Re: May in New England

**camprn** 5/30/2012, 7:23 pm

Picked 1/4 pound of snap peas tonight... yum! Very Happy

quiltbea 5/30/2012, 7:43 pm

Lucky you. Mine are vining nicely but no pods yet.

NHGardener 5/30/2012, 8:56 pm

Wow on the peas.

Today I looked at my nice pepper plant seedlings outside, and I saw pretty much each plant had a small fly on a leaf. Kind of like a cross between a housefly and a mosquito. I squished a few on leaves thinking that might discourage them, but then I thought, maybe they're actually good bugs. I saw some on tomato seedlings too.

Do these sound familiar to anyone?

I've also been seeing some tiny holes in seedling leaves, which I'm thinking might be aphids, but I don't think it will be enough to seriously hurt the plant.

???

**camprn** 5/30/2012, 8:59 pm

It's hard to tell what pest you have... there are so many of them. If you could get a photo to post that would be most helpful. Very Happy

Aphids generally do not leave holes, they are sap suckers.

NHGardener 5/30/2012, 9:08 pm

camprn wrote:Aphids generally do not leave holes, they are sap suckers.

Aha. Well I'll try to get photos of the tiny holes tomorrow. Maybe they just happen.

NHGardener 5/31/2012, 10:27 am

Okay, here are some pictures of the small fly that's on all my pepper plants, plus I see them on the potatoes and tomatoes, etc. (If you click on the image, you can see it more close up)

I don't know if that's what is putting the holes into my leaves, or if it's eating what's putting the holes in my leaves, so I better leave them alone until I find out what they are.

They may have come in with the straw that I mulched with...

I have little holes in pretty much all my plants tho, except the peas and I think the pole beans.

May in New England - Page 6 Fly10

memart1 5/31/2012, 10:49 am

I don't think they are from your mulch, because I am starting to see the same flies here in northeastern PA and I haven't mulched. I hope someone can identify them.

NHGardener 5/31/2012, 11:01 am

memart1 - Do your leaves have holes in them?

memart1 5/31/2012, 11:20 am

Just an occasional hole, but I think I better start treating them with something.

**dvelten** 5/31/2012, 2:16 pm

NH,

I'm no expert but I'm not sure the "fly" in the first picture is a fly or necessarily bad. There are lots of little wasps and bees that act as predators and pollinators.

On the other hand, what is that on the eggplant in photo 3? The picture is too low-res to blow up enough to make out what it is. While fuzzy, it looks like the critter we just found in the community gardens in Bolton, a mottled tortoise beetle. It looks like this. It eats holes in leaves.

It's a weird bug with a flat shell. This one I thought was a bit of bird poo. Then we found similar spots on my neighbors potatoes. She picked one up and flipped it over and the "bird poo" had little legs. Their favorite food is sweet potatoes and morning glories, but they will eat anything else around. Apparently they aren't considered a major threat. But where did they suddenly appear from?

--Dave

NHGardener 5/31/2012, 2:31 pm

I'm not actually seeing anything on the leaves that are causing the holes - altho I remember the bugs in your picture from other years. But so far this year, I'm not seeing anything, except maybe tiny dots on the backs of the leaves occasionally. But the eggplant leaves I was just showing the holes. Huh.

Could be that as the plants get larger, they will overcome their critter issues. I'm not panicking yet, so far it's just annoying, after I took such care to get them the best soil possible...

NHGardener 5/31/2012, 5:06 pm

Okay, I looked again and I did find one of those flat bugs on a potato plant, and one on a pepper plant.

Now that I've looked again at all the holes in the leaves out there, I'm getting very discouraged. I really babied them this year with quality compost and straw mulch. Still I'm getting bug infestations.

I've heard some say that bugs mean the plants weren't completely healthy to begin with - that bugs take care of basically getting rid of weak plants.

Maybe my bought transplants brought grunge with them, but I did buy them from a reputable local nursery who grow them themselves.

May in New England - Page 6 671790

**camprn** 5/31/2012, 5:27 pm

So, in the third photo down, those little brown spots, are they kind of sticky?

The holes and eaten leaf edges could be a variety of critters nibbles.
Continue to baby then, watch over them, remove pests and feed and water them. As they get bigger they will in fact be stronger. They may have imperfections, but over all they look pretty healthy. Once the heat get's here they will get huge.

I have found a few tortoise beetles gnawing on my potato leaves... they get squished in place.

NHGardener 5/31/2012, 5:42 pm

Thx camprn - I hope that's the case, that the plants will survive whatever is munching on them. I wonder if it could even be slugs at night. I'll have to check them close to dusk and see if I can see anything.

I wonder if the warm winter will mean more bugs all the way around. I noticed the black flies didn't seem too bad this year.

Oh - those eggplant leaves don't have brown spots, those are holes, you're just seeing the straw in the background.

**camprn** 5/31/2012, 7:54 pm

oki doki! I echo Dave, I have been having those tortoise beetles on my potatoes, they make holes but more often than not they eat a hole in a straight line. Pesky wee beasts, easy to squish.

NHGardener 5/31/2012, 10:22 pm

Now that I'm researching it a little more, I think I'm having a slug problem. The chickens are keeping the snakes (slug eaters) away, and the toads too. So now I'm thinking ducks... hmmm...

BackRiver_SFG 6/1/2012, 6:52 am

A few years back my brother was having a slug problem. His solution which turned out to be extremely effective:
Take a empty soup can, bury it up to the top and fill it up about 3/4s of the way with a nice IPA beer. The slugs went for the beer in epic proportions! I was surprised and amused at how many slugs went for the brew! Slug problem done. The can needed to be emptied multiple times. May in New England - Page 6 3170584802

Hope this helps.

NHGardener 6/1/2012, 9:07 am

Hey - it's worth a try. Hope they like Bud. Very Happy

I'll post how it goes. I see it's going to be cold and rainy the next several days, so I may have to re-try in a week or so if the rain dilutes the beer.

littlesapphire 6/1/2012, 4:08 pm

I've been having good luck with a product similar to Sluggo in my garden. It's not harmful to pets or people and supposedly is good for the plants once it breaks down. I've been sprinkling the pellets around my gardens and hand picking whatever slugs I can find, and last time I looked for slugs, there weren't any! You do need to reapply every two weeks though. I just really needed to do something about the slugs because they were literally eating my beans to the ground.

CapeCoddess 6/1/2012, 8:04 pm

I've been able to catch slugs by mixing 1 cup water, 1 teaspoon sugar and 1/4 teaspoon yeast. I take a bunch of empty small round margarine containers or such, cut 4 holes in the sides at the top, add some of the liquid, snap the top on and place it in the garden. Rainproof.

Only problem is mine need to go next to the squash which is next to the peonies which has lots of ants. Ants like sugar. Hence I catch slugs and ants. Rolling Eyes

The warm weather came and went on ol' Cape Cod. 65 today but sunny. I picked lots of peas, radishes and greens for the fridge as there are rainy days ahead now.

Can't decide whether to plant my pepper transplants before (like right now), during or after the rain...

rod champion 6/2/2012, 12:38 am

littlesapphire wrote:I know that feeling! Just when I thought I was satisfied, and tell my husband that's all I want to build, I get this great idea to buy an empty lot and fill it with SFGs....

Well, you could be goofy like me and do 2100 square feet.

NHGardener 6/2/2012, 8:26 am

So easy to become box-a-holics.

On my list I need 4 more 8' cedar planks from Lowes, and using what I have leftover here, I'll make 2 more 4x8 beds for next summer and then that will be it. The fencing will get pushed out once again and everything will be rectangular and surrounded by big rocks, so no more room to grow.

You know it's bad when you look at the deck trellis and think - what a great spot for peas and green beans...

If I lived here alone, I'd have edibles all over the place. But for some reason I can't contemplate, my spouse doesn't think that's attractive.

CapeCoddess 6/2/2012, 8:41 am

NHG, I too am running out of space and have peppers and pole beans to plant still.
In the middle of last nite I woke up with the great idea to grow my beans up and across the front porch rot iron railings! I'll do it before my mother comes up for the summer so she can't discourage me! Twisted Evil

Now where to put the pepper transplants....maybe across the front of one of the flower gardens???

NHGardener 6/2/2012, 9:31 am

CapeCoddess - Ha. Even when we run out of boxes, our gardens keep flowing. Laughing

memart1 6/2/2012, 10:00 am

My neighbor did that with cucumbers. The top of the wrought iron was about 4-1/2 feet from the ground, and he put cup hooks in the soffit above the rail and when the vines reached the top, he strung cord between the rail and the cup hooks so the vines could go even higher. They made welcome shade during the dog days of summer!

Sponsored content

May in New England