- Author: Bobbie Stryffeler
Unlike other varieties in the Allium genus, garlic doesn't bulge from the ground when it is ready for harvest. Instead we give garlic time and watch for changes in the leaves.
Last fall, late in the season, I planted approximately 30 garlic cloves of 'Music' a hardy soft-neck variety. I waited about 8 months until the lower leaves began to die back, and then I stopped irrigating the crop. For approximately a week, the crop was left to dry. As the week progressed the long leaves browned, bending away from the twisting scape. This drying in the soil is part of the process of curing garlic.
Next, the harvest. I used a garden fork, inserting it a few inches away from the stalk, pushing it down and then bringing it up, underneath the garlic head. The fork allows much of the dried soil to fall away.
It is important to remember not to attempt to wash or scrub as the intact skins are necessary for long term storage. For the next step I laid out each garlic head (roots and stalks attached) in a single layer in a place where they could continue to dry that was cool and shady. After 3-4 weeks I trim off the roots and cut the stalks. The remaining dirt is then gently brushed off.
Are you thinking you want to give garlic a try? If so, it is a great time to prepare the bed and amend the soil. Garlic can be planted between September and November, depending on the zone and the weather. You can also plant garlic in the spring but the yields are higher with a fall planting, and you can use that space in the garden for growing other things.
Learn more at: http://sfp.ucdavis.edu/pubs/SFNews/archives/95071/
And Garden Betty has great close-up pictures and ideas: https://www.gardenbetty.com/a-guide-to-curing-and-storing-garlic/
- Author: Alison Collin
If you have fruit trees you are probably now getting a little tired of raking up fallen fruits which are the result of a natural occurrence known as the “June Drop”. This year the phenomenon is extending well into July, to the point that one wonders if there will be a crop left to harvest. So what is normal, and when do our trees need help?
Apples and pears produce several flowers on each cluster in spring, and depending on pollinator activity, and the local availability of another apple to cross pollinate, many, many flowers may set fruit. However, there will also be numerous little fruitlets that did not get pollinated properly, are damaged by insects, or require more carbohydrates than the tree can produce, and these fruits wither and fall off, frequently in large numbers.
As the remaining fruits begin to swell many more get attacked by codling moth, are affected by lack of sufficient water, or otherwise get damaged, and since the tree can only support a certain sized crop it goes through another round of shedding, usually beginning in June and continuing until early July, often resulting in carpets of larger fruit on the ground - frustratingly too immature to use for any practical purpose.
It is thought that warm nights may cause the fruit drop to be excessive since the respiration rate of the tree causes more carbohydrates to be consumed during the hours of darkness, leaving less available for fruit production.
Another factor could be lack of nitrogen, so a careful fertilization regime should be followed, being aware that too much nitrogen can also cause fruit drop and excessive growth. For information on fertilization see: http://homeorchard.ucanr.edu/The_Big_Picture/Fertilization/
In areas such as ours lack of water will also be a factor, so make sure that you check your irrigation system and remember to seasonally adjust the amount. A mature semi-dwarf tree can produce over 400 pounds of apples which, after all, are made up mainly of water!
On a large, heavy cropping tree, thinning young fruits early in the season reduces the natural shedding, and picking off any obviously damaged fruit as the season progresses will also help, but not eliminate the problem entirely. If a fruit is scarred or misshapen this will only grow with the fruit, so one might as well remove it and save the tree from wasting resources trying to get it to maturity. Infected fruits should be properly disposed of so that they do not create a source of infection. For information on thinning: http://homeorchard.ucanr.edu/The_Big_Picture/Fruit_Thinning/
Generally speaking, if the tree looks healthy and has a heavy crop of fruit falling in mid-summer should not be cause for concern.
National Pollinator Week is June 18 to 24,, 2018.
What better way to celebrate and support the importance of pollinators than to plant a pollinator garden? Even a few plants can help support pollinators such as butterflies, beetles, and bees.
Butterflies and other pollinators are very sensitive to pesticides so avoid using them in your garden. Insecticides kill insects, so if you want butterflies, don't use insecticides. If you do feel you have to use an insecticide, even an organic one, always use minimally. Do not apply when butterflies, bees or other pollinators are active and do not apply to open flowers.
To attract butterflies, provide good food, water and shelter all from a butterfly's point of view. Here are some tips to encourage butterflies to visit your garden.
Minimize pesticide use. Encouraging natural pest predators and using other alternative controls will make your garden safer for butterflies and their caterpillars.
Pick a sunny site. Butterflies generally feed in sunny locations. Choose a place in the garden that receives about six hours of sun each day. Gravel walkways and rocks for basking are good places to watch for butterflies warming up.
Plan the layout of your plants. Plant in groups of the same flowers rather than individual plants of the same kind scattered in the garden. This works because butterflies are near sighted and masses of flowers two or three feet across attract butterflies from a distance. Choosing plants of different heights adds interest to the garden and helps attract more pollinators.
Add native plants to your garden. Many native plants have good sources of nectar, and also are host plants that butterflies seek out to lay eggs. Research has shown that local native pollinators prefer local native plants. Please remember not to cut your garden back severely in the fall or you may lose overwintering eggs for the next season.
Provide shelter. On a rainy day or in high winds, butterflies wait out the bad weather on the undersides of leaves, in trees, shrubs, or vines. They also take butterfly breaks during their day; provide them places to hide with a combination of sites to roost and shelter.
For inspiration and information our local chapter of California Native Plant Society has created excellent resources for anyone to use. They have posted photos and lists of native plants with information, including a new two page Native Landscape Planting Guide. There is information on pollinators, water use, color descriptions and more.
Please remember it is both illegal and destructive to remove plants and flowers from their natural habitats but our local CNPS chapter has a plant sale every year and lots of great information on their website. Also, many nurseries are now carrying more native plants, be sure to ask.
References and further information:
CNPS Bristlecone chapter http://bristleconecnps.org
California Native Plant Society plant information www.Calscape.org
Art Shapiro's Butterfly Site http://butterfly.ucdavis.edu
Pollinator.org http://pollinator.org
National Wildlife Federation https://www.nwf.org
Xerces Society https://xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/plant-lists/pollinator-plants-california/
- Author: Alison Collin
Two years ago, overwhelmed by carpets of wormy, windfall apples I resorted to tossing them into a large plastic stock tank that had numerous holes in its sides, remnants of its original purpose - a crawdad washing device.
However, after a couple of weeks I needed the container and on tipping it over was astounded (and a bit revolted) to find that the bottom contained layers of hundreds of larvae. They were dark, grayish brown. I had not been aware of pest flies in the area, and there was no odor, but the huge numbers of larvae present gave me cause for concern. Research showed that I had just made my acquaintance with Black Soldier Fly larvae, Hermetia illucens, a species that efficiently breaks down organic material, especially the green (high nitrogen) matter in decomposing plant materials, and are considered to beneficial.
The adult flies are about 3/4” long, and are shiny black, looking more like a wasp than a house fly. However, these are not a pest or nuisance fly since they have no functioning mouth parts and therefore cannot bite, nor do they have a stinging mechanism. They flit about the garden, intent on their sole purpose; finding suitable sites for laying eggs which are deposited in batches of 600-800 at a time. There are far fewer nuisance flies around when Black Soldier Flies are present since the soldier flies devour the larvae of other species, and it has also been noted that significant reductions in levels of E. coli and salmonella are present in chicken manure when it has been processed by Black Soldier Fly larvae.
They like warm, moist conditions (e.g. rotting apples), and when the larvae hatch they feed voraciously on pretty much anything so long as those conditions are met; kitchen waste (they love coffee grounds), animal manure and carcasses, deserted bees' nests, and even dead fish as seen in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhR2jDS2IJI . The larvae are a pale beige with darker rings around the body segments, but as they mature they become a dark grayish brown. They can eat twice their body weight daily and soon convert kitchen vegetable waste into little fat bodies containing up to 43% protein and 35% fat. This makes them ideal food for chickens, and many chicken keepers farm them for this purpose. The larvae are also dried and used as food for exotic pets and fish. As they prepare to pupate, they tend to move upwards in order to leave their wet environment, searching for drier debris or soil until they mature as flies. This trait is put to good use since the mature larvae can easily be collected as they migrate out of their initial food source.
They do have a downside in some situations. Unfortunately, although Black Soldier Fly larvae and red worms both like the same food, the fly larvae are extremely active, like warm, moist conditions, and tend to make the soil acidic which is not good for worms, so if you have worm bins it is prudent to check them from time to time and remove any Black Soldier Fly larvae that may be present.
The frass that black soldier flies produce makes a clean, odor-free compost, but in my experience the food conversion into the body of the insect is so efficient, there is not a great volume of compost remaining! Dried larvae may also be pulverized and used as fertilizer.
For further reading on this subject:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermetia_illucens
- Author: Dustin Blakey
It's rose season in the Owens Valley. Every yard in my neighborhood is full of blooms. Among all the cheery white, pink, yellow and red blossoms atop nice straight stems you can often find our most common cultivar of rose, 'Dr. Huey,' arching its long, weedy neck up and then back toward the ground with a heavy load of dark red blooms.
