Man, those plants reached epic heights. I love the way the plants are competing with the tree canopy above for sunlight. It is surreal to see those plants towering above the farmer. Those monsters are easily twelve feet tall, and their trunks are built to take the weight of that buddage.
Hey everyone,I'm CC,I'm a late 50's MA outdoor dude who's been at it since 19yrs old.You guys seem to know what's up,concerning g.hogs,here's what I do,grab a lb. or so of Habanero peppers,half them,boil in a gallon of water,wear gloves and take outside to let cool(vapors are nasty),when cooled mash them through a strainer back into the pot,discard,pour pot liquid through a strainer,you canadd another 1/2 gal to gal of water to make a gal and a half,wear gloves for all this process.Pour finished liquid into a spray bottle and spray plants weekly or as needed.Result,nothing touches or FKs w/ your plants,also you can add gentle soap(I use Murphy's hand soap no phosphate w/lemon verbena)and spray at dusk for insect repellent preventively also.If I see bugs I'll add pyrethrine once during late summer,1-2 wks into flower I add BT to my soap/pepper mix and no bud worms.I took these pics yesterday of an ECSD in my new bed that was attacked hard by a groud hog 4-5 weeks ago and I wrapped another cage around it but neglected to do any defoliation on the plant and left it to neglect until yesterday when I was doing work in that area.
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this is how the progression of the leaf spot looks when it's neglected in my swampy plots.
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once it gets on the tiny bud leaves the rot spreads to the inside and then in 7-10 days I see 2-3 day rain spell where the plants never dry and it's game over.
gotta remove the dead tissue as soon as you see it the spores are there and the rain spreads them.
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the tops still look ok but it starts out invisible and I suspect they will fail shortly.
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I have a couple others that I kept up with near this plant and they are still looking decent...