I can't believe I did it again. So sorry. Is there any way to delete these from here?

Karin, I looked at your metal tray. i think you could find something more cost effective that would work better for your plan. I think that thin metal will have a short life span, and needs drainage holes or things will drown. One suggestion is a company called Anderson that makes tree band pots for grafting,etc. They make a square tray 5 inches deep with good bottom drainage. It is injection molded plastic that should last for several seasons or more depending on the UV exposure. I have built a table with treated lumber and plywood and drapped in a rubber liner. I added a edge board around the border to make a very large 48"x32 foot tray. This entire surface could be filled with soil. i pitched it in one direction so the excess water will run off. I have been growing in a greenhouse for about 14 years now. Those ants and aphids still give me problems during certain seasons. They seem to find ways around impediments. Some growers shut their house up tight in the middle of the summer for a few days and cook everthing so you can start fresh. During the spring when lady bugs are going strong, as well as aphids, I go around collecting there eggs layed on leaves outside the greenhouse, and bring them to the greenhouse crops to hatch. Once these hatch they will do a lot of damage to aphid populations. I have had some success with release of ladybugs, but they are generally not happy staying in a greenhouse and fly away soon. They will surpress aphids and if aphids are in high numbers lay there eggs in infested areas, before they start their migration. Unfortunatly with beneficials you are not able to soap if you expect them to do their job, so it is a difficult thing to figure out if you should stick with soaps sprays, or hope the beneficials take off. It will work well certain times of the year before the season gets too warm. I have also had natural populations of parasitic wasps build up, so keep an eye open to that as well. They can be purchased, but because they have to be overnighted shiped, they are too expensive. If you see leaves with mummified aphids remove it from your crop but keep it in the greenhouse. this will allow the wasps to hatch out and seek out new aphids. Good Luck

Hi,i dont know about you guys,but i live in new zealand and have a meyer growing in the ground.I have always beleived in feeding the moment i spot growth,whatever the time of year. Did you feed in winter?I do.These trees are growing all the time.Medium feed and regular.If you feed small and regular through the winter,the tree will be strong ready for the spring flush.Its important to feed high nitrogen at this time because this is what will boost growth and flowers and fruit set.You also need nitrogen to gain maximum fruit size and all the trace elements too.remove at least one third of the small fruits and space out,so they have room to grow. I would say feed once a month with a balanced npk and trace elements and deep water in dry periods and you will get constant growth.Dont prune,especially dont prune to let extra light into your tree.Citrus fruit inside the tree, protected from the harsh sun,they prefer to set under the canopy.I did this with my clementine and had virtually no flowers.Try to feed high nitrogen,except in winter,when the npk should be balanced.Dont feed high potassium to encourage flowers and fruit,this is wrong and you will get fruit drop. Tree needs nitrogen to set fruit and reach their full potential.My lemon nearly died.I changed my strategy to the above and the tree went nuts,huge lemons too.They love their food but they must have their trace elements too.cheers and good luck.

Hi Julie! As you already know, it is very hard to keep aphids off of all organically raised leaf crops because you can't spray with insecticidal soap, neem oil, or superfine dormant oil. I've never tried spraying lettuce with a homemade garlic or pepper spray as I assume the garlic/pepper spray would ruin the lettuce for human consumption. I'm not sure there is much you can do at this point, but there are a couple of things you can do 'next time'. Predatory insects are your best bet, but they won't show up until you have a large aphid population to attract them and by then it is probably too late to save the current crop. Next year, or in the fall if you grow fall lettuce, you could try releasing beneficial insects like lady bugs, aphid midges, green lacewings or parasitic wasps. The timing is tricky, though, as you have to release them before the aphids get out of hand, but you can't release them too early or they won't have anything to eat and they'll leave. You can also plant pollen and nectar plants near your lettuce and they will help attract the beneficial insects. Spraying with a stream of water works temporarily, but must be repeated daily. Since aphids carry viral diseases that they transmit to the plants as they feed, you can still have plant damage even if you are spraying with water daily. Some people have had success with mulching their leaf crop beds with a silvery reflective mulch. In the 'old days' they did this by laying down aluminum foil as a mulch around their plants. Some people used to buy that building construction paper that has brown paper on one size and shiny foil on the other. Nowadays you can buy a silver mulch from companies like Territorial Seed. That might be an option for future years. Plants fed excess nitrogen tend to be more attractive to aphids, but since you garden organically, I can't imagine your plants have been fed an excess of nitrogen. You also can keep aphids off your leaf crops by raising them under floating row covers that are well anchored so aphids cannot find a way under the row covers. That's about all I can think of right now. Dawn