Goop on my fruit trees to stop aphids. Updating the ballot measure on hunting mountain lions. The AW ban is dead, for now.

Keeping the aphids out of fruit trees

I am not sure if you're aware, but ants raise aphids like livestock.  It's a symbiotic relationship where the ants protect the aphids from predators like ladybugs and they move them around on the plant in exchange for the sweet, sweet excretions the aphids make and put out of their rears.  A little quickie YouTube video is linked at bottom if you wanted some more (quick) context.  

The problem for someone like me is that these aphids can really sap the vigor of fruit trees, trees I'd really like to be putting their time and energy into a big fruit crop.  They (the aphids) just love to congregate on the brand new, tender leaves as they emerge.  I've seen the entire underside of leaves covered with them!

I only have a few trees and my philosophy is probably best categorized as organic(ish).  I like  to try low cost and chemical free if I can, but I'm not averse to bringing in the chemical sledgehammer if need be.  

I've found that I can manage the aphid problem pretty decently with a combination of tree goop and diatomaceous earth (that is, until the ladybug population catches up).

The ants don't live in the tree, so sometime in early to mid spring I'll get out and put a band of goop (some people use Vaseline, I use a special, purpose made sticky something or other) around the tree trunk close to the ground.  I also make sure that nothing is near enough to touch the tree, say a branch which touches a fence providing an alternate path for the ants.

The goop on my apricot is what you see in the attached photo.    

This goop keeps the ants from going up and down in the tree and so any aphids that make it to the leaves (aphids can fly) are vulnerable to predators.  As I see aphids, I'll hit them with the fossil flour until I start to see ladybugs and/or get tired.  At that point, I let the ladybugs finish my light work and deal with the aphids.

It's worked well so far and kept me from buying expensive chemical and having to spray (a luxury I have with only a few trees).  If you have fruit trees and haven't tried, I'd recommend it.  You might have to come out and reapply every so often depending on the weather and what you use, but it's not any more work than repeated sprays.  

Plus at the end of the season you get to pull down a paper band of stick goo covered with a fur of dead ants. 

Related (and weird):

I have a friend who plants out tons of sweet corn and always shares, but I like to plant some out so I can go straight from plant to plate.  Nothing like it.

I also like to start mine indoors so I get the corn a little early in the season.  This year's effort was more successful than last year's (where I had seed that was too old -- I got the dregs from the store because I got there late), but I still had 2 out of 10 seeds not germinate in my seed trays.

When it came time to pot them up, I, of course, broke apart the soil in the cells that didn't germinate so I could see and one of the two is what you see in the photo attached.  

To help you orient yourself, the right hand side of the picture is the root and that would be the direction pointing down (that is, this is left side up).  

Clearly the growing stem got kind of lost and the plant tied itself into a knot!  Never seen this before, but it does explain why it didn't break the surface of the soil.

A friend who is a farmer said that sometimes this will happen when, after putting your seed in the ground, it gets really cold: the stem will turn tail and run from the top soil layer because of the temperature. No idea how this could happen if you’re starting seeds indoors though. Just one of those things?

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An update on the ballot measure to prevent the hunting of mountain lions

The Complete Colorado article linked first below is an update on the progress of the initiative to ban what the proponents call "trophy" hunting (#91--see the Secretary of State's Initiative Tracker linked second below).

Per the article and my last check on the tracker page, it's out for signature and it seems there's some decent money behind it (meaning they may have enough money for paid signature gatherers to get the requisite number of signatures).  

To wit, the quote from the Complete article (links left intact):

"The measure has been approved for circulation and the group 'Cats Aren’t Trophies' had already raised nearly $220,000 by the Jan. 16 campaign finance filing date. The next filing is due May 6.  The group also registered with the Secretary of Sate as a licensed petition entity on April 11, meaning they can pay people directly for signature gathering."

I will keep my eyes on this one and update as I hear more.

In the meantime, and if you didn't yet, go read the third part of a previous substack I did on this topic (see the third link below).

I put some ideas and links there for ways you can get involved in trying to counter this effort.

https://pagetwo.completecolorado.com/2024/05/03/mountain-lion-hunting-ban-colorado-2024-ballot/

https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/Initiatives/titleBoard/

https://open.substack.com/pub/coloradoaccountabilityproject/p/bugs-as-the-next-set-of-roadblocks?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

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The so-called "Assault Weapons Ban" the Assembly was working on has been tabled (for this session--I fully expect to see it again in the future**).

So we have one less intrusion on our gun rights in a session marked by a large number of other intrusions.

This is cause for celebration; it's good news.  I would urge you to, however, take note of the fact that this bill has largely overshadowed a whole handful of other gun control measures that have made it through the legislature and/or have been signed into law (mostly quietly) by our "Libertarian" Governor Polis.

If you are concerned about your Second Amendment rights, and you haven't yet, get involved.  I've said before that I think, for right now with the makeup of the state government being what it is, the best course is to donate to gun rights organizations that will fight in court, but this isn't the only way.

Find a gun rights organization and sign up for updates.  Share that info.

Speak up at hearings.  Ask others you know to do so.

Contact your legislators and do so even during the interim between sessions.  Ask others you know to do so.

Efforts like this ban and the other bills that garnered less attention (even though in total they eroded as much of your freedom as any ban) will not cease.  Every year, you will see more of them.

One partial victory here is cause for celebration but not for backing off the pressure.

**Quoting one of the bill sponsors from the Sun article below:

“'After thoughtful conversations with my Senate colleagues, I decided that more conversations need to take place outside of the pressure cooker of the Capitol during the last weeks of the legislative session,' Gonzales said in a written statement. 'In that spirit, I look forward to renewing and continuing those discussions over the interim.'  She added: 'It is clear that survivors of devastating gun violence, responsible gun owners, and local and national policy advocates remain committed to doing the work necessary to save lives — and an assault weapons ban will do just that.'”

https://coloradosun.com/2024/05/06/colorado-assault-weapons-bill-fails-2024/