Explosions

There's pressure built up from the heat and dryness, and it's released with a good, blessed, drenching rain. It's been nice the last few days.

Color Explosion!

The rain has caused the Texas Rangers (Leucophyllum frutescens) to explode in color. Look at the blossoms littering the ground below the shrub! They look like this all over the city. I've had these shrubs at the last two places I've lived, and they're beautiful and really well suited to the climate here.

The other explosion that's been happening in the garden is the dreaded Silverleaf Whitefly. They started showing up around mid to late May, and now they're really thick on the squashes, collards, kale, and to a lesser extent, the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. These are some of the toughest pests to deal with.

How do you know you have them?

1) The veins on your squash plants take on a silvery color, which soon takes over the leaves. Stems also become lighter, eventually becoming almost white. This is the signature of silverleaf whiteflies.

Severe Silverleaf Whitefly Damage On Squash Plant

2) When you brush the leaves of your plants, a cloud of white insects flutters around

3) Inspection of the underside of leaves shows the larval stage. These guys are immobile, and are the ones that cause the real damage by sucking plant juices and excreting the silvering toxin.

Whitefly larva on underside of eggplant leaf

Zoom In Showing Whitefly (Bottom Right Center) And Larvae

I've been exploring ways to control them - lately, I've been using a mix of pyrethrins and neem oil, coupled in with some liquid seaweed extract for the health of the plants. This is an organic approach, and requires spraying frequently - weekly, even - but I haven't been able to keep up lately. I read recently that sprays of mild dish soap and water are effective. I've been exploring systemics (oh, no - the dreaded word for organic gardeners!) but I'm not sure I want to go there yet. Yellow insect traps (whiteflies love yellow) are another option. I'm also thinking about just letting the garden go dormant for the summer, maybe Mid May - Late August. Any thoughts out there?