Aphids

Aphids

Host Plants:

In the garden: Ornamental trees and shrubs, including roses.

On Crops: Most vegetable fruit and ornamental plants.

Description:

Small, soft-bodied pear-shaped insects less than three millimeters long are usually aphids. Depending on species and plant, aphids may be beige, green, yellow or almost black. They tend to congregate in groups on new growth or in leaf crevices. See also black bean aphids and cabbage aphids.

Damage:

There are many symptoms of aphid damage, including decreased growth rates, mottled leaves, yellowing, stunted growth, curled leaves, browning, wilting, low yields and, eventually, death. Along with the loss of plant juices from direct feeding, aphids can spread diseases.

Preventing Problems:

Check plants often for early outbreaks. Clip off and compost stems holding aphid clusters. Encourage beneficial insects including lady beetles, syrphid flies, and lacewings, which are important aphid predators.

Managing Outbreaks:

In small outbreaks, a high pressure spray from the garden hose can help remove aphids from plants. Follow up with two applications of insecticidal soap, one week apart. Be sure to apply the soap spray to leaf undersides and crevices.

Tips:

Lady beetles and their larvae are great beneficial insects to welcome into your garden. Ants tend to be attracted to the honeydew left by aphids, so ant activity can often lead you to aphid colonies.

Cloning Houseplants

Cloning plants is a lot easier than some people realize, it just sounds like there's all this "scientific stuff" you would need to know to do it, but that isn't so. Especially when it comes to house plants and succulents.  House plants usually come from places that stay somewhat warm throughout the year, and don't have much direct sunlight, like under a canopy of trees, in the rain forest for instance. Succulents usually live in places that get very little water throughout the year and very bright, or direct sunlight, like the desert, pretty much the opposite of house plants. Although their habitats are basically the opposite of each other, they have something in common, they have to  survive in extreme conditions.

This common factor makes them both easy to clone. If a succulent  leaf was broken off by an animal, let's say,  and that broken leaf is exposed to the right amount of light, and damp for a period of time, like a few weeks or so, they quickly start growing roots to ensure their survival. I don't think hoping is the right word to use, but I'll use it anyway, they are "hoping" that their roots grow into the ground and become established before the water evaporates away.

When a plant doesn't produce seeds it is called  "Asexual reproduction", in this case the only way to reproduce is through cloning. That is why many house plants grow roots so easily, if a stem is growing along a damp area it can produce roots, that part will now become a separate plant, natural cloning.  These plants often produce more rooting hormone than most others to ensure survival.

Some house plants can be finicky, so here is a list of some of the easiest house plants to clone:

1. Spider Plant
2. English Ivy
3. Aloe
4. Rubber Tree
5. Snake Plant
6. Fiddle Leaf Fig
7.  Potho
8. Dracena

Most Succulents are fine.

Supplies: 

1.      Small pots or Flats
2.     A light potting soil with vermiculite or perlite or cacti soil
3.     Rooting Hormone, although it may not be necessary
4.     And your plant cuttings

Place the soil in the pots or flats  and lightly tamp it down, you still want the soil to be a little loose.  Take your cutting and place a small part of the bottom of stem in rooting hormone if you decide to give it a try , and place the stem in the soil as far as the rooting hormone is on the stem. Make sure the cuttings are placed in an area where the get their required amount of light.

Do not let the soil dry out for the first few weeks. The new roots are fragile and close to the soil's surface so they can dry out quickly. It is also important not to keep them too damp or in a lot of humidity, this can cause them to rot and encourages mold  and fungi growth. Now its just a matter of waiting, some plants root more quickly than others so be patient. If you plan on cloning woody plants, landscape plants and / or other types of plants, there a few extra steps that need to be done, I will talk about those in another blog.

Praying Mantis

My very favorite of the beneficial insects for sure, these guys will eat just about any insect pest you have in your garden, they are even known to eat each other!  They live about one year and lay their eggs in fall. A majority of the Beneficial Insects in your garden will eat certain bugs, but the Praying Mantis will eat just about any other insect. They are fierce little hunters, and boy do they put up a good fight. They are known as Ambush Attackers, pouncing on nearby prey after stalking them or waiting patiently in their camouflage until the time is right.

So what do these guys eat for dinner? Well, just about anything smaller than them that they can over-power.The Mantis has little spikes on their front legs which gives them a good grasp on their unlucky victims and they have been known to not only eat insects, if they get large enough they will attack frogs and lizards as well, I personally have never witnessed this thank goodness, I love frogs!!

This all might make them sound a little scary, but they can be a gardener's best friend and they are just so neat! I hope every year to have that one praying mantis make his little home in the plants near the porch so I can go out and see him every summer morning.

beneficial insects

The Ladybug, A.K.A." Ladybird Beetle"

     Introducing the Ladybug, this tiny little flying beetle is not only a pretty accent to your garden, it's also good to have around! You know those pesky aphids and scale bugs that love to feast on the new growth of your plants ,deforming them,  and how they love just ruining your roses? Well this pretty little beetle will eat them up, breakfast, lunch and dinner! The larva may not even look related, but they sure love eating those pests too.

The larva of a lady bug doesn't look much like its parents, instead, it looks almost like a soft small, black caterpillar with only the six small legs at the top of the body and small orange spots. They are found in the same places you would find the adults because they eat the same thing. In the two to three weeks they are in this stage they can eat up to 400 aphids! Next they go through a stage where they will attach themselves to a leaf and pupate. After about a week, they emerge as the Ladybug.

In North America, where I live in California, we are used to seeing the red ladybug with black spots, once I think I may have seen a Golden one. But they actually come in a few other colors; Blue, Purple, Pink, Brown, Green, Black, And Gray.

 The Blue and Purple Ladybugs live in Hawaii

The Pink Lady Bugs live in live in North America, I have never seen one but it sure sounds pretty! Gray Ladybugs are known to live in Alabama in the United States.

There are also ladybugs that can be pests and actually eat your plants as well. If you decide you want the beneficial  guys to live in your garden, they can be purchased online. When you purchase them online you know they will be the ladybugs you want.

 The Blue and Purple Ladybugs live in Hawaii

 There are also ladybugs that can be pests and actually eat your plants as well. If you decide you want the beneficial  guys to live in your garden, they can be purchased online. When you purchase them online you know they will be the ladybugs you want.beneficial insects

beneficial insects

Carnivorous plants part 1: Sundews, Drosera sp.

   Drosera sp, also known as the Sundew plant, is just one of the many carnivorous plants that you can grow at home.There are almost 200 species of this plant found growing everywhere except for Antarctica. With so many varieties growing in so many different places, certain species are going to be easier to grow than others, and certain varieties adapt easier and are not as finicky.

Carnivorous plants are carnivorous for a reason, the places most, if not all, of these plants grow have soils or a habitat which lacks the nutrients the plants would need to survive, they make up for this by getting the rest of their needed nutrients from insects. So when growing your carnivorous plants, keep this in mind, they were made to get most of the nutrients they need to live and grow through insects so the growing medium you need to use is not going to contain what the soil you use for your other houseplants contains. Some of the carnivorous plants may even die because they weren't made to live in a nutrient rich soil.

When growing theses plants at home, instead of using fertilizer, you would use fish food to supplement nutrients. We will get into those details later.

       Of the carnivorous plants grown at home, Sundews are one of the easiest. And of these there are some varieties that are easier to grow than others. Theses include; Drosera natalensis, Drosera capensis, Drosera binata, Drosera tokaiensis, Drosera spatulata, and Drosera adelae.

Some materials you need to successfully grow happy Sundews are;    Peat moss, also called milled sphagnum peat moss. You will need to rinse your Peat Moss, Some brands of peat are lower quality than others.Premier peat moss tends to develop algae and mold. Because of this, make sure you rinse the peat moss before using it to avoid these problems.

Try not to inhale peat dust- repeated exposure can cause some people to develop sporotrichosis from fungal spores found in peat. Avoid handling peat if you have cuts on your hands, due to the same reasons as above (wear gloves).

Long-Fiber Sphagnum Moss

Many Sundews can be grown in pure long-fibered sphagnum moss, depending on your climate and growing area, and is a great substitute for peat.

It is much faster and cleaner to plant or repot Sundews with LFS than with a peat:sand mix, and LFS is usually quite clean compared to peat.You should still rinse LFS several times with hot water to reduce algae and mold for lower quality brands.   

Silica sand- . I prefer pool filter sand, since it is normally comes pre-washed.  A larger grade is recommended- around #20 (about .50 mm).

Silica sand has worked best for me, since it is generally purer than play sand and it is great for loosening up the soil of your sundew pots, and allowing the soil to drain well. Make sure to rinse the sand to avoid salt and mineral buildup (even if it comes pre-rinsed).

Do not inhale silica dust when handling the sand. It can cause a lung condition known as silicosis from repeated exposure (but is usually ok in small doses).

Pots- use plastic or glazed pots. Species that have long roots should be given 4+-inch pots for best results. 6 is a safe bet for most adult South African sundews.  3-inch plastic cups also work very well for most of the easier sundew species. Frugal growers sometimes use yogurt cups or other old containers.

Clay pots can be used, but may eventually release minerals that can kill your plants over time. But if you want to use clay pots, occasionally top-water your carnivorous plants as much as possible, which will flush out the minerals that build up at the surface of the soi. If you grow them outdoors, the rain will take care of this for you.

Food for your Sundews- if you want your Sundew seeds or plants to grow as fast as possible, you will want to feed them often. You can use Beta Bites (fish food pellets), freeze-dried bloodworms, or live insects, such as wingless or flightless fruit flies.

To prepare your growing medium a 1:1 mix of peat moss to silica sand seems to work extremely well for most Sundews. However, pure LFS or a rough mix of 5:1 long-fiber sphagnum to silica sand has worked equally well for many Sundews.

One of the easiest methods for keeping the soil of your Sundews wet, (indoors our outdoors) is by using a tray, take the pot that your carnivorous plant is in, and place it over a tray that you have filled with water. Once the tray dries out in a few days, you refill the tray again.You can also top-water your plants, but this can become time-consuming if you have a large collection. 

Now it is time to spread the seeds. Make sure if you spread many seeds on the surface in the same container to space them out as much as possible.

• Water the plant with a little rain/distilled/reverse-osmosis water (about one or half an inch/2.5 to 1.5cm), via the tray method, to avoid disturbing the small seedlings.
• Check the plant every single day because Drosera can be sensitive plants.

Sundews generally germinate in 1 to 6 weeks and many species of Sundew take less than one year to reach maturity, this is much faster than the Venus Flytrap which can take 5 to 7 years to reach its mature size. They need full to partial light or bright indoor light, some even use artificial growing lights, this all depends on the lighting you can provide. Keep in mind that in the fall and winter months they are much more likely to need indoor growing lights.

Feed the plant once every two weeks. If your plant is indoors, you'll need to hand feed it. Feed it some dead insects or live insects, such as an ant. Feed the plant only fresh bugs.

• The sundew is not able to digest meat, so do not feed it any.
• Do not feed the plant an insect that is bigger than the plant's tentacle, or it could escape (and you'll have to catch it) or it will simply be too large for the plant to digest.
• Don't overfeed the plant if it is living in a high humidity environment. Doing so might promote mold growth, killing the leaves.
• If you place the plant outside, it will most likely feed itself, hence feeding is not required.

Watering your Sundew - A Sundew's roots are often weakly developed and most water is taken in through the leaves. Therefore, spray the plant with an inch or two of mineral-free or distilled water once every week. Remember not to spray too much or drown the plant. Too much moisture or water will rot the roots.

• Do not use any other type of water (such as tap water), as there may be excess minerals which build up and may kill the plant. If you do over-water the plant, invert the pot and plant while pressing down on the soil to squeeze out the extra water.

After reading this I hope you grow happy and healthy Sundews!
Drosera Trinervia
Drosera madagascariensis