Gardening thread

Saw hundreds of those white butterflies on Saturday. They'll be laying eggs and within 4 to 5 days when the caterpillars hatch none of us will have a leaf in our gardens :mad:
 
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Fuma said:
I filled 3 wheelbarrows early this year with sweet potatoes from a few plants. Now they are growing like weeds and will be taking over my garden in no time. I might cut some of them to accommodate other plants.
I haven't bought tomatoes from the store (maybe I bought once) as well since I still have frozen ones from my garden.
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Aah... tomatoes and potatos...
Anyone know if you can make a pomato using sweet potato?
 
Anyone know what devilish critter would be causing these patches? I initially thought harvester termites but haven't seen a single one.

Apart from the lawn damage, it leaves little sans heaps with pretty large holes in the ground. Holes are probably at least 5mm diameter.

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Speedster said:
Anyone know what devilish critter would be causing these patches? I initially thought harvester termites but haven't seen a single one.

Apart from the lawn damage, it leaves little sans heaps with pretty large holes in the ground. Holes are probably at least 5mm diameter.

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Turns out it was termites all along. Was at the lawn last night and saw the buggers doing their thing. I thought these guys are meant to be active during the day? Seems mine have decided to be nocturnal. Who knew?

Anyway, gave them some delicious kamikaze for dinner. I hope the problem is now in the past.
 
Speedster said:
Turns out it was termites all along. Was at the lawn last night and saw the buggers doing their thing. I thought these guys are meant to be active during the day? Seems mine have decided to be nocturnal. Who knew?

Anyway, gave them some delicious kamikaze for dinner. I hope the problem is now in the past.
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You may have mole crickets there too. Put a wet towel over one of those patches. Check under the towel next morning for mole crickets. They typically make those largish holes.
 
Velskoen said:
You may have mole crickets there too. Put a wet towel over one of those patches. Check under the towel next morning for mole crickets. They typically make those largish holes.
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Can you give me a bit more info about these? I've got these. They make a hell of a noise in the night. I've resorted to waiting till I hear them, taking a watering can mixed with dish washing liquid and pouring it over where I hear the noise. Wait till them come up for air and chop them up.

They're also destroying my grass.
 
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Velskoen said:
You may have mole crickets there too. Put a wet towel over one of those patches. Check under the towel next morning for mole crickets. They typically make those largish holes.
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This was my initial thought.
 
Hazy_Living@79 said:
Can you give me a bit more info about these? I've got these. They make a hell of a noise in the night. I've resorted to waiting till I hear them, taking a watering can mixed with dish washing liquid and pouring it over where I hear the noise. Wait till them come up for air and chop them up.

They're also destroying my grass.
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I battled with them a lot. They (and the drought) totally destroyed my lawn. I used cypermethrin (ProDip Cyp is one brand name) and poured this directly into the holes wherever I saw a small mound of sand from their burrowing in my lawn. It worked. I am not fond of cypermethrin as it is a very broad spectrum insecticide and kills off beneficial species too. I use it sparingly and judiciously.

A quick search on the 'net got me this info from Syngenta: Mole cricket control

Good luck, lawn pests can quickly destroy a lawn.
 
The_Mowgs said:
Not sure if you are aware but any bark in a growing medium will pull Nitrogen from the medium so just keep an eye out for yellowing of the leaves.
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Is it a bad thing? I can replace the soil if needed
 
I had no idea - I have a cactus in that growing mix that is more yellow than green. Yet the app says it is healthy. Could that be the reason?
 
Akasha said:
Is it a bad thing? I can replace the soil if needed
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Nitrogen is the main nutrient for growth. Not sure how you can replace all of the soil with a small seedling without stressing it so much that it ends up being stunted. Let it grow and monitor it, if it starts to yellow from the bottom up you would need to feed it with something like Nitrosol or Talborne.
 
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