today wandering around checking things out in a
spot i hadn't looked for a few days previous i
noticed that the japanse beetles had finally
found the soybeans. they usually are flying
around here or there, but not so many as to
cause a lot of damage. previous years they were
more often on the grapes and other soybeans but
this year i'm not growing any "normal" soybeans
and instead am growing the edamame type.

this was different. for some reason they really
like the edamame soybeans i planted and they were
doing at least two of the four effs. i picked
eight of them off the plants and squished them
on a stepping stone and left them in the sun to
dry and hopefully get eaten by the birds.

whoever posted the idea about freezing them and
putting them in the birdfeeders, well that was an
excellent idea, but if you don't have birdfeeders
you can still leave them in a conspicuous place
where the birds can find them and hope for the
best.

so as a magnet crop (attract the bugs away from
the other surrounding plants where you can pick
them off) edamame soybeans sure look to be good.
all the surrounding bean plants had minimal damage
(probably most of it from grasshoppers) and the
soybeans were getting chewed up.

ok, but back to the subject line. the person
who posted a while ago asking if they were breeding
smarter japanese beetles by getting those that
didn't fly away. here if i get out in the morning
early enough they are not very active and can be
picked easily. a little while later after it warms
up they fly away a lot easier. so for best results
in hand picking get them early.

in other news, all the garlic is in, nice harvest
(probably around 20lbs) and my experiments with
different soils/methods are going to be useful for
continuing. will have to write that up some other
time. everbearing strawberries on their second
crop. cherry tomatoes just starting to ripen,
other tomatoes usually a few weeks later. peppers,
squash, cucumbers all coming along and doing well.

ok, back to work, gotta check the beans today.
inch of rain last night, nice day, gotta get a
second coat of varnish on the clothes rack.

peace,


songbird