How to handle garden pests and problems

Linda Young

Lots of people are experiencing garden problems this time of year. My husband and I were having breakfast in Billie’s one morning recently, and when Gloria seated us, she asked me about some small white bugs or bumps she had seen on her purple-leaf sandcherry. She said she had been able to blast them off with water and that so far they had not returned. That is exactly what I would have recommended: start with something simple that does not involve chemicals. What organic gardeners tell us is that when you have “bad” bugs, the “good” bugs are not usually far behind.
    After breakfast we went by the Zion Community Gardens so I could pick up my Brighton Shares The Harvest posters from our Garden Dedication ceremony the day before. Fellow Brighton Bloomin’ Buddies Garden Club member, Carole, was working in her plot, which I was admiring, and I asked her how it was all doing. She said this was her first garden, which I found hard to believe, but that everything was looking good except for the tomatoes, which had curling leaves. She had called the Colorado State Master Gardeners and they suggested it might be damage from some  herbicide being applied in the area (but not in her garden plot) recently. When it comes to diagnosing plant problems, the Master Gardeners are an excellent resource. They are trained to research the problem in materials provided by CSU, they have a great deal of reference material, and a horticulturist on staff. You can call them on 303-637-8100 or check out the CSU Extension website at www.ext.colostate.edu/. You can also check with our local nurseries; they might suggest you bring in a sample of the part of the plant that is having a problem.
    Later that same morning, I was in Tiara printing and Glenda asked me about removing bindweed from her vegetable garden area. I told her the first thing she wanted to do was lower her expectations from eradicating it to controlling it. Give the area a good soaking with water, then hold the bindweed near the root and pull slowly, trying to slide as much of the root out of the ground as possible. When the root snaps off, it just merrily re-grows. Advice I got from a county weed control supervisor is to let bindweed grow several inches long before you pull it, as that puts more strain on the root system and makes it weaker.
    Chemical control for most weeds, including bindweed, a product like Round-Up®, can be dangerous in your garden because it will kill everything it touches. If the bindweed is long enough, wind it up and clip it with a clothespin before spraying, so you’re only spraying one small area. The chemical is taken up by the leaves and basically causes the plant to starve. You don’t need to spray every leaf to kill a patch of bindweed, so wrapping it up and spraying it in the center, to ensure you’re not spraying nearby plants, should work.  Follow all instructions before using any herbicide, don’t spray in the wind, and remember that on hot days the chemical can drift upwards, so use caution if spraying weeds under a tree or shrub.  
    My Stella cherry tree has billions of tiny black bugs at the tips of the branches, where the new growth is, or was, most tender. Now it’s all curled up and gnarly. I’ve been blasting the branch tips with a sharp stream of water for the past week or so and it does seem to have slowed them down. I saw this problem reported by another gardener through a Denver Urban Gardens email distribution, and the response was, again, to start with a nonchemical approach. Good bugs, I hope you’re not far behind.