Garden Questions of the Week
“Do you know of a recipe for making a leaf shine for indoor plants?” -Yes, many. But they aren’t recommended any more. The best thing for your plants is to wash them off in the shower or tub and wipe down the leaves. I don’t recommend using leaf shines.
“My lantana had flowers, but now has small purple berries and no flowers. Any ideas?” -Yes, it went to seed. Cut off those seed heads, and clip back tips of the plant. Hopefully we’ll get it to re-grow and keep flowering.
“How do bagworms move from plant to plant?” -Each bag can contain as many as 500 eggs. In June, when they hatch, you can imagine how small they are! Well, they get into the wind, and fly to other plants (or stay put on the home plant). They can also move around the plant they hatch on (they just open the lid on top of their bag and using their front legs, crawl around on the plant or move to close by plants, all the while carrying their bag home), as well as onto neighboring plants if the branches overlap and touch.
“My Autumn Joy Sedum always flops over this time of the year. What can I do to prevent this?” -1.) Place a grow ring or peony ring over them before they start to grow in the spring (for support) 2.) Cut them in half in late May / early June. This delays flowering by a couple weeks, but keeps them shorter, stockier, and less apt to flop!
“Hi Ron Wilson: This is Xavier N. again. I still listen to your show every Saturday morning with my grandma. We grew tomatoes this year but they are white inside, and hard and kind of dry. What happened? Grandma said she has never seen this before. We are growing corn at my house.”
– Hi Xavier! I’ve had several folks complain about hard white cores in their tomatoes this year. This can occur from plant stress (too hot / too cold), too much fertilizer, and by variety. Older varieties produce fruit with 5 distinct cavities (filled with seeds and gel) and the walls between the cavities join together to form the core. That’s what’s getting white and hard. Some of the newer selections produce smaller but more cavities, and don’t have such a thick central core, and in turn don’t seem to have as much of a problem with the core being white and hard (or pithy) under stressed conditions. Good luck with that corn – and thanks for listening to our show!
“I’ve been seeing tomato hornworms and was looking for a way to stop them organically, if possible. Any suggestions?“ -Hand pick them and do the Buggy Joe Stomp. Seriously – the numbers are usually low enough that hand picking works. But if you do need to spray, look at ‘Bt’ – all natural spray to control many leaf eating caterpillars. It does take time to work, so you will get damage until it finally affects the hornworm. They can sometimes be hard to find – look for eaten leaves and for their hornworm poop (little black balls) underneath the area where they’re feeding. And yes, they will eat foliage and tomatoes, and will do it quickly! By the way, there are tobacco and tomato hornworms, both of which feed on tomatoes.
“I haven’t seen Late Blight on my tomatoes or my neighbors. Should I spray them just to be sure?” – Well, it won’t hurt. This has now been detected in Wisconsin, and is really spreading. So, it’s important that the word get out about Late Blight, what to look for, and what to do if you find it on your tomatoes or potatoes (visit ohioline.osu.edu for more info). So please make sure you know what to look for, and if you do get it, let the local extension office know. Important for them to track where it’s been found. – Closely inspect your tomato and potato plants at least once a week for lesions or other signs of late blight. – You can try using a preventive fungicide spray to treat your plants, which is what commercial growers are doing. Look for products that contain chlorothalonil or mancozeb. These sprays are not absorbed systemically by the plant, so they need to be applied thoroughly and then reapplied every five to seven days if there’s a lot of wet weather. If you’re gardening organically, you can try a copper spray, but they are not considered as effective against late blight. – Be prepared to destroy your plants if you get an infestation. – Do not compost any diseased portions of your plants. Put them in plastic garbage bags. – Although it does not over winter in the soil, still rotate your crops so you don’t grow tomatoes and potatoes in the same soil from year to year. -If found on potatoes, same rules apply. But, if any left over tubers grow back next year, those plants should be destroyed immediately as it could overwinter in an infected potato tuber!
[I studied a long time to be a doctor, but just didn't have any patience.]
Tags: bagworms, indoor plants, lantana, sedum, tomatoes
