Guess what's blooming in my garden? My 'Tropicana' canna! It's not as tall as I usually see cannas getting, but I guess that because I started this one from a bulb (or is it a corm? a rhizome? my botanical terms fail me at this point in the evening). In the past, most cannas that I've had in my yard have come as transplants, already nice and tall in their one-gallon pots. My other cannas are doing well with putting out foliage, but none of them have started flowering yet.
EDIT: Apparently this is not a 'Tropicana' variety, but I don't know what it is.
Caterpillars
Saturday, June 21, 2008
I found a big brown caterpillar on my tomato plant today and went trolling on the Internet to find out what it was. Apparently, it's a southern armyworm (Spodoptera edidania).
I've actually seen a lot of small caterpillars skeletonizing the leaves of my tomato. Apparently, they're the younger larval instars of this guy. Most caterpillars go through several larval instar stages, which can make it difficult for folks like me to definitively identify them. This guy's darker coloration suggests that he (or she) is a later instar stage.
Speaking of identifying caterpillars, it looks like I misidentified this caterpillar. It's actually a tobacco hornworm (Manduca sexta) and not a tomato hornworm (Manduca quinquemaculata). Tomato hornworms have eight white V-shaped markings on their side while tobacco hornworms have seven diagonal white lines.
I've actually seen a lot of small caterpillars skeletonizing the leaves of my tomato. Apparently, they're the younger larval instars of this guy. Most caterpillars go through several larval instar stages, which can make it difficult for folks like me to definitively identify them. This guy's darker coloration suggests that he (or she) is a later instar stage.
Speaking of identifying caterpillars, it looks like I misidentified this caterpillar. It's actually a tobacco hornworm (Manduca sexta) and not a tomato hornworm (Manduca quinquemaculata). Tomato hornworms have eight white V-shaped markings on their side while tobacco hornworms have seven diagonal white lines.
RIP cherry tomato plant
Friday, June 20, 2008
My cherry tomato plant finally bit the dust. I had been holding off on posting for awhile because I wanted to be able to brag about how well my tomatoes were doing. Alas. One is still plugging along ('Hillbilly'), but the other is dead ('Black Cherry').
You can see the remains of its crispy brown skeleton in the left half of the container. I'm still not sure what killed it. The leaves started wilting quickly and then turned brown and crunchy. The stems also changed, losing their solid feel and changing to a hollow feel. There are a number of different things that can cause wilt in this neck of the woods. I guess I'll never know the official cause of death.
The amazing thing is that the tomatoes that were on the vine continued to ripen. I think I ended up with three dozen or more 'Black Cherry' tomatoes all told. Yum!
I removed the plant from the container this week to give the remaining 'Hillbilly' tomato plant more room to breathe. It seems to be working. The long-green tomatoes are now starting to blush. Can't wait to taste those.
Tomato harvest
Monday, June 16, 2008
It's finally time to harvest some tomatoes!
These are 'Black Cherry' tomatoes that I planted as transplants in a self-watering container. I think I got about two dozen tomatoes off the plant. And yes, they are delicious! I ate some with my dinner salad last night and am eating the rest now on my lunch salad.
These are actually the first tomatoes that I've ever grown all by myself. We had a big garden when I was a kid, but my parents did all the hard work.
The sad news is that the tomato plant itself is pretty much dead. I think it got wilt, because all of a sudden the leaves started shrivelling up and turning brown. The stems seemed to rot, too. If I squeezed them, they felt hollow. However, the tomatoes kept ripening so I left the plant alone.
The other tomato plant in the container seems to be doing fine, so perhaps it's resistant. Let's hope so. I can't wait to sample those tomatoes, too.
These are 'Black Cherry' tomatoes that I planted as transplants in a self-watering container. I think I got about two dozen tomatoes off the plant. And yes, they are delicious! I ate some with my dinner salad last night and am eating the rest now on my lunch salad.
These are actually the first tomatoes that I've ever grown all by myself. We had a big garden when I was a kid, but my parents did all the hard work.
The sad news is that the tomato plant itself is pretty much dead. I think it got wilt, because all of a sudden the leaves started shrivelling up and turning brown. The stems seemed to rot, too. If I squeezed them, they felt hollow. However, the tomatoes kept ripening so I left the plant alone.
The other tomato plant in the container seems to be doing fine, so perhaps it's resistant. Let's hope so. I can't wait to sample those tomatoes, too.
Scout early and often
Friday, May 23, 2008
I've been checking my tomato plants almost daily to see how they're progressing (lots of baby tomatoes!) and also to check for signs of diseases and pests. This week I found my first tomato hornworm caterpiillar.
Well, to be truthful, I found the frass first. Frass, you ask? Well, it's just a fancy word for caterpillar poop. It's usually easy to spot because it's dark and stands out strongly against the leaves, unlike the caterpillars themselves which tend to blend in. For a close-up of the frass, click here.
I scoured the tomato bushes and found four young caterpillars and quickly introduced them to the bottom of my shoe. This is the first line of defense (pick and squash) if you're using integrated pest management. My next step was going to be treating the plants with Bacillus thuringiensis, a microbial insecticide, but I was unable to purchase it at my local big box store during last night's late shopping trip. Darn those big box stores.
My tomatoes have shown other signs of pest damage, namely leaf miners, but I haven't treated them because leaf miners usually don't cause major problems. Tomato hornworms, on the other hand, have voracious appetities. No way I'm leaving those buggers on my prized tomatoes.
Update 6/21/08: it looks like I misidentified this caterpillar. It's actually a tobacco hornworm (Manduca sexta) and not a tomato hornworm (Manduca quinquemaculata). Tomato hornworms have eight white V-shaped markings on their side while tobacco hornworms have seven diagonal white lines.
Four O'Clocks
Friday, May 9, 2008
My four o'clocks started blooming this week! Apparently, they thrive on neglect.
A co-worker gave them to me last year as volunteers he had pulled from his own yard and placed in pots with our native sandy soil. They are a classic passalong plant here in the South, in part because they self-seed so readily.
I pretty much ignored them all year, except for stopping to inhale their intoxicating fragrance from time to time. Once our cold weather set in (yes, I know it's still mild by northern standards), the plants died back. I wondered how they'd fare since they're technically annuals, but was hoping they'd come back since I had heard that they create large, underground tubers.
Sure enough! The foliage sprang up a month or so ago and now I'm graced with flowers. One of my other co-workers views four o'clocks as weeds. I disagree. I think they're wonderful. We're so lucky in the South to have such amazing weeds.
A co-worker gave them to me last year as volunteers he had pulled from his own yard and placed in pots with our native sandy soil. They are a classic passalong plant here in the South, in part because they self-seed so readily.
I pretty much ignored them all year, except for stopping to inhale their intoxicating fragrance from time to time. Once our cold weather set in (yes, I know it's still mild by northern standards), the plants died back. I wondered how they'd fare since they're technically annuals, but was hoping they'd come back since I had heard that they create large, underground tubers.
Sure enough! The foliage sprang up a month or so ago and now I'm graced with flowers. One of my other co-workers views four o'clocks as weeds. I disagree. I think they're wonderful. We're so lucky in the South to have such amazing weeds.
Beautiful blooms
My tomato plants are flowering -- yay! I can hardly wait for them to produce fruit.
I haven't seen any bees pollinating the flowers yet. My understanding is that tomato flowers are self-pollinating but require the vibration of bee wings in order for the pollen to shake free from the anthers and pollinate the stigma. Just in case any bees don't come along, I jiggled the flowers with my fingertip. We'll see if this is helpful or if I'm being an overprotective tomato parent. I want my tomatoes!
Also, can you see the water droplets on the leaves in the background? Every morning when I come out to check on my tomato plants there are these beautiful water droplets along the edges of the leaves They're like little jewels the way they catch the morning light. I guess they're the result of the moisture the leaves have accumulated from a hard day of evapotranspiring. I imagine that the liquid makes its way to the leaf margins as the night progresses. Then once the sun rises each morning, the droplets are melted away by the sun's warmth, only to have the cycle begin again. Pretty amazing.
I haven't seen any bees pollinating the flowers yet. My understanding is that tomato flowers are self-pollinating but require the vibration of bee wings in order for the pollen to shake free from the anthers and pollinate the stigma. Just in case any bees don't come along, I jiggled the flowers with my fingertip. We'll see if this is helpful or if I'm being an overprotective tomato parent. I want my tomatoes!
Also, can you see the water droplets on the leaves in the background? Every morning when I come out to check on my tomato plants there are these beautiful water droplets along the edges of the leaves They're like little jewels the way they catch the morning light. I guess they're the result of the moisture the leaves have accumulated from a hard day of evapotranspiring. I imagine that the liquid makes its way to the leaf margins as the night progresses. Then once the sun rises each morning, the droplets are melted away by the sun's warmth, only to have the cycle begin again. Pretty amazing.
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