Odd question for gardeners

djf

[djf]

Now I have lived in the same house for 20 tears. And years ago, right after we first moved in, my wife had planted these tea rose thingies.

That's ok. They can be a bit of a mess to take care of, but this year something happened for the very first time.

Rather it DIDN'T happen and it might be a mixed blessing, but wanted to ask fellow FReeper gardeners if they noticed the same thing.

Year after year, just about the first sign of life on the roses, late March or mid April FOR SURE is...

APHIDS!!!

This year NOT ONE SINGLE APHID!! This is totally unheard of and beyond my experience gardening here in the Pacific Northwest.

Now I don't miss them at all. But it seems very strange. I haven't noticed a large increase in ladybugs or anything else that might effect them, and I didn't use and more or less pesticides than I have in the past.

Anybody have any ideas?

[djf]

[JRandomFreeper]

I think I paid 2.5 british pounds for the last batch of seeds I bought, including postage. There were hundreds of them in the packet.

/johnny

[JRandomFreeper]

It was so dry here there was no grass.

No kidding. It looked like my back yard had been nuked. Harshly.

/johnny

[Sacajaweau]

My best guess is an egg kill...at an extremely vulnerable time....likely within a small time frame.

Here in NY...our fruit trees have all been damaged because of erratic weather....a warm period enough to get the plants to a phase where they were vulnerable to a deep cold.

[BerryDingle]

I have found references where it is cited for colon cleansing, parasite control and detox.

Someone needs to spread this around the White House.

[RegulatorCountry]

If you can lay hands on some decent bedding plants it’s not too late, they haven’t been in the fields that long here. Not sure where you would come up with them though, even in a tobacco growing region. Everybody has their own tobacco beds that I’m aware. Never heard of anyone buying anything but seed for their own beds and then transplanting to the field.

You’ll probably have to start them yourself from seed, on your kitchen windowsill or something. That may push it into next year unless you have a long growing season. They don’t mind a little dry weather once established but do need rain. They will drown out and die if the soil remains waterlogged for very long. A good rain every couple of days interspersed with baking heat that dries the soil is ideal.

[saganite]

Easy cure for aphids that doesn’t involve pesticides. Mix some dish washing detergent with water and spray them. Works like a champ.

[JRandomFreeper]

I do that, but my plants are so small (first batch got eaten by catapillars, this is the second batch) that I'm using a small paintbrush to paint on the soapy water, and brush the bugs off. Several times a day.

I'm not big on the thought of smoking pesticides.

/johnny

[JRandomFreeper]

I've only grown from seed. Never saw a bedding plant that wasn't an ornamental nicotina. It only takes a couple of weeks/10 days to get them to sprout. And in my other place, they grew like gang-busters in the N.Texas weather. Here, not so much.

/johnny

[freedommom]

I have used Diatomaceous Earth for awhile now..

I started when I had been sick for 4 months with a weird cough/throat problem and found out it was due to the BP
refinery in Texas City Tx NOT fixing a major part.

This went on for 4 months and BP basically had no filter
on and major pollution was in the air.
This happened right about the same time of the gulf bp explosion...

Well I found out Diatomaceous Earth removes benzene and toxins so I gave it a try...
first yes it does get rid of worms and after about 7 months my throat stopped hurting...
there is silica in there so it really makes your hair and nails and bones stronger.....
after 1 year I had lost most of the pain I had and last month I fell from the truck flat on my back and thought I'm sure this will hurt,,,,,I never had any pain ...
for me it's a keeper

[Jedidah]

With ankle-breaker cracks that were so deep you could drop a rock into one and picture it hitting the Great Wall. I almost lost a yardstick in one crack in my yard, trying to measure.

Worst of it is that those cracks are beginning to show again, in spite of recent rain. Getting worried about this summer . . .

[Osage Orange]

Interesting post....

Thanks-

[Randy Larsen]

You are onto the key!

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

We have used DE for years to keep our horses wormed...works well. We give it to them free choice mixed with salt. We get it in 50 lb bags, @ $30/bag.

It is food grade and we also use it internally ourselves.

There is another grade, Red Lake Earth (organic), that is 65% DE and 35% Calcium Bentonite. This is really great for animals or people...it deals with parasites and the bentonite absorbs toxins. This is actually more cost effective than the pure DE, but the animals seem to prefer the pure DE over the Red Lake Earth.

If you have cats or dogs in the house, dust their sleeping area with DE...controls fleas.

[RegulatorCountry]

I’ve seen plenty but not for sale, grown from seed in a bed for transplanting. Takes a little longer to get them to the six or eight inch height that will allow them to survive in the field.

[saganite]

Put it in a sprayer and spray them.

[FrdmLvr]

LOL! And in Michigan!

[TheConservativeParty]

Oh that’s what those are, lady bug larvae!
I saw one of those today and wondered what it was.

[JRandomFreeper]

Yep. Takes even longer if critters are eating them and killing them. I've had heck with it this year.

Everything else in the garden is going great. I'll be eating jalapenos out of the garden tomorrow morning with my breakfast burrito.

/johnny

[berdie]

Thanks for the tip.