Isn’t spittlebug a great name? ​

​Spittlebug description

Spittlebugs (Philaenus spumarius) are easy to spot when in their immature phase because the nymphs surround themselves with a white froth when they feed, hence the name. In each foamy bit, there may be several spittlebug nymphs feeding on sap found in the plant’s xylem.

Adult spittlebugs are only 1/4” long, unremarkable and rarely seen. And, no, they won’t hawk a loogy at you in the garden. For the most part, adults look like leafhoppers and will hop away when disturbed, sometimes with an audible "thump" sound.

Damage caused by spittlebugs

​Spittlebugs seem to prefer woody plants, such as rosemary and lavender. These pests are most commonly seen in spring. There is generally only one generation each year. While spittlebugs do suck the juices out of your plants, they rarely do any serious damage.  Heavy infestations can cause some distortions and stunting. 

If you see splotches of white foam on your plants, simply wash them off the plant with a garden hose. This interrupts the spittlebug lifecycle and protects your plants.

According to Webster, a vector is “an organism, typically a biting insect or tick, that transmits a disease or parasite from one animal or plant to another.”

There are probably plenty of vector species in your garden already. Luckily, most can’t hurt you. But thanks to Chinese shipments of Lucky Bamboo, we now face a potentially dangerous vector species as we work in our gardens: Asian tiger mosquitos and yellow fever mosquitos,

Asian tiger mosquitos are aggressive day feeders that can transmit encephalitis, dengue fever, yellow fever, and West Nile virus. Yellow fever mosquitos can infect you with, you guessed it, yellow fever. They can also carry the Zika virus. These diseases can be fatal, so keeping mosquitos at bay is a good idea.

Any standing water on your property puts out the welcome mat for mosquitos. All these critters need is a tablespoon of water to create a breeding ground. There are several steps you take to reduce the chance of mosquitos taking up residence in your yard:

• Use outdoor pet watering bowls to water your plants or yard daily and provide your pets with fresh water sans mosquito eggs. 
• Ensure lawn decorations, planter saucers, and outdoor furniture don’t create mosquito habitats.
• Add mosquito dunks and mosquitofish to ponds, fountains, rain barrels, and bird baths to prevent the spread of these invasive insects.

Many sap-sucking insects can carry diseases to your plants. Aphids, leafhoppers, thrips, and whiteflies are all disease vectors.

Huanglongbing (HLB), or citrus greening, is a vascular disease of citrus trees that makes the fruit inedible.

The HLB story

In 1998, Florida citrus growers saw Asian (Diaphorina citri) and African citrus psyllids (Trioza erytreae), or two-spotted citrus psyllids, for the first time. Insects the size of aphids, these citrus psyllids can carry a bacteria (Liberibacter spp.) fatal to citrus trees. 

American scientists didn't identify the disease until 2005. [China's first case occurred in 1943.] By 2014, HLB had caused $4.6 billion in damage to Florida's citrus crops. As of 2023, HLB has spread to 33 countries, plus California and Texas.

HLB: tree killer

HLB can kill a tree within five years of infection. Because this disease threatens the entire citrus industry, trees infected with HLB must be destroyed and removed by professional arborists. [You may be able to get assistance from your local Dept. of Agriculture on this.] To do your bit to save the world's oranges, lemons, limes, and grapefruits, start by learning what HLB looks like.

Symptoms of HLB

The obvious symptom of huanglongbing is the fruit remains green on the bottom. By this time, the disease may have spread far and wide. Watching for earlier signs of HLB can prevent that spread.

The first symptom of huanglongbing is yellowing veins. Neighboring tissues may also turn yellow. After that, leaf mottling, early leaf drop, and twig dieback occur. If you scrape away the soil, you will also see the feeder and lateral roots decomposing.

Other signs of HLB include:

• Tiny yellow eggs tucked into new leaf growth
• Deformed or blotchy new leaf growth
• New shoots look burned
• Thin, white waxy tubes seen on new leaf growth
• Stunting
• Flowers may appear at the wrong time of year and then fall off
• Yellow shoots
• Misshapen internal structure
• Corky veins
• Small, hard fruit that tastes bitter

HLB may be mistaken for a nutrient imbalance. But nutrient deficiencies create symmetrical symptoms, while HLB symptoms are asymmetrical.

Preventing the spread of HLB

Scientists are looking at oak leaf sprays, antibiotic and peptide injections, and other treatments, but there isn't a cure yet. So prevention is critical. 

At the government level, quarantines are in place that prohibit moving citrus fruit trees, leaves, and stems out of affected areas. Contact your county officials to see if you are in a quarantine zone. Looking at the maps below, you can see how a quarantine zone can change in just one year. Since the information to create these maps takes time to assemble, you should assume if you live near a quarantine zone, you should act like you are in it.

Managing psyllids is one way to slow the spread of HLB. Psyllids are jumping plant lice. They feed on sap. You can control psyllid populations with sticky sheets and insecticidal soap. Do not use dish soap.

Like other psyllids, Asian citrus psyllids produce honeydew. Honeydew attracts ants and provides a growth medium for sooty mold. If you see ant trails around citrus trees, take a closer look. And block ant traffic with sticky barriers.

You can also help prevent the spread of this disease with these tips:

• Do not accept tree cuttings from uncertified sources. Infected grafts can spread HLB.
• If requested, allow the State Dept. of Food and Agriculture to hang a trap on your property.
• Do not transport leaves or stems out of quarantine areas.
• Wash fruit thoroughly before removing it from a quarantine area.

​While commercial growers use pesticides to control HLB disease vectors, backyard growers are less likely to do so, creating a significant threat to citrus trees everywhere.

This threat is not to be taken lightly.

The damage caused by too little (or too much) water is called water stress.

Water-stressed plants exhibit these symptoms:

• Wilting or drooping leaves do not return to normal by evening.
• Curled or chlorotic (yellow) leaves that may fold or drop.
• Foliage becomes grayish and loses its green luster.
• New leaves are small.

Water stress can be due to extended drought, long, hot summers, and irrigation failures. On the other side of the same coin, flooding, urban drool, and heavy rains can create a different type of water stress. When soil is waterlogged, plants cannot breathe.

Water-stressed trees and plants are more susceptible to pests and diseases. As trees die, erosion increases, causing more drying out. It's a tough cycle. Rather than letting household water go down the drain, collect it in a tub or bucket and give it to your local trees. You'll be happy about the shade this summer!

Cucurbits are members of the squash family.

This family is a thick-skinned group that grows on vines and keeps its seeds in a line down the center of their fruit. The squash, or cucurbit, family is made up of cucumbers, gourds, luffas, melons, pumpkins, squash, watermelons, and the inevitable zucchini. These plants love hot weather and many of them have protective bristles.

A nub, or dog's ear, is the piece of a twig or branch that is left behind after a bad pruning job.

Leaving a nub sticking out interferes with a plant's natural ability to heal a wound. It also creates a foundation that can catch leaves, providing the perfect shelter for problem bugs and fungi. The nubs themselves, being too far from the branch collar for proper healing, often take longer to heal or don't heal at all. This provides an easy entrance for fungi and borers.

To properly prune a twig or small branch, it is best to cut as close to the branch collar as you can. The branch collar is the ring from which a twig emerges. Do not cut the branch collar. There is no need to paint or treat a properly trimmed branch. Plants already know how to handle that on their own.

So, off with their nubs!

Soil pH can make or break your plants' ability to absorb nutrients and thrive.

What is pH?

Everything is existence is either acidic, alkaline, or somewhere in the middle. The pH scale is a simplified version of an algorithmic equation that measures the number of hydrogen ions in a specific quantity of a material in solution. The scale ranges from 0 to 14, with lower numbers indicating acidity and higher numbers indicating alkalinity. In the middle; 7.0 indicates neutral.

Testing soil pH

Soil pH can be tested with an over-the-counter product found at all garden supply stores. Testing the soil will tell you if your soil is neutral (7.0), alkaline (greater than 7.0) or acidic (less than 7.0). While over-the-counter pH tests are accurate enough, other soil tests available from retail outlets are not. To get your soil tested, and I urge you to do so, use a local, reputable soil test lab.

Nutrient availability and soil pH
​
Plants grow best when they have access to all of the nutrients they use to grow and reproduce. At certain pH levels, some nutrients become unavailable. At the same time, soil microbes, which help plants absorb nutrients, are also restricted by certain pH extremes. Also, some plants, such as blueberries, prefer more acidic soil. Using the chart below, you can see that more nutrients are available, and there is greater microbe activity, when soil pH is between 6.0 and 6.5. Most plants can survive in soil pH from 5.2 to 7.8, but the narrower range allows plants to thrive.

Altering soil pH

Soil pH is, for the most part, a function of your local bedrock material. This isn’t going to change any time soon. What you can do is integrate certain practices in to your normal gardening routine that will temporarily alter soil pH.

East of the Rocky Mountains, soil tends to be more acidic; west of the Rockies, soil is more alkaline. Traditionally, acidic soil is treated with lime, to bring is closer to a neutral pH. If your soil pH is too high, you can acidify your soil with sulfur. Some people claim that adding peat moss or pine needles to the soil can increase its acidity, but research has not shown this to be true. Unfortunately, altering pH takes time and repetition to see any results.

Also, it is more difficult to alter the pH of clay soils. Once you begin treating your soil, it is important to continue monitoring pH levels.

In the long run, a soil pH of 6.0 to 7.0 will help your plants become healthier and more productive.

If your potted plants become hydrophobic, simply pouring water on them is not enough. Instead, you can revive your plants and thoroughly hydrate the soil by forcibly submerging the pot in a bucket of water until the pot no longer floats. Until the soil is saturated with water, the air pockets in the soil will make the pot float. It's pretty cool, watching all the air bubbles percolate up from your submerged pot!

Another method of rehydrating hydrophobic soil is to place the pot in a large container and pour water over the top. The water will run out of the soil but, over time, the water will eventually be absorbed.

Larger planting areas can be relieved of their hydrophobic tendency with light sprinklings of water, followed by moderate watering. Just as a slightly damp sponge will hold on to the water it touches, so will your garden soil.

Patience is one of those things that tends to fall by the wayside as people rush around like headless chickens, trying to accomplish too much, too fast, without any thought to courtesy or physics.

​In the garden, patience is a crucial ingredient of success.

Rather than flooding your plants, food, and soil with toxic chemicals, let the plants guide your efforts. If your trees and shrubs look green and healthy, don't give them precious water resources. They have found their own. Take the time to learn about your soil and observe which plants are thriving and which are struggling. Do you really need to grow plants that are not suited to your microclimate? Look closely at your plants. You may be surprised at the complexity and symmetry that occur naturally. It can also give you an early warning of potential problems.

Being patient in your garden allows you the opportunity to discover what is right and best for you and your yard. You may even be able to experience that natural calmness in other areas of your life.