After 3 years of impressive growth, I’m very happy with my Borealis and Cinderella haskap (honeyberry) bushes. The shrubs are now 4 feet tall and wide, and will likely grow another foot or so. This year I was able to harvest about 3 litres of fruit, most of which I spread out on cookie sheets to freeze. I have made a few mini-tarts and we have also enjoyed them fresh with ice cream and mixed into pancake batter.
It’s a good idea to protect young plants in the winter with wire cages as hungry rabbits go after the stems. Another critter that loves the shrubs this summer is the Wee Harlequin Bug, aka Twice-stabbed Stink Bug.
When picking berries, I ended up with bugs in my hands and noticed that many berries were soft, indicating the bugs had been sucking out the juice. I have also been finding Wee Harlequin Bugs (see photo above) on many flowers, often breeding back to back. Apparently they love seeds but from what I have observed, it seems that they cause damage to developing flowers, which then dry up very quickly.
A while ago, I found eggs on my tomato stems – they are yellow, hard and in neat rows. On some of the developing flowers, I found tiny larvae in search of food and again, the flowers have already dried up. Some of my ripening tomatoes have a yellow, soft patch, more evidence of Wee Harlequin Bugs sucking juice.
So what can we do? When I catch a few bugs while doing watering or other garden care, I place them on a hard surface and squish them with my shoe. I have also gone out with a bucket of soapy water and tried to collect them en masse. (One of my organic gardening students took the shop vac to suck them off the raspberry bushes – pretty creative).
According to online info (see Rob Sproule’s article), the bugs will try to overwinter under leaf litter and mulch. As a strong advocate of mulching (since it does wonders in drought years and to feed the soil!), I’m not sure that I will have the heart to “remove plant litter” from my entire yard. It’s likely a good idea to dispose of any heavily infested plants and cut off seed heads that are not being saved.
When picking berries, I ended up with bugs in my hands and noticed that many berries were soft, indicating the bugs had been sucking out the juice. I have also been finding Wee Harlequin Bugs (see photo above) on many flowers, often breeding back to back. Apparently they love seeds but from what I have observed, it seems that they cause damage to developing flowers, which then dry up very quickly.
A while ago, I found eggs on my tomato stems – they are yellow, hard and in neat rows. On some of the developing flowers, I found tiny larvae in search of food and again, the flowers have already dried up. Some of my ripening tomatoes have a yellow, soft patch, more evidence of Wee Harlequin Bugs sucking juice.
So what can we do? When I catch a few bugs while doing watering or other garden care, I place them on a hard surface and squish them with my shoe. I have also gone out with a bucket of soapy water and tried to collect them en masse. (One of my organic gardening students took the shop vac to suck them off the raspberry bushes – pretty creative).
According to online info (see Rob Sproule’s article), the bugs will try to overwinter under leaf litter and mulch. As a strong advocate of mulching (since it does wonders in drought years and to feed the soil!), I’m not sure that I will have the heart to “remove plant litter” from my entire yard. It’s likely a good idea to dispose of any heavily infested plants and cut off seed heads that are not being saved.
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