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- Jul 26, 2022
I've changed my mind about the wine actually, I have so much apple mint that I've decided to do a mint only wine with some berries instead of raisins that the recipe calls for.
Gardening and Plant Thread
- Thread starter Bugaboo
- Start date
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2022
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2022
I used to think that queen Anne's lace was the same as yarrow. When I realized that it was all yarrow in my yard I was so happy, it was like hitting the jackpot of medicinal herbs instead of the flower that hides ticks underneath the flowers.
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2021
My black orchid is gonna be shipping tomorrow. I'll post photos of it once I receive it. It's gonna be my first fragrant orchid so I'm excited for that.
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needforsneed
kiwifarms.net
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- Jul 20, 2023
Who here has had a good outcome with purchasing predator bugs to eat pests? I have a rather annoying squash bug and cucumber beetle population demolishing my gourds, and my desire to kill pests is battling against my desire to not develop a weird cancer from pesticides (and also end up killing all the wolf spiders nearby).
I have an order of lacewings, nematodes, ladybugs, and mantises on the way. Anything else I should do? Neem oil didn't do much, and covering it all in netting seems unwieldy, as this is roughly a ~12x8 foot area with some 6-7 foot tall plants.
I have an order of lacewings, nematodes, ladybugs, and mantises on the way. Anything else I should do? Neem oil didn't do much, and covering it all in netting seems unwieldy, as this is roughly a ~12x8 foot area with some 6-7 foot tall plants.
Justsomecicada
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2024
so for squash bugs and cucumber beetles you really need soldier beetles or tachnid flies. Those flies are gonna parasiize and kill adults, where as the memories will kill larvas. Sadly mostly of the insects you ordered will not be of much help in regards to those beetles. If you are comfortable raising them at home wolf spiders are awesome for killing cucumber beetles.
needforsneed
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2023
My yard's pretty full of them, actually. Unfortunately, I don't think they like climbing on trellises or upright plants. The grass and dirt are full of them, but I don't see any above ground level.
Do you really think ladybugs and mantises won't eat young, newly-hatched squash bugs? I haven't found anywhere that sells soldier beetles or tachnid flies, but I did also order green lacewings and a mix of mucidifurax, not sure if those'll help.
LowlyPheasent
kiwifarms.net
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- Mar 9, 2024
So far this year seems to have been an amazing year for gardening. Everyone I know who has one's had great growth. Hope everyone else in the thread is as fortunate as we've been here!
Justsomecicada
kiwifarms.net
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- Aug 11, 2024
Mantises might I’m not sure you though, lady bugs almost certainly wouldn’t they don’t seem to like to eat stuff that isn’t aphids or fruit flies tbh. I haven’t been able to raise them on anything else. Tachnid flies and a parasitic wasps are something you want to attract with milkweed or yarrow. Sometimes they are for sale sometimes they aren’t but the milkweed and plants in the carrot family and such will bring them in every year.
As for lacewings the adults are pretty cool as like pets or a breeding project but outside of greenhouses I’ve had mixed results with the adults. It’s lacewing larva that do good work
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2024
Sat by the backdoor today, just watching the wind blow around and do it's shit, just watching life be as I drink another of liter of water to try quench the thirst that I'll probably find out is some serious medical issue in 5 years. As I go to leave I notice a little movement in one of my potted plants that's out in the sun for the two weeks of decent sun we get per year. I thought it must have just been a fat bee but stood there waiting to see what it was anyway. Out of the thick bushy plant hops a cute little wren, it starts hopping around in the pot pecking at the floor and soil. I just stood watching it, I moved at one point and it just looked at me before carrying on, maybe it's just human retardation but it didn't look scared, it didn't look like some of the other garden birds that look shit scared of me, he just looked at me as if he understood me and carried on looking for food. He was just hopping around in the plant pecking away, uncaring for modern society or it's woes, living in the moment and also in my plant. No idea what it was eating, there's a load of that woodsorrel stuff that maybe the seeds are edible for birds?
Not only is it just cute to see in general but maybe it was one of the babies I found as eggs in a bush a couple months ago, it looked a bit smaller and thinner than normal and I've never seen wrens so close to the house, only ever seen robins come this close, plus not being scared by me moving even when it obviously saw me which wrens never fucking do. I choose to believe that it was one of the babies and it is planning to make a nest in the box I built for them, even if they're the most common bird in the country with an egg to adult survival rate so low there's a decent chance all four that hatched from the eggs are dead by now and that it's also past the end of their breeding season.
Not only is it just cute to see in general but maybe it was one of the babies I found as eggs in a bush a couple months ago, it looked a bit smaller and thinner than normal and I've never seen wrens so close to the house, only ever seen robins come this close, plus not being scared by me moving even when it obviously saw me which wrens never fucking do. I choose to believe that it was one of the babies and it is planning to make a nest in the box I built for them, even if they're the most common bird in the country with an egg to adult survival rate so low there's a decent chance all four that hatched from the eggs are dead by now and that it's also past the end of their breeding season.
- Joined
- May 6, 2016
I have woken up this morning to discover that some of my sunflowers have had all their leaves seemingly eaten off. Can someone in this thread please tell me what creature may be responsible for this as well as the best way to enact genocide upon them? I am in the Northeastern US, if that helps.
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- Aug 28, 2019
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- Dec 28, 2014
Justsomecicada
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2024
Try hanging some Irish spring soap in a sock and tie it to trees around your property
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2022
Have you checked for caterpillars? I had a similar issue on some of my tomato plants. Overnight the top 3ft of a tomato plant was defoliated by a single tomato hornworm, I thought it was a deer at first. Don't know if sunflowers have any caterpillars that are that aggressive, but that is definitely worth a check.
If you do see some caterpillars, buy some "BT spray concentrate". It's a bacteria that absolutely wrecks caterpillars, it's selective so it won't harm any helpful insects, and is safe to humans.
Rakovnik
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2021
+1 on the BT, deer are usually more destructive either pulling a few down or trampling half of them to get to a tastier looking leaf in the middle
Sunflowers are commonly used as a sort of insect refuge on large farms where they're spraying hundreds of acres with pesticides, if they are spraying X amount of acres of corn then they need a patch of X acres of sunflowers unsprayed and not downwind of the spray.
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2022
I've done this, it works for a long as the soap lasts which isn't long. I use a deer repellent spray but if you have a dog, avoid using that. It makes them extremely anxious, as it smells like wolf urine.
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- Jan 30, 2025
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- Dec 19, 2022
Next year plant buckwheat to attract tachinid flies (Trichopoda pennipes). In succession for the whole season, if you can swing it. They, and other good predator bugs, like the buckwheat pollen and nectar. Once they figure out that your garden is a good spot for sourcing that and squash bugs for their offspring, they'll keep coming back. They're easy to ID- they have orange butts and clear wings. They're not a quick fix for big populations. But they'll keep coming back year after year and will help over time.
Hand to bug combat is best for squash bugs really. Remove eggs and kill just hatched nymphs with blue tape and get a pair of hemostats for adult bug grabbing. Drown 'em in a container of water with a squirt of dish detergent in it to break up the surface tension. Bury them after they're dead- their stink attracts more. Squash bugs overwinter in garden debris and wood piles (and in junk on porches, unfortunately) so pre winter clean up is key. Handheld vaccuums are good for sudden and enormous invasions. But if you're overwhelmed sometimes it's best to skip planting squash and pumpkins for a season.
Mantids are fun and fascinating but their beneficial status is bullshit, IMO. Years ago I raised a few generations of those big Chinese ones (Tenodera sinensis) and I learned a few things that the online articles and beneficial bug sellers don't mention. (Or simply don't know because they're copy writers and not gardeners, ahem.) Like mantids only go after appropriate sized prey. When they're small they'll go after small bugs and flies. (And each other when they first hatch out, kek.) When they're big, they'll go after grasshoppers, bees of all kinds, and butterflies. And hummingbirds and small snakes. (Really. I saw both get gnawed with my own eyes.) They wiped out my local Argiope aurantia spider population too. Which was horrifying and the last straw. Considering how many beneficials they do eat (and how few garden pests, really) I kill them now whenever I see them. They're a threat to the good bugs I take pains to attract. Over three years of close mantid observation I never saw a mantid eat a squash bug or a Japanese beetle. Or a caterpillar or a slug. Or a cuke bug. Their eyesight is impressive and they will travel to wherever the action is, like hummingbird feeders and bee hives. And zinnia or goldenrod patches. Or simply out of the garden and into the tall grass nearby. I'd say that they prefer crunchy meals like grasshoppers and spiders most of all.
I had an angelica (the biennial, regular kind-Angelica archangelica ) in a pot one year and when it bloomed its flowers became covered in lady bugs and lady bug larva. It was crazy, how many were on it.
The best garden predators as far as I'm concerned are the wasps and hornets. They carefully patrol all my plants and carry off the caterpillars and the aphids to their nests. The only drawback is that the second a monarch lays an egg and flies away, they're right on it.
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2019
I bought a small venus fly trap from a big box retailer earlier this year and after a few months, it's growing tiny cute traps.
It's potted with a young sarracenia (you can see a new pitcher sprouting up for scale). The new growth definitely looks healthier than the older traps that died off earlier. However, I have a question for some of you bog plant enthusiasts. I have another older VFT that has never grown traps this small. Are these tiny traps functional? I can't imagine them catching anything.
There really are some beautiful plants ITT! Stay hydrated out there!
It's potted with a young sarracenia (you can see a new pitcher sprouting up for scale). The new growth definitely looks healthier than the older traps that died off earlier. However, I have a question for some of you bog plant enthusiasts. I have another older VFT that has never grown traps this small. Are these tiny traps functional? I can't imagine them catching anything.
There really are some beautiful plants ITT! Stay hydrated out there!