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November 28, 2005
More Italian Roaster peppers
Growing in an Earth Box
Posted by Bob at 04:58 PM | Comments (0)
November 25, 2005
Peppers after Thanksgiving
Purple Piquin and Thai Pepper.
Posted by Sue at 02:26 PM | Comments (0)
November 20, 2005
Update!
Whoops, we've been meaning to post more often. Sue's on mad deadlines. I've been busy elsewhere.
Tomatoes are still growing in the garden; bell peppers, hot peppers, Japanese eggplant, and zukes. It's been unseasonably warm, in the mid 80's for about a week. However I think it'll be a quite rainy winter, and the rains will be here soon enough.
We've had two growing seasons here for many of the veggies, early summer and fall. August and September were too hot for most of them, and they just shut down producing. Once it cooled off though, they came back.
Posted by Bob at 06:42 PM | Comments (0)
November 15, 2005
Blackspot
Diplocarpon rosae
Blackspot on the roses in the shade. What to do? Fungicide.
How can we tell which is least toxic? The Environmental Protection Agency has come up with three categories of toxicity: DANGER, WARNING, or CAUTION.
Toxicity is based on the le thal dose 50 or LD50 for a pesticide. The LD50 is the amount of a chemical that will kill 50% of the subjects exposed to it. Thus, the lower the LD50 for a chemical, the more toxic the chemical is. ...
Pesticides that carry the word DANGER on their container are the most toxic. The LD50 of these pesticides can be less than 7 drops of a liquid or less than 50 mg/kg of a solid. These pesticides may also be labeled DANGER because of their ability to cause irreversible damage to the eye or skin.
Among the newer fungicides, Compass (blackspot), Immunox (myclobutanil) (powdery mildew) and Remedy (potassium carbonate; powdery mildew) are all CAUTION-labeled pesticides. Perhaps the newest and most innovative CAUTION-labeled fungicide is harpin protein marketed as Messenger by Eden Bioscience. When sprayed on the rose bush, the protein stimulates the rose’s own defense systems to help protect against fungal infections and to enhance growth.
Posted by Sue at 10:03 PM | Comments (0)
November 10, 2005
Fondling the Bulb Catalogs (Again)
Allium sphaerocephalon
Drumstick onion. 15-36" high, dense bloomer. Flowers are oval and about 1" long.
Most importantly, likes heat, tolerates drought, disease & bug resistant, and
not floppy.
Posted by Sue at 09:54 PM | Comments (0)
November 09, 2005
Italian Roaster pepper
Some of them are six inches long. I germinated them about three months ago.
Posted by Bob at 09:15 AM | Comments (0)
November 07, 2005
Purple piquin pepper
November in southern California and it's still producing!
Posted by Bob at 03:04 PM | Comments (0)
November 03, 2005
Lyme Disease and Our Blue Belly Hero
The bacterium Borrelia burgdorfii, causes Lyme disease which is transmitted to the blood of a host by a biting tick.
The Western United States has just a many potential Lyme disease-bearing ticks as the Eastern United States. Why then is Lyme disease 400 times more common in Connecticut than California? They don’t have Sceloporus occidentalis, the Western Fence Lizard, also known as Blue Bellies.
A component of the Blue Belly blood has a bactericidal factor that destroys the Lyme disease-causing bacteria in ticks. The lizards pickup the ticks in their nymphal stages, lying among the leaf litter. Tick nymphs that have their fill of Blue Belly blood become adults that do not carry the Lyme disease bacteria.
Our hero lizard blood determines whether nymphs become vectors for Lyme disease.
Hurrah Blue Bellies!!!
-Sandi K.
Posted by Sue at 09:54 PM | Comments (0)