This is my first year trying it out. My guess is that a lot of them will disappear. But I went with mantises over ladybugs because I figured their lack of wings would help keep them close. Also, I’ve only ever noticed a few mantises in my orchard, but the ones I have see tend to always find one tree to make their own. Last year I had one that I usually saw on the same potted fig, and one that was always on the same in-ground persimmon. So I’m hoping these guys will head their separate ways and establish a bit of “turf” to call their own.
Things mantises like in my yard are bushy plants and low growing trees. They deposit eggs onto my berry canes. They aren’t particularly fond of vegetables unless they are shrubby, viney, or flowering. They also love flower bushes.
They dislike lawnmowers and short vegetables. I rarely see them high up on trees.
Also glad to help you with the strawberries. Not enough people grow this nice variety.
Really enjoying Scarlet strawberries this year. They’re small and too soft to ever be commercially viable. But they have a really distinct bubblegum flavor that’s excellent.
A few rainbow stripe cherries that are almost ripe. I got the tree from Arboreum a few years back. It’s apparently a sport of Stella that’s yellow and has a single red stripe along the skin and within the flesh.
I’m still seeing mantises all around the garden and orchard. I think I ended up having a total of five ooths hatch. It was fun to see. I’ll probably end up doing it next year as well.
This is my first year getting fruit from the tree. I had a few yesterday that weren’t quite ripe yet. I’ll keep checking on them as the week goes along.
For the first week of ripening, these were kind of bland and underwhelming. But they’ve been improving over the last few days. Let me know what you think once yours start coming in.
I pulled this batch a little early because of all the rain we’re forecasted to get later in the week. I have one more patch I’ll give a bit longer though.
Triple Crown – It’s been tough to sledding to get truly ripe berries. We’ve had a very dry summer and the birds get to them as soon as they start changing color.
It had a bit of insect (or maybe bird) damage on the back side, so I picked it early. The damaged side sweetened up nicely but the rest needed another week or so. I netted the tree and will pick more next weekend.
