Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Responding to some questions in the comments...


kelly: 
"How do you battle stink bugs? We barely get a tomato from our plants because the stink bugs beat us to them?"

For whatever reason, I haven't had much of a problem with them this year, though in years past they've been a nuisance. It's very important to pick your tomatoes before they are too ripe--I usually try to pick them right after they've blushed, or maybe the next day. They ripen up just fine on the countertop, no discernible difference in flavor. You can also control the population with a pair of needle-nose pliers and a quick hand. The problem is that the bugs seem most active during the hottest part of the day, which makes the whole affair unpleasant on several levels.


Debbie:
This is my first year for home gardening and it's been very exciting. However, my squash and cucumbers have fallen victim to pickleworms!! I wanted to ask if you were successful with bagging your plants to resolve the problem? Do you bag the entire plant or just the blossoms/fruits? Thanks so much!

I've had great success in the past, but I was away from home during the initial invasion of pickleworms and now the cukes have stopped setting fruit, so this year, no chance to try it. In the past the biggest obstacle has been heavy rains that would ruin the bags... I wish we had that problem right now!

Shreela:
I hope that trombone squash comes up! I saw it in a youtube and loved how the slices are almost uniform when using just the neck, AND no seeds from the neck either! Never heard of those limas either, are the beans actually black
The tromboncino is really tasty, too! One fruit weighs at least a pound, and there are no seeds to speak of anywhere in the body. Oh, and the limas: These are a passalong plant, supposedly a hybrid of Willow Leaf limas and another black lima. There's a whole story about a dying agronomist in Tennessee... anyway, I found them when I was rooting through my bag of bean seeds and thought I'd give them a try. It's a bit late to plant limas, but they'll still produce.

3 comments:

Mikki said...

Hello there.
I just found your blog via Googling for gardening in Central Florida..
I'm also in Deland.. very small world..
Looking forward to looking through your blog some more and learning.

I have a blog about our hosue at:
http://ourfloridabungalow.blogspot.com/

Happy Gardening

Unknown said...

Aww, you answered my comment, thanks! Keep us posted on the tromboncino. I'm a bit confused about the seeds though, maybe some don't have many, or they're picked early? Well hoping you get seeds if some do put some out ^_^

Anonymous said...

I was having problems w pickle worms, I used stockings to put over the squash and tied the ends so water isn't a problem and it worked great