Gardening 2020

[SelbyLowndes]

My own wildlife/garden problems seem kind of tame after reading yours.  Moose and bears?  The cardinals are bad about pecking my ripe red tomatoes...SelbyLowndes 

[Smiller]

Nicotiana sylvestris, cardinal flower, agastache, and Edelweiss are sprouting in the windowsill. Virginia Bluebells are starting to flower outside.

[Mike da Carpenter]

On 3/25/2020 at 2:52 PM, Mike da Carpenter said:

that was my thoughts too, especially after talking to the guy who runs our greenhouse.  He told me there is a chance (although small) that it will grow, but the seeds typically don’t produce.

Pleased to announce that 8 of the 128 seeds the kids planted, sprouted out of the dirt this morning.  Looks as though we are on our way to having some clones of the best peppers I ever ate.  This gardening stuff takes your mind off of other things.  Much needed right now and therapeutic.

[Cheesy]

1 hour ago, Mike da Carpenter said:

Pleased to announce that 8 of the 128 seeds the kids planted, sprouted out of the dirt this morning.  Looks as though we are on our way to having some clones of the best peppers I ever ate.  This gardening stuff takes your mind off of other things.  Much needed right now and therapeutic.

 

Odds are the fruit they put on won't be the same as the fruit they came out of.  Might be, but not likely.  Time will tell us though...

[Mike da Carpenter]

12 minutes ago, Cheesy said:

 

Odds are the fruit they put on won't be the same as the fruit they came out of.  Might be, but not likely.  Time will tell us though...

I’m a carpenter.  As long as it’s a red bell pepper, I’ll take it as a solid win.  Now if Poblano peppers start growing from these seeds, I guarantee you I ain’t eating those. I’ll keep you all posted.

[Felix]

I finally got some decent  weather this past weekend and got around to cleaning out last years asparagus plants. I pulled the couple of weeds that were trying to take hold and spread a little fresh mulch.  This years crop has not made an appearance yet but I expect it soon. It will be mid May before I put much else in.

[Mike da Carpenter]

52 of the 128 seeds have sprouted so far and it seems as though every time I check (twice daily) more have sprouted.  I’ll take this as a win after so many people told me the seeds will not grow from a pepper I bought at the grocery.  I’ll let them grow for a bit till I transplant the best 40, then the best 8 from there will be thinned out to go in the garden.

 

[BBlizzard18]

14 hours ago, Mike da Carpenter said:

52 of the 128 seeds have sprouted so far and it seems as though every time I check (twice daily) more have sprouted.  I’ll take this as a win after so many people told me the seeds will not grow from a pepper I bought at the grocery.  I’ll let them grow for a bit till I transplant the best 40, then the best 8 from there will be thinned out to go in the garden.

 

When I mentioned you might be disappointed I was referring to the fruit, hybrids don’t breed true, and open pollinators are usually controlled. Still very cool though.  I’m interested to see what they turn into.  I have messed around with planting seeds I have saved.  I saved seeds from some heirloom jack pumpkins a couple years ago, planted last year.  I don’t know what pollinated them, but it wasn’t what I expected.  I suspect I had some sort of pumpkin zucchini cross.  

[1971snipe]

Small black colored caterpillars are on my grape Vines eating the leaves.  I sprayed last evening with a spuringiensis product, and hoping it works.  Appreciate if someone has any other advice.  I still can't believe how quickly these showed up, the vines are just now budding and making leaves.  The caterpillar is just to the right of center in the pic, btw. 

[rideold]

We had a spell of warm weather and I was just thinking it was time to prune the grapes and get some seeds in but then yesterday it turned nasty and this morning it was 20.  Glad I waited on the grapes!  They aren't along too far right now so I think the freeze will pass over without messing up my harvest this year.

[BBlizzard18]

1 hour ago, 1971snipe said:

Small black colored caterpillars are on my grape Vines eating the leaves.  I sprayed last evening with a spuringiensis product, and hoping it works.  Appreciate if someone has any other advice.  I still can't believe how quickly these showed up, the vines are just now budding and making leaves.  The caterpillar is just to the right of center in the pic, btw. 

Do they look like this? 

[1971snipe]

1 hour ago, BBlizzard18 said:

Do they look like this? 

Yes exactly.  I've seen them doing on line searches, but it'd be great to hear from someone with personal experience. 

[BBlizzard18]

On 4/3/2020 at 1:57 PM, 1971snipe said:

Yes exactly.  I've seen them doing on line searches, but it'd be great to hear from someone with personal experience. 

I don't have have any personal experience with them, just a general interest in gardening and insects.  My brother worked at a vineyard years ago, and I remember talking with him on many occasions about the vines.  If you're seeing them online, you probably figured out it's the larvae of the grape flea beetle.  It looks like an insecticide spray would take care of them.  I don't have a lot of experience with chemical control of pests, so I don't know specifics on type of spray.  I tried looking up the spray you mentioned, I couldn't find it.  But, I would imagine most insecticides would be effective against a larval beetle.

 

I'm usually battling Japanese beetles on my plum trees and raspberries.  Last year we had the spotted wing drosophila flies in our raspberries too, little white maggots in the raspberries, fun stuff.  

 

https://ohiograpeweb.cfaes.ohio-state.edu/ipm/insects/grape-flea-beetle

 

https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/ef224

 

 

 

 

[1971snipe]

35 minutes ago, BBlizzard18 said:

I don't have have any personal experience with them, just a general interest in gardening and insects.  My brother worked at a vineyard years ago, and I remember talking with him on many occasions about the vines.  If you're seeing them online, you probably figured out it's the larvae of the grape flea beetle.  It looks like an insecticide spray would take care of them.  I don't have a lot of experience with chemical control of pests, so I don't know specifics on type of spray.  I tried looking up the spray you mentioned, I couldn't find it.  But, I would imagine most insecticides would be effective against a larval beetle.

 

I'm usually battling Japanese beetles on my plum trees and raspberries.  Last year we had the spotted wing drosophila flies in our raspberries too, little white magnets in the raspberries, fun stuff.  

 

https://ohiograpeweb.cfaes.ohio-state.edu/ipm/insects/grape-flea-beetle

 

https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/ef224

 

 

 

 

Thanks.  I think that this year will be particularly tough for insects and gardening, as much as for bacteria and viruses.  And global warming of course.  I've had about enough of 2020 already.  

[Fishnfowler]

My rootstock arrived yesterday.  I'm grafting 5 apples and 6 pears.  The apples are off a very old tree.  My 90 year old patient tells me the tree was mature when she moved into the house as a little girl.  It puts off a giant sweet apple of unknown lineage, (think it might be a Gravenstein).  I gave her a grafted tree as a present years ago and she gave that to her Son.  She told me this year that a bunch of grandchildren were interested in getting trees also, so I took cuttings back in Feb.  Will put them on full-sized rootstock to make giant treea and she will give them to Grandchildren to plant in their yards.  The pears are for me.  I'm getting a little long in the tooth to be starting fruit trees and wonder if I will live to see them fruit, but will go for it anyway.  Two kinds of Asian pears, an early sweet pear, and a winter pear.  I'll keep one of the apples also.