Gardeners in the Asylum

[shilala]

Originally Posted by SvilleKid

Scott, I'm going to try a two week stagger on the melons. My main concern isn't the heat, it stem boring wasps that attack the squash and zucchini later in summer. I'm not sure how the melon vines will hold up. And with the lack of an extended hard freeze this past winter, we already are swamped with gnats, skeeters and other flying pests. I'm afraid I'm I'm for a much heavier workload this garden, just keeping the pests at bay!

Regardless, I planted the Rutgers tomatoes, squash, sweet taters, cantaloupes and watermelon this morning. I left room to plans 3-4 mounds of watermelons in two weeks. I'm still planning on eggplant if I find a flat of starter plants.

Cliff, I have a mosquito zapper machine that kills all sorts of flying critters that invade the garden. It works incredibly well. I'll try to find a link...
Here it is.
It's a Mega-Catch. It helps to stop the cycle by whacking parents before they lay eggs.
Aside from that, Liquid Sevin works charms. I mix it 1/4 strength and use the backpack sprayer. I do it every other week or as needed, as minimally as possible. It's as decent a pest control system as I've ever used and it's very safe.
You absolutely MUST be proactive to control bugs. Once they have a foothold, you're out of luck. Same goes with fungus. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. You already called it, too. This year is going to be sheer hell. Without a proactive plan in place, it'll all be over before I get started.

[shilala]

I don't know if I offered yet, but if anyone wants to try their hand at planting some tobacco, drop me a pm with your address.
I have an open-pollinated strain that should do really well most anywhere. It's a gorgeous plant that yields tons of beautiful flowers. It's worth taking a shot just for the experience. I don't cure the tobacco, I have no desire. It'd be good stuff if someone wanted to go that way, though.

Heck, we're still getting frost warnings. Very little full sun. It just stopped after a month of raining, still more to go. I'm in China. Not much gardening getting done at my house.

[Chainsaw13]

We got enough rain Friday to fill my rain barrel. That's off one half of a tiny garage. I'm beginning to wonder if i'll be able to plant anything this summer. Supposed to be on the road most of April and May.

[SvilleKid]

Originally Posted by shilala

Cliff, I have a mosquito zapper machine that kills all sorts of flying critters that invade the garden. It works incredibly well. I'll try to find a link...
Here it is.
It's a Mega-Catch. It helps to stop the cycle by whacking parents before they lay eggs.
Aside from that, Liquid Sevin works charms. I mix it 1/4 strength and use the backpack sprayer. I do it every other week or as needed, as minimally as possible. It's as decent a pest control system as I've ever used and it's very safe.
You absolutely MUST be proactive to control bugs. Once they have a foothold, you're out of luck. Same goes with fungus. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. You already called it, too. This year is going to be sheer hell. Without a proactive plan in place, it'll all be over before I get started.

Thanks for the link, Scott. Sevin has been one of my "go-to" sprays in the past. I used to use the powder, but never could get good coverage. Tomatoes, last year, had aphid issues, and I had trouble finding just plain old "soap" insecticide, so I made my own with soapy, greasy dishwater. That seemed to do better than other store-brought items. I have to admit that squash and zucchini vines are my Achilles heel. I just cannot seem to keep them sprayed enough to avoid the stupid wasps and their off-spring worms. I had less issue last year with wasps stings on my peas, but that is also an issue. And I don't know if Sevin will even effect these wasps, since they basically contact the vines/pods with their stinger areas.

The zapper may be worth a look, but at the prices quoted, i can buy lots of Sevin! Probably going to live through it and adjust my insecticides as needed.

I was able to go last year with just Azitrol, a natural arthropod growth inhibitor. It also keeps eggs from hatching. The problem with wasps is that they get by any surface treatment. Maybe there's a repellent.

[shilala]

I put our stand together for starting plants. Weeze and I went to Target and found the right bowls for starting seeds, they fit perfect in flats.
I'm going to get those ready in a bit and plant all our seeds tonight.

[jjirons69]

No matter what I've tried, the squash vine borers will not allow me to have squash much past late May. My mom and dad grow squash until the plants kill themselves with growth. Not fair at all. I'm lucky to get 2 or 3 pickings before wilt and death take over. Then the cuke worms come in the middle of summer. They will bore 10 holes or more in my cukes and make them inedible. Sure you could eat the fruit, worms and all, as they will taste like cukes, but it's a hard thing to do. I have to spray the small fruit and plants every few days if I'm able to have cukes. That's why I'm trying a bush variety this year. The trellis may make the opportunity more enticing for the little bastiges, so I'm going out-of-sight-out-of-mind this year. The skeeters and gnats are already out in force, so I can only imagine the onslaught this summer.

[Chainsaw13]

The only bug I've had issues with are flys. They eat my tomatoes if I leave them on the vine too long.

[OLS]

Originally Posted by Mr B

I would love to start early since we have been having such great weather (60's-70's) however, every time I have have tried to start early, some bad cold weather comes thru and either freezes or stunts the growth on my starters.
However this weather sure has me wanting to plant the veg.

The county agent does a show here on public TV and he got a letter about
doing some 'what the hell' plantings since it is clear winter is not coming back
in in 2012. But the group of em laughed and said, "I wouldn't". But I think the
planters get the last laugh this year. It is 88 today in the midsouth, and I will
eat my HAT if it freezes again.

[OLS]

Originally Posted by jjirons69

The skeeters and gnats are already out in force, so I can only imagine the onslaught this summer.

This is gonna be Bugmageddon this year, you can bet. I can tell you what the wine grape guys do, they get
jackson's chameleons and turn em loose in the vineyards. But they can't be everywhere, and once a wasp
gets that ovipositor in your vine, that's pretty much that, I guess. haven't gardened in decades, but I know
you guys are not fighting SHADOWS. Lizards and geckos and such is what you need, my boy. Get some
coon-a$$ friend or Florida pal to send you some Anoles.

[shilala]

I don't know my southern wasps because I've never lived down there, but up here we have the curicallo wasp. It lays it's eggs on the stamen of a fruit tree flower petal.
To kill those bastages, I always sprayed dormant oil at petal fall. It was a very short window that had to be hit, or no fruit. (Unless you like work-riddled fruit.)
There's not a bug in the world that a proactive plan won't take care of, or at least mitigate. Being it's gonna be Bugmageddon, I already started the mega-catch. It whacks all kinds of stuff besides mosquitos, and I can put whatever I want in the water dish to draw more bugs. Anything it takes to make a dent, ya know?
If it takes dusting all the vines with Diatomaceous Earth, I'd do that, too. If I have to spray vines with dormant oil, I'd do that.
Sometimes we can't just attack one part of the bug's life cycle, we might have to attack it at adult, larvae, and egg. I do whatever it takes.
I have a whole new biosphere of bugs here in Ohio, including tomato hornworms. Last year was "learn what you're dealing with" year. This year I already have a proactive plan in place to make sure I don't get destroyed, especially being as the bugs are going to be off the map crazy.
I'm going to plant a real garden and a lot more different plants, as well. Fortunately I took time to check out the critters in everyone else's gardens last year.

[shilala]

Here's the grow-out stand. It has 6 fixtures, four different spectrums of bulbs on each level, and can handle 12 flats. It's all ready for Weeze to plant seed this evening, I even filled the starter trays.
I'm going to grow some tobacco and get back to work on my purple sunflowers. I found some 2004 seed for my purple sunflowers, so I'll only lose a few year's work. I'm super excited about seeing them again this year.

[Blak Smyth]

Originally Posted by mariogolbee

Then you will have mint again this year. Mint sends shoots off everywhere and comes back like the living dead. It's a fitting plant for ZOTL's...

Yah I have had it for two years now, I have almost all of it gone finally.
I laid down fabric, luckily it was in a planter bed surrounded by concrete.

[wayner123]

Well my garden (SFG) is doing well so far. I went ahead and started the bell peppers in cups and hope to have some ready for transplant in a couple weeks.

You guys have me concerned with all the bug talk. Here in FL we have a ton of bugs. And most of them I have never seen till I started gardening. On top of the bugs, we also have the killer heat. I am already getting some leaf curl from it.

I have used the product 'Garden Safe' for a while now and it has killed everything I hit with it. Reapplication is around 2 weeks. I hope it still works this growing season.

[SvilleKid]

Originally Posted by wayner123

Well my garden (SFG) is doing well so far. I went ahead and started the bell peppers in cups and hope to have some ready for transplant in a couple weeks.

You guys have me concerned with all the bug talk. Here in FL we have a ton of bugs. And most of them I have never seen till I started gardening. On top of the bugs, we also have the killer heat. I am already getting some leaf curl from it.

I have used the product 'Garden Safe' for a while now and it has killed everything I hit with it. Reapplication is around 2 weeks. I hope it still works this growing season.

I'll keep an eye out for this "Garden Safe" of which thou speak!!!

[shilala]

I had the sprinkler guy here tonight, we moved my fertizer injector out of the basement to a vault outside. I also picked up about three months worth of liquid fertilizer that'll take care of the lawn, garden, and flower beds. I can dump sevin and fungicide in the tank and do the whole property. It's sure gonna take the work out of this stuff.

[wayner123]

Originally Posted by SvilleKid

I'll keep an eye out for this "Garden Safe" of which thou speak!!!

They sell it at Lowes in a small spray bottle, but you can get a similar product which has the active ingredient Pyrethrin at most pest control places or online. I didn't think such a weak organic chemical could kill some of the pests I sprayed it on, but it did. It's also harvest day safe.

http://www.gardensafe.com/Products-a...ct-Killer.aspx

[shilala]

Did you guys know Pyrethrin comes from Chrysanthemums? They still derive it from the seed cases. You'd think they'd be able to synthesize it by now, but they can't.

Permethrin is a synthetic pyrethroid. It doesn't break down as rapidly. I use it in mixture with sevin or diazinon to control scale and mealy bugs in the greenhouse. I take houseplants outside, spray them down soaking and leave them out for a day to get rid of pests on them.