August 13, 2022
2022 Garden Pests
| Months | First Sighting | Insect | Crop | Treatment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May | 5/14 | Leaf minor | Spinach & beets | row cover with blue sticky trap |
| May-June | 5/28 | Cabbage worms | Cabbage | Hand removal (multiple passes each week) |
| June- | 6/4- fava 7/2- brussels & nasturtium | Aphids | Brussels, fava, nasturtiums | Insecticidal soap |
| 7/9? | Squash vine borer | Summer squash, pumpkins | Yellow sticky traps and SVB lure (3) | |
| Cucumber beetle | Slicing cucumbers | Hand removal & yellow sticky traps | ||
| Potato beetle | Potatoes | Hand removal & yellow sticky traps | ||
[May] Leaf minor
We proactively covered the spinach and beets with agrofabric immediately after transplanting them in the garden. Additionally, we placed a blue sticky trap under the cover to catch any flies that might be in the soil or caught inside the trap. This worked very well — dozens of flies were caught by the sticky trap in the first couple of weeks and the spinach crop was beautiful with no notable leaf minor damage. Definitely recommend repeating this combination going forward (cover the crops at the time of transplant and keep a sticky trap inside).
[June] Cabbage worms
We first noticed the cabbage worms in the brassica bed on 5/28. Over the month of June, we found them in most of the green cabbage, cauliflower and brussels sprouts. Some days, we found up to three worms on a single plant. Having several gardeners inspect the plants each Saturday worked out very well. We would often find several worms the first time through and then a second inspection with fresh eyes would find 2 or 3 more. By the time the cabbages headed up, we had successfully kept the worms under control and got several beautiful cabbage heads.
[June] Aphids
As usual, the aphids attacked the fava plants as they set out flowers. We sprayed them with insecticidal soap, taking care to avoid spraying the flowers. The insecticidal soap succeeded in controlling the aphids; however, it seems like the insecticidal soap may also have killed some of the flowers, reducing the potential harvest. Unfortunately the garden photos aren’t detailed enough to support this theory, so we may want to try to document more carefully next year. Also, Elisabeth had recently watched an episode of Gardener’s World (BBC) where Monty Don said that the aphids don’t harm the productivity of the fava beans, so we may want to try leaving the fava untreated next year.
June 4, 2022
Ginger Experiment
This spring is our first attempt to grow ginger in the garden. We ordered a batch of ginger rhizomes from Fruition and began preparing them on March 12, 2022. In addition to the Fruition ginger, which was rather expensive, we also purchased some ginger root from the grocery store and will attempt to grow from both sources this year.
In preparation of planting, the first step with the Fruition ginger is to divide the roots such that each piece has at least 3 “eyes” and is at least 3 inches long. Upon inspection, some of the eyes were damaged or did not look viable, so several pieces ended up being longer than 3″ in an order to keep at least 3 viable eyes. The total weight of the seed ginger from Fruition is 1 lb 7.25 oz. After splitting the rhizomes, we will leave them for a few days so that the cuts can heal before planting them.
The ginger from the grocery store did not look as fresh as the Fruition ginger, but was the freshest and firmest root that we were able to find. In particular, many of the eyes were dried or damaged, so it is not clear whether they will successfully produce sprouts. We washed the outer skins of the ginger and left it to soak in a bowl of water for at least 8 hours to remove any growth inhibitors that might have been added.
The guidance from Fruition for starting the ginger rhizomes is to first wait for the cuts to heal, then plant the rhizomes in a tray of soil with 2-3″ of soil below and 1″ of soil on top. They recommend a heating pad such that the soil is at least 80 deg F. The soil should stay moist, but not wet, to prevent the rhizomes from rotting.
March 12 – (day 0) divided tubers
March 16 – (day 4) planted tubers, soaked soil from below
March 26 – (day 14) checked a tuber, watered from above (no signs of sprouting yet)
March 31 –(day 19) watered from below
April 6 – (day 25) checked a tuber, first sprout broke ground (commercial tuber)
April 10 – (day 29) many new sprouts quickly followed the first
April 16 – (day 35) large sprouts from both Fruition and commercial tubers, but Fruition now has more sprouts than commercial size. New sprouts are still emerging
April 23 – (day 42) removed the top layer of soil from ginger tubers to inspect them. There are roots growing from the tubers. Fed with a sprinkling of the Fruition fertilizer and added a light layer of sterilized compost before returning the soil on top of the tubers
Second Wind
The jerusalem artichokes are experiencing a second growth spurt of the summer with the flowers reaching 10 ft or higher! They might be responding to the rainy weather this summer or maybe the unusual height is a result of selectively planting only the biggest tubers when we relocated the bed this spring.
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