Garden Detective: Saving pumpkin seeds
DEAR JESSICA: I finally had success growing a pumpkin in my garden. I would like to collect the seeds and try to grow them next year. What is the best way to store them for planting next spring? -- Tim Ryan, Holbrook
DEAR TIM: Pumpkin growers each have their own preferred methods, but to get you the best possible answer, I went straight to the king: Billy King of Mastic Beach, who won my Great Long Island Tomato Challenge in 2010 with a 2-pound, 9-ounce "The Dom" tomato, and also is a competitive pumpkin grower. This year he came in second at the Bethpage County Fair with a 712-pound beauty.
Here's how he saves and stores his seeds: "Cut the pumpkin in half and pull the seeds from the pulp. Yes, the seeds will be slimy," King says. "Put the seeds in a bucket, and when you have collected all the seeds, add a gallon or two of water and a capful of bleach to the bucket. Soak for a few minutes, rinse with clean water and then put the seeds on a window screen or newspaper. Set up a fan to help dry them for three weeks. There should be clear membrane that flakes off when they're ready."
King stores his dried seeds in a Mason jar, labeled with the year and weight of the pumpkin they came from.
DEAR JESSICA: Can you explain why multiple spring-blooming trees, like Bradford pear and crabapple, flowered in September? Did Tropical Storm Irene cause this? -- Rick Guterwill, Sayville
DEAR RICK: Sometimes flowering trees get confused. They bloom on old wood, meaning they produce buds during summer that bloom the following spring. If the weather gets chilly and then warm again in autumn, those buds may bloom because the tree "thinks" winter has come and gone and now it's spring. The downside is, unfortunately, this means fewer blooms when spring actually arrives because the buds have already been spent.
I don't really think Irene had anything to do with it, because Irene didn't bring hurricane-strength winds to Long Island and also because you say multiple trees were affected. But there is such a thing as "hurricane stress," which occurs when a tree is traumatized and thrust into survival mode, during which it produces flowers and seeds to replace itself, sort of like a last hurrah for posterity.
DEAR JESSICA: I have an ant problem. My entire lawn is infested. What can I do to get rid of them? -- Jeff Benedict, Franklin Square
DEAR JEFF: Ants in the grass will not go away on their own. They live in colonies and, like bees, have a class system that includes foraging workers and a queen. The workers make a nest for the queen to live in, and there she lays eggs. Queens can live as long as 15 to 20 years and, over that time, can produce many thousands of offspring.
The good news is that ants typically don't destroy or even harm lawns. You might see little ant hills here and there, but there's no underlying damage to worry about. In fact, ants prey upon some harmful pests, so they might even be considered beneficial in the garden.
Still, if you want to eradicate them, you'll have to do a little detective work to find the queen. Once she's dead, the whole colony will fall apart. Study the ants and you'll see they march in single file, returning to the nest with food for the queen and her offspring. A pesticide labeled for use on home lawns applied to ant hills and the entry to the nest usually is effective. Severe infestations might require application to the entire lawn, but you should weigh the benefit to your lawn against undesired pesticide exposure before doing so.
If you decide to go that route, follow package directions very carefully and water the lawn thoroughly after applying. Also, be sure to heed label warnings and keep children and pets off the lawn for at least a week.
