Time Plantings to Avoid Insect Pests

I attended the insect biocontrol session at the Georgia Organics Conference a few weeks ago. Dr. John Ruberson was one of the presenters. He brought up the topic of timing of plantings to avoid insects but had little to say about it. At the farm tour that afternoon i asked if he had published any research on the subject. His answer was that he is very interested in doing that research but has not been able to get any funding for it. We agreed that it would be a very worthwhile subject to investigate. One of my former students who attended the same session asked me if i had anything to contribute to the topic. Why yes i do. This is for Linda.

What i am about to present is based on my own observations of my garden over the years. My advice to you is to make your own observations in your gardens, keep records of when you first see pests on your plants and how long into the season you see them. From those observations you can develop a plan specific to your garden that can help you avoid some pest damage.

Zucchini and squash
Squash vine borers are a common problem here in the south. Just when the plants get big and start to flower in mid-June the borers attack. Just when you think you will be able harvest some fruit the following week the whole plant collapses. That is the result of the vine borer larvae eating the stems of the plants from the inside out.
Notice i said mid-June. That is when i usually start to see the damn things. What i do is start my seeds in pots indoors in mid-March for planting out after all danger of frost has passed, around April 15th here. That way i get 6 weeks head start in comparison to planting seeds in the ground after the soil has warmed up at the end of April. By the time the borers arrive i am already harvesting zucchini. I have been planting 2 heirloom zucchini varieties, Costata Romanesco and dark grey, that show some resistance to borer damage. Starting in early June i check the base of the plants every morning to look for signs of borers. You will see a tiny hole with "sawdust" around it at the base of the stem. At that point you can take a knife, slit the stem and kill the larvae. The borer seems to prefer yellow squash over zucchini so i do not plant it any more. It might work as a trap crop.

Eggplant
Eggplant likes really warm soil. Plant it early and it just sits there not growing until the soil gets really warm. Last year i planted mine about the end of April and between the flea beetles and the colorado potato beetle larvae they got eaten up and many of them died. The year before i planted in late May and had good success.
Last year is saw potato beetles in the middle of April, the earliest i have ever seen them. Flea beetles emerge from the soil at this time of year. I saw some yesterday. They complete their first generation around the end of May so i time my eggplant planting to try to get in between the generations. The soil has warmed up by then so the plants will grow faster able to resist an early onslaught of flea beetles. Again, i plant a large plant so it has a better chance of survival. Once the plants get a foot or so tall and are growing vigorously the flea beetles don't cause much damage. My friend and master gardener, Jennifer, has observed that flea beetles can only jump 2' high. ( they get their name because they jump like fleas). She plants her eggplant in pots that sit on stumps to keep them well out of reach of the jumping beetles.
A strong healthy plant is less susceptible to the potato beetle larvae but they can do a lot of damage quickly. It is important to be vigilant and pick those suckers off and kill them before their numbers multiply.

Cucumbers
Have you experienced the tiny holes in the sides of cucumbers (squash and melons too) in the middle to late summer? That is the result of the larvae of the pickleworm moth boring into the fruit to feed. Dr. Ruberson said that they overwinter in Florida and migrate up here each year. This year i am starting my cucumbers indoors now to get a head start so i can harvest before the pickleworms arrive. I read a report recently about North Carolina farmers have good success with a late cucumber crop. This year i plant to start a new crop in August to see if i can grow a fall crop here. It would be nice to have cucumbers in October and to extend the pickling season too!

Learning the rhythms and patterns in the garden through patient observation will make you a better gardener and a better person.

The Pedagogy of Transformation - Powerful Words from a Visionary Farmer

The streets were jammed with buses, cars and people headed to the 25th annual Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. National Holiday celebration at the MLK Center in Atlanta
Monday as I made my way to the fruit tree planting at the new 4 acre Wheat Street
Gardens Urban Farm. As I got out of my truck i could hear singing coming from the celebration at the King Center, 2 blocks away. I got there a little after the posted start time of 10:00 a.m. I was astounded to see a swarm of people already working away, hauling compost, planting trees,
bulbs and shrubs and wheeling mulch all around the site. There were old people, middle aged people, young adults and lots and lots of kids. Families were gathering together to take pictures of each other planting trees on this important day. Every one was joyous and the mood was infectious.

I tracked down Rashid Nuri and Eugene Cook, the masterminds behind this wonderful project, to see what they would like me to do. I commented about how awesome it was to see so many people there and Rashid said he was too. He said that as an organization they had not done any promotion of the event to the greater community. The plants were donated by ALFI, the Atlanta, Local Food Initiative, so some people involved in that group knew about and came out. Other people heard about it through the grape vine and many people who came for the MLK Day festivities happened by and decided to pitch in. I would estimate that there were over 200 people working during the course of the day. I would also say that 90% of them had never planted a fruit tree or shrub before.

I was assigned the task of planting the blackberries and raspberries. I worked with a couple of college aged women and a man and his little boy. The little boy asked what it was we were planting. I told him they were raspberries. His dad asked me when they would start producing fruit. I said it would be next year before there would be any fruit to pick. He said " Hey son, we will be about to come back next year to see and taste the fruits of our work here today". The little boy was excited by that prospect. The 2 women said they lived a few blocks away and had stumbled upon the farm while out walking one day. They were interested in finding out about other opportunities to contribute in the future. I showed them how to plant the berries properly and we all pitched in to get the job done.

As we were finishing up the planting a group of 3 or 4 boys and girls about 9 or 10 years old started showing up with buckets full of wood chips. Back and forth up and down the hill they went bringing bucket after bucket. One of the boys asked if what was in the bucket was fertilizer? I said no it was mulch. He asked, "well what is fertilizer?" then answered himself with "manure". I told him the microbes in the soil would eventually break down the mulch to feed the plants. "humus?" he asked. I said yes it would eventually turn into humus. "Oh, you mean decay". Yes, young man, you totally get it.

After we finished up that project I found Rashid to let him know we were done and i told him about the conversation with the kids. He got a big smile on his face and he said that this farm was all about the pedagogy of transformation. Teach people to transform themselves and they will go out and transform their community. This process made a huge leap forward that day. There is no doubt in my mind that many people were inspired to go back to their homes and communities and start growing some food. I imagine for many people this was an experience they will never forget. I know I will not.













Here some links to information about Rashid and Eugene's work at Truly Living Well Natural Urban Farms. and their partner in this effort the Wheat Street Baptist Church Foundation.

Truly Living Well Center for Natural Urban Agriculture
Wheat Street Baptist Church
Wheat Street Gardens Urban Farm