Hi gardeners
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| Siberian iris |
It’s a hot day here. Our current temperature stands at 92 F.
We are expecting storms tonight and tomorrow
from the remnants of tropical storm Cristobel. I watered last night and this
morning early, to keep the plants happy today and in case the expected rain
passes us by.
Babies are everywhere now. As I sat on the deck for a bit
last night I could see a doe and her fawn in the farm field across the
way. A robin was scolding me harshly, or
rather she was probably scolding the dog and cats at my feet. I know her babies were somewhere near. I watched little starlings figuring out how
to eat suet at the bird feeder. They are little clowns. The hummingbirds are finally showing up
again, flitting back and forth in aerial battles, oblivious of the cats near
me.
Last week someone dropped off a kitten by our house and a
couple for my neighbor too. He’s a cute little black and white guy, extremely
friendly. I’m letting him stick around, what’s one more barn cat? But I sure
wish people would stop dropping off kittens in the country, as if every country
home needs another cat. I wish just once I could catch them and give them a
piece of my mind. He was lucky to find a place that doesn’t mind cats, some
places turn the dogs on them or shoot them.
The garden is progressing nicely. My hostas are getting huge. The bearded and Siberian
iris are in bloom and most of my roses are beginning to bloom. Valerian, sage
and chives are in bloom. Love in a mist which came up from seed is blooming. The
peonies are still in bloom. Bristly locust, wisteria and ninebark are blooming.
There are patches of Indian paintbrush and oxeye daisies in the pasture.
The multiflora rose by the porch is blooming and it has a
nice sweet smell. I pruned it drastically this spring but it’s already more
than 6 feet high. Some people may be
surprised I let such an invasive plant be, but if it’s kept in bounds its not a
bad plant. Its very pretty in bloom. I have planted a climbing rose near it,
also non-native but more acceptable to society, and when that gets established,
I’ll probably take the multiflora down to the ground and attempt to eliminate
it.
Should
you prune tomatoes?
There are dozens of articles out there that promote the
pruning of tomatoes. They claim you’ll
get bigger and tastier fruit and have less disease problems if you prune your
tomatoes and each article tells you some guidelines for how the author feels
the tomatoes should be pruned. Research studies, however, have found little
benefit to tomato pruning for home gardeners. It’s important to remember that
outdoor tomato growing is different from indoor and hydroponic growing, where
pruning is more beneficial.
There are a few situations where pruning tomatoes grown
outside is somewhat beneficial. When you
plant tomatoes, you should set them a bit deeper in the ground than what they
were growing in the pot or flat. Remove any leaves that will be below the soil
line. Also, if the tomatoes were growing in small pots, (less than 6 inches
diameter) or cell packs, remove any flowers or fruit that have started. If the
plants were in large pots and look compact and full, you don’t need to remove
flowers or fruit before transplanting.
When you are about 3-4 weeks from your expected first hard
frost, some removal of flowers and tiny fruits plus a little pinching of top
growth and removing suckers, might help ripen the fruits now on the plant
before frost. But if your plants have been quite productive and you have more
tomatoes than you know what to do with, you don’t need to do this.
All tomatoes should be staked or caged to keep them off the
ground for best disease prevention.
Keeping the lowest branches and leaves pinched off so nothing touches
the ground may help prevent tomato fungal diseases, although there is some
controversy on that topic too. You can see the base of the plant to direct
water there, instead of wetting the foliage.
Many fungal diseases come from the soil.
I always remove any yellowed or spotted leaves as soon as I
see them. You should too. Don’t throw
the leaves on the ground near the plants, put them in a bucket or bag and take
them far from your plants. This will help control any disease starting on your
plants, although it never prevents disease entirely. It also helps to keep
weeds from touching your tomato plants because they can also spread some
diseases.
What about removing suckers?
Suckers are what the growth that pops up in the junction of
a limb is called. Its going to form a
new branch. There’s little evidence that
removing them helps the plant very much.
And these suckers eventually will make fruits, so you are removing some
fruit making capability. Some gardeners however believe in thinning out the
plant, thinking it improves airflow to prevent fungal diseases. They also
believe the plant will direct more energy to making fruit, rather than new
growth if they remove suckers.
There are two types of tomato plants, called determinate and
indeterminate. Determinate plants stop growing at a certain point and produce
most of their fruit in one large burst.
Indeterminate plants keep adding branches and producing fruit until
frost kills them. Unless you pick
certain tomato varieties for canning use, most garden tomatoes are
indeterminate varieties.
There’s little sense in removing suckers from determinate
plants and you may limit your production of fruit. On indeterminate plants
removing suckers is a personal call. It doesn’t have to be done to get good
fruit production. It does not make fruit sweeter or tastier despite the many
claims. If you like larger fruits this may help. People who exhibit their tomatoes
often do this, so the fruit is larger.
Removing suckers from cherry or grape tomato varieties will
not change the size of the fruit much at all and is probably a waste of
time. Overall research has found that
the pounds of fruit produced by a plant probably remain the same whether
suckers are removed or not. You are
choosing between more medium sized tomatoes or fewer but larger tomatoes. You
may want to remove suckers on a plant or two to have bragging size tomatoes and
leave the rest alone.
What about the claim that tomato plants should have suckers
and even branches removed to improve air flow?
There too, research finds little difference in disease prevention in
outside conditions. If you have a lot of trouble with fungal diseases and your
plants are well spaced out to begin with, you can experiment to see if sucker
removal helps your plants.
What about topping plants?
When the weather is good indeterminate tomatoes can reach
huge heights, 6 feet or more. If you are staking or caging plants this may mean
the plants quickly outgrow their stakes or cages and begin dangling over them. Sometimes
the weight of the plant with fruit will pull the plant over or the wind will
blow them over. This can be disastrous.
First make sure all supports are sturdy. The cheap wire
tomato cages you buy in many big box stores just aren’t sturdy enough. Cages
should also have a stake they are tied to that is deeply sunk in the ground.
Cages or stakes and wire systems should be at least 3-4 feet tall.
When the tomatoes begin to reach over the top of the
supports and sag downward, you can pinch/prune the tops back a bit, so the
supports won’t be compromised. You can remove suckers above this level and cut
back main branches too. You may lose
some fruit production but it’s better than losing everything when plant stems
are snapped when they fall.
Thinning fruit?
There’s really no need to thin fruit unless you want
exceptionally large fruits for exhibiting. Research finds you don’t need to
take off the first fruit or flowers either, unless the plant is spindly and
potbound when you are transplanting it, as I mentioned earlier.
It won’t make fruit taste better to thin out the fruit
clusters. The plant doesn’t need the energy to establish itself, except in the
situation described above. Don’t waste the time and effort to thin fruit or
remove flowers early in the growing season. You’ll delay getting those tomatoes
on your plate that’s all.
In late summer, if tomatoes aren’t ripening quickly and
frost is near, removing some of the smaller tomatoes may help the others
mature, but research is somewhat divided on this point too. If the fruit is too
small to bring inside to finish ripening or the plant is still producing
flowers it really makes no difference if you remove the fruit or flowers now or
not.
Don’t prune when….
If you are considering pruning don’t begin removing suckers
until plants are 18 inches – 2 feet tall.
Then remove suckers only up to just below the first flower cluster. Pruning
should also begin 3-4 weeks after transplanting, not at transplanting. Until
then the plant needs the extra foliage to get established.
Don’t prune when the weather is very hot and dry as this
puts additional stress on the plant. Also avoid pruning in wet cool weather as
creating wounds under these conditions can favor disease spread.
Don’t let your plants get large and unruly and then
drastically prune them. This is a major shock to the plant and creates many
wounds that favor disease spread. If you are going to prune do it regularly, a
little at a time. When there is a lot of fruit on vines and you remove foliage
that shades them the fruit will often scald. This results in large white dry
areas on the fruit and affects fruit taste.
If you are noticing a lot of disease symptoms on your
plants, spotted, yellowing leaves, blackened areas, wilting and so on, it’s not
the time to prune, but you should remove diseased foliage and stems. As you remove these diseased areas put the
foliage in a bag or bucket, not on the ground. You should use hand sanitizer on
your hands or wash them in a bucket of hot soapy water before you move to the
next plant. Wash any tools you use too. This helps prevent disease transmission
between plants.
This year you may want to try an experiment. Prune one
tomato plant and leave another plant of the same variety unpruned. See if you
detect any difference and find what works for you. But it’s not required that
you prune tomatoes to get good production.
In short, pruning tomatoes grown outside can be done but it
isn’t necessary and probably will not affect your yield much. Some people enjoy
working with their plants to produce larger fruit, but others don’t have the
time to devote to the practice. The best thing you can do to keep your tomatoes
healthy is to stake or cage them off the ground, water at the base, and keep
weeds away from them.
More reading
Spittle
bug or pee bug?
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| Spittle bug foam credit: Pollinator, wikimedia commons |
Ever been working in the garden and find what looks like
someone spit on a plant? Good news- it
isn’t spit, bad news- it’s frothy pee. And
it’s from a small insect called Meadow spittlebug, Philaenus spumarius. It’s
nymph stage, which looks like a little grub, is hiding in the spittle.
In the fall last year, the adult insects called froghoppers,
laid eggs on plant debris which overwintered. Froghoppers are a triangular
shaped insect much like a fat leaf hopper. They have a mottled brown and tan color and
the jumping skills of a frog.
In spring the eggs hatched and climbed up the nearest plant.
The baby froghoppers, called nymphs, begin as a sort of orange color blob with
red eyes. Gradually their color changes to yellow and then green. As they suck the sap of plants the spittle
bugs pee- prodigiously. Each baby produces 150 -280 times it’s body weight a
day in pee.
As they pee, they inject air from their abdomens with some
special proteins and other compounds, to froth the pee up. They cover themselves
in the frothy pee for protection, both from predators- who wants to eat frothy
pee? – and from drying out. Neat little
trick huh? You’ll generally see these
frothy bundles at the junction of a leaf with the stem. Usually just one nymph is
inside, sometimes 2 or 3 gather together.
After feeding for several weeks the nymphs produce one large
bubble instead of froth and that bubble hardens a bit. Inside the bubble they
then turn into their adult form, the froghopper. Froghoppers also suck plant
sap, but they use their jumping powers to escape predators rather than their
pee. The spittle bug and it’s adult form the froghopper, feed on a wide variety
of plants.
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| spittlebug nymph Credit Ragesoss, wikimedia |
The spittlebug, as it’s often called, isn’t going to do
serious harm to your plants and normally there’s no need to remove the spittle.
If there is a lot of “spittle” on a plant it may slow down its growth or distort
leaves a little, and when the bugs invade strawberries the fruit may be
smaller. But control is simply washing them off with a hose. You could also use
a bit of cloth to wipe them off. If they are on edible plants just wash the
spittle off and the plants are fine to consume. There’s absolutely no need to
use pesticides on these insects.
More reading
Cornmeal
vs corn gluten meal
A persistent myth and popular “garden hack” is to tell
people to sprinkle cornmeal around your lawn and garden beds to prevent weed
seeds from germinating. It won’t work and may attract ants and mice. The idea
comes from research done on another corn product- corn gluten meal- which is NOT
the same as cornmeal. Using cornmeal on
the lawn and garden is a waste of time and money.
Studies of corn gluten meal as a weed preventative have
ambiguous findings. In some places it
does seem to keep seeds from germinating when applied to the ground early in
the spring. In other places it didn’t
seem to work very well. The type of soil and weather conditions may have
something to do with the varying results. Remember if it works it will keep all
kinds of seeds from germinating, not just weeds. And it won’t kill weeds already growing or
weed roots that are perennial. You don’t buy corn gluten meal in the grocery
store, but you can find it in some garden supply stores.
And by the way, cornmeal will not cause ants to explode
after they eat it. Ants don’t digest
food they pick up; they take it back to the nest and feed it to larvae to
digest. The larvae digest cornmeal very well and then feed it to the worker
ants. If the worker ants do consume cornmeal,
they can spit it back up if it bothers them.
Virginia
Creeper, woodbine
A weed is a plant where you don’t want it. It doesn’t matter
if it’s native, is pretty or other people don’t consider it a weed. Virginia creeper,
Parthenocissus quinquefolia, is one of those plants that some consider a
weed and others consider a garden plant, even purchasing it from nurseries. The
plant is native to northeastern-midwestern North America. It is considered a noxious pest in many other
countries.
Virginia creeper has beautiful red fall color and is an easy
vine to grow in almost any conditions. It will quickly cover just about
anything. It is used successfully in
some formal gardens where it is deliberately planted, but it often creeps into
gardens on its own. It is an aggressive spreader. It can overwhelm small gardens,
covering everything in sight, and smothering smaller plants. It is difficult to get rid of it once its
established. Think carefully before you add it to your garden.
Virginia creeper grows as a vine, it has tendrils with a
sticky pad on their end that can attach it to almost anything. It will climb
trees or sprawl on the ground or cover fences. One plant can cover huge areas. It
is a perennial plant although the foliage dies each winter. Some older vines
get woody and thick and persist through winter. Pieces of the stem can root
where they touch ground and the plant also spreads by seeds dropped by
birds.
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| Virginia creeper beginning fall color |
Virginia creeper has compound leaves with 5-7 parts, not
three, although an occasional three leaflet leaf lends confusion to its
identity. The oval, toothed leaflets are joined at the base in a palm shaped
pattern. In the spring new leaves may have a reddish tinge, in summer they are
green with reddish stems. In fall, the plant can be beautiful when the leaves
turn to scarlet red or sometimes a purplish red.
Virginia Creeper has small, greenish white flowers that are
barely noticeable. The flowers produce
small grape-like fruits, (its related to grapes), which turn blue-black in
autumn and contrast nicely with the red fall foliage. The fruits are poisonous
to humans but are very well liked by birds that soon gobble them up.
Virginia creeper is often confused with poison ivy because
of its growth habits. While it is not irritating to everyone, Virginia creeper
does have a sap that some people are allergic to, although it doesn’t affect
people as badly as poison ivy. It generally makes an itchy rash in sensitive
people but not the raised leaking blisters seen in poison ivy. Gardeners should probably use gloves when
handling it.
Once established in an area Virginia creeper spreads
aggressively. It will grow in any kind of soil, in wet or dry areas and in sun
and shade. It doesn’t play nice in the garden and care should be used if it is
wanted in the garden for fall color. It
can, however, be used for screening out the neighbors in summer or covering an
arbor.
The adhesive disks on the vine that allow it to climb
anything can cause damage to shingles, paint and other things if the vine is
just yanked from its host. You may want to cut it by the roots first and allow
the vine to wither and dry before pulling it off sensitive areas.
I can testify how aggressive a spreader Virginia creeper can
be. It spread into my garden on its own and now there are few places in the
yard where it doesn’t pop up if the area isn’t mowed regularly. Once it winds
around garden plants you can damage them trying to pull the beast out. It
climbs the wall of the house and it now covers my front porch pillars and has
spread across them to drape over the porch.
I’m letting it do that this year, but we are getting a new roof in the
fall and it will be kept off the pillars and roof.
Like many native plants Virginia creeper has medicinal uses
attributed to it. The bark and young shoots are used in preparations to cause
vomiting. A leaf tea is used as an astringent and diuretic and to control
fever. Hot poultices are made from leaves to reduce swelling and inflammation. A
root tea was used for gonorrhea. Leave
this plant to experienced herbalists because the line between medicinal and dangerous
is thin.
If you have children, I would be careful adding this plant
to the landscape. The berries are attractive to children. They are high in
oxalic acid and can cause bloody vomiting and diarrhea, dilated pupils,
headache, sweating, weak pulse, drowsiness, and twitching of the face. A large dose can be fatal.
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| Slightly dried Virginia creeper berries Credit wikipedia |
I have seen articles listing the fruit as edible. If edible
means you can put it in your mouth and swallow it, that’s true. But you won’t
like what happens afterwards. I
recommend that no parts of this plant be eaten unless you like hospital trips.
Virginia creeper is also considered to be a highly flammable
plant. In wildfire prone areas it should
not be allowed to climb on houses and other buildings and kept away from homes.
In early June the world of leaf and blade and flowers
explodes, and every sunset is different.
-John Steinbeck
Kim Willis
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permission.
And So On….
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