Tuesday Lagniappe

Sometimes my houseplants give me a surprise!
Happy gardening!

It's happened: a superweed has been created

It has happened: overuse of an herbicide has lead to the development of super weeds. This development has been expected for years. Here's the deal: weeds are tough, adaptable plants. If you spray them with a targeted herbicide, almost all of them die...except for the few survivors who are able to resist the herbicide. If these plants survive to reproduce, they pass their protective genes on to their descendants and ...voila...in a few generations, all the plants are resistant and that genetic variation spreads. This is the same process that happens with bacteria and antibiotics, but that is even more scary, as bacteria can, under some circumstances, swap gene inside a host organism (so the process can be accelerated).

The actors here are Palmer amaranth (aka pigweed) in cotton fields in Georgia and glyophosate herbicide (trade name: Roundup). These cotton seeds have been genetically engineered to resist the effects of glyphosate, so they can be heavily sprayed with the stuff (imagine the environmental consequences, especially to aquatic organisms which are very vulnerable to this stuff and get a good dose from agricultural runoff). Pigweed grows fast and severely limits cotton yields. Farmers are resorting to old methods, like hand pulling, to remove this resistant pigweed, which, if left to set seed, can produce close to a million seeds per plant!

What I find interesting in the NPR report below is the weed expert's recommendation that cotton farmers use a tried and true organic method to deal with pigweed, that is, plant a cover crop of rye and intersperse cotton plants in it (though this method has not been fully worked out for large scale use, according to this expert). Pigweed cannot really grow in a rye field, and the rye also prevents erosion and adds nutrients to the soil when plowed under after the cotton harvest. What do Dow and Monsanto propose? More genetically engineered cotton plants that resist heavy doses of other herbicides. Can a multi-herbicide resistant pigweed be far behind? And more environmental damage? Other sad news is that pigweed is just one example of an herbicide-resistant weed currently posing a challenge to all growers.

For the NPR report, go to:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/03/07/147656157/farmers-face-tough-choice-on-ways-to-fight-new-strains-of-weeds

Palmer amaranth photo credit: Univ. Missouri Agricultural Extension office, at:
http://extension.missouri.edu/p/ipm1007-10

And, if you live in Georgia, continue to hand pull any pigweed you find in your yard and garden. I've heard that, when young, it is edible (but research this before you do and only eat organic weeds!!!!)!
Happy(?) gardening? How about "environmentally conscious gardening" this week!

Gardening on the cheap

As I thumb through garden product catalogs, I realize how easy it is to grow the proverbial $64 tomato. I can buy container garden pot/watering systems for $100 to grow a (that's ONE) tomato plant, expensive cages and ladders for eggplants and cucumbers, pricey edging and corners for raised beds. I can buy expensive seed (which might be worth it) or have pricey annual seedlings mailed to my home.

But I am a cheap gardener. My garden might look like heck, because I re-use, recycle and re-purpose. Martha Stewart does not garden here (nor does she live in my house). I reuse chicken wire and posts from year to year for pea trellises and milk jugs to mix organic fertilizer. I rake pine straw from my front yard to bring to the back to mulch my strawberries. Plastic sheeting from furniture purchases (mine or others) is rescued and reused as row tunnel covers.

So what the heck is that ugly thing in the photo at the top? Instead of buying coddling moth traps for my apple tree each year, a few years ago I purchased three plastic apples at a discount craft store, drilled a hole in them, inserted a recycled florists wire, coated them in tangle trap and hung them on my tree. The next year, I cleaned them off, painted them red and re-coated them. This is pretty effective at catching coddling moths that bore tunnels through your apples. I do purchase coddling moth pheromone each year (when the garden catalog I favor has a timely sale) that I will attach to the traps. This increases the efficiency of the traps at catching the moths, but I do not need to purchase new traps each year. I have heard of other similar solutions: using red rubber balls, and old, worn billiard balls with tangle trap and hanging those.

[To avoid giving the impression that hanging red sticky traps is all you need to do to get fruit here is a list of what I did this year already and what I will need to do to get good organic fruit: First, we pruned for maybe 15 hours, then sprayed the trees with dormant oil to smother bugs. After petal drop and around three more times during the season, I will need to spray with an organic biofungicide, then with BTK shortly after flowering (kills caterpillars and fruit worms), the start regularly applying Surround (clay that deters bugs). Oh, and we will need to thin the fruits, that is, take off at least 1 of every 10 little peaches, apples and pears (too many fruits on the tree means each fruit will be small, stresses the tree, invites disease, etc). It is a lot of work, but I like it, when I have time!].
Happy (inexpensive) gardening!

Hazards of an Early Spring

An excellent New York Times article on some hazards of this warm winter and early spring, though it mostly discusses the effect on ornamental plants.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/27/nyregion/amid-winter-blooms-wondering-what-that-means-for-spring.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

It's National Invasive Species Week!

[Photo: the edible, but invasive, garlic mustard that is wrecking havoc in the Shenandoah]

National Invasive Species Week is February 26 - March 3, 2012 (my first reaction was "who thinks of these things?" but my second reactions was "gotta love it!)

What is an invasive species? According to the USDA: "Invasive plants are introduced species that can thrive in areas beyond their natural range of dispersal. These plants are characteristically adaptable, aggressive, and have a high reproductive capacity. Their vigor combined with a lack of natural enemies often leads to outbreak populations." See http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/plants/main.shtml

Invasive species are weeds, but more so. They can tolerate a range of conditions and kill other plants by smothering (through the shear bulk of their leaves, stems and roots), out growing them or through allelopathy, that is, the production of substances that limit the growth of other plants (though not an invasive, the walnut tree is a well-known, allelopathic plant, producing juglone, a chemical that inhibits growth of many other plants - look online for listing of plants not disturbed by juglone). Many common garden plants are invasive (English ivy, obedient plant, purple loosestrife, and some ornamental grasses like river oats). The VA Department of Conservation and Recreation publishes a list of invasive exotics at: http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/natural_heritage/documents/invlist.pdf

What to do? Remove invasive plants from your yard and garden and don't buy them in the first place (Remember the 11th commandment: "Know thy plants"). Help groups like The Nature Conservancy and parks and conservation groups on work days where they remove invasive plants...and...spread the word!

Happy non-invasive gardening!

A seed can germinate after how long?

A 32,000 year old seed germinates? Maybe. Maybe not. For more info read:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/21/science/new-life-from-an-arctic-flower-that-died-32000-years-ago.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

Happy gardening!

Winter Chores, Winter Blooms

I have been very busy in the garden lately. "Busy in the garden, at this time of year?" you might say. This is a perfect time of year to get many important garden chores done. I have been focusing on pruning my fruit trees (apple, peach, pear and fig) and getting all but the fig trees sprayed with an organic dormant oil to smother overwintering pests (the figs do not need it). I did another clean up of the "orchard floor," that is I raked up all remaining leaves, peach pits and twigs, again to get at overwintering pests and diseases. I also made sure all remaining "mummies" (dried, dessicated fruits that harbor fungal spores) were off of the trees and in the trash. My next set of chores involve turning and "waking up" my compost pits, cutting back any post-fruiting raspberry canes and WEEDING- this has been a terribly warm winter and the weeds have loved it. Other general garden chores at this time of year include general clean up and preparation for planting peas (which intend to do as soon as I can!)
In the meantime, think of shrubs you can plant for an early floral show next year. If you want some early blooms to chase winter woes away, here are some plants I see blooming early in the spring in central VA, and even earlier this year due to our warm weather:
Fragrant wintersweet
Camellias
Daphne (very fragrant)
Flowering quince (photo above)
Hellebores (Christmas or Lenten rose)
Edgeworthia
Witch hazel

Thanks to The Washington Gardener to remind me of early spring bloomers for the mid-Atlantic states (go to:
http://washingtongardener.blogspot.com/2012/02/early-season-bloomers-for-mid-atlantic.html ) This is a lovely, free online publication and the current issue has a more complete listing.

Happy gardening!