Today I took some wierd looking hoya leaves to the plant pathologist at the extension service. Brian is a good friend and he spent quite a bit of time with me...and I learned some interesting stuff relating to other plants (Brugs) as well: The leaves I took in were pitted and had some strange bumps (cellular damage from salts) and some had some discolorations due to a fungicide I sprayed on them...one had burned leaves.
1. Careful using oil soaps and Neem oil for spider mites. The oils tend to coat and clog the stomata on the underside of the leaf....the thingies that intake nutrition, water, oxygen etc. I had some damage on some leaves due to a surfactant in a commercially sold bottle of fungicide (Daconil) which caused phototoxicity on the leaves (burned them). It is better to use a power dissolved in plain (distilled ) untreated water. Sometimes there can be a reaction with the chemicals in the city water and the chemicals in the spray.
2. If you have a mite problem, using Imidocloprid for "other" pests, will cause the mite population to soar as it will kill off the predators of the mites.
3. Don;t mix fertilizer like a slow release triple 14 in the soil around the roots. Even tho the coconut husk/coir is well rinsed and carries to salt to the pot...it attracts salts and with the fertilizer mixed in with it, there is a better chance of more than healthy salt build up sooner. The slow release is formulated to release its food with water and warm temps...and the soil IN the pot will stay moist and cause faster release of the nutrients...perhaps burning the plant. This is especially true if you live in a warm humid area. A top dressing is adequate and the nutrients leach into the soil slowly where they can be used up. (I was once told to mix the fert. in the potting soil when transplanting).
4. Before adding anything....dolomite, crushed coral, crushed oyster shell, be sure to take a pH reading of your batch of potting mix...just because it works well for someone else doesn't mean it will work well for me.
Hope you all find some of this useful...I got a strong wake up call...gotta stop using coconut husks and will be repotting most of the hoyas in my greenhouse. Like...I didn't have anything else to do, right?
Just learned a bunch of good stuff -
Thanks for the info - had no idea about the mite problem or the fertilizers. So.... guess we will be hearing from you after you repot all the hoyas?!!! :-)
Sharon
So the newest wonder, Cocogrow that everyone is talking about is no good? I was going to add it to all my repotting this spring Carol because it is supposed to retain water. I so need something to hold in the water.
It is supposed to be very low salt when you get the best brand according to my hydroponics store.
http://americanagritech.com/news/news_detail.asp?nw_id_pk=6.
I use Neem all the time. I love it. And my brugs actually look better after I use it. I have never had a problem but my sun is not hot here. If you live in a hot climate, I would only spray it early in the morning or late in the day. Without Neem I would quit brugs, I hate thinking I live in a toxic dump because of them.
I got a sample of the VF11 and am going to stick with it for a while just to see. The people on the African Violet forum swear by it, and it is supposed to harden the plants against bugs. I've seen so many different suggestions for potting medium that i am just going to make up my own - some soil with no additives, some orchid moss, pearlite and vermiculite. Who would ever have thought we'd be getting so scientific?!! And to think I used to read something other than gardening books and magazines :-))
Sharon
I can't explain other stuff...just pass along what I learn. I have no idea,really, how Brugs are affected by salts...I just know that I wash my coco husks in a huge tub which sits under the broken downspout of the gutter of the garage. With an inch of rain every 2 days, that tub gets big turnover in water...AND I drain the bags of Coco stuff everysooften. The fact that they 'resalt" themselves was news to me. Also...I was talking about 4" and 6" pots...not stuff in the ground.
I just wanted to put some more s.....tuff to think about when/if seeing any problems. I use the cocohusks in used media to plant my stuff outside...and have had no problems.
Sharon...I too am using VF 11....narrowing myChemical down to basics.
Tonight, in the shower, I had a vision...and epiphany. Twice I have had discoloration of leaves, panic about viruses, running around in tight circles...both times after using Messenger. I had come to the conclusion it was the Messenger. NOT NOT NOT. The Messenger simply encouraged the plant to uptake whatever was in the media which happened to be terribly saline...so I got the problems.
DUH....you DO know that I was Originally blonde, dont you?
Carol
LOL Sharon! The truth is we all have such different environmental conditions. I need a soil that holds lots of water for I get no rain at all, not even 1 day, from about April/May all the way to November. I have way too many plants to water. Then in the winter, I like everything potbound because I get way too much water and have trouble with rot.
I think you will like VF 11. I have used it for years. I find my flowering annuals flower like crazy from using it as a foliar feed. It used to be $12 not that long ago and now it is $17/gallon. I am going broke on all this stuff!!
Sometimes I think I will toss all these plants and get order back in my life. Order and free time. My DH wants to start going away for weekends and start enjoying ourselves. So I just may have to end this plant obsession one of these days!!!!!
Carol, I am always confused about taking the PH of soil. My soil is so different all over. I add stuff all the time to parts of it. I always top dress it (never dig in unless I have dug something up and have a hole) too so I am sure there are layers of different components, depending on what I tossed where. Just last weekend I was rearranging my plant stuff and tossed so much out on my garden of all the odds and ends to get rid of it. So just where do you take the soil sample from? And what kind of test do you use? THANKS
I must be the slowest typer. We cross posted! So you use real coconut husks from coconut trees, Carol? Not the store bought kind? LOL. I forget you probably have coconut trees and hula girls gently swaying under them!
Well, I will end up doing what I always end up doing. Which is I do what ever grabs my fancy and if the plants die, I do not do that again. LOL
I hear you Kell.
There are simple pH test kits...cheap. It isn't rocket science....you can find them at your TruValue Hardware store.
Take a handful of soil from all around the area you are planting: be it a hole, an acre. Put it all together, mix it up and take a cup of the mixture to sample. THat will give you an average. Easy to do with a big hole.
I guess the big lesson I learned was NOT to add something just because it sounds good. There must be a reason.
VF-11 is one of my new guns....hope it stands up to its reputation.
Carol
NO...I buy the same stuff compressed in bales from Sri Lanka,Thailand and/or Vietnam.
LOL, Carol
I do not even know what is in VF 11. Do you? LOL. The truth is, I have no clue if it really works. I do so many things, I have no clue what does what to which. But it seems like things bloom better when I spray with it. LOL
Kell,
Had to laugh about the price of VF11. I can't tell you how many bottles of stuff are in the greenhouse - superthrive and every other fertilizer known to man, plus Bayer drench, etc. and on and on. I'm with you about PH - we are forever tossing stuff in the garden. Sometimes it gets tilled in and sometimes it doesn't. I figure if I've got worms I'm okay. It's the snakes that get my attention! I surely do understand what you mean about no rain, and it gets kinda warm here in the summer (we would never admit it was hot!!).
Carol,
I had heard lots of good things about Neem oil, but had been hesitant because I used an oily type product years ago on some plants, and it basically suffocated them. I've been thinking about using the coir for cuttings and seedlings, but may rethink that now unless it is something that will go in the ground quickly. Really glad you posted about that.
Sharon
I have been on and off Coir for years... I thought more rinsing was the answer and I even taste the last water it soaks in.
Neem doesn't seem to hurt the brugs...basically, I don't think a neutron bomb could hurt them even with a direct hit!!! But it will be Verboten in my GH!!!
Carol
Alohahoya, I don't understand why you must stop using CHC.
Three of the problems you describe don't have anything to do with CHC. The problem with salt buildup is well known, thus the recommended practice of flushing your soil with water equal to 4 times the volume of the container every 3-4 months.
Stressbaby...I must admit it would be nice to use the CHC...but after two bad experiences....and hearing that it reabsorbs salts more easily than peat (like a magnet) I am done trying. I did flush the pots...do it often.