digitS'
Garden Master
Here was my garden tool this morning:
In my seasonal fight against the spider mites, about this time of year I get the upper hand
.
Not a moment too soon! One plant is dead. That area is where I first noticed the mites and seems vulnerable each year to the problem. I think it may be an air movement/sunshine combination.
If that plant's neighbors do not make sufficient tuber growth through the growing season, they may as well be dead. They won't survive winter storage. But, the mites are all over the garden this late in summer.
In the thread on what didn't do so well this year, I quoted @seedcorn . He suggested watering 2X each day to discourage the mites: Today at 12:05 PM
That may well work. I believe that it is the arid conditions here, combined with the summer heat that give them such great conditions to attack the dahlias. I come back with both guns blazing! Actually, I used 3 different systemic insecticides this year trying to kill them. Bayer 3-In-1 Insect, Disease & Mite Control has been my preferred control. It stops the black spot fungus, kills the earwigs but it doesn't seem all that effective against mites. There are other systemics and a change set the mites back good in 2013. It didn't work so well this year. Tried a 3rd - now there are dead mites all over the place but others still crawling.
It isn't so great that I made the dahlia garden smell like "raw meat," according to DW. There are some organic choices but neem didn't do it when I tried it in the past. I've just learned that spinosad is listed. Who knew?!
That set-up in the picture is about the best. If I could use it daily, I'd really put a stop to them! I just can't be there everyday, tho'![:\](/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/side.png "side :\")
. So, I spray them forcefully with water once a week and return in the afternoon with the bug-killer. I figure that they are so tiny that if they end up on the ground, they will die of hunger before they are able to get back on the plants.
This was a particularly good morning for hitting them with water. It looks like our high temperature will be 68°f. It was 61° when I was out there at 10am and there was a 10mph breeze! You know that they were out in their deck chairs trying to warm up in the sun. If they made it back on the plants after I passed thru with the hose, they will probably die of pneumonia!
It wasn't a lot of fun. Of course I get soaked going up and down the paths with those wet plants that are now as tall as I am. We used to say that spraying down the roses in the rose greenhouse was more effective than the bug-killers that we used on the mites. I don't know. The commercial outfits have quite an arsenal of pesticides that aren't available to the common citizen. That's probably as it should be and it isn't so wonderful that so many of our agricultural acres are sprayed with exotic toxins.
Water from a hose ... maybe a 35' by 42' dahlia garden is too much for one gardener.
Steve
In my seasonal fight against the spider mites, about this time of year I get the upper hand
.Not a moment too soon! One plant is dead. That area is where I first noticed the mites and seems vulnerable each year to the problem. I think it may be an air movement/sunshine combination.
If that plant's neighbors do not make sufficient tuber growth through the growing season, they may as well be dead. They won't survive winter storage. But, the mites are all over the garden this late in summer.
In the thread on what didn't do so well this year, I quoted @seedcorn . He suggested watering 2X each day to discourage the mites: Today at 12:05 PM
That may well work. I believe that it is the arid conditions here, combined with the summer heat that give them such great conditions to attack the dahlias. I come back with both guns blazing! Actually, I used 3 different systemic insecticides this year trying to kill them. Bayer 3-In-1 Insect, Disease & Mite Control has been my preferred control. It stops the black spot fungus, kills the earwigs but it doesn't seem all that effective against mites. There are other systemics and a change set the mites back good in 2013. It didn't work so well this year. Tried a 3rd - now there are dead mites all over the place but others still crawling.
It isn't so great that I made the dahlia garden smell like "raw meat," according to DW. There are some organic choices but neem didn't do it when I tried it in the past. I've just learned that spinosad is listed. Who knew?!
That set-up in the picture is about the best. If I could use it daily, I'd really put a stop to them! I just can't be there everyday, tho'
. So, I spray them forcefully with water once a week and return in the afternoon with the bug-killer. I figure that they are so tiny that if they end up on the ground, they will die of hunger before they are able to get back on the plants.This was a particularly good morning for hitting them with water. It looks like our high temperature will be 68°f. It was 61° when I was out there at 10am and there was a 10mph breeze! You know that they were out in their deck chairs trying to warm up in the sun. If they made it back on the plants after I passed thru with the hose, they will probably die of pneumonia!
It wasn't a lot of fun. Of course I get soaked going up and down the paths with those wet plants that are now as tall as I am. We used to say that spraying down the roses in the rose greenhouse was more effective than the bug-killers that we used on the mites. I don't know. The commercial outfits have quite an arsenal of pesticides that aren't available to the common citizen. That's probably as it should be and it isn't so wonderful that so many of our agricultural acres are sprayed with exotic toxins.
Water from a hose ... maybe a 35' by 42' dahlia garden is too much for one gardener.
Steve
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