We Are About To Plant An Entire Year Of Food
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- Опубліковано 5 жов 2024
- In our goal to become less reliant on an unpredictable food system, we created this 4 season winter greenhouse. And now, as we finish up our first successful full season of growing food in the winter, and start planting seeds for this year’s garden, we have encountered another opportunity to learn. When we moved these beautiful kale and celery plants into the greenhouse last year, along came some hitchhikers. Aphids!
Aphids have a really cool life-cycle. Their populations grow super quickly because females reproduce asexually giving birth to genetic clones to themselves and, get this, some are born already pregnant! In the fall they change their strategy, reproducing sexually so they can give birth to males, so that they can mate another time to produce the eggs that will overwinter, typically on woody hosts specific to that aphid species. When it warms up in the spring, the aphids will emerge from the eggs, and feed on the woody winter host then move to their herbaceous summer hosts, aka your garden.
Well, we disrupted this overwintering cycle when a few aphids hitched a ride into our greenhouse last fall. They laid their eggs in the greenhouse instead of their typical woody hosts, and the eggs emerged much earlier because of the warmth in the greenhouse. The greenhouse also created a protective environment, sheltering the adults and eggs from wind, snow, and cold temperatures, meaning some adults and a lot more eggs than normal survived the winter.
Aphids feed on the plants using piercing and sucking mouthparts. They extract sugars and carbs and secrete the excess as a sticky honeydew. This feeding robs the plants of the energy they need to grow. Aphids carry plant diseases and viruses, and the sticky honeydew on plant surfaces can host sooty mold. The honeydew also attracts ants that protect the aphids in exchange for this high sugar meal.
There are a lot of ways to get rid of aphids, including manually picking them off the plants, shaking plants, using heavy streams of water to force them off, and removing the plants. If it were warmer outside and not a winter wonderland, we could also find native predators of aphids like ladybugs and spiders, and introduce them inside the greenhouse. For now, we're using diatomaceous earth (DE) to try to get the population of aphids in the greenhouse down to a manageable level.
To control this population we could manually pick off aphids, we could thin out these lettuce plants here, removing the “weaker” looking plants and leaves that are easy targets. We could try to control the temperature swings to increase plant health, and increase the airflow, because even though aphids have wings there are very poor flyers and can barely see.
But, we are about to plant our entire year’s worth of food in the garden, and those juicy seedlings are just too attractive to aphids. So we have made the hard decision to clear out almost all of these plants that have been providing us food throughout the winter, in turn getting rid of the aphid’s food source. Aphids are part of the garden ecosystem, we cannot get rid of them completely, but by pulling almost all the plants we can get the aphids down to reasonable numbers to be able to start managing them.
All is not lost though. The plants are not ruined. We are going to have some great early season salads, and we are going to mechanically remove the aphids and transplant some of these celery plants inside so we can still get some seeds. The rest? well I can think of quite a few helpers in that area!
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The BEST channels here on UA-cam show their struggles as you have. So many channels only show “their picture perfect results”
That’s not reality and it discourages new gardeners/homesteaders when they encounter pests and diseases
Absolutely Sarge. And that’s exactly why we share our learning experiences. Cheers!
I’m not too far from you guys and I have the same issue in my greenhouse. One thing I added to the garden that really seemed to help is adding a tobacco plant. The adult flies get stuck to it. By the end of the season the entire stem is loaded with them.
Great idea, and we have seeds here! Thanks
Those chickens don't mind the extra protein 😆
Nope, not at all!
You need to put an army of Lady bugs in there each fall. Then you would have a teeny beetle battle all winter. 👍😂
Good luck.
Absolutely! Those and a few other predatory insects will be introduced in full force for next winter!
Praying mantises are good as well
love that you guys can show the "bad" days and the good and how to salvage when you've gotta scrap a crop to be ready for the next one. here's to a great next harvest
You’ll have to come for a feast again soon buddy!
@@Wilderstead this damn workahol is brutal
Thanks for the description of the aphid cycle. I had no idea. Hope it all works out 🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏽 Kale bone...🤣
She loves her kale bones! It seems to be working, only time will tell though! Thanks!
Once again, I watched this on my tv cuz seriously I only watch UA-cam and like to SEE what people have to show us in their videos…eg., aphids😉 then had to grab my phone to post a comment. Wish we were neighbors. All this hook up with tech is tooooo much🤦🏻♀️
Aphids are so small and yet mighty. Can take overs garden in a few days if we let them. I agree with all the steps you too to hopefully rid them from your greenhouse.
I have also heard that after using the dismat. earth it is wise to use Neem oil. Would love to hear your feedback.
Once again, another great video. Very informative!
Now, about Squash Vine Borers😬❓❓
We also watch a lot of UA-cam on the tv as well so we understand! Aphid are mighty aren’t they! We have used need oil in the past, it is pretty hard to get up here though. Thank you for the email and your continued support!
Neem oil works but it tastes disgusting
wow something else seeing how much your video production has improved. I love seeing you all get er done
Thanks 😊
Definitely ladybugs You can actually do a mail order for them. Good luck.
Always so happy when you post a video 👍 always full of great information.. BLESSINGS 💖
Thanks Carolyn 🙂
Great video guys. I picked up a few good tips. Thanks.
George, if this sent some tips your way, that’s enough for me. Thanks buddy!
Best to take action now, hope you get it all back and more with a vibrant unencumbered new crop !
Yes, we couldn’t take the risk!
SO sad to see all of those plants go! When we get aphids, we release ladybugs in our greenhouse.
Thank you for this educational video. I will be using DE in my garden routine.
It does indiscriminately kill almost all bugs, even the good ones, so be intentional with your use 🙂 at the point of use We only had aphids so we could use it so broadly.
Not sure about edible plants, but ornamentals: I've always used NEEM and/or permethrin (tetrametein, etc).
Good luck with those pesky aphids!
Thanks, we might need that luck!
There is a vinegar, water and dish soap spray you can use that is extremely good at getting rid of aphids. Diatomaceous earth is also a very good treatment for red mite on chickens.
Oh my the attack of the aphids. I was thinking about putting the seed starting soil in a micro wave for a few seconds to kill off anything in there. but I didn't so it freeze last winter in the 30 gallon garbage can so I am hoping that did the trick. Thanks for the safety tip it is hard on the lungs if breathing the dust.
Let us know!
Freezing definitely should. Something we do in the reptile and arthropod hobby is to deep freeze new features and substrate for 3 days to kill off anything. Winter is great, but in a pinch /summer; you can definitely make flats of the effected soil and freeze it. Often if they bloomed it’s because something is out of balance and preventative measures like ladybugs or diatomaceous earth will help 😸 happy planting!
Many if not all of the plants you are growing in the green house are very winter hardy.
I wonder if you could kill the aphids with cold, by dropping the temperature around the plants to near zero.
You could open the door to the green house or , move potted plants outside.
Just a thought.
Yep, that would work too. We needed immediate aphid control in order to get our other plants started for the summer growing season. Things are largely taken care of now.
Y’all make great content! Thanks for the inspiration and affirmations through actions 😸 are you able to order bulk sacs of ladybugs?
We’ll just be collecting them here and introducing them to the greenhouse over the summer and fall months. No shortage of them around the wilderstead.
I really do feel your pain! Aphids in our 4 season greenhouse, probably overwintered eggs as well. They moved from houseplants or cannabis seedlings into the vegetables. We have had good results from beneficial insects, but they are expensive and the postage is sketchy. I like your idea of using a seive for the DE! Clever! If you can stop using your greenhouse during the growing season and try to get it really really hot, that might exterminate aphids. That's what we are going to try. Great looking celery! That is something so worth growing, right?
Yes! The greenhouse basically gets shut down from late june until august, so that will be the time to cook em out! I suspect they'll move back in when we re stock it with plants next fall, though. We have plans for some beneficial insects and a more proactive approach for next season. Celery! Can't live without it!
Great video guys! I can't wait to see what kinds of pests we get in our greenhouse when we get it up and running.
If you build it, they will come 😅
Suck about ur lost there eh! Hope all goes well for you guys thanks for sharing
Just a little set back! Thanks!
I’m sad to see you resetting your greenhouse. 😢 In case you didn't know here are some options to at least fight better next time. 😉
Attract beneficial insects: Clover, mint, dill, fennel, and yarrow
Natural aphid repellents: Catnip, garlic, chives, onion, and allium
Aphid trap plants: Zinnias, dahlias, cosmos, asters, mustard and nasturtium
Thanks for the suggestions! Yes, we have a few tricks up our sleeves to manage them going forward.
@@Wilderstead Good luck getting rid of them for good this time. 🙂
And that won't hurt the plants?
The Diatomaceous Earth? No, just the bugs.
Will the chickens eat the aphids?
They will, yes.
Do healthier plants naturally repel aphids? Especially sugar levels?
A “healthier” plant would be able to put more resources to defence, but healthier plants with more sugar would also be more tempting to aphids. The kale was very healthy, and wasn’t showing any sign of negative effects of the aphids, but it was still a problem in terms of being a host for the aphids to grow their population numbers and cause spillover and spread to the seedlings.
@@Wilderstead Thank you. I'm preparing for a large greenhouse and want to build it in a way that can prevent pest as much as possible. Thanks for the reply!
You need ladybugs
Ladybugs will be part of our plan this year for sure!
Ladybugs eat aphids
No masks on my feed. Unsubbed
Well that’s too bad. You could have learned a little about using Diatomaceous Earth to prevent aphids from eating your food, without inhaling the dust...
Go spread Diatomaceous with out one and find out. You owe her an apology ass wipe.
@@Wilderstead imagine seeing the first 2 seconds of a wonderful wilderstead video packed with the best variety of home grown knowledge, seeing a dust mask and unsubbing. yall are the best, much love from echo bay
@@Wilderstead This stuff kills all kinds of bugs. I killed all the fleas in my house with one treatment of diatomaceous earth.
Well, @Wilderstead, I guess now you know which subscribers actually watched your video before leaving a comment! Cheers!