Pest of the Day: Squash Bug

My zucchini have just started to be harvestable but I'm still waiting for the day when I have more zucchini than I can eat. Won't that be wonderful.

While hovering over the still-unproductive zucchini, I noticed what seemed to be 3 pests:
1) green shield bug (maybe a stink bug, I thought)
2) orange eggs on underside of leaves
3) clustered spiders (I thought)
Turns out these are all the squash bug, in various stages of development, and should ALL BE KILLED. Which should be pretty easy if you can catch them early. The eggs are bright orange, the spiders are actually squash bug nymphs and are white with black heads and legs, and the adults start out green, like a stink bug, but later turn brown/black.

Constant vigilance!

I also ate my first barely-ripe grape tomatoes today. Many more to come.

More Internet Resources

The link list to the right has been updated with some more garden blogs that I've found informative over the last few weeks, as well a couple of entertaining podcasts.

Harvest Season Begins!

To my fellow community gardeners- my plot is overflowing with lettuce! Please help yourself to some lettuce. My plot is 2 rows in from the far right grassland, 3 plots in from the main road (in front of the plot with the big white rain barrel). I have a sign in my plot that says "Garden More, Work Less." I have 2 varieties- Black seeded simpson (a light crinkly type) and Winter Density, which is heartier and dark green.

Maybe it's just because I attended my first farmer's market of the summer, but I feel like enough crops are coming in now to finally start cooking with them. New this week in my garden were carrots, young onions, and young garlic.


The onions need at least another month to bulk up but can be used while small,








and the garlic needs to age in the ground a bit if I plan to store it. In the meantime, I can eat the freshest, yummiest garlic I've probably ever eaten. The cloves are chunky and firm.

























Here is my "trug"- showing lettuce bounty, end of the peas, and carrots.

I had already removed the kale and collard greens.




My first zucchini will be ready in a week or so- and the big beef tomatoes will follow soon after.

Check out this carrot! Too bad only about 5 carrots germinated in my small patch. A fall crop would definitely be worthwhile.

Thinking of next year's garden (wherever it may be):



I would plant my onions and garlic with closer spacing.









I would interplant lettuce with a taller vegetable, to shade it from the summer sun and prevent bolting.

I would plant less early-spring lettuce and more early-spring spinach.





I would find out where I can get more seeds of this swiss chard and plant more of it.









I would start my tomato and pepper seeds a month earlier. Look at the difference between the store-bought transplants and mine!

















I would start my kale seeds earlier. It is just now ready for some harvest. (indoor sowed this year 2/8 and outdoor sowed 3/12)




I would sow my peas a few weeks later (this year, sowed 3/6 and had to replant a month later). Yesterday I ate two peas.

Strawberry Time

The last few weeks have been quiet for the garden but busy for me, with all the crops planted and nothing ready to eat yet.
Now it is strawberry season and I actually ate 3 perfect, luscious strawberries from my VERY SMALL strawberry patch the other day. This week I'll be going down to West Windsor to pick-your-own strawberries and have more than three.

Other developments:

Garlic is making scapes and the tips are turning brown. I'll harvest the scapes soon, and when leaves turn brown more fully, it will be time to harvest the bulb. I've also heard that when any scapes left behind stand straight up, it is a signal to harvest the bulbs.



The spinach will be bolting soon so I'm trying to use it up. I have two varieties, the pointy one is Spargo, which seems to have a low leaf to stem ratio and I won't plant it again.

The second is a more traditional type of spinach. I cooked up the spinach with some kale, balsamic vinegar and olive oil and it came out pretty good.



My swiss chard transplants didn't take well, but a little goes a long way with this vegetable.

Rainy Friday

Nothing to do but watch time lapse videos.

They're ALIVE!


Tomato Phototropism

Pepper Time Lapse

Pea Plant Development

Lettuce- Start to Finish


Bush Bean Seedlings


I actually have plenty else to do.

Gardening is Hard!

Why, oh why, must April showers coincide with the busiest 2 weeks of the semester? A quick visit to the plot last week showed me that a "crazy explosion" of weeds was occurring at my plot- and the hours I spent there this weekend have barely contained them.

Worse, it is now absolutely time to do the planting for warm-season vegetables, and we are not ready!

Around the Garden, 5/2/08

Cabbage and collard transplants are getting larger- though we'll see if I get any cabbage heads this spring.


A few peas have finally come up, and have been supplemented with some donated transplants.
This crop is sort of a let down- you plant it super early but then have to wait until the summer to eat it. :(


Kale planted from seed is getting larger (so are the weeds).






A different variety of kale, grown from transplant. Covered or not, it gets eaten by something.







The strawberry transplants are looking healthy. One is even flowering, but you can't see it here.





The garlic is looking really healthy. Only a few more months before harvest!






Tomato babies have been transplanted and protected from the cold.







Extra tomato and pepper babies are sitting out to get the sun.






All in all, things are looking very hopeful!

To do next time:

Clean up the sloppy job I did at planting potatoes, cucumbers, and beans, and decide whether I'm going with newspaper mulch or plastic as a weed barrier.

Supposed to be part of the last post.

Tomatoes!

Although several people have told me that tomatoes shouldn't get set out until Mother's Day, my garden books say it's safe once the last frost has passed. My seedlings still have a bit of growing to do before transplanting but I wanted to get the tomato bed set up. Therefore, I took a trip to Home Depot today and along with tomato supplies, wound up with 4 tomato plants to transplant.

Since I'm not sure how much time I'll be able to spend tending the garden this summer, I'm trying to plan ahead as well as I can to prevent weeds, and in the tomatoes' case, to stake the plants well from the very beginning. Tomatoes need to be staked because otherwise they will just form a heap of vine on the ground.

Normal wire tomato cages are said to be flimsy. The plants fall over and break and the tomatoes get mushy on the ground. One alternative would be to make your own tomato cages from concrete reinforcing wire. Apparently this is the cheapest and best alternative but sounds like a lot of work. Luckily, Home Depot had a slightly higher quality, triangular tomato cage for sale.

Here's my setup.
- Black plastic, to raise the soil temperature, prevent weeds, retain moisture in the soil, and prevent migration of certain fungi present in soil from transmitting to the plant (this would happen during a rain storm if the soil is exposed). I understand red plastic would be better.
- Tomato plant, planted deeply. Remove lower branches and plant it so just the top sticks out. This helps tomatoes grow strong root systems.
- Cage around each plant.
- Marigolds interplanted. In addition to being pretty, they are said to prevent pests.
- Basil interplanted. This is said to improve the flavor of tomatoes, and is convenient to harvest together for cooking.
- Plastic bottle cloches, to keep the plant warm. One of the tomatoes was too big for a cloche so it will try to survive uncovered. If it dies I will just try again.

Around the Garden- April 12, 2008

Garlic well on its way (planted 10/07)

New onion sets taking root

Someone's been eating the simposi (an Asian green) even though it's been covered with row covers.

Overwintered lettuce and spinach seedlings are becoming full plants. I already thinned them out a bit.

"White Russian Kale"- a spring transplant

Strawberry transplants perking up

Up next- more preparation against weeds, which are poking through any un-covered pathways.

Which are my plantings, which are weeds?

As a new gardener the hardest part about growing from seeds is distinguishing your plants from all the other weed sprouts in the dirt.

Spinach looks like blades of grass at first, then gets wider, thicker leaves.


















Kale has a jaggedy third leaf.









Lettuce starts out with soft pale green leaves from the start.

I wish I could tell you what carrots and peas look like!

Ag Weather Forecast

Full Weekly Update

This one includes some general comments about the winter that just passed, and implications for the upcoming growing season, including

"WITH ABOVE NORMAL TEMPERATURES DURING THE WINTER THE OVER WINTERING
OF MANY PESTS IS LIKELY TO BE HIGH AND THEREFORE THE PRESSURE FROM
THEIR ASSOCIATED DISEASES IS EXPECTED TO BE HIGH."

Soil Moisture: a little too high, should dry somewhat over next few days.
Low temperature last week was 25 degrees. Soil temperature has
increased to 47 degrees.

The bugs and weeds are out.

Using Plastic Bottles in the Garden

I've mentioned the usefulness of plastic bottle-cloches before. Another neat & cheap trick for a used plastic bottle is as a sprinkling watering can. I looked at Home Depot for a watering can that I could use on delicate plants such as my new seedlings. No luck. So after finishing off a quart of Gatorade I realized that I was holding my new, free watering can. Here's how to do it (it's easy).

1) get a medium sized durable plastic bottle with wide mouthed plastic lid.


2) punch holes in the cap( I used a hammer & nail to do it).

3) fill the bottle, put on the cap and squeeze.







To make plastic bottle-cloches, first you need someone's empty water jugs(stolen from the recycle bin). Cut the jug around the middle, just beneath the handle. Use a utility knife, and be careful.



To vent the half that doesn't have an opening, cut X's into the plastic, then cut little triangles out of the X's. It's easier to cut holes this way because you're cutting straight lines instead of circles.

What I like most is that these garden supplies are free, and they don't create additional waste when you're done with them. They can go back in the recycling bin.


You can use lots of different containers for cloches.

Weather Wrap-Up, Week ending 3/31

From the Rutgers Weather Center Agricultural Forecast:

Temps have averaged 5 degrees below normal for the past week in New Brunswick. Soil moisture capacity is at 97% for Central NJ (good).
Soil temperatures still only 42 degrees.

It will be below freezing tonight but there has been a definite shift towards spring the last few days. I don't see any more frosts in the next 10 day forecast.

My garden loves cool misty weather

I had to stop at the garden this morning to see how my transplants were doing. They are very happy, getting constant watering from the off and on rain the last few days. To the right are collard greens next to some overwintered cabbage. I put in some new cabbage, too, at the back.

Even the strawberries are happy in their new grass mulch.


Check out this cucumber, seeded exactly 1 week ago. It literally sprang up overnight.

This overwintered lettuce is ready to be eaten.