Organic treatment against pests and fungus in Zone 9a
Comments (206)
rosecanadian
8 years agolast modified: 8 years ago
jessjennings0 zone 10b
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoRelated Discussions
How To Get Rid Of Fungus Spores
Comments (14)To back up what you added JJJFrisco, I found this: "Researchers in Brazil were cited as saying that milk has the makings of an ideal fungicide for protecting organically grown cucumbers and other vegetables. It attacks a mould known as powdery mildew, which is a major problem for organic farmers scrambling to meet the growing demand for chemical-free vegetables. The mould, Sphaerotheca fuliginea, appears as a powdery white growth on the leaves of cucumbers and courgettes (zucchini). It damages the plants by causing the leaves to shrivel up. At present, only chemical fungicides are available. Milk's fungicidal powers were discovered by Wagner Bettiol of the environmental laboratory of Embrapa, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, in Jaguariuna, north of Sao Paulo. Bettiol, who was looking for cheap ways to control plant pests, observed that byproducts from milk-processing factories killed powdery mildew on courgettes. So he decided to simply spray fresh milk on the plants to see if it had the same effect. To his surprise, he found that it did. In fact, spraying heavily infected plants twice a week with a mixture of one part cow's milk to nine parts water was at least as good at stopping mildew as the chemical fungicides fenarimol and benomyl, Bettiol discovered. In many cases, milk was both faster and more effective. After two to three weeks of spraying with milk, the area of leaves infected was in some cases only a sixth or less of the area affected on plants treated with chemical fungicide." I wonder is spraying 100% milk would have the same effects....See MoreRoot Knot Nematodes RKN Control (organic)
Comments (6)I was perusing the organic forum at Da>e's, when I stumbled on a reference to neem cake being used as a fix for RKN. Since I've always had a good deal of respect for the insecticidal effectiveness of the cold-pressed oil of the neem tree, the first thing I thought was this is something I should look into to see if it would work for those of you who have difficulty with the antagonists. One of the first things I noticed in my search was this post. I don't know how I missed it when it was originally posted back in 09. I would have thought that someone would pick up on this and run with it, as it sounds very promising. How about you, James? I know they give you fits. Anyway - the thread deserves to be bumped. Whether or not it prompts anyone to take another look at it is something entirely different, but I know that if I was in RKN territory and having problems I'd sure be checking it out. Al...See MoreOrganic solutions to pests and diseases in plants
Comments (15)My getting horse manure mid-summer this year was worth it: Only 1 rose-slug out of the entire garden (50+ roses), that's on the hill where I could not apply horse manure. Previous year of NO horse manure I had at least a dozen rose slugs. High-phosphorus ATTRACT pests. Yves Seedling got DOUBLE-DOSE of Dr.Earth NPK 4-10-7 ... I was absent-minded so I applied that twice. That's the only rose which was attacked by thrips ... I killed 5 thrips on that rose, after seeing one deformed bloom. Yesterday I saw one grasshopper on that rose, so I chopped that pest into half with a scissor. I was cutting blooms for the vase, so I inspected all my roses: none of them have grasshopper, except for Yves-seedling. Yves Seedling is in its 3rd year, no thrips whatsoever in previous years .. it's a dark-red rose. Re-post the info. Here's an Abstract from Cornell University, entitled "Effects of manure and chemical fertilizers on insect pest populations on collards." http://www.researchgate.net/publication/223371840_Effects_of_manure_and_chemical_fertilizers_on_insect_pest_populations_on_collards Department of Entomology, Comstock Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY " This proposition was examined using collards grown in five treatments: two with fresh manure at two levels (12 and 220 ha−1); one with ‘sheet composted’ manure at 220 ha−1; a chemical fertilizer treatment (785 kg ha−1 of 13:13:13 NPK); and a control treatment with no added nutrients. Population densities of two flea beetles and two lepidopteran pests were monitored weekly. During population peaks, flea beetle densities were significantly higher on plants receiving chemical fertilizers than on plants receiving similar amounts of macronutrients from manure. Flea beetle, imported cabbage worm and diamondback moth densities were significantly higher on untreated plants than on plants receiving any added nutrients. Flea beetle densities were also significantly higher on plants grown with ‘sheet composted’ manure than on those grown with fresh manure. " *** From StrawChicago: As to rose-midge, the only time I had that was when I did my oat-meal experiment in 2013 fall: mixing oatmeal with fluffy potting soil, and topped Golden Celebration with that in the fall. That created a perfect moist & fluffy environment for rose midge to hatch. I saw midge flying around that rose, plus deformed blooms, so I read Cornell University research which stated that too dry, or too wet would stop midge. So I put my soaking-wet-clay on top, and FLOODED that area many times per day. That took care of rose-midge for good. No other roses affected, and no midge in my 2 decades of growing roses. This year I topped my roses with DRY & alkaline RED-LAVA-ROCK and pea-gravel. Here's a good article on Rose-midge control: http://www.pghrosesociety.org/rosemidge.html "The only reported effective non-chemical control for rose midge would be daily removal of affected new growth tips and destroying the debris. This prevents of larva from dropping to the ground and pupating into new insects. Do not compost the remove plant material for this will allow the life cycle to continue in and around your garden. This requires diligent daily inspection of the new growth to detect the infestation and remove the plant part before the larva (sometimes referred to as maggots) fall to the ground. There is some anecdotal reports that removal of any mulch and loose soil around the plants in late fall will remove the embedded larva which burrows about 1-2" below the surface. Again this material must be removed from the garden or anywhere within 150 feet to prevent return of the insect. The only scientific study published in the horticultural literature on in subject of rose midge control appeared in 2006 authored by Dr. Janice Elmhirst ... The two biologicals tested are commercially available, one being AVID (with the active ingredient abamectin derived from the soil microorganism Streptomyces avermitilis and the other DOKTOR DOOM®, a ready to use permethrin formulation. The predators were a nematode (Steinernema feltiae) and a predatory mite in the form of an unidentified Hypoaspis species. The chemical control was Matador (lambdacyhalothrin), which is similar to the active ingredient in the Bayer chemical products mentioned earlier. The results of this study were interesting in that the predatory insect approach actually had a higher level of midge damage than the untreated controls. The best result came from the Doktor Doom product with less than 2% damaged rose growth. The next best was the chemical control with approximately 4% damaged tips. The Avid did better than the control but not by a significant amount." http://www.pghrosesociety.org/rosemidge.html...See MoreWeeds, Fungus, and Bare Spots Oh My!
Comments (9)Wow... that was a lot of information! Dmt gave good information and probably knows a lot more than me. I live in JAX area also, and had my yard trenched for AT&T. Those areas usually die b/c you would have to water it like new sod. Half of mine survived, half didn't. When I moved in last fall all my neighbors had decent looking front yards. Now almost all of them near me have what looks like extensive damage from something. My back yard has issues, not sure what, but so far my front yard, seemingly in danger from whatever is ailing my area of the street, is holding on strong. Sites like this rescued my front yard (HOC, watering, bug damage, etc...). Can't see your sprinkler head you mention. If the sprinkler head is above the ground level you could reposition it to be level with the ground (may need a taller pop up if you do that). You may have tried, but you can usually adjust the spray radius of the sprinkler heads so maybe you could even out that wet spot by adjusting the nozzles. Organic is noble, but I can't help you there. I do use milorganite (greenedge is the local almost equivalent in our area), although my wife complained yesterday about the smell of both. Oh, weed #2 looks like surge to me. Celsius will kill it I think... Bottom right of the bare spot #3 picture looks like maybe some kind of sedge or kyllinga seed heads. It looks suppressed, possibly from the previous weed treatment company. A couple weeks after you think it was treated last you could try treating it again. I think Celsius kills kyllinga but not nutsedge, and sedgehammer kills nutsedge but only 'supresses' kyllinga. So there's a conundrum-proper weed ID would obviously help. You could try each but make sure to space out apps by at least a couple weeks to make sure your grass isn't stressed from the app, probably don't want to apply the herbicide if your grass is stressed. You could probably get away with using sedgehammer on anything nutsedge like, hand pull the rest (as a general rule you don't pull up nutsedge) as they come up, and apply a quality pre-emergent in the fall. I say that b/c honestly your yard looks pretty decent. It's not that bad, at least not in the photos. Of course it doesn't' compare to the lawns of the experts on these forums, but us normal people have to keep our expectations in check. You may of course evolve into an expert... Have you checked for chinch bugs? Hopefully the experts chime in if I misspoke......See MoreKhalid Waleed (zone 9b Isb)
8 years ago
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8 years agolast modified: 8 years agorosecanadian
8 years agowe get a lot of lacewings here.
can't seem to find a picture though.
here's a hiding crab spider
here's our two spotted ladybug. i think there's a 5 or 6 spotted one. but the two spotted one is the one seen 99% of the time.
Khalid Waleed (zone 9b Isb) thanked rosecanadianKhalid Waleed (zone 9b Isb)
8 years agoCarol: Thanks for posting these pics. Two spotted ladybug looks beautiful.
Here is the firs red ladybug with black spots that I saw in my garden. Welcome.....
Isn't he cute... and he is quite big too as compared to other ladybugs. May be its a Mama bug searching place to lay eggs. I am surprised how she survived last nights torrid rain.
This is the beige or deep yellow one with black lines... no dots. So till now, I have spotted 4 different kind of ladybugs in my garden. Most common initially were yellow ones with black dots. Don't see them anymore. Then these beige with black lines, red with black dots and a suspected black with red and yellow dots
This fly is very common on my roses. Is it beneficial? Any idea what does it do?
And then there are ants. These are flying ants and they just keep flying from rose to rose. I suspect they kill ladybug larvae. And of course there are ants climbing up the roses from the bed or pots. What to do with these ants. They come and protect aphids. I think I will find answer in Jess's thread. She faced this problem too some time back.
This is Gertrude Jekyll. Only one leave is curled like this so no worries but just wanted to know what it is. Any idea?
best regardsjessjennings0 zone 10b
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoKhalid Waleed (zone 9b Isb) thanked jessjennings0 zone 10b
strawchicago z5
8 years agoJess: Calendula attracts green lacewings .. and it's VERY drought-tolerant perennial, can withstand extremely hot temp, as well as cold frost. Plus the flowers are edible. Below is yellow Calendula clump intermingled with pink geranium in my garden. The leaf is tender like salad (edible), upper right corner is Marie Pavie's white rose. The lacy deep pink flowers on lowest right (next to cement) is alyssum.
Khalid Waleed (zone 9b Isb) thanked strawchicago z5Khalid Waleed (zone 9b Isb)
8 years agojessjennings0 zone 10b
8 years agorosecanadian
8 years agojess - that's night owl. here's a young version of night owl.
here's a bumblebee going in for a landing on night owl.
don't you just love daisies!!
caroljessjennings0 zone 10b
8 years agorosecanadian
8 years agostrawchicago z5
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agorosecanadian
8 years agoKhalid Waleed (zone 9b Isb)
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoKhalid Waleed (zone 9b Isb)
8 years agoJust after the rain today, got a chance to take few snaps of the insects hovering around... most photos do not have a proper focus but is hard to take such closeup without a stand and I had camera in my hand (which would always move). So bear with it...
This is the light peach ladybird with black lines that go in continuation on whole body. Doesn't have dots. Isn't he cute.
These are yellow ones with black dots. This guy, just after rain, is searching for food or probably an appropriate place to lay eggs.
This big guy was sitting on one of the leaves. Looks similar to a honey bee
This looks like a small honey bee. Honey produced by small bees is very expensive here.... three times the price of honey produced by normal large size bees.
Flies shown in the last three pics.... are they also beneficial??
best regards
Khalid Waleed (zone 9b Isb)
8 years agoThis is the first time I saw a black ladybug in my house. It was resting on Augusta Luise..
He looked so beautiful.
Khalid Waleed (zone 9b Isb)
8 years agoKhalid Waleed (zone 9b Isb)
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoAnd here are few more good guys.....
It's hard to take the photos of insects, hard to focus on such small objects without a proper macro lens and without stand. So bear with it if you don't find the photos well focused.
I was trying to capture this jumpy guy since many days. The moment I keep the camera close, which I have to, it jumps away. But there were aphids on this Augusta Luise bush and very few of them there.... I haven't seen this guy devouring them but I am quite convinced that he does. Has a strange elongated sort of a crown on the head.
These flys are in big number. Don't stay at one place for long and keep flying from leave to leave and bush to bush. They were less in number when I was regularly spraying tobacco water to kill aphids. But since last 25 days, I stopped spraying anything (learnt from Jess) and since then, there is a visible increase in these flies. Or may be it wasn't there prime season then.
I haven't seen them devouring aphids either but I see a leaf covered with small aphids one day and next day.... the leave is almost clean. I am quite certain that these flies also have something to do with it. They are in far bigger numbers compared to ladybugs. I would roughly say that for each single ladybug, there might be 20 flies like these. If you look closely at their mouth, they have a claw like thing coming out of the mouth which is mostly there in predatory insects.
And look at this cute little fella. A spider can't be vegetarian for sure.... he must be devouring pests at will but I am not sure he would making any distinction in pests and larvae of beneficials...
I am enjoying being with them and I am also learning how easy (AND CHEAP) it is if the do things natural way But if we all go organic and natural, who would buy these pesticides and fungicides and bla bla bla.
best regards
Khalid Waleed (zone 9b Isb)
8 years agoKhalid Waleed (zone 9b Isb)
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoSaw this guy on the McCartney bush today.... Is it a white coloured ladybird? Never seen one like this before
I guess it might be a mutated ladybug!!
rosecanadian
8 years agoKhalid Waleed (zone 9b Isb)
8 years agojessjennings0 zone 10b
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoKhalid Waleed (zone 9b Isb) thanked jessjennings0 zone 10bjessjennings0 zone 10b
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8 years agoKhalid Waleed (zone 9b Isb)
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agostrawchicago z5
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoKhalid: When the soil is too acidic, roses break out in mildew. I made 2 mistakes that confirm that: One year I put too much ACID fertilizer (with sulfur) plus SALTY chemical nitrogen on Mary Magdalene .. it broke out in mildew. I had to give it my ALKALINE tap water (pH 8.6, baking soda is just a bit more alkaline). I squirt that ALKALINE tap water on the foliage, plus SCRAPE OFF the acid-fertilizer, then the mildew was gone. My tap-water is high in calcium, and calcium is known to de-salt saline soil.
SALT and ACID is the perfect recipe for mildew. If you get too much rain at pH 5.6, that will bring the pH down. If you use too much wood-ash ... that has salt. I did experiment with vinegar one summer, that brought down the pH too much .. thus I won't use vinegar, except to kill trees.
The second time I mixed crack corn (pH 4) into potting soil .. then I top with SALTY Milorganite (sewage sludge), and got the worse mildew on Jude the Obscure .. other pots WITHOUT cracked corn (pH 4), but with Milorganite DID NOT have mildew.
The next year I got smarter, and topped my pots with pea-gravel (pH 9 with calcium & other minerals from river-bed) during heavy rain, and zero mildew. See pic. of pea-gravel below:
Baking soda works since it raises the pH to above 8, same with Jess' observation that if she waters her roses before the rain, it helps with mildew .. tap water are alkaline, above pH 7.5, compared to ACIDIC rain water at pH 5.6. The only drawback of baking soda is the salt, that's why Green cure, or potassium bicarbonate works, to supply potassium, and raise the pH level.
If you google "milk and mildew" .. it's proven to work, due to the many bacteria that flourish in milk, once it's soured or spoiled. Bacteria competes with mildew fungi. Milk gets stinky, thanks to the bacteria population. There are 2 types of bacteria population: the good types which ferments yogurt, and the bad types which make spoiled milk stinky .... both types suppress fungi such as mildew.
http://www.gardenguides.com/779-using-milk-control-powdery-mildew-garden-pest-tip.html
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