Confusion?

August 2017

Pickaway to Garden

Confusion?

By Paul J. Hang

Collusion, illusion, delusion? Conclusion, confusion. As a purveyor and a consumer of gardening advice I try to avoid confusion. But sometimes it is unavoidable. As an example, I have heard it said “See bug, spray bug.” Now as a general rule it means don’t spray until you see a bug (I am using bug in its usual sense not in its entomological meaning). No bugs, no need to spray. It doesn’t mean that if you see a bug you should spray it.  There are good bugs and bad bugs when it comes to gardening. We don’t want to spray good bugs; they are going to eliminate the bad ones. Pesticides do not discriminate between good bugs and bad bugs. How do we tell if they are good bugs? It can be confusing.

Here are some general rules with which I want to bug you. Bad bugs (plant eaters or vectors of disease) usually occur in groups. Think a flock of sheep. Good bugs are predators and actively stalk bad bugs. Think a wolf. Good bugs are usually fast, running around looking for bad bugs that are casually munching on our plants. This is not always the case. Not all good bugs run around, some hide and wait for bad bugs to walk or fly by and then they pounce. Some good bugs set traps or webs, think spiders. Some bugs are more beneficial in their larval stage than when adults, think lady beetles. Certain wasps insert their eggs into worms or larvae and those eggs hatch and eat the host from the inside out. They are called parasitoids. They kill their hosts. (I didn’t say this would be pretty, confusing yes.)

If you see bad bugs (aphids, some caterpillars, some mites, scale, etc.) wait to see if good bugs show up for the feast. If we spray all the bad bugs no good bugs will be around (if not killed by the spray there will be nothing for them to eat). This is the premise of organic gardening, take care of the good bugs and they will take care of the bad ones. Bees are good bugs, spraying when plants are in flower will kill the bees. Also planting more native plants will attract more predators. Caterpillars of course will turn into butterflies and moths most of which are good bugs. It depends on what plants they appear whether we try to eliminate them or not. Cabbage white butterfly caterpillars on my cabbage and broccoli or tomato hornworms on my tomatoes I don’t tolerate. Caterpillars of butterflies on their host plants I do tolerate such as monarch caterpillars on milkweed.

The good bugs are arthropods. Within that phylum good bugs are in three classes, insects (beetles, flies, mantids, true bugs, lacewings, ants and wasps) arachnids (spiders, mites and others) and centipedes. Who knew there are predatory stink bugs and mites? Maybe it’s more complicated than confusing. For more information find “Good Garden Bugs” by OSU professor Mary M. Gardiner PH.D. ,Quarry Books. Also, go to www.bugguide.net hosted by Iowa State University and www.caterpillarlab.org there you will find pictures and more.

Remember 97 percent of insects are either good or neutral for our gardens and landscape.

August is Tree Check month. Pay attention to your trees. They are valuable assets to your property and to our community. Fall is the best time to plant trees. Consider planting a shade tree. For advice on what trees to plant and where to plant them, go to www.arborday.org. To gain an appreciation of our oldest living things see www.treesintrouble.com.

Things to do in the garden:

Weed. Weed. Weed and maybe water if we don’t get at least an inch of rain each week. Pull all that crabgrass before it goes to seed. Take heart though, the first good frost will kill it. Plant the seeds of green beans, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage early in the month, carrots, lettuces, spinach, radishes, turnips, and kale mid-month, for a fall garden.

As plants die back clean up the debris so bad insects and disease don’t have a place to over- winter. This is particularly important for corn, beans, cucumbers and bush squash plants after they cease bearing, some landscape plants you may want to leave alone for seeds for wintering birds and for visual winter interest such as coneflowers and native ornamental grasses.

Want to have a new garden next year? Now is a good time to prepare the site. Cover the area with black plastic, thick cover of newspaper or cardboard weighted down or even old carpet. Anything that will block the sun will leave bare earth come spring. If you are in a hurry you can use an herbicide containing glyphosate.

Disbud your dahlias for bigger blooms and fertilize. Side dress (fertilize) peonies with a balanced fertilizer such as 10-10-10 or 12-12-12.

By the end of the month consider disbudding your tomato plants. Remove the growing tips of each branch and pinch out all the blossoms that bloom. It takes six weeks from blossom to fruit. This practice will give bigger tomatoes and prevent all those marble size tomatoes that the frost gets and never reach the table. If you’re not sure about this, try it on some of your plants and compare to those that you leave alone. Experiment! Try this also with melons and winter squash.

Tomatoes not ripening? Be patient, the plants are still growing and putting down roots not just ripening the fruit that has already set. Pick tomatoes before they are completely ripe. They will ripen off the vine if they still show a blush of green. Totally ripe tomatoes still on the vine can burst with a glut of water from rain or the hose. They can be sampled by birds and mammals. Follow this advice and you will enjoy better tomatoes.

This is a good time to look at plants at their full maturity. Assess their look, their height, their spread, their color and texture. Do you like where they are? If not, think about moving them as soon as they begin to go dormant. If they are annuals, make a note for next year to plant them in another spot in the garden. If all your perennials have stopped blooming plant some late blooming ones for next year such as black-eyed Susan, coreopsis, liatris and mallow. It is time to plant biennials and order bulbs for fall planting for blooms next year. Now is a good time to divide overgrown perennials and to plant container grown ones.

If your coneflowers blossoms appear to be cut at the stem and dangling, cut them off and put them in the trash, not in the compost heap. This is caused by a beetle that has laid its egg in the stem ready to hatch next spring. Bad.