Desert Garden July Chores
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Posted by Robert Dailey Jul 18, 2007 |
The recently reported Colony Decline Syndrome (CDS), which refers to massive destructions of beehives, particularly domesticated hives, has greatly affected some plants’ ability to be pollinated.
Plants that are affected most are squash, melons, cabbage (and cabbage relatives like broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts), pumpkins, cucumbers, cantaloupe and others. That is because these plants and many other plants are monecious, that is, they have male and female flowers and depend on bees to carry pollen from the male flower to the female flower, thus causing pollination, and eventual production of fruit and seed.
Many of these plants are flowering now, and need to be pollinated. Therefore, if the bees will not do it, and you want them to produce, then you are going to have to do it yourself. Here’s how:
Get some cotton swabs. Find the male and female flowers on your plants. Male flowers have pollen-producing stamens deep inside the yellow flower. Female flowers are smaller and greenish-colored and the stigma is visible at the top of the pea-pod (or soda bottle) shaped flower. Touch the cotton swab to the stamen of the male flower, making sure you have collected pollen (it will be a yellowish powder sticking to the strands of the swab.) Now rub the pollen-coated swab head onto the stigma of the female flower. Keep doing this until you have put pollen on each of the female flowers.
Plant Biennials Now
If you want your biennials to flower next year, you will need to get the seeds in the ground now. A list of biennials that do well in a desert garden are hollyhocks, English daisies, foxgloves and Sweet William.
Flea Beetles
Flea beetles are tiny beetles ranging in size from 1/16 to ¼ inch long. They can be black and while that is the most common color, they can be just about any color in the spectrum. Flea beetle larvae eat roots and underground stems, while the adults ravage plants like broccoli, cabbage, potatoes, corn, carrot, beans and others.
A good control is to spray plants with a natural organic pesticide, available at most nurseries and garden supply stores.
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