When you are single and self quarantining
amykath
4 years ago
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amykath
4 years agoRelated Discussions
Do you use self seeders and are you happy with them?
Comments (26)I found a new gardening book at the library that looked promising. It was titled 'Plantiful'. It turned out to be a different book than I expected and it fits right in with this topic. This author decided when she started a new garden that she didn't want to wait for what she considered the usual amount of time for a landscape to fill in, 12 years according to her. She wanted a garden fast. So she went with a lot of self seeders and spreaders. I was surprised at the plants that she was recommending. Especially since she left out any warnings about how much they could get away from you and become a problem. She did identify any plants that were on the invasive list, which there were quite a few of, but there were plenty of things on her list that were not considered invasive that I would never have in my garden. Plume Poppy? Mint? Stipa tennuisima, Creeping Jenny, Oxeye daisy. Teasel? I don't know much about that one, but it looked lethal. [g] Mexican Evening Primrose, Perilla and Sweet Woodruff. Chamomile. Maybe some of these could be used in pots, but I wouldn't want them in the ground. I can't imagine a garden using all these plants. I suppose it is a different style of gardening, but I think you must really love how it all works out because I can't imagine ever getting them all out once they'd been growing for a few years....See MoreUnder Quarantine here
Comments (17)Kippy as far as applying Spinosad to my trees, follow the mixing as found on the label. If you plan to use it a lot find a wholesale place and get the concentrated quart (I think it’s like 3 mL a gallon with that), it’s around a hundred dollars here otherwise the regular for home use are pints priced around twenty dollars (I think they are 3 or 4 tablespoons per gallon). You can always buy the pint first and see how it works for you. Patty’s advice is correct, you should spray at dusk, particularly when the trees are in bloom, after the bees are back home. I have sprayed in the middle of the day before (on non-blooming trees) with no issues. I live in South Florida so the oils aren’t really an option for a large part of the year as its well over 90 degrees during the day and my trees are all full sun. I, like Patty, have disease pressures, mainly from neighbors thinking this is 1960 and they can plant citrus trees and just let them be, needless to say that isn’t how it works anymore. Citrus is by far the hardest thing to grow in-ground in South Florida. There was once a time most homes in South Florida had a citrus tree, well those days are long gone now. None of my other fruit trees require the vigilance and attention that citrus does, but I love my citrus trees and won’t give them up. I tell you that because I over spray my trees when they are young, once every 6 weeks or so in winter and usually twice a month during the summer when CLM and other insect pressure is the highest. If I don’t CLM will destroy every new leaf on a tree and eventually kill my trees before they can be established. I try to limit the volume and dangers of my sprayings by focusing on new flushes and with trees that young I strip off blossoms. Once my trees are established I cut down to once a month and no sprayings for the winter season. Again Patty is correct CLM is generally more a cosmetic issue, but leaves with CLM “tracks” are more vulnerable to other diseases particularly canker. I lower my sprayings once the trees are established, I do not need every leaf to be perfect, but I do want to protect my trees. I had zero luck with Imidicloprid on stopping CLM, particularly on my sour citrus, I don’t know why, but if it works for Patty maybe it will work for you. The only other practice I do to try and help with possible HLB is I spray a nutritional spray once a month as a preemptive measure and to boost my trees. None of my trees have HLB to my knowledge, but that is the current strategy commercial growers are using to negate the effects of HLB (I don't think it is known for certain how long a tree can be infected before symptoms are present but last I read it was thought to be between 6 months and 2 years depending on the tree's health and size). With all of that being said I would definitely listen to Patty and her suggestions she knows her citrus and I like hearing her thoughts on different things. I have no issues telling you what I do with my in-ground citrus and things that I have seen or had happen to me. Remember one key thing though, South Florida and Southern California are two vastly different climates and conditions and she is in your neck of the woods. I agree with Patty in that you should start with a plan now, ACP will spread through your state and HLB is more than likely to follow. ACP’s were found in FL in 1998, in 2005 HLB was detected, and currently it’s something like 40% or more commercial plantings are infected. ACP’s also are going to love that Southern California weather as they prefer 68-86 degrees and can live up to 50 days and lay up to 750 eggs in those conditions. If the temperature is over 90 degrees lifespan declines to 30 days and egg production falls to 70. I’m not trying to scare you I’m just encouraging you to move forward with some sort of plan, the state spraying will only slow them down not stop them. On a positive note there are tens of millions of dollars being spent to find a treatment for HLB. Currently, at least in Florida for commercial growers, the only approved ACP controls on bearing trees are broad spectrum insecticides (Imidicloprid is only approved on non-bearing trees) so there are concerns of causing insect resistance issues down the road. There have already been interesting develops with breeding and possible vaccine injections, and also let’s not forget HLB has been present in China for over one hundred years. It is certainly possible that citrus in the USA goes the way of the American Chestnut, but I still hold out hope. I think I rambled enough. Good luck, Mike Side question for Patty: What brand or trade name Imidacloprid do you use? I'm trying to remember which one I used. I'm thinking I used a retail one rather then a wholesale/commerical concentrate as I usually experiment before I buy anything in bulk. Maybe that was a part of my issue....See MoreQuarantine Question
Comments (12)If you're buying koi, then there is the very real concern about KHV. We made a decision and only buy from the one supplier who we trust, they quarantine the koi for 3 months. I then introduce my new fish straight into the pond. We've had interesting debates with other koi enthusiasts, and there are many varied views. If your Q'teen facilities are not excellent, you could end up harming an otherwise healthy fish. >>KHV - First found in Israel in 1998 it is now found in most of the world. The virus attacks the immune system of the koi so the signs of the disease are non-specific. The infection attacks in warmer water between 18C and 28C and spreads through the water with a 90% mortality rate. Koi carrying the disease but showing no signs of ill-health cannot be tested to see if they carry the virus. There is no cure for KHV, the disease will disappear at water temperatures above 30C but koi carrying the disease will continue to do so. The best way to avoid KHV is to quarantine any new additions to your collection for 4 weeks above 21C...See MoreNorthern Sea Oats self seeding EVERYWHERE - when do I cut them back???
Comments (7)I am sorry that you took what I said as rudeness. I was stating that many grasses seed and are beautiful when they do but that is how they proliferate, and if one does not have the energy to deal with what that plant does naturally, maybe it is not a good match for how you want to live your life. Life is full of choices. I was not belittling you for not wanting to weed out copious seedlings. That is a choice. You also have the choice of getting a more reticent plant that fits better with your expectations. There are plants I fight and irradiate because they do their thing just too well. This is not one of them.Some grasses are more sterile and might be a better match for you. I DO have this grass, about a 70' bed of it along the north side of my shop that are going to seed right now. It grows in dry shade very well. My situation is not yours. I am in VERY dry upland alkaline limestone hills in Texas and things don't seed out as they do in a normal garden. I don't have a problem with out of controlled seedlings. I have heard that that is what it does in other situations. . Maybe a couple every year due too the fact that I dryland garden and do not irrigate.. We are MUCH dryer and hotter than you, and those seedlings just don't develop as they do when coddled in a rich garden. To answer your very basic question, I would say the best time to cut them back is before the seeds turn straw colored or collect all the seed before they start dropping in a bag if you want to live life more dangerously and have more of that time of beauty,.. I usually let them turn brown because I want the seed viable. The ones that drop thicken my bank and ensures continuance of my bed if a drought kills off my bank of grass as it did in 2011. If my bank does die off, I water the bed after the drought has broken and coddle it back to being. I also collect them by running my hand up the stalk and deseed them before they drop and then distribute them in my sometimes moist arroyo gorge where they are found naturally in my neck of the woods. They call this plant "inland SEA oats" maybe because it makes a SEA of oats. It is beautiful in mass which is how it wants to grow naturally . I have a large place so that is how I am letting it go....See Moreamykath
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