Cabbage 2020
Lettuce head type butter crunch
Peas Green Arrow
Gooseberry Pixwell
Native Plum Small Yellow
It has turned into a cool and rainy spring. The cool weather crops such as cabbage and peas are loving the cooler temps and all the rain. I picked my first strawberries yesterday and they are not loving the rain. Lots of mildew and bad spots. Such is life as the ducks will love them.
Blessings from The HollerThe Canned Quilter
Hi CQ. What do you do for cabbage worms and plum curculios? We always have cabbage worms to deal with and DE doesn't seem to make much difference. We don't use chemicals on anything, so the worms usually get more cabbage than we do.
ReplyDeleteI thought we were going to have our first crop of plums this year, but they had little scars and fell off the trees. Then the same thing started happening with one of our apple trees. I looked up possible culprits and found curculios. We ordered some nematodes that are supposed to be effective for this, applied them under the trees and hope next year will be better.
Any advice you can share would be greatly appreciated!
Fern
Like you I try to limit chemicals I use on my food. BUT with the Brassicas here I find it impossible to grow them without Bt (Bacillus Thuringiensis) Equally effective is a covering. You can buy netting to keep away the moths that lay the eggs but I go to the fabric store and buy tulle or netting fabric. Sun goes through but moths don't. You may have to sew couple pieces together because it is not that wide. Make a frame from pvc, chicken wire bet you could find something laying around. Hubby made me an arch out of chicken wire and I took nylon string and attached the netting and put over boxes with cabbage. Problem solved. If your cabbage patch is too big for that then Bt would be my second choice.
DeleteAs for fruit trees in Missouri I could grow fruit without spraying. Here in Tn I have had no luck with that. So I compromise and try to keep my sprays to organic sprays. Neem oil, pyrethrin from daisies, even Bt for worms. I also made small enclosures that go around the bottom of my trees. I have 4 ducks that I throw under my trees that clean out the slugs. When the ducks get finished I throw in a couple hens every so often. Always pick up your fallen fruit also and keep under the trees clean.
DeleteI have heard of Bt but never used it. Looks like it's time to research it again.
DeleteThanks, CQ!
Fern
Everything looks great, CQ! God bless!
ReplyDeleteIt's a record breaking spring for rain and cool temps here in the mountains of NW Arkansas. Cabbages and kohlrabi are loving it. Rest of garden is starting to grow like crazy after a slow start. Hoping to can the Jade green beans before knee surgery is rescheduled. It was supposed to happen March 17. If all the tomatoes Mr. Gardener planted make it, I will have a bumper crop for canning, soups and chili. He planted the Long Island Cheese pumpkins a couple of days ago. It's going to be close using what I have in the freezer and the pumpkins maturing. I love seeing and hearing about your garden. Thanks for the lovely pictures and news!!
ReplyDeleteGood morning Gwynette! My weeds are loving these rains and cool temps here. They are breaking records of their own. I planted some more Jade beans yesterday. It is supposed to dry up after today and I hope the 4 days of sunshine they are predicting come true. I have a garden list a yard long to get done to catch up. Blessings from The Holler CQ
DeleteI've always wanted to have ducks to eat the insects that terrorize my garden.
ReplyDelete