Vine borer strikes again

Well, the stocking treatment worked for a while...but there was is a flaw in this method. That is, the vine of the squash plant goes beyond the stocking so the little critters can get in from the uncovered sections. The summer squash plant was looking pretty good last week but I noticed that the leaves were starting to yellow later in the week.

Healthy green summer squash plant just a week or so ago

I checked the base of the plant, and sure enough, there was a clear sign that the nasty little buggers have gotten into the stem.

Sign of vine borer above the portion covered by stocking

After pulling out the plant, I wanted to see if the borers were still in there. The stem was completely hollowed out and two plump little vine borer was happily eating away at the stem. In addition to the the vine borers, nasty centipedes found shelter in the hollowed stem. I plan to start some new zucchini plants, one for the balcony and another for the community plot. Nasty close up pictures of vine borers (and a portion of the centipede) to follow.

You can see the butt of the centipede in the middle of the picture

close up of two vine borer

Harvest Monday - June 25, 2012

The container plants that I had my boyfriend baby sitting for me survived the move back to charm city balcony garden. I had baby tomatoes that are very leggy since it was growing in a shady balcony for the past 2 weeks. I am a little concerned that it might burn on my balcony that gets full direct sun all day. So far I transplanted one cherokee purple seedling to its final container...I'll see how it goes. The ichiban eggplant, bush early girl and jalapeno peppers are doing really great. I'm trying to figure out what to do with the jalapenos before I harvest any. I will definitely pickle some, and I also want to try making some jalapeno jelly or something spicy-sweet. This was very exciting week for me in terms of harvest...I got my first tomatoes!! So exciting! The flavor was not so great, but I know that the it will improve with time...and they look perfect!

Bush early girl tomatoes

The summer squash is also doing good as well - so far no sign of squash borer invasion. I love these squash, they are so tender and sweet. I prefer to eat them raw so I have been throwing them in salads. I let the ichiban eggplants grow too large - the skin was a little tough but it was still very good. Both the ichiban in the community garden and in the container is doing well.

The first summer squash (community garden) of the season

Ichiban eggplant (container) and summer squash (community garden)

The kale is still going strong - I'm actually having a hard time keeping up with the harvest, my freezer is going to be full of greens (not complaining). I plan to make some kale chips with these.

I linking to Daphne's harvest Monday. I'm very grateful she is providing a place where we can share our harvest with other gardeners!

It's on (part 2)! Me vs squash vine borers - the preemptive strike

The battle with the elements continues here at charm city balcony garden and also at charm city community garden. Last year I lost my summer squash plant to vine borers, fortunately it was after I harvested a good number of delicious squashes. I even performed surgery on the bigger of the two plants I had. If I remember correctly, I got a couple more tiny squashes afterwards, but it never truly recovered. This year, I have 1 squash planted in the community garden and I also plan to have 1 for the container garden (which I have yet to start). When I transplanted the squash seedling to the community garden, I took a preventative measure that I read about online:

I wrapped nylon socks at the base of the squash plant. I wasn't sure if it was too early for this, but I don't think it will hurt the plant. The nylon can expand as the squash grows, my only concern is that the nylon will promote fungus and/or mold especially because it is so humid here.  I'll just be optimistic and feel good about being a prepared gardener!

Tomato, pepper, summer squash starts

The tomato, summer squash and pepper starts were screaming to be transplanted and fertilized. The ichiban eggplant seeds still did not germinate but I read somewhere that seeds saved from ichiban eggplants don't do well. So maybe it wasn't me. Whatever the reason, I bought a starter plant so I will have eggplants this year.

Supersweet 100, Cherokee purple, Pink Champion, summer squash, Chinese giant pepper starts

The rosemary flowered beautiful, but now the flowers have gone and the plant isn't doing so good. It is turning slightly yellow and it just looks brittle overall. I need to do some research to see if I should cut back some of the branches - perhaps to promote new growth.

Not so happy rosemary

On a completely different note, I have been obsessed with reading and watching videos about urban farming/urban homesteading. I'm really itching to have a backyard. For now I will continue to live vicariously through other people's blogs and videos. I found some great series of videos called "Grow" from Whole Foods youtube channel. I don't know about keeping livestock, but I love the idea of having a lush backyard with whole bunch of vegetables and fruits. I almost went out to get a blueberry plant, but I know, I just don't have space. Boo hoo!

New seedlings

I have new seedlings! Exciting. I started tomatoes, peppers, and summer squash 2 weeks ago. I also tried using the ichiban eggplant seeds that I harvested but I must have done something wrong while collecting the seeds because it is not germinating. I'll just keep waiting to see it just needs more time but I might just have to go buy starter plants. Oh well, I'll try seed saving again this year - this time I'll do a little more research so I have viable seeds. The tomatoes I started are supersweet 100, cherokee purple and pink champions (from Annie). The pepper seeds (Giant Chinese pepper) germinated a week after the tomatoes.

The empty ones are the ichiban seeds that did not germinate

I also started some cilantro (again from Annie - thanks so much!). I read somewhere that cilantro seeds (aka corriander) contain 2 seeds per pod so it should be cracked before sowing. I'm not sure if splitting the seeds helped but it only took about a week to germinate. Right now they are on the windowsill but I'm thinking once they are reasonably grown I'll transfer them to the pots in front on the house.

cilantro seedlings

Some more cilantro