Filed under: Enemies of the State
The fungus Erysiphales causes an unsightly problem for many gardeners, especially those of us in the northwest, where it’s commonly rainy and wet. Erysiphales is one type of fungi that causes the disease “powdery mildew”. Powdery mildew is a disease that can affect a lot of garden plants, and right now, I’ve got it bad. My peas and my zucchini are both covered with the little toadstools. OK, so they don’t produce toadstools, but they do coat a plant in a white pallor that will eventually kill a plant.
According to GardenGuides.com, there are many ways to control the spread of powdery mildew. Their list is below.
In most cases, good cultural practices will adequately control powdery mildew:
- Select powdery mildew resistant varieties. This is particularly true of roses. For lawns, shade tolerant grasses such as creeping red fescue can be planted.
- Plant in full sunlight in a well-drained area.
- Do not crowd plants. Air flow and ventilation will discourage mildew growth.
- Powdery mildew thrives where high rates of nitrogen have been used. High nitrogen promotes tender leaf formation, causing dense stands that are more susceptible to infections. Adequately fertilize but avoid stimulating succulent growth. Organic fertilizers or slow-release formulations of lawn fertilizers are good choices.
- Prune infected plants to get rid of infected parts and increase airflow. If the infestations are severe, remove and destroy the plants that are infected.
- Disinfect your pruning tool in a bleach solution of one part household bleach to four parts water after each cut.
- Watering plants in the morning gives the plants the rest of the day to dry off, discouraging establishment of diseases, including powdery mildew.
Unfortunately, with my little space, I am breaking several of these commandments, notably, the ones related to space and airflow. I also tend to water my plants when I’m able, rather than in the morning. There are some good tips, here, though, and I’m thinking I’ll put some of them to practice. I have been chopping the affected leaves into the soil, and that seems to just encourage future growth, rather than stopping it. I’ll start sending those to the curb when I clip them off. The city compost should be hot enough to kill off the stuff. If anyone disagrees, please tell me.
Below, a picture of what powdery mildew can do to a plant.
I’m tearing down the beanstalks today. It’s just simply getting too cold for them. Although the beans are not fully matured (well, technically, you never harvest green beans when they’re fully mature) I’m picking them anyway, because it’s just not going to be warm enough for them from here on out. I can use the available sunlight for other plants.
Conventional wisdom says that you should harvest beans when they are the size (thickness) of a pencil. This is a good guidepost, but I use that and my own method for knowing when to pluck the little suckers. Bear in mind, that under normal circumstances, you want to harvest your beans often in order to encourage the plants to put out new flowers and thus, new beans. If you do this, you should get 2-3 harvests per plant, rather than just one.
Beans have a hairy, somewhat sticky coating on their pods. This coating tends to disappate as the beans mature. When the beans are approaching the right size for picking, (based on the pencil method I mentioned above) I feel the pods. If the pods are still sticky/hairy, I leave them be for a few days. If they are more glabrous, I pull them off the vine.
But today, alas, the time has come to pull my pole beans down. I tore up my bush beans a week ago and have resolved that from here on out, I’m only going to grow purple cardinal beans. Although the plants tend to grow out of control, and even though I’m not thrilled that they are grown in China, the plants produce copiously and I’ve had more success with them than with other varieties of beans.
Below are pictures of what a bean looks like when it’s ready to come off the vine and what one looks like when it’s not ready. I picked them both.
P.S. Before I get any hate mail on the subject, the only reason I bring up the country of origin for these beans, is because China has had and continues to have serious food safety issues. Because I’m eating what grows on these plants, I want my food supply to be safe, which is all that matters to me.
The weather report this week shows it getting cloudier as the week goes on, with rain expected after Tuesday. I’m very concerned for my tomatoes. As you can see below, I have lots of tomatoes on the vine, but I have no red tomatoes. If the weather goes to cold and rainy, I’m going to have bushels of green tomatoes.
Make fried green tomatoes, you say? Well, yes, I can do that (and more– like sauteeing them with a bit of onion– yum!) but nothing beats a bright red, ripe tomato, fresh off the vine. 
I realized the other day that I haven’t really taught much about how to recognize produce when it’s ripe. I talk a lot about likes and dislikes, bugs, plants, etc, but not much on here is about picking the very thing you’re growing a plant for. To remedy that, I’ll start with the humble pea.
I planted a fall crop of peas this year and they’ve started producing their little pods full of goodness. The peas I planted in the springtime could also have been planted, but I wanted to try to grow peas that require shelling. The springtime peas that I grew were edible, shell and all. These for the fall harvest are must be shelled as the pods are quite tough and a little bitter. Incidentally, peas are best grown in the early spring, late summer, or fall as they are very susceptible to damage from sun exposure.
Shelling peas are best picked when they have expanded the pod like a balloon. Some people like early young peas that are small in size and presumably sweeter, but not me. I put a lot of hard work into my garden and want the biggest bang for my buck, so I only pick the peas when the pods look like they’re about to burst! By contrast, sugar snap peas (those that are eaten pod and all) can be picked as soon as the pod is the size you want for your salad.
Below are the pictures which demonstrate what I’m talking about for size. I’ll have a post soon about harvesting green beans as my fall crop of those is coming in fast and furious!
Filed under: Plants and seeds
There’s an old adage in these parts that goes something like this: “In the Willamette Valley, if you put a stick in the ground, it’ll grow.” The adage is, of course, a quaint way of saying that our land is fertile. I thought the old chestnut was just a saying, something old timers used in their reminiscences. Check out the pic below. I chopped some sticks off my fig tree earlier this year as a protective measure (neighborhood kids don’t always know where to step when the ground is tilled and planted, but nothing’s up yet). Last week, the stick started growing a sapling from its lower end (the end I planted)!
I love mother nature.
