“Leaflets of three, leave them be.” If you’ve tramped through a prairie, a woodland or any kind of untamed area, you’re familiar with this saying and the native plant it’s referring to. Poison ivy, Toxicodendron radicans, is a member of the cashew family. (Yes, that means cashews, eaten raw, would be poisonous but handling and…
Author: grobigred
Cicada Killer Wasps
The cicada killer wasp is one wasp that shouldn’t be feared by humans. Granted, some wasps are scary, particularly because we know their stings can be ferociously painful. Then, too, the size of the cicada killer wasp is intimidating—the female is two inches long and the male is 1 ½ inches. These wasps, however, are…
Squash Vine Borer
Nothing is more frustrating than seeing the almost-ready-to-produce zucchini plant collapse. If the base of the plant is mushy and has holes, the most likely reason is the squash vine borer. The squash vine borer adult is a ½ inch long moth that doesn’t look or act like a moth. It has an orange abdomen…
Blossom End Rot of Vegetables
So your zucchini has these leathery brown areas on their blossom end? What is this and what can a gardener do about it? Blossom end rot is confusing because it looks like it’s caused by a fungus. It isn’t a fungus. Instead it is a lack of calcium that is the cause. Before you rush…
Japanese Beetles—They’re Colorful, They’re Hungry and They’re Here
The most important thing to understand about Japanese beetles is their feeding doesn’t kill trees, shrubs and flowers. Granted, it isn’t fun to see the lacy leaves they’ve created, but pesticide management options require thought and planning before you set out for revenge. Systemic insecticides, for instance those containing the active ingredient imidacloprid, are taken…
Grasshoppers
They are cute. They are little. So what is the big deal if there are lots of grasshoppers? These seemingly innocuous little guys and gals can be quite harmful to our landscape plants and vegetable gardens. As grasshoppers grow, their appetites become larger, making the damage they do even more severe. Floating row covers and…
Herbicide Damage to Vegetable Plants
Twisting, curling, and cupping of leaves are often symptomatic of herbicide damage on vegetable plants. The culprits that most readily cause this type of damage include 2,4-D (used to kill broadleaf weeds in lawns and pastures), dicamba (lawn and crop broadleaf weeds) and picloram (pasture broadleaf weeds). These herbicides are plant growth regulators, killing weeds…
Leaf Scorch
Leaf scorch, also called sunscald, is the bronzing of leaf surfaces and crisping of leaf edges. Even plants that are well-adapted to our climate can be scorched. Plants have amazing resiliency, especially when Mother Nature eases them into changing seasons. But taking into consideration a spring like this one—cold and rainy—then an abrupt change to…