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Red Spider Tools - White Paper and Magnifying Glass

Hot weather especially during July brings on many important chores. Attention must be given to watering, control of diseases and insects, and destruction of weeds. Some special jobs may be in order, such as transplanting and dividing irises and replanting spring blooming, bulbs as soon as the foliage has died down. Extra feedings of nitrogen will be in order for some garden plants where we want to promote healthful growth. Many plants will need disbudding, staking and tieing to keep stems growing tall and straight.

Lawns benefit from a light mid-summer feeding of nitrogen to promote, growth and retain green color. It pays to set the mower so it clips the grass a little taller. Lawns may need thorough watering a little more often during hot weather. Light, frequent, daily sprinklings can do more harm than good.

Watering Problems

Most garden plants respond to abundant supplies of water. One of them sensitive to changes in water supply is the tomato. Where the water supply is uneven enough at times and not enough at others the developing fruits will often get blossom end rot. That is, the bottom end of the fruits develop a hard. leathery tape of rot or break-down. This condition is not caused by any disease organism but is called "physiological." As a rule, tomatoes receiving abundant water during the growing season are less likely to show this condition. Recent investigations also show some relation of this condition with calcium nutrition of the plants. Other plants show troubles as a result of getting too much water at one time: for example, growth cracking of tomato fruits and potato tubers, and splitting of cherry fruits. Heavy rains coming at a critical time may cause this and there is often little that can be done to prevent such troubles.

Red Spider Mite

One of the most troublesome pests of hot weather is red spider. It attacks many kinds of garden plants including apples, pears, apricots, roses, raspberries, perennial phlox, species of evergreens, and many other plants. Occasional spraying of these plants with the hose will help reduce the population of these spider mites. Spraying with malathion or Neem oil may be necessary.

Mites are very tiny and can barelv be seen with the naked eye. If an infested branch is shaken on a white sheet of paper. the mites are revealed as tiny bits of "dust" crawling over the surface of the paper. A good magnifying glass reveals their presence. They will be found mostly congregating on the undersides of the foliage. In heavy infestations, the foliage of the plants takes on a sickly yellowish or dull green color.

Do everything possible to develop and maintain healthy foliage growth on garden plants. For me i use garden loam in planting plants. If you do not have any idea what is a garden loam, visit your local nursery for some ideas. Also do everything possible to discourage disease entry and attacks by insects. Annual flowers will consequently produce healthy, good size, colorful flowers. We should expect the same from perennial plants. However, with perennials, which will go on developing for several years it is imperative to maintain good growth even after flowering. For example, do not rob the gladiolus of any more foliage than necessary, because this foliage is needed on the plant to help in developing next years corm. Don't be hasty in cutting down foliage of perennial plants immediately after they have bloomed. Let them grow a while to give the roots a chance to store tip plant food for next year's growth.

Midsummer is the time to transplant irises Many irises benefit from transplanting at about three year intervals. Use the younger outer fans of iris as divisions, discarding the interior, older sections of mother plants. If botrytis disease is a problem, a dip with fungicide and bactericide will aid in cutting down losses of rhizomes from this disease. Tulips may need to be divided every three to five years.