Bug battles

War on Harlequin bugs 

Last fall I remember noticing some very colorful looking stink bugs  on my  turnips.   There were just a few of them, and winter came and they were gone, so I didn't think much of them.   I was not sure what if any damage they were causing so I didn't think much of it.

Well, this spring I started noticing more of them on my mustard plants.  I should have waged war on them back then but I didn't... big mistake!  In the past month, they have just exploded in population!
Now all the mustard and turnips are long gone, but they have moved on to my Brussels sprouts and remaining cabbage plants.  Together with cabbage worms, they have torn up my plants.  So I decided to wage war on them.

I first did some research on them, and found out they are called Harlequin bugs.  They are indeed related to stinkbugs, but instead of having a preference for the squash family, their preference is for the
cruciferous vegetables, (such as cabbage, mustard,turnips,broccoli,etc...)
Since I want to be as organic as possible, I have not wanted to try any chemicals against them.
So for the past month or so I would go out every few days and kill them whenever I saw them, usually by just crushing them with my fingers.  I have killed probably a couple hundred by now!
 My Brussels sprouts plants have gotten quite big, and it became very hard to inspect every leaf for the harlequin bugs, especially the baby ones.  So I decided to pull up some of the severely damaged plants, and the remaining ones, I gave a major pruning.  

Chopped off a bunch of leaves, to make finding bugs more manageable

Harlequin bug on cabbage (lower center)

The pruned plants will hopefully be easier to inspect, until I can get rid of the bugs

A juvenile one on  a stalk... Wonder if this plant will recover?

I have tried giving these bugs to my chickens, but they won't eat them.  I read that they probably taste pretty bad because they make use of the plant's chemicals to create a strong taste that makes them unappetizing.   But at least its not a total waste.  I gave the pruned leaves, and pulled up plants to the chickens, and they like them, and  especially the cabbage worms that are occasionally in the leaves (which is what makes many of my leaves look like swiss cheese!)

Corn Ear-worms

We have been eating some of the tiny ears of corn we have gotten from our first corn planting, but some of them have had corn ear-worms in them.  And with the second planting of corn, I have seen some damage on the top of the plants.  I sprayed some BT on these, hoping that will take care of the problem.. but I may have to do more research on these, and organic ways to control it.  I have hopes for this next batch of corn,  The plants are looking much healthier than the first batch. But hopefully the corn ear-worms can be controlled. 

Corn earworms have attacked some of my corn plants

Pumpkin Updates

Here is my jack-o-lantern.  Its starting to to orange-up now.  Its about the size of a basketball. 

The ball zucchini "pumpkin" is starting to get more of a pumpkin-like coloration.  

Speaking of pests, this ball zucchini plant has just been ravaged by SVB, and I am surprised its still alive. I did spray soapy-water inside its main stem, and did see some earwigs come out.  I also extracted a couple SVBs from some side-shoots with a piece of wire, and fed them to the chickens.
But as soon as this "pumpkin" seems to be ripened enough I will pull out this plant to make room for other plants. 

The other pest I had much problems with last year was cucumber beetles.  They are still bad, but  I have not noticed them causing much damage yet.  So I have not been too worried about them.  I know they can transmit mosaic virus to plants, but so far, none of my squash/pumpkins have had any symptoms of it.

my volunteer sunflowers

Early summer havests - June 18th

 Been a couple of weeks since I posted, and wanted to give an update on how my summer veggies are doing.  Its been quite warm and humid (low 90's), but unfortunately not a whole lot of rain.  But for Texas standards, it hasn't been that bad yet.   Should start getting into the 100s by early July, but none on the forecast yet.  

Try telling these chickens it isn't that hot yet!

My garden continues to grow and the plants are at various stages of production.   

Cucumbers

My cukes plants have been bearing real nicely the past week. I've picked about 10 from them so far, and more are along the way. 

some cucumbers (dual-purpose slicing/pickling) along with a ball zucchini.

The vines are still infested with spider mites, and unfortunately there has been an explosion of cucumber beetles around.  But the plants are still producing despite them.  The cucumber beetles seem to focus on eating the blossoms.   I try and kill them by hand whenever I can catch them, but there are so many.  I am really trying to avoid spraying any chemicals.  Last year they got so bad I had to spray some sevin to knock their numbers down.  I do have some beneficials around (lady beetles, assassin bugs, lacewings, etc) so that's one of the major reason I an hoping not to have to spray.  Unfortunately it seems these cucumber beetles have few natural predators.  My chickens don't like to eat them at all. I try offering them, they peck once at them and move on. Must have some nasty taste to them (hence the bright colors?). 

Squash/Pumpkins

The two older ball zucchini plants I have are still doing very well. The plants are still looking very healthy.  I have injected the main vines with BT to ward off SVB, and its worked well.  We've picked a good 7 squash from these plants, despite the problems with rats eating the female blossoms.  I've set out traps, and so far have killed 4 young rats.  I set the traps right by the plant, at night, so I am sure they are the culprits.   We were out of town for a few days, and one of the ball zucchini got huge, so I am letting it grow, and see if it becomes a pumpkin, or something like it.  Right now, its huge, and sure looks like an immature pumpkin. 

huge ball zucchini, which I plan to let ripen into a pumpkin

Because I let this one get so big, two other fruits on this plant have gotten aborted.  So I guess I am making a sacrifice here letting this one grow.  I am just curious to see what this will look like or how big it gets. Right now its about 10inch in diameter.

The newer three plants are still under tulle netting.  The plants are real big, and have male flowers but no female yet.  I am hoping I can get some fruit from them, but concerned about the triple digit heat that is coming, and how it will impact their fruit set.

The jack-o-lantern pumpkin plant now has one pumpkin that is growing on it.  Its about softball sized now.  It has aborted a number of other ones.  The plant is looking fairly healthy too.  No signs of SVB damage yet.

Tomatoes

My heirloom tomatoes are starting to ripen now.  Unfortunately something has found out they are good to eat.  I had two very nice large tomatoes, one of then bright yellow, that got half-eaten.  So I decided to start picking some of them and letting them ripen inside the house.  I also covered a few with some netting to let them vine ripen.  I am suspecting either birds, or maybe even the rats.   One of my tomatoes (not pictured) is bright orange.  And the are of various shapes/sizes.  The plants are getting huge, and they are getting harder and harder to keep staked.  But unfortunately I don't see any new tomatoes forming.  Maybe its just too hot now for them.

Garlic/Onion

In a previous posting, I had mentioned how I planted  some garlic cloves late last fall, and some onions in the winter.  Well the tops of them are dying off, and I decided it was probably time to pull them out.    So I pulled out all 4 of the elephant garlic plants.  They had some real nice cloves forming on them.  I set them out to dry.  I plan on keeping some of these in the fridge to plant again this fall for next year.  And we'll eat the rest.

Elephant Garlic right after being pulled up

My onion plants looked like they are done too, so I pulled out half of them (about 6 plants).
4 of them had nice sized onions, and the other two had not formed well.  I still have about 4 remaining plants I need to pull out.  I've never grown onions before, so this was pretty neat.

Onions

Sweet Corn

As I mentioned before the first planting of corn was a disappointment.  They actually did produce ears, but the ears were tiny.  We did eat some of them today, but it took about 2-3 ears per person. But  it was still fun.   I did plant a second planting, and those seem to be doing pretty well.  Here is a picture of them (next to the tulle-covered ball zucchini)

Check back next few week for updates on the Okra.  They are still pretty small but growing.  The pole bean plants are still alive but look real sickly.  The spider mites are pretty bad, and they have produce just a handful of bean pods.  I might pull it all out in a couple of weeks and try again in the fall.

Early Summer 2014

Its not officially summer yet, but it feels like summer for sure here in N. Texas.  Its been in the lower 90s most of the past week, although we are forecast to get some relief for the next week, back  into the mid 80s for a few days.

Tomatoes

My heirloom tomatoes that I grew from seed this spring are doing quite well.  There are some real nice tomatoes on the vine, but none have ripened yet.  The vines are really tall and are outgrowing their large tomato cages.  

Tomatoes needing extra staking

Like I mentioned before this seed packet was a mixture of heirloom tomato seeds so I am not sure what kind are which.  

This is the tomato I showed last time, its gotten even bigger now

Pumpkins and Squash

The volunteer jack-o-lantern pumpkin plant has really grown a lot the past couple weeks.  The vines are much thicker than the sugar pie pumpkins I am used to.   I hand pollinated a female flower last week but unfortunately the plant aborted it.  What a bummer that was! But since then,  the plant has sent off some strong secondary runners, and those, plus the original vine, all have female flowers that I expect to open the next few mornings.  I had to cover those three with some small sections of tulle netting, so as to discourage the blossom eating rats (that's my suspicion, more details below)

female blossom that may open in 2 days or so.

Besides this volunteer, there are three other volunteer vines growing, all of which I am pretty sure are sugar pie pumpkins.  Those vines are quite long now, but no pumpkins have set yet. Tons of male blossoms, but   they have  been aborting the female blossoms.  I've been checking all these plants for SVB eggs (seen quite a bit) and also covering the vines with mulch and compost whenever possible.  They have been growing among my corn. (along with a few volunteer tomato plants too)

Pumpkin vines growing among my corn (Jack-o-lantern in the back, sugar pie in the front)

The other squash plants are the round zucchini, and the acorn squash.  We've picked 3 nice big ball zucchini, and have a couple more on the way. Two nights ago, two blossoms that were about to open were eaten by rats.  Very frustrating.  I set up 5 rat traps yesterday evening, right by these round zucchini plants, and this morning I had caught two juvenile rats on a single trap.  I wonder how many more I am dealing with.  Rats have been such a headache for me the past two years.  But its especially frustrating when they decide they like to eat my female squash blossoms.  Have had the same problem with my acorn squash too.   I've had to cover the blossoms, and hand pollinate.  

Ball zucchini ready for picking.  These plants are beautiful with large green and white spotted leaves

I have the two ball zucchini plants I started earlier in the spring.  The one show above, and another one, which is smaller and has yet to produce fruit (all have aborted).   But I have three younger plants (all currently under tulle netting to protect from SVB).  Those new plants are there to take over once these plants succumb to either SVB or just wear out.

acorn squash and ball zucchini

typical size I've seen for this Table Queen variety

The acorn squash plants have all growing quite a bit, and I've been taking care of them like the pumpkins, covering the vines with mulch whenever possible.  I've also had to hand pollinate due to the rat eating the blossom problem.   So far I've picked 4 of them, and three still on the vine are almost ready.  This variety seems to be a small fruited one.  The kind I had grown two years ago had much larger fruit.  This is the Table Queen Acorn squash variety.  I produces long vines, unlike the kind I tried before, which was semi-vining.

cluster of three, almost ripe.

Beans

My pole beans continue to be a challenge/disappointment.  So the vines have gotten pretty big now, and seem to have overcome some of the spider mite damage.  But the frustrating thing is that despite the many flowers on the vines,  almost all of the flower drop off.  I have found very few tiny bean pods that have started growing.  I'm concerned that the triple digit heat is only a few weeks ahead, and was hoping to get a good harvest of green beans.  

Kentucky Wonder Pole beans along the fence.

 I've also noticed many of the growing tips of the vines have gotten eaten off.  I am also suspecting rats are doing this, as they run along the fence rails.  I've not been as concerned about this because the plants just keep growing more shoots.   My main question/concern is why the beans pods are not forming.  

Okra

Last year I had great success with Emerald Okra, so I had some seeds left, and  I planted those few weeks ago. I planted them in a row, between the tomatoes and the beans.  My thought is by the time these get big, the tomatoes will be dying back, and I can just pull them out to give more space to the okra.  Okra loves the heat, so its one of the few things you can easily plant in the hottest part of the summer here in Texas.

Look closely and you can see the Okra seedlings, right next to the wood plank.  I use the plank to help remind me where the seedling are so I don't step on them.

Giving Watermelon and Corn another shot

I decided to give watermelon another chance.  So I planted 3 more hills of them.  The seedlings all have come out, and are growing.  Hopefully they will get off to a better start, since my first attempt was a bust.

watermelon seedlings

 The other thing that has been kind of a bust so far has been the sweet corn.  My original plants have all flowered, and have corn cobs forming, but they are tiny! (See pic above, in the pumpkin section).  I have no idea what happened to those.  They got off to a very slow start.  Maybe the weather was too cool, or the soil on that part of the yard was unfavorable?  So I started another section.  They have all come up, and are looking pretty good.

new corn seedlings

Oh, the cucumber plants are doing quite well.  Lots of blooms, and I have seen some tiny cukes starting to form.  They are also growing along the back fence, on a green wood trellis.

cucumbers (center), next to beans, and some volunteer sunflowers).

The strawberry plants are getting ready for their second crop. Many flower, and plants are starting to send out some runner.

Late Spring 2014 Update

Transitioning From Spring to Summer

Its late May, and many of the cool weather plants are done.   The lettuce has all bolted, and has been pulled out except for a few volunteer plants here and there.  We had a huge amount of lettuce this spring, and almost got tired of eating salad.  We gave much away too.  I even gave my chickens many of the bolting plants to eat.  The Spinach all bolted too.  It also did very well, and I froze a couple of gallon zip lock bags of it for eating later.  I have kept a few plants around, to collect their seeds. They are almost dried up now.  I like to save spinach seed, since you need really fresh seed for them. (they have very short shelf lives).

Brassica Plants 

There are still some cool weather plants around.  The aphid onslaught ended.  I think the parasitic wasps is what did them in, along with lady bugs and other predators.  And the cabbage and Brussels sprouts all recovered somewhat.
Here is one of my green acres cabbage plant. (which I mentioned in my last blog).  Its head is not very big, but it might be ready to eat.  I think the aphid setback might have stunted it enough to not let it get very big.  Besides its not supposed to be a very big cabbage anyway.

Green Acres  Cabbage

 When I planted many of these plants in the late winter, I had mixed cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli plants, but since then I have forgotten which plants are which.  So I have a number of mystery plants that are still around and growing

Mystery brassica plant

I'm pretty sure these are Brussels sprouts

I'm not sure what to expect from these... will they just hang around all summer and produce in the fall? But right now they are all leaves, huge leaves, and they take up a lot of space.

The Summer Garden

Its late May, and its starting to feel like summer will soon be here.  Its been in the mid-80's the past few weeks.  Unfortunately we've been drier than normal this year.  For the past few weeks my garden has been transitioning to warm weather crops.  

Tomatoes

In the last post, back in late March, I showed a picture of the seedlings from the  heirloom tomato seed mix I had gotten from Gurney's.  They were planted in mid-April, and they have really grown big since then.  Unfortunately since its a mix of seeds, I have no idea what plant is what.  But I can certainly see that they are different type of tomatoes.

small variety of heirloom tomato

plants have overgrown their tomato cages

this type almost looks like a "beefsteak" type tomato. 

So I've been very pleased with these plants. They seem to be producing real nicely. And fortunately they have not been hit by the spider mites yet. (More later on these pests!)  But I know that later on as it gets hotter, and the plant get older, they become more susceptible to spider mites. 

Pole Beans, and Spider Mites

In early April I planted some pole beans, Kentucky Wonder.   It was a rough start.  First, some critter decided to chop off many of my young seedlings, almost down to the ground.  Maybe cutworms?  So I had to break out the sevin, and dust the survivors.  I had to plant more.  But then later in late April, I was really surprised to see them attacked by spider mites.  They came quick and hit hard, and soon the plants were looking very sickly and yellowing!  I started to spray the plant with soap and neem oil spray.  I think after a few treatments, I got them under control.  I've seen been spraying once a week, and wetting the plants daily to keep the mite at bay.  I think it was the dry spring we've had, and the warm days we had that got them going so early.  

discoloring on leaves, due to spider mite damage.

If you look closely, you can see the tiny red dots on the back of the leaves. And you can see them move too.

stippled discoloration from mite damage

The plants seem OK now.  The mites persist, but hopefully I can manage them until I get a good harvest from these plants. The vines are growing fairly well, but no signs of flowers yet.

Squash and Volunteer Pumpkins

I also planted a couple of round zucchini plants early this spring in round pots, and transplanted them in mid-April. These are from the same seeds I planted last year.   But unfortunately the spider mites that attacked my pole beans also liked these too.  I also noticed the discoloration on the leaves.  So I had to spray these with soap/neem too, and the plants seem to be recovering nicely.  Also they have been covered with tulle netting (to ward off the Squash vine borers) until early this week, when they started blooming, so I removed the covers. This morning I had two female blossoms that I pollinated, so I am looking forward to the first crop of these soon.  This is one of the plants.  The other one is smaller. It was a weaker plant, and got hit by the spider mites worse but now its recovering well.

Round Zucchini

 I also planted some acorn squash around early April.  Its the Table Queen Acorn Squash, the same I planted last year. I also ended up covering them to ward off the SVB, but the plants got too big for my tulle netting piece I used, so I uncovered them, and have just been covering parts the vines with mulch whenever possible, to encourage secondary root formation.  And I have been looking for SVB eggs and hand picking them off whenever I see some.  I have 3 squash that are definitely growing now, and 3 more that I hand-pollinated a couple days ago.

Table Queen Acorn Squash 

Table Queen Acorn squash

 Unfortunately some critter has taken a liking to my female squash blossoms.  I noticed that two of my blossoms, on the day they opened up, were shortly chopped off,leaving the tiny undeveloped fruit behind.
This was very frustrating, especially since that morning I had hand pollinated those flowers.  So the past few day I have been covering the blossoms to protect them.

Protecting the female blossoms

I did not intend to grow any pumpkins this spring, but some volunteers have come up.  This one is a pretty big plant. I suspect its from  a jack-o-lantern type pumpkin my daughters bought to carve last year.  I remember composting some of it, and I used some of that compost around my corn this spring.

volunteer pumpkin, maybe Jack-o-lantern type?

Its much thicker and stockier than my sugar pie pumpkins plants that I am used to.  I've been trying to take care of it, mulching it well, and picking any SVB eggs I see on it. 

Sweet Corn

The other thing I am trying again this year is sweet corn.  But it has not gotten off to a good start.  I also started them in April, but they also had a rough start.  Some varmint quickly discovered that I had planted the seeds, and I would find neat little holes when the seeds had been, and I found parts of the corn kernel that had been dug up and chewed.  So I suspected rats.  I set out many rat traps, and ended up killing two rats.   After replanting more, they came up, but took forever to grow. And the seedlings were rather sickly looking, and some even got spider mites.  They are starting to recover, but I'm not sure I'll get much from them

Sweet corn

Now these may look pretty normal, but some are already developing the flower heads, even though they are so short.   

Other Plants 

This early spring I noticed a few familiar plants that came up.  I recognized them as the german chamomile that I had grown last year, so I took care of these volunteers.  Love these plants, they are so pretty and bloom so profusely.

some volunteer german chamomile came up from last years plants

I have two of these volunteers. They are doing great.  

 Here are some dual-purpose cucumbers I have growing (pickling and slicing cukes).  They are starting to take off, and climb up a homemade trellis.

Cucumbers, growing towards the back of the yard, along a trellis

 I tried growing watermelons this year, but for some unknown reason, they have been a bust.  They are been growing for about a month, and are still tiny, and stunted.   I think maybe the spidermites got them too, and they are sickly. I might try planting some more next weekend.

These watermelons are a bust.  I think I'll have to start over.  Not sure why these are stunted and yellowing

 The strawberry path I referred to in the last post is doing well.  The junebugs like the leaves unfortunately, but otherwise they have been problem free. These are everbearing strawberries.  We had the first harvest, and will be waiting for the second round.

The strawberry patch, doing well. We've already eaten some strawberries.