pick_me

11/12/2007

Green Thumb Sunday even though it's monday

Daylilies


Wow I totally missed green thumb sunday.

Here are a few of my daylilies. I really didn't think any of my daylilies would grow because I didn't really buy large enough pots for all that I got (13+). I crammed them into one large round pot, one rectangular planter, and a medium sized pot. A few have really taken off. There are just a couple that haven't really grown but I have hope. I can't wait until they bloom next year.


So I pretty much forgot about Sunday because I was so busy killing APHIDS!!! Those darn things got on almost everything. They were originally all on my chocolate mint. There were ants on my mint and I thought nothing of them until I found APHIDS. So out I cam with spray bottle in hand to blast the things with soapy water. Then I got the NEEM to make sure those ants don't hoard any more aphids.

I was pleased at my killing on the mint. Off I went to do whatever with the rest of my day happy I had killed the dreaded beasts. Only to find later on for my second watering of the peat pots that I had been foiled! First I noticed suck spots on the coral vine seedling. APHIDS!!! I got paranoid and started to inspect it all. One leaf on corkscrew vine APHIDS, bottom leaves on morning glory APHIDS. So I tore off leaves. Neemed anything I had seen ants on because those devils are the cause of all the APHIDS. I wasn't going to be nice anymore with water and soap. Now I hope all is well but just of note.

I do not like to use neem. I prefer to use the soap and water and whatever organic method. I don't know any organic methods of killing ants. I read that mint deters them but that is bull because I have mint and they were all over that. I'm thinking that I just need to get some fish emulsion or make some compost tea to boost the health of my plants so they aren't so susceptible to getting aphids and ants and whatever else comes at them. I do feel horrible about using neem since it is hurtful to bees. And I did see a few bees come by after my spraying and they went buzzing off at full speed. They didn't like my neem tear, poor bees.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, you say you'd rather use neem than something organic. If a plant extract isn't organic then I wonder what is. And neem doesn't hurt bees at all, unless of course you don't care about beneficials and spray it in the middle of the day.
I think you might want to read up on what neem actually is and does. Here's a good page to start.
Neem Oil Insecticide
Good luck with the aphids.

Priscilla George said...

No I didn't say I'd rather use neem. I have nothing against neem but what I have I don't think is pure neem. I believe it has neem with other chemicals. In my post I said I would rather use something more organic than neem. On my bottle it clearly says does harm to bees. I have read about how good neem is and I know it is natural. Thank you for the information. My aphids are gone for now.

Anonymous said...

Oops, sorry, a typo, wrong way round. I meant to refer to your comment about "something more organic than neem".

You call your insecticide mix neem, even though neem is just one ingredient. It's the insecticide doing the harm, but your post reads as if neem oil would do harm. That's what confused me. (And if they warn about it being harmful to bees it's definitely some synthetic chemical.)

I just didn't want anyone reading this get wrong ideas about neem oil. There is nothing more organic than pure neem oil :-).

Anyway, thank for responding to my comment. Sorry about the confusion.