Short and sweet today.
Leaves, grass clippings, chicken coop litter shavings, coffee grounds, and chicken scraps make for a powerful pile…
Newly planted kohlrabi, with the spring lettuce, peas and spinach in the background. It was too hot last night at 7:00 to mulch (84° F), so that has to wait till morning…
And one more thing just to make the post longer. Since I’ve started blogging I’ve come across a lot of folks who have mentioned cabbage loopers, the little green worms that make Swiss cheese out of your cole crop leaves. Believe me, I have too.
There are a couple of ways to save your broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and kohlrabi from holey leaves and floating green things in the cooking water. One of them is to cover your plants. I cover too many things already, and there’s another way to fix the problem; it’s called Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt for short (much less intimidating).
It’s OMRI listed (Organic Materials Review Institute). Bt is a bacteria that only works on the guts of leaf chewing insects, and safe for people and other wildlife. You mix it with water and spray it on the leaves, and when the little green wigglies eat your stuff, they get a life sentence of indigestion. Maybe that seems harsh. If it rips your conscience to hurt little green creatures, then by all means cover.
I’m not that complex. If you steal my food, you have to deal with my form of justice.
Bt really works. You have my word. Unless you get sloppy and don’t apply it again after rains or after watering.
I’ve used bt for 30 years. Amen to its effectiveness. One of these years I may try a plastic row cover.
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And Amen.
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You go get ’em with that Bt. Sounds wicked. Autumn is starting to get damp .. so I’m going to cover mine up! 🙂
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It’s funny how my feelings about some insects have changed since I became a gardener. I used to LOVE butterflies and loathe spiders. I’m still oogie about spiders, but now I don’t kill them, because I know they are good in the garden. Butterflies and moths, or rather their larva, are another story. Especially the hated tomato hornworm. Bt is a wonderful thing!
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I agree. I don’t kill spiders either, and little white butterflies are not a happy site!
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That’s a couple of wild temperatures there! Do you mean it was 84f outside? And just a few weeks ago you were still frozen? Now that is a temperature change! And your compost is really cooking! That is brilliant and surely hot enough to kill any seeds and bugs in the pile!
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