The very hungry reclassified caterpillar

Posted on July 6, 2020 by missinghenrymitchell

Not, in fact, a tomato hornworm.

Last week I posted about the voracious caterpillars that decimated one of my tomato plants. I theorized, based on as close an identification as I could make, that it was a tomato hornworm, Manduca quinquemaculata.

Made sense. Fat, green guys with white stripes and brown spots? Check. Horns on their rear ends? Check. Munching on tomatoes? Check. My guys’ stripes weren’t as fat as the ones in the photo from the University of Minnesota Extension publication, but perhaps I had juveniles? Maybe after eating my entire plant, the stripes would grow as bloated as the rest of their bodies.

Not so fast. Enter iNaturalist, a fabulous nature-identification app that I’m in love with. Created as a joint project between the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society, it allows citizens to upload their observations and get critter identifications from other members. The data are shared with databases like the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, so you can feel good about contributing to biodiversity science.

Everyone on the app piled on to correct me. I don’t have tomato hornworms, although my mistake is a common one. I have tobacco hornworms, Manduca sexta. This link shows the differences very clearly. Tomato hornworms have V-shaped stripes and bluish- or black horns on their rear ends. Tobacco hornworms have white diagonal stripes bordered in black, and have red horns on their butts.

White stripes, red horns. Clearly, tobacco hornworms.

Treatment is the same: pick ’em off and feed them to hungry birds. I’m happy to report the sad, naked tomato stalk grew a few new leaves this week, so maybe it will pull through.

Here at MHM, we believe in science, so I wanted to correct the record. 🙂

Seed swap!

Posted on February 24, 2015 by missinghenrymitchell

Yesterday on GardenChat, we talked about growing tomatoes. (To see the recaps of the Monday night chats, review their archives.) Looking at photos and hearing recommendations from gardeners across the US, Canada, and even a few from the UK, I became ravenous, craving not only fresh tomatoes, but their seeds as well.

My personal seed library I’ve participated in seed swaps before but have never hosted one. I don’t know how chaotic it’s going to get. But I’m giving it a try.

Here’s what I’ve got that I can share:

Tomatoes:

‘Yellow Pear’
‘Principe Borghese’
‘Mortgage Lifter’
‘Sophie’s Choice’ (good for short seasons)

Peppers:

Jalapeno (how do I put the tilde on top?
‘Corno di Toro-Rosso’ (I think)

Miscellaneous vegetables and herbs:

Basil (Genovese)
Bush bean ‘Contender’
Broccoli ‘DiCicco’
Broccoli raab
Claytonia
Cucumber ‘Arkansas Pickling’

Misc. ornamentals:

Cotton (red-foliated)
Ceratotheca triloba

If you want any of those, reply to this post and let me know what you’d like. If you have a blog of your own, link to a post showing what you have available to swap. I will leave it to individuals to work out mailing addresses and so forth.

By the way, I’m in search of almost any variety of sweet pepper, as well as tomatoes ‘Carbon,’ ‘Black Krim’ (can’t believe I’m out of those seeds!), ‘Black Cherry,’ ‘Paul Robeson,’ and ‘Amy’s Sugar Gem.’

Flower and herb seeds are welcome, too. Please try to make sure you’re sharing fresh, viable seed.

Let the swapping begin!

Dear Friend and Gardener: June 20, 2014

Posted on June 20, 2014 by missinghenrymitchell

Dear Friend and Gardener,

After a week of brutal heat, today we have a slight break. It will only be 90 today, humidity 68%, feels like 102. A storm last night brought some much-needed rain, although in temperatures like this, moisture evaporates from the ground rapidly. I finished extending the drip irrigation and topped off the mulch. Everything (except me) looks just a bit fresher.

My pickles turned out not too bad. I feel that the recipe I used is a good starting point. I used an off-the-shelf pickling spice but it is heavy on the cloves. I am thinking of mixing up my own, or at least picking out the cloves until I have used up this batch.

I have tiny peppers on my jalapeno and anaheim plants. The ground cherries are now about 4′ by 4′ and covered with little paper bells where the fruits will form. They shade the lettuces well; I can’t believe the lettuce hasn’t collapsed completely in the heat. And most peculiarly, the peas are hanging on for dear life. I think I must get ruthless and cut them down in the next week or so–they’ll only get sad as the summer goes on, and I could use the real estate in the bed for something more productive.

Tomato ‘Principe Borghese’ is great for drying.

Lots of tomatoes on my Principe Borghese plants and on ‘Sophie’s Choice.‘ The ‘Sophie’s Choice’ are slightly shaded by the peas and the cucumbers so I hope they’ll prove resilient, at least until the fruit ripens. They don’t care for high heat. I need to start another batch of plants in my seedling bed. The summer tasks never end, do they? (I wouldn’t be very happy if they did.)

Tomato ‘Sophie’s Choice’ is a short-season variety.

Hope you are well and that your garden is flourishing.

Best,

Amy

Dear Friend and Gardener: 30 May, 2014

Posted on May 30, 2014 by missinghenrymitchell

Dear Friend and Gardener,

Memorial Day, the traditional if unofficial beginning of summer, was last Monday, and it definitely feels like summer. After a surprisingly long spring–for here, anyway–temperatures are beginning to hover around the 90s, humidity has returned, and the nights are warm as well. I wonder what the months of July and August will look like–more of the same, or substantially hotter and muggier?

And consistent with the advent of summer, the vegetable garden is coming on strong. I have small tomatoes on ‘Sophie’s Choice,’ a short-season variety I’m trying for the first time this year. Tomatoes ‘Black Prince’ and ‘Principe Borghese’ seem to grow three inches a day, and I pinch suckers every morning. I must get to work on finding some taller stakes.

I’ve also got tiny little pickling cucumbers coming along. I’m the only one in the house who loves pickles, so every fruit is for me. Now I need to find the perfect recipe to make those cukes taste like the pickles I used to get from the deli in Chicago. I wonder if the deli would share their recipe? Must remember to ask.

I can’t believe I’m still picking peas in June! Around here, spring usually lasts a week, and a few days in April in the 90s spell the end of the seasonal snap pea attempt. I didn’t plant very many peas but I’ve harvested at least a quart already. That many not seem like much, but in the past, I’ve felt fortunate if I could pick enough in a spring to add to a pasta salad. I’m trying not to let the success to to my head.

Bush beans are looking rather vital and vigorous, and so far, no sign of flea beetles. There; I’ve tempted fate. I’ve got tiny Anaheim peppers on two plants and am waiting for the jalapeños to catch on. Nasturtiums planted in the corner of the bed are green and healthy–but I think the soil may be a bit rich for them to produce many flowers. Or maybe I’m suffering my typical lack of patience.

Do you grow calendulas? I’m trying those for the first time this year as well. I can’t explain why it’s taken me so long to get around to trying these.

Lots of basil–I never have enough. The lettuce is hanging on since I covered it with shade cloth. The 4-year-old next door thinks it’s crazy that my lettuce can get a sunburn, so I showed him the leaves that got a little crispy in the sun one day. I don’t think it was quite what he had imagined.

Physalis ‘Cossack Pineapple’ plant growing rapidly.

The shiso seedlings died, so I’ve got to start some more. And this year I’m trying another new thing: ground cherries (Physalis pruinosa). This plant likes it hot, for sure. It seems to double in size for every day we have over 90 degrees. This pattern cannot be sustainable, or it will be The Plant That Ate Durham before the kids are out of school for the summer. Tiny flowers already appear beneath the giant leaves, but I think the fruits will take a while to form. I’ll let you know.

I got the fig tree transplanted earlier in the spring, and it seems to be settling in nicely. I’ve got lots of little figlets already; I hope it will fruit more productively now that it’s out of the container. I can’t wait to have my favorite fig and goat cheese sandwiches!

Hope your garden is doing well. What’s the veg you’re most excited about this year?

May your tomato plants live long and prosper,

Amy