{"id":405,"date":"2011-05-26T08:43:40","date_gmt":"2011-05-26T12:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mymontys.com\/wordpress\/?p=405"},"modified":"2011-05-26T08:43:40","modified_gmt":"2011-05-26T12:43:40","slug":"ask-montys-52711-asparagus-crickets-and-calla-lillies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wordpress.mymontys.com\/?p=405","title":{"rendered":"Ask Monty’s 5\/27\/11: Asparagus, Crickets, and Calla Lillies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ask Monty\u2019s: <\/strong>\u201cHow do you know when to harvest asparagus and leaf lettuce, spring\u2019s earliest producers?\u00a0 I never have been quite sure.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Susan – Joplin, Missouri\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Susan: <\/strong>You can usually begin harvesting your asparagus spears when they are 6-8 inches in length.\u00a0 Snap them off at ground level when picking them.\u00a0 Stop harvesting them about 4-6 weeks after the first initial harvest so the plants can produce foliage and food for themselves. Once the asparagus emerge you can spray with Monty’s 8-16-8 for vigorous growth, additionally toward the end of the season, use Monty’s 2-15-15 to help them store energy in the roots so that they can propagate and emerge healthy next season.<\/p>\n

Leaf lettuce is best picked when the outer leaves have reached about 4 inches in height.\u00a0 Let the younger, inner leaves to grow further which will allow you to have lettuce through most of the summer if you pick it right and keep it well watered.\u00a0 Don’t forget to spray it at least once a week with Monty’s 8-16-8.\u00a0 This will stimulate\u00a0vigorous growth.\u00a0 As an additional benefit, if you are one who chosses to use pesticides or herbicides, they can easily be mixed with Monty’s products for no-fuss, one step application.<\/p>\n

Ask Monty\u2019s: <\/strong>\u201cIn early spring, if I don\u2019t watch my garden or flower beds closely, young grasshoppers and even crickets almost strip my young plants beyond repair.\u00a0 I have been using a regular insecticide on them, but is there an organic approach to repelling them?\u00a0 It\u2019s a reoccurring problem for me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dexter – Granite Falls, Washington\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dexter: <\/strong>These little devils can indeed strip crops incredibly fast.\u00a0 Grasshoppers alone are responsible for consuming 25% of the available foliage in the western half of the U.S. each year!\u00a0 There is an organic product on the market that literally infects grasshoppers with a naturally occurring disease that is much like a bad case of grasshopper flu.\u00a0 The disease is called Nosema locustae and it infects over 90 species of grasshoppers and crickets.\u00a0 The best part is that pets, people, plants and other insects are not affected by it.\u00a0 You can find this product in gardening catalogs and garden centers and it is sold as Semasporte Bait or NoLo Bait.\u00a0 It has a very short shelf life of only about eight weeks, so if you store it in the refrigerator it will keep up to five months, so buy only what you need.\u00a0 You can also talk to your local independent garden center, they may have some insecticidal soaps that will do the tricks.\u00a0 A mild solution of\u00a0JOY dish soap sprayed on the foliage helps with many insects, it may help with your crickets and hoppers as well.<\/p>\n

One last thought,\u00a0 evidence indicates that Monty’s foliar fertility products will elevate brix levels (the measure of sugar in a plant).\u00a0 Anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that elevated brix levels may help deter insects.\u00a0 We also know that insects tend to be opportunistic.\u00a0 That is, they tend to prey on plants that are weak or stressed. Think of them like a cheetah, they cull the weak out of the herd and in an odd way by doing so they are protecting the strength of the overall herd of antelope. So one way to address the insect problem is to make sure your plants are the healthiest in the neighborhood, this will tend\u00a0to cause the insects to move on to more susceptible prey. They key to plant health can be summarized in three words. Fertility, Fertility, Fertility.<\/p>\n

Ask Monty\u2019s: <\/strong>\u201cI have a love\/hate relationship with my Calla Lily.\u00a0 Sometimes it looks fabulous and other times I just about kill it.\u00a0 It seems like when it starts blooming, and I fertilize it, it takes an immediate turn for the worse.\u00a0 I do not understand this.\u00a0 Am I giving it too much, although I follow the fertilizer instructions to the tee?\u201d<\/p>\n

Tessa -Portland, Oregon<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Tessa: <\/strong>You should never feed a Calla Lily when it is in bloom, which is the opposite of most plants, I know.\u00a0 A good quality, healthy Calla Lily just simply doesn’t need it.\u00a0\u00a0If you just can’t resist, go with a low nitrogen, high phosphorous, high potassium fertilizer.\u00a0 this will decrease the nitrogen available for growth and increase those nutrients needed to support bloom and root health.\u00a0 We recommended Monty’s 2-15-15.<\/p>\n

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Ask Monty\u2019s: \u201cHow do you know when to harvest asparagus and leaf lettuce, spring\u2019s earliest producers?\u00a0 I never have been quite sure.\u201d\u00a0 Susan – Joplin, Missouri\u00a0\u00a0 Susan: You can usually begin harvesting your asparagus spears when they are 6-8 inches in length.\u00a0 Snap them off at ground level when picking them.\u00a0 Stop harvesting them about […]<\/p>\n

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