July 24, 1998
Harvesting and Storing Vine Crops
The proper time to harvest some vegetable crops is fairly easy to determine. Tomatoes turn red when ripe. Onions are harvested when the tops fall over and begin to dry. While some vegetables exhibit clear signs, the proper time to harvest other crops may require a little more knowledge and experience. Guidelines for harvesting and storing various vine crops are presented below.
It's Weevil Time Again in 1998
As usual, the imported longhorned weevil and the strawberry root weevil (little insects with long names) are appearing on and in houses as a post-Independence Day surprise. These are the weevils that are often mistakenly described as "ticks crawling on the walls." Upon closer examination they can be readily discerned as insects by the presence of 6 legs and a pair of "elbowed" antennae at the front end.
Yellows Disease of Purple Coneflower
A healthy coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) shows purple ray flowers on a cone-shaped head. Infected with the yellows organism, these flowers turn into distorted, green leaflike structures. Infected plants are usually stunted, often with yellow or reddish leaves.