Rohde’s gets certified as a Butterfly Habitat from the Dallas Horticultural Center.
Once again, putting our money where our mouth is, Rohde’s Nursery went through all the paperwork to prove that our nursery is a safe haven for the butterflies too, as we are already certified as a Backyard Wildlife Habitat from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Deptartment and The National Wildlife Federation, for the other creatures. So, if you come in, and the plant you want is tagged: "Sold until the babies grow up!", you may see baby birds, caterpillars, or who knows what else. Be patient, you can buy it when they have moved on.
Things to Do in August
PRAY!
DANCE!
BEG!
CRAWL! SCREAM! SACRIFICE your first born or better yet, my wife. Do whatever it takes to get rain. But, if that does not work don’t panic. Here are some things to do to minimize damage from this heat wave.
Change your watering habits to benefit the soil. Water early in the morning to avoid evaporation. If you have a automatic system adjust your timer to shorter, multiple periods so that your water will penetrate deeper before it starts to run down your hardscape. Set your timer on your sprinkler for seven or eight minutes and go to the next station, repeat. My system will let me do this twice on its own and I have to manually set the timer for two more times. I put a rain gauge out and by running complete cycles four times I get a little over an inch. I have been doing this once a week through July with this heat, I have gone to twice a week. Mow your grass at a higher level so that the leaves will shade the runners and conserve moisture. A regular sprinkler should be left in a spot only until the water begins to run over the concrete. Then move it to another location .
We still have people coming in to buy mulch. I do not know why they waited until now to finish mulching what they should have mulched two months ago, but better late then never.
Many customers are asking about kelp or seaweed and if it will help against heat stress. Yes. Kelp is very beneficial to plants that are experiencing any kind of stress. Going back to the book "Seaweed and Plant Growth" by T.L. Senn, when a plant wilts there is a decrease in growth promoters and an increase in growth retardants. High temperatures typically accompany drought conditions and have a direct effect on the breakdown of plant enzyme systems. The author believes that high temperatures and drought can be minimized with regular applications of kelp derived from ASCOPHYLUM nodosum. The reason is not clearly understood but may be attributed to the micronutrients being readily available and to the growth regulators supplied by the seaweed.
I know that when we spray with kelp or products that contain kelp like "Foliar Juice" by GreenSense the plants tend to wilt less and require fewer waterings. The foliage stays greener and this helps the plant receive more sunlight without burning the leaves.
We did a test with three mums last year, we placed the plants side by side in full sun, one plant was potted in pure lava sand (A), other two were potted in GreenSense Potting Soil (B and C). Plant B, did not receive any kelp products and would wilt by the end of the day. It was watered daily. Plants A and C were given kelp as a foliar application once a week. The plant that was in lava sand, A, did not show signs of wilting and was watered every fourth day. After two days the plant, C needed water. After two weeks the plant, B, that was not receiving kelp looked like it should die, but we started to apply kelp to each watering by the end of week three it looked as good as it’s twin plant C.
The plant that was planted in lava sand bloomed better then the other two and looked fuller after the blooms fell off.
Use lava sand in your baskets and potted plants for moisture retention and polymers help too. Check out Polymers in our on-line catalog.
Use soaker hoses for your vegetable garden, roses and every where possible. If you do not have a soaker hose, buy one. There is a brand called "the leaky hose", the money you save in water conservation will pay for the hose in the first week.
Again, be sure to water thoroughly, deeply each time you water, then it is not necessary to water as often.
Do not forget to water around the foundation of your house.
As if keeping plants moist and alive is not enough for you, here are some more things to do.
Weeds
You will notice more weeds now. Weeds usually have larger and more aggressive root systems and can find water at deeper levels then grass and flowers, make sure you stay ahead of the weeding game. At least do not let the weeds go to flower. Do not pull up Nut Grass!
Flowers
Spend some time dead-heading flowers from annual flowers and perennials. Just a little time spent on grooming the plants really makes a big difference in the garden. There is nothing pretty about old spent flowers and once a plant flowers and goes to seed, it will usually stop the development of additional flowers, so by removing the spent flowers the plants should continue to flower longer into the season.
Vegetables
During July we sold tomatoes for fall planting now. It is not to late to start. I would start my seeds now and hope that the temperatures will have dropped just a little bit when it is time to transplant them into the gardens. As more plants become available from our organic growers we will bring in more transplants, like cucumbers, spinach, radishes, kale, lettuce, etc. Remove finished crops and compost spent plants.
Insect and Disease Control
Have you seen any crickets lately? Did you know that one female cricket can lay up to 400 cute little babies. Read about Nolo Bait in this Newsletter.
Walk around the garden at least every three days look for insects and their damage that they leave behind. Control them quickly and try using citrus oil as an insecticide. Apply at a rate of one ounce to a gallon of water for your smaller pest and up to three ounce to a gallon for roaches and ants. Do not spray Citrus Oil directly on the foliage unless you use it in conjunction with another product like Foliar Juice
Brown Patch
If you have a problem with Brown Patch this year use corn meal at a rate of 10 pounds per 1000 square feet every two to three weeks. Continue to use corn meal for two months after the symptoms have disappeared.
Chinch Bugs
If you see grass that is starting to turn brown around concrete there is a good chance that the cause may be from Chinch Bugs. The only time that I really use D.E. in my yard is to control Chinch Bugs It works like a charm since these critters are in dry areas and D.E. likes to be dry.
Powdery Mildew
This disease is really noticeable on Crape Myrtles and will stop them from blooming if it really takes hold. Apply GreenSense Foliar Juice and improve air circulation with light pruning.
Lawn growth may slow considerably this month. It's still important to mow regularly. Removing more than one-third of the growth at one time weakens the plant.
Nolo Bait Grasshopper Control
Nolo Bait is a grasshopper suppression bait made from flaky wheat bran which is sprayed with a suspension of distilled water, a sticking agent (Methylcellulose), and Nosema Locustae spores. It is non-toxic to humans, livestock, wild animals, birds, fish, or life forms other than grasshoppers and species of insects closely related to grasshoppers. USDA has set a standard that eight or more grasshoppers per square yard can be considered economically damaging. In many cases, to the casual observer, grasshoppers do not seem to be a noticeable problem until infestations reach 40 or more per square yard. That is when they become noticeably apparent and by that time you want "belly-up overnight" control. However, it is very important to understand that Nolo Bait or "Nosema Locustae " does not work rapidly. It is a subtle disease that is naturally occurring and takes time to develop to levels that can be readily identified. By putting out the bait at the minimum label rate of one pound per acre equivalent, you are performing what is called an "inoculative" release. This will begin the disease process in the population present at that time; however, depending on the grasshopper population densities and varying age groups at the time, the level of inoculation will vary.
For instance, if you have more than eight grasshoppers per square yard and put out one pound to the acre one time, you will probably have serious competition for each flake of bran out there. Quite possibly there will be a large percentage of grasshoppers that don't even get one flake to themselves. In that case, there will be many that will not become infected, at least until they begin consuming those around them that have become sick enough to become attractive as a food source to the healthy grasshoppers, thereby spreading the disease. Because grasshoppers are extremely migratory and can move over great distances, it is optimal to inoculate your area frequently throughout the season. This will help to spread the infection further and aid in long term control. Nosema may not work as quickly as chemical pesticides, but used correctly, it will have a noticeable impact on populations in the long term.
Due to the nature of the disease, the effects will vary according to age and species of the grasshopper and the amount of spores that grasshopper was able to consume. In very young, newly hatched grasshoppers, death may occur within a week. Unfortunately, if you are not planning follow up treatments, this may not really be the optimal time to infect, simply because it does not offer long term carryover. The young grasshoppers die quickly and dry up and disappear. Healthy grasshoppers migrate in, and you can't tell what happened. By the time grasshoppers reach the third stage of growth (third instar) they have developed enough body mass to allow the spores to reproduce to some extent. The infected grasshoppers will become lethargic and dramatically slow or quit feeding, but will not die immediately. This stage allows for some spreading of the disease to take place as healthy grasshoppers come in and cannibalize them. Once grasshoppers are almost to adulthood, infection results in the loss of appetite, lethargy, increased spore production inside their bodies and therefore more spread of the disease. It is actually good to see them very slowly moving about and yet not feeding because it is only in these lethargic but living grasshoppers that the disease can continue to propagate and eventually spread to more of the population. "Belly up" will not necessarily offer the long term control this disease is so capable of producing. In young adults, reproduction and egg laying may be severely depleted or even stopped. When reproduction does take place, quite often the spores will be passed on in the sticky substance that surrounds the egg pods and the young will become infected as they chew their way out of the egg pod and crawl up through the soil to the surface after hatching. In this case they will probably not survive their first molt.
This process explains why you may observe more obvious results the season after application has taken place than during the season in which you inoculated. This is due to an overall decrease in egg laying capability, and infection of the new spring hatch. Follow-up applications each year grasshopper populations are on the increase are useful to continue this process. Winter and spring weather will also have an effect on the spring hatch, as will the cycle the population is in at the time. Grasshopper cycles peak and valley approximately every seven years. This can vary by one to two years either way, but basically, every seven years or so, they will reach an all time high or an all time low. It is helpful to check with the Dept. of Agriculture in your state to find out what the population predictions are for your area on a year-by-year basis. You can then plan your releases accordingly. If populations are in the uphill trend, it is definitely advisable to begin the disease process immediately and to continue to inoculate each year until the peak has happened and the downward cycle becomes evident. If you get started soon enough and a large enough percentage' of grasshoppers are inoculated, you may deter severely escalating populations from ever actually taking place. The more area treated on a consistent basis, the more long term control you can expect to take place. Optimally, spreading bait frequently throughout the season will be more advantageous than just once at the label minimum application rate.
Nosema Locustae spores are single celled animals otherwise known as protozoan. The spores that are sprayed on the bran are in the "resting" or protected" stage of the protozoa’s life cycle. By "resting" or "protected", we mean that they have reached a stage of their life cycle when they automatically form a protective layer around the cell that neither takes in or lets out anything, from water to waste. It is in this stage that they wait to be ingested by a grasshopper. The spore stage can persist in the soil for years. Once the spores are ingested by the grasshopper, they become activated in the grasshopper's mid-gut. The spores "germinate" or extrude a filament from the cell wall. In the process of extruding this filament, the spores pierce the mid gut wall of the grasshopper and in very young 1st instar (growth stage) grasshoppers, death usually occurs very quickly due to septicimia (bacteria invading the grasshopper and causing death). The spores then continue to reproduce, attacking the fat body in the grasshopper. It is this action that causes infected grasshoppers to become lethargic and reduce their feeding and reproduction ability. In essence, when a grasshopper consumes the spores, it is like giving them a fatal case of the flu or giardia. The disease takes time to develop.
Some of the symptoms of the disease will occur more quickly than others. The severity of the symptoms is dependent upon the age and species of the grasshopper at the time of treatment, the amount of spores consumed, and the overall health and vigor of the grasshopper at the time it becomes infected. Symptoms of infection may be observed in the field in the following manner: Infected grasshoppers will become more lethargic than usual. When they are disturbed they will typically hop and, upon landing, fall to one side or the other. Their equilibrium has been effected. After falling to one side or the other, they typically crawl unsteadily a little way before hopping again. Often they will not hop again unless forced to. They also typically crawl up a grass stalk or seek someplace to "roost" or cling to. It is often in this position that dying infected grasshoppers will remain and evidence of cannibalism will be apparent.
Healthy grasshoppers will feed on infected grasshoppers from the abdomen up to the thorax (mid section) which is just behind the front legs. They don't usually eat the head or the hard "plate-like" shield behind the head which covers the thorax. Visual examination of a grasshopper for evidence of infection can be done by holding live grasshoppers just behind the head along the hard plate. Turn the grasshopper over and look at the underside of the abdomen. On each side of the abdomen there are two depressions which run the length of the abdomen beside the segments in the sides. In many species of healthy grasshoppers, the depressions will be a darker color than the rest of the abdomen, or even look like lines running the length of the abdomen. When a grasshopper becomes infected with nosema, often these lines will disappear and the entire abdomen will become a "creamy" whitish or greyish color. This can be an indicator that spore reproduction is heavy. Often, in a heavily infected individual, the eyes will also lose their dark color and become whitish or hazy looking. If the head turns white it is amazing if the grasshopper is still alive.
Infection with Nosema can make death to grasshoppers already carrying other commonly associated diseases occur more quickly. An example of this is seen in an associated disease called Malamoeba Locustae . Malamoeba Locustae occurs commonly in most grasshopper populations. Like Nosema, it is not usually present in large enough numbers to cause death. Once the grasshopper ingests Nosema, however, Malamoeba levels often soar, triggered by the Nosema infection. Both organisms compete for the body fat to reproduce. The cause of death, when Malamoeba is present at the same time as Nosema, can be ascertained by a dark brownish-black coloration of the abdomen and dark body fluid seeping out. The abdomen will hang limp and readily fall apart.
Home Sweet Home
For some reason I wake up every morning at 3:00 am. I get out of bed and go check on my children, Victor and Assisi. Living in the same house for the last seven years has allowed me to be very comfortable in my home. I can easily go from one end of the house to another without having to turn the lights on. I know every inch of this old house. I know what insect controls have been used and I rest assured that no toxic materials have been applied during my stay here. After I check on my kids, Alfred, our mean dachshund, comes to me wagging his tail and wanting to go out. I can open the door to the garage and walk out into the garden without turning the lights on or tripping over things. I have lived here for seven years and I know this place like the palm of my..."Ow! What the heck," I scream as I fall to the floor, hitting my head on a box on the way down. I wondered who was playing tricks on me, as I remembered the patch I wore over my good eye when I was young. (The patch was supposed to make my lazy eye stronger, but was really there to let my brothers have fun moving furniture around so that I would trip and fall. This memory made me laugh as I came to the conclusion that one of my brothers must have told this story to my son Victor, who must have moved the furniture around to play a trick on his old man).
I turned on the light knowing that my electric bill was going to double because of this indiscretion when I realized I wasn’t in my house, my castle. I was in our new home, our first night in this strange place and I tripped over some moving boxes.
My darling wife, Sandra, wanted this house. She felt that it would be a better home for our children to entertain their soon to be teenage friends. We would be able to observe them better if we gave them a place that they could hang out and have some privacy.
The day we came to see the house, I walked into the garage and was knocked over by this horrible smell. It was like walking into the garden section at a large home outlet store. I saw an arsenal of chemicals and not one of them was natural. Diaznon, malathion, Weed be gone, Bug Be Gone and more. I went into the backyard and was shocked that even though this house was on a wooded creek lot, I saw no birds. I walked onto the lawn and saw only bermuda grass, but not even one weed. I was really feeling uneasy, looking for excuses to not like this house, but could not find any!
Later that night back at our old house, my wife Sandra went on and on about the house we had looked at and how much she wanted this new house. I told her I was concerned with the "health" of the house and what it would do to our family. I told her that the children and our dog would have to stay off the grass. That Alfred’s belly was going to rub the ground every time he went out to do his business collecting all kinds of toxic chemicals, like a dust broom.
Sandra looked at me as only a wife could, and with lighting coming out of her eyes she said: "Greg, if we don’t get this house you’ll never kiss me again (not the exact words, if you know what I mean). Besides that, she continued, you own an organic nursery and you have all the organic products you need to detoxify that property." Her face stared to turn red, her voice sounded as sharp and cold as a razor against my neck. "Convert it over and the neighbors will see how well the organic products work. They will tell their friends and people will flock from all over the world to see what you have accomplished."
Now her voice changed to a sweet, motherly tone as she continued: "You can chronicle your achievements on your website....." Before she went on I gave in and we agreed to buy this new house.
We closed on the house on the 15th of July and before moving in I was going to paint over the ugly dark browns, reds and purple walls in the bedrooms. I cleaned a window seal so that I could put a fresh coat of paint on it. I remember that there were some dead moths and a fly on top of it. The next day I went back to apply a second coat of paint and found one wasp, three rolly pollies, one fly and another moth. A death trap! If bugs were dying overnight how long would it take for my family to get sick in this house? I had to think fast, how could I remove these toxins without going broke? What am I going to do?
To be continued....