239 Overwintering Pepper Plants. Roses for the Heat. Leaf Footed Bugs.

Show Transcript

GB 239 Peppers, Bugs, Roses TRANSCRIPT
 

[00:00:00] Farmer Fred:

Garden Basics with Farmer Fred is brought to you by Smart Pots, the original, lightweight, long-lasting fabric plant container. It's made in the USA. Visit Smart pots.com/fred for more information and a special discount. That’s smart pots.com/fred. 
 

Welcome to the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred Podcast. If you're just a beginning gardener, or you want good gardening information, you've come to the right spot.

Today, we tackle some of the garden questions that have come in from around the country, such as: How do you overwinter a pepper plant indoors? What are these new bugs on my tomato plants? And, a question from a couple of months ago, when we were all stifling in record breaking heat: are there any roses that can tolerate and grow in high temperatures? We gets answers from two of my favorite Debbies: Master Rosarian Debbie Arrington, and America’s Favorite Retired College Horticulture Professor, Debbie Flower. And, we get pepper overwintering advice from a professional pepper grower, Dave DeWitt.

We’re podcasting from Barking Dog Studios here in the beautiful Abutilon Jungle in Suburban Purgatory. It’s the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, brought to you today by Smart Pots and Dave Wilson Nursery. Let’s go!

HOW  TO OVERWINTER A PEPPER PLANT

We like to answer your garden questions here on the Garden Basics podcast. Lots of ways to get your questions in:

• Leave an audio question without making a phone call via Speakpipe, at https://www.speakpipe.com/gardenbasics

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• Please tell us where you are, because all gardening is local.

Mystic Tutor writes: “I live in the Mojave Desert of Southern California. Hot and dry. I have a lot of sweet peppers in 3 gallon smart pots. Tonight will be our first hard freeze, so I picked out my 6 favorite plants and brought them indoors. Problem is I do this every year and every year almost all of them die before next spring. I don’t trim them down to a bare stem like some folks suggest. Should I? I’m going to place them somewhere where they can get better sun light this year in case that is the issue. My house stays between 50 and 70 all winter. I do slow my watering from daily to twice a week like my other house plants, but the soil stays moist without the 100 degree heat. Not sure what else to do. Thanks.”

We are going to hear from a professional pepper grower, Dave De Witt, in a few minutes on this topic. And Mystic, you hit on one very noticeable trend  online when it comes to answering the overwintering pepper question: the answers are all over the place.

So let me add  my now thoughts to that ball of pepper puzzlement.

First of all, I think you were leaning to answering your own questions correctly.

The goal in this situation is get the pepper to survive through the winter, not thrive. You don’t want to be trying to encourage winter fruiting on a plant that is more at home in a much warmer climate.

So, water sparingly and allow the water to drain out.

Don’t fertilize. It’s too much stress on the plant.

Do give it some light from a south or west facing window if possible. And temperatures should not drop below 50-55 degrees. If it is a dark room, set up some grow lights for a few hours a day. There are a lot of inexpensive options available.

Now, let’s get to the hard stuff:

To prune or not prune that pepper plant before overwintering. Some say, yes, prune it back to the main stem and a few laterals, about a one to two feet high, if that, leaving about 5 to 10 buds. Buds are located wherever you removed the leaves. Some growers will bring in the plant and let the leaves fall off naturally. I tend to believe that you can eliminate many hitchhiking pests by removing the leaves outdoors, and then bring in the plant.

Is the pepper plant in a container, or is it in the ground before you bring it in? Based on what we’ve learned about the interaction of good soil microbes and existing soil, it might be better to bring in the containerized pepper plant with its current soil if it is free of pests and diseases and the plant was growing vigorously. Still, you would want to remove the leaves. But before bringing it in, rinse the plant thoroughly with lots of water, both sprayed on the plant itself as well as saturating and draining the soil in the pot. That might dislodge ants or other problematic insects before you bring it in.

Do you need to repot in new soil before bringing it indoors? That’s a tough question. I would say, if the pepper plant is in a pot, and it’s healthy, and no sign of soil borne pests or diseases, bring it in the way it is.

And I’m going to differ with those who say if you are digging a plant out of the ground, to clean off the roots of the plant and pot it up in new soil. Again, you’ll have to be wary of any soil borne problems. In either case, I would not wash off the roots of the plant if you decide to repot in new soil. There’s a lot of good microbes in that soil near the roots. Generally, if there’s a problem lurking, you’ll see it on the underside of the leaves, or in the top inch of soil. Scrape off that top inch of existing soil, remove the leaves outdoors, and then bring it in, transplanted to a pot.

Do your own science experiment, if you’re bringing in several pepper plants for the winter. Use different combinations of pruning and potting for each plant, and see who lives…not thrives, but lives….through the winter. That’s your goal.

There are a few misunderstandings  surrounding the production in year 2 of overwintered pepper plants. Are they more productive in year 2? Will they bear fruit earlier? Is it worth the hassle?

For the answers to those questions we turn to professional pepper grower, Dave DeWitt.
 

Talk a little bit about something that you touched on, and it makes sense for people who want to have a long lasting hot pepper plant. You mentioned growing peppers and containers, and you mentioned the fact that in tropical areas they, they become trees. They live through the winter. This is a good idea. 
 

If people want to keep that hot pepper plant going is grow it in a container and then move it to a warm spot if they live in a cold winter area and then bring it back out again, come spring.  
 

[00:07:48] Dave DeWitt:

Yes, you can do that. And most people say, Well, there's not enough light. Well, you're not gonna get fruits all year long. 
 

I have a greenhouse,  and I have tropical plants like hibiscus and so forth that I put on my patio during the summer. I Bring them in. And they all have to be pruned back. And, chili plants are no exception to that. But, if you take a chili plant in a container and put it outside during the summer and bring it back inside, during the winter, it doesn't have to have all that much. 
 

Put it in a southern exposed window and so forth like that. All you're trying to do is keep the plant alive. You're not trying to grow fruits because that'll come in the summer. Now, I'm sure there's some exceptions to the rule if people have a really good greenhouse operation, the difference between summer light intensity and winter light intensity is incredible. 
 

You hardly even notice it before adding a plant.  It's just a complete difference. The way the sun is in the sky, you don't get the full intensity  of the light like you do in the summertime. 
 

[00:08:54] Farmer Fred:

with the hot pepper plants that you've grown, that you've over wintered on in year number two, do you get hot peppers quicker? 
 

[00:09:03] Dave DeWitt:

No. As a matter of fact, your yield would be less usually. Even though these plants are perennials, they've been bred for so long to be annuals. The problem is vigor and then a lack of vigor. As the plant gets older, it seems like the larger the pod, the less vigor the plants have. 
 

The smaller potted plants, like if you're growing pekins or chiltepins or something like that, they seem to have more vigor as  they grow older. But the larger potted plants don’t. like the New Mexico chilies and so forth like that, they lose vigor.  
 

[00:09:40] Farmer Fred:

Okay. That's a good tip.  if you wanna over winter your chili pepper plants, the smaller potted versions have a better chance for success in year two than the larger potted varieties. 
 

We've been talking with Dave DeWitt, author of several great pepper books like The Pepper Garden, the Hot Sauce Bible, the Chili Pepper Encyclopedia, the Spicy Food Lovers Bible, the Complete Chili Pepper book, and a lot more.  Dave, thanks for a few minutes of your time today. 
 

[00:10:11] Dave DeWitt:

Okay, Fred. Good talking to you, as usual.

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ROSES FOR HEAT

Farmer Fred:
I realize you're probably listening to this while wearing long pants. A long sleeve shirt, maybe a jacket, maybe ear muffs, but we're gonna talk about. Roses for the heat because if you recall last summer, many people in the United States had record breaking temperatures, and in many instances it was the rose bushes that were most noticeably hit. 
 

So for planning your next year's garden, let's talk about the roses that can take the heat. 
 

We're here at Harvest Day. It's put on by the Sacramento County Master Gardeners here at the Far Oaks Horticulture Center. Big Public event, showcasing the beautiful gardens here at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center. These are practical gardens that can be applied to your own yard. If you ever get a chance to come to Harvest Day or one of the monthly workshops here at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center, you ought to do so, because you're gonna get a lot of good tips for your garden. 
 

We're talking roses with Debbie Arrington, Master Rosarian at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center during Harvest Day. And fortunately for us, it was still early morning when we're doing this recording, and it's not gonna be, fortunately, as hot as it has been, but don't tell that to the roses on the south side of the house because they just seem to be suffering. Everybody in the United States is having unprecedented heat waves. So the question is, Debbie Arrington, which roses are best compatible with high heat situations.  
 

[00:13:56] Debbie Arrington:

The roses that do best in high heat tend to be lighter colored roses. The darker roses, your red roses, they absorb all those sun rays and it just fries 'em to a crisp. 
 

And so you've probably seen your red roses not looking very well this summer. Olympiad, Chrysler Imperial, Mr. Lincoln, all your classic reds. it's like they absorb all that extra heat and they just get fried. So it's the lighter colored roses that tend to do better, such as your yellows and pinks. 
 

Now a lot of yellows tend to fade in the sun anyway. But my yellows that I like, the Best in high heat and they're doing really fine this summer, Are Julia Child and Shockwave. Those are two Florabunda roses. Julia Child is a beautiful butter yellow, and it, and it tends not to fade and because of the lighter color, it doesn't absorb as much heat and it's, it seems to be holding up to this hot summer, just fine. And Shockwave is a brilliant, bright yellow that doesn't fade either.  both Julia and Shockwave have beautiful bright green foliage that's disease resistant and stays nice, all summer long. So those are two Floribundas that I highly recommend for summer heat. Another floribunda that looks fantastic in heat or cold and looks great this summer, it’s the best looking rose in my garden right now is a floribunda named Day Breaker. And Day Breaker gets its name because it looks like an early dawn, with different shades of orange and yellow and pink. And no two blooms are the same. They're all very individual and it also has very clean, bright green foliage and it's, it's quite heat resistant among the larger roses in my garden. 
 

Well, the larger hybrid teas, because the roses are bigger, they are suffering in this heat the most. Some of them seem to cope with the heat better than others. And the one that's doing best in my garden right now is an old timer. It's called First Prize, and it's a bright neon pink. It's a very, very bright pink, hot pink, but they're very big roses and they have a very nice form to them, and that one seems to be doing better than others. 
 

Also doing well are the landscape roses, the shrub roses such as the Drift series. And those are roses that are grown to stay close to the ground and be easy care. They're they're self-cleaning, which means that the blooms, once they're spent, just drop off so you don't have to deadhead 'em. 
 

And because they stay smaller and compact, they aren't suffering in the heat as much as some others. Another good landscape rose is one called Home Run and it's part of the Knockout series. And it is a, a single hot pink rose. It has about five to six pedals with real pronounced gold statements in the middle. It's blooming its little head off. It doesn't seem to mind the heat. And another good one is the one that is the favorite parking lot rose of California, Iceberg. Iceberg is an old floribunda that's been around forever, but the white blooms are resistant to heat and they're also resistant to pollution, which is why you see them so often in parking lots and long roadways and things like that. 
But it's a hardy rose, and the white stays pretty clean, too. A lot of white roses just look really crispy in high heat, but Iceberg seems to stay nice, pristine white no matter how hot it is.
 

[00:17:20] Farmer Fred:

One miniature that is doing well in my yard in a very high heat situation is Joy, and it, it just doing fabulous. Can you think of any other miniatures that are good for high heat situations? 
 

[00:17:32] Debbie Arrington:

Joy is doing really well in my garden too, and, and Joy, for folks that aren't familiar with it, it's a kind of a creamy white with a purple, pink edge. It's got a picotee edge on it. It's a real standout bloom. 
 

Other miniatures that are doing well. Oh, there's Edisto. It always does well in my garden, Edisto. Actually, I'm thinking it's the miniflora, because it was released as the miniflora, but I think they changed it. It's a pink and purple blend and it's kind of on the red side even though it's a darker color. it seems to be doing okay. It’s coping with the heat well. And one that is a white and red blend is Baldo Villegas, named after our local rose expert. And that rose has found fans nationwide. And it's a beautiful white and pink blend.  
 

[00:18:18] Farmer Fred:

Well, I know where I can get that, so that's not a problem.  
 

[00:18:22] Debbie Arrington:

Whirlaway. It's a mini flora. 
 

It's a little white rose, and it's just perfect. It's a beautiful mini flora. So a mini flora is between a miniature and a floribunda, size wise. So the blooms are about two inches across when they're open. Another good white that's doing well in the heat is Innocence, which is an old time white miniature. It's doing very well.

[00:18:42] Farmer Fred:

A lot of good roses for the heat from Debbie Arrington, a Master Rosarian. I guess we will be leaning towards the lighter colored roses for those really hot situations.  
 

[00:18:55] Debbie Arrington:

Well, ideally roses like to be facing east. that way they get the morning sun, but then some afternoon shade. and that helps 'em, particularly here in Sacramento and other places where there's a lot of high heat, such as in Arizona and places all over the country right now. That way they get the sun to keep blooming, but when it's really, really hot, they get the shade they crave.  
 

[00:19:18] Farmer Fred:

That's right. Some of the roses have been acting very weird this year in the heat, like smaller flowers, for example.  
 

[00:19:25] Debbie Arrington:

Well, we've had, here in California, the driest year in recorded history. and that lack of groundwater has really had a cumulative effect on any shrubs and roses. And so this year my roses are much smaller than usual, particularly my hybrid teas. And a lot of them are also not producing many petals per flower. Ones that should have 30, 40 petals per flower are instead having 10 or 12 ,and look like a semi double instead of a full rose. And this is all a result of not enough water and too much heat. 
 

[00:19:58] Farmer Fred:

Another thing that's happening to roses, and I get this question a lot lately, is why are there leaves coming out of the middle of the flower?  
 

[00:20:04] Debbie Arrington:

Oh yes, that happens when plants are stressed. It's called fasciation and it's a weird vegetative state that is caused by stress. and there is so much stress going on right now in plants’ lives that we see this sort of weird growth coming out of the middle. In my garden, Perfect Moment is the one that does it the most, and Perfect Moment is an older orange blend hybrid tea, and i it has these monster blooms that look like they're from the little shop of horrors. It's very strange stuff. You will also see that if a plant is exposed a Roundup, but it is more severe and it's not just the one bloom, you'll see it all over the new growth on the plant. It will have very strange deformity.  
 

[00:20:50] Farmer Fred:

Roundup just one name for any sort of herbicide that has the active ingredient, Glyphosate, and that's a whole show in itself, and that is, Glyphosate damage on roses. That's another very common question we get. It's something that may not even manifest itself until months later, and you may even forgot you were even spraying around the roses. 
 

[00:21:07] Debbie Arrington:

They're hypersensitive. And that can also be drift from somebody else's yard. Yeah, roses and glyphosate do not mix.  
 

[00:21:15] Farmer Fred:

Debbie Arrington Master Rosarian. She’s the proprietor, along with Kathy Morrison, of the Sacramento Digs Gardening blog. Debbie Arrington, thank you so much. 
 

[00:21:25] Debbie Arrington: Thank you.  
 

[00:21:28] Farmer Fred:

And we'll have a link to Sacramento Digs Gardening in today's show notes. 
 

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CONTROL TIPS FOR LEAF-FOOTED BUGS
 

Farmer Fred:

We like to answer your garden questions here on the Garden Basics Podcast. A lot of ways you can leave us a question. You can call or text us at (916) 292-8964. That's 916 292 8964. Go to our homepage, garden basics.net and you can leave a question there. Email? Sure. Send it to fred at farme fred.com. 
 

But one of my favorite ways for you to leave a question is to call us on the computer to speakpipe.com. You can leave an audio question without making a phone call. Just yell at your laptop. Or your smartphone, speakpipe.com/Garden Basics. Debbie Flower is here, America's favorite retired college horticultural professor, to help us answer the questions and clean up any mess I make today. The question comes from a local resident, a local gardener, and  it's about a bug. Let's hear what June has to say.  
 

[00:23:50] Delta June:

“Hi Fred. My name is June. I live in Walnut Grove in the California Delta, right outside Sacramento. My question is about leaf footed bugs. I've been growing tomatoes in this area for probably seven years. And I’ve never seen these before on my tomatoes, but this year they were absolutely overrun with Leaf-footed bugs. My question has to do more about next year. I'm afraid they're gonna be overwintering on my property somewhere. I'm gonna have the same problem next year. If you could give some advice on how to deal with leaf footed bugs, I would really appreciate it.” 

 

[00:24:29] Farmer Fred:

Thank you, June, for that question. Debbie, a leaffooted bug is just like the name says. 
 

[00:24:37] Debbie Flower:

Yeah, it is. It's a true bug. And when you look at its legs, they have some extra tissue. Like they have a little piece of leaf on their legs. They're kind of lazy eaters. They hang out with their babies and they all hang out on one place on the plant and eat together. They lay eggs on plants, but also I found the eggs on the wall of my house.  
 

[00:24:59] Farmer Fred:

Whoa. What do the eggs look like?  
 

[00:25:01] Debbie Flower:

They're sort of tan colored and they're all lined up in a row.  
 

[00:25:05] Farmer Fred:

Wow. Well, that makes it easy to identify, right?  
 

[00:25:08] Debbie Flower:

They are pretty distinctive to identify. they don't have what we call complete metamorphosis. They just go through growth stages. they come out of the egg in a young form, and then they go through nymph stages where they grow bigger and shed their skin and grow bigger. And in the younger stages they can look sometimes like a beneficial insect, but if you see them with their parents, you know they're not.  
 

[00:25:31] Farmer Fred: 
The beneficial that they look like in their juvenile stage would be the assassin bug. And it's very subtle differences. Between the two, I guess we should point out about the Feet. it's only  the rear legs that have that paddle-like foot.  
 

[00:25:47] Debbie Flower:

Yes. And that  extra tissue.
 

[00:25:48] Farmer Fred:

Yeah. The good news is it doesn't help them swim.  
 

[00:25:52] Debbie Flower:

Not that I know of. You know, though, they might keep secrets. 
 

[00:25:55] Farmer Fred:

The damage they do though, it seems to be fairly superficial, unless they're on your pomegranates and then they can ruin  that.
 

[00:26:02] Debbie Flower:

They can destroy the fruit on that. Right. And I don't have a pomegranate, so when they were In my garden, I saw them around in groups and like I said, they're kind of lazy. They're pretty slow moving for the most part, so they were pretty easy to control manually. 
 

[00:26:19] Farmer Fred:

And by controlling them manually, you're not bringing in somebody named “Manuel” to do that. Although that would be nice if you're rich.  As long as he brought his own bucket with soapy water.  
 

[00:26:29] Debbie Flower:

Exactly. And that's the easiest thing to do.  hand pick them, because they don't fly away or jump up and run really fast. They're pretty easy for you to to hand pick. Although  when they're frightened or stressed, can emit a kind of foul smelling chemical. So you might wanna wear gloves and then have a container of soapy water. insects breathe through their skin, and so if you put them in soapy water, it, it clogs those breathing pores and they can't live anymore.
 

[00:26:59] Farmer Fred:

It's kind of a cute little bug. You'll see it in today's episode. the leaf footed bug overwinters and like June says,  it's a good idea to be aware that they just might be overwintering in your yard. Some of their favorite hiding places include wood piles, barns, palm fronds, citrus, or juniper trees, or under peeling bark or in tree cracks. 
 

[00:27:23] Debbie Flower:

Yeah, so all those little nooks and crannies. And June is right on the money in terms of worrying about next year. That's what she should be thinking about, especially this late in the season. 
 

[00:27:36] Farmer Fred:

If you live in a cold climate, this is why you don't have them. You're living a cold climate.  The cold kills them. Yes. Right. But not in USDA zone 9 and, and they are spreading throughout USDA zone 9.  you wanna look for 'em and either squish 'em or put 'em in that bucket of soapy water,  right?
 

[00:27:54] Debbie Flower:

Or prepare your garden for the beneficials. they're beneficial to us but they would harm the leaf footed bug. So they have natural enemies. Birds are a natural enemy of the leaf footed bug, as our spiders. 
 

And then there are some of the Small insects like the small wasps that lay their eggs inside the eggs of the leaf footed bugs. And when the wasp eggs hatch inside the leaf footed bug egg, they eat the leaf footed bug embryo. It's not gonna give you total control, but if you can invite the things that are going to control the leaf footed bugs for you into your garden, then you will have natural control. 
 

So I had a big infestation one year, just one year, and my property is surrounded by power lines on three sides and birds sit on them. I can sit and watch them and they will swoop down. They're not the high tension lines. They're probably like the internet ones, the lower ones that are not so high  on the pole. and they swoop down and get something out of the garden. 
 

So another, if you don't have the power lines like I do in my urban setting, you can just put a nice tall, maybe one inch by one inch post in your garden and the birds will sit on that, looking for something to eat. So that's one way to get the birds in there. Another is to have things that they feed on naturally.  Zinnias and flowers that invite both the birds and other beneficial insects.  
 

[00:29:23] Farmer Fred:

I'm still thinking about internet power lines. 
 

[00:29:27] Debbie Flower:

They're not  power lines, but they're, you know what I mean. Above ground internet access. Some of the true bugs also go after the leaf footed bugs and they need something to eat. So flowers attract them as well. 
 

[00:29:38] Farmer Fred:

The good bug hotels. Yeah. You need 'em. I've seen your neighbor's yard, and no offense to your neighbors, but they don't really do a lot of mowing of weeds.  
 

[00:29:49] Debbie Flower:

So right now it, it is kind of cut down, but my neighbor has a large piece of property, and she's a full-time working single person. Right? So lots of things do overwinter. In that garden, and I can tell when the grass has been high for a really long time, because I will have a different pest population in my yard.
 

[00:30:08] Farmer Fred:

Yeah. The adults, when they start waking up in March or April, they're hungry, so they're gonna go where there's food, and the first food source that has seeds is probably the weeds. Right. And off they go, and then they'll move into gardens in search of early season fruit and a place to lay the eggs.  and again, those eggs look like what?
 

[00:30:29] Debbie Flower:

they are in a row. They were tan. Now my house was tan, so I don't know if they changed color. .  
 

[00:30:37] Farmer Fred:

Are they able to do that? Are they like an aphid?  
 

[00:30:38] Debbie Flower: 
They're, they're kind of rectangular and I think in most cases they are tan. I don't think they change color and they're in a row, so it's just a single row. 
 

[00:30:51] Farmer Fred:

It looks like a worm.  
 

[00:30:52] Debbie Flower:

It does look like a worm. Yeah. And I saw it on the side of my house and messed with it. I let it stay to see what would happen. I'm curious that way. Then I saw what it was and so I had that soapy water.  
 

[00:31:05] Farmer Fred:

Did you get to see them being born?  
 

[00:31:07] Debbie Flower:

No. I wasn't there at the moment.  
 

[00:31:09] Farmer Fred:

That's always exciting. Yeah. The miracle of birth. And then you stomp them .  
 

[00:31:15] Debbie Flower:

Oh, and for spiders, if you wanna invite spiders into your yard,  a very coarse mulch works very well, and I mulch most, almost a hundred percent of my yard is mulched with arborist chips, and that's great spider habitat.  
 

[00:31:28] Farmer Fred:  
So June, getting back to some strategies for controlling next year's possible population of the leaf footed bug. Clear away any weedy areas in late winter that are adjacent to gardens or orchards. And check your pomegranates if you have them, and this is something that should be a yearlong avocation for any gardener, and that's cleanup. just pick up fallen fruit because those are wonderful winter hiding places for the bad bugs.  
 

[00:31:55] Debbie Flower:

Right, right. And if you do have a pomegranate, or if you do, again, have a large population, or you see the beginnings of a large population next spring, using floating row covers will help. So that excludes the bug from the plant it's trying to get onto and feed on. So I don't know how big your pomegranate is, but if you choose to keep the leaf footed bugs out of the pomegranate, you can put a floating row cover all the way around. You're gonna have to tie it at the trunk end.  
 

[00:32:23] Farmer Fred:

Another good habit to get into when you make a new planting, be it a cool season crop or a warm season crop, and you're planting from seed or very young transplants, is use a row cover. Protect those young plants from getting damaged by any sort of voracious pests that might be around.  
 

[00:32:39] Debbie Flower:

right. Insecticides should not be needed. You should be able to control them without the use of insecticides. So hand picking, creating the environment that attracts the beneficials, using floating row covers over the plants that they are particularly interested in. 
 

[00:32:55] Farmer Fred:

You have a thumb and index finger. Use it!  Or, pay your children. You pay your children a nickel a bug. They'll, they'll look up from their phone and just shake their head and go back to their phone. Raise the price. Go to a dollar a bug if you have to. Remember, they stink when you crush them. 
 

[00:33:13] Debbie Flower:

Yes. When they're stressed or frightened.  
 

[00:33:16] Farmer Fred:

Another option, too, for control, if you do this early in the morning when they're not quite as active, is dedicate a handheld vacuum to the task. 
 

[00:33:24] Debbie Flower:

I've never done that. But you do it, don't you? And is the suction enough to get  those little ones? 

 

[00:33:30] Farmer Fred:

I have done it in the past, yes.  And as long as you are very good about cleaning out the bag that's inside. You'll be okay. 
 

[00:33:41] Debbie Flower:

The bag doesn't get all clogged and icky?  
 

[00:33:42] Farmer Fred:

If you clean it every day, it's not a problem. if the last thing you do when you're done is empty the bag that's inside that little hand vac, you’ll be okay. 
 

[00:33:52] Debbie Flower:

And it's strong enough suction to get those bugs in there? 
 

[00:33:56] Farmer Fred:

Those that haven't run away yet.  But you have to use it regularly and just like you found the egg masses, you wanna destroy those. And they're often on the underside of leaves, too. So look for that long yellowish, brownish worm on undersides of leaves. 
 

Debbie Flower:

Yeah. with rectangular segments.

Farmer Fred:

It's the leaf footed bug. A very popular bug among their own kind in USDA zone nine. They love pomegranates, they love tomatoes, and a whole host of other crops as well. So get used to it. The good news, and I think we should point this out, is that we have both had an infestation in past years, and then for some reason, a new year comes and there are none. 
 

[00:34:34] Debbie Flower:

I have not had any since.  
 

[00:34:37] Farmer Fred:

Yeah. And  like you point out, the good guys, the birds, spiders, whatever, take care of the problem. Or maybe we're just being more judicious about cleaning up our messes.  
 

[00:34:46] Debbie Flower:

Well, that's true. Fall sanitation is high on my list of things to do. 
 

[00:34:51] Farmer Fred:

All right, Leaf footed bugs.  We'll have a link with more information, too, about controlling leaf footed bugs in today's show notes. Debbie Flower, thanks for helping us out with the questions here.

Debbie Flower:

Oh, it's a pleasure. 
 

BEYOND THE GARDEN BASICS NEWSLETTER

Farmer Fred:

Fall and Winter weather can be tough on your trees, especially when the wind, rain and snow are at their peak. In bad weather, trees go boom. But it’s possible to be a bit proactive and not have that tree branch, or entire tree, fall onto your home, car or garden. A thorough inspection of your trees, now, before the big storms hit, might uncover some structural weaknesses in trees that you’ve never noticed before. What are the signs of a possible tree failure? We cover that in the latest Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter, coming out November 11, 2022.

For current newsletter subscribers, look for Inspect Your Trees Now, in the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter, in your email. Or, start a subscription to the free, Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter. It’s easy. Find a link in today’s show notes or sign up at the link at our homepage, garden basics dot net.

The Garden Basics With Farmer Fred podcast comes out once a week, on Fridays. Plus the newsletter podcast, that comes with the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter, continues, also released on Fridays. Both are free and are brought to you by Smart Pots and Dave Wilson Nursery. The Garden Basics podcast is available wherever podcasts are handed out, and that includes our home page, Garden Basics dot net. , where you can also sign up for the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter and podcast. That’s Garden Basics dot net. or use the links in today’s show notes.  And thank you so much for listening.