Re: ? on over wintering in the house
 

In my opinion micro farmer is not being sarcastic. Nothing I can detect from his words.
Thanks Marco for your great explanation.
Now I know.
Another question, will the 15 to1 ratio of hort oil will also help to get rid of the spider mites during the winter time?
Is that applicable to use on papayas?

Re: ? on over wintering in the house
 

Marco you are tooo funny!!!!! Im in Cincy also..Home of the BENGALS "WHODEY!!" Anyway whats the magic oil? I'LL bet a lil olive oil & water with a dab of dishsoap. But seriously, iam a newby to banana growing. next year I'll keep a few to look pretty in the house and the others I'LL treat as EEars. I love the look of the plant by itself! If it doesnt bear fruit.....Thats OK by me! I wanna have a beautiful specimen year after year. Should it fruit?........welllll that will be a bonus.
Welcome to Bananas.Org!!!!:0513: this is a great forum, with alot of wonderful wonderful people looking and lurking everyday. Have fun, sit back, and enjoy the ride:2623: :2623: :2623: :2623: :2623: :2623: :2623: :2623: :2623: :2623: :2623: :2623: :2623: :2623: :2623: :2623: Magicgreen

Re: ? on over wintering in the house
 

(micro farmer, I apologize if I jumped to conclusions about the intention behind your blog.
I was had just been on lawnsite.com's 'politics' forum RIGHT before I typed that message, and my nerves were STILL a bit tattered and torn from the non-stop battle with the nudniks there!)

bencelest, I answered this question on the other thread.
Start with some STRONG hose pressure on the mite concentration, then spray the plants, and the entire area around them with insecticidal soap.
Maybe try some beneficial mites later if that doesn't work.

Re: ? on over wintering in the house
 

Thanks Marco.
But what are some beneficial mites that you know of?
I am new to this. Can you buy them?
I have another problem with my Italian plum last summer. They just have too many aphids and it's a big tree. I tried to hose it down with full force but it helps very little. I am planning to cut the height so I can reach the top this winter when I have the time. So by springtime the hose can reach the top.

Re: ? on over wintering in the house
 

dry leaves are usually a sign of to low of humidity or spider mites,,look very close it is sometimes hard to see them at first.

Re: ? on over wintering in the house
 

easy solution for aphids: according to my FAVORITE master gardner, paul james the gardner guy, dilute 1 c. of apple juice with even amounts of water spray on tree just before dark.....and turn loose the million lady bug you ordered through the mail. the apple juice will keep the ladybugs there in the tree and they will devour the aphids.

Re: ? on over wintering in the house
 

Thanks Mskitty.

Re: ? on over wintering in the house
 

Like I said on the other thread, I've not tried this product, but I have used a different type of beneficial mite (for a very different purpose unrelated to this).

The web site is benemite.com and the company is called 'Biotactics' out of Romoland CA.
Somewhere out your way...

What Mskitty said about aphids is true, but aphids are very different creatures than mites!
A different CLASS of creatures even...
They can be eaten by ladybugs, yes. But real the problem simply lies in the logistics of the sheer numbers of ladybugs needed to take care of an 'active' mite infestation.
Your cold frame might resemble an insect version of Hitchcock's "The Birds" with all the swarming ladybugs needed to do the job!

(You don't want to end up looking like Tippi Hedron, do you? :2188: )


Initially using generous amounts of beneficial mites in your cold frame, and then trying to avoid the use afterward of pesticides and soaps in the area, should preserve your investment for a fair amount of time.

Re: ? on over wintering in the house
 

good morning marco. i know that birds eat the mites.your comment about hitchcocks rendition of "the birds" is great!:eek:. i forgot he was talking about mites in the cold frams. i thought he was talking about aphids in a tree. so , my bad. just to make a suggestion: i am not a fan of insecticides, unless of course it is an "organic" one. even those can cause problems. however my fav. master gardner,replied to a question about the use of the insecticides and he said and i quote," the only organic pesticide that he uses is neem. it is made for the neem tree in s.americia or in africa." the only problem with the neem is that it is not selective, it kills all kinds of insects. the bad and the good. the only reason i know about this is believe it or not i did a "persuasion, argumentive" paper in college of the pros and cons of pesticides in the garden.( i got an A on that paper) paul james' suggestion is to use it only in sever cases of infestation.if its not bad he says to spray them off with the hose. or use an insecticidal soap. so thats about as much as i can tell you. if you order the ladybugs for the aphids or not and just let the predatory bugs take care of the problems....i wish you well! the only good reason for a bad bug.... is to feed the good bug!

Re: ? on over wintering in the house
 

Thanks to both of you for fast response and good answers.
Marco,again it makes me chuckle when you compare my 'cold frame' (I call it enclosed patio) to Hictkcocks 'the Bird',although I never saw the movie but I can imagine what it would look like. Thanks for the address where I can get the beneficial mites.

Mskitty: You are right that my Italian plum was planted on the ground at a corner of my lot and very tall over 20 feet in height. But to tell you the truth, I am not keen on using ladybugs because when I used it a couple of years ago, Home Depot sells them at certain time of the year, they did not stay in my citrus plants but of course I know now and thanks to your suggestion, using apple juice.
I am not that environmental conscious person. I am you can call 'hurry up and fix the problem apronto' so what I have in mind is some insecticide that will work.
My friend Joe Real is very conscious about the environment and I wish I can be like him maybe someday. But right now I want to kill those aphids apronto so I can harvest a good crop and to have my plants looking very nice.

Re: ? on over wintering in the house
 

how do you put the smilies at the end of 'nice'?

Re: ? on over wintering in the house
 

how do you put the smilies at the end of "nice"? well if you not to picky on what you use, i would consider the neem. it sells at lowes for 12.00 and its concentrate, so you have to mix it with water. if your gonna use it,do it in the early, early morning or the late afternoon.and dont use it in the summer at mid day. it can burn the leaves. its safe to use around kids and pets. it doesnt harm the invironment, nor does it cause problems with the water table.( as far as i have read in my research) it just kills all kinds of bugs.:bananaflipflop:

Re: ? on over wintering in the house
 

Thank you very much Mskitty. That is a very sound advice.
I used the neem oil before but all the leaves of my Fuji apples turned brown and that's why I am skeptical using it again. But you are right, I used it in the middle of the day when the sun was very bright. So I'll take heed of your good advice. I am saving it now for future use.
I may improvise a little bit. I may use the double the dose but I will hose it off after a couple of hours. That way I can be assured that the bugs will be gone and no neem oil to worry afterwards. Sounds good?

Re: ? on over wintering in the house
 

it surely does. got to protect the fruit....of your labors.:2783:

Re: ? on over wintering in the house
 

[quote=bencelest;23689]Marco,again it makes me chuckle when you compare my 'cold frame' (I call it enclosed patio) to Hictkcocks 'the Bird',although I never saw the movie but I can imagine what it would look like. Thanks for the address where I can get the beneficial mites.

QUOTE]

You've never seen "The Birds"?
Oh my!
My humor then was completely wasted on you!

Then you must go out and rent the DVD soon.
It has very good special effects...for what they had to work with in 1963!
Hitchcock was a master at instilling fear into the audience, even when nothing could be seen.

And each time one of the starlings (or whatever) takes a peck at any of the character's faces in the movie, just envision the swarms of crazed psycho ladybugs doing the same thing in your enclosed patio! :jedinaner:

Re: ? on over wintering in the house
 

oh yeah...did i forget to tell you? the female ladybugs..um they bite. i knew i neglected to tell you something. sorry. lol:confused:

Re: ? on over wintering in the house
 

You know something people......The Flying Dutchman is right! .....Bear in mind iam new and this is my 1st winter. I have my nannas,ginger,fern,others, in my plastic sheeted GH in the basement. I never thought to keep a thermometer down there till I got INVOLVED WITH the Nanners! The best i could do was a pool one from big lots. I just checked the temp and its ....58degrees down there in my basement. outside its .......22.4degrees outside according to my thermometersss; and i got a few cuz you know iam a gardener. But what iam saying is ......The day or two aweek that i forget the light and humidifier, and ....... the next day I turn on the light and check on my darlings.......They look wonderful! And it has been puzzeling me till i read this>>>>what the flying dutchman said. And someone else ,maybe it was him about no light , low temps. ummmmmmmmmmm

Re: ? on over wintering in the house
 

No, no sarcasm. Just one of those inquiries from an onlooker...er..onlurker:camelnaner: . I am interested in the anti dessicant, though. I may have to spray my dormant plants in my garage and house plants.

I've found that the aphids on my cherry trees are usually located on the fresh shoots. I saw a nonstop line of ants going up the trunk and figured that they were protecting the aphid colonies from their predators. I wrapped my cherry tree trunks with expandable tree wrap and over it I smeared a ring of tanglefoot to exclude the ants, which got rid of my aphids.

Another Earth friendly solution (but you have to climb to the aphids level) is a small squeeze of dish soap in a quart of water with about 2 tablespoons of cayenne pepper powder mixed in a spray bottle and sprayed on the colonies...burning aphid torture and death...

Lady bugs should be kept in the refrigerator and released about 100 at a time, at night, every 2-3 days. They won't fly at night (keep the yard lights off), but will crawl up the tree and lay eggs, which will hatch in a few days and the larvae will devour as many or more aphids than the adults will and not fly away 'til they pupate and hatch into adults...but not before snacking on a few aphids and mating first...

Release them in the tree if using the tanglefoot 'cause you don't want the ladybugs to get stuck...

Problem with ladybugs is the lagtime til the eggs hatch. Knock the heavy concentrations of aphids out with a hose sprayer or the soapy pepper water spray a few days before release, and keep the aphid protectors away.

Jeff

Re: ? on over wintering in the house
 

"Another Earth friendly solution (but you have to climb to the aphids level) is a small squeeze of dish soap in a quart of water with about 2 tablespoons of cayenne pepper powder mixed in a spray bottle and sprayed on the colonies...burning aphid torture and death..."

JEFF,heh-heh, I like your solution.
I am a masochist.:2169: :2169: :2169:

Re: ? on over wintering in the house
 

Sorry...got a little carried away...:pepper2nana: