The end of June brought a very exciting event. As I was cutting holes in the landscape fabric to plant some late-season flowers in my high tunnel, I found several larvae of a great beneficial insect! I guess it was the perfect environment, as I found at least 10 that evening. It was moist, although in the photo it looks pretty wet because I was running my drip irrigation water. When I found it, I was so ecstatic that my 5 year old daughter thought something bad had happened with all my yelling! I then shared a photo with my whole family. Needless to say, no one else seems to get quite as excited as I do about good bugs. Below are some photos from that special evening. Do you know what it is? Have you ever seen one? I’ll give you a few clues so you can see if you know what it is.
As larvae, they are incredible predators of many ground dwelling garden pests, like snails and slugs!
The adult form is a beetle so they have a complete life cycle — egg, larvae, pupa, and adult!
Size: approximately ¾’’.
The larvae and adults have bioluminescence, an amazing ability to “light up”.
That’s right, the last clue should have given it away. This is a larva of a lightning bug.
Did you know lightning bugs, also called fireflies, are actually beetles? They bring joy to everyone with their beautiful displays of flashing lights. Lots of additional information about them can be found here: https://www.xerces-dev.org/endangered-species/fireflies/about
Adult beetle. Photinus pyralis, known by the common names common eastern firefly and big dipper firefly
So where could you find these awesome critters in your landscape? Most species have at least a 2-year life cycle, and 95% of their life is in larvae form. Most adults only live 2-4 weeks. They like moist, dark areas near the soil surface, since that will be where they find their next meal. Sometimes they even hide in the crookes and crevices of tree bark.
Below are some actions you can take to create a habitat to attract fireflies. This information is provided by Firefly.org.
Eliminate light pollution in your landscape (turn off unneeded outdoor lights, keep your curtains drawn). Fireflies use their flashing patterns to attract mates. Extra lights can disrupt their ability to find each other.
These critters thrive in wet areas around ponds, streams, wetlands, and swampy areas. Add a water feature to your landscape if you do not have natural sources.
Avoid pesticides, especially broad-spectrum insecticides which kill many types of insects indiscriminately (even the beneficial ones).
Do not over-mow your lawn (taller grass gives fireflies a place to hide during the day).
Dead logs and leaf litter provide great habitat, so try to create an area in your landscape that has a natural area with these materials.
Plant native trees and native grasses to provide shaded habitat. Shade helps conserve soil moisture which attracts food sources for firefly larvae.
My family is lucky to live in a rural area near a small stream and swampy area, so we are blessed to see a wonderful display of fireflies for several months each year. Check out my blog from last summer: Firefly or Lightning Bug: You Decide!
By Ashley Bodkins, Senior Agent Associate and Master Gardener Coordinator, Garrett County, Maryland, edited by Christa Carignan, Coordinator, Home & Garden Information Center, University of Maryland Extension. See more posts by Ashley and Christa.
In this month episode, we are chatting about the wonderful world of worms. Yes, worms. Although worms are slimy and wiggly, they play a vital role in our ecosystem. Earthworms increase air and water into the soil horizon, and usually, their presence is an indicator of a healthy soil system rich in nutrients and organic matter. Think of them as tiny tillers that incorporate organic matter, air, and water into the soil.
Timing : Ecology and Worms:~ 2:25 Vermicomposting: ~ 5:06 Invasive Jumping Worms: ~ 14:26 Native Plant of the month: Black-eyed Susan’s- Rudbeckia spp.at ~ 22:25 Bug of the Month : Fire Flies/ Lightning bugs at ~29:10 Garden Tips of the Month at ~ 36:00
If you have any garden related questions please email us or look us up on Facebook.
The Garden Thyme Podcast is a monthly podcast where we help you get down and dirty in your garden. The Garden Thyme Podcast is brought to you by the University of Maryland Extension. Hosts are Mikaela Boley- Senior Agent Associate (Talbot County) for Horticulture, Rachel Rhodes- Agent Associate for Horticulture (Queen Anne’s County), and Emily Zobel-Senior Agent Associate for Agriculture (Dorchester County).
Hot enough for ya? It’s only July, but we’ve had more than our share of relentless heat.
Have you ever wondered how plants cope with heat? It’s not as if they can turn on their air conditioners or pour themselves a cold one. In fact, plants have myriad adaptations that help them survive high temperatures. Some involve managing heat while others focus on conserving water.
Many coping mechanisms are structural. Plants such as sedum have waxy leaves to conserve water. Fuzzy lamb’s ear has reflective leaf hairs.
Ornamental grasses’ rolled leaves give them an advantage as does threadleaf coreopsis’ smaller, finer leaves. Less surface area means leaves lose less water.
Lavender, Russian sage and other plants with bluish leaves are summer survivors, too.
Plants with thick roots such as iris, peonies and daylilies store water better. And native plants’ deeper roots find water more easily.
Drought-resistant native plants like this butterfly weed (Aesclepias tuberosa) also attract pollinators such as this zebra swallowtail.
Photo credit – Joan Willoughby
Natives plants such as this bee balm (Monarda fistulosa) have deep roots that make them drought resistant.
All of these evolutionary adaptations help plants tolerate hot, dry conditions. We know that summer’s heat comes every year and that global warming is bringing more temperature extremes. So it makes sense to help our gardens adapt by incorporating plants with these characteristics.
Okay, science geeks. Here’s one for you. Did you know that some plants can make special “heat-shock proteins” to help them recover from heat stress? When you cook an egg, you are unfolding proteins. When you melt butter, you are disrupting cell membranes. These same disruptions can happen when plants get too hot. Cell membranes can literally melt, leaking plant’s vital fluids. Heat-shock proteins act like “molecular chaperones,” preventing these bad things from happening at a cellular level. They beef up membranes and collapsing proteins. Plants survive.
Iris’ fleshy rhizomes help it hold water and thrive in high temperatures.
Photo credit – Marie Bikle, Washington County Master Gardener
But don’t make plants go it alone, relying only on their adaptations. Help them when it’s hot by watering them more often and deeply. Newer plantings of trees and shrubs need slow, deep soaks once a week. Use a hose on a trickle, a soaker hose, drip irrigation or a 5-gallon bucket with nail holes in the base.
Container plants heat up and dry out faster, so check and water them once or twice a day. Soak them until water runs out the drainage holes.
Keep plants mulched to conserve moisture. Consider shade covers on vegetable crops. And be vigilant, watching your plants for signs of heat stress such as wilting.
Water moves constantly from the soil to roots, stems and leaves. There it escapes through leaf pores. When the rate of water lost is greater than the water absorbed, plants wilt and need water.
Trees often jettison some leaves to conserve water when it’s hot. Fewer leaves need less water. Unless leaf loss is dramatic, there is no cause for concern.
Vegetable plants slow production in high heat. Blossoms drop when temps top 80 degrees. Without blossoms, plants can’t make fruit.
Tomatoes, squash, peppers, melons, cucumbers and beans are likely to drop blossoms. It’s a passing phase. Plants will make flowers and fruit again when temperatures cool.
Summer’s high temperatures cause blossoms on some vegetables such as these peppers to drop, temporarily slowing production.
Photo credit – Home & Garden Information Center
Plants have developed miraculous adaptations to high temperatures, but sometimes need our help. So watch, water and marvel at the many ways nature finds ways to beat the heat.
Annette Cormany, horticulture educator, University of Maryland Extension – Washington County
I had a lot of goals for improving my garden since last year’s adventure which meant new things to build! However, with the current prices of lumber and materials, plus my only basic carpentry skills, I didn’t want to go all out creating beautiful, sturdy, perfect designs and structures from new materials purchased specifically for these builds.
I wanted to quickly build tomato support, floating row cover, a large trellis for climbing plants, deer fence, and a garden gate all without spending too much at the hardware store or spending a ton of time planning. That meant largely using scrap wood I had laying around or cheap materials like PVC, and going for it.
MEGA TRELLIS
I’m trying tromboncino squash this year which really climbs, and I also wanted to allow cucumbers to climb, so I thought I’d build some sort of large support object. I had a bunch of 2×2, 10 ft long lengths of wood left from contractor work in my basement and thought that would be good material. I wanted something tall that I could walk under and pluck vegetables from. Plus, I wanted it to be non-permanent.
I decided to make this ladder-like structure with a hinge at the top so that I can collapse it and store it in the garage without taking up a lot of space. I bought a metal threaded rod, drilled holes through the wood at the ends that would make the apex of the structure, and ran the rod through those holes to make a hinge. The rest is built with wood screws. Metal eyelets were screwed into the wood so that I could run twine crisscrossed through the structure to allow plants to climb.
The structure was a bit wobbly on its own since it is so tall and not wide, so I worried about it getting blown over during a storm — especially with leafy plants acting as sails. I tied rope to two cinder blocks that pull down and away to give it more stability.
Ready to be a cucurbit jungle-gym
Collapsible
Threading string
View of the stabilizing rope and cinder block
Tomboncinos are beginning to climb
Here come the tromboncinos!
As it is today – after we harvested. Cucumber coming up the left, while the tromboncino has climbed all the way up the right side to the top and is heading down the other side now.
Fence panel tomato hangers
I saw these cool tomato clips online; you can have some sort of structure to hang a string from, then use these clips to fasten joints of the tomato plant to the string to hold it up. With these, all I would have to do for tomato support is to make some sort of triangle or tripod with a high point I could tie string to. It seemed like a simple way to build something. Also, I liked the way my trellis folded flat for storage.
Connecting a clip to string
Tomato plant is clipped!
Again, leftover from contractor work, I had some parts of wood fencing from a recently replaced segment of fence I had done. I took off a bunch of the boards, leaving the two outside ones connected by the horizontal segments, and connected two of the removed boards to the others via hinges at the top. I added more horizontal support at the top and bottom, then added eyelets at the top crossbar to tie rope to. This fits right in my 4’x4′ tomato bed. The strings hang down and with the clips, hold up the tomatoes.
Starting materials
Laid flat with hinges connecting the top
Top cross bar with eyelets
Finished product
Side view
Easy PVC piping structures
Tomato support on the left, and the floating row cover configuration in the back of the image on the right.
I went to the hardware store and picked up several lengths of 5 ft white PVC pipe and a handful of T connectors. I didn’t have an exact plan, and I probably should have bought a bit more of everything, but I was able to start with building floating row cover for some of my squash, and then when that wasn’t needed, I reconfigured it into support for my tomatoes.
Collapsed tomatoes
I cut the pipes: some in a third and 2/3 lengths. Connecting them with the T connectors, bending, and wedging the ends of the pipes into the corners of the raised beds, I was able to make an archway over my 4ft square section of raised bed. For floating row cover on squash, I draped row cover fabric over it and pinned it down with bricks around the edges. For tomato support, I drilled a few holes, screwed eyelet hardware in, attached twine, and used tomato clips to hold up tomatoes.
The 1/2in pipe is a little flimsy, and I ran out of enough pipe to make as much support as I wanted.
I left on vacation for a week and came back to totally collapsed tomatoes. No big surprise there. This design is good for row cover, but not for tomatoes beyond a certain point. I need stronger materials for this one.
After the PVC failure, I wanted a quick way to build something that would hold up the tomatoes. I’m running low on quality materials, so I made this unimpressive support out of two fence panel boards, and the other longest piece of scrap wood I had around. Two wood screws connect them at the top. I don’t think I will keep this for next year as it isn’t collapsible, isn’t that sturdy, and I would hope to make something better if I need something next season. Clips were used again to hold up the plants.
It…works I guess.
Final result. Not my most impressive piece.
Building
Micro deer fence
I’ve got one 4’x4′ raised bed segment with corn in it that got devastated last year, presumably by deer. Originally this year, I was planning on building a tall deer fence around my entire garden area, similar to this one. I understood that the fence doesn’t need to be particularly strong – just tall enough they couldn’t jump it.
Then I had the idea, “Dan, you clever guy – why don’t you fence ONLY the corn and save a lot of effort!” So I decided to make a tall, twine fence around just the corn.
Again, with leftover fencing boards, I just screwed four of the boards vertically to the walls of the raised beds, tapped some nails in them for string, and wove twine around the whole thing.
Nails used as points to wrap string around
Recent photo: the tall corn has grown taller than the fence top
It was soon after I finished stringing this thing up that I realized the error in my logic (most readers here were probably yelling at their screens): yeah, a deer cannot jump into my corn field, but they sure could stick their snouts through the gaps in the twine and much fairly unhindered.
I mused about stapling a segment of the rodent fence material used for the outer fence around the four boards, but in the end, laziness and the sense of experimentation helped me decide to leave it as-is and see what happened. Perhaps the deer would be weirded-out enough by the twine to leave it alone.
As of this writing, we are beginning to harvest corn, and it hasn’t been touched which is further than we got last year. Fingers crossed this trend continues.
Building is fun
It’s been fun building. I’ve done this all without breaking out a ruler or tape measure! Mostly, it’s hammer, nails, wood screws, drill, and string that I’m using. Nothing fancy. Luckily, produce does not care if all corners are square, and good enough is generally good enough if you don’t have to support more than a couple plants.
The last item I’ll mention is a little gate panel built from the absolute last pieces of the 2×2 wood. I didn’t even have enough to make a diagonal cross piece that went from corner to corner. I stapled a bit of wire fencing onto it and put a slide bolt to shut it. My wife was tired of having to hop the wire fence to get into the garden, so this was the solution. Again, not strong or beautiful, but it works.
As I’m writing this, my weather station tells me that it feels like 95F outside, and now all I can do is think of jumping into a pool. And because in the natural world pools are not just for refreshing and drinking water, today I wanted to talk about a special natural wonder of our region, a plant that makes pools to have things jump in them… although it doesn’t always end up as a refreshment. Let’s talk about our local pitcher plants!
Pitcher plants are native to many regions of the USA, and one of these plants, the Northern or Purple Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia purpurea), is native to right here! Pitcher plants receive their name from the fascinating structure they have, which allows them to collect fluids, create a sort of pool, and use it to trap prey (usually small arthropods) that they feed upon. Although we tend to think of carnivorous plants as feeding on insects, pitcher plants have a really interesting relationship with them, since they both feed on them, while also needing them to reproduce through pollination. How does this work?
The Northern or Purple Pitcher Plant is native to Maryland. Photo: A. Carlson.
Are pitcher plants really carnivorous?
First things first; let’s talk about plant carnivory. Carnivorous plants are an organism that reminds us that nature is always ready to fascinate us in the most unexpected ways. Plants usually grow by absorbing minerals from the soil and combining them with the sugars they synthesize by using the energy from sunlight and CO2. In some nutrient-poor habitats, however, conditions may be a bit too harsh to obtain sufficient minerals and food to survive. In those habitats, other feeding adaptations to supplement these low nutrient levels have evolved, allowing plants to obtain sufficient food to properly develop. The evolution of carnivory in plants is one of these strategies.
Although pitcher plants are carnivorous, this does not mean that they are a sort of plant-lion waiting there to attack and retain prey. Their ways are more intricate, and in some ways, more fascinating than those of an animal predator. As all plants, pitcher plants are not able to ingest their prey; they have no mouths, no teeth… so how do they do it?
Pitchers in pitcher plants fill with rainfall and get slowly colonized by a multitude of microbes and other organisms. Photo: A. Carlson.
In pitcher plants, the pitcher (a special modified leaf) fills with a liquid formed by water (often from rainfall) and other compounds that make it really favorable for the establishment of microbial communities. Along with the secretion of some plant digestive compounds into the fluid, it is these microbes that actually digest the insects that fall into the pitcher. Once the prey is trapped in the pitcher and then digested, the plant is able to absorb the released nutrients directly through its tissues, eventually obtaining food from animal tissues, thus becoming a carnivore.
Why do insects fall into the pitcher?
Insects are often attracted to the pitcher by the many lures that the structure has. For instance, the walls of the pitcher display lines and markings that are attractive to insects, which direct them to the lid of the pitcher. At the edges of those lids there are small glands that secrete nectar, which is also mixed with some narcotic substances that make insects lose control of their bodies. Once these insects experience the effects of these substances, they lose grip and fall in the pitcher, where hairs and a slippery and narrow surface prevent them from crawling or flying out.
Many small insects fall into the pitchers, where they are digested by the pitcher microbial communities. Photo: A. Carlson.
But pitcher plants need to be pollinated too! How do they do it, if they eat insects?
Yes, pitcher plants need the service of pollinators to produce seeds and reproduce. And indeed, they also have very pretty flowers (which in Maryland bloom in May-June). So, how do they attract pollinators to their flowers instead of to the pitchers, and then, not have them fall in the pitchers by mistake?
Studies on this are demonstrating that pitchers and flowers in pitcher plants are not active at the same time. While the plant flowers only for a very restricted time in the year, the pitchers are active most of the growing season. However, their level of activity and attraction are reduced during the flowering time. This means that pitcher plants have evolved to allow pollen transfer to happen without endangering the valuable pollinators.
The pitcher plant flowers are very pretty, with a special round shape and coloring. In Maryland, pitcher plants bloom in the months of May and June. Photo: B. Wheeler.
Pitcher plants are tiny ecosystems
With more and more studies done on these plants, it is now clear that the fluids in the pitchers behave really like tiny ecosystems. In some cases there are not only microbes that help the plant get their nutrients, but also other organisms that feed on these microbes. There are organisms that use the pitcher’s fluids to develop (the larvae of some mosquito species are specialized in developing in these fluids). The pitchers also are used by other arthropods to trap prey (some spiders build their webs in the pitchers).
Some mosquito species, like this Maryland specimen of genus Wyeomyia, have evolved to be able to develop exclusively in the pitcher fluids of pitcher plants. Photo: K. Schultz.
I love pitcher plants and I want one in my house
It is absolutely great to be interested in carnivorous plants and pitcher plants in particular. Unfortunately, the Northern Pitcher Plant is currently classified as Imperiled in our State. Indeed, many of the habitats they prefer (bogs, peatlands) are endangered, or have been profoundly disturbed by human activity. Another additional pressure that our native pitcher plants experience is collections from the wild for trading. Indeed, the market for carnivorous plant lovers is huge, and it is cheaper for a seller to collect a plant from the wild than to grow it from seed in a nursery. If you are considering purchasing pitcher plants for growth at home, make sure that the plant you buy has not been collected from the wild.
By Anahí Espíndola, Assistant Professor, Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park. See more posts by Anahí.
Anahí also writes an Extension Blog in Spanish! Check it out here, extensionesp.umd.edu, and please share and spread the word to your Spanish-speaking friends and colleagues in Maryland. ¡Bienvenidos a Extensión en Español!
Now that the Brood X cicadas are finally silent, you likely have noticed flagging branches on certain trees eggs were laid in. Take a look at this video explaining maintenance you may want to do on these twigs.
For me, at least, it’s been a bumper year for berries.
Black raspberries in my garden in mid-June
In some years, I harvest only sparsely from the various fruit plantings in my landscape. Black raspberries, in particular, get snatched by birds before I can get to them. Not this year. I had them all to myself until this week, and they’re now pretty much done anyway. My guess—and I haven’t seen any science to back this up, but it makes sense—is that the birds have been too busy scarfing down cicadas to bother with berries. Now that the cicadas are gone, they may turn their attention to my fruit-bearing bushes, but I’ve had a head start.
Periodical cicadas are not an unqualified blessing for fruit growers, of course. Female cicadas lay their eggs in branches of a certain diameter, which are abundant on a lot of fruiting plants. This can cause dieback at the ends of these branches. The affected branch tips will fall off naturally over time; you can prune them if they bother you, but remember that cicada eggs are inside slits in the branches, and won’t hatch until probably August. I’m just going to leave mine alone.
Below you can see dieback on blueberry and pawpaw plants caused by cicada laying.
I didn’t bother covering most of my fruit plants, but here in Germantown we didn’t have a huge number of cicadas, either, so the damage has been minimal and the plants will recover. Some growers used netting to keep the bugs out, which is of course really inconvenient if the plants fruit during the same period. I was startled a number of times while harvesting when I moved a branch and suddenly encountered staring red eyes. The cicadas found my blueberries early on, as you can see by this nymph exoskeleton still clinging to a berry that ripened underneath it.
But they are not competition for the fruit itself, and since the birds have been ignoring the berries for the most part, my freezer is full of blueberries, black raspberries, and blackcurrants. I’ve made blueberry chutney, blueberry syrup, and blueberry-lavender shrub (from this book). Shrubs are refreshing drinks made from fruit, sugar, and vinegar, ready in a week or less to be enjoyed mixed with sparkling water or in various alcoholic and nonalcoholic blends. I have plans for jam, cassis and other alcoholic infusions, baked goods, and more.
Fruit-bearing shrubs and trees fit into a home landscape very well. Raspberries and blueberries are great starter plants; I also recommend currants for a shadier spot, though you will not be eating them fresh off the plant, so add in some processing time in addition to harvesting time. (Also be sure that you buy varieties resistant to white pine blister rust, for which the currant family is a host.) Pawpaws are wonderful native trees that add dramatic flair to a landscape; you need at least two genetically-different trees for cross-pollination. They will take several years to start bearing, depending on the size of the trees you plant, and mature trees do sucker prolifically, so you will end up with a pawpaw grove that needs some maintenance to keep under control. But the fruit is not commonly available for sale commercially, and it has a great banana-mango flavor that’s unusual in our temperate climate. You can also try blackberries, gooseberries, and figs. All of these are easier to grow in our climate than tree fruits like apples, peaches, and pears, but if you like a challenge, those are possibilities as well. You can find advice on all sorts of fruit growing on the HGIC website.
I’m wondering how next year will go in my fruit-growing adventure. All these cicada-stuffed birds are laying more eggs and raising more youngsters this year, so the population will be higher in 2022, and there won’t be any periodical cicadas to fill their bellies. So I expect I’ll have to be more vigilant about protecting the plants I can protect in order to have much of a harvest. But I’ll probably still have some leftover blueberries in the freezer, and plenty of jars of jam and chutney. Every year is different in gardening, and 2021 will definitely stand out in my memory for noisy cicadas, happy birds, and plentiful berries.
By Erica Smith, Montgomery County Master Gardener. Read more posts by Erica.
