Q: I have an orange tree and have leaf footed bugs on my fruit. What can I do?
A: According to Molly Keck, A&M entomologist, in a recent Webinar on citrus pests, the only things you should use on citrus are spinosad, horticultural oil, insecticidal soap or Malathion (which is not organic). Leaf footed bugs ruin the inside of the fruit. Keck suggests several remedies which include controlling weeds, and removing any nearby plants that are bug hosts.
Citrus plants are host to the Giant Black Swallowtail butterfly whose larvae is the Orange Dog caterpillar. These caterpillars look like bird droppings. I also sometimes find them on my lime prickly ash bonsai. BT can be sprayed for the caterpillar although I have never found that they do much damage (and I really like the butterfly.)
If you have grasshoppers, Keck suggests tilling and controlling weeds. She also uses Malathion.
Q: I heard that mowing heights should be increased in the summer. When should we do this?
A: Doug Welsh in his Texas Garden Almanac says now is the time. If you want your lawn to stand up to the summer heat, raise your mower height. The recommended heights are two inches for Bermuda, four inches for St. Augustine, and six inches for buffalo grass. This decreases lawn water use and increases drought tolerance according to Welsh.
Remember to water your lawn and garden between sundown and sunrise. I’ve seen people watering in the heat of the day when more moisture is evaporating than hitting the soil. Wind and temperatures are lower at night.
Q: Birds are pecking my tomatoes. What shall I do?
A: Luckily you can pick your tomatoes early. Doug Welsh says that as soon as the bottom of the fruit turns from green to white with a tinge of red, it is fully mature. Then you bring it in the house where it continues maturing and turning red. (This also works when a freeze is coming. Just pick the tomatoes, or pull up the whole plant, and bring them inside.) Covering your plants with bird netting is something else you can try. However, sometimes awful things happen. I covered my blueberries with netting a few years ago. A mockingbird managed to get caught in the netting and a hawk attacked and ate him before I could get out there.
While we are on the subject of vegetables, in a recent webinar, Molly Keck said that if you have fire ants in your vegetable garden, the only thing you can use is spinosad.
FYI: To help conserve water as the summer heat rolls in, pull out all those water-drinking weeds around your flowers and shrubs. Then, make sure you mulch. Welsh says that mulching is the highest-impact, lowest-tech water conserving practice. You can either use all the leaves you saved, or you can use bark chips.
Clara Mae Marcotte is a Texas Master Gardener with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension.
If you have a question to be answered, call the Master Gardeners guadalupecountymastergardeners.org
.at 830-379-1972 or leave a message to be answered.
The website is guadalupecountymastergardeners.org. Master Gardener research library is open Wednesdays from 1 to 4, at 210 East Live Oak Street in Seguin.