I went out to plant the new berries and discovered a crew of small beetles on the pear tree. I confirmed they are Japanese beetles, known devourers and destroyers of many manner of crops, and that they’re responsible for the leaf damage I’ve witnessed so far.

The beetles have been munching the pear tree, the apricot tree, but not so much the peach tree. Oddly the plants they’re eating are the ones that I used a little bit of liquid nutrients on.

Bath in soapy water

A few quick internet searches later and I had a bucket of soapy water and seven beetles immersed. The rest were too fast for me to catch.

Diatomaceous earth

A few more internet searches later, a drive to the local nursery and back, and I had a bag of diatomaceous earth, which is a fine silica powder known to kill insects on prolonged contact, because the fine silica gets into their system and damages their bodies. Yet another search later I figured out to apply the powder to the tree with an empty seasoning bottle. I got lots of powder all over the place, not so gracefully, but the beetles did not like it at all and packed up for the morning.

June beetle sighting

As I was fending off the small beetles, a large June beetle buzzed onto the scene, much larger than a bumblebee, and far louder. I think the grub carapaces I had found throughout the garden were June beetles molting. I don’t know why the June beetle(s) decided to show up at that moment, but one decided to land nearby, and tried crawling into the dried grass. Not wanting more pests ruining the crops, I snuffed it out with my shoe.

Berries in the ground

With the beetles warded off temporarily, I toiled in the hot sun to put the remaining plants in the earth, and mulched with grass clippings and store-bought mulch. The mulch purchase left me with large plastic bags. I’ll save them for now — maybe I can make earth-bags out of them.

Defensive planting — marigolds

I was unable to find more rue or tansy at the local nursery (out of season) so I settled for marigolds, which I planted around the pear tree, hoping to deter the beetles from coming back to finish what they started. I realized that the other berries also lack companion plants. I will need to find a solution.

Supports for tomatoes

The tomatoes have been coming along great ever since I put in the watering system. They need a lot of support, so I’ve put up some string for them to lean on. I think however that it may be not be enough — I’ll have to add extra stakes inbetween, but it’s a little late for that because if I put a stake in next to a tomato, I’m afraid I’ll damage their roots.

I also went around and trimmed the tomatoes, cutting back growth near the ground to promote better air circulation, and growth which overlapped itself or was not growing up.

No more liquid plant food

On a few occasions I used a few drops of liquid plant food in my watering cans (before the watering system) and I’ve noticed now that those plants which received the “nutrients” have brown spots and look unwell. In general they seem to be struggling, whereas the other plants that just got nutrients from compost look healthy. It seems counter-intuitive but a few other blogs also confirm that liquid nutrients make plants vulnerable to disease. I’m not sure why, but to stay organic, I’m now self-banning any liquid nutrients.