looking at my wild and colorful garden and thinking how different it was from last year. The daylilies are bigger clumps, and the roses are smaller this year. The hostas are larger. The oriental lilies were large but are flopping. My hardy hibiscus are much larger clumps than last year, although they aren’t blooming yet. Of course, the annuals are a different color, and I added a few things here and there.

No matter what a gardener does, the garden will look a bit, or a lot, different each year. Perennials mature into full glory or fail to make it through winter. Trees provide more shade than last year, or they are cut down. Weather happens. Accidents happen. You move or add plants or plant babies happen. The point is, gardens evolve, just as a meadow in nature does.

It’s true what they say about perennials. First year they sleep, second they creep, third they leap. Sometimes in the fourth year and beyond they get bigger or better, other times they begin to fade back. Perennials don’t last forever, there’s a natural life span to each species of plant. Some live 50 years, others barely three.

Some gardeners love the way their garden looked in a certain year and they try very hard to get it to look the same every year. But unless your garden is a few simple shrubs you prune religiously, it isn’t going to happen. Nature doesn’t work that way. Gardeners should learn to embrace change.

My own garden is one where things are crammed in, I’m always looking for a spot to fill. No polite clumps of plants separated by neatly raked wood chips for me, no, I prefer the cottage garden style. There’s lots of green splashed with color. If you look close there are probably weeds mixed in among the plants. There’s literally no mulch or bare ground showing once June arrives.

In May I survey the beds and decide where to tuck in some annuals or summer bulbs. I decide on a color scheme when I get to the greenhouse, although I keep in mind what colors the dominant perennials are. For example, in summer and fall there’s a lot of yellow in the perennial colors so I look for annuals that can add some contrast.

In late summer I am ripping out yellowing daylily foliage and ostrich fern. Late summer and fall look different in my garden from earlier in the summer. Hopefully, the late bloomers carry it through. I tend to buy more late blooming perennials each year because it seems that’s when the garden needs color.

I usually love it when plant babies pop up and change the scene. Sometimes I need to move them to better places but many times they are allowed to do their thing. Hostas, for instance, have scattered babies through my gardens. For whatever reason most of them mature into large plants so I do move them back away from paths and try to separate them if they come up too close together. In a few years those spots will look different when the tiny hosta mature.

In most years I am satisfied with how things turn out, even if it’s not exactly as planned. I take pictures throughout the year so I can decide over winter where changes might need to be made. I note mistakes so I’ll fix them early in the spring. This year, for example, I planted some new hollyhocks but by mid-summer they were buried behind the 4 feet high ostrich ferns and the blooms barely visible.

My husband is always asking when I’ll get to the place where the garden is “finished” and I can just let it come back each year to enjoy.  That may happen when I cannot really garden anymore but until then I’ll be adding and subtracting, tweaking and moving and looking for new plants.  Change is good. It’s what gardeners do.

 

“Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.” – Sam Keen

 

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. Contact me at KimWillis151@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

July 13, 2021, moth madness

Hi Gardeners

Here I sit hoping for rain today while many of you are hoping it will pass you by. It’s amazing what a difference a few miles can make sometimes with the weather. Fifty miles south of here they have plenty of rain, but the thumb area of Michigan is largely getting passed over and we are still considered to be in a drought.

I know I will be watering later today if it doesn’t rain. We get lots of clouds and gloom but no rain from it. There’s a chance of thunderstorms this afternoon and I hope we do get rain and not just some drizzle.

On a brighter note, we are now eating tomatoes from the garden. Some Septoria leaf spot is beginning on the plants but so far, it’s manageable. My cucumbers and pumpkins have powdery mildew, that could be a major problem soon. My one surviving marihuana plant is nice and bushy. It’s growing well.

The flower beds look quite nice right now. The oriental lilies and martagon lilies are blooming along with the Asiatic. I wish there was a way to space out their blooms so they didn’t all bloom at once. The oriental lilies used to bloom a few weeks later than the Asiatic but over the years their bloom time has advanced.

I had a heck of a time trying to stake the tall oriental lilies this week. They had 3-foot stakes but they towered over them and began to droop. They are so beautiful but hard to see when they flop into the ferns. Next year I am going to get some kind of taller supports in there early in spring.

Shasta daisies, daylilies, lavender, anise hyssop and a few roses are in bloom. The rocket ligularia and astilbe are also blooming. Lots of annuals of course are in bloom. The tithonia is blooming at only 3 foot high- I think it’s the lack of rain.  Zinnias are short too.

I finally started seeing some monarchs. I was watching some flitting around high over the zinnias when a barn swallow swooped down and snatched one up. I like monarchs but I like the swallows better. They do something useful, like eat bugs. I also got to see a little tiny baby hummingbird just learning to fly this week.

There are quite a few butterflies of various types around right now. The horse farm across the road now has empty pastures and they are filled with black eyed Susan’s, and various weeds in bloom, which I think attracts the butterflies.

Our grape vines are loaded with grapes, so I am keeping a close eye on the Japanese beetle situation. So far, I’ve only seen a few, but I have noticed damage here and there. I know from social media that lots of people are having major invasions of the bugs. They can make gardeners cry; they are so hard to manage, and damage can be severe.

Below I have a link to an article about Japanese beetles and their control.  It’s been revised a bit this week with some newer information.

Japanese beetles mating frenzy

 

Japanese beetles

In some areas of the country Japanese beetles are becoming numerous. From now into late August, you can expect to see at least some beetles and damage in most of the country. Like most insects they are more numerous some years than others. You can have terrible damage one year but someone a mile away can have little damage.

The larval stage of Japanese beetles is a grub in your lawn. They turn into beetles in July and emerge to eat everything in sight. Japanese beetles eat over 300 species of plants. And the beetles attract more of their kind as they feed, releasing a pheromone so they can find mates.  Early intervention helps keep numbers down.

Now is the time (July) to treat lawns for grubs to control them. Also new research shows that leaving your grass 3 inches or more long discourages the adult beetles from laying eggs in the soil there. These things won’t help with this year’s beetle crop but will help reduce numbers for next year.

The good news is that the beetles feeding rarely kills plants although it can make a gardener cry. The beetles can be hard to control. For control options, and a list of plants that attract and don’t attract Japanese beetles I have an article on my blog you can read. It has been newly revised.

https://gardeninggrannysgardenpages.blogspot.com/p/japanese-beetles_13.html

 

Neem oil is not a magic potion

I am alarmed by how frequently people are turning to neem oil for every perceived problem of plants, as if the product was perfectly safe but also magically able to solve every plant problem. First let’s make some things clear. Do not use any pesticide unless you have identified the problem. Then check to see if neem oil is helpful for that pest or disease before applying it.

Just because neem oil comes from a plant, does not make it harmless or totally safe. Neem oil is a registered pesticide in the US and it is considered a chemical. Neem oil must be used according to label directions- only- that is the law. There are different formulations of Neem oil products, and some include other chemicals. You must read the label and follow directions.

Neem oil is a non-selective pesticide. That is, it will kill both good and bad insects. But it does not work on all types of insects. It does not kill spiders (Arachanoids) or ants for instance. Before using, identify the insect pest that’s bothering your plant and then check the label of any product you buy to see if it controls them.

Insects are killed by neem oil by ingesting it, not by it touching them. If a pest isn’t eating the plants, it won’t be killed. If you don’t spray flowers bees probably will not be harmed. If neem oil contaminates pollen or nectar, bees could be killed. But even some pests that do eat leaves covered in neem are not killed and continue to damage leaves. And it may take days for some pests to die.  Some insects are just repelled by neem oil- they leave but do not die.

Neem oil has some limited use as a fungicide. It does not help with every fungal disease, blackspot on roses, for instance, is not helped by neem oil. It’s not a very effective fungicide, there are many better products. It cannot cure any fungal disease, only protect new foliage. And it requires frequent application to work.  Neem oil does not help with viral or bacterial diseases.

Neem oil is relatively safe for mammals, but it can make you sick or harm your eyes if you do not use it correctly. Cats may sometimes have adverse reactions to neem oil, including seizures.  Once again read the label for precautions. Wear gloves when applying neem oil, don’t eat, drink or smoke while doing so. Do not get it near your eyes. Wash off any produce sprayed with neem products before eating.

In animal studies, neem oil was found to decrease fertility and it decreases fertility of some insects also. It also caused deformity of offspring of mothers exposed to neem oil. No studies have been done in humans, but researchers suggest pregnant women should not be exposed to neem oil. Continuous use of the product would probably be more of a concern, so like with most pesticides, use neem oil only when absolutely necessary.

Some plants are sensitive to neem oil application, and it will burn their leaves. Read label directions about temperatures and sun exposure when applying products. Different products, with different additives, may need different handling.

Neem oil products have a very short effective period- often as short as 2 days, even if it doesn’t rain. That makes it costly and labor intensive to use them. Check label directions for how often to apply.

Don’t spray neem oil products every time you see an insect on your plants or detect a yellow leaf or believe your plant has a disease. It is only good for certain insects and diseases. Treat neem oil as a pesticide- which it is- and follow label directions for using.

Additional reading

https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/bp/bp-69-w.pdf

Renaming the gypsy moth

Gosh I hope I can use the word gypsy without being put into FB jail.  But it’s now a thing- we have to rename bugs, plants and birds so that the names are politically correct. The gypsy moth must be renamed because gypsy is a slang word used to describe the Romani people that some of those people find insulting. There’s also an ant called the gypsy ant and it’s going to be renamed too.

I don’t mind renaming when it comes to common names. There are often numerous ones for the same creature circulating anyway. And if it offends a group of people change it. So, no more gypsy moth. But I think renaming when it come to scientific names, which is also proposed, is just silly.

Certain scientific names are given by using the name of the person who discovered it. Now if that person ever owned a slave or was involved in a battle with Native Americans or any number of things not considered politically correct it seems we must remove his name from some worm living in the jungle floor.

Most of the scientific names being considered for removal are names the average person has no knowledge of. That is until troublemakers start circulating some odious biography of the discoverers life and demanding the name of the cockroach he discovered be changed. Come on – who really cares? Changing scientific names just causes confusion. That’s supposed to be a name that all countries can recognize – the one true name to use to keep everyone on the same page. It’s in Latin anyway.

As I said I don’t care if common names are changed that an aggrieved group finds particularly disturbing. Sports team names for example, who cares if they change? Cities and rivers and other landmarks- hmmn- that can be a problem. Common names for plants and animals – fine with me.

So, what should the gypsy moth, (Lymantria dispar), be renamed? Munching monster moth? Filthy pooping moth? Demon moth?  I don’t know why they got the name “gypsy” anyway.  They don’t really wander – as if all Romani people wander anyway. The moths came from France- why don’t we call them French moths? (Nope, probably offensive.) Maybe the common name of the people the moth was named for should be changed instead.

It’s funny how the context of words changes over time anyway. For example, gypsy doesn’t mean a wandering thief to most people anymore, instead it brings up an image of a colorful and eccentric person, and not in a bad way. The word gay was once used simply to mean happy and cheerful, then somehow became a slur and now is used as a name to describe gender identity and is not considered offensive in most contexts.

So gardeners, when using common names for plants and animals, be careful. Wandering Jew is also an unacceptable name for the vining houseplant many people have. Inch plant is another common name for it that shouldn’t offend anyone. What should we rename the Indian paint brush? Maybe just drop the Indian?

Are there any common names of plants that offend you? (I don’t think there is a “Karen” plant.) Feel free to comment on plant names that offend you.

 

“I drifted into a summer-nap under the hot shade of July, serenaded by a cicada lullaby, to drowsy-warm dreams of distant thunder.”

― Terri Guillemets

 

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. Contact me at KimWillis151@gmail.com

 

July 6, 2021 Nude recreation week is here

 Hi gardeners

It’s National Nude Recreation week and it’s a fine week to shed clothes, that much I can say.  This weather is like a sauna.  I am hoping for more rain today – although I know some people don’t need any more.  I have had to water the veggies in their grow bags and all of my containers a couple times in the last few days. And I see some wilting out there in the garden, but we are supposed to have good chances of rain now through the weekend.

It is a colorful time of the year. Asiatic lilies, coreopsis, echinacea, beebalm, daylilies, hosta, shasta daisy, lavender, rocket ligularia, astilbe, and lots of annuals are in bloom. The sprawling clematis ‘Heather Herschell’ I planted last year is blooming as are several other clematis. I already have ‘Only the Lonely’ (woodland nicotiana) in bloom.

I saw a couple of Japanese beetles this week- just a few. I’m hoping it stays that way. Our grape vines are loaded with grapes this year and it would be nice to actually harvest some for a change. The last couple of years the lousy Japanese beetles have ruined them.

Usually, the Japanese beetles start showing up when the Golden Glow, Rudbeckia laciniata, starts blooming.  Its yellow flowers seem to attract them, which might be a good reason to get rid of them. The other reason I’m thinking of getting rid of them is that they grow 8 feet tall and then flop over on the ground.

About 2 weeks ago I chopped the stalks in half in the front of the clump.  I see it didn’t harm them too much since they now have buds but are only back up to about 4 feet. Maybe they won’t flop over, and I will appreciate them better. I’m hoping the shorter stalks in front will hold up the few taller ones I left in back.

Speaking of Japanese beetles don’t try spraying them with anything, it doesn’t work. They seem immune to all types of pesticides. They have years when the population in an area is large and then years when they aren’t a problem. When they are numerous, they can make plants look bad and destroy soft fruits.  But they go away by the end of August and plants recover.

If you try a Japanese beetle trap- which are being promoted everywhere, put it far away from plants you want to protect. Otherwise, you just attract more to the area and not all of them are caught.

I was outside this weekend and decided to spray paint the seed heads left by alliums. I have seen many people doing this now and I had some left-over spray paint. I went a little nuts, and not only did I spray paint the allium heads were they stood but I pulled some and made an impromptu arrangement with some curly dock and valerian seedheads and spray painted it all.  I stuck those in a pot in a spot where I thought color was needed. I’ll see how long they last outside.

 Look for pollination problems with hot weather

Bees may die or stop working in very hot weather and this will affect plant pollination. Some plants like tomatoes and peppers like warm weather for growth, but warm weather at night can cause pollination failure.  No fruit will set until conditions improve. Partial pollination and imperfect pollination caused by heat can lead to deformed fruits and early fruit drop in tomatoes, peppers, melons, squash and other fruiting plants.

In fact, warmer than normal temperature at night is usually more harmful than hot weather in the daytime for plants. Just like people, being able to cool down at night reduces plant stress and allows normal life processes to continue. Temperatures above 75 degrees F at night can trigger problems in many plants.

Bird disease

There is a new disease of wild birds that has shown up in some states. If you are in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, DC., Maryland, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, or Florida you may have heard messages from the DNR in your state asking you to take down bird feeders. 

Researchers aren’t sure what is causing the disease. They have ruled out avian flu and West Nile virus and most other known bird diseases.  Birds appear with crusted infected eyes, which causes them to go blind and act erratically.  They may have seizures, tilt their heads back in an odd way or act in other ways which suggest there is a neurological aspect to the disease. They eventually die and in some areas large numbers of dead birds are being found. Young birds are affected more than older adults.

The birds that seem to be most affected are our common songbirds, blue jays, robins, cardinals, bluebirds, wrens, house finch, English sparrows, starlings, grackles, and chickadees. These birds are commonly seen around homes and feeders.  It may be that other species are affected, but not as likely to be found in distress or dead.

The reason that bird feeders should be taken down where the diseased birds have been found is that researchers believe close contact with other birds spreads the disease. It may also spread from contact with dirty feeders. Bird baths should either be taken down or dumped and emptied, then cleaned with bleach, daily.  Birds will be fine without feeders or birdbaths this time of year.

Many blind birds have been taken to wildlife rehab but the prognosis is grim, almost all birds die. It’s recommended that you simply leave the birds alone and not handle them. Bury dead birds deeply or wrap in a garbage bag and dispose of in the trash.

If you handle dead birds use disposable plastic gloves. Do not let pets eat or touch the dead or dying birds. It’s unknown if the disease could infect humans or pets. Do not try to treat the birds, you can contact a bird rehab but it is actually illegal to hold songbirds whether your intentions are good or not. Some rehabs no longer take birds infected with this since treatment is of little use.

If you have chickens in areas where the dead birds are being found it’s recommended you feed the birds inside the coop and make every effort to exclude wild birds from getting inside.  Since chickens that are free ranging may eat dead birds they find, it would be best to not let poultry free range for now.  It’s unknown if the disease could infect poultry.

In places where the disease has not been found yet keep an eye on bird feeders and remove them immediately if sick birds are spotted.  Keep feeders and bird baths clean.

If you spot sick or dead birds, especially if they have crusted over eyes, you should contact your states DNR or USDA animal health office. (If you know how the bird died, such as in a window collision, you don’t need to report it.) Areas close to places known to be infected, like Michigan counties just over the Indiana/Ohio border should be especially vigilant.

 

Tomato fungal diseases

If your tomato plants have yellow curling leaves at the bottom of the plant, brown dead leaves hanging in the plant, spotted leaves, and fruit with spots and sunken areas, you probably have one of many tomato fungal diseases. Welcome to tomato reality.

From all the pictures people are posting online of their tomato plants it seems that tomatoes are being hit early and hard this year with fungal diseases. It’s very common for tomatoes to get fungal diseases.

Fungal and other diseases of plants often are related to weather conditions. Some diseases prefer one set of conditions, others prefer another. Hot, wet conditions, cool wet conditions, hot dry conditions and cool dry conditions, we’ve had them all this year, so it stands to reason that we may experience a tremendous surge in plant fungal diseases.

(Another common disease is blossom end rot, which causes a rotted dark area on the bottom of fruit. That’s caused by water problems and is not a fungal disease. I talked about it last week in my blog.)

I used to try and identify what exact disease tomatoes had, but over many years I’ve learned that identifying the precise disease isn’t that helpful, except in one case- that of late blight.

And there’s another problem with diagnoses. Tomato plants can have several diseases at the same time. Most of the diseases are handled the same way, so identification of the exact disease isn’t always helpful.

Let’s talk about the worse case scenario first, late blight. Late blight affects both potatoes and tomatoes. Since large commercial fields are destroyed by the disease, most states monitor conditions favorable for late blight and look for late blight spores in the air. When any spores or cases of the disease are found, there’s rapid notification of big growers in the area, but home gardeners may not be aware of the problem.

Symptoms of late blight include a blackened, water soaked or greasy look to leaves, stems and tomato fruit or potato tubers, with rapid wilting and death of the plant within a few days. The blackened areas may look brown at first, and often have white fuzzy looking growth (fungus) on them. Check the backs of darkened leaves to look for white fungal growth.  

Late blight
Photo USABlight.org

Tomato fruits that are green or ripe can be affected with hardened brownish black spots. Most other tomato diseases take a long time to kill a plant and the plants keep putting out new growth. Late blight kills plants quickly, within a few days after symptoms start.  Late blight also spreads from plant to plant very quickly so in warm, wet weather home gardeners should check their plants daily for symptoms.

There is little home gardeners can do to prevent late blight other than to begin spraying your potatoes and tomatoes with fungicides before the plants are affected. This is why commercial growers are notified by the state, so they can begin fungal prevention sprays. If you do hear late blight is in your county you should protect your plants immediately. 

After symptoms begin spraying won’t help that plant. It should be pulled and put in a plastic trash bag including all fruit and leaves that fall off.  Tie the bag tightly and send it to the landfill or let it sit in the sun for several weeks and then burn the residue.

If you have plants that still seem healthy you can spray with preventative fungicides. The only preventative sprays effective that homeowners can easily get are those with chorothalonil and some copper-based fungicides. Look for a garden fungicide, check the ingredients and make sure it lists late blight as being controlled. Follow the label directions exactly. Also, water early in the day so foliage dries before nightfall. Don’t eat tomatoes or potatoes with late blight lesions or can them.

There are no home remedies or even organic remedies for late blight prevention. Researchers have tested a number of these things and found they do not work.  Do not try things like baking soda, neem oil, milk and so on. They won’t work and in the meantime the disease is spreading. If the plant has late blight, it must be destroyed. Prevention can only be achieved with certain commercial fungicides.

Many other tomato diseases have similar symptoms and home gardeners may have a hard time deciding if their plants have late blight or a less serious fungal disease. But if a plant dies completely in a few days with blackened leaves, chances are good it’s late blight.

Since late blight is a serious threat to agriculture you may also try calling your state agricultural department. If they know late blight is in the area, they will tell you and someone may even come out to look at your plants or you may be told where to take a sample.

The other diseases

It is hard for home gardeners to find somewhere to get a good diagnostic report done on a sample of your plants.  If your county still has an Extension office with a horticulture department you can try there. For accurate diagnoses the sample must be picked fresh, with symptoms showing on foliage and or fruit and brought to the lab within a few hours.

There are several other fungal diseases of tomatoes that cause problems but aren’t as deadly as late blight. Early blight and septoria leaf spot are two very common fungal diseases. Both start at the bottom of plants, producing yellow spotted, then brown leaves. The leaves may look curled.

These two diseases seldom kill plants outright, leaves die at the bottom of the plant, but the plant continues to put out new leaves and flowers at the top. However, this makes the plants weak and keeps them from producing the best fruit. Often the fruit sunburns because so much foliage is missing.

In early blight the round spots are brown or black with concentric rings on the leaves.  There can be spots on stems and fruit too. Early blight usually begins in hot, wet weather when leaves stay wet for long periods of times.

Septoria leaf blight also begins in warm wet weather, usually after the first fruit begins to form. The spots in this disease are smaller dark spots than early blight with a lighter tan center, that can turn white. The center can contain tiny black raised dots, which is where fungal spores are produced. The spots can appear on stems and flowers but appear on fruit only rarely. Eventually the spots will run together, producing large, blackened areas.

Septoria

Other fairly common fungal diseases of tomatoes are verticillium wilt and fusarium wilt.  With fusarium wilt the leaves yellow and wilt on one side of the plant from bottom to top. If the plant isn’t infected by another disease, there won’t be spots on the leaves. If you split a stem there may be brown streaks running up and down inside. Fusarium wilt occurs in warm, wet weather.

With verticillium wilt there is first a yellow V shaped area on lower leaves with a bit of brown around it, between a vein and leaf edge. Then the leaves turn yellow with brown veins, there can be brown spots too. Verticillium affects all of the plant. At first the plant may wilt during the day and recover at night. Fruit is stunted. This disease is more common in cooler weather. It is also worse in poorly drained soil- or after soil has been flooded. 

Verticillium wilt
Photo- WSU

The above tomato fungal diseases are so similar that even with pictures, gardeners often misidentify them. And that’s ok.  All of these diseases are basically treated the same way.

What to do

Remove all spotted, yellowed or brown leaves as soon as you spot them. If a stem has spots remove it too. Remove any leaves that touch the ground. Remove all weeds around the plants. These leaves and weeds should be put in a trash bag, not thrown down near the plants.

Many people thin and prune tomatoes. If your plants develop a fungal disease, you should stop doing this, except to remove leaves touching the ground. The plants need all the foliage they can produce to replace that lost by disease. Early thinning of the center of the plant, to make a better airflow is fine if done before disease symptoms begin. Also pinching out the stem tips late in the season will help existing fruit grow larger and ripen faster.

While you won’t cure the plant, you can slow the spread of early blight and septoria up the plant by spraying plants with a good fungicide. The new leaves will be protected for a while and a plant needs leaves to produce food to make fruit and more foliage. Use a good garden fungicide that’s safe for food plants to spray infected plants. Check the label to make sure it says it will prevent these two diseases. Follow label directions.

Don’t bother with homemade mixes and remedies. Baking soda, milk, dish soap and so on don’t work. If you don’t want to use a commercial product that’s been tested and found effective don’t use anything. It can make the diseases worse.  There are some organic fungicides on the market, including Serenade, if that interests you.

Verticillium wilt is helped somewhat by removing infected plant parts. Spraying won’t help because the fungus is inside the plant. Fusarium wilt isn’t helped by much of anything, and plants will usually die before the season ends.

Spraying plants with fungicides to prevent diseases before symptoms begin is the best way to deal with these diseases. You must spray regularly and after it rains. Fungal diseases of tomatoes can also infect potatoes, peppers and eggplant.

Also, space plants so there is a lot of airflow around them. Water early in the day so the leaves dry before nightfall. Keep plants off the ground and use mulch around them.  Buy disease resistant varieties if you can.

Fungal spores can overwinter and become viable when conditions are right. But fungal spores can also blow in on the wind or be transported on animals, insects or equipment. There is evidence that some weeds, like nightshade, carry the disease. Septoria can be transmitted on infected seed.

Verticillium and Fusarium wilt are diseases plants get from the soil and the fungus remains in the soil a long time. You should not plant tomatoes or potatoes, eggplant and peppers in the same area for at least 4 years if you suspect you had one of these diseases. It’s best to rotate where crops are grown every year, just to make sure diseases aren’t in the soil.

The above fungal diseases are not all the fungal diseases tomatoes can get, just the most common. Tomatoes also get bacterial and viral diseases.

Can you eat the tomatoes?

Tomatoes that have a disease may not taste as well as tomatoes from a healthy plant. But they are safe to eat. However most experts say tomatoes from diseased plants should not be canned. They have a lower acidity than healthy tomatoes and bacterial growth could happen, especially in water bath type canning.

I suspect that plenty of tomatoes from plants with early blight and so on have been canned with no ill results. Pressure canning would make it safer, as would adding acid like vinegar or citric acid.  If the fruit itself has fungal spots or rotted areas I definitely would not can it, even if you cut off the spot. If you have questions consult with a food safety expert at your county Extension office.

Tomatoes are the most popular garden vegetable grown, but unfortunately there are a lot of diseases that can infect them. Plant breeders are working to breed disease resistant plants and gardeners who have a lot of problems with tomatoes should seek out those with the best disease resistance.

July almanac

The full moon in July this year is on the 23^rd.  It’s called buck moon because the buck deer’s antlers begin to show this month. Its sometimes called the Hay moon too.  The moon perigee is the 21^st.  Moon apogee is the 8^th.

This month’s flower is the sunflower- very appropriate and the birthstone is the ruby. It’s National Blueberry, Eggplant, Lettuce, Mango, Melon, Nectarine and Garlic month as well as National Hotdog and Vanilla Ice Cream month.  Why isn’t it National Cherry month?  The second week of July (5-11) is nude recreation week. That’s this week. National Nude Day however is July 14^th . Have fun.

The Delta Aquariids meteor showers begin mid-month and peak on July 27-30^th.  These meteors continue into mid- August and overlap with the Perseids meteor shower. Best viewing will be around 2 am for most of the US. Look to the south. 

 

 Hot July brings cooling showers, apricots and gillyflowers. 

– Sara Coleridge

 

Kim Willis

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

 

 

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. Contact me at KimWillis151@gmail.com