Bringing in lots of tropicals, would like to remove the bugs first. Does anyone use this? If so how?
I have lots of tropicals:
banana-non fruiting
bird of paradise
caladiums
ginger- 3 kinds
ee's - a's and c's
begonias
hisbiscus
Bayer all in one systemic - does anyone use it in pots
Yes - one tablespoon in a gallon watering can.
Kay thank you for replying.
I just moved here one year ago - I wanted to remind you that it's time to quit watering these plants and get them indoors by the first of Oct. - otherwise, they will stop growing and rot. Just lightly water them and mist them over the winter - they will appear dead, but most likely they aren't. I had my husband install lights in our basement, where I made a 'greenhouse' with all my tropicals. I moved 2/3's of a Uhaul van full of tropicals to PCB from KCMO - they are now in the ground and doing beautifully!!!
Oh Kay you are in a beautiful place. My X was stationed down there and it was beautiful. To go from KC to PCB would be heaven. ...
When I bring the tropicals in they will go in a solar room or in a garden room and continue to grow all winter. I got more flushes off the brugs last winter than I have gotten this summer....guess cause it has been so cool up here.....40's in Aug that is crazy. Two nights in the 40's and then back to the 50's or at least a week. Thank you for warning me on the watering, didn't think of that. Don't want to lose anything. I can just see all those tropicals in a hauler how funny, I would do it also in a heart beat.
I will have to water in the bayer, then would like to wait a week before bringing them in if possible. I need them in by the 3rd week in Sept or before.....going on a trip and don't want to leave DH to attend to the flowers, wouldn't be a good thing...LOL
Yes, my family and friends in KC thought I was insane to sell most of my furniture and move most of my plants! Our own Pepper, living in the KCMO area, and a member here on DG, bought a LOT of my tropicals. I felt happy that someone as caring as she was going to take over my babies - she's a wonderful lady, and someone I would highly recommend you be acquainted with and hang around - she KNOWS TROPICALS!
To the disbelief of my KCMO friends and family, I loaded 1/3 of a 26' moving truck with personal belongings and the rest with tropicals - it was packed to the gills! I knew I could buy furniture after I got here, but the tropicals were ones I had grown from gallon pots or smaller - a girl has to establish her priorities!!! LOL
You are welcome to visit my little bit of Paradise anytime!!!
I have meet Pepper at one of the ru's. She is in the process of getting the all ru together now. We are going to have it in Parkville at the park along the river.
I like your priorities....LOL They are the same as mine.....
How come you were so lucky to get to leave Missouri and move to Florida? I use to live in San Antonio and I loved it there also. Now with the drought down there I might not like it as well as I did when I was there.
I am BLESSED to be living here, that's for sure!
The reason I am here is that my grandsons, Devin and Darin, live here - after my husband passed away in 2007, I had no reason to stay in Missouri.
Sorry to hear about your husband. I lived away from family for years and that is why I moved back to Missouri actually. Glad I did because this is where I met my DH.
Grandchildren are sooo much fun. I have a 3 year old Granddaughter. Course she is just adorable....LOL
Mine are almost 6 and almost 8 - both boys, who are lots of fun to hang with!
I have been using it in my greenhouse for years...it is the best (the B A T S - no fertilizer). The best way for success is to drench the pots...water it in and let the pot sit in a puddle of it for a while (10mins)...really flood the puppy...then nothing can escape. It is good for all sucking insects....
Carol
Thank you AlohaHoya, what ratio of Bayer to water do you use?
1/2OZ=1Tablespoon. Sometimes I add fertilizer too sometimes I don't. Don't think I would if going into domancy.
Carol, I add fertilizer sometimes, too.
Mine don't really go dormant because I put them in a garden room and a solar room so they grow and bloom all winter. That is the only thing that keeps me sane around here in the winter time....LOL Well at least as sane as I can be......I have such zone envy....LOL
I don't know where Keaau, HI is but I have been lucky enough to go to Maui several times. My DH worked for the airline so we traveled alot. I figured out that Maui is where I kept returning. Can't really pinpoint why but I just felt more a peace there than anywhere I have ever been. Course living on an island might be different......don't have anything to judge it by.
Kay what are your winters like there in Panama? I need to get DH to agree to move when I finally get to retiree....LOL Course we would have an army to move us or the biggest sale in history.....We bought propane yesterday.....almost had a heart attack......course about 1/3 of the bill was for my garden room, that will last all winter for it, but not the house.
Happgarden...Keaau is on the Big Island of Hawaii ...on the E. side near Hilo. We have volcanos, beaches, sleep with blankets most of the year, live in zone 11, no tourists (not good for the economy but great for us). We are very happy here. Having soil would be nice...but not a MUST. Grow most things hydroponically with 150" of rain a year...
This is our front yard...well...kinda.
What cute little flowers in the yard....are those your kiddos?
What a beautiful scene. Surprised, didn't think about not having soil.....wow, that is alot of rain in a year.
So interesting to meet people from all over, that you share a common interest.
Have you always lived there? I have moved around alot. I play in genealogy and I am always curious how people end up where they do.
I sometimes wonder back in the covered wagon days how husbands came home and said dear we are leaving the east coast and your home and family, friends and we are going to walk across America and you can only keep what you can get in this wagon and you may never see you family again..... can't imagine
Granddaughter and a friend....
We moved here from Seattle about 9 years ago. We spent alot of time in the South Pacific and when we got back to Seattle we just couldn't hack it!!! Too many people, cars, movement, noise, information and not enough room and clean air. I escape to Honolulu from time to time for a day or two...just to recharge the creative juices. Love going to San Francisco...see what innovative things are being done.
Aloha, What can I say but how wonderful.
I imagine there was a big learning curve growing plants in HI versus WA. How fun that would be, plus the pick of tropicals you have now.
My tropicals are still alive after using bayer.......LOL
I am like a new Mom.......wondering when I drive up if they are all going to be happy or start pouting after the bayer.
Yes...gardening is VERY different than in Seattle!!!
1. Do NOT throw anything you prune into the bush. Brugmansias, Gardenias and such will root where they fall!!!
2. Fertilize every 10" of rain - even if it was only a week ago you did it last!
3. Prepare for everything: after a very wet year El Nino can arrive and suddenly you have 3 months NO rain.
4. Be careful what exotic you plant...it may become the newest invasive weed!
A tropical Paradise for sure.
Gardening in Hawaii must be really different - I just don't know how anyone can actually live there and own land without being super wealthy.
If I may add one thing on the BATS ~ I use the same ratio but allow the plants to be treated to dry out well before saturating them. Post BATS treatment, I also allow them to dry. Perhaps not necessary but I feel the BATS will work better and not be washed on thru.
The same 3 acres with a house you pay maybe 200M for here would cost over a couple of million on Oahu or Maui....depends on where in the islands you live. Luckily we got here before realestate went up....and prices are down again, but not as far as 10 years ago. We were lucky. Not millionaires by any means...just really lucky. The price of food is high...but we have lots of farms here so we can gt local food/cheese/meat/vegies easily...we just eat less!!! It is a very DYI existance OR hire it out for alot of money. Our electricity is VERY expensive but where we live we have no aircon nor heat to worry about...solar hot water...we catch our own water. Its not downtown (thank goodness) - it's perfect!!!
LOL, I don't think Carol meant 200M. I have visited Carol and Bob and their living situation is well beyond perfect. Can you just imagine living where it is warm but rarely hot and just cool enough at night for a blanket? Where it rains all the time and yet there is little humidity? Where you can grow your own veggies, coffee, chocolate and fruits?
Here is one of her gingers; it seems great weather, good drainage and plenty of rain makes for some good growing. :-)
How awful to miss out on paying for heat, paying for air, winter clothes, summer clothes, shoveling snow, driving on ice, driving on snow, sweating because of the humidity, freezing because of the cold, wind chill, heat index, tornadoes, hail, and the hits just keep on coming....LOL Least I have a garden room and solar room to keep me a little sane......
podster, I have written down the formulas to keep on my "things no to forget".....since I can't remember anything.....LOL
Today since all the brugs have survived a week, and the hisbiscus, I am going to do the elephant ears and the bird of paradise. My calla lilies survived around the brug so here is in hopes my caladiums around the bird of paradise do as well.
Thank you all for responding and teaching me about HI.
Gee, happygarden...all that I am missing sounds like such fun! NOT. Been there, done that and have the t-shirt. There are...however...downsides: mosquitos! Roaches! mildew (the first year here all the wood looked 'flocked' in a green fuzz), inadequate medical care, $$$$$.... No didn't mean 200M... 200,000 is the # I was after!!!
Well, we have horrible mosquitos especially this year......I am sure there is a reason they exist but darn they are miserable. Roaches they say will take over the world one day, they are everywhere (even in the coldest of places I think), mold not so much here except in my garden room in the winter.....all the tropicals release alot of moisture. I run a heater and a dehumidifer. So far I haven't added water to the room, because I collect enough off the dehumidifer to keep everything watered....talk about recycling.....plants release the moisture, I collect the moisture, I water the plants, and we start all over...LOL
Prices in the midwest especially here in land locked Missouri are extremely reasonable, food, housing, gas.....compared to most places......so that respect we have ya......
I had just been on this thread when I got an email from someone who wanted to know what to do about mealies/aphids etc. on her hoyas. So used to our 'shortcuts' I told her to try BATS. Well she wrote back that bats would be difficult to find, but thought that Preying Mantis might work.
Ooooops.
ROFL.....AlohaHoya, I love it.....
I can laugh hard on that one because I was watching the brugmansia forum when I first got interested and they were talking about the cats eating the brug leaves.....well I had read they were poisonous, so in all my wisdom I posted that I thought they were poisonous to cats and they posted back....catepillars......
I fell into that same TRAP!!! on the brug forum when I first looked there. I thought those folks spent far too much time talking about cats and not enough time talking about brugs!!!