Ask a Master Gardener
Spider Mites
Spider mites can be a problem on many different plants, both indoors and outdoors. But at times it seems like they have a special preference for tomatoes. Typically, we first notice we might have a problem with spider mites when we start to see leaves on our plant that have very small, light-colored dots on them, kind of like they might have been sand blasted. This type of damage is usually the result of spider mites.
Spider mites have what we call piercing-sucking mouth parts. Most of us are...
Fall Vegetable Gardens
If you are a vegetable gardener, you are likely familiar with the average final freeze date of April 15thbecause this is typically when we consider the official start of garden season. But did you know there is an additional vegetable growing season here in Oklahoma? This second and often overlooked garden season is our fall garden. Here’s what you need to know about fall gardening season.
Fall gardening season begins around the middle of July. This is the time where we begin to plant a second...
Fungal Disease in Tomatoes
We’re at the point where some of you either have had or might have fungal disease in your tomatoes on the horizon. So, let’s talk about some of those diseases and what you should be looking for.
First up is septoria leaf spot. This one is a fairly common disease of tomatoes and originates in the soil. You’ll likely notice septoria first on the lower leaves of your tomato plant. They start as small, dark spots but develop a yellowish halo around them. These spots are where more fungal spores...
Controlling Moles and Gophers
Oftentimes when I have a conversation with someone about a critter that is tearing up their lawns, they will blame either a mole or a gopher. And more often than not, the damage is attributed to the wrong animal. So, let’s talk about how to identify the culprit from the different types of damage and then what we can do about it.
The easiest way to determine if the critter tearing up your yard is a mole, or a gopher is by looking at the ground. If you have moles, you will notice dirt raised above...
Summer is the time to plant crapemyrtles
While summer can be tough on a lot of our garden plants, there’s one that loves the summer and that’s the crapemyrtle. There’s no doubt that because of this, crapemyrtles are one of the more popular plants found in Oklahoma landscapes. They are hardy, and once they start blooming, we have beautiful flowers through the rest of the growing season. In addition, while summer is the least preferred time to plant most trees and shrubs, summer is the perfect time to plant a crapemyrtle. Here’s what you...
Earthworms
The seemingly, lowly earthworm doesn’t necessarily appear to be something we should get that excited about, but in reality, they are valuable partners to anyone trying to grow plants in their landscape.
For the most part earthworms go unnoticed in our day to day lives. Typically, we only see them when they are struggling for life on the driveway or sidewalk after a rain. They ended up in these locations because rain can push the air out of the soil, making it hard for the earthworms to breathe....
Red Velvet Ants
When you first see a red velvet ant, the first thing you will probably ask yourself is “what the heck is that thing?” It kind of looks like a giant ant, but it also looks like a wingless wasp. They are impressive. But here’s the deal, they are not an ant (even though that is what they are called), they are a wasp. Technically they are known as the Dasymutilla occidentalis, but these ants are also known by the name of the “cow killer” insect which is an impressive moniker, even though their bite...
Powdery Mildew
If you are like me, you have some peonies in your landscape. Peonies are great because the produce these giant flowers pretty early in the season. But after that, they are a nice, green leafy plant for the rest of the growing season…a nice, green, leafy plant that has a pre-disposition to getting powdery mildew unfortunately.
While peonies are affected by powdery mildew, so are azaleas, crabapples, dogwoods, phlox, euonymus, lilacs, snapdragons, dahlias, zinnias, crapemyrtles, roses, pyracanthas,...
Common tomato problems
By now our tomato plants should be getting pretty well established and maybe you have even been getting tomatoes, but environmentally issues may be affecting your tomato plant’s production. Here’s a few things to be aware of and what you can do about some of them.
Heat has a big effect on our tomato plants. Each year (usually a little later in the year) we get calls from people saying that their tomato plant is producing flowers but no tomatoes. This is an issue we call “blossom drop.”
Blossom...
IPM Part 3
If you’ve been playing along, this is the third and final article in our series about how to deal with garden pests and disease in environmentally friendly ways. To accomplish this, we’ve been talking about a strategy called Integrated Pest Management or IPM for short.
In the first article we talked about Cultural Controls or basically modifying our approach to gardening through practices that help minimize the chance for disease. Cultural controls would include choosing disease resistant plants,...