Kale Harvest

The kale has been growing well for months now and we have been picking as needed.  A few week ago I thought I noticed some white-fly larvae on the underside of some of the leaves, but I never made the time to spray with Neem oil.   As expected, the infestation got worse and a few days ago I brushed up against the Kale and some of the white-flies fluttered around.    It still was not nearly as bad as it was last year though.  This is mainly because last year I had no idea what they were, or anything about them.   I searched for a bit  online, but it was only until I looked in some old gardening books that I was able to figure it out.   


Now that I know them, they are so easy to identify.  They are tiny little white bugs that almost look like dust when you brush against the leaves of kale.  They look much more like tiny little white moths, rather than house flies.  They are similar to aphids in that they suck on the leaves and excrete a sticky residue on the underside of the leaves.  Left untouched for a while, they will eventually kill the leaves.  

The thing that bothers me the most is that they leave little things on the back of the leaves that are hard to wash off.  I think it is the adhesive left over after the eggs hatch, but I really have no idea.

Interestingly, there are no signs of white-flies on the collards or anything else.


Anyway, rather than try to fight the already existing infestation with Neem Oil like I did last year, I decided to harvest the entire crop, sparing only stems and the newest leaves.  I have read that as long as the heart is in tact, new leaves will still come.  I have no idea if it will work, but it's worth a try.  Once all of the leaves were harvested, I did spray Neem on what was left.  I'm going to re-apply once a week and just see what happens  

At first I was going to blanch and freeze some of the kale and keep the rest in the fridge. After blanching the first batch and seeing well it removed all of the stuff that was stuck to the leaves, I decided to just freeze the whole batch.  Here are some pics from the process:

Sorting

Washing

Packaging

A bunch of tomatoes, round 2 for the bush beans, and sick pole beans

The tomatoes could not have arrived at a better time.  Last weekend the family came, with Bobe and we ate the first 5 tomatoes, including that one huge mortgage lifter.  There was one ripe better boy and one ripe Patio tomato, so we even got to have a taste test.

1st place 

Better boy -- By far the best flavor

2nd place

Mortgage lifter -- Not quite as good of a flavor as the better boy, but really juicy and a close second.

3rd place

Patio -- Still better than store bought tomatoes, but not by that much.   

The original bush bean plants kicked the bucket this past week, and I pulled them out on the 18th.  This picture is of the next planting.  The back two rows is contender, and the closest row is Blue Lake (the new one).  I'll plant another few rows of blue lake in a few weeks.

Not sure when I will transplant the Basil and the Marigolds.   I'm pretty sure they are ready, but I think they could also wait a bit longer as well.

From afar, the pole beans look great.  They have reached the top of the overhang, and are looking for more space to grow.

Unfortunately, the leaves are dying on most of the plants, to various degrees.   I looked it up online, and it might be Bean Mosaic Virus.   The fix:  Plant more.  They get the virus from aphids, and are more susceptible at certain times. From what I read if I plant more, the next batch might not "catch" the virus.    At this point I guess it is just a race against time.  No beans yet.  Just tons of flowers.

I also finally got to take a picture of the Tithonia and Aster at it's peak.  I wonder how long they each will keep flowering.  Looks pretty nice now.

Mission accomplished! Our first ripe tomato

The cage works!  We have been snacking on cherry tomatoes for a week now, but way more exciting to me is that the first three Mortgage lifters made it to about 90% ripeness without being picked off by greedy squirrels.  I had to pull them off because after the big rain storm they started to crack.   The cracks healed quickly and last night we at our very first ripe tomato from our own garden.  A good day!

Also last night, I pulled up all of the onions.  70 in all.  About 10 are the size of a pool ball, about 50 are the size of a ping pong ball, and the rest are pretty tiny.  Both groups of onions were planted in high traffic areas -- in the herb garden they kept getting whacked by the hose, and in the main garden they getting hard to find between the lettuce and the peppers.  Because of this, it was hard to tell when the tops fell over on their own because most of them were knocked over at some point.  You are supposed to pull the onions when 75% of the tops fall over on their own.  When that happens, you are supposed to knock the remaining tops over, and pick them a week later.    

Just like with the garlic, I think I left them i bit too long. One or two actually rotted, and a few look like they might go that direction sooner than later.  All in all, it is a good lesson for next year.  I'm definitely curuios to see how long they last before the start to turn. 

Right now they are supposed to sit in the sun for a few days (covered by a cotton cloth).  I am supposed to turn them every few days, and bring them inside when it rains.   Hopefully I can pull this off without it raining while I am at work.   

The sweet potatoes vines have fully filled in, and they look pretty cool.  I think they are the point where we could eat the leaves now.  It still seems strange, but I am looking forward to trying it out.   I read that they cook and taste similar to spinach.

The last update for the day is that the Anaheim Peppers are stating to grow.  No signs of poblano's, picante's, or jalepenoes yet, but these guys look pretty nice. 

It feels like March all over again

In addition to the marigolds, Brussels Sprouts, and Basil that I started a few weeks ago, I decided to sow some more Cilantro, Dill, and Basil.  Also, while it might be too late, I figured it couldn't hurt to sow some more Brussels Sprout seeds in 4 inch containers.   

I also sowed some more bush beans where the Garlic was.  The original patch is still producing beans, but much less than at the peak.   If I time this right, the pole beans in the front of the house will be ready by the time the bush beans are  finished, and then this patch will be ready by the time the pole beans are finished.  Either way, it will be a good experiment to help me plan better for next year.     

 The thing that really made it seem like March is that I put in another seed order.  We ran out of Bibb lettuce seed, so I got the same type (Capitan) and then another type (Speckled Bibb).  The Hairy Vetch and Winter Rye are used as a cover crop in the winter.  The hairy vetch will fix nitrogen into the soil, and the Rye is good for phosphorous and potassium.  According to southern exposure seed exchange, they are a good combo.

Rounding out the order are some more beans and peas that I will sow in the next few months, and a new type of garlic that will go in around October:

July is here...

July is here and the garden is going strong.  The tomatoes are finally starting to turn red, the squash plants are starting to blossom, and the Pole beans have done some serious climbing in the front of the house.   The Tithonia (Mexican Sunflower) has started to flower, and the Asters are right behind it.


It has been over 100 degrees for most of the past week so I have had to start watering more frequently.  Aside from that though, it feels like I have had to do a lot less "gardening" these past few weeks.  At this point, it is mostly just kicking back and watching everything do what it is supposed to do.  

Here are a few pictures:

This is the Acorn squash growing really nicely along the fence.  I have been pushing it back and forth through the slats as it grows.  Hopefully the tentacles can support the weight of the actual fruit.  If not, I have seen a few cool videos on YouTube that show the different ways you can support the fruit.  All the way to the left, the cantaloupe plant is also starting to climb  

The cherry tomatoes are the first to start turning red.  A few days later, one Mortgage lifter start to turn just the slightest bit red. 

The first of what looks like it will be many Tithonia flowers.  There are over a dozen buds on their way.  The little white dots are what is going to be the Aster flowers

Close up.  

The Pole beans and Summer Squash

Some of the onions are starting to die back now.  We have picked a few little ones so far, and we used two little guys in a mango salsa last night.  Maybe because it is new, but there is just something surprisingly satisfying about picking an onion out of the ground as needed for a recipe.  I know it is the same for everything in the garden. I guess I just never expected that we could grow our own onions this easily.    

I'll end this post with two flowers from our house.  The first is a flower from one of the summer squash plants, and the other is a Orange Daylilly.      

The Asian Tiger Mosquito: What has worked, and what has not

While not directly garden related, I have gotten more mosquito bites while working in the garden over the years than I can count.   I have resorted to wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt whenever I am out there, even if it is only for 10 minutes to pick some greens.  Even covered neck to toe, I still come back inside with at least a dozen bites on my face -- like to the point where my face starts to feel hot.

First let me start out by identifying the enemy: The Asian Tiger Mosquito, or Aedes_albopictus.

The situation

• Why Asian:  They apparently hitched a ride in the inner ring of tires that were being shipped from Asia to the US in 1985.  
• Why Tiger:  Their legs have black and white stripes.  If you look close, you will immediately see they are different than the mosquitoes we grew up with
• How are they different: They bite all day long, not just at dawn and dusk.  Also, unlike most mosquitoes, they bite multiple times.  One mosquito will bite at least 5 or 6 times if able.
• Where are they: All up and down the east coast by this point.
• What is being done on a macro level:  I'm pretty sure a few states (from memory: GA, VA, and NJ) have all tried to find solutions to this problem.  One project even went as far as to create a new mosquito that was designed to feed on the eggs of the tiger mosquito.  Apparently it didn't work though.  The advice remains to find areas where water is collecting and empty the water.  Kind of an impossible task if you live close to hundreds of neighbors.  

So what has not worked (for me, in order of use)

• Tiki Torch candles with with citronella oil
• Maybe they work a little, but even with 8 of these burning, we would still couldnt enjoy dinner outside without getting bitten a lot.  
• The propane based Skeeter Vac, similar to the Mosquito Magnet
• I was really hoping this would work, but I'm pretty sure the Asian Tiger Mosquitoes are just not attracted to this trap.  The amazon reviews show that for normal mosquitoes, these things can work great.   Luckily, Amazon let me return it, which was pretty awesome.  
• Mosquito Barrier - A concentrated garlic spray.  I had high hopes for this after neighbor said it worked for them, but it did not seem to work at all for me. 

So now, what has worked

• The BBQ -- This was a nice accident. I realized after a while that whenever the BBQ was on, particularly if it was hot enough to be making smoke, we could sit outside for any length of time and barely get any bites.
• Cigars -- Found this out in a similar way.  Not the healthiest way to fight mosquitoes, but it helped me come to the next idea
• Fire bowl -- Jumping on the theme of smoke, we finally got a fire bowl for the backyard (Actually it was a gift from my parents, which was pretty awesome).  Whenever the fire pit is lit, it drastically cuts down on the mosquitoes that are around.  You no longer get the swarms of mosquitoes if you stand in one spot.  I have even started to light a small fire in the bowl in the middle of the day on weekends if I expect to be doing a lot of gardening.   Hands down, I would say that it is the best (and most fun) way to keep the mosquitoes away.     

TBD

• ThermaCell - Another recomondation from neighbors.  So far this really seems to be working.  It costs $20 bucks, but the refills are where it starts to add up.  It has a butane cartridge and a poison pad.   Each pad works for 4 hours and each butane thing works for 12 hours.  The catch is that it costs about $20 more to get 12 new pads and 3 new butane cartridges.   I have used it 4 times so far, and I really think it has been working. It covers a 15x15 foot area.  For the party this weekend, the combination of the fire bit and the ThermaCell seemed to work pretty well.      

So there you have it.  I hope this helps someone, somewhere.