Fork-tailed Bush Katydid

This is a fork tailed bush katydid nymph. He's not fully grown, each katydid goes through a series of five molts, while developing into an adult. Each new nymph stage is known as an instar. I think this guy is probably in his third instar, of six. At full grown he'll look a lot like a grasshopper, with longer skinnier legs.

They normally prefer citrus flowers and fruits and have the ability to destroy citrus crops. I do have a grapefruit tree, but this hungry little guy is sitting on an apple leaf. He'll eat holes in the leaves, which could be damaging on such a young tree. Being young, this tree may not fruit this year, but if it did this little monster would be all over it. They attack the fruits while they can still get through the immature fruit skin. The fruit usually survives, but is left scarred.

I actually wouldn't mind him pruning the fruit off this tree this year so it concentrates on growing limbs, not fruit. In general, however, he's not welcome on the Gohn farm. There are organic approved pesticides available for controlling them, but I don't plan on spraying. Hopefully he'll make a nice meal for a bird, bat or toad and not feast on apple leaves all summer long.

Wild Plums

We've identified another species! This is one of many american plum trees growing wild on the farm. We could readily identify these trees both in summer and winter by their unique bark, but we didn't know what they were before now. Since Meredithe's Aunt Nancy, or "Auntcy", came to the farm last year we knew where these trees fell on the prune to the ground indiscriminately - allow to thrive spectrum. They were the latter, but we only knew them as "ones Tim liked", unlike privet, which is closer to the former.

There is one lone specimen down by the apple trees, but there are two large thickets of them up front and a small cluster of them by the front fence. We liked their beautiful bark and pretty white flowers in the spring, but knew little about them. While Tim was on the farm for the wedding he pointed them out as wild plum and I began to watch for the fruit.

Sure enough, wild plums! Meredithe tasted one and the juice was already slightly sweet, but the fruit isn't fully ripe until later this year. Hopefully the birds will save us some!

Agave

 

Above is our new agave plant at planting. We put it in the ground a few weeks ago, close to the arbor along the Western edge of the garden. It's at the top of a hill so you wouldn't think that too much water would be a concern, but there is a nearby depression that holds water longer than the rest of the hill. It worries me a little, but i'm hopeful that we won't have to move the plant. Below is a picture of the same agave a week later. You can see it concentrating its energy in the upper leaves and sacrificing the lower leaves. It probably lost roots during the transplant and is compensating by sacrificing leaves. Just the shock of transplant can sometimes be enough to kill otherwise healthy plants, but the healthy looking upper leaves are a good sign. Also pictured below are a couple "pups" we pulled off of the larger agave at planting. They are looking great!