GA: Onions horrible, all dying / several already dead :(((

Alas!  Onions horrible, all dying / several already dead :(((  Pretty sure it's due to the leek moth.  (Though I poked around in some of the dying/dead "green"s and didn't find anything but I'm guessing they've already left or whatever.)

Even the covered ones, because (a) one of the covers developed a large gaping hole a 4-6ish weeks ago that I never bothered doing anything about, and (b) the other covered area I had removed the cover for a week or twoish a while ago (because I think it too had broken) before deciding to put back the cover.  So I'm pretty sure the leek moth got all up in both of the covered onion beds.

But yeah, basically all onions look awful with thoroughly dead/dying "green"s (more like "brown"s).  And, a surprising amount flopped over / got the crick in the neck which means they won't grow any more, yet they're very small. Harvested some of the worst today.  I mean, there's still a mini harvest as they did bulb up to varying extents, but definitely small small small.  Some others not yet harvested are relatively bigger but still doesn't look like any will grow to nice sizes.

So!  Next year I will grow all onions under proper cover for the whole season.  (Except maybe one foot uncovered as a comparison.)

GA: 2 zukes are wilting!!! SVB? ==> Update: No, not SQB!

Feels early for SVB but maybe not... I'll cut open the stems once they're fully gone, to see.

Update on August 1st:  Pulled one of those plants and inspected the stem -- not seeing any SVB evidence.  There was, however, a squash bug on it.  Pretty sure it was some type of disease, which is supported by the leaves not actually having gotten wilty as when it's SVB, but rather drying/dyring in a curled/crispy way.  Haven't pulled the second affected plant yet bec it's still hanging on for now...

Stopped doing insect patrols a week or two ago -- will see how long the zukes/cukes last

I just got tired of killing things, plus all the time I spent last year constantly checking for squash bug eggs etc.  When I first uncovered the zukes/cukes I checked a few times for the eggs, and would destroy any cuke beetles.  But for at least the last week or two I stopped.  If I see any squash bugs (have seen a few so far, not many) then I'll deal with them, but not doing the patrols, and not bothering about the cucumber beetles anymore.  Que sera, sera!

GA: Cucumber plants looking good so far! Very vigorous! (All are Straight 8 variety)

The cucumber beetles are there too, but wow, the first two years at GA my cukes (Eureka) all did horrendously.  With how well these Straight 8s are looking, maybe I'll actually get a decent GA harvest of cukes this year... or will the cucumber beetles be their detriment?  I'm hopeful that the long period of being covered will help.  And they are on the vertical fence post thing again this year.

GA: All zukes are now un-covered

Decided to remove ALL of the covers from the GA zukes, even the ones that aren't close to producing.

Several have been uncovered for a few weeks now.  Have seen definitely cucumber beetles and a few squash bugs.  I haven't been spending tons of time checking for insects like I did last year but do check every now and then and remove.

GA: Aphids all over the buckwheat ---- volunteers and sown!!!!! Apparently a risk of May buckwheat

Argh!!!! A day or two ago, I noticed there were lots of ladybugs at GA, especially on the buckwheat.  I didn't think much of it.  Well, today I happened to notice green aphids on some buckwheat I had pulled and dropped yesterday ---- then inspected all of the volunteer uckwheat and ALL had green aphids!!!!    Then had a look at the sown buckwheat patch -- at first I thought it was in the clear, but upon closer inspection it also had green aphids throughout!!!

A Cornell website says it can be a risk of buckwheat sown in May and it even says this is the case for both volunteers and sown.

So, today I pulled ALL buckwheat and tossed it all in the compost heap, worried that these might be aphids who might move on to other types of plants.  

SAD!!!

I'll try another round of buckwheat later in the summer and see if it happens again.

(I don't know what type of aphids they are, but they are green in colour.)

Argh -- the dry beans from last fall have weevils!! (Only the GA ones I think)

Noticed today that several of the jars of beans saved from last year have weevils inside the jars!  And escape holes in some of the beans -- including weevils inside a jar that had only pods that I had carefully inspected that I didn't see any suspicious holes in.

This definitely has me inclined to NOT do dried beans from GA anymore, only from the yard where I don't seem to have had this issue (knock on wood).

Although I guess I could always leave the dried beans for a year, during which hopefully any critters would have emerged, then remove those and eat the remaining beans..... 

Still tons of fungus gnats in outside plants, see them when remove from big plastic tub; still a few indoor fungus gnats but not a ton

^^^

Fungus gnats GALORE continues

The dunks truly seem to have done NOTHING.

SOOOOO many flies in the yellow sticky traps.

Several newly emerged seedlings have gone kaput, I'm guessing some of which are related to the gnat babies.

OMG THOUSANDS OF FUNGUS GNATS ARE BEING TRAPPED!!!! Have added 5 of the big yellow hanging traps

^^^

Fungus gnats round 2 -- they are back with a vengeance -- seems the mosquito dunks did zero!?!

As of a few days ago, the fungus gnats are back with a vengeance.  Put out new sticky traps and many have been caught.  I can't understand why -- obviously this is a new batch that hatched, but how did they survive the mosquito-dunk water?  (Which I'm still using -- never stopped.)

Anyway, will continue to use the dunk water and sticky traps.

Zero fungas gnats nowadays

Can't remember the last time I saw a fungus gnat.  The yellow sticky traps are still out, and I'm still watering with the original bucket of mosquito dunked water.

I'll finish up the bucket of the water (prob another week before that happens), then will go back to regular water and see what  happens.

Haven't seen fungus gnats when watering -- seems promising

^^^

Mosquito dunks arrived -- placed half of one into big blue bucket of water

I'll let it sit for 24 hours and then start using the water to water the plants, to help with the fungus gnat situation.

Seeing a lot less fungus gnats nowadays due to the sticky traps, but they're still around and who knows how many are growing in the soil.

FUNGUS GNATS!!!!! -- Going on the attack

Oh no!!!  I've never had fungus gnats before, in all my many years of starting seeds indoors.  (Had thrips one year, that's it.)  But I'm pretty sure that's what these are.  Noticed them in the house even before the start of seedling season, so I'm pretty confident they didn't come from any of the materials (most of which are left over from last year).

I had seen the occasional fly here and there in the seedling room in recent weeks, but last night while watering I saw quite a few and decided to take my head out of the soil and do something about it.

So:

- Last night I watered the soil with a mix of hydrogen peroxide and water.

- Last night I set out two traps of apple cider vinegar with dish soap, but these haven't caught any yet.

- Today I put up yellow sticky traps (already caught two :( ).  (Last night I had put up clear packing tape and duct tape but those haven't caught any.)

- Today I ordered mosquito dunks -- they should hopefully arrive by Friday.

- As of today, all seeds that move from paper towels to soil are getting a layer of pure vermiculite on top, so that the top cm or two is just vermiculite, no soil.

Here's hoping this action plan will put an end to the gnat situation.  I'm eager to get those dunks but must wait until they arrive since neither Ritchie's nor Canadian Tire had any at this time of year.

GA: APHIDS ON THE KALE/CHARD! AND BLACK FLIES IN THE BROCCOLI!!!!

Oh no!!!  I haven't looked at the kale in ages, and went I went to harvest some today, I saw that it's full of green aphids!!! There are some on the chard too, but the kale especially.  So, I'll pull and discard all of the kale and chard next time I go.

I didn't see any aphids on the broccoli, so I brought that home.  But at home I found that there were many little black flies within!!  It took many rinses/soaks to get them all out, but otherwise the broccoli is gorgeous, so I used it.

I have no idea how these aphids/flies got in under the netting (which is a sheer sheet thing, not tulle, so no holes to get in).... My best guess is that they may have overwintered in the soil and therefore popped up under the cover.

GA: Oh no!!! A 2nd zuke lost! (presumably borer, but not pulling it quite yet) --> NOT the borer

Egads!!! The most productive plant has wilted!  This makes a second plant lost!  I'll leave it for a few days to finish ripening what it has.  I didn't check the stem closely because whatever (but will check it out when I pull it to see if it's SVB).

--> Update on August 1st 2025:  Pulled it today after harvesting its last two zucchinis.  There were some squash bugs on it, and found at least one or two borers in leaves/stems, but the main stem seemed clear of borers.  So, I'm guessing it died of some type of disease transmitted by the squash bugs and/or cucumber beetles, rather than SVB.

GA: No longer removing squash bugs / cucumber beetles, will see what happens

Yes, I've decided the plants are big enough and que sera sera.  Let's see what happens!

GA: Oh no!!!! A zuke plant looks struck by SVB already!?!?!?

Oh no!!! Can it be the SVB?!!  It feels like only a week or two that I took the cover off.  But overnight the plant is all wilty, not due to lack of water.  The strange thing is I can't find a point of entry on the stem.  Oh well, I'll wait until it's totally kaput, then will have a closer look when I pull it out.

GA: No squash bugs/eggs last few days --> A few days later, more appeared

After a couple of weeks of near-daily checking and removing squash bug adults and eggs, I didn't find any at all today or a the last time I was there a couple of days ago.  Here's hoping they're done?!

--> Update:  A few days later I found more -- and am still finding them occasionally as I write this update edit on July 14th 2025.