Judith's garden plans, records, results, hopes.....

thank you Christopher!

my pergola discussion is here now https://permies.com/t/378355/Judith-cedar-pergola-top-bamboo

Judith Browning wrote:so happy to hear that May!
My peach seedlings are popping up also...more than I need but it doesn't look like my bearing trees will have many fruits this year and I'll need some replacements for the ones I expect to die soon from bore damage...I'm determined to get out ahead of the borers one day.
It will be interesting to see how your pears turn out...maybe you'll have a winner!

Our last apple died from borer damage. The pippin I started from seed ten years ago and had hopes it would make it but I didn't take any proactive measures.  It does have three nice sprouts at the base and I have three tiny trees from last years seeds so the 'trip apple' is still in the works.

I have way too much elephant garlic planted but I really love it to 'mark' young plants visually and the blooms are so striking and popular with the pollinators.

Are you opposed to pheromone traps? A funnel trap with a bucket catchment used in conjunction with the pheromone trap will draw all the males in the vicinity.

Then you can smash 'em and/or feed them to your chickens (if you've any).

You need to run the traps continuously from end of May through the first several frosts, and you need to run them for at least three years, since the larvae don't develop into beetles for 1-3 years as they eat their way through the roots and into the trunk.

The funnel bucket traps are the most effective method I've discovered for trapping the males. If you get all the males, no breeding can occur.

The traps are $5-$10 and last for three months. Assuming some overlap time, you'll need three per year. With the cost of a large funnel, a five gallon bucket, and your traps, you're looking at $100 spread over three years in order to annihilate your local population.

If you then keep the traps running in perpetuity, you should significantly decrease/entirely remove your bore beetles from your system.

Finer Points:

- One trap should cover between 1-10 acres, but plan on one trap per 1-2 acres if you want to maximize your effectiveness
- The traps should be placed at least 20' away from the trees you are trying to protect, just to make sure you're not inviting the problem to the party
- The trap needs to be low to the ground, so dig a hole to set your bucket in until only an inch or two is exposed above the ground
- They're active around dusk, so check your traps in the morning
- They're also drawn to light at dusk, so you can create light traps too, and these will also attract the females, but you'll attract all the other light-attracted critters too, so be careful how you design your trap
- They'll also sometimes fly into the electric bug zappers if they have a light kute, but that's not ideal because they're giant and stinky when fried
- The calufornicus ones are hissing beetles, and they fly, and if they fly at you you're gonna shit your pants (heh) because they're like 2.5" (I've included a picture) long
- Their larvae can grow more than 4" long

BONUS: I've included a picture of a much less obnoxious borer beetle that I see everyday on the milkweed, the Milkweed Borer Beetle.

Thanks Chance!
I'm not opposed to pheromone traps although I've never used them.
I used to spend a lot of time, not money, scraping bark, shaking for curculio, etc and just decided I would consider the trees temporary since it was easy enough to start more from seed....I was given some tanglefoot one time and used it on yellow cardstock and I seem to remember we had no curculio that year.

Thank you for the detailed helpful 'how to'!

We have had a real problem with borers of all sorts in this area recently.

They make traps for several species, including grape vine borers, so you could look into it.

Or, you know, you could keep doing what you're doing and you might even discover a seedling that doesn't attract the borers and maybe that's an inheritable trait...or maybe not, but since you're growing seedlings there's always the chance of something interesting happening.

I thought the rain had stopped for the usual summer drought but we had a nice little half inch shower mid day.

I am done with cucumbers and so are friends and family...I don't can them and we eat a lot fresh and a few in vinegar with onion in the refrigerator to stretch the season.
I brine some but we never eat them before they soften and they are too salty for our taste...so, as much as I looked forward to the first one I think I could live without them until next year.

Long beans are producing and enough to dehydrate and eat lots, green beans are done except for seed....what I'm really determined to have a lot to harvest in the fall are sweet potatoes, both purple and orange so I did water them some early today before the rain.

Eating a lot of moringa, purple sweet potato leaves, lambs quarters and a bit of new growth on the chicory that has not gone to seed.

passion flower vine everywhere....maybe we'll do something with the fruit this year...I'll share seeds if anyone wants some?

The hummingbirds have been busy at different flowers but mostly the hyacinth beans (and tithonia, of course)....they are ignoring those bright red scarlet runner bean blooms though!

the row of flowers and sweet potatoes pictured below has filled in a bit more than I expected with all these rains...I kept planting and everything took for a change.  The test will be whether the sweets produce as they are the important 'crop' in that row.

nice surprise while picking cucumbers and long beans this morning....I love seeing these moths!  
I think this one was newly emerged as it's wings look perfect and every so often it flutters a bit...with at least a 6" wingspan.
I expect it to be gone when the sun hits that spot.

I think it likely was from a cocoon in a pear tree that is on the edge of the garden near by.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antheraea_polyphemus

 Polyphemus moths inhabit deciduous hardwood forests, orchards, urban areas, and wetlands.[3] The caterpillar can eat a total of 86,000 times its weight in the first eight weeks after it emerges.[4] Polyphemus moths are considered to be very polyphagous, meaning they eat from a wide variety of plants.[5]  

How are your Maypop doing? I found some vines growing along a chain link fence amidst lots of poison ivy. It was loaded with egg-sized fruits and still pumping out those pretty flowers. I carefully picked a few ones and opened them up. Slightly under ripe one tasted sour but the fully ripe ones were so good and they reminded me of mangosteen. Another wonderful wild fruit to add to the list.

May, ours look good this year too and maybe we'll do something with the fruit....I do love the taste but to get any amount of juice takes some work and a lot of fruit.
We have a lot of the vines indoors drying for tea though.
Are the ones you found white flowered?
I can't remember if I sent you some of the purple flowered seeds? Those are all I'm saving for seed now since the white ones seem to show up on their own.

this vine is doing a better job of covering the new hoop house than the hyacinth beans.

I just swallowed the pulp with seeds altogether. It will take huge amount of fruits to make a cup of juice. Wild fruits have much bigger seeds than the cultivated one. I tend to find elderberry bushs and passion fruits coexisting with poison ivy along fences by the ditch. I figured they are more of the bottom land plants so I haven't tried growing any yet. I can save the seeds of the purple-flowered ones, haven't seen any white ones.

Hi Judith, do you think passion vine would be happy in my yard here in zone 8b?  Are the fruits the same as the passion fruit that people have in tropical drinks?  We have rainy autumn/winter and spring it depends and our summers are dry.  We aren't arid in our air but we're not very humid either, people who have lived in both say we're inbetween and pleasant.

Riona,
What I grow and what May has is Passiflora incarnata
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passiflora_incarnata
commonly called maypops around here.

The tropical one is different but I don't know the plant.

The one I have is easy to grow but does spread by runner so if it's happy you will find it popping up everywhere😊
The bumble bees especially love the flowers but so do hummingbirds and other things.
The fruit is very flavorful and quite seedy so we hardly ever do anything with it but enjoy a few fresh at the end of summer.

I would be happy to send you some seed.
I'm sure it would grow there but might spread more than you want?

I read the article, there's a dryer place in back of my house (small wraparound yard) and the last thing I planted there didn't grow, but maybe this will.  Can you send me a few seeds, I will pm you my address, and I can send you some calendula seeds or red and white radish seed mix from my yard, or if you want to wait I can send you mini-white pumpkin seeds, the pumpkins are small and no good for eating but lovely for decorating the porch for autumn holidays, and pumpkin leave recipes and stuffed flowers.

Riona,
Would you like the vine with white or purple flowers?
Both are p.incarnata.

Am just now harvesting a few fruits and will start saving seed...I process like tomato seed because of the gel so it will take a bit of time before I send.

I brought the white ones (seed) with us when we moved here and bought the purple seed from Richters
Both of them I started in pots in the late winter early spring I think?

I'll send enough seed that you can experiment😊

100 degree days and the rains have stopped....thankful we had good rains  through June and even some in July!
Watering something everyday and the extra water from the well 8s going to make all the difference as we are running short on rainwater and are determined not to use municipal water.

Who knew broom corn would get so tall...these are 10-12 feet tall!
I wonder when I harvest it? can I save seed and make a broom?

Have been watering the tithonia and zinnias and seeing a few more butterflies around....so few compared to several years ago.

If you want fully matured seed heads, just let them be. Otherwise,  for better quality broom making, the stalks need to be tabled now. Bend them so the weight of seeds won't make the tassels curvy.

Thanks May!
I have been leaning towards just savng seed this year and doing a larger patch next year.
There's probably only enough for a cobweb broom now.

I am glad to know how to 'table' the stalks.
I was unaware of that step and term.

I have more planted at the front porch.

have shifted from harvesting vegetables and fruits to seed saving.

I cut the volunteer black sorghum before the birds ate it all.
I had intended to do a large space for it but ran out of room so I only have a few volunteers.
...it is hard to remove from the seed heads...maybe needs longer to cure?

I did the same with the cow pea mix...meant to plant a full row but did not so I have only a few plants...plenty for seed just not enough for soup.

We have trays and bags and bowls of seeds drying everywhere.
so far there's.....
bright lights cosmos
parsley
blue/purple morning glory
a nice red dahlia
okra
squash
sunflower variety
common milkweed
yucca
four scarlet runner bean seeds from the one pod that a dozen vines produced
tithonia
cucumber
melon
black beans
black locust
balsam
hazelnuts
marigold
comfrey
dill
long beans (mostly because I keep missing the green ones and they get too big, so more seed)
black sorghum
cow peas

will be cleaning the white flowered passion fl. fruit soon
and then the purple flowered.

And a lot of parsnip seed!