The Birds and the Bees for Vegetable Gardeners

Occasionally I have gardening friends who tell me they have blooms everywhere in their gardens, but little fruit.  Sometimes it helps to know something about how that particular plant is pollinated. 

For instance, did you know that members of the cucurbit family, which includes squash and cucumbers, have seperate male and female blossoms on the same plant?  That is why you will never have all of your squash blossoms producing fruit.  The males are unable to, of course.  Most always, the plants put on many male flowers for a couple of weeks before ever making a female flower with the potential for pollination.  Often times gardeners think that something must be wrong with their plant because they have so many blooms and no cucumbers. 

When you do get both male and female flowers on the plant at the same time, they are usually bee pollinated.  A flower usually has to be visited by a bee six or eight times before good pollination occurs.  If you aren't noticing many bees, and are concerned that pollen isn't getting transferred, you can always assist nature by using a cotton swab to move the pollen from the male flower to the female flower yourself.  It is pretty easy to tell which flowers are which.  The female flowers have a tiny immature fruit at the stem of the flower.  The male flowers don't.  Also, you can tell by looking in the center of the bloom. 

Squash blossoms are also edible!  There are tons of squash blossom recipes on the internet, and now that you know which flowers are which, you can fry up your excess male flowers without worrying that you are taking away a potential fruit!  The photos below show the inside of the female and male squash blossoms.

Female squash blossom

Male squash blossom

At my house, I have a cucumber plant that must have 50 or 60 male blossoms, but only one female.  So, I will just have to keep waiting until nature takes its course.

What's the Problem?

I recently got a phone call from a lady concerned that her trees had a disease.  She said that the disease left holes all over the trunk of her apple tree and now had started attacking her maple. 

I didn’t think this was going to be a disease issue because apples and maples aren’t close relatives.  Usually diseases are more specific than that. 

So, as I had suspected, her disease has feathers!  A woodpecker called the yellow bellied sapsucker pecks distinctive holes in almost straight lines on the trunks of trees.  Fortunately, trees usually can withstand the damage.  As you can see from the photo, once the sapsucker gets a tree on his mind, he stays focused on it for a while.  You can try to repel the birds by hanging a small, concave shaving mirror in the tree.  Also, they may be scared away by strips of aluminum foil 1"x12" hung from strings so that they twist in the wind. 

Flowers and Fun

Yesterday I had such a great time at the hand tied bouquet workshop!  The five ladies that attended were too much fun!  You could hear the laughter throughout the office as we swapped stories while we worked on our flowers.  At the end of the session, we had to take a picture of us all lined up like we were bridesmaids.  The bouquets turned out great and the ladies were fast learners.  Everyone got to take home their masterpiece of orange and yellow 'Circus' roses, lime green spider mums, hot pink carnations, purple alstromeria, and bear grass. 

Bountiful Blueberries

Wow!  It has been almost a month since I last blogged.  When I was thinking of what my next topic would be, I had a lot to choose from.  Well, a home visit yesterday sealed the deal.  I went to look at some blueberry bushes.  They were totally loaded with berries, not quite ripe.  The gentleman told me he had picked 5 gallons of berries the previous year, and wanted to make sure all was well with his shrubs, as he had noticed some twigs die back.  It turns out that he has nothing to worry about, his shrubs are quite healthy and were just showing signs of water stress.  As I was daydreaming about vanilla ice cream topped with fresh blueberries, I decided the next  blog post would be dedicated to how to grow them.

Blueberries are a perennial shrub that can get 10-12' high, if left unpruned.  They have very few insect and disease problems.  In fact, the biggest concerns with growing them are providing adequate moisture and beating the birds to the fruit. 

There are two types of blueberries:  Rabbiteye and Highbush.  Rabbiteye is native to the southern U.S. and Highbush is native to the north.   Therefore, Rabbiteye can take heat and drought better than Highbush.  They still need mulch and and water while getting established, but will not need irrigation throughout the growing season like a Highbush would in our area.  The recommended varieties of Rabbiteye for West TN are Tifblue, Climax, Gardenblue, Southland, Bluebelle, and Brightblue.  You need to plant at least two different varieties to get cross-pollination.

Blueberries need a well-drained soil with a low pH.  So, the first thing you should do is a soil test.  You can pick up a soil test kit and instructions from any Extension office in any county in Tennessee.  There is a $7 fee, but the test results will tell you what your pH is and exactly what to do if you need to use sulfur to lower it.  Additionally, the results give you instructions for how much fertilizer you need as well.  Blueberries should be planted November through March, and you will need to do your soil test well in advance, as it takes several weeks for the pH of a soil to change after adding the sulfur. 

The shrubs should be planted in rows 5-6' apart.  When working the planting holes, mix 2 gallons of wet peat moss with the soil removed from the holes and place in the bottom of the hole.  This will help to keep the roots moist.  After planting, be sure to mulch 4" deep to help conserve water as well.  Then, it's a waiting game.  It takes 3-4 years for your first good yield.  However, you could always collect enough for that ice cream in the meantime!

Preventing Problems in the Vegetable Garden

Benjamin Franklin once said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” That statement definitely rings true in the garden.  There are lots of simple things you can do this growing season to prevent insect and disease problems on your vegetables. 

This year when you buy seeds or transplants, make sure to buy disease resistant varieties whenever possible.  Also, inspect the transplants for any warning signs.   Check over them for insects.   Look under the leaves and in the axils- the area where the leaves connect to the stems.  Reject any transplants that look sickly or have any spots on the leaves.  Leaf spots are generally an indication of a fungal disease problem. 

When you lay out the garden, be sure to practice crop rotation.  Rotating crops is one of the best and easiest disease prevention strategies we have.  Many diseases are specific to a particular family of plants, so when you rotate between the families, the cycle of disease can be broken.  Dividing your garden into four sections and rotating the crop families to a different one each year for four years is an easy way to do it.  Common families include the legumes (peas and beans), the cucurbits (squash, pumpkins, muskmelon, watermelon, watermelon, and cucumber), the crucifers (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, kale, collards, turnips, mustards, and radish), and the night shades (potatoes, peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes).

Consider mulching your vegetables this year.  If mulch is good for you landscape plants, it will be good for your vegetables too.  Mulch prevents weeds, water loss, and the spread of diseases from splashing water.  You can use any organic mulch you want such as leaves, straw and grass clippings.  Just apply a 2-3” deep layer on top of the soil surface. 

For continuing protection through the summer, remove struggling plants.  Don’t try to nurse an ailing tomato plant along.  Struggling plants are an open invitation for diseases and insects.  It is better to pull up one plant than to risk inoculating the whole lot. 

Why not try one of these strategies?  It could save you time and money in the long run.  May you have a  bountiful harvest this year! 

Update on Perennial Foxtail in Hayfields

County Director Jeff Via is back as a guest blogger this week with an update on his work with Perennial Foxtails. 

Jeff Via

Last week, on March 28, 2011, Extension agents in Fayette and Shelby County along with help from BASF put out a research plot targeting perennial foxtail.  The plot is located on a field that was treated with varying rates of pedimethalin (Prowl H2O) and conducted  where  1.5 quarts of Prowl H20 was applied along with  glyphosate as a dormant spray. 

Since a limited amount of research has been conducted in states south of Tennessee (where knotroot foxtail is more prevalent) and the results show that even the most effective treatments (Pastora or Pastora plus glyphosate) only provide suppression of the weed. We decided to do some research in state.

Pastora at 1.5 oz. along with different rates of glyphosate was applied to the field.  We are also looking at other experimental herbicides.  We will be monitoring and spraying the plot again with Pastora and glyphosate next week and will see how the different applications are affecting the perennial foxtail.  At 1.5 qts. of Prowl H2O, the seedling foxtail are emerging everywhere.  See picture below.

 On the date that the research plot was conducted, the perennial foxtail was 8-10 inches in height. In a normal year, as already mentioned in the previous blog, our recommendation would be to apply a dormant spray for winter weeds and then apply Pastora at 1.5 oz./acre + glyphosate (8 oz./acre of a 4 lb./gal. product or equivalent) with a non-ionic surfactant at 1 qt./100 gal. 3-5 days after first cutting for knotroot foxtail “suppression”. This could then be followed by 1 oz./acre Pastora or Pastora plus (8 oz./acre of a 4 lb./gal glyphosate or equivalent) 10-14 days later if the weeds try to recover.

 With the warmer than normal temperatures this year and the rapid early growth of the foxtail, troublesome fields need to be treated now.

 Producers can expect reduced growth and discoloration of the bermudagrass following applications of Pastora or Pastora plus glyphosate. This is temporary and the bermudagrass will recover. Remember according to the Pastora label we cannot apply more than 2.5 oz./acre per season.

The agents in Fayette and Shelby County were called out and visited a field on April 3, 2012 where 4 quarts of Prowl H20 was used in combination in the dormant spray.  The seedling foxtail was suppressed at this rate and at this point.  However, the perennial foxtail  is starting to put out  seed heads.

Recommendations at this time are to use 1.5 oz. of Pastora with (8 oz. of 4lb./gal. glyphosate or equivalent) with a surfactant at 1 quart/ 100 gal.  Depending on your perennial foxtail pressure, 10-14 days after that, apply 1 oz. Pastora with (8oz. of 4lb./gal. glyphosate or equivalent) and surfactant.  We will be monitoring the research plot and make recommendations as the season progresses.

 Pastora also has on the label that it can be applied in a 50-75 percent liquid N spray solution or with ammonium sulfate. The producer we visited with had some concerns with the Pastora and its recovery. With this being said, we recommended that he use the recommended rates above in the liquid N or with the ammonium sulfate after talking to a DuPont representative.

 With that said, University of Tennessee research has shown that the liquid N does reduce injury but may be impractical if the grower is not set up for this. Regarding the ammonium sulfate, University of Tennessee research has shown that it did not reduce injury. As is the case with all agricultural chemicals, be sure to read and follow label directions and precautions.

Jr. Gardeners Construct Plant Corsets

The Junior Master Gardener 4-H Club recently met at the garden of Vivian England, one of our 4-H volunteers.  Mrs. Vivian showed the kids the wonders of spring hiding right under the leaves from last fall still in her flower beds.  She explained that she keeps the fall leaves in the beds all winter long on purpose- to provide insulation to her perennial flowers.  The kids gently removed the leaves from a portion of the beds to find small, tender plants waiting for the warmth of spring.  Some of the plants were volunteering back from seeds dropped by last year's annuals.  Others were coming back from perennial rootstocks and bulbs. 

Mrs. Vivian also taught them how to make plant corsets for perennials that will get too tall and will need to be staked up off the ground later in the growing season.  The kids made their supports using crapemyrtle twigs and cotton twine.  I have always liked the look of natural materials in the garden for supporting flowers.  The more natural, the less obtrusive the stakes are to the eye as you take in the beauty of the flowers. 

First, the kids laid the twigs down on the ground in a row, and tied them to each other at the bottom of the corset.

Next, the corset is stood upright and a spiderweb like support system is made near the top.

Now all that is left to do is cut the bottom of the corset with pruners into points so that it can be stuck into the ground over your perennial.  As the plant grows, you simply weave it through your spiderwebbing to keep it upright.