I have been with DG for over a year now. I have sort of bounced around, trying to find exactly where to fit in. I watched some forums everyday, and others not so often. That has now changed. Since I started hanging out here, you have all been so nice to me. You have taken me in and made me feel part of the family. You have shared things with me and got me to do something that I never would have tried on my own. I just wanted to let you all know how appreciative that I am and how blessed I feel to be a part of this group.
JesseK
A big thank you to all of you
Jesse I feel the same way. Happy your with us and Happy I'm with you and everyone ! I appreciate you Jesse being part of our forum you are a Blessing to our forum I also am Blessed to be part of you and everyone's days and appreciate you all too !
Have a wonderful African violet and Gessie day get dirting :))
jesse...it is a wonderful forum...the best i have ever seen.....so glad everyone is here and we miss those that are not..
Awh Jesse..You are such a sweetie and so easy to be nice to :)
I will definitely have more goodies for you come spring ;) You are top on the list to get some of these babies who are over running my house :)
ditto Jess...I haven't been here that long either, but they definitely don't treat anyone like a newbie!
I've acquired a couple of new plants, which will hopefully give me some leaves for propagating..or sharing..
I can't wait for spring!
This is a super group of folks and a great family to be a part of! Glad you are here! We all have a lot to give and learn! I learn something new everyday!
One little tip that I can share is using diatameceous earth when putting down leaves or potting my tiny little babies. I automatically sprinkle a little bit of diatameceous earth on the top of the soil. That way I never have to worry about fungus gnats. They love that nice warm moist soil so I do not even give them a chance to get started. I wish I had known about this when I first started gardening. When I first started I got a serious infestation of them, so bad that they would cover one of those strips of fly paper in less than a day. All I was doing with that and some spray was like using a bandaid instead of a cure. Then someone told me about the DE and I have been using it ever since then. I make it a regular part of my potting. I keep it in a sugar shaker that I got from the dollar store. I have one of those little bags for you tools that I got from Big Lots and that little jar of DE gets sprinkled on top of everything. And so far it has never harmed any of my plants.
And thanks for all of the warm welcomes and treating me like a member of the family. Now this is the first forum that I come to. I don't mean to leave the others out because I do visit some of them but I always come here first. I got DH a new AV tonight. He picked it out and when we got out of the car to go inside he asked, "where is MY plant?" I just loved that. And he is starting to keep an eye on my leaves, waiting for a new baby to grow. You have no idea how happy it makes me for him to like what I am doing. It makes me so happy.
JesseK
Great tip Jesse! There is such happiness in seeing little ears or roots on the leaves!!
that is a good idea..I need some more perlite and I think I'll get a bag of vermiculite...I will definitely add some DE to it too!
I got my 'shaker' today to try the DE in my greenhouse. I do have some little fungi gnats out there. Just need to get to the nursery. I spent most of the day shopping for some cute clothes for my trip to Fl. never made it to the nursery. But I like the idea of not using any more chemicals than is totally necessary! Thanks for the shaker idea.
I've been adding DE to my potting mix, but not all my upstairs AVs have the new mix yet, so I still get fungus gnats... hard to say if they're avoiding the pots with the DE for sure. I keep their numbers down by occasionally watering with Murphy's Oil Soap (1 capful per gallon as Allison suggested).
Good idea with the shaker! I was using one to sprinkle DE around my morning room last year when we had an ant infestation... it helped, but we eventually had to go with spray & poison bait.
Jesse, you should post that tip over on the propagation forum! I think I'm going to try it on the surface of my seed starting flats and my cell packs this year... Do you think sprinkling on the surface is more effective than adding DE to the potting mix? I've been adding about 2 Tbsp. per gallon of mix.
I think sprinkling it on the top of the soil is better, in my opinion, since that is the first point of contact for those little buggers. But I think it will work either way.
Here is another tip that I came up with today. You guys may already know this but it sure helped me. I was having trouble watering my tiny AVs without getting water every where, so I got to thinking what would help me with this. I went to Sally's Beauty Salon and bought a couple of those squeeze bottles that you put color in. It has a long thin nozzle for getting the water exactly where I want it to go. And by using a squeeze bottle instead of pouring it from a watering can, I can easily control how much goes into the pot. So tonight when I watered my little babies, it took me less than 5 minutes and I did not spill any water on any of the leaves. This really helped me so maybe it will be helpful to you too.
I really do love this forum. You guys are great, not only in helping me learn, but also helping me have fun. I'm so glad to be a part of the AV club. Hey, is there a real DG AV club or should we start one? That would be way too cool. I guess you can tell how excited I am about both my AVs and you guys.
Okay, got to run to Walmart to get a couple more fixtures. Then I will be pretty much set. Talk to you all later.
JesseK
Great idea (again!) Jesse with the squeeze bottles. My MIL gave me a wonderful little watering can with a tiny, downard pointing spout that has been working beautifully for watering even little thumbprint pots... but those squeeze bottles are easier to find! I think our Dollar Store has condiment bottles (like for ketchup or raspberry sauce) that would work too.
Hmmm.... this gets me to thinkin' we need a thread 'What's in your AV/Gessie Tool box'
be right back....