Cleaning up the Vancouver place for sale. This will be my final crop from the trees there. Bing (red), Ranier (yellow) and tart cherries (North Star?) similar to Montmorency.
I canned the sweet cherries, seven pints each.
At Battle Ground, the Montmorency Cherry tree is loaded, almost ripe.
I set up the Gumby man to deter birds and deer.
I will need to pick them in a few days, so he can help with the blueberries.
Most of the tomato plants look pretty vigorous, but there is something eating holes and chunks out of the lower leaves. Most of the plants have at least some damage. There are tiny black insects, almost ground pepper in size and appearance. They are difficult to see, but the damage is real and concerning for worse to come.
The damage looks like this:
There are lots of tiny insects, mostly on the cardboard mulch but also some on the leaves. IT's difficult to take a photo of them because they jump around a lot. Also, I thought that some of the damage might be caused by slugs, so applied slug bait. Now I think it's really all flea beetle.
About a week ago, I applied this brand of neem oil spray.
After a week, there were still lots of the tiny insects visible on the cardboard mulch, so I bought this neem oil concentrate and mixed per label instructions.
I applied that three days ago. Unfortunately, two hours later there was a big thunderstorm, so I imagine that most of the neem oil treatment washed off. This morning I applied another treatment. I also added about a teaspoon of peppermint extract per 32 ounce of neem mixture.
I don't know if it will help. I can add another treatment in a week, or maybe switch to pyrethrin. I want to stay with organic methods.
Here are the hybrid Alstroemeria seedlings that I started mid winter. They were badly damaged by slugs or jays, or both. They sent new shoots from the roots.
The new shoots seem to be doing better. I will just let them mature in this container, which has drip irrigation, and plant them in the deer garden this fall.
Here are is the Alstroemeria that I transplanted to the deer border last fall. The tubers and roots were delicate. I wondered if they would survive. They are doing great.
Here is the birder so far. Lots more work to do.
The fig trees help with privacy. I want to air layer more forsythias to fill in the back privacy hedge. The geraniums seem happy there. It's within easy reach of the water source. Difficult to see, the four o'clocks are doing well, with a bit of slug damage. The dwarf dahlias are more damaged. I applied slug bait.
Here is the un-potted Supersweet-100 tomato cutting that I started in water. Original post 14 May. So, it was about 30 days from cutting to plantable plant.
I planted it in the garden yesterday.
