Hey Fellow Floridians - Year 2

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by Zone9b

Barb,
What are using for foliar spraying? I have grown to hate hose end sprayers. I'm fertilizing bush beans which are quite large. Somewhat difficult to reach in there and sprinkly fertilizer along to row. I hope to pick some beans in a week or so. Broccoli is coming to an end for me and we didn't freeze any this season. Back to frozen Organic from the big store. Ugh! We are cutting back on the size of our gardening as well. I have approx 40% of the tomato plants that I had in the past. But they are looking fairly good. Arugula looks good and is ready to pick. It should last a good long time. It makes a good salad and is so easy to grow. So glad to hear from you. I haven't communicated with you in a long time.

Great to see you posting again Larry.

[DocBrock]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

in University of Florida's Master Gardeners course that I took, they said foliar feeding really didn't do much, but it look like it was effective because people always spray to the point where it gets a drip runoff, and that was actually putting nutrients into the roots and soil. So it look like foliar feeding was doing a good job, but the professor said it was really the roots just absorbing the nutrients and that leaves don't absorb much in the way of nutrients

That's what I thought. I tried it once one evening after the sun went down and my plants were drooping and wilting within an hour. It was a dilute fox farm fert following the foliar feeding instructions. One Article I read said to do it at night because the stomata are open. Still too afraid to try again if soil drenching has been working fine.

[Zone9b]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

Great to see you posting again Larry.

Thank you so much Marsha. Somehow I must have signed off. I didn't get any emails for a long time, then I discovred I wasn;t logged in. Anyway I'm cutting my gardens down quite a bit. Hate the thought of eating more store bought food, but I guess I will get used to it.

[Barb_FL]

I foliar fed my broccoli last year with Neptune's Harvest products like seaweed, fish, and the combined one. I saw a big difference. The broccoli is planted in raised beds covered with weed barrier and holes cut out for the broccoli. The weed barrier allows water, etc to go through so it is possible that the benefit comes b/c the moisture is getting to the roots.

I use a hose end sprayer that I LOVE so it's not like I am misting the leaves. I can do the entire garden in 10 minutes.

----
I started FF the tomatoes as an insect (Tomato Russet mite) deterrent. I started with plants I didn't care about and then graduated to all plants but the seedlings. It's not that I think kelp is a bug spray, but the mites like it dry, so if I'm going to wet it, I might as well try to give them some benefit. I spray UP the plant.

For tomatoes, I definitely see more benefit with the ones in the root pouches (ie uncovered) than the ones in the EB. And the ones in wide root pouches see the most benefit. I think because more of the solution will fall into the Root Pouch.

----
This year for foliar feeding, I'm using soluble kelp or extreme blend (both from Kelp 4 less). I think extreme blend is what really works on the broccoli. I think the kelp is better for the mites on the tomato plant.

Another thing, I have these small spiders that make webs between cages etc. The spraying water or anything really deters them.

[Barb_FL]

Originally Posted by Zone9b

Thank you so much Marsha. Somehow I must have signed off. I didn't get any emails for a long time, then I discovred I wasn;t logged in. Anyway I'm cutting my gardens down quite a bit. Hate the thought of eating more store bought food, but I guess I will get used to it.

Why are you cutting your gardens down? You were so successful with everything especially the greens.

Have you thought about growing MicroGreens? Really nutritious and EASY PEASY. No garden space required. The mix I use to grow the MG, I save and use for tomatoes, so no waste.

[Barb_FL]

Originally Posted by DocBrock

Do you have good luck with foliage feeding your other veggies, like tomatoes? I've been too afraid to try it because I'm afraid to get the leaves wet. I try to keep them as dry as possible, even moving them to an overhang that still gets sun if there's rain in the forecast.

I think with all the wind I get, I'm almost immune to fungal diseases. This is the 2nd year that I know of that I'm getting the tomato russet mites so I am creating a moist environment. I would probably spray neem but it is so late in the season I don't want to lose the blossoms.

----
Is everyone seeing a lot of moths/butterflies/ tiny caterpillars on their leaves?

[DocBrock]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

I think with all the wind I get, I'm almost immune to fungal diseases. This is the 2nd year that I know of that I'm getting the tomato russet mites so I am creating a moist environment. I would probably spray neem but it is so late in the season I don't want to lose the blossoms.

----
Is everyone seeing a lot of moths/butterflies/ tiny caterpillars on their leaves?

I've seen a few what I assume are cabbage loopers. One was on a watermelon vine, the other was on a tomato plant. Other than that I've seen none. I am starting to get a few whiteflies here and there. I've become OCD about checking under leaves on all my plants and so far I've seen about 1 or 2 a day on my beans and cucumbers. I squish them because they seem extremely sluggish and never fly off in time. So far I haven't found them on a tomato plant. I'm still waiting on my dang seabright yellow stickies to be delivered but made some out of a yellow plastic folder tht I cut and painted with tanglefoot. I'm frustrated bc I have them on all plants and have yet to catch any, but will find a few on the plant. They just aren't attracted to them.

I've also started seeing these tiny beetles the size of a pin point on some of my peppers. They have black bodies with a red head. Bigger than a mite, smaller than a typical beetle. Not sure what they are, but I did catch an assasin bug on one of my tomatoes, which I thought was pretty cool.

[ginger2778]

Still trying to figure out what a root aphid is.

Whiteflies appear as tiny black flies on the yellow sticky traps, because they dry and turn color, and shrink. Maybe they are there?

[DocBrock]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

Still trying to figure out what a root aphid is.

Whiteflies appear as tiny black flies on the yellow sticky traps, because they dry and turn color, and shrink. Maybe they are there?

Could be, but the flies on my traps are typically larger leafminer types and fungus gnats, but bc the tanglefoot is smeared on a little thicker it may obscure a lot of the details of the insects that are caught. Where did you order your traps from? I got mine on Amazon from DCS solutions, the shipping is taking forever.

[kurt]

What ever it is ,a soil drench pesticide application in successive generation drenches(life cycle of the critter your are targeting) will knock down the ever emerging eggs,larvae’s,pupae that seem to crawl out and up the plants.Keeping in mind the flowering stage,vegetative,harvest etc.Almost a crapshoot if you will.Nothing a bottle of 20 plus years of a Glennfeddich single malt cant handle!Its a race.Remember you are battling multiple insects at a time.Taking a dream now....sip.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by DocBrock

Could be, but the flies on my traps are typically larger leafminer types and fungus gnats, but bc the tanglefoot is smeared on a little thicker it may obscure a lot of the details of the insects that are caught. Where did you order your traps from? I got mine on Amazon from DCS solutions, the shipping is taking forever.

I get them from Amazon directly from Seabright: https://www.amazon.com/Yellow-Sticky...w+sticky+traps
Watch the price, it fluctuates. This Is the most expensive I have seen them.
I am so glad you are getting the Seabright brand. So much safer for wildlife.
Your yellow homemade traps can be made safely and effectively with vaseline.

[DocBrock]

They arrived today but the order is wrong. I ordered 30 of them for $38 shipped which I thought was a little pricey for what they are, but only 5 arrived. Now I have to wait for the company to get back to me on how to proceed. If they try to tell me the offer was for 5 I'm returning them. I thought eBay was bad but I guess it can happen on Amazon too. Those traps look an awful lot like the ones I made out of a folder. I took a pic today of the trap on my cucumber plant. Can you see any whiteflies? The bugs I zoomed in on were the only ones that were similar in size to a whitefly, the rest are much bigger.

[efisakov]

About Root aphids.

https://gardening.which.co.uk/hc/en-...29-Root-aphids

https://freemygreenpdx.com/topic/148...t-root-aphids/

I had them last year on two of my tomato plants.
Plants were not growing and getting wilted easily. I knew something was eating their roots. I dug it out and there were small things like the once on the pictures on the roots. I washed roots and covered with lots DE and replanted. One survived but production was not as good and the other did not. I poured hot water in the area they were growing. Hope the bugs did not survive and spread.
Now I am thinking, it was first year I started composting. It is possible that they came with composted parts of fruits or vegetables. O, boy.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by DocBrock

They arrived today but the order is wrong. I ordered 30 of them for $38 shipped which I thought was a little pricey for what they are, but only 5 arrived. Now I have to wait for the company to get back to me on how to proceed. If they try to tell me the offer was for 5 I'm returning them. I thought eBay was bad but I guess it can happen on Amazon too. Those traps look an awful lot like the ones I made out of a folder. I took a pic today of the trap on my cucumber plant. Can you see any whiteflies? The bugs I zoomed in on were the only ones that were similar in size to a whitefly, the rest are much bigger.

That was so sneaky of them. You have much fewer bugs in general than I usually, or most of us usually get in this amount of time. I wonder why? It's pretty hard to tell once they've darkened and stuff to the card whether they're white flies or just any other kind of fly cuz they look very similar but the one in the center does look like the right wing shape.
Did you go to my link for the 15? Even at $17 there's still a lot better price if you ordered two packs you don't even have to pay for the shipping I believe. Course if your Amazon Prime you don't pay the shipping anyway.

[DocBrock]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

That was so sneaky of them. You have much fewer bugs in general than I usually, or most of us usually get in this amount of time. I wonder why? It's pretty hard to tell once they've darkened and stuff to the card whether they're white flies or just any other kind of fly cuz they look very similar but the one in the center does look like the right wing shape.
Did you go to my link for the 15? Even at $17 there's still a lot better price if you ordered two packs you don't even have to pay for the shipping I believe. Course if your Amazon Prime you don't pay the shipping anyway.

Yea, if they don't make it right I'm going in that direction and I'll order from your link. I'm starting to wonder if the whiteflies I'm seeing are the same thing. They're so tiny, about the size of an aphid, and I've yet to shake a plant and have them fly away. I have to turn the leaf over and poke them a few times to get them to take off. Also, I live in a pretty developed part of Cape Coral and we all have lawn services on my street. I also have pest control services too. I wonder if that keeps the garden bugs down around my house. For the most part my neighbors all take good care of their landscaping and nobody's yard is very "jungle-y".