Fuzzy buff or yellowish egg masses may be seen on tree trunks and branches, as well as fences, walls, and patio furniture. Each egg mass averages 1-1/2” wide by 3/4”, though they may be as small as a dime.



Asian gypsy moth control
The first step in controlling these pests is prevention. Always inspect imported products carefully for signs of pests and place new plants in quarantine.


Once they appear, it takes a concerted effort to control them. Washington state pest agencies are spraying Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki or Btk. Btk is a soil bacteria that kills the Asian gypsy moth but is not harmful to pets, people, fish, or bees.


Before you can spray Asian gypsy moths, you have to know where they are. The California Department of Food and Agriculture and the United States Department of Agriculture are currently placing 2,300 traps over 81 square miles of the Sunnyvale area. If you see one of these traps, please leave them alone. If an agency asks permission to place a trap on your property, please say yes.


If Asian gypsy moths arrive in your garden, it is critical that you report sightings to State or Federal officials right away. If you live in California, you can use the Pest Hotline at 1-800-491-1899. Otherwise, contact your local County Extension Office.


By reporting sightings to officials right away, they are coordinate their efforts more effectively.

Why on Earth would you want to wash off a plant’s roots? Don’t roots prefer being covered with soil?

Very often, mass-produced trees, shrubs, and other woody plants are root bound by the time they reach market. Roots can often be seen circling around the inside of the container, looking for a way out. Left uncorrected, these roots can girdle and kill the plants. Washing the roots allows you to identify the primary roots and to correct any problems.

In order of importance and/or effectiveness, raccoon controls include:

1. Keep pet food indoors.
2. Seal garbage in metal cans or latch the lids of other types of garbage bins and position them in ways that make tipping them over more difficult. Keep in mind that raccoons can unfasten simple latches.
3. Do not feed squirrels.
4. Harvest garden crops early and daily.
5. Install motion-detecting sprinklers. [Raccoons soon figure out that motion-detecting lights are not a threat, so they get ignored.]
6. Eliminate woodpiles.
7. Thin out overgrown shrubs.
8. Trim trees to at least 5 feet away from the roof.
9. Open areas under decks, sheds, chicken coops, and homes can be protected with 10-gauge 1/4- or 1/3-inch galvanized hardware mesh. Bend the mesh into an L-shape so that the vertical portion is at least 6” deep and the horizontal bit extends outward for at least 12” underground. This will also keep skunks, opossums, squirrels, and rats out from under.
10. Electrified strands, or hot-wires, can also be installed around garden patches to deter raccoons.

In California, raccoons are classified as furbearers that can be harvested at certain times of the year. Nuisance raccoons can be taken by legal means at any time. It is illegal to relocate trapped raccoons without written permission from the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Uneducated relocating of wildlife causes far more problems than many people understand. Check with your local Department of Fish and Wildlife for the rules in your area.


Research has not shown that chemical raccoon repellents work, so save your money. The same is true for home remedies. The bottom line in raccoon control is to reduce the food and shelter appeal of your yard.


Raccoons are strong and can be vicious if cornered. If trapping is necessary, it is better to hire a professional.

By planting year-round, you are providing for the soil microorganisms that help your plants grow. You will also be providing your family with fresh, healthful food without ever leaving your yard.

I was busy planting seeds and placing them in a sunny location, on my pumpkin ladder, when a flash of metallic green caught my eye. I looked for it and couldn’t find it, at first. But I knew I had seen it and I knew that metallic green either meant an insect or some plastic trash had flown in. In either case, I had to find it.


Finally, there it was! An insect I had never seen before. It was probably no more than 1/4” long with an oblong body, a largish, rectangular head, and jointed, fringed antennae. The wings were as long as the body and when the sunlight hit it, the bright green really was beautiful. But I didn’t yet know if this was a good bug or a pest, so I captured it.


Once I had it in a container, I could see that the underside of this new insect was just as bright green as the top. But I still didn’t know what it was. ​

Some cuckoo wasps are murderers and some of them are thieves. Parasitic cuckoos eat the offspring of solitary bees, wasps, hornets, sawflies, silk moths, and stick insects. The kleptomaniac cuckoos steal the food left for the host’s offspring. 


It ends up that cuckoo wasps have very specific needs, as far as habitat goes. Adults feed on nectar from flowers in the carrot family, the sunflower family, and the spurge family. Cuckoo wasps are secretive and they move very quickly, which explains why I’ve never seen one before. But I hope I see them again!

Did you know that paprika peppers contain more Vitamin C than lemon juice and that their flavor improves when heated?


Now you know.

While you may not be able to eliminate the oomycetes that cause avocado root rot from your property, you can control the conditions that allow them to cause harm.

This brings me to the most important aspect of foliar feeding: it is a temporary fix for a much larger soil problem.


Instead, select plants suited to your soil and microclimate, get your soil tested periodically, and remain skeptical about too-good-to-be-true advertisements.

Grape measles

If it looks as though your grapes have the measles, it may be black measles, also known as esca or Spanish measles. Grapes infected with black measles develop small, reddish-brown spots on the fruit. These spots may appear at any time during the growing season and will ultimately cover the fruit, causing it to turn black and shrivel up. If you were to eat these grapes, they would taste bitter. Leaves develop a characteristics ‘tiger stripe’ pattern in which the veins of white grapes remain green, haloed with yellow, and surrounded with dead, brown tissue, while red or purple cultivars develop a reddish area, instead of yellow. Other symptoms include shoot tip dieback and complete defoliation. Also, cut wood tends to ooze a dark sap and cross-sections show dark streaking in the xylem. Infected plants are highly susceptible to other fungal diseases, particularly rots. ​

If you see measles in your garden, take a closer look to see if it is something you can fix.

Cherimoya description

Cherimoya is a fast-growing, dense tropical tree or shrub with a relatively small root system. Trees range from 16 to 30 feet in height. Grown outside of their traditional range of the Andes, Bolivia, and Peru, these evergreen trees may become briefly deciduous. Leaves are dark green and glossy with large veins and can be up to 9” long. Stems and young branches are covered with rust-colored hairs. Leaves may also have these hairs. ​

Cherimoya fruit is heavy, so it is important to train your cherimoya tree to have strong branches. Each year, two-thirds of the previous year’s growth should be removed, along with any dead, diseased, or rubbing branches. Generally speaking, only those branches that emerge at a 60° angle from the trunk are retained. These fast-growing trees can easily be espaliered.


Cherimoya pollination

Like avocados, the flowers are hermaphroditic. They open as females on the first morning, close up for the night, and reopen later the second day as male. Because cherimoya trees are native to South America, most of our northern pollinators do not recognize cherimoya blossoms. It is believed that a certain tiny beetle pollinates native cherimoya flowers. Cherimoya flowers also have mechanisms that prevent self-pollination. This means you may need to hand-pollinate your cherimoya flowers to obtain any fruit. Don’t worry, hand-pollinating is easy. Simply take a male flower and touch its anther to the pistil of a female flower. This may need to be done several times but, for a 5-pound fruit, it sounds like a good trade!


Cherimoya pests and diseases

Cherimoya is generally disease-free, though it can become infected with Armillaria root rot, Verticillium wilt, and crown rot. Ants and mealybugs will cause the most problems, followed by Abbot’s bagworm moth (Oiketicus kubeyi), Conchaspis angraeci scale, fruit flies, hairstreak butterfly caterpillars (Thecla), leaf miners, seed borers, and thrips. Seeds are often infested with weevils.

If you live where a cherimoya tree can grow, you owe it to yourself and your family to give it a try.

Sunlight calculators

Retailers are happy to sell you a physical sunlight calculator and apps for your phone, but these are not useful. You can see for yourself if an area is shaded or not. Much like OTC soil tests, the information these products provide is not detailed enough to actually mean anything.


It is all too easy to forget about the effect of seasons on sun exposure. As neighboring trees leaf out or drop their leaves, nearby plants can find themselves in a completely new environment in a short period of time.


Creating a sun map may also give you a better view on how your plant population changes over the seasons. It's pretty amazing stuff!

Partial Shade

​Partial shade means 3 to 6 hours of morning sun with protection from more intense midday and afternoon sun. These are your early risers. Artichokes, arugula, asparagus, beans, blackberries, bok choy, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, endive, garlic, kale, lettuce, mustard greens, onions, radishes, raspberries, spinach, and Swiss chard grow well in partial shade. ​

Weeds are the biggest threat to your lingonberry plants. A thick mulch of wood chips around the plants can reduce that problem and improve soil structure, help retain moisture, and eventually add nutrients to the soil. Your lingonberries will not require much in the way of fertilizer. In fact, adding too much nitrogen increases the odds of your plant dying in winter. A better choice would be to top dress around your lingonberry plants with a little bit of aged compost or fish emulsion and leave them be. You can also use a complete fertilizer, such as 5-10-5 each spring.


Lingonberries perform well in raised beds and containers. You should protect your lingonberry plants from severe winds. Lingonberry plants are sensitive to chlorides, which means your need to keep them away from chlorinated pool water, de-icing salts, and fertilizers containing potassium chloride.


Lingonberry pests and diseases

Birds, bears, and foxes love lingonberries. So do aphids, armyworms, mealybugs, and whiteflies. Bacterial leaf spot and grey mold may occur, but these diseases can often be prevented by not watering from above. Instead, use soaker hoses or furrow irrigation to keep water off the leaves.


Not everyone lives where lingonberries grow. If you do, you owe it to yourself to give them a try.

Gooseberry pests and diseases

Gooseberry plants are susceptible to several fungal diseases, such as American gooseberry mildew, anthracnose, currant cane blight, grey mold, and septoria leaf spot, so avoid overhead watering and be sure to provide good drainage.


In North America, gooseberry sawflies (Nematus ribesii), also known as currant sawflies and imported currantworms, are the most common pest. Aphids, brown marmorated stink bugs, currant borers, gooseberry fruitworms, and clearwing moths may also cause problems. And birds.


Note: If you live in New Hampshire, North Carolina, or West Virginia, you are not allowed to grow gooseberries or other Ribes plants. If you live in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island or Delaware, you’ll need a permit. These bans are in place because Ribes can carry white pine blister, an imported Asian rust fungus that has devastated high elevation pine forests.


Thanks to reader Carol Peck, I learned that California hosts several native edible gooseberry varieties. These include canyon gooseberry (Ribes menziesii), flowering gooseberry (R. speciosum), hillside gooseberry (R. californicum), Santa Lucia gooseberry (R. sericeum), Sierra gooseberry (R. roeslii), spreading gooseberry (R. divaricatum), and yellow gooseberry (R. quercetorum). Thanks to Carol Peck for the information!


If you are lucky enough to live where you can grow gooseberries, give them a try. These shrubs are very prolific and the fruit is delicious!

Did you know that mizuna is being grown aboard the International Space Station?


Now you know.

Salad burnet leaves may look like parsley or celery, but this cucumber-flavored perennial is actually a member of the rose family, along with nectarines and blackberries.

If that weren’t surprising enough, its edible young leaves make great additions to salads, sandwiches, dressings, eggs, soups, iced tea, and Bloody Mary’s. This fragrant, mounding, evergreen herb produces stunning red to purple apetalous* flowers in summer. And it is practically pest- and disease-free! I don’t know why we don’t see salad burnet in stores, but we can grow our own at home. 

*Apetalous means 'without petals'.  

Harvesting salad burnet

Dried salad burnet does not retain its flavor, so you will want to snip off young leaves as they are needed. The more you take the more the plant will produce, as long as you don’t take more than one-third of the plant at a time. You can also freeze leaves in ice cubes for later use in beverages or hot dishes. Older leaves tend to taste bitter so should be tossed to the compost pile.


Salad burnet is predominantly pest-free. The only disease I could find that affects salad burnet is leaf spot. Add salad burnet to your herb garden, storybook garden, or grow it on your windowsill.

How to grow yellow crookneck squash

Like other cucurbits, yellow crookneck squash prefers a sunny location with loose, well-drained soil and a soil pH of 5.8 to 6.8. If you are like me, the only one of those available in abundance is summer sunlight. Over time, you can acidify alkaline soil and improve soil structure with a mulch of arborist chips, but these things take time. If you’d rather not wait that long, raised beds or large containers are good options.


Once temperatures stay at or above 60°F, seeds can be planted 2” deep and 3 to 4 feet apart, if planting in rows. Another option is to create hills that are 6” to 12” tall and 20” across. In each hill, plant 4 or 5 seeds, spread 3” apart, and keep only the best seedling for each hill, snipping off the others at soil level. In arid regions, you can use inverted hills, or shallow areas. This makes watering easier, but it may increase problems with pests and fungal disease.


Fruit production should start 60 days after planting. If your plants are not producing, use a moisture meter to make sure they are getting enough water. Those big leaves may droop in the afternoon, but if they haven’t perked up by morning, they need more water. You can protect fruits from pests and disease by placing straw around the plant. This keeps fruit off the ground, preventing a case of measles, and it helps stabilize soil temperatures.


Squash plants are heavy feeders. You can help them stay healthy and productive by top dressing around plants with aged compost or fish emulsion. Avoid applying extra nitrogen. Nitrogen stimulates leaf growth, not fruit.


Harvesting yellow crookneck squash

Fruits are produced near the base of the plant and should be harvested when they are 4” to 7” long and 2” in diameter. Like other summer squashes, yellow crookneck squash will get tough is allowed to grow too large. Harvesting frequently also spurs the plant to produce more fruit. Just be sure to cut fruit from the plant with a clean knife. Do not twist fruit off as this can damage the plant, making it easier for pests and diseases to get inside.


While male squash flowers are edible, they are commonly battered and deep-fried, harvesting the flowers can significantly reduce your crop.


If you keep harvesting, these plants will keep producing. Squash can be cubed or spiralized, blanched, and frozen for later use, or used in chutney and relishes. Because squash is a low-acid food, it cannot be safely canned on its own. Even using a pressure canner to preserve summer squash is no longer considered adequate.


Yellow crookneck squash pests and diseases

If you see a small hole in the stem of your squash plant, slit the stem open further to see if the problem is squash vine borers. Borers can be removed by hand and then the stem laid on the ground and covered with soil. If you’re lucky, new roots will develop at the cut. Other pests include armyworms, cabbage loopers, crickets and grasshoppers, cucumber beetles, cutworms, darkling beetles, dried fruit beetles, earwigs, false chinch bugs, flea beetles, green peach aphids, leafhoppers, leaf miners, melon aphids, seed corn maggots, spider mites, squash bugs, stink bugs, thrips, whiteflies, and wireworms. If you live in the southeastern U.S., melonworm moths and pickleworms may also be a problem.


Irregular irrigation can reduce fruit production and lead to blossom end rot. Fungal diseases, such as anthracnose, charcoal rot, damping-off, downy mildews, Fusarium crown and foot rot, Fusarium wilt, Phytophthora fruit and crown rot, powdery mildew, sudden wilt, and Verticillium wilt. Bacterial diseases of summer squash include angular leafspot, bacterial leaf blotch, and bacterial wilt. Squash plants are also susceptible to viral diseases, such as cucumber mosaic, cucurbit aphid-borne yellows, cucurbit yellow stunting disorder, curly top, potyviruses, and squash mosaic virus.


Most of these diseases can be prevented by installing clean, disease-free seed, selecting resistant varieties, spacing plants for good airflow, and by avoiding overhead watering. If you keep leaves dry and do not handle plants while they are wet, the spread of pathogens is significantly reduced. Diseased plants should be removed and discarded. Despite all those threats, yellow crookneck squash plants are impressive and productive. You probably only need two of these plants to keep your family supplied.


If all that weren’t enough, molybdenum deficiencies can cause a condition known as yellows. Yellows eliminates squash fruit set and generally kills the plant. [What does your soil test say about molybdenum in your garden?]


As the growing season nears its end, leave one fruit to complete its life life cycle. You won’t want to eat it, but the seeds can be used for next year’s crop. And your chickens will be happy to take care of the scraps. Just be sure to keep different types of summer squashes away from each other. Cross-pollination doesn’t always result in desirable offspring.

Preserving burr gherkins

These are very productive plants, but you will want to harvest fruits while they are young. This keeps the plant producing fruit, plus mature fruits are tough. Fruits should start appearing 60-65 days after planting. While burr gherkins can certainly be eaten raw or cooked like zucchini, they are most commonly brined or pickled.


Because of their unusual fruit, burr gherkins are a great addition to children’s gardens. And, just so you know, most of the pickles sold in markets today as “gherkins” are actually just baby cucumbers, not gherkins.


Now you know.

Erosion

Edaphology studies ways to reduce erosion and soil degradation. Bare earth is vulnerable to erosion. Ask anyone who lived through the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Wind, water, animals, tools and equipment can all degrade or erode soil, one way or another. Soil degradation also refers to the depletion of water-soluble nutrients used by plants. Climate and vegetation play major roles in soil degradation. As temperatures rise (or fall), different sets of plants, microorganisms, and other life forms thrive or suffer, impacting your soil.


Soil amendments

Edaphology has found ways to improve soil fertility and structure, along with its cation exchange capacity and its water holding capacity by adding soil amendments. Soil amendments include fertilizers and soil conditioners. Soil conditioners are used to improve or rebuild damaged soil. Bone meal, blood meal, coffee grounds, compost, manure, and vermiculite are just a few of the soil amendments used to improve soil quality. These materials help reduce soil compaction and improve nutrient levels and accessibility. Adding organic materials, such as aged compost, can significantly improve water retention and drainage.


Soil husbandry

Edaphologists have researched the various properties of soil in relation to plant production. Their research has taught us better soil husbandry methods. Soil husbandry is the art and science of caring for soil so that it can continue to be used to grow the plants we want. Soil husbandry includes protecting soil from erosion and degradation with mulch and cover crops, improving soil with soil amendments, and employing green manures and crop rotation to keep soil healthy. Whatever is growing on top of a soil has a profound impact on the health, structure, and fertility of that soil.


The bottom line for gardeners is that edaphology teaches us how healthy soil creates healthy plants and healthy plants help maintain healthy soil.


Now we know.

How to grow snow peas

Like fat-podded sugar peas and shelling peas, snow peas are a cool season crop. In fact, that’s how snow peas got their name, being grown in winter. Seeds should be planted 1-2” deep and 5” apart in loose, nutrient-rich soil. Snow peas use tendrils to climb supports, such as stock panels and trellising.


Harvest pods as they form to make the vines keep producing. Once plants sense that they have completed their reproductive cycle, pod production stops.


Snow peas are so easy to grow.!You can add them to your stir fry garden, salad garden, or just grow them! Did you know that the immature leaves and stems are also edible?


Now you know!