majors 2018 garden..

[majorcatfish]

@majorcatfish , your starts are looking great so far. To bad about the onion maggots, how do they get in the soil?

the larvae overwinter, once it warms up they turn to flies then they lay eggs in soil and of course i planted were their laid their eggs.. have had them now for 3 years...grrrr figured with nothing growing last year they would have left. guess not...

 

[Nyboy]

Chickens starch and dig for bugs

 

[canesisters]

Mine must be slackers... Don't even iron let alone starch.

 

[majorcatfish]

It was 35* here last night......(obscenity) ......... this is Texas......it's supposed to be hot.....&^$#%&%@#^ and we are having frost?

dont feel bad tonight is going to 33-34* should be in the low 50's the children are spending the night inside...

yesterday evening we had that bad storm that rolled through most of the eastern us .tornado touch down near us..lots of damage....

 

[flowerbug]

i checked for some organic controls and this came up. they don't recommend shallow burying of onion debris or partially decayed bulbs, which i don't do, i usually bury things fairly deeply because i don't want to disturb it any time i do any shallow garden digging in that area. so if you have toys (you seem to ) at the end of the season dig out a pretty deep hole and scrape the surface layer of soil into that hole and then cover it. this should greatly decrease your local supply of onion maggot flies, but it will not take care of those coming in from around you.

the same site also recommended using yellow sticky cards to see how many and how active they are in an area, i see no reason why those can't be used as a sort of thinning or control too. just change them out once in a while for some fresh ones.


Biological Controls:
Fungi. Naturally-occurring fungal diseases occasionally will reduce onion maggot numbers significantly, particularly when flies are abundant and relative humidity is high. During a fungal epidemic dead, diseased flies can be seen clinging tothe highest parts of plants along field edges.

Beetles. Predaceous ground beetles which eat onion maggot eggs, larvae and pupae can also be important in reducing maggot numbers. Because these soil-inhabiting beetles are susceptible to insecticides, broadcast soil insecticide treatments should be avoided whenever possible.

Nematodes. Soil application of the entomopathogenic nematode Steinernema feltiae has shown efficacy against cabbage maggot in trials even at low soil temperatures 50°F/10°C) Apply by suspending infective juvenile nematodes in water and treating transplants prior to setting in the field (as a spray or soaking drench), or in transplant water used in the water wheel transplanter, as a drench after transplanting, or a combination of pre-plant and post-plant applications. Post-plant treatments are likely to be needed if maggot flight begins >1 week after transplanting. Rates of 100,000 to 125,000 infective juveniles per transplant have been shown to be needed to achieve reduction in damage. Nematodes need a moist soil environment to survive.

 

[majorcatfish]

well the tornado or tornadoes started at i-40 and went 4 miles north they are saying it was a ef-2 with 135 mph winds through heavily populated neighborhoods.
news was showing one side of a street massive damage the other side minimal damage...
5 schools damaged mainly all the mobile classrooms destroyed. duke power said it could take a week to get everyone back up.

then it touched down again up in reidsville and again in danville,va with minimal damage

ds apartment is only 1000' from where it first touched down... he and roommates are ok they are staying at friends houses till the power comes back on.
prayer goes out to the people who did loss their homes..

 

[flowerbug]

i haven't checked the news all day and this evening. hope everyone down there is ok and being safe.

 

[Nyboy]

Mine must be slackers... Don't even iron let alone starch.

Mine where so good they made me breakfast

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

I followed that tornado. I have friends in Asheville and family in Charlotte/Greensboro. Pretty amazing weather there that day!

 

[canesisters]

Had an F2 in Lynchburg that night too.