Viragrow Delivers! : Planting Vegetables in Composted Soils During Summer Heat

Viragrow Delivers! : Planting Vegetables in Composted Soils During the ...: Soils containing composts are rich and full of nutrients for plants. It is very important to get seeds and transplants off to a good start ...

Viragrow Delivers! : Uncomposted Mulch Not a Big Concern

Viragrow Delivers! : Uncomposted Mulch Not a Big Concern:  Q. Does incompletely composted material draw fertilizer components away from plants? This is mulch. It should be applied to the soil su...

Community Garden Thanks First Choice Tree Service!

A hearty thanks goes out to First Choice Tree Service and Ryans Tree Service. They helped out big time with the move of the Provident living community garden to a new location. Those guys successfully moved 24 re-enforced concrete planter beds weighing an estimated 7000 lbs each. Milan Weedman (certified Arborist) with first choice tre service was there to coordinate and supervise with the help of Jason from First Choice and Ryan Brooksby From Ryan's tree service. 

Provident Living Community Garden has a new home and a fabulous community garden! Give those guys some thanks! Pay a visit to Milan at his blog  http://milanweedman.wordpress.com/ 

Red Bird of Paradise

When are figs ready to pick?

Q. We have a small fig tree, about two years old. It has figs in place, but we do not know how to determine when they are ripe for picking.

A. The figs are ready when the neck on the fig starts to bend and the fruit “sags”. Here this white fig is ready and the neck is bent. The green ones are not and are straight.

Once bent you must pick right away. Once they are ready you will pick nearly daily. They do not ripen off of the tree. They must be picked fully ripe.

Understanding and Controlling the Leaffooted Plant Bug

Q. What is the best attack for these pesty, scary looking creatures.  We had them last year.  Haven't seen them yet this season.  Is there something to keep them away? 

A. This first part I am explaining will be a bit late for you now but prevention should start during the winter months when they can be seen in the landscape as overwintering adults ready to lay eggs in the spring. I have seen adults on bottlebrush in home landscapes in southern Nevada and I am sure they are probably overwintering on a number of evergreen plants in winter months. 

Leaffooted plant bug on nopal cacttus.

Leaffooted plant bug on pomegranate.

From: http://www.whatsthatbug.com/2009/02/25/mating-leaf-footed-bugs-3/

Eggs of leaf-footed bug. Photograph by Lacy Hyche, Auburn University.

Nymph of the western leaffooted bug. Photograph by Henry Fadamiro, Auburn University.

Since these insects can fly as adults they will move from plant to plant for sources of food. This means that they will come into your yard from neighbors as well all during the growing season. So just because you control them once during the season you will have them again as long as there is food in your yard for them to eat.

What do we know about leaffooted plant bug?

• They like to feed on pomegranates, almonds, pistachios, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, corn, peach, nectarine and I am sure some others.
• They are closely related to stinkbugs and squash bugs, feed and reproduce like them and can be confused with them because they look kind of similar.
• They overwinter from year to year in the landscapes.
• It takes about 50 or 60 days to produce adults from eggs laid in the spring.
• They feed with a long hypodermic needle-like mouth that is inserted into soft plant tissue like leaves and fruit.
• Their feeding early when fruit is developing can cause threads of sap to stick out of the fruit.
• Their feeding causes misshapen fruit or causes fruits or nuts to drop off of the tree.
• Their feeding can also cause diseases to enter the fruit.

How to Control Them

They are difficult to control because they hide unless they are swarming and reproducing near the fruit.

Hard or conventional pesticides such as Sevin or synthetic pyrethrins are the most effective for rapid kill. These can be found as ingredients in some common vegetable or fruit sprays in nurseries or garden centers. 

These same ingredients are used commercially where leaffooted plant bug is active. These types of chemicals leave behind a residual on plants that offer some protection for a number of days after they are applied. They also present some safety concerns for homeowners when used without caution in home landscapes so make sure you read the label thoroughly if you choose to go this route.

Organic control is more difficult because these chemicals are short-lived and don’t leave behind much of a residual. You will not control this pest without more work on your part when using organic methods. That is the tradeoff when using organic methods. With conventional pesticides like Sevin a few passes during fruit set and development will give you some good control. Organic methods may require more inspection of the tree and fruit on your part and spraying more frequently. 

Soap sprays like Safers insecticidal soap will give good control if the spray lands on the insects. It leaves no residual once sprayed. Oils like Neem have been reported to give good control. Other oils include horticultural oils and canola oil. Organic sprays like Bt will not work on this insect. Spinosad has not been reported to work on this insect either. Another possibility are pyrethrin sprays which may give you good knockdown when sprayed on them directly.

A common mistake is to think that just because they organic sprays they will not hurt anything except the enemy insect. This is not true. Organic sprays will kill many different insects, good and bad. So directing the sprays at the enemy insects is important. It is also important to spray very early in the morning or near sundown. Spray when there is no wind and cover both the upper and lower sides of the leaves. Do not use one spray over and over. Use several sprays in rotation with each other so you do not end up with an explosion in the population of insects not controlled or building up insect immunity to the spray.

Oleanders Will Grow in Containers

Q. I have two pink dwarf oleanders planted in 18 inch clay pots which have very healthy looking foliage but very few blossoms. One of my "expert" gardener friends says simply that "oleanders don't like pots". Another "expert" says that I'm watering too much. Are either of these guys right or do you have any suggestions that might get some me some blossoms?

Dwarf oleander

A. We have dwarf oleanders at the Research Center in containers and they bloom just fine. Thge dwarf oleander might be a better selection for containers. There might be a couple of things you could try. If the container is small you might have to water more often to compensate for the small soil volume.

Plants in containers need to be repotted every two or three years. Very small containers, every year. Large containers might make it up to five years.

Dwarf oleander pink flowers.

Oleanders that are not getting enough water will look normal but have a very open canopy and not bloom well. Oleanders are high water users and love fertilizer. They do not like to be watered daily but will not do their best if the soil starts drying too much between waterings.

You can try using a soil moisture meter sold for houseplants that you can buy from the nursery for about $7. Water when the dial is about half way between wet and dry, do not let it get totally dry. Next, use a fertilizer like Miracle Gro and water it into the soil about once every six to eight weeks.

Cover the soil in the container with mulch to help keep the soil moist. About three inches would be enough. If oleanders are young, or if they are pruned with a hedge shears, flowers will be delayed or produce very few.

Don't prune with a hedge shears if possible. They should be pruned with pruning shears but not hedged or gimbaled.