Plantpassion

Red Spider mite and how to spot it

I manage to spot Pest and Disease on plants wherever I go, and this mottled Banana plant leaf was unfortunately in a "hot" border that my parents have in their garden.  It was put in at the beginning of the year, and hasn't thrived and grown, unlike the Cannas at the other end of the bed, and the reason is that the mottling between the leaves and the small patches of white are indicative of red spider mite.

This most likely arrived with the plant, as a tropical variety is likely to have been grown on in a nursery greenhouse at the beginning of the year.

Tomato Blight, watch out, it's about.

I saw my first case of blight this year today, - This is a fungal spore that you need to know what it looks like, so you can catch it the first day it occurs.

Blight is what caused the Irish potato famine, and if you are growing potatoes or tomatoes outdoors, you need to spot it within a day of it starting to be able to save your crop
For it to develop you need a couple of days of warm wet conditions (oh yes like in an English summer!) and then the spores will work fast to turn the stems and leaves brown (this is called the Haulm on potatoes). The only prevention is to spray when conditions are likely to effect plants, but for those of us that garden organically, (or don't get round to spraying) the only cure is to remove effected plants the minute you see the problem. 

Bugs and Pests and how to get rid of them

The warm humid weather of the last few weeks has been a fantastic breeding ground for bugs of all sorts, - i've watched from my study window as Caterpillars have eaten my Roses, and i've found Aphids, Slugs, Rosemary beetles, Cuckoo spit and chafer bugs in clients garden this week alone.

Most of these pests could be got rid of with chemicals, although Rosemary beetles and Cuckoo spit froghoppers don't have anything especially for them, but I feel that often that's too harsh a solution and besides, what if the problem is on your fruit and veg.  That's why i've been using Natural methods (picking of the bugs or blasting them off with a water jet) or Predators, - bugs that eat bugs.

These are available for all kinds of pests, and are often available from garden centres as well as online.  i've tried the vine weevil nematode nematode (steinernema kraussei) which is sent in a soil like pack that you mix with water and water onto your pots or plants, The Red Spider mite predator (phytoseiulus persimilis) is provided in a test tube of vermiculite, and you shake the bugs out onto your plants (usually in a greenhouse) - The other one i've used reguarly is Encarsia formosa which get rid of Whitefly, and Ladybird pupae which are great for aphids. (I used them with great success on my cordon apple trees in my Guildford garden)  I havn't used the slug predator yet (phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita), but after the rain that is pouring outside my window, I may need that this week.

What's eating my Rosemary?

At this time of year, there could be a very pretty bug hiding in your Rosemary plants.

The Rosemary Beetle (posh latin name - Chrysolina America) likes to spend June to August hiding on your Rosemary, Lavender or Perovskia, multiplying, so that it's hungry children can demolish your plants in the Autumn.

They are quite easy to spot, and very pretty, but i'm afraid I have to suggest that you are hard and stamp them out of existence unless you want a very bare twig of a plant by October.

There are no chemical controls that are permitted for this bug, and as most people grow Rosemary to use in the kitchen I wouldn't recommend spraying it with anything, - Happy Bug hunting.

Lily Beetles, - how to spot them and get rid of them

As garden pests go, the lily beetle is the brightest coloured and the most devastating to an entire crop of summer flowers.  When I started in horticulture, although being established in Surrey for years, it was a fairly new introduction to the rest of the country, and it took until the 2000's for it to spread to the north of England and Scotland.  It is now to be expected in most of the gardens of the UK, and so if you are growing lilies or daylilies (hemerocallis), then make sure you are vigilant. As a couple of lily beetles can munch holes in the leaves and flower buds of your lilies very quickly.

At this time of year, you will often see pairings of red lily beetles, - if you can get to them before they produce young then you have a better chance of getting rid of them. They are thought to only produce one lifecycle in a year.
The Eggs are found under the leaves and are tiny and orange in colour, the lavae that hatch after a week normally cover themselves with their own black muck that looks like birds' droppings, which is often found at the join between the leaf and the stem. Both of these can be washed off with water.

The adult beetles are quick at escaping but easy to spot and should be crushed on sight (no mercy here from me). There is also a  spray which can be used, - Bug clear ultra

Happy hunting

What's that sticky weed?

Sticky weed, sometimes known as cleavers, - or its latin name of Galium Aparine is starting to multiply everywhere this week.

This weed which can grow very rapidly to overwhelm plants is spread by clinging on to clothing or animals so that the seed is spread round the garden.

Yes Children love it, but the weed is counting on them to spread itself!

Don't let it get to seeding stage, and you can almost eliminate it. - it's easy to pull up and remove, if you're going to add it to the compost heap, let it dry out first. You'll need a good pair of knee pads though as its favourite hiding place is under hedges (always spiky ones in my experience)

Speedwell is also spreading quickly at the moment, - another easy to get out but quick to seed one, and  the Ground Elder is back in force.  If you have this rotter (like me!) then you need a hand fork with you to pry out as much root as possible while the ground is soft.

Have you got bugs in your borders

While gardening this morning, i've just found in the borders a whole load of Vine weevil grubs, - how did they get there? well probably from a plant from a garden centre -because where I found the most was a suspicious pot shaped lump of peat. This would normally have had a lump of roots through it, but Vine weevil grubs eat roots, causing plants to wilt and die with no chance of survival. Early in the season is a good time to be catching them, and they are a lovely creamy white colour, so they show up well against newly turned soil, - obviously these weevils are now deceased, but I have left that patch of ground with no plants in it, and I will turn it over again at my next visit before replanting that patch of ground. I may also use Bio Provado or a nematode later in the season to check they havn't returned- things that I won't put in now I know there are likely to be vine weevil present are Heucheras, Sedum, Agapanthus, Asters,  Fuchsias and Cyclamen plus bedding plants like pansies, impatiens and begonias.

Search and destroy, February slug and snail hunt

If the wet weather last year had you plagued with molluscs, then February is the time to seek out the surviving generation from last year, and stop them from multiplying to destroy this years crops. 

Often snails are the easiest to find, - Past experience has told me to hunt them down under unused terracotta pots, in the centre of Phormium or Cordyline plants, or in the corners of steps and patios, - particularly if the grass is long and covers them up. 

They can also be found traipsing across footpaths at dusk, - easy pickings for the salt pot.

Slugs are more tricky to spot, but if i've overwintered any pot plants in the greenhouse in plant trays, I can be sure to find at least one stuck to the bottom of every pot, trying to fool me into thinking my seedlings will be safe in there.

I'm against using slug pellets, as I really want to enjoy watching the birds in my garden, (and even more so if they are helping me by eating the slugs,) so I use a mixture of vigelence then popping slugs and snails into a pot of salted water, or bran and grit to keep them away from my newly planted treasures.  There are some bird and pet friendly slug pellets, - i've used them, but with limited sucess, so my plan of action is to seach and destroy before they multiply.

Mucky Manure

I'd just like to draw your attention to a problem that may get worse before it gets better, - no not the credit crunch/recession, but the mucky issue of Weedkiller in composted manure.  Since the autumn, reports have been building of crops and plants being badly affected across the country by manure contaminated by aminopyralid. This is a weedkiller used a couple of years ago on farm land, which has got into the food chain, and is now "on the loose" in manures.  Because of the bad growing season last summer, a lot of people had put their crop failures down to other reasons, but are now realising that their symptoms of ferny foliage and shrivelled leaves, particularly in tomatos, potatoes, beans, but also Roses and some herbaceous plants is down to a chemical. Having read quite a lot on blogs and websites in the last week, I have to say that my usual advice to condition soil and mulch hungry plants with a country natural organic manure, will be changed this year, and top soil and home made compost will be a lot more important. to read the RHS advicce sheet put on the internet recently click here

Early Celandine appearance

When you spend a lot of time weeding, like I do, you find a pattern to the year in weeds, but this week, the normal timing has been broken, as i've found 3 gardens with Lesser Celandine taking hold. This yellow flowered weed which is in the buttercup family and has a latin name of Ranunculus Ficaria, is usually one of my problem weeds in February, but with a particularly wet season behind us, the rosettes of heart shaped leaves are appearing already in shady borders.  Like Oxalis, this is a real pain to hand weed out, as it has clusters of little bulbils, usually hiding a good inch down into the soil, and if they get broken off (and there are usually 8-10 on one plant) then you get another plant. Luckily, unlike if it appears in February and March, at this time of year you can dig down gently to get out as much root as possible, as other weed seeds arn't likely to germinate this month from the disturbed soil.