N&C Midwest July 2022

**Scorpio Rising** 7/1/2022, 10:32 pm

So summer is officially here—super hot in Ohio, what are you all experiencing?
I have been watering my beds every 3rd day.

My peppers and maters are good—-the unknown squashes/melons/cukes? Who knows….I need to label way better—I say this every year!

They will all get watered in the morning when it’s tolerable—glad I don’t live in the heat zone!

OhioGardener 7/2/2022, 8:29 am

Been super hot and dry here. Only able to do the gardening during the early morning hours before the sun gets too strong. We had a rain "storm" last night that lasted about 1½ minutes. Checked the rain gauge this morning and the bottom of it was almost all wet. Fortunately, the drip irrigation ran this morning to water the beds.

**Scorpio Rising** 7/2/2022, 11:57 am

You are exactly right, OG! That’s what happened here too! In fact, I had to put 2 inches of water in my pool, then this morning watered for 2 1/2 hours—everything I am growing got water.

Weeded the corn, and pulled the garlic—I will take pictures in a bit—it just got so hot! But the garlic is out, I only lost one head (overdone and left it in the bed…might dig around for it later). My unknown things (squash or melon) are starting to blossom. Need to get some lettuce off, as it’s getting too hot for it—looking for signs of bolting.

Will make pesto today too, the basil is growing like crazy and I bought pine nuts and parm.

JAM23 7/2/2022, 9:41 pm

Happy July! I can't believe it is July already!

It is very dry here too! I am watering every other day to keep things going. I was SUPER excited today to see that my first round of green beans have baby green beans on them. Yeah! I also have 2 Orange Zest tomatoes ripening and 1 Sun Sugar tomato. Still battling the earwigs and I think they might be winning!!! Applying the neem oil and it is helping. I think the wet spring supported this explosion of earwigs. They are mostly just affecting my swiss chard and sadly my basil and zinnias too. Got quite a few peppers starting to grow including one Buena Mulata pepper from a plant I grew from seed. I am pretty proud of that! It's purple and beautiful. LOL

Rain looks like it might be in the forecast this week and I am really hoping that we get a good soaking!

OhioGardener 7/3/2022, 8:29 am

Picked the lettuce this morning before the sun starts boiling us again. The Black Seeded Simpson is starting to bolt to seed, so it is probably the last picking for it. The Romaine lettuce is still going strong, so we'll be good until getting some lettuce started. And the Perpetual Spinach will go until frost kills it this fall.

**sanderson** 7/3/2022, 2:31 pm

JAM23 wrote:Happy July! I can't believe it is July already! . . . Still battling the earwigs and I think they might be winning!!! Applying the neem oil and it is helping. I think the wet spring supported this explosion of earwigs. They are mostly just affecting my Swiss chard and sadly my basil and zinnias too.

I'm a new convert to spinosad (and insecticidal soap). The earwigs were resting down in the base of the Swiss chard stalks and coming out at night to feast on the leaves. I sprayed down in that hiding space and it was sooo rewarding to see dead earwigs the next day.

I ripped out the nasty looking Blue Lake bean plants and sowed new soaked seeds. The first one to pop up had the terminal growing tip nibbled off. I sprayed the bed and light E-Z Straw with spinosad at sundown. The next 16 beans to sprout have no sign of nibbling! bounce

You may want to give spinosad a try on the Swiss chard and basil. Just spray down in the stalk crotch of the chard and the lower leaves of the basil. ??

**Scorpio Rising** 7/3/2022, 4:43 pm

Sanderson, what does Spinosad target? My dragon tongue beans have several blooming tips bitten off. I blame the squirrels!

OhioGardener 7/3/2022, 5:24 pm

Captain Jack's Dead Bug Spray offers this document on the pests that Spinosad controls. Pages 4 through 12 details all of the listed insects:
https://files.plytix.com/api/v1.1/file/public_files/pim/private/assets/43/37/8d/5e/5e8d3743202d9eba64d3af60/texts/09/95/42/60/60429509a1f1cc8f883bfbcc/l252.pdf

yolos 7/3/2022, 6:44 pm

I have some of the Capt Jacks. Question - I need to kill some spider mites. I do not like to spray anything while the plants are fruiting. But I have some cowpeas that have not started flowering yet but are getting stippled leaves and I want to spray them. But looking at the label for pests for green beans and peas, it does not mention sprider mites. But they do list spider mites for ornamentals. So do you think this would work on my cowpeas and beans. Or is there something better. I have neem and insecticidal soap also.

OhioGardener 7/3/2022, 7:07 pm

yolos wrote: So do you think this would work on my cowpeas and beans. Or is there something better. I have neem and insecticidal soap also.

According to the the National Pesticide Information Center

"Spinosad is a natural substance made by a soil bacterium that can be toxic to insects. It is a mixture of two chemicals called spinosyn A and spinosyn D. It is used to control a wide variety of pests. These include thrips, leafminers, spider mites, mosquitoes, ant, fruit flies and others.
Spinosad has been registered for use in pesticides by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) since 1997."

Based on that, it should control the spider mites on your beans. I just don't like spraying on blooms or while pollinators are flying.

OhioGardener 7/3/2022, 7:30 pm

The Sweet Banana Peppers seem to be enjoying the heat wave we've had for the past couple weeks. They are growing peppers like they are on steroids! We are currently only picking 4 or 5 per day, but it looks like there will be a lot more of them soon. Very Happy

**Scorpio Rising** 7/3/2022, 9:59 pm

Just picked 3 sweet banana peppers and a smallish green pepper. Nice!

yolos 7/3/2022, 11:17 pm

OhioGardener wrote:
yolos wrote: So do you think this would work on my cowpeas and beans. Or is there something better. I have neem and insecticidal soap also.

According to the the National Pesticide Information Center

"Spinosad is a natural substance made by a soil bacterium that can be toxic to insects. It is a mixture of two chemicals called spinosyn A and spinosyn D. It is used to control a wide variety of pests. These include thrips, leafminers, spider mites, mosquitoes, ant, fruit flies and others.
Spinosad has been registered for use in pesticides by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) since 1997."

Based on that, it should control the spider mites on your beans. I just don't like spraying on blooms or while pollinators are flying.

Thanks OG. Yes I do also like to spray before blooming, also early evening.

nrstooge 7/4/2022, 9:24 pm

I was so excited, I have tomatoes forming, blooms on the eggplant and cucumber, and beans - peppers are way behind!

JAM23 7/5/2022, 8:33 am

We got 1.75 inches of MUCH NEEDED rain yesterday/last night. I am SO happy about that! Today, it will be back in the 90's so not much gardening will be happening here. I may pick a kohlrabi and some kale today.

nrstooge-I am somewhat in the opposite position as you. Peppers seems to be coming along good. Several banana, jalapeno, melrose and serrano peppers are developing. Eggplant and cucumbers seem to be WAY behind. Hoping that this deep soaking of water will help.

I will have to look for spinosad for my ongoing battle with earwigs in my swiss chard. Just hate to purchase another product for the garden right now. But, it may have to come to that!

OhioGardener 7/5/2022, 9:20 am

JAM23 wrote:I will have to look for spinosad for my ongoing battle with earwigs in my swiss chard. Just hate to purchase another product for the garden right now. But, it may have to come to that!

If the Earwigs are still a major problem, you might want to make a couple traps for them to get rid of them. Take a couple styrofoam coffee cups with plastic lids. Drill 6 or 7 quarter inch holes in the lids. Mix enough liquid of equal parts of olive oil and soy sauce to put and inch of the mixture in the bottom of each cup. Then bury the cups so just the lid is flush with the ground. The smell of the soy sauce will attract the Earwigs and they will crawl into the cups and drown.

JAM23 7/5/2022, 9:27 am

OhioGardener wrote:
JAM23 wrote:I will have to look for spinosad for my ongoing battle with earwigs in my swiss chard. Just hate to purchase another product for the garden right now. But, it may have to come to that!

If the Earwigs are still a major problem, you might want to make a couple traps for them to get rid of them. Take a couple styrofoam coffee cups with plastic lids. Drill 6 or 7 quarter inch holes in the lids. Mix enough liquid of equal parts of olive oil and soy sauce to put and inch of the mixture in the bottom of each cup. Then bury the cups so just the lid is flush with the ground. The smell of the soy sauce will attract the Earwigs and they will crawl into the cups and drown.

I'm going to have to try this too OhioGardener. I removed many of the damaged leaves yesterday on all of my plants and at the base of each one were a whole gang of earwigs having a party and leaving behind lots of excrement. GROSS!

I have additional swiss chard planted in a different garden bed and it seems mostly unaffected. So weird that one area would be hit so hard while another one is relatively okay. (Hopefully it stays that way)

You all are the best! Thanks for all the time and suggestions!

OhioGardener 7/5/2022, 9:53 am

Trivia: Jam23, did you know that in small numbers that Earwigs are beneficial to the garden? They eat Aphids.

**sanderson** 7/5/2022, 12:37 pm

JAM23 wrote: . . . I'm going to have to try this too OhioGardener. I removed many of the damaged leaves yesterday on all of my plants and at the base of each one were a whole gang of earwigs having a party and leaving behind lots of excrement. GROSS!!

My suggestion is to spray spinosad at the base of the plants where you see them partying. Do this before disturbing the plants. You should be able to knock the numbers way
down.

JAM23 7/5/2022, 12:47 pm

sanderson wrote:
JAM23 wrote: . . . I'm going to have to try this too OhioGardener. I removed many of the damaged leaves yesterday on all of my plants and at the base of each one were a whole gang of earwigs having a party and leaving behind lots of excrement. GROSS!!
My suggestion is to spray spinosad at the base of the plants where you see them partying. Do this before disturbing the plants. You should be able to knock the numbers way
down.

Thanks sanderson!

Is there a brand/type that you have found successful?

OhioGardener 7/5/2022, 4:57 pm

We finally got some much needed rain today. The thunderstorms started rolling through a 6:30 am, and by the time they had moved through we got just slightly more than 1.5" of nice rain. Everything is looking much fresher after a little drink.
N&C Midwest July 2022 3170584802

Was planning on transplanting the squash and cucumber plants into the gardens today, but they can wait a few more days while things settle down.

JAM23 7/6/2022, 9:32 am

Nice OhioGardener! We picked up another 1.25" of rain last night, so just about 3" over the last 48 hours. It's a nice break to not have to water Smile

I am going to start some Fall kale, chard and summer squash as back ups should anything (SVB) take down my current plantings.

Heading out on vacation next week and leaving the garden care to my daughter for the week so I will be trying to get things prepped so it's as easy as possible for her to manage. She's young, so I'll be lucky if she just gets it watered while we are away. LOL

**Scorpio Rising** 7/6/2022, 1:20 pm

I do hate to leave my garden in full on mode! But vacation calls! Glad for these rains too.

I would love to know what kind of squash I have that made it, so I could start another kind! I guess I could keep the neighbors awash in zucchini if nothing else!

OhioGardener 7/6/2022, 8:18 pm

We got an additional 1.75" of rain today. That makes 3.25" of rain in two days. And, they are forecasting more rain for tomorrow. Needless to say, I paused the automatic drip irrigation system for a while.

OhioGardener 7/7/2022, 8:13 pm

Beautiful evening working in the gardens. Transplanted the Cushaw, Red Kuri, and Zucchini Squash, and the cucumbers into the gardens. The winter squash are planted in the BTE section of the garden, while the cucumbers are planted on the arbor, and the zucchinis are planted in a raised bed near the kitchen door. Very Happy

Also planted the winter carrot and beet seeds.

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