Tropicals & Tender Perennials: mites mites mites and more mites, 0 by SherryLike

SherryLike wrote:
Kell, when it is sizzling hot I use, at night ONLY (will toast leaves if the sun is up), H202, along with SuperThrive, Micro Mix, some lime and liquid dishwashing soap, grapefruit flavor. About once a month, I toss Epsom Salt at the base of the plants because I CANNOT get it to dissolve, to use as a foliar spray, I've even tried to microwave it and I put it in the blender, no luck. I quit using fert, because I figured it was too much stress, since we had a drought along with the heat.

AuntB, I've been meaning to ask you your zone number, I'm a real zonie and believe that many could leave brugs in the ground, as I do, if they are well mulched, and I don't mean half way, but WELL mulched. I hate cutting too and getting in the plants I do take in, a few tropicals, but I leave my bananas, Upees, all jasmine, all brugs, except the ones in the bubbler, in the ground to winter. Last year I separated all like cuttings, but this year I won't be doing that, I think I had maybe 20 bubblers, some small jars, but this winter I'll have two or three tanks, aquarium tanks about 18 inches high and two feet long, I'll put them end to end along the wall, and I will have NO potted brugs in the GH. Last year I left out a favorite in a pot and it 'died' and I tried to pull it outta the pot and couldn't, but I'll be darn if it didn't wake up and,at the end of June, it rose from the dead, and is now blooming, one of Kyle's. After I drag those pots in the fall, I'm so exhausted it takes me forever to recover. I'm busy and active, I ride my Bent daily, but lifting pots is less fun than cutting and I have dollys of several sizes that REALLY but it still makes me feel like I've been run over by a truck.

Jnette, I guess I've just been lucky with my seedlings. First year (this is my 3rd brug season), I didn't have many seedlings but I favored one, put it in a tomato box and it bloomed between 3 1/2 & 4 1/2 months (cannot remember exact time), but it was beautiful and fragrant and in a pot - that was my goal, my first year, I was thrilled, but I lost a host of rootings, Butterfly, which broke my heart, but I got blooms on Versi Peach, which I never expected. 2nd year, I had seeds from Kell/Kyle and a few others, I think, bad memory, and my word, I hit the jackpot, the seeds were put in the rockwool in Feb, I think, and they started blooming, just like cuttings, as if the seeds had been 'above the Y'. Several were hit by limbs and it seemed to speed up their blooming. Jnette, the first year I had the seedlings under the light and it blew up and I never replaced it. In my zone, a light is not necessary. I love rockwool because I start them inside and if my Golden knocks them over, no dirt to clean up. Rockwool is amazing. But, I'm so bad, after I found out I could root, grow seed, have early bloomers, seeds or bubbler, grow them from scratch, all the way through, I've regained interest in plants upon which I failed before I grew brugs, and I have renewed interest in my garden.

So, here is a photo of a Kyle 2nd year seedling that bloomed this week, it is the one that wintered in the pot outside, that woke up in June. It is pretty and smells like heaven, makes me swoon, I like everything about it, lovely calyx that hugs nicely - only one little problem, on the tip of each calyx, there is a teeny, tiny, identical brown spot. Didn't do that last year, could be the heat, if it is, considering the looooong tendrils, I might decide she is a keeper...her color is truly prettier than in the pic, I think the flash does something to the color, ya think??