Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Drosophila suzukii

The spotted wing fruit fly on sweet million cherry tomatoes. This is a new  invading species of fruit fly. They harm ripening fruit by injecting their eggs into the fruit.    I learned of these on the news last summer and found them on a brown turkey fig tree one week later while gleaning fruit. I collected figs flies and leaves and sent them to OSU. It turn out it was the first documented time this fly was documented on a fig!
, commonly called the spotted-wing drosophila, is a vinegar fly—closely related toDrosophila melanogaster (the common vinegar fly). Native to southeast Asia, D. suzukii was first described in 1931 by Matsumura. Observed in Japan as early as 1916 by T. Kanzawa,[1] D. suzukii was widely observed throughout parts of Japan, Korea, and China by the early 1930s[1]. By the 1980s, the "fruit fly" with the spotted wings was seen in Hawaii. It first appeared in North America in central California in August 2008[2] and is now widespread throughout California's coastal counties[3], western Oregon, western Washington,[2], and parts of Florida.[4]

D. suzukii is a fruit crop pest and is a serious economic threat to soft summer fruit; i.e., cherries, blueberries, raspberries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, grapes, and others[2].


From wikipedis. 
Drosophila suzukii

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Thornless blackberries

Thornless Chesterberry

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Figs 2010

My 2010 harvest. We usually eat them cut in half skewered on Rosemary with a piece of aged white sharp on top wrapped in Prosciutto grilled till melted and slightly toasted.

Or similar mix of ingredients on a thin pizza (olive oil not tomato sauce) grilled or baked in a 500 f oven.

Top row:
Stella
Middle row:
Nigrone, Desert King
Bottom row:
Desert king, white Marseilles (extremely ripe)



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Descriptions from the web.


Stella™

Following a friend's advice, one green world found this wonderful new fig in a Southeast Portland neighborhood. Stella was brought here many years ago by an Italian sailor and is now cultivated and prized by his wife. Stella™ caught our attention with its large size, sweet, striking, purplish-red flesh, and its ability to ripen in our cooler climate

NEGRONNE [bordeaux / petite negri /violette de bordeaux] - This fairly hardy cultivar produces large, almost black fruit with very deep red pulp. The flavor is rich and agreeable. Breba fruit are pyriform with thick, tapering necks while the main crop fruit are spherical or pyriform to obobate often without necks. The eye is medium sized. Excellent fresh or dried but probably needs heat to develop the best flavor. The leaf has a truncate to subcordate base with the middle lobe being spatulate and the others latate. Well adapted to the South and Southwest. This dwarf and prolific cultivar is reported to be originally from Spain and is very cold hardy. It is also considered by some to be the very best tasting fig around.


Desert King
One of the best varieties for the Northwest, Desert King withstands fruit damaging, late spring frosts better than any other fig we grow. Desert King is very productive and reliable, producing abundant, yellowish-green figs with sweet and richly flavorful, strawberry colored flesh. Because it ripens in mid-summer, Desert King is a great variety for gardeners in coastal, high elevation, and other cool regions.
3100



MARSEILLES [lemon / lattarula / white marseille / blanche] - A fairly hardy, large, lemon colored, thin skinned fig with tender, white to light amber flesh. They are very sweet and have a high sugar content. An old, reliable variety, this fig is excellent in all respects and a favorite of those who grow it. Produces a small breba crop. The fruit are turbinate with or without short necks. They have very small but open eyes and will sour or split if watered too much while ripe. The leaf has a subcordate base, 3 to 5 lobes and a crenate margin. This slow growing, dense tree is well adapted to the South.



Saturday, August 14, 2010

Figs 2010

Top row: Stella
Second row: Nigrone, desert king
Third row: desert king, white marseil



Saturday, July 31, 2010

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Lettuce etc

Mixed bed of lettuce and interplanted arugula.
Speckled Lettuce. P0
Cos or paris island romane. F1
Raddishes grown from home grown seed. F1

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Monday, May 17, 2010

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Egyptian Walking Onions







Allium cepa var. proliferum



I love taking pictures of the onions with their crazy shapes and beautiful color! I could not resist the morning light and dew.....

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Monday, May 10, 2010

Cos Romane Lettuce

These are seedlings from home grown seed broadcast on to the onion bed
in February. There are over a thousand most will be consumed as baby
greens. These are being potted up to plant around the garden or
freinds and familys gardens.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Starts

Saturday, March 20, 2010