Products with spinosad offer one more control option for lily leaf beetles. |
Flower gardeners are a peaceful lot—at least until someone comes between them and their favorite blooms. Then, they get mean. At least some of us do.
It was about three years ago that I first heard whisperings in the halls at Gardener's Supply of a new pest: "Something is destroying my Oriental lilies! What can I do?" The unspoken reply: "How far are you willing to go to save your lilies? Will you use chemicals?"
The culprit, the lily-destroyer, the evil insect is Lilioceris lilii, aka: The Lily Leaf Beetle. Oh, these scarlet beauties are striking in the garden. But then they breed and their disgusting offspring take over, devouring the lilies and covering themselves in their own poo.
The devastation brings out bloodlust in some gardeners—even the earth-friendly ones. At first, I tried neem, a relatively harmless spray that does wonders on aphids and controls blackspot on roses. It worked to control the larvae the first year, but I had to spray frequently (every 10 to 15 days). The second year, I couldn't keep the larvae under control. My lily crop was hit hard, and I got few blooms. Last year, I decided to resort to a systemic called imidacloprid. The results were instantaneous and effective. No more poo-covered larvae; no more devastation.
The eggs of the lily leaf beetle are usually found on the underside of the leaves, as shown on this fritillaria. They're smaller than poppy seeds, and usually bright red. If you see these, you've got a problem. |
Still, imidacloprid is not something I can feel good about. Systemic insecticides are harsh. Plus, studies have shown that imidacloprid can be harmful to bees, so I'm giving it up. I need a new approach.
I've been reading about something new, a substance called spinosad, which is made from a soil-dwelling bacterium, Saccharopolyspora spinosa. The sprays are said to control foliage-feeding caterpillars, beetles, borers and other pests. When used carefully (read the label!), it's not supposed to effect beneficial insects. Plus, spinosad has been classified as an organic substance by the USDA National Organics Standards Board. This year, I plan to try Monterey Garden Insect Spray, which is one of the formulations. I'll let you know how it goes. Have you seen lily beetles in your area? Let me know what works for you by posting a comment, below. Already I've had reports from two customers: one infestation on fritillaria and another on Asiatic lilies. Both sites were treated with spinosad.
In the meantime, keep your fingers crossed that researchers will find something that can be used to keep these pests in check. According to David Sims of the North American Lily Society, there is concern that the beetle will wipe out native lily populations. The group has been a sponsor of a study at the University of Rhode Island, where researchers are using predatory wasps to control the beetle. So far, the results have been encouraging.
-David Grist, Online Content Coordinator
Send a Photo
See how other gardeners are supporting their tomatoes and share a photo of your own. Visit our Photo Center. |
What's your favorite tomato support? Take our poll and let us know. (You can find the poll at the top of the right-hand column.) Do you prefer Tomato Cages, Tomato Ladders, Rainbow Spiral Supports, wooden stakes or something of your own invention? If you have more to say about your choice, please make a comment (click on Comments at the bottom of this post).
Cindy and Kathy at the photo shoot. |
Like many good ideas, it all began with a casual hallway conversation. Back in the office after a sunny May weekend, Cindy and I were talking about which gardening chores we'd managed to cross off our lists. We had both planted our tomatoes that weekend, but she had put up tomato ladders and I had put up cages. We started laughing about how she would never even consider using cages for supports and how I would never consider using ladders.
Others within earshot chimed in with their own opinions about the merits of each support system. It seemed clear: Either you were a cage-person or a ladder-person.
Our art director, Susan, overheard us talking and a light bulb went on. “Let’s set up a face off and photograph it for the catalog,” she said. “We could do it in one of the beds in our display garden!”
We enlisted our extraordinary staff gardener, Sarah, to set up and maintain the bed throughout the summer months. She made sure the tomato plants were well fertilized and had plenty of water. By early September, the plants were heavy with fruit and the photo shoot was scheduled for one day after work. Susan, the photographer, our photo stylist Martha, and Cindy and I met in the display gardens just outside our offices.
Cindy and I figured we’d been asked to be there as “expert advisors” about the merits of the two different systems. What we didn’t realize was that Susan's plan was to feature the two of us just as prominently as the tomato supports.
There was no time for special outfits and no one around to style our hair. The two of us got planted right in the bed with the tomatoes and it was all over but the crying in about 10 minutes. (Strange to see how you can look your age on the outside and still feel like 35 on the inside…).
Read Ladders or Cages to learn more.
-Kathy LaLiberte, Director of Gardening
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
When I read those words last year, written by Michael Pollan, all of my questions about what to eat were answered. Simple, clear and direct.
As we struggle to eat right—whether it's for personal health or global sustainability—we are presented with many labels: low-fat, organic, vegan, sustainable, local, whole-grain, grass-fed and more. Many choices-perhaps too many. And what do these terms really mean? A free-range chicken from California is organic, but is it sustainable to have it shipped across the country to me here in Vermont?
In Michael Pollan's writing, I find direction as an eater—and a gardener. I don't find rules and standards; I find guidance and points to consider. The choices are myriad, and nothing is black and white. It's all gray. The only "wrong" is not thinking about what you eat. For instance, I have a goal of eating more local foods. Not only local foods, but more. In the winter, it's hard to find fresh, local produce—especially in the north. But if you look carefully, it's there.
Michael Pollan is author of several books, including The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals and In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. To learn more, visit www.michaelpollan.com. |
We have the locavore movement to thank for the raised profile of local foods. In my local grocery store, I see dozens of items on the shelves that are drawn from the region: produce, dried beans, meats and cheese. Each is highlighted with a shelf sticker. Still I'm not committing to a locavore pledge of eating products from the area from a 100-mile radius of my home. Coffee, orange juice and wine are pleasures I'm not willing to give up just because they're not harvested and produced here in Vermont. Plus, I believe there are ways to support sustainable communities in far-off places by making thoughtful choices.
So this year, I encourage all gardeners to grow something. Or grow more. Or get to know someone who does. Make a connection with your food that will ensure greater health, happiness and sustainability. With humble apologies to Michael Pollan, I offer my own version of his succinct advice:
When you eat, eat. Not in the car. Taste your food.
-David Grist, Online Content Coordinator
A bee at work in an apple orchard. |
As gardeners, we are more aware than most, of the role bees play in pollinating flowers, fruits and vegetables. In the U.S., 30 percent of the food we eat requires bee pollination. European honeybees (Apis mellifera) in particular, do about 80 percent of that work.
Bee colonies are transported in hives so the bees can pollinate a cherry orchard. |
European honeybees have been working in the U.S. for several hundred years. Unlike wild bees, which tend to be solitary workers, honeybees congregate in colonies with as many as 50,000 individuals working under the supervision of their queen. Honeybees are valued for their honey production (most bees don’t produce honey) but it’s their colony-forming lifestyle that has made them so easy to domesticate and set to work for us.
Today, the number of commercial honeybee hives in the U.S. is estimated to be about 2.4 million. Most of these hives are constantly in motion, being trucked from state to state as various agricultural crops come into bloom. California’s almond crop alone requires the services of approximately 1.3 million honeybee colonies each spring.
When scientists mapped the honeybee genome, they discovered that honeybees have about half as many toxin- and disease-fighting genes as most insects. This genetic vulnerability is a likely reason for the honeybee’s population decline over the past 50 years. Losses have been traced to a number of factors, including mite infestations, competition from invasive species such as Africanized bees, and most recently, a mysterious die-off referred to as colony collapse disorder.
Wild and native bee populations are under similar stresses and have definitely experienced population losses, but thus far they are proving to be much hardier. Researchers for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and many other research institutions are studying wild bees and other pollinators to understand how these insects can be enlisted to give honeybees a break. Bee experts at the ARS Bee Biology and Systematic Laboratory in Utah have cataloged more than 1 million entries about wild, native and non-native bees and other pollinators in six ecosystems across the country.
To learn more about our native bees and how to attract and protect them, read Alternative Pollinators: Native Bees, published by the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service (ATTRA). Though the article was written eight years ago, it provides a good overview.
Another excellent resource is the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign. One of our own articles on the subject is: What's the Buzz in Your Garden?
-Kathy LaLiberte, Director of Gardening
 Grow your own vegetables when you can, especially those that appear on the "dirty dozen" list: sweet bell peppers, celery and strawberries |
Unless you grow your own or buy organic, you can be fairly sure that the canned, frozen, and fresh fruits and vegetables you drop into your shopping cart have been sprayed with chemicals. The tantalizing bins of lemons and oranges, apples and bananas, mounds of melons, green beans, and colorful peppers come to our local grocery store from all over the world. Regardless of the source, most conventional farmers rely on pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides to increase their crop yields and provide blemish-free products. It’s hard to know what’s safe to feed our families.
To help consumers make informed choices, a nonprofit research group, the Environmental Working Group (EWG), published a “Dirty Dozen” list and a “Consistently Clean” list for fruits and vegetables. The lists are based on nearly 43,000 pesticide residue tests conducted on fruits and vegetables between 2000 and 2004 by the USDA and Federal Drug Administration (FDA). By avoiding the most contaminated products, consumers can sidestep 90% of their potential pesticide exposure from produce.
Eating conventionally produced products on the Dirty Dozen list, including peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers, celery and strawberries, can contribute as many as 15 different pesticides to your diet per day. The 12 cleanest include onions, sweet corn, cabbage and broccoli, which contribute fewer than two. To read more and find the complete lists, visit the Environmental Working Group’s web site.
-Ann Whitman, Staff Horticulturist
Gardener’s Supply has been promoting organic gardening techniques and composting since 1984. During these past 25 years, our customers have produced millions of tons of carbon-rich compost to make their gardens more productive. Here in Burlington, Vt., the community composting program that we started about 15 years ago, is now converting hundreds of thousands of tons of organic waste into compost for area gardeners, landscapers and farmers.
And guess what? All this carbon-rich material that we’re adding to the soil is also removing excess CO2 from the atmosphere. This means that while we’re making the soil more productive, we’re also helping to mitigate climate change by sequestering some of the excess carbon that’s been released by human activity over the past 200 years. What’s good for our gardens is also good for the planet!
Here I am at the farm with Tierra Pacifica's organic farm manager, Elias Roriguez. We're experiencing great success by combining traditional agricultural methods with contemporary innovations. |
For the past several years, I’ve been spending winters in Costa Rica where my wife’s family lives. In the tropics, deforestation, thin soils and unrelenting heat, wind and sun make soil building a far more critical need than it is here in North America.
Since 1999 I’ve been working with a small horticultural training center on Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast, to develop new gardening and farming techniques that store more carbon and produce more vegetables and fruits on less land. We call this system “chinampas” growing, because it’s based on the traditional Mayan raised/sunken growing beds, combined with agro forestry and organic gardening techniques.
Below are a couple photos of the gardens. If you’re interested in learning more, please check out www.elcentroverde.org, or contact me (see the El Centro Verde website) if you’ll be in Costa Rica and would like to visit our test gardens at Tierra Pacifica in Guanacaste.
-Will Raap, Founder and Chairman
Growing beds are heavily mulched to retain moisture while seeds are germinating. Fruit-bearing trees have been planted throughout the farm as windbreaks and to provide shade for understory crops. |
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Shade netting is one of the "modern" innovations that's proving to be very useful, especially for greens and transplants. In this photo you can clearly see the concept of chinampas gardening, in which some growing areas are raised and some are at or below grade. |
Compost is the key to a healthy, productive garden. Adding organic matter to the soil also helps sequester carbon from the atmosphere. |
An interesting article by my friend ecologist Steve Apfelbaum appeared in the Christian Science Monitor this week. In "A Dirty Way to Fight Climate Change," Steve and his associate, retired soils scientist John Kimble, remind us that one of the best places to keep carbon is right in the soil.
This idea is nothing new for organic gardeners. We're constantly trying to increase the carbon content of our soils by adding compost and shredded leaves, minimizing tilling, and using mulches and cover crops. Garden soil with a high organic content grows healthier, more productive plants. What Steve and John are telling us is that it can also help the planet. Here's how Steve and John put it:
"Scientific analyses show that recapturing atmospheric carbon into soil and plant communities is the easiest and least expensive method for mitigating climate change and that it provides many other economic, cultural, and ecological benefits. Restoring soils in currently farmed land can rein in 10 to 15 percent of the annual carbon emissions Americans create."
Gardeners know best!
"We need to follow nature's lead," say Steve and John, "and put carbon where the earth has securely stored it for millions of years – in the soils. Among many other benefits, this will cleanse the atmosphere, taking a big bite out of the existing greenhouse-gas loads."
PS. An editorial of mine was recently published in Vermont's largest newspaper, describing a simple way for any person or business to think about steps to reverse climate change. To read it, click here.
-Will Raap, Founder and Chairman
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