feeding the soil first - PART 2

Linda, I am having the same problem with the stink bugs as well, yesterday I burned about 5 with a lighter but they are out of controll and even the powder that I bought shich claims to kill them is not doing much at all.

Yesterday I was talking to my mother in law (avid garderner ) who lives in Michigan and told her about my dilema and all she did not even know what a stink bug looks like, they just don't have the same bugs or as many problems in the north as we do here in the south.

I think placing the comost either on baggies that you can seal or even in a rubbermaid plastic container should work, but as soon as you have your e-buckets moved to the new location you can start filling them up again with the soil you save. I probably would not keep them in the buckets or plastic baggies too long, otherwise the microorganisms could die and it could start to rot.

Twiggy sorry to hear about the candies, I think I might try another short season type, posibly red, I saw many nice ones in the website you sent me, a little pricey but seriously I had 40 pounds of onions this year so I know that I have saved more than what the seed will cost me. There is another really cool website called http://www.gourmetseed.com/ but unfortunately I see a lot of onion seeds that are long day but not short day.

C,
Great advice on the potting mix. I had forgotten I have to aerate the mix to keep the microherd alive!

Carmen if you got 40 lbs, I think you beat me by a mile. Great job!

http://rareseeds.com/cart/catalog/Onions-40-1.html

Baker Creek has 4 that might be good for zones 8-9. Bronze D' Amposta and Gold Princess are intermediate day types and the latter is supposed to be early which I like. I'm usually wanting them to hurry up so I can have the space for summer stuff. The Red Creole and Violet De Galmi are short day.

I bought a bag of small sprouting red onions at the supermarket today on quick sale. I couldn't resist for $.69. They're called Melissa's Red Pearls. They're just a bit smaller than ping pong balls and I have visions of pickled onions next summer. I think I'm going to keep some in the refrigerator as long as I can and plant them. It might be a waste of time but I'm hoping to get some seeds that will come true.

OH sorry twiggy just made a mistake, I had 21lbs not 40 lbs of onions, I am just keeping a few notes to see how much they produce, my bad, I forgot to look at my notes when I posted the comment.

I think the Melissa's red pearls sound really good, I love pickled onions, I think you'll be fine if you keep them refrigerated and then let them sprout when it comes time.

I'll have to check rareseeds, most of the companies I was looking at yesterday only sell onions that are long season and mid season.

Ok, when ya'll identify the seeds ya'll are gonna order, can I split a packet with you guys? I'll be in transition and heaven knows what addy, but either way the change of addy won't be true by then. But I can give you my work addy, and I'll be sure to get them. Just LMK which varieties, and I'd be more than happy to split the cost with you.

Thanks for the consideration!

Linda

Linda I think that is a great idea, right now I am thinking about perhaps ordering some Onion White Bermuda from gourmet seed, first of because it was originated in Spain ( Canary Islands) where my parents were stationed just a little while ago, second because you can either use it as scallions whinin 30 days or as full size onions and 3rd because it is suppose to have a mild taste as well.

Another onion that looks prety and might be intersted in is Onion Rossa Savonese or Onion Tropeana Tonda both short season onions and from Spain as well.

The packs come with 3 grams or 750 seeds which is more than I can use so I was thinking that perhaps I can order 1 onion pack of seeds and then split it whomever many ways and then sharing with you, twiggy and however is interested in exchanging some onion seeds. Or just like you said I can pay for it and then share costs, the only problem about this is that this company does charge about $6 for shipping so it is a little steep but worth it I think if I can produce good onions.

Thanks, C! LMK.

O.K this is very sad, as you know I am stricktly organic and try to implement organic methods for my garden but this time I am going to have to take strick measures and go the nonorganic way to combat those stupid sucking stinkbugs, I have tried every organic method known to man and woman on those creatures and all have failed, tried to set them on fire like Kelly suggested and even though I would kill about 5 or 6 per day they have been multiplying by the dozen per day at least, then I decided on an organic dust that supposedly kills them and have been faithfully dusting my plants but to no avail, they have won the battle, and my tomatoes are suffering the consequences, so after much thought and prayer I decided to go and buy a strong pesticide that supposedly kills them on contact, it is suppose to have pyretharoid and is called bayer advance, definetely not organic at all but at least I can save my few tomatoes that are left.

I will be planting a new set of tomatoes sometime in July and really would love for these to produce without me having to have blochy or spoty tomatoes all over the place.

So there I said it, if any of you have tried another method that is organic and has worked please let me know but I have been researching on the web and they are just hard to kill once established.

Also this is very toxic to bees and veneficial insects so I am hoping to spray when they are not around, any ideas on when is the best time to spray something this strong.

carminator - be sure to read the label if it says "systemic" do NOT use it on anything you are going to eat.

As to the bees - they don't usually visit tomato flowers. I suggest you wait for an evening when there is no breeze.

Good luck in killing those blighters!

Like Honeybee said, make sure it can be used on food crops... I believe there are some products containing pyrethrins that can be. I am sorry you seem to be losing the stinkbug battle. Those bugs are bad news. I've been seeing one here and one there and finding eggs, but so far no big invasion. I think the key to beating them is planting early so you can get a decent crop before their season begins. They may not be as bad in the fall - at least I'm hoping...

They've really been building up to large numbers in the past couple weeks. I will probably do the same for the fall crop. The 11 straight days of rain and showers ruined my plants and they're about finished. Getting a super early start is the best way to beat them.

Last year I had very few stink bugs and horn worms. This year both are much worse. Last year I had terrible problems with several other kinds of caterpillars and some kind of red and black bug. I've only seen a very few of those this year. So I guess every year is going to be different. The constant is squash vine borers.

All my life I've heard that a cold winter helps control pests. Hogwash! I've been feeling very proud of myself only using neem and BT but the stink bugs must love it.

Sorry I have been a little under the weather for a couple of days.

Anywho, the insectizide my DH bought is called Bayer Advance and it has cyfluthrin, according to what I am reading online it is safe to use on veggies but of course is not good for beneficial bugs and so I have to be careful when I can spray it. It does kill on contact so that is good. I was going to try to spray yesterday but it started raining and by the time I could the leaves of the veggies were still pretty wet, so hopefully today I can spray. I will be only spraying my tomatoes where the bugs are always gathering, they are not really bugging my cucumbers and eggplants at all, or my peppers. I hate to have to use something this strong on my plants but I am doing it as a last resort. Hopefully like Twiggy says maybe the next batch of tomatoes wont have this problem.

I have been having a good harvest though, I have been picking tomatoes left and right, I pick them a little earlier than usual so they don't get too much damage by the stink bugs. I still have some green ones on my indet vines that are not yet ripe but my Det maters are almost done producing so I am going to have to get those out soon.

Yesterday I canned some tomatoe sauce, my first time ever! I am getting the hang of it, but it is a lot of work.

I know for a fact stinkbugs are a favorite meal of birds - they are a preferred food of several animals. There were some stinkbugs showing up in my garden this year. A family of jays moved in and dined on them for me.

There is ongoing studies using insects that eat stinkbug eggs. They maynot sell them commercially, yet. As your extension agent or your local garden center about this. There is pheromone traps for certain stinkbugs. I've used these type of traps for other insects and they work very well.

This message was edited Jun 15, 2010 5:45 AM

thanks dlbailey, I have been meaning to set up a house for birds in my back yard for a while now, I just have soooooo many projects that I want to do that I always keep putting this one off. Now that I know blue jays eat stinkbugs maybe I'll put it on top of my list of things to do.

I have been searching online about any predators of stinkbugs but I did not get any concrete info on anything, there is some predatory stinkbugs that might kill the stinkbugs that do the damage but I did not see or hear of anybody using them for this purpose. Another thing on my list is to plant more flowers and herbs that attract beneficial insects into my garden, I just want to provide a good house for them as well before I start buying them online.

I'll have to ckeck on those pheromone traps and see, if they work for these stinkbugs I much rather use them than the spray.

dbailey - I'm so glad to read that birds will eat stink bugs. I didn't think they would. Perhaps this is why I don't see many stink bugs, I have so many birds in my garden that sometimes I think I'm in an aviary!

Do assissn bugs eat stink bugs?

Well, they might eat the nymphs. I've got one or two Assassins in my foliage, and have to be careful not to whomp em by mistake.

I determined the diff between the Assassins and the Stinkbug nymphs by remembering this phrase:

"Stinkbug, black butt bump". Assassins do not have the black bump on their butts!

Gymgirl - thanks for the tip. So, stinkbug nymphs have a black bump on their butt and assissins don't. Now I have to remember that insect-assissins are the good guys ^_^

Perhaps I'll try: black bump butt = bad bug!

Or, "bad butt bump !"

Carminator1 - I have had tomato plants every year and have never had a stink bug that I know about! My tomato plants are in the midst of my flower garden. This year they are surrounded by marigolds, chives, roses, cosmos and mint. I also have sun flowers which (I've heard) is a greater attraction than the tomato.

My problem is with pepper plants. Something has been eating away at them all year. I've tried almost everything (except harsh sprays) and it seems to work for a little while then they're back again.

smb12321, yes I have also heard that sunflowers are a better attraction than tomato plants, I have read that they are attracted to the color yellow the most. I am actually going to be growing sunflowers as well, about 4 days ago I my DS planted a couple of seeds on a jiffy but it has not sprouted just yet, hopefully it will soon. I also started some flowers, some annual cut flower mix, German cammomile( for my herb garden) purple coneflower, lavender. I also have already established some marigolds, some morning glories, a few nastorsiums. I am hopping to plant all these by the time I get my second batch of tomatoes planted, hopefully I wont have such a big problem with them next time around.

Right now I only have 4 raise beds but hopefully I will place 2 more this winter, maybe I can dedicate a whole raise bed to flowers, or place them along my fence, I have not decided just yet.

As far as good soil, I know that the raise beds have good soil, I have been making my own compost for a year now and before I planted them I digged a lot of compost into the beds, I also have a lot of worms on the beds as well.

Carmen, fortunately the bugs are not such an issue in the fall/winter. Springtime is their playtime!

Ok. I just placed a seed order with three different companies....

Linda what did you order? Flowers?

VEGGIES!

Here's my Fall/Winter 2010 seed order

RONNIGERS:
Purple Viking, Yukon Golds, Pink Pearl, & Shepody seed potatoes

JOHNNY'S SELECTED SEEDS
Arcadia & De Cicco Broccoli
Cassius Cauliflower
Eva Purple Ball Tomato (on sale for $1/pack)
Da Cheong Chae Pak Choi (on sale for $1/pack)

BAKER CREEK HEIRLOOM SEEDS
Giant of Naples Cauliflower
Brunswick & Premium Lage Flat Dutch Cabbage
Black Beauty Eggplant
Red Creole Onion
Emerald Giant Bell Pepper
Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach
Golden Globe and Purple Top White Globe Turnip

This message was edited Jun 16, 2010 1:27 PM

Gymgirl, how is your amaranth? Were you able to plant it yet?

DL,
No, I didn't get a chance. Will try next go round!

O.K I have a question, I am starting some more maters, pepper plants inside to transplant hopefully some time in July for fall season veggies, but should I also start some cucke seeds as well, my cucumber vines so far are doing great putting lots of cucumbers and they seem to be healthy but I am wondering do cucumber vines expire just like tomatoes do? Or will my cucke vines last for a few more months until at least lets say end of Aug end of September time frame.

Thanks

Lots of rain has kept my cukes going longer than normal but they do seem to lose vigor as they get old. The bottom leaves yellow and dry up and the nutrients have to travel farther as they grow longer. I'm growing the long Asian cukes for the first time this year and they've been much more productive than the standard ones. We've got at least 7 full months of cuke growing season but they need some shade in July and August.

So Twiggy should I start some new seeds of cuckes or should I just keep going with the ones that I am growing, the problem is, my growing space, if I had all the land in the world I would just plant some new cuckes in another part of the garden and let this ones intact until they die, but I just don't want to keep a cucumber vine if they are not going to produce for me. The cuckes that I am growing are suyo long and they have been wonderul they are very productive and don't mind the heat and humidity at all.

My cukes are toast in the heat, except the Armenians. They're still going gangbusters.

Kelly I planted some of your armenian seeds back in March/ Apr time frame I think, and unfortunately we had a bad cold spell and they died, but I still have more seeds and would love to try them, I am wondering how long they would take to produce fruit?

They are about 65 days to maturity. And you aren't as hot as we are, so I think you could plant some now and still get a nice crop before fall. They should germinate in a few days at summer temps. Just make sure you give 'em something to climb - the vines get pretty large.

O.K so I decided to finnally take all the tomatoes that I had in one raise bed out, there were few tomatoes left and they were attracting bugs more than anything. I am planning to get a second crop of tomatoes hopefully the second or third week of july planted, so far they are doing wonderful under the lights and growing big and strong, hopefully this new set wont get those pesky juice sucking stinkbugs on them. I also started some peppers and also your cucumbers kelly, I can't wait to try them.

My soybeans are finnally coming out they are very small but for what I read on the package they do take a while to form the big soybeans. I also planted a second crop of soybeans, so if you have never ever tried emadame I am telling you you are in for a treat, I like to eat them just like popcorn but believe me they are pricey at the store so I thought why not grow them instead.

Funny thing also when I took my maters out I saw a lonely Basil genovese plant in the raise bed and it had seed on it so I collected all the seed, I am very happy because I almost purchased some basil seed since I already ran out, I also collected some cilantro seed and some fennel seed from my own plants that I let go to seed.

I just also bought some seed from Johny's, I had never ordered from them before but I wanted to give their seeds a try, I absolutely love their catalog and I love the way they describe their vegetables, they are having a huge sale in some of their seeds and you only pay $1 for their seeds that are for sale which I think it is a great price considering the fact that they charge a hefty price for some of them like $4 or more for some of them.

I am getting to the point where I much rather order seeds from a reputable company than buying them in the store, I have already had 2 packs of seeds that I bought from Lowes or Homedepot this year with horrible germination, the last pack I tried was a yellow bush bean and out of the whole pack only 1 plant germinated and also my DS wanted to plant some sunflowers and the first pack did not germinate so I ended having to buy a second. I just hope the onion packs I bought do well germination wise, I gwess we'll just have to see.