What a great month for gardening! Those of you who planted in the sunny days of February are seeing the results- a few weeks of rain, and now more sun. The veggies in the garden plots look great! For those of you who have not yet planted this spring, you have just 2 weeks left to get plants in the ground by the March 31 planting deadline.
Excited about the pizza party on Friday? We are! I've made 5 batches of pizza dough. We're planning to harvest leeks, potatoes, arugula, broccoli and kale for the pizzas.
For April, our special event is a compost yard tour and volunteer work party- we'll be screening vermicompost (aka worm castings) which is an amazing fertilizer we incorporate into the compost we give you for your gardens. Come help out and see where all those green weed bags end up! RSVP here
Coming up on the calendar:
If you've never gone, the SF Flower and Garden Show started today in San Mateo and it's always worth a visit: https://www.facebook.com/SFFlowerShow/
Daylight savings time has begun so we have started our evening open garden times!
3/17, 5-7pm Portola open garden
3/18, 3-7pm Ft. Scott Pizza potluck
3/21, 2-4pm WeWa plot checks/ open garden
3/21, 5-7pm BBA 1&2 open garden
3/24, 5-7pm WeWa open garden
3/25, 10-12pm, SBB plot checks/ open garden
3/28, 5-7pm BBA 3&4 open garden
3/31, 5-7pm SBB open garden
Garden to-do list:
- Pull annuals that are flowering and replant.
- What to plant now? Try arugula, runner beans, beets, bok choi, broccoli, broccoli raab, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, celery, chard, cilantro, favas, kale, kohlrabi, leek, lettuce, mustard greens, peas, radish, spinach, strawberry plants, and turnip.
- Check for aphids! In the hot days of late February the aphid populations were exploding on members of the Brassica family (kale, broccoli, cauliflower etc.). These aphids are grey. Also look for black aphids showing up on fava beans, chard, and members of the Allium family (chives, onions etc.). Wash them off with water and remove infected leaves. If they are bad, spray with insecticidal soap/soapy water. Do not buy and release ladybugs in our national park, however. Vigilance and frequently checking your plants makes a huge difference and avoids this:
grey aphids on cabbage - Prepare to plant your warm weather crops in the next 4-6 weeks: green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini.
How to Manage PestsUC Pest Management Guidelines
DESCRIPTION OF THE PEST
Cabbage aphids are green gray with a white, waxy coating. They commonly occur in dense colonies, often covered with waxy droplets. They prefer to feed on the youngest leaves and flowering parts and are often found deep within the heads of cabbages or Brussels sprouts. The aphid has a simple life cycle with adult females giving birth to live offspring throughout the year in most parts of California. Both winged and wingless adults occur; the winged adults have a black thorax and lack the waxy coating. The aphid does not infest noncruciferous crops but can survive on related weed species when cole crops are not in the field.
DAMAGE
Cabbage aphids do not normally affect seedlings but build up after thinning or transplanting. Large colonies can stunt or kill small plants, but the most serious problem is contamination of the harvested crop. Dense populations cause leaves to curl around them, making them harder to reach with pesticide applications.
MANAGEMENT
Cultural practices and biological control agents can reduce aphid infestations and delay or prevent the need for pesticide use. Try to delay using insecticides for as long as possible while maintaining yields and quality. Most fields require at least one application against aphids at preheading; however, if you can delay applications until just before head formation, you will save the expense of additional applications and may also be able to maintain the natural enemies that will keep caterpillar pests, including loopers, imported cabbageworms, armyworms, and diamondback moths, below economically damaging levels.
Biological ControlCabbage aphids have many natural enemies and these can sometimes control low populations; however, short crop life, use of pesticides for other pests, the tendency for the aphids to be deep within the head, and various other factors make it difficult for natural enemies to keep rapidly rising aphid populations from reaching economic levels. Important natural enemies include lady beetles, syrphid fly larvae, fungal diseases, and the parasitic wasp, Diaeretiella rapae. Protect habitat for natural enemies so that they can survive and increase their population levels. Organically Acceptable Methods Biological and cultural control are organically acceptable, as well as sprays of insecticidal soap, which can give partial control. Soap sprays, however, may be phytotoxic under some conditions, especially in Brussels sprouts and cabbage. For most effective control, apply during foggy conditions. Monitoring and Treatment Decisions Check at least twice a week. Cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower. Check for cabbage aphid in the youngest, highest, and innermost leaves of young plants. After heading, check the flowering parts of broccoli and cauliflower and pull back wrapper leaves of cabbage. Also check for natural enemies. Broccoli and cauliflower crops can tolerate up to 100 aphids per plant up to heading. Once heads begin to form, cabbage aphids must be controlled even if only a few are present. Because of the overlapping growth of their leaves, cabbage crops require more careful management and have less tolerance for aphids even during the early vegetative stages. After treating, recheck fields frequently and treat if populations reappear. And finally, take a moment to consider the work you do in the garden and how much it adds to your life: Nice article about the benefits of community gardening- my supervisor sent this to me, so I thought I'd share it with all of you. |
