as of last evening I am no longer organic, sigh

After a couple warm days of storm, three inches rain one day, another inch or two the next, not paying much attention to the garden, I had a look and the row of potatoes were almost gone, like the leaves had melted away leaving just blackened diseased ribs. I looked on the underside and there it was, bunches of tiny striped caterpillars.

Then the brusselsprouts next to them were getting holes, the leafy heart of one reduced to lace. And then the broccoli. I had mentioned that my seedling cucumbers had disappeared, well they were being eaten - the bigger healthy ones that had remained were disappearing.

So I said screw it and got some

And mixed up a quart squirt bottle and went for them sparing only the kale and chard which we will be eating every day and cannot wait the time on the label, and carrots and beans and beets, some others that were not being bothered - and kale and chard were barely touched anyway.

Then I walked my gardens in the falling light and saw the Satsuma plums were being eaten, the grapes had beetles that I had put neem oil on earlier so I blasted them too, and then the other stone fruit trees prophylactically, and anything else that looked suspicious - till the quart was gone.

I always lose lots to insects, whole crops of one kind and another in every year, but this amazingly aggressive attack was too much. Oh, well. I live in a hot wet place and a very wet spring like this, well over two foot of rain this spring so far, probably over 3, and the insects are having a good time.

 

That's it now. Having also wiped out the predatory insects, which don't breed as fast or in the same numbers, you'll be on the chemicals forever now.

Do you mix your crops up so you don't have large areas of the same thing? My approach to gardening is to just grow a mix of stuff in a mix of places, along with a lot of nasturtium, and (touch wood) I don't really get much problem with pests.

 

Well that garden is in the forest. But I know I am not organic now -



This is an old picture of it, there is a pretty big reservoir of insects, there is over 200 acres of forest contiguous.

I am really bad about planting the same thing in the same spot instead of rotating. But I have 6 gardens scattered about the woods and bayou. The one above is the largest single raised bed. The potatoes attacked are where the lettuce, front left, was.

 

For troublesome flying insects, I find fine netting very effective

 

I cannot even net out the chickens, and expect my berry crop will feed more birds than us. Netting would be too big a deal in cost and size (falling leaves, pine needles, tree limbs, high winds) of the job that I will not even be putting out bird netting.

 

I'm thinking of your Brassica crops (keeping the butterflies out) I bought some a few years ago, and should last many years, if looked after

 

Here we have a tiny worm which cuts a chunk of the canna lily leaf back from the edge, curls it back and nests inside. They will denude a canna stand! They destroyed the ones growing in the water of my pond because I did not want to spray them and it go into the water. The carbayl spray will not get to them and I may buy some malathyon to use on my 5 land based stands of them as they are being cut up now too. Because the ones in the water were buffered from the winter hard freeze the worms seem to have overwintered en-mass.

 

Nope, that is not me, they would be in rags before July. But my wife was going out so I asked her to get me some gamma-cyhalothrin, a quart of this:



I looked around to decide wither to go this way or maliathion and saw the mix of both is the best - but will just give this a go. That ancient bottle of carbyl (liquid Sevin) did not give much confidence; and this extremely wet year, well it will be bad. It has been a long time since I have bought pesticides for anything other than fleas.

Normally I do not mind losing lots of crops because I grow way too much for us anyway and give most of it to the chickens. Now I am getting into dehydrating and jam making I will go for more than just the daily pot of fresh veg and some small amount frozen.

JWK I have gone nuts with tomatoes, I must have almost 20 now! We went out to the Farmers Market and the 4H was selling plants they raised. (In USA 4H is a youth program for young farmers and other interested children. It is overseen by the county agricultural agent (county extension service) and the children raise livestock and plants - the more interested ones compete in shows on all levels. It is a National program similar to say the Scouts but has local government support.

So I bought - 4 inch pot plants, 20 of them, $20. 4 Loquat trees, 6 mixed peppers, a goliath tomato and a creole, Mexican marjoram and oregano, 3 kinds of mints, feverfew, and two of something else. A score! I particularly want the loquats because they handle salt inundations and a tree runs $30 to buy normally, ( for a 3 gallon pot one, pretty big, but these are 10 inch tall in 4 inch pots, and 4 of them. great.)

But my question, JWK, is what do you do with all the tomatoes you grow? Also how is the 'Goliath'? sounds big. Should be fun.