 Harvesting VeggiesWhen I first started growing vegetables, I was confused at harvest time because I didn’t know just when to pick my veggies. I discovered I’m not alone. For many novice gardeners, our only knowledge of what ripe fruits and vegetables look like comes from the grocery store. Yet, when we begin to grow our own produce, it rarely looks like the blemish-free, polished and waxed fruit and vegetables at the store.
Here are some tips on how to harvest three popular homegrown goodies at the peak of their ripeness and flavor. Tomatoes Nothing can compare with a homegrown tomato. After one season of growing your own, you may never want to buy a tomato in the store again. Store-bought tomatoes can often be almost tasteless because they are often picked while they’re still green, and then sprayed with ethylene gas to force artificial ripening. The picking, transporting and storage process prevents natural ripening and sugar accumulation. Tomatoes undergo a very interesting physiological change when they are about half pinkish-red and half green. At this “breaker” stage, they form a thin layer of cells that seals the fruit from the stem. This layer of cells prevents any nutrient flow from the plant to the fruit. Tomatoes can be harvested at or after the breaker stage and they will ripen normally, but they need to ripen in the sun, such as on a windowsill, for the sugars to fully develop. Tomatoes that are left on the vine continue to ripen and develop sugars because they are exposed to sunlight, not because they are gaining anything from the plant. Store freshly harvested tomatoes on the counter or in a basket, as refrigeration kills their flavor. Some tomatoes, such as green zebra, German grapefruit, and lemon boy, never turn red. So, be sure to save your seed packets or plant tags, as these will often have pictures of the ripe fruit that you can refer to when deciding if it’s time to harvest. Eggplant Generally, eggplant should be harvested when the flesh is springy, and the skin is shiny purple and tight. Test for springiness by pressing into the side with your finger. If the flesh springs back, the eggplant is ready for picking. Eggplants that are past their prime are dull and soft with wrinkled skin. When ripe, white-skinned eggplant, such as Rosa Bianca, will have skin that is glossy white with pink stripes. Melons When trying to determine a melon’s ripeness, look at the condition of the stem and skin color. Cantaloupes “slip” from the vine, leaving a scar where the stem was attached. The bottom, or end opposite the stem, will be soft and fragrant. Their straw-colored skin should be bright. A ripe honeydew may remain attached to the vine, but should also be soft on the bottom side, opposite the stem. While on the vine, watermelons will have a small, curled tendril extending from the vine opposite from where the stem is attached to the vine. This tendril will turn brown and dry out when the melon is ripe. The stem should still be green and difficult to remove from the vine. The skin touching the ground should be buttery yellow. All melons continue to ripen after they have been removed from the vine, and should be stored in the refrigerator or a cool place. This is a reprint of an article I wrote when I was the commercial horticulture program coordinator for the western area of University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. For more specific gardening and horticulture advice be sure to visit your local Cooperative Extension office.
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 Backyard Habitat is for the BirdsProviding a safe and inviting habitat for birds in your backyard is simple and will help our feathered friends thrive in the summer and survive during the winter. I have had a certified Backyard Wildlife Habitat in every home I've lived in. My Montana home is Certified Wildlife Backyard Habitat #197,214. All you need to provide is four things: food, water, cover, and places to raise young.
Water Providing water in the summer is not as critical as in the winter. In the winter, many natural sources of fresh water are frozen, but birds still need clean, fresh water for drinking and bathing. Finches, sparrows, warblers and towhees will eagerly visit a birdbath in the winter. To prevent the water from freezing, install a birdbath heater or a “water wiggler,” or dump out the water in the evening before it has a chance to freeze. Either way, change the water frequently. To keep the birds healthy, scrub the bath with a stiff brush every few days. If it is really soiled, use a dilute vinegar solution or mild soap and water to clean it. Just be sure to thoroughly rinse it. Food Food is easiest to provide by hanging a feeder. There are many different types, and each feeder is designed to replicate a specific feeding niche in the ecosystem. The most common feeders are tubes filled with black-oil sunflower seeds that attract house finches; thistle sock feeders that attract colorful goldfinches; and suet feeders that attract flickers, sapsuckers and some woodpeckers. These feeders can be purchased in most nurseries and garden centers. Cover Cover is any place a bird utilizes to perch, seek shelter or escape predation. Just about anything can be used for cover, including living plant material, snags and rock or brush piles. But, the best way to provide cover is by planting a diverse selection of perennials, annuals, grasses, shrubs, vines, and of course, trees. Grasses are especially important because they provide cover during the winter. Leaving spent flowers and stalks through the winter will also provide cover. Nesting Places Installing a nesting box is the best way to provide a place for your backyard birds to raise their young. Birds can be very choosey when it comes to selecting a nesting place. It pays to do some research and provide a nesting box with the appropriate size and dimensions. There are local stores that specialize in birding and wildlife habitat, as well as online sources. An excellent resource for information on nesting boxes is the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website section devoted to nesting box characteristics, http://www.birds.cornell.edu/birdhouse/instructions/. It provides bird-specific nesting box requirements and downloadable plans on how to build your own box. Building nesting boxes is an excellent woodworking project for the entire family. They also make wonderful handcrafted holiday gifts. Providing habitat for our native birds not only helps them survive, but it can also bring us great joy and contentment, as we watch them frolic in our yards. However, be aware that attracting small wildlife to your yard can also attract larger wildlife, such as deer or bears, so always be cautious. Once you have all of the critical habitat pieces in place, you can get your backyard wildlife habitat certified by the National Wildlife Federation. The online application is available at http://www.nwf.org/backyard/. This is a reprint of an article I wrote when I was the commercial horticulture program coordinator for the western area of University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. Beneficial InsectsBeneficial insects are those helpful little critters that eat other insects that damage and attack our plants. There are far more beneficial insects than bad ones. Scientists estimate that more than 95 percent of the insect species we see in our landscapes are beneficial. Many beneficial insects are predators that consume other insect pests. Some well-known predators include lady bird beetles (lady bugs), praying mantis, and ambush bugs. While most of these insects are pretty easy to identify in their adult form, they are not as easily recognized in their juvenile or larval stages. Lady bird beetles, for example, are pretty scary looking when young. They look like little black and red alligators! It is important to correctly identify an insect before taking any action. If you need help identifying an insect, place it in a jar and bring it to your local Cooperative Extension office for identification. Spiders are pretty easy to identify, but are often overlooked as predators. They are invaluable at keeping backyard insect populations in check. Resist your urge to kill every spider you see. They are the top predators in your garden and you WANT them there! Many parasitoids are also beneficial. These insects lay their eggs inside or on top of an insect host. A parasitoid wasp must have been the inspiration for the movie, “Alien.” These tiny wasps inject their eggs into a host, where the larvae eat the host from the inside out. Many parasitoid wasps are no bigger than a grain of rice. Some species lay their eggs exclusively in aphids, infamous for munching roses and many other landscape treasures. Attracting beneficial insects to the garden is easy. Some gardeners even plant special “insectaries” near their vegetable garden to ensure good pollination and natural pest control. Two of our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, were farmers and relied on their insectaries to pollinate and protect their crops. The best way to create an insectary is through plant diversity. Flowering plants, such as yarrow, black-eyed Susan, milkweed, Cosmos, sunflowers, and pincushion flower, provide nectar and pollen that attract many beneficial insects, while ornamental grasses and woody shrubs provide cover and ambush areas. It is important to note that predator populations often lag behind those of their prey. However, when nonselective pesticides are used to control pest populations, predators are also killed. The pests will usually recover pretty well, and can go through two or three population explosions before the next pesticide application. The predators, however, are usually less resilient and have a more difficult time recovering. Therefore, less toxic control methods, such as spraying water to knock off and kill aphids, are often recommended for additional control when predators are not quite keeping up with pests. That way, you keep the beneficials around to continue helping with the problem. Remember that 95 percent of the insect species in your backyard are beneficial. As you become familiar with the natural cycles of your garden, you can actually shape the ecology of your backyard, attracting and encouraging beneficial insects to work for you! Here are excellent resources from Montana Cooperative Extension on two very important beneficial garden insects. This is a reprint of an article I wrote when I was the commercial horticulture program coordinator for the western area of University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. For more specific gardening and horticulture advice be sure to visit your local Cooperative Extension office. What’s Vexing Your Veggies?You carefully prepare your vegetable garden, working in compost, starting seeds indoors, and transplanting after the last frost. Then, it never fails. Your plants drop their flowers, get strange dark spots or mysterious white splotches, or are attacked by miniscule insects. Don’t worry. You can manage these common summer vegetable problems by using “integrated pest management (IPM).” IPM is a sustainable, science-based approach to pest management that identifies and reduces the risks from pests using a variety of methods tailored to the problem. The selective use of pesticides makes IPM different from organic gardening. However, one IPM tenet is to always use the least toxic methods first. The least toxic methods are actually preventative measures. Rotating crops, buying disease-free plants, providing proper irrigation, and taking good care or your plants are the least expensive and least toxic ways to enjoy a healthy garden. Your local Cooperative Extension has a lot of good, research-based information to help you choose and grow healthy veggies. Once your garden is planted and growing, IPM requires that you determine your tolerance threshold for pests and problems in your garden. In other words, can you live with the loss of two tomato plants, but draw the line at losing three? Can you live with a few squash bugs but think a dozen is unacceptable? These are the types of questions we often ask folks who come to our office for answers to their gardening problems. Monitoring and identification is the key to successful IPM. I enjoy taking my morning cup of coffee out to my garden, and walking around to see what’s happening. I am always surprised at how much I learn from quietly observing my plants. I’m delighted to see a new bud here or a beneficial insect there. Once you become familiar with your garden, you will quickly notice when things are off kilter. Many clients come to us lamenting that their plants died suddenly or overnight. However, this is rarely the case. Most plants exhibit several signs or symptoms well before their demise, but we fail to notice them. Regularly observing your plants will enable you to spot potential problems as they arise. Catching problems at the onset allows us to use the least toxic (and often least expensive) method of control. If you see an insect, or condition you don’t recognize, such as a curled or mottled leaf, you can collect it and bring it to your local Extension office. They will identify it and recommend control methods. Often people spray a variety of chemicals to control a problem, only to discover that the problem is easily managed by simply spraying water. Properly identifying your problems will save you time and money, and help protect the health of your family and our environment. Only after you have identified a problem is it time to consider which IPM control methods to use. IPM control methods can be physical, cultural, biological or chemical. The most effective IPM programs use a combination of these techniques to control problems. Physical control Physical controls include hand picking, fencing out, pruning, or any other technique that physically prevents a pest from taking up residence on your plants. Cultural control Cultural control is essentially growing and cultivating the plant according to its specific needs, modifying the habitat as necessary. Often, these needs are detailed on seed packets or plant tags, in catalogs, or in reference books. Your local Cooperative Extension also has information on proper cultural care for growing many vegetables. Biological control Biological control is using a living organism to control your problem by eating it or damaging it. Beneficial insects, such as lady bird beetles, praying mantises, or green lacewings, are introduced to prey on the nonbeneficial insects. The eggs or larval forms of the predacious insects are commonly sold in nurseries and garden centers. Chemical control The final method of control is using chemicals. The precise and careful use of pesticides sometimes may be the only way to control a problem, especially if the problem has already gotten out of hand. So, how can you use IPM to solve some common summer veggie vexations? Here are a few common problems and ways you can solve them using IPM. These problems are often brought on by high temperatures, low humidity, or wide temperature fluctuations – conditions we often experience in southwest Montana during August. Blossom drop Every summer people are mystified because their tomatoes have dropped all of their blossoms. This problem occurs when the temperature drops below 55 F at night, or rises above 90 F during the day. However, uneven watering, low humidity, unusually heavy fruit set, or nitrogen irregularities can also cause blossoms to drop. While you can’t do much to change the weather, there are some steps you can take to help your plants hang on to those blossoms. To increase nighttime temperatures, you can cover your tomatoes with a lightweight floating row cover at night, or use “walls of water” to insulate around each plant. These are easy to use and available at local nurseries. Most importantly, make sure you water regularly, thin fruit, and apply an organic mulch to regulate soil temperature and fertility. Spider mites Spider mites thrive in the hottest days of summer. They will turn your veggie plants into a dry crispy mess if you don’t control them. Since spider mites like it hot and dry, control them by altering their environment to make it cool and humid. Increase the humidity and lower surrounding temperatures by hosing or misting plants during the heat of the day. Powdery mildew If your vegetables are covered with a strange white or grey residue, you may have powdery mildew. Powdery mildew is a fungus that prefers hot, dry conditions. This is confusing to many people since we tend to associate “mildew” with warm, humid conditions. To control powdery mildew, remove the affected plant parts, increase air circulation by thinning and selective pruning, and increase the humidity by misting your plants. Regular watering and keeping the soil moist will also help reduce the infection. As you develop your IPM program, you will discover that many of your veggie vexations are easily solved with good horticultural practices, a little common sense, and getting to know the cycles and rhythms of your garden. This is a reprint of an article I wrote when I was the commercial horticulture program coordinator for the western area of University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. For more specific gardening and horticulture advice be sure to visit your local Cooperative Extension office. |
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