Sorry to disturb you tropical belles with the harsh realities we in the North must face as we bring our babies indoors.
For those who are sheltering brugs in the house to escape frost or the deep-freeze, and don't have a greenhouse (GH). This is a chance to put together a 'classic thread' on overwintering brugs. I have looked at them all, and they are sketchy. Well, I'm speaking as an editor, I would organize the information. No offence meant to the contributors, it just needs to be organized.
I'll suggest an outline in a later post if ppl are OK with this.
Andy *blush* a newbie in this bower
We bring them inside, and then what?
What insecticides are you using? Is insecticidal soap adequate, or does it take something stronger? I understand spider mites are the main problem. Does carbaryl get them? Malathion is the main miticide, I think. What about critters in the soil? I have a few holes-in-leaves that look like beetle damage, so I'm not worried about them, and I don't see any signs of spider mites, but I don't want to take unnecessary chances.60
And do I need any fungicide?
It's 60F here today at mid-day., and we've been having a lot of rain/overcast/cool days. I'm hoping for an Indian Summer to charge up my little buds and then I'll bring her in and cross my fingers.
Pesticides as precaution for overwintering
Well, Andy, we had a cold snap and I had a couple of plants with buds ready to open so I brought them in the house. I had treated them with systemic a week prior. They bloomed real pretty. But they started dropping leaves. I don't know if it was from the electric heat or????
Then it warmed back up to 60/mid 40s so I moved them back outside and one bud finished opening and came out white (washied out) and a lot of buds dropped. They obviously do not like to be moved in and out.
I am using Di-syston (systemic). I have Floramite and tried it once but it didn't seem to do much. I am thinking of using Volck oil but it is a dormant spray like for fruit trees. Once I had something, not sure what, but the new leaves were opening all deformed. No spider mites, so could have been broad mites. Anyway, I sprayed the centers of the plants with Neem oil and that seemed to stop whatever it was.
I am almost of the mind that this time of year the plants know it is time to go to bed and are going to lose the leaves no matter what you do. I think the best thing to do, besides anything like the above, is to keep the leaves cleaned up and just treat them with the systemic and miticides the best you can.
Over the summer have used Bayer's systemic as well as Sevin on occasion.
last June I used Neem, and will use it this weekend, and again before bringing plants into my GH.
Here is a natural remedy from Kaufmann:
GOD's Green Earth, United States
Zone 8b
Mar 27, 2004
4:57 PM
In the St. Pete Times:
Dissolve 1 bar Kirk's Castile soap in 1 gal. very hot water and let it sit for one week, stirring daily. Dissolve 1 cup of the liquid in 1 gal. warm water, shake and pour into a spray bottle. Use for bugs and fungus. This will not hurt the good bugs, but will kill aphids, spider mites, mealy bugs and scale, white flies. Spray until the plants drip. You can also use a heavier concentrate, for harder to kill 'stuff' aufman:
I'm planning to use insecticidal soap on my brugs before I bring them indoors. They don't have any visible signs of insects now, but I don't want to take any chances.