What Did You Do In The Garden?

[Nyboy]

A member on BYC took care of a coom problem by microwaving a jar of peanut butter she then poured down the middle of the road. Next morning road filled with run over raccoons. Was a big fight about how she took care of problem.

 

[ninnymary]

A member on BYC took care of a coom problem by microwaving a jar of peanut butter she then poured down the middle of the road. Next morning road filled with run over raccoons. Was a big fight about how she took care of problem.

I can imagine. That's why I don't mention how I take care of my rat problem. For goodness sake, it's a darn rat!

Mary

 

[flowerbug]

@Nyboy putting other people's lives/property at risk... so not a good idea IMO and i could see why it would be controversy.

@ninnymary i'm glad we've not ever had a rat problem (that i know of)... maybe you city people need more raccoons? lol j/k, but sorta. perhaps raccoons would raid their nests...

 

[flowerbug]

survived yesterday's test bit of weeding.

have to water today and that may be enough.

 

[ninnymary]

@Nyboy putting other people's lives/property at risk... so not a good idea IMO and i could see why it would be controversy.

@ninnymary i'm glad we've not ever had a rat problem (that i know of)... maybe you city people need more raccoons? lol j/k, but sorta. perhaps raccoons would raid their nests...

We have raccoons and we still have lots of rats. Fortunately my neighbor's methods and mine have seemed to have made an impact. Knock on wood, but I haven't seen much damage this season. Only had 2 zucchini's chewed and for the first time they haven't touched my apples yet. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Mary

 

[digitS']

maybe you city people need more raccoons?

This reminds me of what I did yesterday in the garden - sprayed for earwigs. The earwigs are shredding lots of things. I still have to spray the basil and I guess that the lettuce growing beside it can be pulled and tossed. They will ruin dahlias, first by making holes in the leaves, then by shredding the flower petals. Why grow a flower if it is chewed until ugly?

So, I probably mostly just drive off the earwigs. They seem hard to kill. What's next? The spider mites! I think the earwigs may eat the mites ... Those pests can so weaken dahlias as to, not only ruin flowers but limited tuber development. The tubers won't have enough viability to survive winter storage.

Aggravating but not quite a darned if I do, darned if I don't. It just takes conscientious observing.

Sprayed the potato beetles last week. Absolutely no sign of beetles on the spuds or eggplants yesterday or this morning. The eggplants have a long way to go to produce anything. Understand that Spinosad doesn't kill eggs so, once again, conscientious observation.

Steve

 

[Zeedman]

Laid hay mulch over the whole garden today (11 bales) and watered. The rains this summer have been missing us (for which I am not complaining!) and the ground was beginning to crack deep... the mulch should help to retain the irrigation. No rodent problems so far, but usually the voles move in once the mulch is down. Will be putting out the zucchini transplants tomorrow, since the SVB egg-laying period should be passed. Saw the first Japanese beetle flying today (it flew right past me) so that battle could begin any day - but no visible damage yet.

 

[flowerbug]

This reminds me of what I did yesterday in the garden - sprayed for earwigs. The earwigs are shredding lots of things. I still have to spray the basil and I guess that the lettuce growing beside it can be pulled and tossed. They will ruin dahlias, first by making holes in the leaves, then by shredding the flower petals. Why grow a flower if it is chewed until ugly?

So, I probably mostly just drive off the earwigs. They seem hard to kill. What's next? The spider mites! I think the earwigs may eat the mites ... Those pests can so weaken dahlias as to, not only ruin flowers but limited tuber development. The tubers won't have enough viability to survive winter storage.

Aggravating but not quite a darned if I do, darned if I don't. It just takes conscientious observing.

Sprayed the potato beetles last week. Absolutely no sign of beetles on the spuds or eggplants yesterday or this morning. The eggplants have a long way to go to produce anything. Understand that Spinosad doesn't kill eggs so, once again, conscientious observation.

Steve

try to get some forest woodland leaf litter and detritus to innoculate your spider mite infested areas. predatory mites do exist and will take care of the rest of them. we have mites all over the place here but they don't do any damage i've ever noticed... all that spraying you do is likely killing off the good ones and leaving things wide open for the rest.

as for earwigs we don't have those in huge populations either. i'm not sure what eats them, perhaps the thrashers and other ground foraging birds we have around eat them? we have a lot of various birds around all the time. we don't feed them so they have to earn their keep, we just have the bird baths for them which does seem to keep them happy, especially during these dry spells.

 

[flowerbug]

Laid hay mulch over the whole garden today (11 bales) and watered. The rains this summer have been missing us (for which I am not complaining!) and the ground was beginning to crack deep... the mulch should help to retain the irrigation. No rodent problems so far, but usually the voles move in once the mulch is down. Will be putting out the zucchini transplants tomorrow, since the SVB egg-laying period should be passed. Saw the first Japanese beetle flying today (it flew right past me) so that battle could begin any day - but no visible damage yet.

yes, we've had no real decent rains since the large rainstorm a few weeks ago. that's about how it has been the past several years. it all comes at once in large downpour and that's it. i'm forcing myself to water every two to three days in this heat. last year i trusted Mom to do some of it and i don't think she really gives them enough water so this year i'm doing it myself so i know for sure what's what. no JBs seen here this season so far. we also get the deep cracks in the ground if it hasn't rained for a while. i try to water enough so that doesn't happen in the veggie gardens. the rest of the yard i don't irrigate.

at the moment the rhubarb is looking pretty sad and the strawberries are doing their usual mid-summer blah look too, but they both come back once we get the rains and cooler weather again.

 

[digitS']

Conifer trees may well be the source of the mites.

Oligonychus ununguis, "Food ... Most species of conifers, including spruce (Picea), fir (Abies), hemlock (Tsuga), pine (Pinus), larch (Larix), arborvitae (Thuja), and juniper (Juniperus)."
Bugguide

Oregon State reports them as being on deciduous trees.

Not their location now but for about 10 years, most of my dahlias were in a garden well protected from winds. An evergreen forest was across the road at the front of the house. Not where the dahlias were but one corner of the garden was within 50' of 5 tall trees. Pine, larch, hemlock, spruce and arborvitae grew naturally or have been planted around the 4 lot area. Especially the arborvitae would show lots of spider mites each summer ... but I may have missed similar populations because I wasn't climbing the trees .

Each year, the worst... mite problem in the dahlias was where the prevailing breeze would blow through the side yard of the home. Battling (or, not battling) the mites on about a dozen of those plants was how I learned that the mites could limit the viability of the roots, and I lost several until I was more conscientious.

Killing mites isn't necessarily that difficult. They succumb to insecticidal soaps and oils. I have been tempted to spray them on late-season beans but often just pull those after harvest whether the mites have moved in on them or not. I've never sprayed vegetables for mites.

When I began growing dahlias, I was inspired that there were such enthusiasm for the flowers in Kalispell Montana. However, Montana isn't central Mexico, home of wild dahlias. I have since learned that some varieties are able to put out only a single flower in the area's short growing season. Fortunately, this isn't quite as high as Kalispell and I don't put much emphasis on those that would struggle to open 1 bloom.

Steve