Howdy.
So, you're saying, when your plants are indoors, mites attack, then after hauling outside, they die, right?

If you question why this happens, the answer is simple. Fresh, Circulating Air..not sun, watering, fertilizing or even humidity, (although humidity plays a major role.) Actually, all the above make a difference, but fresh air is the key to keeping mites at bay.

Once windows are closed and heat's turned on, the house gets stuffy.
When temps are warm, opening a window freshens air, especially if you have a ceiling or rotating fan running on low, 'even a few hours per day.' (Never direct air on plants.)

Mites, and other insects don't like certain flavors/smells, so the object is to experiment, find which edibles work best for your plants.

Over the years I've mixed different edibles and harmless products. Before birds were a part of my life, I used chemical sprays, but didn't like the smell or the fact we were breathing dangerous products, including those marked safe indoors.
I'll jot a list of items I use to make this mix, but since I no longer measure, the amounts are 'approximate.' If a little more or lesss is added, your plant/s won't be harmed..
Ingredients:

16-20 oz mister
2-4 drops dishsoap (not Dawn)
Garlic, (either chopped or squeezed..Liquid prevents sprayer from clogging. 1-2 cloves
Citrus Rind, (prefer lemon or lime) Like garlic, adding lime or lemon juice prevents clogging. 1/4-1/2 teas.
Cayenne Pepper, sprinkled in water..1/8th teas should do.

It's best to prepare ingredients (in water) the day/night before..Shake thoroughly after mixing and before each use.

You can keep this mix for weeks..as long as you shake bottle and water doesn't get cold if placed in a cold spot.

Fish Emulsion: Started using FE as a foliar 'insect' spray when I bought a scale-infested olive tree. A woman who owns a citrus nursery in Fl told me they use FE as a preventative against scale and organic feedings.. She was so right..I sprayed, not only the Olive tree, but neighboring plants scale found homes.

1 capful per 16-20 oz mister of water..Can be used with or without the above ingredients.. I prefer with.
Before plants are brought indoors, each plant is sprayed with the above mix and FE..One to two applications, a week apart.
When FE (or any fertilizer) is added, discard excess.
I also like the idea that FE works as a last foliar feeding of the year. It doesn't burn leaves or roots. (Roots when fertilized via soil.)

So, that's about it. BTW, my plants are sprayed with this concoction twice a month or so during winter months..minus the FE. (Unless scale is found) And thank God, since the olive tree disaster, that was the last time any plant, including the olive tree, had scale.

So, Yellow, if you have these ingredients lying around, mix and spray throughout winter. It's also a good idea, before hauling plants inside, first hose with plain water, air dry, then spray mix before bringing plants in. Who wants SPIDERS in their house???? YUCK.

If your plant room get stuffy, run a fan a few hours a day. Or better yet, crack open a window. If your home is dry, infest in a humidifer and mist/shower.
Goood luck, Toni

Thanks Toni.

Yes, the circulating air is the key. This year is different though, it is not as windy as before given the cold and humid weather. Maybe that's why mites are still around. The only downside when using FE is that caterpillars love the smell. They will crawl onto the plants and hide under the leaves after the application.

Let me tell you,

Toni definately knows her mites well..Do you realize that she was one of the first ones to jump on the band wagon in helping me rid of my insects..

I struggled with them CONSTANTLY, that is until I believed that such an easy spray could work and started using it..
Thank God for good people to help such as you toni!

Hi yellowthumb, I disapeared for a while. So extremely busey and yet enjoying summer at the same time. I think fall is almost here after a non-existant summer! :-(

Yellow, yep, fresh air is the key..did you ever try growing an annual indoors? Even a low-light annual? Without fresh air, they attract bugs.

Mike, you embarrasse me..lol..I wondered where you've been hiding..
The Clivia is doing great..no flowers, maybe next year.
Mike, summer, or whatever you want to call it, flew by..Kids are already going back to school, night temps are cool.
Yesterday turned out being nice, and this wkend temps are supposed to be in the 90's..I hope they're right.

Mike,, how are your citrus doing? You haven't mentioned them.. Are they blooming/fruiting?
I wonder if Fl's ban is ever going to end..It's been either 4 or 5 years since adding a new citrus.
I have two Kumquats but would like two more. lol.
Especially one with variegated leaves..I also wanted to try another Bhuddha's Hand..oh well..maybe one day.

Do you like hoyas? Their flowers are fragrant, too..hoya flowers are so pretty. Waxy looking, each have a different scent..some smell like vanilla..umm.

My Gardenia needs potting, but soil is sooo expensive. I don't care for the pot it's in now, thick plastic..Instead I want to pot in a taller, black growing pot. The plastic pots plants come in when purchased.
Never found decent sand, Mike..I can't believe HD's got so bad..they might as well call it beach sand, it's so thin. I considered buying sand and grit, ,then mixing together, but dont have the room, and these bags are heavy.

Welcome Back, Mike...Toni

Thanks for the recipe, Toni! I was waiting to see it in another thread that Mike thad started. The ingredients are in most people's kitchen and easy to put together. Now I have it and bookmarked for easy reference. I also have a gardenia that needs repotting into adequate soil, but it seems difficult to find turface and crashed granite in nurseries around this area. I'm trying to use Al's gritty mix. We will see if it survives!!

Consentida,

If your still trying to find the ingredients for gritty mix, why don't you just use the 5.1.1. mix since that has a bit of peatmoss which denias LOVE and thrive in.
It will still drain fast, and in fact be much lighter in pots.
I have some in this mix doing quite AWSOME!! This is easier to find, and all you have to do is transplant more often. The gritty mix is for plants you plan on leaving in the same pots for years at a time and for durabilty.

By the time you find the igredients you need for your plants, it might be to late to repot..Just a thought.

Toni, I love hoyas....They smell so nice. I have one that smells like chocolate, especially in the early am and at night!
My citrus are doing AWSOME!! My ponderosa and grapefruit trees seems to be the easiest to grow and fastest.
But ALL are doing so beautifully! Thanks.. That is until October comes around and all that ski weather...lololol

I have 4 bags of sand, the kind you need that are just wasting away toni...If I could drive them to you I would...:-(. You can gladly have them...The best kind too. The silica one. Very clean tiny stones..The kind they use to mix in Bonsai soil. I bought a bad specifically for this.never used it.

Please, i would love to see a pic of the clivia...I bet he is doing good with ya..:-)

Care for yourself ok. get a computer that will last you for a while ok..lol

Hugs

Mike

Mike, your suggestion to use the 5.1.1 makes a lot of sense. This was my next step. I still have one more garden centre to go this evening and tomorrow my gardenia will go into either one of the mixes. For convenience's sake, I will continue to look for the gritty components and take it from there with my other plants once i find them.
2 years ago, somebody gave a couple of cuttings of hoya and the plant is gorgeously green. It never bloomed yet, so I must be missing something with its care or maybe it could be that the plant needs to mature a few years before it flowers? I will go to the hoya's forum to research a bit more throughly but in the meantime, any of you have any suggestions? Thanks a lot for all the ideas! What a great place to seek advice and learn are these forums!

Happy Sunday.. The weather is perfect..high 90's, 95% humidity, breezy, and the sun is shining..
Plants are in heaven..:) So, am I...

Consentida..You're welcome..
I too need to repot my tree Gardenia. The problem is, I want to use a bigger, plastic growing pot..nothing fancy. Got to look for one..never toss pots..whenever we buy a perrenial that comes in large container, I save them. Large, growing pots are expensive. Especially 12" and up.

My gardenias are potted in a combo of soil and soil-less mediums..since gardenias prefer acidic soil, Peat or Spaghnum Peat is added..Black, rich house plant soil, too. When HD sold decent sand like Mike's talking about, it too was added..the finish is Perlite and small stones. I think that's it..After repotting, soil gets a hearty drink with a few drops of Superthrive.

Con, regarding hoyas, do you know its type and what size pot it's in? Hoyas start flowering when roots fill container..light is important. Some people grow hoyas under artificial light, but lights must be on 14+ hours per day..
People on the Hoya forum have beautiful specimens..Wow. They fertilize quite often..Years ago, when I got 'hooked' on plants, I read, slow-growing plants should get little fertilizer. 2-3 times per year. Hoyas are slow-growing, so, they'd get little fertilizer..after talking to ppl on the hoya forum, I learned they fertilize every other week, etc, and their hoyas are just gorgeous.
If you feel your hoya is overpotted, perhaps you should downsize its container???

Mike, it's tempting, but an 800? mile drive is a bit far..lol...Although, I always wanted to visit the east, especially New England states..it's impossible going anywhere, no vacations, not with the pets..2 dogs, 4 birds and an iguana..lol..
The last time we left IL was for a funeral. I had a friend come over to feed the birds, (we didnt have the iguana) and at the time we had one dog..we put the dog in a kennel which ended up turning into a disaster.

Umm, chocolate-scented-flowers..I had a chocolate scented Geranuium..it smelled delicious..lol.
I've never seen pics of your hoya..What type do you have?

I got to get outside and snap pics..plus repot fand fert a few more plants..I'll get to it soon..gotta eat something first, my last meal was yesterday..lol
Cereal and a banana..ummm..lol.

Ponderosas are the prettiest. A local conservatory has a huge, tree-shaped Ponderosa..The first time seeing it, I thought the fruits were grapefruits..the lemons are huge. It's different growing citrus in a green house year round, opposed to a house. I think, not sure, theirs is planted in dirt, not a container..We used to visit the conservatory several times a year..Despite the season, their Ponderosa was in bloom and fruiting.
After seeing their tree for the first time, the following day, I contacted Briteleaf Nursery and ordered a ponderosa..lol.

Mike do you bring all plants outside? Does your house look empty? lol..it's so easy buying plants when a room is barren..then come fall, one thinks, where did this and that plant go??? lol.

Happy Sunday..hope you're weather is beautiful..Toni

Hi....

Ponderosa lemons!!! When I saw and smelled the tree at Logees, I bought 8 or more of them...They were one of my first citrus, and I still have some of them..lol

They for me are so easy to grow, like weeds!!!

I hope your weather is still good. CAN YOU BELIEVE that it has been in the 60's for 3 days again and grey skies!!! I am so sick of our summers getting shorter and shorter around here.

That's ok, I can always snow board again in just a couple of months!!lol. You can ALWAYS guarentee that the cold will be here!

Yes ALL my plants go outside, all the tropical high mantenance one. The regulars, you know, the regular houseplants like pothos and spiderplants and peacelillies, and so on, at least they stay indoors adding some life to my almost barren rooms..

NO PESTs!!!!!!!!!!!! is the best part though!

Well, take care, and keep in touch. What aboring forum latelty ha if it wasn't for the few of us keeping in touch..lol

WHERE"S MERCIEPOO!!!!!?

Hugs

Mike

Mike, do you go to Logees green house or order through the mail?
If you go to their nursery, are plants for sale much larger than those shipped? Do they come in 2 14" pots at the gh?
I can't see buying citrus in a 3" pot..it'd take forever to grow, plus probably not grafted..Right?

Our weather has been beautiful..thank God! high 80's all week and sunny..but we need rain. Everything is dry..lugging 5 gallon containers of water outside is a lot of work, too heavy..I'll probably hose tonight.

So, it's still cool and gray there? That's terrible..This has been the worse summer ever..Doesn't feel like summer. I have a feeling my plants will come in a lot sooner than previous years..the night temps drop in thte 60's which is okay for the plants, but I'm freezing..lol. I dress like an Eskimo at night..lol..

Funny, I too keep standard house plants indoors during summer..Same plants you mentioned, plus African Violets. Actually, there's quite a few plants in the house..lol..Some baby sux, Sygoniums, Aglaonemas, a few Calatheas, Ficus, Dracaenas..the only Dracaena that goes outside is Madagascar Dragon Tree..Some other odds and ends, too..lol..Dont know where plants will go come winter..lol..

I hope Mercipoo is on vacation and left her computer behind. It's not like her to take off from this forum.
If she went on vacation, I hope she found a plant sitter. lol
Who'd do the watering?

Merci, if you're around, please come forth.
I wonder if she talks to anyone from GW..(on the phone) Toni

Yes..I go to Logees in person, several times a year..

I always grab the biggest ones there. They have plants in 6 inch containers, 4 and 2.

I LOVE that place!!!Especially in the winter!!

Mike...

Hi Toni!
Your home made insecticide is amazing! I can't begin to tell you how much of a difference has made on my plants. I had a sick sambac jasmine little plant half eaten by mites. I sprayed it before going away on vacation and when I came back the plant had grown 4 intact leaves. All of them look green and healthy. I'm beginning to believe that I will be able to save it.
I have no clue as to what kind of a hoya I have ( one of these days I will learn how to post pictures and I will show you so maybe someone can identify it). Your observation about fertilization and pot size hit the nail right on the head. I hardy fertilize it and the pot is way too big for it(there is still plenty of space for roots). I have it outside and it gets lots of light, little sun, though. I will repot it in a smaller container and will begin to fertilize it. I guess I will have to go to the hoya forum to learn more about them.
Mike, my gardenia is in the 5.1.1 mix and it is doing much , much better. Still looking for the gritty mix components, though.
Thnks a lot for the great advice. Boy, let me tell you, the more I learn about plants, the more I realize how little I know about them!
Take good care and thanks again!