I'm a new AV grower, and I'm worried about bugs! (I keep fresh fruit in a bowl, and I need a fruit fly trap every Spring and Summer... so I'm paranoid)
Should I add a bit of Marathon and Avid to my soil as a preventative? Why wait until the problems come?
Where's a good source of these products?
Thanks,
Ellen
Marathon & Avid as preventatives?
Marathon is a good preventative- you add it in granule form to your soil mix. there are several members here who use it. I don't know where to find it, though. I'd also like to begin using it.
I used BATS(Bayer Advanced Tree and Shrub whenever there is a pest problem).
Avid is for mites and is sprayed on your plants or you can dunk the whole plant(not roots) into the solution. You can find Avid at Cape Cod Violetry- right now, I think it's the only place you can find it online. One of the gentleman from our club mentioned that you can also buy it from Maryland Plant in Golden Ring(locally).
Ellen, I do hope you will share David Thompson's take on using pesticides!
You can get both Avid and Marathon from Cape Code.
I bought a few plants form David Thompson and asked him about prevention, and this is what he wrote:
(Thanks, Shanika for reminding me to share it)
Preventative treatments for mites and insects do not work in the long term. The insects develop resistance to the chemicals used. The best thing to do is spray with the appropriate chemicals when the insects/mites are seen for the first time. Avoid using systemic pesticides because so many growers use them habitually and so the insects/mites you want to control will likely be at least somewhat resistant to them. The best way to control the pests is to isolate anything new that comes into your collection for at least six months. That way, if a problem arises, you have only a few plants to treat, instead of your whole collection.
That makes so much sense. It's the same as what the doctors keep telling us about antibiotics when we have a cold right? I am so glad you posted this as it makes me more confident that I've chosen the best choice which is not to use them unless absolutely necessary.
I need some help.........many of my first leaves are happily growing ears...lots of them popping out every day......one I particularly wanted is growing some grey/white fuzzy looking (leaves or whatever) from where the leaves would come from.......I don't have a clue as to what they are.....they don't move so don't look like a disease, but WHAT are they. I got the leaf from a good friend of mine who has no disease present in hers or her apartment...(In fact I gave her the violet two years ago)
Help??
bbon
Gessiegail are you reading this...I hope..
Bbon,
It sure sounds like powdery mildew.
Bbon are you saying it is on the soil or on the leaf?
On one of the leaves that was sent to me recently I had something similar but it wasn't powdery mildew I don't think because I had that on my squash before and it is was flatter that whatever this is and this was really growing like a mold and the spores were really long and tall. It just appeared the other day I try to check them every two or three days and yesterday when I checked there was a clump of it on a leaf. I cut it out from the leaf and disinfected the remaining part of the leaf and repotted it. It does have roots already so I hope that cutting out part of the leaf doesn't kill it.