BTE, hugelkulture, hydroponics and other unconventional gardening

[Hinotori]

I've always used dawn dish soap and water in a spray bottle on spider mites and aphids. Do have to know which plants are sensitive to having their natural oily coating removed. After 5-10 minutes I usually wash the plants in a water spray.

Spider mites have caused me much grief on house plants over the years.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

I forgot to rinse 1 pepper and eggplant after spraying them last night. This morning, the pepper leaves were wilted and falling off. Hoping I've not killed the poor thing. The other pepper plant appears to not be infested, and has lots of baby peppers on it.

 

[tortoise]

I ordered Neem oil spray. I have leaf miners on my houseplants. Uggh. I also need to start dealing with potato bugs in the garden too.

 

[Hinotori]

I got Mom using Neem oil a few years ago. There was some critter infestation on her peach tree that I can't remember. She didn't want anything toxic with it having fruit. The Neem oil surprised her with how well it worked after I convinced her it was safe

 

[Lazy Gardener]

I've placed Neem Oil on my Amazon wish list. Will order some the next time we have the "minimum for free shipping" to go. Thank you.

 

[Britesea]

Neem oil works on insects (and nematodes) by interfering with their hormone system- reducing their ability to feed, grow, and lay eggs. If you buy Neem Oil before you're going to use it, be sure to store it in a cool place. Apparently heat will neutralize its insecticidal properties.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Thanks for that bit of info. Perhaps I'll continue with soap until spring, then order some Neem Oil for the gardening season.

 

[tortoise]

Thanks for the tip @Britesea ! I've just ordered mine. I'm excited to try it. I have quarantined African violets. I can see the bugs in them! And a lot more that I think were exposed and also have quarantined. I'm hoping to eradicate these pests. Soon too! So I can sell baby plants in spring!

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Still fighting the spider mites. It appears that the focal point was my ginger plant. Huge pot, 2 years old, and the fronds had started looking poorly late last summer. I gave them a dusting of permethrin in the soil since there were some spring tails living in the soil, then ignored the plant. My bad. So, I have 2 pepper and 2 egg plants that have been practically denuded of leaves. Keeping a close watch on all other plants in the vicinity. Have given them a good bath with dish soap, and most recently some weak Castile. According to my reading, newly hatched mites start reproducing at 3 - 5 days, so will continue treating every 3 days. Still seeing some live mites. Nasty things. Though I must say: I'm impressed with their resilience!

With fear and trepidation, I did 3 more hydroponic containers today. At this point, I'm just playing around with the stuff, seeing how easy it is to fail. I have 3 qt sized containers that were planted several weeks ago. Today, I added a 1 qt ceramic flower pot, a plastic shoe box, and a Folgers can to my motley collection. Also started some lettuce and Swiss chard in some peat. When they germinate, and get some root growth, the plan is to put them into the HP system. Took a couple more cuttings from Basil and Pineapple Sage, and put those directly into the HP solution. I've not yet had success propagating either of those plants from cuttings. They may get going, then they rot.

I'm hopeful that the mites do not move into my HP collection. Still have a few fungus gnats, so will drop some bits of Mosquito dunks in my water (when watering potted plants) as well as the HP solution.

Enjoyed my first harvest of sprouts in a sandwich today. Takes 3 - 5 days to grow a batch, so started some more today. So nice to have any kind of home grown green stuff, no matter how paltry. Delighted to enjoy some Basil leaves, along with the sprouts.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Hugelkulture:

Newest bit of info: My latest Kratky container is a plastic opaque shoe box with (3) 2" net pots, hydroton media. I put a rosemary cutting, basil cutting, and seeds in each of the 3 pots. Direct seeding into a pot is not recommended b/c the seeds fall through into the water. But, enough seeds landed on the pellets to take root, and I now have some lettuce and kale making an appearance. I had also tucked in some Swiss chard seeds. No appearance from them yet. Note to self: the next time I attempt this method, I will get the nutrient level at the optimum height, then dip a pellet in some seeds, and set that pellet into the net pot. Should work like a charm without loosing seeds into the solution. I don't know if rotting seedlings in the solution will be problematic.

The rosemary and basil cuttings have an upturned yogurt container over them to hold moisture and cut sunlight.

All of this is an experiment: "What would happen if..."