Dear Helen: Over the years, and despite my best efforts to pull the little devils out of the ground before they spray seeds in all directions, some sort of cress has appeared almost everywhere in the garden. Any suggestions?A.W.
Your weed is an almost ubiquitous one 鈥� a Cardamine, probably Cardamine hirsuta (hairy听bittercress, shotweed, smartweed, snapweed, pepperweed). The plants鈥� small, bright green rosettes send up little white flowers that form seed pods, beginning as early as late January. Ripe seeds explode from the pods to scatter a fair distance.
I wish I had an easy solution for you, but the only sure way to听control bittercress is to pull or hoe out the plants while they are young, before they can set seeds. Gather the tasty, plumpest plants for the salad bowl. If possible, follow a weeding with a weed-suppressing mulch.
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Dear Helen: I have four red currant bushes that are covered with flowers in the spring and later are laden with berries. Then the bushes become infested with aphids and currant worms. The berries dry up and fall off. I鈥檓 told that mildew causes this.W.A.
Powdery mildew does afflict the leaves, green shoots and fruit on currant bushes, but severe infestations cause the berries to听crack open and rot. It is the feeding of currant fruit fly maggots within the berries that commonly causes the berries to dry and drop.
The currant fruit fly is your main problem. About half the size of a house fly, this pest emerges from the soil around the currants鈥� mid-April to early May bloom time. The females lay eggs in the developing fruit and the resulting larvae feed within the berries for about two weeks before heading to the base of the plant to pupate. They stay in the soil over the winter.
You mention in your email that you keep the bushes pruned. This may make them good candidates for covering with insect netting, floating row cover or mesh screening to protect them from the flies. The barrier is best put in place as soon as fruit has set.
Though I don鈥檛 usually recommend using yellow sticky traps outdoors, because they attract and trap beneficial insects along with pests, one trap hung in one of your currant bushes would indicate when the first flies are active.
With the cover in place over the bush, pull it in around the bottom and tie it, above the soil line, around the trunk. This will prevent adult flies emerging from the soil from accessing the bush.
Sanitation is another key prevention measure. Pick up and destroy all dropped berries. Some people spread plastic sheeting underneath the plants to catch fallen berries and also to prevent larvae from entering the soil to pupate. Do this in early June.
In fall and winter, keep the ground under and around the bushes clean, and lightly cultivate the soil often to expose currant fruit fly pupae to predators.
Meticulous cleanup under and around the plants will help to control powdery mildew as well. Pruning to remove dead, diseased, broken and twiggy growth, and to relieve congestion in the plants, will improve air circulation and general plant health. When pruning each year in late winter, remove a few of the oldest stems.
To help control aphids, keep the plants strong and tough by听watering adequately. Avoid over-fertilizing with nitrogen. You mention washing aphid colonies off the bushes with water sprays. Continue that, but follow up a听spraying with another two days later, to catch malingerers and the newly born. Pinch off badly distorted leaves that are full of aphids.
听
GARDEN EVENTS
Orchid meeting. The Victoria Orchid Society meets Monday at 7:30 p.m. in the Gordon Head United Church Hall, 4201 Tyndall Ave. Justin Dunning will speak about Orchids of Vancouver Island. He will describe the many native orchids that grow here and point out where and when to look for them. From 6:45 to 7:15 Debb Ward will hold a听Basics Workshop on Fertilizing for newer growers and others who are interested. Guests are welcome to VOS meetings. victoriaorchidsociety.com.
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View Royal meeting. The View Royal Garden Club meets Wednesday at听7:30听p.m. in the band room of Shoreline Community School, 2750 Shoreline Dr. There will be a听speaker and听a judged mini-show featuring exhibits from members鈥� gardens. New members and visitors are听welcome. Details at 250-220-5212.
