Butterfly Weed growing in strange form!
kingofthemonarchs
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saving butterfly weed seed
Comments (4)Once the pods splits, the seeds will be ready to harvest. You'll have to keep checking them. I've found Asclepias tuberosa to be the easiest to harvest. The other varieties of Asclepias split and start falling and flying very quickly, while the tuberosa I can usually get a day or two later, still intact (but split). If you don't manage to harvest any, I could give you plenty! They're also a good candidate for Winter Sowing; the varieties I've winter sown had very high germination (A. incarnata, syriaca, tuberosa, curassavica)....See Moretomato leaves growing strange
Comments (16)"Thanks everyone and yes I sprayed my yard for weeds thought I was careful enough but must have got some on them they seem healthy still." The damage on the plants in the pictures looks to me like the effects of 2,4-D herbicide commonly found in products like Weed-B-Gone and Weed-Stop lawn herbicides. It's a broadleaf herbicide to which tomatoes are very sensitive. Also, in certain types of weather, particularly hot and humid conditions, 2,4-D can become "aerosol-ized" (I don't know the actual technical name for this phenomenon) and drift a considerable distance even in a slight or imperceptible breeze. 2,4-D disrupts normal cell division and orderly tissue growth, and the plant kind of grows itself to death. If your tomato plants survive, it means the dosage was miniscule and the newer growth will eventually stabilize and grow out of the damaged lower parts of the plant. When applying 2,4-D as spray, follow the label directions carefully, avoid spraying in the middle of hot sunny days, always cease or avoid spraying when wind speed exceeds 2 - 5 mph (I believe is the recommendation), etc. When spraying lawn herbicides, I add a few drops of dish detergent as a surfactant (sticker) and spray very early in the morning when there is dew on the grass blades. Hold the wand close to the ground, set the nozzle so the mist is not super fine and the droplets, while still tiny, have just a bit of weight, and selectively spray target vegetation. An effective method to avoid herbicide drift is to apply a "weed and feed" product where the 2,4D is mixed in granulated form with the fertilizer. This should be applied as a post emergent on actively growing target weeds, again in the morning is a good time when the dew helps the product stick to the weeds. I don't know what particular weeds were your target. 2,4-D does not kill crabgrass, for example, only broadleaf weeds. And when you get close to tomato plants, you might want to switch to a manual means of weed removal or try this technique for clumped weeds like dandelions, wild violets, etc.: Take a 3-foot length of 3/4 or 1-inch dia. PVC, duct tape a piece of sponge to one end and securely bind the taped area with twine, partially fill the tube with Roundup and cork the other end, walk around the yard and just dab the target weeds. For more noxious pests like Taz, extermination seems too brutal but isolation is an option....See MoreHow Do I Control Orange Aphids on Tropical Butterfly Weed
Comments (7)Ralph, This is going to sound strange, but, the first chance you get, walk around the plants in the daylight, a little away from them too. Check the ground all around them and see if you can find any ant nests. I'll make you a bet, you will find ant nests, and if you do, go buy some Amdro ant killer and feed it to the ant hills or nests only. Wherever there are alot of alphids, there are ants behind in somewhere. LOL It will cut down your infestation considerably. Just go see outside, it works....See MoreCompanion for Butterfly Weed?
Comments (17)Peren.all, LOVE that photo! I enjoy grasses and have a few Pennisetums in my bed and some Carex buchananii. I know when I first started gardening with perennials, I wanted to have a meadow effect at one point, but I really don’t have enough room to do that. I like the style of Piet Oudolf who designed the Lurie Garden in New York. A similar style. I think that’s Amsonia on the far left in your photo and I’ve stuck with the ‘Blue Ice’ because that variety you grow is a little too large for my bed. What is the low yellow grower in front of the Butterfly weed? Very nice composition. I think you have the balance between a ‘natural’ look and an organized bed, just right. That’s funny, I have a grouping of 3 Pennisetum with Gaura, Nepeta Walker’s Low and Perovskias in one corner of my full sun bed, with Cranesbill along the edge. [g]. I just don’t have the Butterfly Weed in that bed, because I have pinks and I don’t like them together. I have BW in another bed that I’m hoping to rearrange and add to in the fall. I love Agastaches, Salvias and Penstemons. I would love a whole bed of them, but I’ve tried a lot of them over the years and a lot of them are still not hardy here in z6b, and I have heavy soil. They grow for me, but not vigorously and I usually lose them over the winter. There are a few varieties that I’ve kept going. I do like ‘Caradonna’ and I plan on adding that for sure. My geraniums have been fried in the heat, as well as Heucheras. You’ve had higher temps in Canada then I have had here. I’m counting my lucky stars that so far the heat has been tolerable. A few bad days close to 100, but high 80s, low 90s most of the time. We’ve had relief often enough to get through it. Monday night we had about a 1/2 inch of rain in the night and it cooled down with lower humidity. It was a high of 78 on my back porch all of yesterday and later in the afternoon it dropped to 68. Wow. We had the house fan on last night. But, it is July, so I’m sure we still have plenty of heat to come. But I would have thought you would be cooler in Canada. Such strange weather....See MoreNHBabs z4b-5a NH
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