July 30, 2011
Driving across the great state of Iowa
My peas all dried up, if I cut them off will they grow back? Peas are a cool weather crop and do much better in cool weather. The hot weather of the past few weeds caused them to die. Peas are a short season crop and a further question was, can I replant? Yes, but you will be better off to wait a couple more weeks until the weather is a little cooler.
My beans are not doing well, can I cut them off and will they grow back? They probably would grow back but they grow really fast and you would be better off to replant. You still have time to plant and get a good crop before the season ends.
My zucchini plants germinated and were growing nicely. There were lots of blossoms and I kept waiting for the fruit to grow. It looked like they were starting but they never grew. Zucchinis and most other garden produce need to be pollinated. There just aren’t as many bees around to pollinate as there used to be. A note from the Garden Doc—the hosts mentioned tomatoes need pollinated. Tomatoes are self fertile, meaning each flower has both male and female flowers. However they do need some movement such as wind to get the pollen from the pistils to the stamens.
My zucchini were growing well then one at a time the vine turned yellow and dried up. What can I do? The hosts said that zucchini grow fast and there is still time to replant and get plenty of fruit. The Garden Doc says zucchini, cucumbers and several other of the vine type plants have stem borers that drill into the vine and then the vine dies. This can also be alleviated by vigilant use of the proper insecticide. Malathion and Sevin would be good choices. Spinosad may work.
My tomatoes have very large worms that are eating the tops of the plants. The worms are tomato horn worms and are easily controlled by Sevin or Bt. Bt is short for Bacillus thuringiensis. (The garden hosts butchered the scientific name.)
There are three big pine trees in my yard, one of them dropped a lot of needles about a month ago. What could be wrong with it? The other two are doing well. The season has been pretty rough on perennials due to the excessive rains that have fallen during the spring. Trees are tough and the tree will probably be ok. The hosts did make sure that they were pines. From the Garden Doc; A new lawn chemical has been made available this year and was extensively used by some lawn services. About a month later the new growth on pines and possibly other conifers started dying and in some cases the whole tree appeared to die. Whether the tree will die or not will not be known until next year but it is a serious problem. If you have injured pine trees and used a lawn service ask if they used the herbicide Imprelis.
One person called saying he lives by several corn and soybean fields. He had lots of monarch butterflies in his yard then the plane came spraying the soybeans and corn Since then there have been very few monarch butterflies but they are starting to come back now. He wondered what might be getting sprayed with. The hosts didn’t know. Many corn and soybean acres are now getting sprayed with fungicides to protect the yield from several diseases that would cause a yield loss. Soybeans do have several insects such as aphids and the new marmolated stink bug that can cause a large yield loss.
The last caller had several 3 to 4 year old rhododendrons plants that have curled up leaves. What could be wrong with the plants? The hosts weren’t sure what caused it and were not positive that the plants would survive. The only thought the hosts had were that the plants may have had too much water. Identifying problems on plants not doing well is one of the most difficult things a plant doctor can determine.
Let me know your questions.
The Garden Doc
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