nw baltimore wx Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 16 minutes ago, BlizzardNole said: Got a couple monarch caterpillars -- pretty good size already. I just read that they only take 9 - 14 days to become butterflies. Will he cocoon in your yard this summer? It would be pretty cool if you could document it. Now I want a butterfly garden. Just what I need. Another hobby! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WxUSAF Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 @BlizzardNole that’s awesome! What kind of milkweed is that? I’ve only seen 1 Monarch all year so far. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MN Transplant Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 Any guesses on what a-hole animal did this to my corn? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nw baltimore wx Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 1 hour ago, WxUSAF said: @BlizzardNole that’s awesome! What kind of milkweed is that? I’ve only seen 1 Monarch all year so far. I am at Lowe’s in Owings Mills getting a couple things and walked through the flowers to see if they have anything that attracts butterflies. I think I can safely say Lantana does. @MN Transplant That sucks. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlizzardNole Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 That is tropical milkweed. I usually buy seeds and start indoors and treat as annuals (I've never seen them in garden centers). They grow to 3-4 feet tall and bring in lots of monarch caterpillars, and other butterflies and hummingbirds love the nectar. They look best in clusters. Rabbits and deer will not touch it. I get lots of chrysalises from late July through mid-Sept, and find them hanging on fences, siding, tops of doorways, etc. They are like clock-work once they make the chrysalis, almost always hatching 10 days later. I usually bring chrysalises I find outside in so they can hatch safely. I've gotten good at getting them down -- I wait until they've hardened a little (couple days), and spray them with a little water, then carefully pull off with the webbing material they attach with. I also sometimes I'll bring in a dozen or so cats to let them make their chrysalises inside. Oh and lantana is a great butterfly attracting plant. Low maintenance and deer/rabbit proof. Here are some pics from last year: Just hatched on the deck: Bunch of chrysalises in an aquarium: Tropical milkweeds in a cluster: 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WxUSAF Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 There’s quite a bit of common milkweed near our house along paths and in open space. Haven’t seen any monarch caterpillars or chrysalises. Haven’t seen many butterflies period this year. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nw baltimore wx Posted July 20, 2020 Share Posted July 20, 2020 Long story, and not very interesting, but it does illustrate that I would not be a very good farmer. I've mentioned that I have a mystery squash plant, and actually, I think there may be two. It came up between my cucumber and crook neck squash so I figured I'd just let it grow and hope that it was pumpkins that I need for brewing (I think one of them is a pumpkin judging by the fruit, but the other one is the same size and shape of the pie pumpkin, but it's warted pretty good, and I think yellower, but that's not the point). Not surprisingly, all the squash is doing really well, and when any of the vines went into the other areas of the garden or tried to escape into the lawn, I just cut them back. They're so prolific that it really doesn't matter. Anyway, I've been wondering why my cucumber plant hasn't been producing. It's marked well with a cage, and though it's jungle mix of vines and leave, i knew where I planted it. Each day I'd brave the prickly squash vines and dig through trying to find some fruit for pickling ending up with nothing but a rash up and down my forearms. We've had a couple, but there should be more. Well, this morning I went out and the cucumber plant looks spent. The leaves are wilting and there's stunted fruit on the longer vines, and then near the ground, I saw a bunch giant orange fruit that didn't look right. They were six or seven giant cucumbers that I never saw and they must have been robbing the plant. So, we'll still be buying pickles but hopefully there will be six or seven pumpkins for brewing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FXW176 Posted July 20, 2020 Share Posted July 20, 2020 Good stuff @BlizzardNole. Impressed. Looks like a 4 or 5 instar on the first pic of this page. How long you been at this, if ya don’t mind? This is my license plate btw. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlizzardNole Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 11 hours ago, FXW176 said: Good stuff @BlizzardNole. Impressed. Looks like a 4 or 5 instar on the first pic of this page. How long you been at this, if ya don’t mind? I got a butterfly garden started about 12 years ago and have been raising monarchs every summer since then. I used to do the whole deal bringing in eggs and small cats, and raising them all the way. One year I must have raised more than 100. That can be a lot of work! The last few years I've been mostly letting them do their thing outdoors and bring healthy chrysalises I find in. I usually grab a few cats to bring inside. Butterflies are late this year. I finally have a couple tigers hanging around. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlizzardNole Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 11 hours ago, FXW176 said: Good stuff @BlizzardNole. Impressed. Looks like a 4 or 5 instar on the first pic of this page. How long you been at this, if ya don’t mind? I got a butterfly garden started about 12 years ago and have been raising monarchs every summer since then. I used to do the whole deal bringing in eggs and small cats, and raising them all the way. One year I must have raised more than 100. That can be a lot of work! The last few years I've been mostly letting them do their thing outdoors and bring healthy chrysalises I find in. I usually grab a few cats to bring inside. Butterflies are late this year. I finally have a couple tigers hanging around. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MN Transplant Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 5 hours ago, BlizzardNole said: I got a butterfly garden started about 12 years ago and have been raising monarchs every summer since then. I used to do the whole deal bringing in eggs and small cats, and raising them all the way. One year I must have raised more than 100. That can be a lot of work! The last few years I've been mostly letting them do their thing outdoors and bring healthy chrysalises I find in. I usually grab a few cats to bring inside. Butterflies are late this year. I finally have a couple tigers hanging around. Yes. I don't know what it is, but the fireflies were late and the butterflies were late. Very odd. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FXW176 Posted July 22, 2020 Share Posted July 22, 2020 Ty, @BlizzardNole. That’s awesome. Apprec. I'm going into year four with this hobby and having a blast. Raised and released sixty five monarchs last year. And one black swallow. (Midlife crisis ftw.) Been a strange season so far like others have echoed. Lightning bugs were way late, and few, compared to previous. Only seen three yellow swallows in the wild and no black swallows except for the ones that over wintered on my porch. Way fun to go from Aug of last year to this Spring and have twenty of ‘em emerge. Still haven’t seen a monarch this season as well. But did find these four cats today on my milkweed. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlizzardNole Posted July 22, 2020 Share Posted July 22, 2020 Very nice! The lack of butterflies is really weird this year; hopefully we'll see more soon. Next year I want to add some plants to try to get black swallows. I am glad that my hummingbirds are always reliable, arriving end of April and staying until September. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WxUSAF Posted July 26, 2020 Share Posted July 26, 2020 We’ve got 2 monarch caterpillars on our butterfly weed! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mappy Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 I saw a monarch out in the garden over the weekend, was going to town on our Mexican sunflowers 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nw baltimore wx Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 Oh, summer... 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eskimo Joe Posted July 28, 2020 Author Share Posted July 28, 2020 What varieties of tomatoes are those? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nw baltimore wx Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 7 minutes ago, Eskimo Joe said: What varieties of tomatoes are those? The reddest one is Better Boy and the off colored is Mr. Stripey. The Mr. Stripey is like candy. So sweet and juicy. I pick them on the early side because if they are on the vine too long, they can crack and bugs go at them. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LP08 Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 On 6/12/2020 at 1:04 PM, LP08 said: First time I’ve put pumpkins (or a garden for that matter). They’ll probably be ripe by August hah. Grow pumpkins they said.... 1 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nw baltimore wx Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 Pumpkins remind me of that scene in a Christmas Story when Ralphie’s dad says, “Careful, now. They run all over.” 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FXW176 Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 On 7/26/2020 at 7:17 PM, WxUSAF said: We’ve got 2 monarch caterpillars on our butterfly weed! On 7/27/2020 at 8:31 AM, mappy said: I saw a monarch out in the garden over the weekend, was going to town on our Mexican sunflowers Four in chrys, with another four cats frassing like crazy on the porch right now. Still haven’t seen an adult yet, lol. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mappy Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 1 hour ago, FXW176 said: Four in chrys, with another four cats frassing like crazy on the porch right now. Still haven’t seen an adult yet, lol. i am almost positive it was one. mr map questioned me if it was one of those impostor butterflies, but pretty sure it was a monarch. haven't seen any caterpillars 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FXW176 Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 1 hour ago, mappy said: i am almost positive it was one. mr map questioned me if it was one of those impostor butterflies, but pretty sure it was a monarch. haven't seen any caterpillars That’s awesome. Thought I saw one the other day while watching through the kitchen window in front of my functioning dishwasher. Alas, it was only a swallowtail. But my dishes were washed! 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mappy Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 14 hours ago, FXW176 said: That’s awesome. Thought I saw one the other day while watching through the kitchen window in front of my functioning dishwasher. Alas, it was only a swallowtail. But my dishes were washed! thats some shade against waterboy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poolz1 Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 After a prolific crop of zucchini and yellow squash so far this season I had to pull all of them out of the ground yesterday. I thought the few yellowing leaves were just a sign of the heat and entering the latter part of summer. Then they really started going downhill....after a close inspection I found vine borers had already done too much damage to try to salvage the plants. Not too bent out of shape about it but it does frustrate me that I didnt pick up on it earlier. The family is pretty sick of squash by now but I hate losing plants like that.....its always something. On a side note...we are not big fried food people but I did make some fried zucchini sat evening. Turned out great but the show was stolen when I threw in some of the refrigerator pickles that I made about a week ago. Some ranch dipping sauce and a ripe IPA...that was dinner! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dailylurker Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 1 minute ago, poolz1 said: After a prolific crop of zucchini and yellow squash so far this season I had to pull all of them out of the ground yesterday. I thought the few yellowing leaves were just a sign of the heat and entering the latter part of summer. Then they really started going downhill....after a close inspection I found vine borers had already done too much damage to try to salvage the plants. Not too bent out of shape about it but it does frustrate me that I didnt pick up on it earlier. The family is pretty sick of squash by now but I hate losing plants like that.....its always something. On a side note...we are not big fried food people but I did make some fried zucchini sat evening. Turned out great but the show was stolen when I threw in some of the refrigerator pickles that I made about a week ago. Some ranch dipping sauce and a ripe IPA...that was dinner! Totally normal. I plant a second crop around July 4th. Old plants are done but new ones are looking great. I'll start picking that batch in a couple weeks. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poolz1 Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 6 minutes ago, dailylurker said: Totally normal. I plant a second crop around July 4th. Old plants are done but new ones are looking great. I'll start picking that batch in a couple weeks. I started a new crop 2 weeks ago and they are sprouting...Im a little behind. I was really trying to see how long I could keep them producing by picking regularly and pruning here and there. Have you ever tried a second cucumber crop? I planted a few when I started the squash but dont know if I am wasting my time or not with them. Never tried a second round of cukes.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dailylurker Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 6 minutes ago, poolz1 said: I started a new crop 2 weeks ago and they are sprouting...Im a little behind. I was really trying to see how long I could keep them producing by picking regularly and pruning here and there. Have you ever tried a second cucumber crop? I planted a few when I started the squash but dont know if I am wasting my time or not with them. Never tried a second round of cukes.... Yup. A second cucumber crop is doable. I start it around July 4th also. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mappy Posted August 2, 2020 Share Posted August 2, 2020 Lot of butterflies in the garden today; two monarchs, three tiger swallowtails, at least one black swallowtail and lots of skippers 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlizzardNole Posted August 2, 2020 Share Posted August 2, 2020 Butterflies have shown up big time. Lots of tigers especially. It's funny how they seem to show up at once. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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