Iris Borer's demise?

Could this be a once in a lifetime iris lovers dream? The iris borer eggs, that wintered over on that foliage you never cleaned up, likely hatched today. Their cycle is to hatch on the second day that temps reach at least 70 degrees in a row, which happened today - day 2. Normally, by the time we have these consecutive temps, iris plants have a fair amount of leaf growth. Their MO: the tiny borer hatches, crawls up the leaf, burrows in, eats it's way down the leaf and feeds on the rhizome, ruining - but usually not killing the plant. After they are fat from feeding, like seen above, they crawl into the soil to pupate. Then late in the summer, the adult - a moth emerges and lays eggs on the plant foliage. Then, the eggs lie in wait until the temps tell them to hatch, the cycle complete. SO. This is my question! Did they emerge today, and is so, without any foliage to burrow in, what becomes of them? I am so hoping they just die. Imagine iris lovers....if it could be true, that perhaps we may have an entire season w/o iris borer. Later...gotta go do a cartwheel in celebration......

Lilac buds....please do not open yet!

So today I took a quick tour of the field. The lilac buds are swollen and green and I am screaming at them to stop! Seriously folks, I want a cold snap! The plants are off schedule, and so am I. This gorgeous weather has me feeling like I am 2 months behind in my work. So a cold snap would calm my stress level down to manageable and remind the plants....no not yet! If anyone is looking for some pruning experience, I could set you up! 

Saving Seeds? Good or Bad idea?

 A gorgeous watermelon full of seeds. Can they be saved and planted next year? The answer lies here; was the watermelon grown from 'hybrid' seed, or 'open pollinated' seed? Hybrid seeds are a cross between two parents, and are referred to as F1 hybrids, for 'first parentage.' Then there are also F2 hybrids which have multiple parents, a blended family, F2=hybrid 2nd generation! Hybrids are created by human intervention.

Hypothetical: Let's say this watermelon is 'Jade Star.' Jade Star's parents are Crimson Sweet & Allsweet both open pollinated types. When Crimson & Allsweet are manually cross pollinated by humans, they create a melon with  Jade Star seeds in it. Confused yet? Then the melon with the Jade Star seeds in it, is processed and packaged as Jade Star for the consumer. Now you buy the Jade Star seeds, and grow your own melons. However, the seeds from your melons will not produce Jade Star again but some mixture of the parentage and may not even be edible.

So the simple answer is NO, you cannot collect & use seeds from hybrid plants, and it will always say on the label if it is a hybrid.

The answer is YES, you can collect and plant seeds from open-pollinated types, sometimes called Heritage or Heirloom as well. If it doesn't say on the label, then you can assume it's one of these types.

 

 Open pollinated is the 'original plant.' It will drop it's seed and reproduce the same forever without human intervention. I've always wanted to leave a heirloom garden in place for 2+ years, unattended - and see what if anything it would re-produce on it's own. Maybe this year? Some folks only like this type. Note to self: these types also have less disease resistance than hybrids. And thats what usually gets our tomatoes every year. Blights & wilts. =(

I prefer to buy seed, and never make an attempt to save. Frankly in the fall, I do not have time to spend hours collecting, washing and drying, packing & labeling seeds I can buy for a few bucks. And, purchased seed has always been tested. Can't afford a failure when it's your buisness.

Why Hybrids? For example; a tomato with supersweetness is crossed with a tomato known to have
great tolerance to plant diseases, then bred again with one that has naturally good shipping qualties, and one the ripens early in the season. Hybrid seed is always more expensive due to the process involved. The majority of our plants are hybrids - the best of the best. PLEASE post some garden questions in the comment box, I would love to hear from you.

Peppers we're planting.

 At Earthworks we grow and sell local, homegrown transplants. (not fresh off a California truck) We don't grow 100's of kinds, but a smaller selection - but it's all good. Above is 'California Wonder,' a very popular green pepper, or leave then on the vine to sweeten up for a tasty red pepper. These are larger, blocky - 4 lobed beauties. Very multi-purpose in the kitchen.

 'Sweet Banana Peppers.' When I see these honeys, I think about the flatbreads that we make for the market, and how beautiful the banana pepper rings look on them. These are thinner walled than bell peppers. Also great for frying and to include in salsa. Plants are loaded with fruits.

'Gourmet Pepper.' One of the sweetest orange bells around. Large 3x5" peppers producing 6-12 per plant.
Gorgeous color and so good for you too!

'Atris' pepper. This awesome pepper is supersweet and sooo delicious. Imagine stuffing it with cheesy rice and grilling for a few minutes. I have stuffed these with a cooked filling, and stored them in the freezer for months. Cook a few minutes in the micro, deelish. Perfect for work lunches. These peppers can get up to
9" long with thick walls.

'Fresno Chile.' This is our first year for this spicy guy. They can be harvested green when they are more mild, or when they are red hot! Typically, they will be hotter than jalapenos. Fresno Chile is one of Rachel Rays favorite pepper to cook with. They are about the size of Jalapenos.

'Jalapeno.' What's salsa without it? A crowd favorite. plants produce lots of peppers, 25-50 per plant.
They provide a long picking season.

'Orangesicle' What a gorgeous sweet salad pepper. Also, great for a smaller stuffing pepper at 4-6."

Think...stuffing with a tuna or chicken salad on a bed of greens.

Aromatic and zesty fresh flavor. Very productive, with loads of peppers over a long picking season.

Yup. Only seven kinds...but all great and a little different from each other. Earthworks will also be selling tomato & herb transplants. Our transplants will be at the Mankato Farmers Market & at our field location.

Any gardening questions? Please post them in the comment box.

LUCK OF THE IRIS SALE!!!

No, that is not a misspelling. Earthworks is currently running an 'iris' sale on our web store thru March. For every $10 of iris ordered you get 3 dwarf iris free. See details at the web site.

http://www.earthworksgardens.com/

Spring Clean-up in March?

Seems so. At least at my place. Weather continues to be incredible, and an hour more of sunlight for me. I can't seem to ever get up earlier, but can always stay up later (maybe habits left over from teenage years!) I was amazed to find rhubarb already peeking thru the soil, and new green daylily shoots. Yes, they were tiny, but nonetheless, they were there.
A few tips for early spring clean-up:

• rake lightly in the yard, only rake hard in the fall, you will tear up young grasses
• do not uncover plants yet, we could still have winter, it's only March 11th
• rake off any leftover vegetable garden debris and burn or get it in the trash
• FYI do not burn when it's windy, (allot of that in the neighborhood)
• careful when raking around perennials, easy to pull smaller, shallow rooted plants out of the ground
• if your soil is dry already, I would start to water trees once a week (most of us around here are still in drought conditions)
• finish any pruning projects, you can cut dogwoods, spireas & potentillas back to about 6" if they are in desperate need of reshaping.
• Please submit any questions in the comment box, I would love to hear from you!