Doc, It would be very nice to have a 3 station compost pile. I do something a little similar to that, but 2 of the stations turn out to be large Rubbermaid, moveable tubs. Sometimes I also have some excess and store it wherever. I asked the question about the potting mix because folks were talking about buying soil and I found that surprising.
SHOW US YOUR "BRINGING INS"
The cautions against re-using potting soil should really be directed at 'newbies' who have sick plants and don't observe and care for the plants. All us 'pros' who keep the plants basically healthy, have basically healthy soil to re-use. IMHO.
My 'three station' effect comes about by using separate areas in rotation. Soon I need to start a new station with all these leaves, and I'll be digging into an old station for good compost.
I think all gardeners evolve into a working standard set of practices that are good. The only alternative I see is not gaining in experience which just leads to the horror stories we sometimes hear. That is why most magazines wear out too. I get tired of perfection illustrating the same old pictures and print reworked that relate so little to what an honest home made garden and plan evolves to. On the local club activities it so often comes down to who has the most money to flash and which landscaper they employ. The ribbons they win should be in care of the hired services. The gardens I really enjoy are the one's someone has developed themselves and stuck with it over the years to realize it was personal development and property improvement mostly of their own management, blood, sweat and sometimes tears.
Yes Doc, and more than a few laughs along the way!
One of my biggest blunders was talking a Waynesboro friend out of a starting division off of his lovely bamboo. Turns out it was what many call false bamboo one of the most invasive problem plants in the state if not the whole Northeast. I nursed that sucker with pride and joy. Then at about the three year point it took off in three hundred and sixty five degrees all at the same time. Three years later and a couple of quarts of Round Up finally cleaned it up. That was after the monster was dug out which only excited all the runners to work harder to survive. Befor I was done with cleaning it out some of those runner roots were out there ten feet from the mother plant.
Lucky you got it soon, Doc. I've heard of it coming up through people's floors, concrete ones at that. There are two homes not far from here where it has taken over both yards on either sides across the street. The township has had crews working at those homes for a year now trying to eradicate it as it keeps popping up in the middle of a busy street and tearing up the asphalt. It has actually invaded about a dozen yards from a single plant. Because of it, I go across the river to a different township to get my free leaf mold. I've seen large bundles of it getting thrown in the chipping pile at our recyling center.
Don't let your guard down docgipe! My girlfriend is still finding shoots 12 years after "eradicating" it. Each year she has her sons dig as far as thay can find pieces of roots, but that darn bamboo keeps coming back and haunting her!
I have personal experience with false bamboo too. Been fighting it for 37 years. It came with the house. It is growing right on the property line between the houses. It did put up a buffer between the unrulely neighbors untill I had the privacy fence put up. Now we just mow it down or pull up the small starts that show up on our side. The neighbors just let it grow up on their side, so I know it is here to stay.
I was horrified when I saw this stuff for sale at a nursery once and told some people looking at it not to even think about buying it. Someother folks standing nearby came over and backed me up.
It never goes in the compost, I leave the cuttings and pull ups bake in the sun and throw them in the trash can.
Not a soul seems to be stopping the distribution via mail order regulation. In the sellers favor they do suggest containment. Steel would be the only absolute in my opinion.
I know a school teacher and his wife that literally built or caused to be built in one place over ten or so years an acre from each planting a year after what they planted got established. I left that area not ever seeing if they got it under control or not. What they planted got three or four inches in diameter and thirty to fifty feet tall. They also had a dozen varieties they planted all over their property. They had been in China and just loved the stuff. I saw a similar place just South of where I live. There the runners did in fact jump the property lines and were indeed coming up through the road in front of their property. They were health food nuts and wanted the tender spring shoots for food. They maybe should have brought back a dozen Panda Bears to feed on it and keep it under control. The native black bears paid not a moments attention to the planting.
As difficult as it is to control it is entirely likely that it would or could pass through any animal that ate it raw. That's exciting to consider. The animals pass pieces large enough to be considred cuttings in their droppings. Along our streams each flood stage fees up clumps to be churned and divided. Each little chunk starts a new planting of the highly invasive bamboo. At first I thought I had something beautiful. It was but that was the only quality that was not invasive. Deer hide in it. I have never seen any animal we have appear to be feeding on it. Beavers will cut it and take it to their dams where it grows again. They might eat it in winter when we can not observe them in which case that would serve to root prune them making the clump even stronger..
It doesn't seem to have any natural enemies, but the Japanese beetles seems to like it. To bad it is not toxic to them, but then again that would just give people a reason to grow more of it.
Some of my bringins are still trying to dry out. At this rate, I'll have to neem them again.
Don't you know that those last 2 plants that I left outside to dry out, didn't get Neemed again. Of COURSE, they brought spider mites inside. One of them died completely. I was able to save the other, but now I find a few mites daily. I had to send DSO out today for some more Neem and will have to treat them all tomorrow.
Oh, I sympathize. thought we were doing very well till I suddenly realized the mites were in formation on Plumeria.. And have almost killed my novelty , Turmeric. Somehow have not found Banana but loved it last year. I put systemic in some pots and have some Neem to mix up.
Sally, do you think I should add something stronger than neem?
well, the systemic did seem to keep the outside plants in good shape. Not sure if you can still buy these small houseplant systemic bottles but maybe a product for outside. as neem spray I use a recipe I found here , copied below
"tapla
Bay City, MI
(Zone 6a)
October 16, 2008
10:40 PM
Post #5681428
The residue is honeydew - the excreta from assorted pests - aphids, scale, whitefly, mealybug ...
I dose/spritz my plants 2 weeks before they come in, and again JUST before they come in with a mix of:
1 pint rubbing alcohol
1 pint very hot water
1 tsp pure, cold-pressed neem oil
3-4 drops Murphy's oil soap
Add neem & soap to hot water & shake well. Add alcohol. Spritz plants thoroughly, covering all surfaces - especially underside of leaves & leaf axils. Be sure to shake vigorously as you use the spritzer to keep the neem mixed with the solution. Works great - the neem oil renders all the insects it contacts unable to complete metamorphosis or reproduce, while the alcohol provides reasonable knock-down for current generations."
Thanks, Sally. I'll mix some of that up tomorrow. Death to those buggers!!!
Hah, Those nasty white fuzzy scale bugs are doing a big time job on my Mandeville. I did resort to a systemic but some how that plant is still just covered with them. Of course it is still upstairs and I keep forgetting to take the spray up and respray them. Gonna go and do that now while I am thinking about it. I'd forget my head if it wasn't attached. LOL
God I'm bad. Just started up the steps to go and spray the bugs and got half way up the stairs before I realized that I didn't get the spray to take along. LOL
It is almost mid winter. If we could just will those bring-ins to hang on a little longer! This year I used Bayer systemic insecticide for roses on my bring-ins, as someone suggested on the website, and I see a definite improvement over last year. Of course the mexican onion still has some mealybugs, but it is under control if I wipe those leaves once in a while with baby wipes.
Really that is my problem I am just not consistent. I spray and they look good then when I see them starting up again I put off doing anything about it until they get pretty bad again. Every year I swear that I will do better but I always fall back into that same old habit.
Baby wipes sound like a good idea I have a couple of broad leaf plants that might work well on and I think that might be a good way to clean my orchids, too.
Thanks, Villiers. I'll try those baby wipes on my Clivias.
Funny, I had to wipe my clivias too. First year I have a problem with them!
The eggs are in the soil. The larva chew roots. The white thingies are only visable for a small part of their life cycle. If you have a mess on your hands I would suggest Merit 75 WP. The WP is wettable powder. It is a systemic insecticide that drenches into the medium and sprays on the plants too. It gets 'em good. The plant picks up the chemical and gets the ones you see. It is not cheap however the smallest amount will last most home gardeners a lifetime if it is only used indoors.
Last year for the first time in my life I had to deal with mealybugs and fungus knats both at the sametime. I would prefer to not use chemicals. It did however appear that all my house plants were going to go down. Merit 75 saved the horrible situation with two treatments according to label instructions. I may never use it again but it is in the war chest just in case. After that mess and treatment I have not had a reoccurance.
Doc, I checked on Merit 75WP. VERY expensive as you say! I will definitively keep it in mind as a last recourse!
I like to use Pyola, from Gardens Alive. It is not systemic, works on contact only, but two sprays in one week, and it takes care of most insects. And I do not worry about its toxicity. I use Bayer systemic only on my problem plants, and put them in the back where kids and pets do not roam.
Let me know how it works in the long run. I have a few plants outside where I may want to use it. Thanks for the info!
Holly--
You can also just keep a bottle of alcohol and a bunch of cotton balls upstairs for any time you see Mealy Bugs on anything. Just soak the ball and dab/wipe/squeeze into crevices. Kills/melts them on contact!
Spraying takes a bit much to prepare--and then there is the clean-up.....
I have been lucky. I don't seem to have any insect problems with my plants. Perhaps it is that I use Systemic Granules on all the plants about 2 weeks before I bring them in.
When my supply of those runs out--I will be in deep doo-doo.......The ones I bought were discontinues several years ago. I have 1-1/2 containers left...I'd say that is 2-3 years worth of applying....
Coppied out the home-made recipe. Thanks for posting that, Sally.
I tried something new with my Mandevilla--just to see if it will work.....
I put stakes all around and wrapped the whole plant and pot with burlap and then filled it with leaves and put a big pot 9as a cap) on top of it all. Thought i would try to see if it might make it through the Winter----and THEN! What do we have? The coldest Winter ever.....
.If it works--great! If not--$12 will buy me a new one.
Gita
You may be pleasantly surprised Gita. Just wait till mid-summer before you give up on it. Some years I have realized some plants made it thru winter after they started pocking their heads... from my compost pile!:)
I resisted the urge to take every (three dozen) plant outside for a breath of air and sun. Instead, I took tips from a cane Begonia, tossed the bottom with the pale leaves, (yes I should have been fertilizing) and started a new pot of tip cuttings. Repotted my baby palms that needed some fresh dirt underneath. Repotted Xmas cactus --badly needed, only one stem left since it had been in the same soil for a couple years and most of the roots were gone. If it likes the new smaller pot with fresh soil, and tip branches root in with the mama, then I'll have a much happier one by fall. Played with the compost.
And opened up a box with two pots of forced daffodils--they are showing tips of green right on schedule! how easy peasy. I found the bulbs had spent the summer in an empty pot between potted plants, forgotten. Potted them in October. I'm curious to see how they bloom. They were thinnings from a thick bunch in the garden.
Good for you, Sally! Talk about stupid, stupid!!! I boiled the water to put into the neem oil spray bottle. I thought I had let it cool enough to pour it in. NOT!!! It melted the bottle. I already had everything else mixed in there. So, it's still sprayable. I'm letting it cool some more before applying it. Mixing plant, garden, house and cooking chores today. Yikes I'm busy!!
The only things I have still outside a-squandering away--are 2- 8" pots of Mums from last fall.
I wanted to exchange one of the potted ones with one of the ones I had in my small front bed, that bloomed WAAAYYY ahead of the other two. I would like all 3 of them to bloom about the same time. Hope they survive!
Last year--3 out of my 5 potted Mums DID survive. Man! They grew HUGE! But--I had them in a sheltered spot.
Keeping my fingers crossed!
doc and villiers--
When i was still in charge of the WHOLE Greenhouse of Tropicals, pots and ALL Pond supplies at my HD--say....from 1998-2003--I was forever waging the battles with the Mealy Bugs on a lot of plants--mostly on the Birds of Paradise and the Araleas. Also on Marginatas. Those were always so infested. Also some of the older Jades and so many of the older Phaelonopsis orchids.
It was an endless battle! And--no one gave a darn--except ME!
I would bring my own alcohol and keep wiping them clean--but it never lasted. I sure hated selling these plants to anyone!
And--because back then the Bird Seed was kept in the GH--we had mice and rats everywhere--They would burrow inside the bigger pots and nest and have litters and chew all the roots off....UGH! I hate to even remember those days! It was VERY stressful and hard.....I had to deal with all of this! My dept. Manager back then was a real jerk! A do-nothing! I ended up assuming almost all of the responsibilities that should have been his.
Eventually--He got fired--and I am still there......
Now that Bell Nursery is in charge--i have never seen a sick plant. They really do a great job!
HD sure has come a long way since the days I was in the GH. BUT--I also learned a lot!
Gita
Gita, glad to hear you are so dedicated to the trade. Where is Bell Nursery, I'd love to take a look and meet you. I like to buy my plants from nurseries that take bug control seriously, using organic methods whenever possible ( which is not always the case!)
Have they thought about adopting some cats to get rid of the mice (some dogs are really good at it too!):)
Keep up the good work!
Catherine
Catherine---
Bell Nursery is a HUGE, HUGE grower that supplies all the HD's in this area. They are located outside of Silver Spring MD--and outskirt of Washington DC. to the NW.
As far as I know--they are NOT a Nursery you can go to--strictly mass production. I also do not know what they yse on their plants. I am sure it is NOT something you are imagining.....They grow many things themselves--but not all things. They also might just be a "middle-man"......
Since they supply ALL the plants and the sod and the annuals and perennials--trees and shrubs---they are just middle-men between all the Florida growers and wherever else all the stuff comes from.
Basically--they have acquired ALL the responsibility of supplying all the HD around here with garden stuff. They own it--and merchandise it--and cull it--and clearance it--as needed--and bring in new stuff as needed. You never see a dead, or dying, plant around. They DO take good care of things and keep everything pretty.
All HD does is sell it. HD does not own any of it until we sell it. I imagine it is, sort of, like on consignment.
If you want to take a trek down to where I live--I will take you around to some wholesale growers that also sell to the public and you will get REAL home-grown, healthy plants for about 1/2 the price of anywhere else....and in 6-packs--NOT in a flat of 24 like HD sells. i don't want 24 of any one kind of a plant!!!!! I want a variety.
I hardly buy any plants (if any) at HD. We do not have an employee discount! Never have--never will! Many people do not know this! We pay what YOU pay!
And since Bell Nursery took over all the supplying of plants--(going on 3-4 years now) all their people have to get paid--and so prices have gone up way out of range what i want to pay for anything......
There are some exceptions, of course.....
Gita
Well, it takes some of the fun of working there if you do not get a discount! Actually, you probably would get in trouble if they did!!:)
I usually grow or buy by the flat. I like to fill a lot of big pots on the deck, and stick the left over in the perennial beds. It cuts down on weeding!
Thank you for your offer. I will take you up on it if I am in the area!
Catherine
I have been reading up on food grade diatomious earth for insect control, what starting me searching was my dog groomer is trying it out for flea control, using it by applying to the dogs fur and dusting it in their grassy play area. I have been reading that it can be applied to plants, stems, leaves, but not to the flowers that will be pollinated by bees, as it will injure beneficial insects also. Studies say it will not hurt earthworms which I was very concerned about. I have trouble with squash vine bores, so applying diatomious earth on the ground and on the stems close to the ground would help.
Also companion planting using nasturtiums and marigolds in the vegetable garden will help repel harmful insects.
Speaking of vegatables, has anyone heard from Wind? Is she lurking around ?
lady--
as far as I know--Diatomacious Earth consists of minute silica crystals--which is glass, of course.
Any soft-bodied creatures (slugs especially) will not cross it as it cuts into their soft bodies. So--Good Slug control.
Have also read about it to control Fungus Gnats...Same reason. They burrow in the soil of houseplants to lay their eggs If they cannot get into the soil--NO eggs!====NO Fungus gnats. The adult FG only lives about 2 weeks.
NOT a cheap product--but I don't think it will deteriorate as soon as other remedies.....
Not in MY budget, though! Gita
Lady, I use the DE all of the time. It cuts down on the ants and the grasshoppers in my beds around the house. I tried it twice around all of the Hosta, and it didn't slow the slugs down one bit. I find the price to be very reasonable. Lowes sells it for $8 to $10 for a 20lb bag.You have to keep the product away from your face and it's best to use a mask when working with it as it can cause respiratory organ damage.. I apply it with the tube that I bought to apply the Milky Spore,. I bought the tube for $10 from the Milky Spore distributor.
But, I think you could make one with the cardboard tube from a roll of gift wrap paper and the plastic insert sifter from a round spice jar. Fill the tube from the other end and keep the shaker end down near your feet and shake as you go. This will keep it on the ground and away from your face.
There are 3 types of DE, pool grade, which is used in pool filters, then there is Horticultural grade such as what is sold at Lowes & HD, then Food Grade, which is used in grain storage and many other uses. The food grade is very fine still have to wear a mask of you are going to wide spread dust and the risk of breathing it in is high.
I have used the Hort Grade on ant hills and it has been very effective.
There is a lot of info on the internet, just google..food grade diatomaceous earth, happy reading!
Stormy, I wonder if the slugs had to much of that slimy stuff, need to encourage some frogs and toads to take up residence, they love slugs, when I find a slug I feed it to my froggie friends. LOL
Lady, I always have lots of frogs. I love watching them and am very fond of them. But I have hundreds of slugs and those nasty earwigs. You're right, I use the horticultural grade DE. It's a great product. Wouldn't having it on the dog's coat risk injuring their respiratory systems?
I sent Wind a DMail about the seed swap and didn't hear from her.
My groomer is in touch with a lot of show dog owners who are using it,(the Food Grade) and they are the last people who would put their dogs at risk, from what I understand the food grade is so fine that it doesn't pose a risk, and you are not "dusting" the dog, put a bit in their hand and rub it into the fur, it's like talcum powder. They are even putting it into the dogs food for intestinal parasites, and farmers are adding it to the cattle and horse feed for the same reason.
I heard it works on earwigs too. Do earwigs emerge from the ground? I find them usually in between flower petals, so I would not want to apply DE to the flowers.
Still reading about it.
Lady, I don't know where they come from, but I sure know where I'd like to send them!! Are you having a flea problem on the "girls"?
Sally, I used your recipe today on all of my indoor plants. It worked really well, at least on the bugs that had hatched. I found quite a few dead bugs within 2 hours of spraying.