Shes about to....#44

I had a great Mothers'Day, my youngest DD made me fried apples for breakfast..

Debra, those fried apples look soooooooo good.

Rain again on my day off, hope this morning finds all my sisters here in good health and good gardening time. My backyard project is really springing to life, the kids next dooir gave me that old fence with the little lamp on it and all their rocks, won't get them moved until this weekend, have to go with 38 yr old DD to get a load of stuff from youngest DDs' dorm in arkansas city , 45 miles from here.. then to lunch at the casino down the way maybe ( in oklahoma) and then back to to derby to unload, she goes her way I go mine, in to town later to see my son and plant some stuff at his beach area and in the flower bed I made there.. will try to go see Pauline this evening after the Tuesnite get to gether with other daughter and grandson, ... whew..
sure wish some of you would come down here to wichita to the seed and plant swap I am hosting on May 30th...

I did not know it would make a plant mushy! Glad to hear you saved the plants!
Yummy looking apples!
LK

Debra. is there a possibility you can get her to give you the recipe for those apples? JB

LindaKay, I think it only makes iris rhizones mushy, otherwise I think it is fine to use.

Jb, she cut up gala apples, fried in a frying pan ( electirc) added alot of butter, sugar and cinnamon and cooked until carmelized..

Oh yummy...sounds so good. Must try. Thanks. JB

Morning everyone! JB, how is business doing? You staying busy? Is the weather coopertaing for your growing season?

Debra, look what is blooming from all the seeds you gave me! Now keep in mind th plants are only about 4 - 6 inches tall, but the have blooms, one is a dark pink, and the other is a dark blue, almost purple! So tiny, but so pretty!
Thanks again for all the seeds.
Pink one first.
LK

This is the dark blue one!
I believe they are morning glories?

Business is steady but slow. I sold three plants on ebay yesterday and several in April. I am doing almost nothing locally. NJ people are broke. I am loosing money on the ebay account but I am at least moving plants.
My brug babies, produced from the seeds Aunt B gave me are now outside and I swear they are the highest maintenance plants I own. Now something is eating holes in the leaves.they have only been outside two days and of course the wind dried them out and they had to be watered twice in one day. The six inch pots are soon too small for them and it seems I just replanted them. I am not sure I have time to raise these ten darlings.The old one took another beating with the wind and rain but it continues to come back.
I am fighting the mealybug battle inside and outside. I have come to using a spray of straight rubbing alcohol. I am determined to kill these little critters. They are in the house on the little gold fish plants and the columnea. All of a sudden boom, there they are. That is the only bug I have and I never had it until I brought it home from Home Depot in the orchids. That was years ago and it is still here. A constant battle. I hate bugs and really have to inspect each plant that goes out of here. Very embarrassing if something would go along. UGH I hate to think of it. But, I would want to know. Even the inspector says you can seldom kill them all.
I am so sad. Our last barn cat was hit by a car Monday and now we will be overrun by rabbits and mice. Must get more cats. We lost four cats this year. One was 20 years old, one got hit by something and died, one just disappeared the same way he arrived, and then this one. We have had them for years but to have them go all at in one year that
never happened before. Have some pictues to show you later.Must get outside now and open the GH and walk dog. Later. JB

JB, I have a recipe I got from another DG friend, and it works for the little nasty bugs. I got some real bad aphids, in my new Angel Garden, from the milkweed vine that is growing wild across the fence. So I mixed this recipe, and it took care of the nasty things real quick!

Mix together 1/3 cup of cheap orange dish soap, 1/3 cup of amonia, and 1/3 cup of white vinegar.
Take 1/4 cup of this mixture and add it to two gallons of water, then put it in a sprayer, and start spraying everything, top and bottom of leaves. This is cheap, and it worked very well for me!
Let me know how it worked!
LK

Linda Kay, this may be a stupid question but I have to ask it. Orange dish soap as in orange oil having been added or as in just the color. I am fighting bugs too for the first time in four years. I want them all to DIE! My brugs and roses in particular are being hard hit. I've been using Neem oil but it takes so many apps.

Yes, brugs are high maintenance but oh so rewarding when they bloom.

Like in dawn dish soap. I got the cheapy brand, and it still smells like oranges!

LK

Okey dokey. I will get the mixture made and spray away. Thanks!

Good luck.

The orange dish soap.. actually any liquid dish washing soap will do, is what is killing the aphids.. and the amonia is fertilizing.. it is nitrogen.. I am not sure what the vinegar is doing in the mix. I use just the dish soap in my aphid killing mix.. doesn't take a lot.. about a tablespoon or so in a quart bottle.. I keep one handy whenever I walk around my garden and spritz any aphids I see... keeps them under control. They will be dead black spots the next day.. ALWAYS! Have done it for years. As for the frequent drying out... you can solve that with some of the polymer crystals... I only have to water my brugs every other day in 100+ temps with almost no humidity because of those.. sure will save you a lot of time and worry keeping them alive. I have them for sale in the marketplace in gardening supplies... not tooting my horn.. just wanted to let you know. I could not grow my brugs or hibiscus here without them. Way too much multiple times daily without them.

JBerger.. so very sorry to hear about your cats. It is so hard to loser your pets. Wish you were around here.. there are free cats and kitten available daily posted on line. Sign up for your local freecycle.. you will probably find lots of posts.. get all the cats you want.

This message was edited May 13, 2009 11:52 AM

I'm going to mix up some of your recipe tatters. I'm forever fighting the tiny greens worms that are chewing holes in my brug leaves. They start out as a dot of green, hardly can see them. I was studying the underside of one leaf when I saw this speck move. Well, that one isn't going to grow up. I've notice they have found my smaller brugs too so I do need a good solution to my problem. They seem to love the newer leaves the best.

If you have worms on your brugs, it is probably tomato worms. I hate those things! Yes, they can eat your plants up in no time!
LK

Linda, I can not see a thing on the plants. Yet, there are holes in the center of some of the leaves. Yikes, mystery worms.
If any dishsoap will do, I have the other ingredience so I am good to go. Thanks. JB

Sometimes grasshoppers will chew holes, they are hard to catch them in the act!
LK

I don't know if dish soap will work if it is worms, grasshoppers or snails.. worms tend to chew from the outer edges of leaves.. snails make brown marks on the main stem and pale marks in the centers of leaves or holes... grass hoppers break leaves in the middle of the leaf along the veins.. leave holes in the leaves and cut leaves off or break where they join the plant.. those are my experiences so far.

The soap works mostly for small sucking insects like aphids, whiteflies, some scale and I am not sure what else. Never hurts to try. It is cheap enough. It may taste bad enough some of the others may be discouraged. I pull out the neem when soap does not work but that gets expensive.

I have neems too so I will try both. JB

You would thinkk the plants be poisonous, they would not eat them, but they do! Must have a high tolerance for poison?

LK

LindaKAY, THOSE BLOOMS ARE AWSOME! oops caps lock.. anyways, better get some squirrel netting and cut some strips and tie them to a pole so they can climb above the other flowers that are doing so well there.. looks like u have a huge heavently blue going on the left there.. here is what they looked like last year

I think it was AuntB who said don't use the anti-bacterial soap for on your plants so I buy the cheap stuff too. I will now add the amonia and white vinegar and hope it solves my problem.

Debra, was that just one plant, in one growing season? Wow! That is so pretty.

I would be CAREFUL using vinegar. Soap will kill almost any soft body insect, including worms. I use to get worms on my pine trees and I used soap water. My husband worked for a company who had pine trees in their parking lot and after he saw me spraying he did it where he worked, cheaper and not as bad as chemicals.

USE OF VINEGAR AS A HERBICIDE

Some home gardeners already use vinegar as a herbicide, and some garden stores sell vinegar pesticides. But no one has tested it scientifically until now.

Agricultural Research Service scientists offer the first scientific evidence that it may be a potent weedkiller that is inexpensive and environmentally safe--perfect for organic farmers. ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.

ARS researchers Jay Radhakrishnan, John R. Teasdale and Ben Coffman in Beltsville, Md., tested vinegar on major weeds--common lamb's-quarters, giant foxtail, velvetleaf, smooth pigweed and Canada thistle--in greenhouse and field studies.

They hand-sprayed the weeds with various solutions of vinegar, uniformly coating the leaves. The researchers found that 5- and 10-percent concentrations killed the weeds during their first two weeks of life.

Older plants required higher concentrations of vinegar to kill them. At the higher concentrations, vinegar had an 85- to 100-percent kill rate at all growth stages. A bottle of household vinegar is about a 5-percent concentration.

Canada thistle, one of the most tenacious weeds in the world, proved the most susceptible; the 5% concentration had a 100% kill rate of the perennial's top growth. The 20% concentration can do this in about 2 hours.

Spot spraying of cornfields with 20% vinegar killed 80 to 100% of weeds without harming the corn, but the scientists stress the need for more research. If the vinegar were sprayed over an entire field, it would cost about $65 per acre. If applied to local weed infestations only, such as may occur in the crop row after cultivation, it may only cost about $20 to $30.

The researchers use only vinegar made from fruits or grains, to conform to organic farming standards. A Yankton, SD grower has been using vinegar for 3 years. He buys 55-gallon drum at $300 a barrel and applies on average about 5 gallons of vinegar/A. Some reports claim spot treatments in corn fields with a 20% vinegar concentration controlled 80% to 100% of the weeds (specific weeds not mentioned) without harming the corn.

Thank you Happ for all the great information. Maybe I won't add the white vinegar to my dish soap. After all my TLC on brugs I sure on't want to harm them in any way. The worms are doing a bang up job, but not for long I hope.

Tatters, they aren't the hook tomato worms as I've fought them for years on my tomato plants. Someone mentioned inch worms, they do move like them.

Well, if it ever rains here it is going to look like a buble bath party in my yard from all the soap spraying .. I just did a lot of spraying for the spider mites. Another brug has them... no sign of the webbing yet but the leaves are looking mottled and if Iook reeeeealllyyy closely under the leaves I can see them so I just spent forever with the hose washing under every leaf and then spraying with the soap.. it is now in the shade and well soap sprayed and will get soap sprayed daily for a few days... I have a cutting I started last fall that is barely hanging on due to those stupid mites! Driving me CRAZY! That makes three plants... two on the patio about 12 ft apart.. the other is an EE and the cutting is at the front of the house! The cutting and EE also got Neem.

LindaKay that is 4 vines mingled together with quamoclit ( u have that too) and down on the ground side is holly hock, zinnia, creping daisey and marigolds and monarda.. speaking of monarda.. if anyone wants any young plants of monarda, woodland violets ( they are huge) creeping jenny ( yellow) , creeping seedum succulant, english ivy, honeysuckles, or small mimosa trees, now is the time to tell me as I am tossing them if no one wants them.. I have rougues everywhere..

Any pictures of them?

monarda, either a gardenview scarlet or a jacobs cline

fuschia four o'clock lots of them available

I have some of the pink four oclocks, but I would love to have some of the monarda. Would they work in a hanging basket?

the violets are huge this year, they are to the left of this,, they are over powering my brug star dancer seedling and the rock harlequin, u can see my yellow four oclocks by the plantesis

Do you have any extra yellow four o clock? or any other color?

monardas grow anywhere.. hanging, pots, rocks, under things they find a way to get to the sun and bloom
they are popping up in the bean patch

i have salmon, white, yellow, pink anf fuschia four o'clocks, the monardas are gardenview scarlet, raspberyy wine, jacobs cline, pink ice, and double

I would love a couple of any you have extra of. LMK please? Price, shipment cost.
Thanks

LK