W&W Nursery and Landscaping is a Binghamton New York garden center and nursery specializing in gardening supplies, landscaping, lawn care, lightscaping, and live roof systems.
Showing posts with label street smart gardener. Show all posts
Showing posts with label street smart gardener. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Proper Watering Techniques for Garden Plants
The Best Way to Water Your Garden
With all the hot weather we have been dealing with our plants need more water than with typical warm weather. Because of the extended heat, plants will become stressed, much like we do when we are in the heat for too long. *Remember to water early morning or in the evening, after the strongest heat of the day.*
Plants that are newly planted require more consistency in watering. It takes about 3 years for perennials and most shrubs to get to their mature size. It takes trees, depending on the species many years. During the initial year(s), the plant is putting a lot of energy into root formation. In order to remain healthy and flourish, they need to be getting adequate water down to the roots. Evergreens require watering until the ground freezes.Use the following best practices for watering in a variety of conditions to keep your plants healthy:
One of the most commonly asked questions, especially during a time of hot temperatures and infrequent rains, is how long and how often should I water my plants? Unfortunately, there is not one simple answer to this question. The correct answer is that it depends on a number of things and will vary depending on them. The one constant is that you want the soil to remain somewhat moist, like a damp paper towel, not crumbly dry and not dripping wet. When watering, you want the plants to receive enough water to replenish the moisture throughout the plant into the root zone. Your answers to the questions below will help determine what constitutes proper watering in your unique situation.
- Are the plants in the sun or the shade? If in the sun, is it morning sun or midday and afternoon sun?
- Are the plants receiving reflected light and heat from structures, rock mulch, and paved surfaces?
- What type of soil are they planted in - poor draining clay, fast draining sand, loamy, highly organic soil?
- What type of watering systems are you using – in-ground irrigation set for the lawn; in-ground irrigation with appropriate heads for watering shrubs and perennials and on a separate zone from the lawn; overhead, oscillating sprinklers hooked to a hose; soaker or drip hoses; hand watering?
- What type of plants – perennials, trees or shrubs, deciduous or evergreen?
- When were they planted (this year, many years ago)?
- Do you have mulch down? What type – bark, pine needles, rock, straw, compost?
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Over watering can lead to mold and may make a plant more susceptible to disease.
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The best way to determine when to water is by checking a few of the plants in each type of condition. Push the mulch away from the base of the plant and dig down a few inches with a trowel. If the soil is crumbly, you need to water. If it is squishy no need to water for awhile. If it is lightly moist, check again in a day or two. Another method is to push a piece of bamboo into the rootball. If it comes out dry then you need to water. If it comes out sopped and dripping then its too wet and needs to dry out. If it comes out moist then check in a day or two. You will find you need to water some areas more frequently than other areas – as stated above, there is no “one answer fits all conditions” in terms of watering. Keep in mind too that if you have clay soil, even if the soil near the top of the plant feels dry, the base of the plant may be very wet. It would really help to test how quickly things drain in your yard and utilize that to help you determine the optimal watering schedule.
Plants benefit most from slow, deep watering. This is most effectively achieved via soaker hoses or drip irrigation. Overhead watering is less effective, can promote disease and fungal problems and wastes water. On hot, windy days, you can lose over 50% of the water due to evaporation and runoff before it even gets to your plants. In ground irrigation systems that are set to water your lawn are not appropriate to water most perennials, shrubs and trees. The perennials usually get too much water, and the shrubs and trees usually do not get enough. You run into similar problems with hand watering. You are very likely not giving the trees and shrubs enough water. If your only option is to water by hand, for trees and shrubs it is better to just place a hose at the base of the plant and turn the water down to a trickle, then leave it on each plant for 15-30 minute (depending on the type of soil you have). That will allow the water to fully saturate the plant’s roots. If you are using soaker hoses or a drip system, the type of soil you have will also be important in determining how long to leave them on. If you have well draining soils, several hours is okay; for poorly draining soils 1 hour. If you are using overhead sprinklers, put them on for a set length of time (30 minutes or 1 hour) and check a few plants to determine how deeply watered they are. Use this to set up an appropriate schedule.
There are also a number of other items available to help with watering. Treegators can be a tremendous ally. Fastened around a tree and filled with water, they offer slow drip irrigation for the tree or plant without having hoses stretched out across the lawn.
Mulching your plants with bark, straws, compost products will help retain moisture and thus reduce the amount of watering you will need to do.
After your perennials have gone dormant and the leaves have dropped off your deciduous trees and shrubs, you will still need to water evergreens. If you have an in-ground system, have a plan in place to get water to your evergreens once the system has been shut off. Because evergreens have needles, they lose moisture through them during the winter. If they do not have an adequate store of water going into the winter, come spring, they will be dead.
Source: http://www.gertens.com/learn/Shrubs-Vines/proper-watering.htm
Thursday, April 7, 2016
Controlling Lily Leaf Beetle
The adult form of the lily leaf beetle. Photo: Ann Whitman
Colorful, hardy lilies have been a perennial garden mainstay for generations. Sadly, in some parts of the country gardeners have all but given up on these beauties, because of a small, red beetle with an insatiable appetite for lily foliage. Left unchecked, the lily leaf beetle devours leaves, leaving a bare, scarred stem in place of the usual sturdy stalk laden with flamboyant, trumpet-shaped blooms. Researchers are studying the effectiveness of introducing some of this exotic pest's natural enemies; in the meantime, there are safe, organic ways to help keep the pest in check. In regions that have been invaded by beetle, it takes diligence to protect lily plants. But that makes the rewards — glorious flowers and, in some cases, delightful fragrance — all the sweeter.
Accidentally introduced into North America through Montreal, Quebec, in 1943, and discovered in Massachusetts during the summer of 1992, the scarlet lily leaf beetle (Lilioceris lilii) wreaks havoc in flower gardens wherever it travels. As of June 2012, it has been found in all six New England states, New York and, most recently, near Bellevue, Washington. In Canada, the lily leaf beetle is present from the Maritime Provinces (excluding Labrador/Newfoundland) and west to Manitoba. Although its origin is unclear, the lily leaf beetle is widely distributed throughout Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.
Sierra Nevada, an Oriental type, is less susceptible to lily leaf beetles.
Preferred Host Plants
The lily leaf beetle lays eggs and completes its life cycle exclusively on true lilies and fritillaria (daylilies are not affected). Oriental, rubrum, tiger and trumpet lilies as well as Oriental trumpets (orienpets) and Turk's cap lilies and native North American lily species are all vulnerable, but the beetle prefers some types more than others. Research at the University of Maine shows that Asiatic lilies are the most vulnerable, while some Oriental lilies are more resistant. The most resistant lily cultivars in their tests were Lilium henryi 'Madame Butterfly', Lilium speciosum'Uchida', and Lilium 'Black Beauty'. The beetles may also be having an impact on populations of native Canada lily (Lilium canadense), as well as other rare and endangered lily species found in northeastern North America.
The adults also eat the leaves of some other garden plants, including lily-of-the-valley (Convallaria majalis), Solomon's seal (Polygonatum), potato (Solanum tuberosum), flowering tobacco (Nicotiana), hollyhock (Alcea) and hosta.
Identification
Egg masses on the underside of a lily leaf. They range in color from red-orange to brown. Photo: Suzanne DeJohn
A chewed and defoliated lily plant may be your first indication that this pest has arrived in your garden. Both the adult and juvenile phases are voracious feeders and they can do a lot of damage in a very short time. Examine your lilies carefully several times a week, beginning as soon as the plants emerge from the ground. Adult beetles overwinter in the soil or in plant debris, and will begin laying their eggs early in the growing season, often starting on spring-blooming fritillaria that emerge with the daffodils. Each female lays up to 450 eggs, which hatch in one to two weeks. To prevent severe damage, it's important to curb the insect's reproductive cycle early in the season.
The adult lily leaf beetle is scarlet red on top and black underneath. It's just under a half-inch long and has an elongated body with relatively long legs and long antennae. Though these adults do feed on the foliage, their primary concern is to reproduce. If you see the adult beetles, it is very likely that you'll also be able to find egg masses on the undersides of the leaves. The red-orange to brown eggs are tiny and laid in narrow, irregular rows.
Lily leaf beetle larvae covered in a "fecal shield"
The lily leaf beetle larvae, or grubs, cause the most damage. Hundreds of larvae may hatch at one time, and they begin eating immediately. Though the leaves are their preferred food, they will also devour buds, flowers and stems. Most feeding takes place under the leaves or at leaf nodes along the stem. The larvae are yellow, brown or orange and would be relatively easy to spot if they didn't have such an effective and disgusting way of disguising themselves: As the larvae eat, they pile their excrement on top of themselves. This makes the larvae difficult to see (look for soft, brown masses), difficult to destroy (squishing the mass doesn't necessarily kill the larvae) and very unpleasant to touch (some gardeners wear latex or ). The larvae typically feed for 16 to 24 days and then enter the soil to pupate. Adult beetles will emerge 16 to 22 days later and continue feeding until fall.
Controls
For now, gardeners have a few options for dealing with this destructive pest. Hand-picking the adult beetles is very effective if you have only a few lily plants. But you need to be vigilant and fast. The beetles are very quick and as soon as they sense movement, they will immediately drop to the soil level and lie on their backs, which makes them difficult to find. Use this habit to capture and destroy the adults by holding a jar of soapy water under them and nudging them off the leaf. They will immediately fall into the water. Scout your plants several times a week, especially early in the season as the adults emerge from the soil. Biological control using natural lily leaf beetle predators shows the most promise for controlling the spread of this invasive scourge. Although the beetle has no natural predators in North America, the University of Rhode Island Biological Control Laboratory, in collaboration with CABI-Bioscience and colleagues in France, has identified several European insects that parasitize the lily leaf beetle grubs. The ant-sized parasitic wasps lay eggs on the beetle grubs, which subsequently hatch and kill their host. These insects have been released at research sites in all New England states and are proving effective at decreasing the lily leaf beetle populations for at least several miles in the surrounding areas. These controls are not yet commercially available for gardeners, but show long-term promise. See the reference section for links to more information.
Adults lay egg masses under the lily leaves or along the stem and they must be destroyed quickly — they hatch in just 7 to 10 days. You can either pick off the leaf and drop it in the jar of soapy water or crush the eggs. They are very tiny and hard, so it takes some focused effort to make sure they've been crushed.
The larvae are the most difficult to control. Hand-picking is an option, but it requires almost daily patrols and careful observation. Squishing the larvae is tricky because they're covered with excrement so they slip easily between your fingers. Wear latex or nitrile gloves. It's often easier to pick off the whole leaf and drop it into the jar than to squish them.
There is a pesticide that has proven to be relatively effective. Neem Oil is a botanical insecticide made from the neem tree. Neem kills larvae and repels adults. It is most effective early in the season and on young larvae and must be diligently applied every 5 to 7 days. The larvae's "fecal shield" seems to provide it with some protection from sprays, so spray coverage must be heavy and complete. Late-season larvae seem to be somewhat resistant to neem.
Although other insecticides have shown to be effective, there is concern about how these pesticides affect the environment and beneficial, non-target insects. Pesticides containing imidacloprid, in particular, are now linked to honeybee death and colony collapse disorder. This pesticide causes the nectar and pollen of treated plants to become toxic to bees.
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