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by Rett Davis | |
Gardening Q&A by Rett Davis appears in
Alamance County's daily newspaper, The Times-News,
every Sunday in the Accent section. Each week's installment is
posted to this
website, beginning with January of this year. Scroll to the bottom of
this page to navigate to other Gardening Q&As. Please contact
Rett via e-mail with questions
or
comments in regard to this column.
Question:
My husband is growing his vegetables in straw this year. Would you be interested in seeing what he is doing?
Answer:
One of the things I enjoy about my job is seeing the creative things people do with plants. Over my career I have seen plants being grown in stacked tractor tires, toilet bowls, abandoned swimming pools, and other unusual sites. However, Fred Howard of Mebane has decided to raise most of his vegetables in tightly bound bales of wheat straw. After reading an article about this in an agricultural magazine, he took the challenge and so far is very pleased with the results. To each bale of staw he adds one cup of ammonium nitrate several weeks prior to planting. Then he hollows out a small hole in the bale and inserts his tomato, squash, cucumber, and pepper plants. In fact you can put any vegetable plant (other than corn) in this straw. Space the plants as you would in the soil. About every 3 weeks he adds a cup of 10-10-10 fertilizer to each bale. I would also recommend the addition of at least 1 cup of lime to each bale to supply the needed calcium and magnesium. You will need to water several times a week when you first plant then once a week thereafter. So far I believe Fred has a very practical and efficient way to raise vegetables for anyone with limited space, little equipment, and no time to garden.
Question:
Japanese beetles have covered up my roses and other flowers. Can you recommend something organic if I have a choice?
Answer:
Organic solutions to adult Japanese beetles include beetle traps, Neem oil, and pyrethrin. Japanese beetle traps should never be placed in the middle of your flowers. They need to be as far away as possible, perhaps in your neighbors yard. The sex pheromone that is used as an attractant will lure them in from far and wide. Neem oil is advertised as a solution to Japanese beetles. But I had one caller this week that is not happy with the results. The Neem oil apparently only keeps them off for one day. Natural pyrethrins will work but are expensive. Other organic approaches include hand removal and putting them in a jar of soapy water. My mother paid me a penny of each one I removed from her roses when I was younger. She is up to 2 cents now. Non-organic control is to use the insecticides Sevin and others that contain cyfluthrin and bifenthrin. Apply these every 5 to 7 days.
Question:
All the leaves on my green pepper plants have stared to curl and have become misshapen. What has caused this?
Answer:
Flower thrips feeding on the leaves and flowers will distort the growth of your pepper plants. The sample you brought in contained many of these tiny insects. Although the plant will not die, the growth will be slowed. I would recommend spraying with a contact insecticide such as malathion, esfenvalerate (Ortho), or insecticidal soap. More than one spraying will be needed.
Question:
My wife loves lilac bushes. Do you have any recommendations on growing them?
Answer:
Lilacs will perform well here in Alamance county provided you select a variety that is powdery mildew resistant. "Miss Kim' is probably one of the most dependable ones you will find. Others worth planting are 'Suumer Snow', 'Paliban', 'Superba', 'Minuet', and Persian lilac. They all do their best in full sun.
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