A Seed Saver's Garden

[heirloomgal]

I would take that comment with a grain of salt. And maybe some ipecac.

While I wouldn't talk anyone out of experimentation, you might have trouble getting either Velvet Bean or Winged Bean to maturity. Both grew here, but neither was able to even get close to mature seed before frost.

We had (and still have) trouble with fungus gnats, when we brought a new plant into the house. Apparently it was infested, and the gnats quickly spread to many of DW's house plants. We put several bowls out near the plants, with a solution of vinegar, wine, and a couple drops of dish soap. Those traps caught hundreds. We hung sticky fly strips directly above the soap traps, and they caught hundreds more... but they were still everywhere. They seem especially attracted to open books, drinks left uncovered, and the light from a cell phone.

We finally tried treating the soil in all of the pots with a dilute solution of hydrogen peroxide & insecticidal soap. That kills the larvae in the soil; but it takes awhile for the adult population to die down. We treated all of the pots again (with all of DW's plants, no small task) and only had a few for awhile. They are just beginning to show up again, so we will probably have to re-treat again soon. Unfortunately, the only "cure" will probably be to completely re-pot all plants once the weather warms... or to hope that once placed outside, natural predators will eliminate them.

Thanks for the heads up on mucuna and winged bean, I'll knock those off the list. I definitely don't want to allocate space to something that is not likely to make it for a full life cycle.

So fungus gnats are not wildly uncommon? This is the first time I've ever had a real problem with them. I thought I had it bad, but if you and DW had to treat all the houseplants too, wow. That's a lot of work. I'm glad at this moment I don't have any houseplants. DH saw these things flying around his orchid table and was not happy bout that but I doubt that they'll bother his plants since all the orchids are in bark. I read that the females can lay 300 eggs a day! Yikes! So far I'm impressed with the neem oil, it's about day 3 and I'm still find some adults both flying and crawling out of the pots when I shake them but its a 75% reduction. Some of the plants that were really yellowing are now greening up again. Making a dent in the problem for sure. Seems to me there should be some protocol for soil companies to eliminate, or at least reduce, the instances of these gnats?

 

[meadow]

Thanks for the heads up on mucuna and winged bean, I'll knock those off the list. I definitely don't want to allocate space to something that is not likely to make it for a full life cycle.

So fungus gnats are not wildly uncommon? This is the first time I've ever had a real problem with them. I thought I had it bad, but if you and DW had to treat all the houseplants too, wow. That's a lot of work. I'm glad at this moment I don't have any houseplants. DH saw these things flying around his orchid table and was not happy bout that but I doubt that they'll bother his plants since all the orchids are in bark. I read that the females can lay 300 eggs a day! Yikes! So far I'm impressed with the neem oil, it's about day 3 and I'm still find some adults both flying and crawling out of the pots when I shake them but its a 75% reduction. Some of the plants that were really yellowing are now greening up again. Making a dent in the problem for sure. Seems to me there should be some protocol for soil companies to eliminate, or at least reduce, the instances of these gnats?

Part of the problem (or so I've heard) is how the bags are stored too. I've made an effort to only purchase from stores that keep the bags reasonably dry or they've been recently delivered.

 

[jbosmith]

I think I stopped getting notifications for this thread for some reason! I was 20 pages behind!

The Promix I just bought is a 100 lb bagged ice cube. I wonder if that kills off fungus gnat eggs

 

[heirloomgal]

I think I stopped getting notifications for this thread for some reason! I was 20 pages behind!

The Promix I just bought is a 100 lb bagged ice cube. I wonder if that kills off fungus gnat eggs

I wish! Alas, my gnatty soil went through a few spells as low as -45C (-49F) this winter. I think they'd have to be shipped to Oymyakon, and even then I wonder. Dang bugs are so adaptive.

I haven't been getting notifications reliably for months, even for LEBN! Something has been going on with the site it seems since I have to press refresh every second time I click on anything. Like it's frozen or something.

 

[flowerbug]

it seems the internet goes through phases, but without knowing the performance of the various parts between my computer and the website hosting service i can't really be sure where the issues are coming up.

i do know that right now it is likely there are some "games" happening online with the domain naming system and various attacks on different systems which are meant to disrupt things. i do not watch how many attacks happen on my system but it does go up and down.

keep your computer system updated regularly and clean out your browser caches once in a while (i clean mine out every time i shut browser down). no, i do not know how phones work, i don't use them to internet... that is someone else's bailiwick.

 

[ducks4you]

Yep. It's rotten inconvenient, but when your computer says,
"Update, then shut down,"
or
"Update, then open (boot up)"
do it.
When I ignore these prompts I often end up waiting 30 minutes for ALL of the updates, often when I have a deadline coming up in a few hours.

 

[heirloomgal]

Yep. It's rotten inconvenient, but when your computer says,
"Update, then shut down,"
or
"Update, then open (boot up)"
do it.
When I ignore these prompts I often end up waiting 30 minutes for ALL of the updates, often when I have a deadline coming up in a few hours.

At first I thought it was an issue with my computer, but I don't know anymore. This is the only site where I have to constantly refresh to be able to click on things. Functions seem normal everywhere else? Computers -

 

[ducks4you]

I just thought it was common practice here to have to refresh.

 

[heirloomgal]

I'm so excited about growing some new-to-me flowers this year! It's been along while since I put much attention on flowers outside of perennials. Here's a few internet photos of what I'm hoping will grow! I just put in my last order for flower seeds. I hope I can get everything done correctly to succeed....

Pheasant's Eye Flower

Nemophiia - 5 Spot and Penny Black

Gilia Flower

Bird's Eye Gilia

Meadow Foam / Poached Egg Plant

Nolana

Dayflower, (hear it's a wildflower in the US, I've never seen it)

Red Ensign, dwarf morning glory family

and the blue one -

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I'm trying my hand at a few new flowers myself. Though I suspect they prove more challenging than yours, both because most of them are semi to fully tropical and because all of them seem to be "dusters" (plants whose seeds are basically dust sized, which makes even sowing and thinning a real PITA)

Darwin's Slipper

I also got the seed for the Falkland Islands species of this genus but as that was on an independent site, I don't have a easy to get picture.

Vietnamese Violet

Teacup Flower