texts: What illness/pest has this dipladenia and what to do with it?

texts:
I've successfully rooted 6 dipladenias 4 month ago, they are in pots since 3 month. All went well so far, but now it seems they have some illness or pests. (All the six, although in different progress)

I am an absolute beginner, so I just hopelessly see their day by day worsening condition, and I am a bit worried my original two older ones may also get infected.

Could anyone identify what the problem(s) is/are, and most importantly what to do to cure?  Is it virus, or pests? (I do not see bugs neither on the back side on the leaf, and when I try to touch or get something with my nails, nothing detected (but again this is the beginner speaking)

Detailed plant and environment info:

Location is Budapest, Hungary, it's autumn first month September now, temperature is approx 25 C / 77F,  now, the pots are in very well lit outdoor place. It seemed to me that dipladenia (both the older 2 and also the 6 rooted very flexible for water supply, never dropped a leave since spring, they got relatively less water.

Please note...

I prefer use only absolutely harmless chemicals and methods, as I have no appropriate protective gear.


texts: Propagating Yucca Aloifolia (Spanish Bayonet/Aloe Yucca) from root cuttings?

texts:
I've had success propagating by taking a cutting of the top of the plant and sticking in the ground.  But often what happens is the leaves die and a new shoot sprouts from the root.

These are tough to handle so I thought maybe id pull a long root (like 3 feet) and cut a bunch of 6 inch root cuttings and stick them in differnt soil types.

Not sure it's going work. these have been sitting covered from direct sunlight.  Trying potting soil, planting soil and local florida sandy soil.  Been about 2 weeks and i think something is eating the roots or they are drying out.

Any thoughts?  i know people always say remove leaves from cuttings on other species, but some cuttings just can't handle that.


texts: What is this shrub with clumps of small white flowers?

texts:
Last year I started redoing all the front landscaping at my house. At the time, I didn't know this bush flowered, but I moved it to the back to let it grow. What is it?

click on picture for full size


texts: Plant had recently started losing leaves.  I’ve had for about 2 months.  Thought it might not be getting enough sun - but is still losing leaves.  What do I do?


texts:
I am doing a bit of work around our garden, part of which will involve surfacing a largeish area with bark mulch.

There are a lot of cats around our area, and they are already frequently in our garden.  I'd like to avoid accidentally creating a large litter tray, and I was wondering if anybody could recommend some plants that may help us to deter the cats from coming in?


texts: What happens when tomato seedlings are overwatered?

texts:
Some of my tomato seedlings received too much water and it shows. Some of the lower leaves on them have yellowed and the rest of the foliage looks a little lighter but otherwise healthy. Yellowing of the leaves doesn't look like disease just what you get with too much water.

I put them in the ground a couple of days ago. First snipped off the lower yellow leaves (which had even started to grow suckers) to bury the stem deep as well as to get rid of the yellow leaves.

Soil is adequately fertilized and calcium, magnesium are high. Iron is in the acceptable range but on the low side (3.5 ppm).

Are there going to be any adverse affects? Is there anything I can do to help?

Edit: Forgot to mention the roots looked good with no foul smells. Picture has a bit of a color cast but roots looked white and clean from what I could see.


texts: Black area on monstera leaf after week on holiday

texts:
As the title says, I’ve just got back from a week’s holiday to find a rather large black area on one of the leaves of my monstera. I watered it before I left and ensured it still had some sunlight.
Does anyone know what this might be? As you can see from the photo another leaf has a small brown area too, however this hasn’t got larger and has stayed the same for some months now.
I should mention the plant is still putting out new leaves. The affected one is at a bit of a weird angle compared to the other so apologies for the odd photograph.


texts: What type of disease is my rose suffering from?

texts:
Can anyone help me identify what disease is infecting my rose canes as shown in the attached photos?

Thank you

Janice


texts: What kind of Juniper tree has a straight, peeling trunk, relatively thin branches, and sharp blue-ish needles?

texts:
There is this tree in my yard as well as in few other landscaped yards in my neighborhood. I assume it's a Juniper, perhaps a specific cultivar, but I cannot find any examples of it online.
It has a straight, peeling trunk, relatively thin branches compared to other junipers, and sharp, slightly blue-ish needles.


texts:
About one year ago, I purchased three cacti in the same pot. They looked like this when I got them:

One of them got bigger over the months, but the tallest one kept thinning. As you can see from the following pictures, it doesn't look very healthy:

Besides, it became brown at the base:

I think there may be an issue with the roots of the tallest cactus. It's as if it wasn't able to feed anymore. It seems that the root system of the small healthy cactus takes all the water and nutrients for itself. What's going on here in your opinion, and what should I do? Maybe I should repot. I kept the original substrate, but it may not be very appropriate for cacti, as it is often the case when you buy cacti in shops.

And by the way, what species is it?

EDIT: I think it is a Pilosocereus Pachycladus.

Some new pictures


texts: Schefflera arboricola , seems to be withering and dying, help!

texts: I am not sure what is wrong, the plant seems to be rotting and withering from the top down.  The tag says that it is a bush but it has grown to 5 feet or more in height.  I tried trimming back the withering parts but the withering is continuing.  The leaves start getting dull and then darken and then fall off.  It is still trying to grow the baby leaves even on the bunches that are starting to wither. I have tried moving it into more sun but it hasn't seemed to help.  I am afraid I will eventually loose the whole plant and I have had this plant for years,


texts: What is the name of the French pioneer of organic/sustainable farming?

texts:
I can't remember his name.  I think he was active in the 50's to 70's.  His techniques involved creating berms of fallen branches and twigs, and later incorporating the decayed matter into his soils.

Any help would be appreciated!


texts: What are the white patches on my succulent?

texts:
I recently bought this plant ( about 3 weeks before ) and replanted it in my container.I used the desert mix, I live in redwood city CA and it is placed outside and gets a lot of sun ( more than 8 hrs). I have been watering it when the soil get very dry. I noticed these white patches and wasn't sure what to do?

It's tips are also getting brown, should I be watering more? But I am afraid of overwatering as I have killed succulents before my overwatering them.


texts: Can you overwinter garlic in a basement?

texts: Back in the fall I planted garlic for the first time. Unfortunately, we had a mild winter (or, anyway, it got cold late and didn't stay cold consistently), and the garlic sprouted too early and then died. If I can look forward to more of the same in years to come (global warming, climate catastrophe, etc., etc.), could I overwinter my garlic in my basement (which is pretty cold) and move it outdoors at the appropriate time?


texts: I have several colors of lantana bushes, now three years old , growing well and up to 5 ft tall They get nearly full sun and generally good water ( an edge with shade has azaleas that have a high water demand and are doing well). About 90+% of the flowers never bloom. The flower buds form and then turn black while small . It is black, not grey , no fuzz , just small black "would have been flowers" buds. A low yellow variety only loses about 70% of the blooms. Last year and earlier this year , I assumed the deer were eating the buds : About 2 months ago I put up a temporary 42 " fence ( the deer don't jump it because they have no clear areas to land). Since then I looked more closely and see the flower buds are black and shriveling. Nothing else shows a problem; there is Rosemary, Pride of Barbados, Oleander, Gardenia, Camellia , Aloe , trumpet vine (invasive)  small peach tree , grassy weeds, and a couple that I forgot.


texts: How many vertical containers to grow food for one person?

texts:
The diet would only be plant based, by vertical garden I mean something like this:

But with vegetables instead of flowers and a tower that's 3-5 levels

How many of these "towers" would be enough for one person?


texts: Which of These Bonsais Are The Most Appropriate For My Climate?

texts:
I want to buy a bonsai tree. The options are Ficus, Ligustrum, Carmona, and Sageretia.

Reading the instructions on those links, I was convinced that I should get either Carmona or Sageretia considering the wet, not warm or sunny climate of Ireland. I'm planning to have it at a North facing window with whatever amount of light it can grab from there, but for very few hours of daylight during winter. And the room temperature, especially at the window, would be probably between 15 C and maximum 24, 25 C.

On the other hand, the Ficus tree has a fancier trunk and looks more like a real tree, and that link suggests it's a good practice for beginners, as well as needing a lot of good sun (which I lack).

Now the instructions on the packaging is all the same for all four types of these trees as follows:

Which instructions should I trust and which one shall I get that would suit the most for my climate?

Update: I do have the lights on after the daylight is gone, but "light" I meant sun light (which is very rare in Ireland and at a North facing window) or just natural brightness. I do have home lamp light on till we go to sleep every night. I was confused because that website mentioned Ficus needs direct sun light.

Still looking for other answers as I'm not asking about making bonsais, but just picking one out of the four types. (:


texts: Why is the stem of one of my sunflower seedlings shriveling?

texts:
I recently planted some sunflower seedlings and they have been doing fairly well. The only problem I had noticed was that the tips of the leaves were slightly burnt, but even then, the burns weren't spreading and the plants seemed to be doing fine. In the past couple of days, however; the stem of one of the seedlings became shriveled mid way up the stem. The strange part is that the base of the stem is fine, and the top of the stem too is fine.

I have no idea what is wrong with it. My only guess is that the soil is too basic.

Update:

I had been careful not to destrub the stem for a while, and I have it less sun and somehow it has survived and is now nearly completely healed!

      Thank you all for you helpful advice!


texts: Should I cut back my yucca after flowering?

texts: My Adam's needle yucca flowered for the first time this year. It does not look like it is going to grow in that area anymore, but the leaves are still green. Should I cut it back at all?


texts:
My Areca palm has been babied over the years (22 years) and is huge and needs to be repotted again. There are basically 3 of the plants in one pot. I get the seed/Nuts a couple of times a year.  Two are huge tall and go in different directions. The 3rd one is smaller and still healthy, but needs room to grow.

If I cut the two larger ones back, and repot it all fresh, would the two that are cut back continue to grow or grow back?

Thanks for any help ... and uh, if this is Not an Areca Palm, don't feel bad letting me know :)


texts:
https://imgur.com/gallery/C1TQ2

Pictures above

Hi! I am reposting since my previous one was lacking important info.

I have a ZZ plant that I got roughly 9 months ago. 3 months in, I repotted it, because the roots were starting to deform the plastic pot, e.g it was getting very root-bound.

My problem is, that it is not growing in height at all, nor does it have new leaves. Just today I checked it and saw that there were roots showing from the drainage holes and the pot is once again slightly lopsided from the shape of the roots inside.

It sits near the window but in relatively indirect light. Regular potting soil. 14 cm pot. See pics above. I have maybe fertilized it 2 times in the past 4 months with an organic all purpose fertilizer.

It looks like the plant is just growing roots, but nothing above ground. What could be causing this?


texts: I got this Tahitian Dwarf Lime tree not long ago and I was surprised to find a few of the leaves being bitten. I'm not sure what to do to stop/prevent this from reocurring. Any advice?


texts: Could anyone identify this plant for me please.  It was spotted in a wooded gill, ancient woodland, amongst bluebells and wild garlic.  Not in a boggy situation.


texts: How to prevent heirloom varieties from weakening?

texts: I was told that heirloom varieties will start to 'weaken' after 3 or 4 seasons.  I interpreted this as the plants will be weaker and produce less fruit season after season.  What can be done to prevent such weakening?  How do we have healthy generations older than 3-4 seasons?  Is the answer simply to have a large number of the plants and allow natural mutation and pollination to occur?


texts: I don’t know what’s happening to my opuntia, can you help me?

texts: I've had this opuntia since may this year and it was growing fine, it had grown three new little opuntia and suddenly it started having this white rod like things, at first I cleaned them up but a friend told me they where “normal” so I left them there, now I regret it because I should've dig more into it, anyway now is turning yellow from the base too and I already separated one piece in another pot, but the remaining (picture) ones are getting worse and I don’t know what to do, do I clean it up, do I try and save the still green areas into another pots? Please if you can help I would appreciate it a lot, thank you!


texts: Will mulching be used as a breeding ground by harmful insects and/or bacteria?

texts:
I have seen that after 2-3 weeks after applying the mulch of rice hull one of the eggplants died. It firstly started with drooping unexpectedly. I did rule out over or under watering, as schedule and amount of watering for some of my other eggplants were the same. Now, the second of my plant is drooping unexpectedly, and I am worried if it was due to bacterial or fungal disease.
I know finding the root cause could yield accurate results, but I am feeling it might be late until then.
Here are the symptoms:

I have noticed drooping starts from the older leaves, much closer to the soil.
Discoloring/yellowing of leaves from the middle.
Have seen tiny white spots on some of the leaves.
Yellow/brown young shoots and flower buds


texts: Saving an indoor Meyer lemon tree with a couple leaves left

texts:
I’ve had this Meyer lemon tree since January. It was doing well, blossoming, etc. but in the past 2 months it’s slowly lost most of its leaves. I used to water it once a week and mist the leaves daily for humidity. It gets 12 hours of light via a plant light. I repotted it into a bigger pot around March and it seemed fine after that. The potting soil is Miracle Gro Cactus Palm and Citrus Fast Draining Potting Soil.
Initially some of the leaves had some mottling so I suspected some sort of fungus and I decreased the watering (at one point waiting 3 weeks in between) but it hasn’t made much of a difference. I’ve tried watering with diluted hydrogen peroxide to kill any larvae. I have a sticky trap in the pot that looks like it caught several  (fungus?) gnats, but I haven’t noticed new ones in the past couple weeks. I have also tried spraying a fungicide (Fung-onil) and a Neem oil solution. I read that good circulation can help, but I live in a first floor apartment and can’t really keep my window open while I’m not home. Meanwhile my other plant (a jasmine) has been thriving right next to this struggling lemon tree.
I have read some of the other posts on this topic but would appreciate specific advice. The bottom of both trunks still has some green and I really hope I can save my tree.
Thanks so much!


texts:
Am I over watering these ? Is it too much sun? They get sun in the afternoon starting with around 2-3PM till around 7PM in July. Very hot weather this year but I remember having the same issue last year. On the other side I have hostas in the front of the house and they start showing burnings as well during the summer
The worst one looks like this

I think this is what I bought ...if the variety matters


texts: Please help identify a type of chestnut tree

texts:
My father is wanting to get and plant a few trees this year. One that he's been talking my ear off about is one that he used to eat the nuts of when he was younger.

Keeping in mind that his childhood is a ways back and recollection could be off, he grew up in the mountains of North Carolina. He said the tree is a chestnut tree. He thinks it was wild. Whether it was wild or a bought tree that animals or nature propagated I don't know. He said it had the green spiky pods that chestnuts have. He said he always heard them called 'chinkapins'. It's possible that this is just one of those things, though, where everyone in an area calls it something, but it's actually something else. The reason I think it's not an 'Alleghany Chinkapin' is that they appear to only have one nut inside the pod. He claims that the ones he would eat as a child would contain roughly 10 small nuts the size of peanuts.

Does anyone have any idea what this tree might be so that we can locate and plant one? Thank you.


texts: Help needed to keep away weeds coming from a creek

texts:
The Problem:

There is a small creek in my backyard and it's a nightmare to maintain. A lot of weeds grow there and spill over to my land, some of them growing up to three or four feet tall and are very dense. The portion of my land that is adjacent to such creek is 265 feet long. This is a warm climate (Puerto Rico to be exact), so they will always grow there. My goal is to keep them at bay, and not entirely eradicate them (I know that is impossible)
Here are some photos so you can have an idea:

(Some description: the metal fence you see there belongs to a neighbor who is beyond the creek. There is no fence separating my land and the creek. And then you can see the weeds, some of which include Castor oil plants; they grow a lot here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castor_oil_plant)

(Description: a better view of the creek with some pooled water from the last time it rained. The water doesnt get high and there is a slope in which I can plant more stuff.)

(Description: this is the part where it is the worst. Here, the weeds have grown VERY dense.)

What I Have Tried:

I have been hiring people to chop it down, but I dont want to spend money on that every single month. I have tried to lay down one of those landscape fabrics, but that was entirely futile. And I dont want to spray herbicide... it's a creek, and I dont want to pollute.
Any research that I do online is for smaller problems, like pulling them out (already tried that, believe it or not), or spreading bark mulch (its too much, 265 feet, and the water of the creek will eventually swipe it), etc.

What I Plan:

My next idea will be to try and plant some tenacious shrubs that can compete against those weeds and keep them at bay. But which ones can handle this (almost everything grows here in this climate)? I had in mind Bougainvillea (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bougainvillea) since I have heard they are very hardy.

Any other idea is really welcomed.

Additional Comments:

These comments originated from the responses below.

My main reason for battling the weeds is that they look ugly and propagate too FAST into my land, in which I'm starting a vegetable garden. Sure, not a life-threatening situation, so I will reconsider my stance a bit. Note that I want to keep them at bay, and not entirely eradicate them (I know that is impossible)
The water doesn't get too high, even in torrential rains, which happens once every one or two months. And yes, there is a gradual slope in which I can put plants. I have included two additional photos.
Yes, the soil inside my land is not the best. Some time ago, an excavator went through it to clear the ditch, and it compacted the land and also toiled the soil in the creek a lot (since I have started a vegetable garden, I won't allow any more excavators or heavy machinery). But the actual soil at the edge of the ditch is somewhat loose and easy to toil and with good drainage.


texts: What is this yellow, four-petal flowering plant in Lynchburg, VA?

texts: This grows wild behind my house. It has many yellow flowers per "branch", and many branches. The flowers bloom after each other. The flowers have 4 petals. Each seed pod has a flower on top of it.


texts: How much lawn does two pounds of turf seed cover?

texts:
We purchased a two-pound bag of clover lawn seed. However, the Amazon page and the bag didn't say how much lawn that's supposed to cover.
How many square feet should we use it over?


texts: What are these fruits / berries from the Rocky Mountain National Park?

texts:
While hiking in the Rocky Mountain National Park near Estes Park, we came across the following berries / fruits. What are they?

Some info: The berries/fruits were relatively squishy. The inside contained a row of seeds similar to that of a pepper. However, the inside was filled with a clear, syrupy jelly.


texts: How does putting my plants in a greenhouse help them grow? Is it purely to shield them from cold weather, or are there other benefits?


texts: Dealing with a manmade pond and a lot (real estate) next to it that's owned be someone else. The pond is about 85 feet across with a dam on one side. The dam is close to the other lot and water is at accumulating just outside the base of the base of the dam. The dam itself does not show any signs of leaking. The dam appears sound, intact and completely dry.   My question is . . . How can I know if this water is leaking from my pond or if it's storm drainage water?


texts: How to identify emergent Eau de cologne mint flowering stem?

texts:
How to identify an emerging flowering stem and prune it before it bolts?
I am new to growing, I had seen pictures of already flowered mints.
I googled and read and decided perhaps it is a good decision I shouldn't allow it to flower lest it wastes its energy too.
I spotted 3 thicker very purplish stems, unlike usual very smooth (to touch) stems not as dark purplish.
Moreover, the leaves(?) don’t look like normal leaves. They are rounder, have more pinky veins(obvious from underside).
Leaf tip look unusual. The stem sprout strongly all the way out. With the "(pale dark green pinky roundish) leaves" at all intervals remaining tiny hardly growing bigger.

If these are flowering stems, is it advisable to cut them off? Cut where?
Can boil water chew eat the stems or not? They look rich in red pigment.


texts: How to kill existing ground cover and then replant

texts:
I reside in Southern CA.  2 years ago I removed all the rock landscaping and planted African Daisy.  There now is a non-broadleaf reed that to my knowledge is a weed growing in the ground cover. I have a drip system installed and cannot use any garden tools to remove or dig up the reeds.

How can I quickly kill off all the vegetation and replant without time delay?

It is my understanding that RoundUp will not kill this reed.

The property is going to be sold soon.  I was considering just laying down a thick layer of bark and letting the next buyer select the plants of their choice.

Can bark be laid over the groundcover?

This is certainly a "reed".  There is a pond a couple miles from here.  Neighbors do not have it.

Previously I was watering 5 minutes daily with the drip system only.

The reed grows in wet or dry conditions.

Only about 10-15 plants are in this 20 by 40 ft. area; however it has destroyed the appearance of the yard.

The drip system layout prohibits simply temporarily removing the system to use a weed wacker.

I have previously had excellent luck with the African Daisy choking out weeds.

This is my first time the Daisy failed me.

Because the property will be sold in a few months I don't want to invest much money in the yard.

The yard will not sell the property.

At least by laying down the bark or mulch will not disturb the drip system and the next occupant can plant in amongst the bark.

Thank you for the comprehensive answer to resolve this problem.

Locating the drip system tubing that is above ground would be almost impossible.

The description of the reed is--fluffy round green top with definite seeds; tall stem; and a base of wide thick grass growing in a ball.

The stem is resistant to cutting.

Several weeks ago I used scissors to cut the ground cover within an inch or two from the ground hoping to hide the reed.

I am not satisfied with the appearance and felt the thick layer of bark would be more effective.

I also know that killing vegetation involves more then just spraying with a high strength Herbicide.  The ground must then be covered with plastic; then the waiting time for the vegetation to die and the soil to return to the proper PH for re-planting.  Soil additives are also needed.

I just don't have the time to wait for all of this.

African Daisy should not be cut because the plant self-levels itself yearly.  However, these plants are too young to self-level.


texts: I need some help.  I set up two half barrel planters this spring, filled with nice bagged soil from Lowe's, but have had no luck growing plants from seed after about two months.  I think my issues are twofold - I have read that barrel planters dry out very easily (making it hard to get seeds to germinate and then grow for those that do), and I have seen a number of sparrows peck at the dirt (could they be eating seeds and shoots?).  It seems like it should be easier to grow in the easier planter than in the ground.  What am I doing wrong, and how do I make it better?  Regarding plants, I seeded poppies and two types of lettuce.


texts:
Last year around end of summer our two blueberries growing on our balkony got some illnes. On the branches grew a lot of bulges (a few mm width and height, but around 1cm long), first sporadic and later in dense packs. It was possible to remove them with a simple touch, they did not grew inside the branch, just outside. A gentle pinch on the bulge revealed a lot of white fluffy stuff. At the same time the leaves and everything else got covered by some black smut. The leaves itself did not turn black since it was possible to remove it with a sponge and some water. Not only on the plant, the pot and tiles below got covered in it as well.
I removed the worst leaves and the plants got its usual cut before the winter, they are both having new buds but still the black stuff is around on the branches. We have cold winters (was around -15C for a week or two). All bulges got removed. Sadly I do not have any pictures of it.
Does someone have an idea what it is and how to treat it?
Edit
Living in Europe - Slovakia.


texts: The leaves on my Ficus are dropping off at an alarming rate. The new leaves that had grown are going brown and are now dropping off. I have just come back from holiday after 10 days away. I watered it before I went and also when I got back but it looks as if it's dying. It's 12 years old and I don't want it to die. I keep it in the bathroom where the window is only 3 x 3 meters but I think the lighting is enough, or is it not? Please help if you can.


texts: What is this flat, green, nettle-like shrub from Tenerife, Canary Islands?

texts:
What is this shrub that's low to the ground and looks flat, green, and nettle-like? It seems to thrive on lava fields and develops lignified stems.

It can be found around 28.266°,-16.588° in Teide National Park on Tenerife of the Canaries.

(Click to see full-screen image for details.)


texts: Oyster mushrooms, inoculate log in summer, or wait for autumn?

texts:
I recently got some big logs, lime/linden.
I have oyster mushroom dowels, but it's summer in the UK and the logs are going to be drying out.
Should I wait for autumn and cool damp weather, or will that give other fungi an opportunity to take hold ?


texts: I mulched before grass seed, is that a mistake? + how to fix?

texts:
I'm planting some new grass in a ~50 sq ft area, plus in the spaces between a hundred or so newly placed stepping stones.

Against all the advice I've seen, I mistakenly laid down my mulch before my grass seed. I had spread some lime and fertilizer before this mulching.

Can I just go ahead and spread the seed on top of the mulch? If so, should I do just that, or get some more mulch to place overtop again?

Or should I attempt to remove the mulch first, and then spread the grass seed?


texts: How do I remove grass from a tulip bed without transplanting them?

texts:
I bought a new home that is more than less a blank slate.

However, it has a little patch of grass in the front and some flower beds. I noticed some tulips are coming up along the edge of the grass, but the grass has invaded past the border. Besides re-digging and transferring, anyone has any idea on how I can clean up the grass that has taken over the tulips area? It gave me inspiration to plant a border of flowers, so I want to help those tulips grow stronger!


texts:
The Square meter garden soil mix is a third each of compost, peat moss and vermiculite.

I have assumed that in the UK since most of our composts are around 50% peat moss I could just do: 2/3 compost and 1/3 Vermiculite.

It was recently pointed out to me that American English vs British English (AE/BE) might be using the terms compost and soil differently. I would just like to ask if my assumption on using 2/3 compost (50% peat moss) and 1/3 Vermiculite is ok?

NB: extra points for peat alternatives that work well in the square meter garden structure.


texts: How do you mark lawn sprinkler heads so that you don't hit them and break them with your mower when you're mowing?


texts: Shaina japanese maple flanked by 2 coral bark jm: how much room aroud?

texts:
This is a sequel of Coral bark Japanese Maple -where to plant it to avoid cold winter wind and hot summer sun damage

I have opted for the design shown in the below picture.

I am decided to buy the second coral bark shown in the right side picture but I am not sure if I need one more shaina jm (I think that I don't and I should continue with shrubs toward the vegetable garden (see the thread pointed above for a garden layout)>

The other question is ..how much room do I need around each tree. See the below pictures and please tell me if the spacing is right.

The reality looks like this:

I am adding here the layout of my backyard since I made some comments below

Update2:
Adding more pictures showing two possible positions for the Shaina tree:
1- far back in the corner

2- a little bit closer to the viewer on the left side. For this one I also took a picture from the wider side of the garden. Sorry for the dark atmosphere, this is due to the rain that we are "enjoying" these days here in Toronto


texts: How thick do I need coffee grounds to be in order to keep grass back?

texts: I'm running into a slight grass problem where I planted my blueberry bushes, and was wondering how thick I should make my coffee ground mulch around the blueberry bushes to prevent the grass from coming up.


texts: Watering of tomato plants with plastic bottles

texts:
I'm having tomatoes in a little greenhouse. I water them by using plastic bottles where I cut of the bottom part, put them a few cm into the soil and fill them each two days entirely with water (+- 1 l). I fill the either in the morning or in the evening.

Now I had a discussion with my mom about the details of watering with bottles.

She recommended me to fill the bottles with soil, for water to infiltrate more slowly. I was thinking that when the bottle heats up during the day, much water would evaporate and would not be used by the plant. At the same time, if water infiltates deeper, roots of the tomato plant will have to grow deeper, creating a stronger plant. But she told me that water would drain very fast too deep and would get lost that way. It is important to know that we have a very sandy soil and from a depth of 20 cm and deeper, organic matter content is very low.. (as I added compost only in the upper soil).
She also recommended me to direct the bottles towards the plant... for more or less the same reason, so water can be more used for the plant and drains less. While I thought it is better for the plant to have to need to grow deeper.


texts: My songs of India plant was brought from nursery around d two months ago. In past 3-4 days it has suddenly lost all its leaves and stem is also turning black. What do I do ?


texts: Why would a lawn fertilizer bag say it's not water soluble?

texts:
I just bought some Scotts (4M Snap) Lawn Fertilizer. On the container it says:

Water soluble: No

How does fertilizer that is not soluble in water get absorbed by the root system of a plant?


texts: Tree with exfoliating bark and ovate leaves

texts:
I'd like to identify this tree, growing on the margin of a drainage ditch next to a fairly dry gravel parking lot in coastal Maine, USA (hardiness zone 5b). It's currently about 8' tall, with opposite branching; exfoliating bark; 6" ovate leaves with fine-toothed serrated margins that occur in clusters. It is currently (August) flowering, with multiple small white buds along a 10" central stems emerging from the centers of most leaf clusters. Sniffing the (perhaps mostly gone by) flowers over a couple of days indicated no odor.

Some pictures. First, the whole tree:

Second, a leaf cluster viewed from the top and the side:

The flowers:

... one flower in closeup:

And the trunk:

and a closeup of the bark (with newspaper to persuade my cell camera to focus):

(Feel free to correct my terminology, and thanks.)


texts: Parfuma rose plants growing one long branch

texts: I planted six rose bushes in summer 2017 in a spot that gets afternoon sun.  They are a mixture of a few Parfuma roses and then about four David Austin roses.  None of the plants have been growing well and I thought the late day sun may be too hot for the plants.  I am considering moving all of them to a spot where they will get morning sun, but I noticed this fall that the two Parfuma rose bushes each sent out one or two very long and fast growing shoots.  They are over 4 feet long and very healthy looking, HOWEVER, I'm concerned that they aren't helping the plant because the rest of the plant is still small and not bushy like it's supposed to be.  I am looking for suggestions on how I should handle this and also if I should move all of the plants to another location please.


texts: How long would a typical Everstart 12v lawn and garden battery last?

texts:
I'm using a 12v Everstart battery to power some speakers, I had wondered how often should I be expected to charge it? Same with my actual mower, my old craftsman doesn't have an alternator to recharge the battery while running, and that's a similar Everstart as well.

Also would anyone know how well these Lead-Acid batteries handle constant fairly slow drains for a few hours at a time? Should I consider a float charger or some other type of lead acid battery charger for the speaker battery to be on?

Thanks in advance.


texts:
I recently got a small Christmas cactus, and have put it on a shelf indoors, not directly exposed to sunlight (as I've been advised to do). I water it when the soil is dry to the touch.

Recently, brown spots have started to appear at the end of its leaves, which got me concerned. What is the cause of it, and what am I doing wrong?

PS: I live in San Francisco. It's currently winter but not too cold; I have the heating on during the night (and usually off during the day).


texts: What are the spikey patches of grass on my lawn?

texts:
I have moved into a new build house and the lawn already has "spikey grass" parts consistently over the lawn. Around 60 patches in an area of 50 sq metres.
In places, around 1 inch taller than the rest of the grass.  These show up as light Green when taking a photo at night (with flash on) and are a different texture.
The turf has been down around 4 weeks now


texts: What is this purple flower growing in Malaysia?

texts: I nonchalantly took a picture of this unknown flower and decided to post on a blog about it. Can anyone tell me about it, including the scientific name? It's growing in Malaysia.


texts:
Is there a time-efficient (possibly chemical) way to reduce the number of plums generated during one season - while keeping the tree healthy?

The intent is to keep the tree as a source of shadows, while avoiding the work of removing plums from the lawn.


texts: How can I keep my Kumquat tree from growing too tall?

texts: I'm planting some Kumquats along the side of the drive. However, I notice they grow to 3-4 metres (10-13 feet) high and wide. How can I keep them smaller? I considered putting the pot into the ground to stunt their growth but am concerned the plants will become weak.


texts: What is this yellow-petaled, dark-eyed flower with hairless stems?

texts:
The flower has 14 yellow petals and a brown center:

I'm hoping someone can identify it. It was by a pond in southern Utah. I thought it was a Brown-eyed Susan, but the stems are not hairy.


texts: What is this plant with bright red and black seeds?

texts: I don't know what I found.  Please help me figure out what I found and also they were pretty so I made a few necklaces


texts: How do I prepare planters with sedum and hen and chicks for winter?

texts:
I have three of these and I think it will not be a good idea to leave them like that over winter. This is in Toronto Canada. Here is the hardiness map.
I was thinking that storing them in a shed my work. How much light do they need?

Update: one year later

Not a bad winter all in all. at some point the planters where full of ice, the plants were covered in ice because the water did not drain (the bottom holes plugged) and it froze filling the planters up


texts: How can I encourage my indoor vermicomposting bin to produce more dirt?

texts:
I have an indoor vermicomposting bin. It has served me well for 3 years. Since the bin is indoors, and I live in a small apartment, I'm fairly cautious with feeing the worms. I don't want to overwhelm my red wigglers or cause anaerobic decay.

But this spring I'm expanding the garden out on the roof and I need more dirt. This seems like a simple thing, but in NYC there aren't many sources of dirt except for ... buying it. Which I can't stand. That's why I started with the worms in the first place.

Is there a way to ramp up the bin for higher production? Many guides online talk about making worm food out of old ground dry soy beans that have gone stale, and other pantry items. But these are geared for making fat bait worms and that isn't my goal. Also I'd never use my babies as bait!

In any case, how can I go about getting the worms to have more offspring and eat more? What scraps are fairly safe to bulk up on for indoor set ups?

Right now I put in kitchen cuttings, but if I end up with a bad head of lettuce I might skip it since it seems like too much.

I have lots of cardboard, peanut shells, wilted leafy greens etc. I just need some advice about how to go about adding more to the system without throwing it out of whack or making a big stench.

Also, how aggressively can I harvest?

I really need to get more dirt over the next two months.


texts: Identification and advice required for pretty but aggressive ground cover

texts: We have a plant spreading across a gravel covered bed.  It is my intention to plant ground cover here and wonder if I can keep this plant.  My neighbour says it is very aggressive and will grow into brick work (the bed is along side our house), could you help with identification and advice, please?  We are in the East Midlands, UK.


texts: Adjusting recommended sunlight hours depending on region and radiation level?

texts:
I have land in India (the tropics), in the hills, on a slope from 6800 feet - 5200 ft altitude (roughly). At that lowest point there's a stream of about 10-15m across. Generally my entire land is a very sunny area, high UV radiation, though not hot like the tropical plains-- it's more Mediterranean perhaps, or maybe like some of the Andean highlands, plus a relatively less intense monsoon than the surrounding region (it rarely crosses 28C even in summer, usually hangs around 20-25C during the day. In Winter, it drops to a minimum of 7C, and hangs around 13-19C during the day. I don't know how many hours those min-max numbers are sustained over).

My question is: if I were to try to grow Lavender, Tomatoes or other european herbs and plants (our weather/soil in a general sense seems suited to many of these)..  plants that are defined as needing "full sun", do I need to reduce the hours usually suggested because of the tropical sunlight and high UV? If yes, is there a way to calculate that or perhaps some sort of thumbrule?

EDIT: When I say tomatoes, I mean San Marzano, Roma etc.


texts: Are there any disadvantages to using a Tree watering spike?

texts:
(In Southern Cali)

I've been racking my brain about a recent remodel of our irrigation system in a certain zone that has 2 large fig trees in the middle of a section of grass.

The main trunk of each tree is around 6-8 inches wide. They both stand around 10 to 12 feet high. The trees are doing great and give off plenty of fruit.

Green = grass
Tree 1 and 2 are fig trees that are about 8 feet apart.
Black dots = Normal sprinklers.
Blue dots = 4-way drip system sprinkler head.

Currently, each drip system head can push 2 gal/minute. I've 2 ran lines from each head directly to the tree trunk, and the last 2 are turned off. So each tree is getting 1 gal/minute.

The lines running to each trunk are placed at the surface level on top of the soil and each tree trunk has a brick barricade so the water doesn't runoff. That's probably a 3 foot circle of brick.

After doing a lot more search in the last week. I released I have been watering these trees all wrong. And the evidence of it kind of shows. I should have been giving them water once 2-4 weeks, instead of 5-7 gals 3 times a week. I can visually see the roots on top of the soil OR maybe 1 foot to 6 inches below the soil. There maybe way more far deeper below, I just don't know. In the past, the trees were only getting water from the sprinkler system and getting water manually. As of last year, I installed the drip system to put water directly into the trees, so it was getting water at a much more consistent rate.

Now i'm thinking about using tree spikes so the water could go much deeper, instead of just being on the surface level and draining down toward the middle of the tree. So hopefully the roots can push down deeper instead of depending on just surface level water.

I'm aware I might be too late because the trees are around 10 years old now. But I have this current system with many other trees in the back yard, much younger trees. Which I could re-do the irrigation setup and install these spikes to push water further down. The other trees in the backyard, don't have grass surrounding them, they are in (in-ground) 5 foot round planter concrete enclosures that were placed when the house was built.

What do you guys think about these tree spikes? Are they a bad idea? Do they work as intended? Are they only intended for manually watering? OR can I place a 1/4 inch drip system line into 1 of them to push water down?


texts: Why does my weeping cherry tree have brown spots on its leaves?

texts:
I have a 10-year old weeping cherry tree in my front yard. Last weekend I noticed that many leaves had brown spots toward the end of the branches. I trimmed those branches, but I wonder what has caused this. Is the tree sick? Should I spray the tree with something to prevent this from happening again?

I live in the Seattle, WA area. I wonder if this is related to the 122-year old record of rain we broke this year.


texts: Can someone help me identify this bonsai sprout?

texts:
I planted it from a Bonsai kit. The seed packet is labeled as Black Pine seeds but, in comparison to photos online, these sprouts seem suspicious.
Another sprout came up, it looks more like a pine seed!
The initial sprout got tall.


texts: I am trying to germinate this rose seed, first I soaked this one seed into the egg incubator at 40 celsius lukewarm temperature water for nearly 1 week or less. Before when it was unsoaked I saw its seed coat is yellow, after soaking its seed coat turned half mixed yellowish with little reddish color, next when I put this seed into a terracotta pot and sprayed it, its coat turns fully reddish brown then its coat splits and inside theres a white thing from it but no signs of a stem coming out through it, does this mean its embryo is dead inside or still alive from the warm soaking that I just did? Is it still going to germinate if I wait longer? I think its white embryo inside is plumper now than last time when I tried to germinate it without soaking in the warm water then put into the soil and it looks skinny or flattish.


texts: I have something eating my ornamental grape vine new growth. Can you suggest something please? The vine is about 5 years old and perfectly healthy otherwise.  I haven’t tried anything as yet.


texts: How long does a Norway spruce tree live after being cut down?

texts: We cut down one from our land every year for Christmas. This year I want to get it a bit earlier than usual (like this weekend), but we're not sure if it will be dead and horrible before Christmas or not. How long before Christmas can I cut it that it will still be alive and not falling apart on Christmas Eve (when we celebrate Christmas).


texts: Should raspberries & boysenberries be pruned in early summer?

texts:
I have a boysenberry plant and a black-raspberry plant that are growing vigorously on a trellis. However, there are a couple of shoots (about a meter long now) that are growing away from the trellis and there isn't enough space on it for me to wait till they're long and bend it back there. Should I just prune these shoots so that they don't suck nutrients from the rest of the plant or, like trees, will summer pruning be detrimental to their growth?

I live in socal where it's just early summer right now. The plants haven't flowered yet (this is also their first year, so I don't know if they're on a grow one year, bloom next year cycle)


texts: First year to grow gladiolus and they all seem to be the same colors?

texts: I planted a ton of gladioli this year and each stalk was suppose to be different colors, there were 7 or 8 different colors they could be but for some reason they are all pretty much orange. The first 2 were red. The next 5 are oranga and 1 is purple. Granted that's only half cuz half haven't bloomed yet and I do like the orange but I wanted the array of colprs. Disappointed to say the least. Hoping the other half will be different colors. Could this be something I'm doing wrong? Or is it just the luck of the draw with the aassortment kind? Or maybe the company that sells them have more oranmore I'm not sure. Thanks to any input!


texts: Is this plant an indoor palm of some kind?

texts:
I am trying to identify this plant - I recently moved in with my partner and this is one she had, she doesn't know what it is other than "some kind of palm" (she's not the most green fingered, they've suddenly started growing a lot more since I moved in!)

Leaves are up to about 12 cm long, but I guess they could grow bigger as the plant grows. It also produces a white sap. Also notice the hairy kind of structures along the stem - sorry it's not a very good picture of that part.

Can anyone identify the plant? And any care tips? We are in a dark winter here in Sweden and I want to make sure they survive the lack of light as best as possible. Recently a few of the lower smaller (and older) leaves went very yellow and dropped, I thought maybe I'm over watering.

(A comment suggests it is Plumeria of some kind, I see that can flower - if there's a tip to getting it to flower some day that would be great! And how big can it get?)

Click images for full size


texts:
Does planting zoysia plugs directly into
Clay soil work?


texts: What's this green small leaf aquarium plant?

texts:
I was given this plant by someone several years ago and stuck it into a planted tank with compost and volcanic rock on top. It has a slight stripe to it and in full sun sometimes goes red but at present it's in a window with only a couple of hours sun daily.

The 60litre tank is unheated now that the fish are gone, and receives no supplemental lighting. I only occasionally add some flourish excel to try and keep the hair algae at bay. Room temperature ranges from 5-25 C.

I wonder if it's a sword but the leaves are a bit small being a maximum of 2 inches in length.

Random planting including Vallisneria. Lots of reflection artifact present.


texts:
If I put English Ivy trimmings in the bottom of a raised planter will they grow back and invade it?
I am talking roots as well as the above ground plants.
The plan is to use them as filler underneath soil and compost in the pictured raised planter.
The planter is 40cm deep.
To be clear I don't want the ivy to grow back.


texts: Planting vegetables in ground vs pots in greenhouse

texts:
What makes the most sense for growing vegetables (tomatoes/peppers/squash/etc) in a new, small 6ftx9ft greenhouse in a hardiness zone of 6?

Removing the grass inside and then...

Planting plants at ground level, simply replacing the first 8 inches or so of soil.
Filling the greenhouse base with 8 inches or so of raised soil (not a problem for wood base).
Replacing the soil with something like rocks/bricks/mulch and keeping plants in pots.
Some hybrid thereof?

What the the pros/cons of each?

It would seem to me that most people go with #3 for some reason. I don't see many people choosing #1, I wonder why... it seems easy and provides lots of surface area to grow in. #2 is a good as #1 but provides extra drainage.


texts: Is it safe to eat dandelions previously treated with a selective iron herbicide?

texts:
Three years ago, I started trying to reduce the number of dandelions in my lawn with a household selective herbicide named Scotts® EcoSense® Weed B Gon® (MSDS and retailer product page). The manufacturer's web site says:

  Weed B Gon controls dandelions and other broadleaf weeds without harming the grass. It is made from iron, an ingredient found in the natural environment.

The last time I treated the lawn with Ecosense Weed B Gon was about one year ago. I still have all the dandelions, but this year my wife has said that she wants to try making food products from the dandelion roots in our lawn (examples of dandelion foodstuffs).

Is it safe to consume dandelions from a lawn previously treated with a household selective iron herbicide?


texts: One hibiscus plant is experiencing delayed leafing

texts: Hi I have got 4 Hibiscus plants/trees in my garden all in relative same type/ spots. (South facing against a fence) three are in good condition but one (in the middle) has only just started to leaf. The others have started to leaf a month or two ago! Last year this same plant had very few flowers! Would appreciate any ideas whether this is a bug or disease!


texts: brown yellowish spots on tomato - Septoria Leaf Spot?

texts:
One of the plants in the garden developed brown yellowish spots on the leaves. All of the infected leaves are high. The bottom ones show no illness.

We've had lots of rain, followed by extreme heat. Relative humidity is 60% at 34 C. Is this Septoria Leaf Spot?


texts: How should I treat overgrowth on tree line?

texts:
I've tried to provide this image to help describe the issue. I have a line of evergreen trees that goes through the back of my house. I'm not an expert at landscaping (hardly even a rookie), but those looks like new trees/roots that are taking up and I'm not sure if I should be clearing those out or doing anything with those.
Similarly, for any branches which hang over while cutting the lawn, anything I should do with those?  I really appreciate the community here and taking time to answer questions like these for newbies like myself. Thanks.


texts: My Cat Palm is yellowing then browning :(( help!

texts:
I purchased this cat palm about a month ago from someone in town. They had cats and dogs and felt the palm was getting a lot of rowdiness from the the pets, so they gifted it to me. We named him “Kevin” so I will refer to that name in regards to the palm. Kevin was green and looked good but had some scratches on the leave from the cats....
After I took him home I placed him in a corner about 17 far across a window that brings the sunset in. (You can imagine the lighting conditions) we read that we have to water him daily?? So we gave him about 4 cups of water for the first 2 days and saw a huge change. He began to turn yellow. So we then took a break from watering him about a week and noticed browning. Someone please help. I really don’t want Kevin to die on me. We have aloe Vera plants and bamboo but nothing like this. I have no experience whatsoever!!! Thank you guys.


texts: What is the plastic gauze / grid in a bonsai replanting kit for?

texts:
I bought a bonsai replanting kit and its got this plastic grid / gauze in it. I could not work our what its for. Is it to cover the hole at the bottom of the pot to stop dirt falling our or has it another use?

I've attached an image to show what i'm talking about.


texts: Does a cucumber plant only produce one cucumber at a time

texts: I am growing a few cucumber plants in a raised bed.  I find that each plant produces a number of flowers and only one of the flowers turns into a cucumber and the rest of them dry up/wither.  After I pick the cucumber, the same thing happens and only one of the flowers survives.  Is that the expected behavior?  Does the cucumber take up took many plant resources that it does not allow other flowers to convert to a cucumber?


texts: Will seed potatoes still produce potatoes if they are planted too early?

texts:
I planted my seed potatoes in March in containers and put them outside. We had cold days and even snow once.

Will my seed potatoes still be able to produce potatoes?


texts: How can I easily and cheaply turn dead tree waste into usable garden products?

texts:
We have a bunch of dead tree waste, both from a dead tree as well as trees dropping branches. I think they are mostly box-elder tree parts.

Is there anything we can do in order to turn this into useful garden material? Either fertilizer or somehow otherwise use it?

It seems if we could convert this into something, it'd be useful for our garden. My best thought so far is to burn it and use the ashes. I assume any sort of composting process would take far too long?

For example, here is the quantity and type of material I'm talking about:

[

[


texts: Can I treat supermarket "living lettuce" as lettuce seedlings?

texts:
I have a tray of tired looking supermarket "living lettuce". You're supposed to keep it on your windowsill and use it up over a week or two.

Can I treat the living lettuce as a tray of seedlings and plant it out? It would be under glass at this time of year, of course.

It looks a bit like a tray of seedlings you'd buy from a garden centre in the spring, but not quite as healthy and much tighter packed in (several plantlets in each pot).


texts: Can I grow an Oak Live Tree in a large container to keep it around 20 ft high?

texts:
I’m new here. My partner and I are getting married and we are relandscaping our garden as our wedding gift. He loves Coast Live Oaks (Quercus agrifolia) and it’ll mean a lot to us if we can plant one or two. That area of the garden is about 30 feet wide. Way to small for a tree that grows up to 85 feet high and 35 feet wide.
Can we plant a Coast Live Oak in a big container, wether above or under ground, to keep the roots and the tree about 20 feet high and 15 feet wide? Thanks in advance for your answers.


texts:
I have been letting my two Mamey saplings grow for about a month and a half now. They were quite prosperous at the beginning: a half cup of water bi-daily and lots of sunlight—but unfortunately, after a while, they began getting quite severely scorched. So I brought them into the patio and would give them sunlight only twice or three times a week. But now they are looking quite sickly and the top of the plant where new leaves were flourishing, are now a light brownish color instead of a light green. Is there anything I could do to save these little guys? The little one (in the white pot) is a bit younger, and looks healthier, but is also being affected.
any advice on what to do to bring them back to good health?


texts: What do I do with my avocado plant during arctic winter?

texts:
I am going to start with describing my plant and how it has grown and its living conditions, and then I'll ask my questions later. So I have this indoor avocado plant which I planted from a nut and it is dearly loved by me. I named it Bertil. It is about eight months old, about 40 cm/16 inches tall from the soil up, and due to arctic climate I cannot plant it outside. I just moved a little more south so it won't be affected by the eight months of darkness, though it will get a little darker during winter. Also our house is a bit cold, around 18 °C (depends whether or not it's sunny outside). I don't know what soil I used, my mum just recommended it. And I don't think there is a lot of salt in our tap water as the main source is surface water from lakes etc., but I could be wrong. I water it daily, but not too much. I keep the soil moist. Some say I should let it dry out and/or soak it once a week. I am confused.

Some history of Bertil. I repotted it during summer, late June (it's now late October) and it had a huge growth spurt since then. I originally had two plants, where one had two stems from the beginning, but died of unknown reasons. The one that survived originally had just one stem, but after repotting and a car drive it suddenly had a new, long stem, which in the end is the one that grew to be 40 cm. The original stem hasn't grown more than 2-3 cm.

I try to keep my plant in the sun and at not too low temperature. I don't over water it (I think). I have been reading here for tips, and I noticed it was recommended not to water in the saucer or have gravel/rocks in the bottom, and I have/do both. It has gotten pretty big now (as mentioned), but there are a few things that worry me. The bottom leaves especially and some of the above have started to curl a little at the tip and I know they should be smooth. Also the lower leaves have gotten brown tips. It's rather healthy otherwise and there is new leaves at the top. Some time ago I plucked it at the top to encourage the lower leaves to be bigger, and it has helped. The top leaves are huge! But I am worried. Especially now that winter is approaching. How much sunlight does it need, what is the ideal temperature? Should I water it differently, or how should I water it? It's doing ok now, but some of the leaves have started to curl and turn brown at the tip; is this a warning sign?

So the questions are:

Should I do something as winter is coming along and it will be colder and darker?
Why are the leaves curling and what can I do to prevent it?
Is my plant dying?
Should I perhaps repot it and how?
Am I watering it wrong?

I would truly appreciate if someone would take the time to reply because I would be very sad if this plant died. Also it is a wonder something hasn't gone wrong earlier as I probably potted them too early in the ceramic pots.

Here are some pictures of it now:


texts: How can I remove a bush whose roots are breaking concrete?

texts:
In our backyard there is a bush growing up the side of a wall, using a drain pipe to crawl up.

Its trunk has grown to be relatively thick (~ 10 cm) and it is now causing the concrete to split on the floor. I'd like to remove it altogether. What's the best way to 'kill' it and prevent any more growth from the roots?


texts:
I noticed these sugary white granules on my tomato leaves a couple of months ago, and saw some insects which I thought were aphids but didn't look closely. Now it looks as though my potatoes are infected.

The tomato potato psyllid (TPP) arrived in this country in 2006, presumably from the USA, and I was quite unfamiliar with it. I suspect that this is my problem.

Sugar granules on tomato leaf

Nymphs and winged adults

Tomato caterpillar lying amongst psyllid sugar

Potato leaf curl

I'm going to remove and bag up the infected plants, but a couple of weeks ago before I realized what was wrong I pulled the spuds out and put them into the compost.

Do I need to remove them from the compost pile or is it too late? And should I remove all guest potato plants from the garden, infected or not?


texts:
Just wondering what this broad-leaf grass is called and how I can safety remove it from my "Blue Couch" (Digitaria didactyla) lawn. I've seen it take over many people's yards but have never known what it is and why it's there. Please help me sort this invader out.

Another question while I'm at it: Why does my lawn tend to die along the brick wall of my house or be easily invaded by this mystery grass? Is it the dryness of the soil from the heat of the bricks? It seems to get plenty of sun. I live in South East Queensland.


texts: Can you tell me what is wrong with these tomato plants

texts: They have been producing very well and I have had probably 8 or so Tomatoes already and they are still blooming and still making Tomatoes but they look like crap! I live in Missouri and it has been very hot here already this year and I am just at my wits and I don't know what to do and I also had a question about my cucumbers they are producing like crazy also speckled yellow thanks


texts:
I’m growing some sweet potato vines inside my house out of a well-draining tin pot. Where the vines cluster together, naturally less sunlight reaches the top soil and I’ve got little white mould spots starting to grow.
The potato requires regular watering and I don’t have a fungicide on hand, so today I mixed some apple cider vinegar with camomile tea (not sure what the tea does but it’s an online recipe) and poured that on top. By the end of the day, the mould was still there so I dusted some cinnamon on top (another online suggestion) until I can figure out what the best solution is.
Should I be mixing anything in the daily plant water to keep fungus away? I’m in S England and we’re entering the cold wet months so I assume if I don’t figure out how to control it now it will only get worse in the near future.
Appreciate any suggestions!


texts: Is maral root useful as a companion plant?

texts: I was looking at rarer plants to grow for natural pesticide purposes and I was wondering how maral root fares. What conditions does this plant need to grow? At what temperature, water amounts, soil conditions, etc. can this plant grow in, is it hardy or highly sensitive? Also, will it interfere with other plants?


texts: How can I make my Moringa Oleifera happy again?

texts:
I'm having some problems with my Moringa Oleifera. It's about 6 months old and is placed in a sunny window (oriented south), in southern Sweden. It's been growing well and looked healthy until recently.

Now, many of the leafs are getting spots, turning yellow and eventually falls of - see photo. Since it summer in Sweden now, I don't think it's lacking sunshine. Neither do I think it's gotten too little or too much water since I try to keep that under good control (letting it dry up, but not too long, before I water it).

Any ideas about what could be wrong?


texts:
I have three Ficus Ginseng in my flat. Two of them are very healthy, my third one however is not. I placed it too far from a bright window in the beginning and it lost lots if its leaves. Soon enough, I placed it right in front of a very bright window and it started to recover and grew new leaves. However, lately, some (old) leaves are starting to turn brown at the tips and eventually fall off.

What might be the reason for that? I don't think I've changed the frequency I'm watering it and the amount of light has only slowly decreased (due to autumn and winter soon).


texts: as you can see in the photo two of my Stromanthe leaves from the same roots are curling inward. what could be the issue? I don't think it's a humidity or watering issue, nor do I see any visible signs of pests. The roots also looked normal but I noticed that a section of the roots have been severed when I was repotting the plant. Has anyone have any experience with the Stromanthe leaf curling like this? Thanks in advance!


texts: Is hardening off necessary whenever you uppot a plant?

texts: Is hardening off necessary everytime you uppot the plant? Otherwise, how do you let the plant recover from transplant shock? Or won't the high temperature kill the plant whose roots are not established? Here temperatures reach 42 degrees celsius.


texts: What is this plant and how can I best rescue it?

texts:
I was given this plant (the one in the square pot) about 15 years ago as a house warming gift.

At one point a leaf fell off which I snapped in two and left in the soil. It then grew into the plant in the circular pot.

I have no idea what it is though.

I’d like to rescue them both. They have become too tall and gangly for the pots they are in.

I am looking for advice on how to do this. I’ll be buying some pots tomorrow and want to be able to go with a bit more knowledge. Ideally I’d like to start again and have a small little houseplant again that isn’t over large for the pot.

I’m guessing I can take a leaf and grow from that (as I did before) but is there a better way? Taking a cutting from the green sprouts in the larger plant maybe?


texts: What F1 in name of seeds/varieties means?

texts: Quick question: what 'F1' (for example 'Oceano F1' tomato seed) in name of seed exactly means? Are there other designations/markings in use, what is their meaning? Are there other naming conventions (for vegetable, fruit, flowers etc) and how important they are when choosing varieties?


texts: Plants to grow in a vertical/wall hanging sphagnum-based planter?

texts:
I received a planter as a gift. Please suggest plants to plant in it. (It is specifically the "hang.oasi.home" planter.)

The planter is basically a box that hangs on the wall, but the holes to put plants in are on the side (facing away from the wall) rather than the top. There's no tilt to it at all, so the holes are really straight out.

It is filled with sphagnum moss (garden center quality, acceptable).

It holds, at rough guess, about 1 gallon of the moss (after soaking), and the holes are approximately 4 inches in diameter.

Conditions will be room temperature, low humidity (except whatever comes out of the moss). I have some grow lights already, so amount of light can be anything.

The directions suggest "tropical" plants...which makes sense given the lack of soil, but most of the examples shown look either droopy (big plants that can't support themselves) or sparse (small plants). I would like something that can either grow out and up, or can create a nice, deliberate drape with good coverage. I can add a small amount of support (some wall hooks or something), but I would like to keep the whole system fairly simple.

Finally, I would like something that can actually grow. Nothing like an air plant or a cactus where healthy means it sits there unchanging for months.

What specific plants can handle these conditions?


texts: How can I automatically water my mushrooms?

texts:
I am growing mushrooms indoors on coffee waste, and I am trying to find a DIY system to water them automatically.

Basically, the reasons why it is different than watering plants are:
- You don't know where the mushrooms are going to pop out on the substrate surface, so the whole area has to be (more or less) uniformly wet all the time.
- They are very sensitive, especially in the early phase. If they are dry for a few hours, they'll stop growing and die.

It could be a system involving a small tank that I need to fill every other day or something like this. I am just looking for a way to avoid having to spray them twice daily or more like now.

So you have an idea of the size, I am currently using wooden wine boxes. However, I might get/build something larger, so the new box can probably be adapted to the watering system if it needs to be.

My first idea was a kind of clothe that I would spread out on sticks over the mushrooms. I guess some clothe could be tight enough so that the water takes time to percolate through and drop on the mushrooms...

Any other ideas?


texts: Is there any way to estimate the gallons per minute that a sprinkler system would use?

texts:
I am currently in the process of trying to determine the cost benefit of installing a well to be used on my sprinkler system. In order to do this cost analysis I need to know how much water will be used for each watering.

Is there any easy way to figure out how much water will be used? I know I could run the system and check the meter before and after, but I have a .6 acre lot and have no need to water right now.


texts: Mexican Avocado tree grown indoors 1½ years old has round spots on leaves

texts: I have a Mexican Avocado tree growing indoors in the winter (we live in the Northeast) outdoors in the summer. It has developed white round spots and the edges to the inside are becoming brown and the leaves are falling off. I do not see any sign of infestation anywhere. The soil looks clean, as do the leaves and I think it may be a disease but I do not know what.


texts:
Edit: I don't think it's a peace lily because it's never flowered, the leaves are not as wide or shiny/waxy, and the venation is less dense.

It's been through the ringer, neglected by ex-wife, but keeps springing back.  I need to add soil, repot.  Thanks in advance!


texts: How can I fill in a hole where a pond was that is attached to our patio?

texts:
It's a long one but I'm hoping someone can help, please.

We had a  semi raised pond. We've dismantled it and are left with a hole about 4ft deep. We've broken up all the rubble from the sides of the pond to put in and the plan is to pave over it.

I have several questions..
1. Do I need to use a compactor to make it level before I pave it? I don't want to get subsidence, I plan to out the play house over the top.

Do I need to put anything in with the rubble such as sand or small hardcore?
I'm guessing I need to use a soft concrete for the slabs to enable drainage?
Why did I start this?!!

Any helpful advice will be greatly received, thanks.


texts: What should I do with these mushrooms in my yard?

texts: I have some mushrooms showing up around my landscape. Do I just remove them like any other weed or do I need to do anything special?


texts: I'm trying to inoculate the yard with puffball scraps, and was wondering if the fresh spores on the lawn will be able to survive freezing so I can get several in the yard next year.


texts: Its been growing in a small bush in my garden without any watering, and it just flowered. The leaves look similar to feverfew or chamomile, but they are different, the chamomile or feverfew seems to have leaves which are wider, this plants leaves are like thinner and longer. Could it be an oxeye daisy or another kind of daisy? Any ideas?


texts: Holding water and good drainage contradiction?

texts:
I've looked at some youtube videos, where they say that mediums such as vermiculite allow good drainage, but also have great water holding capabilities.

I am newbie gardener, and to me, this is almost a contradiction. What do they mean when they say that a medium has good drainage, but also holds water well?


texts: When should I start worrying about holes and leaf damage in my brassicas?

texts:
Brassicas are notoriously hard to protect and we have all seen cabbage and broccoli leaves stripped down to a sort of skeleton as a result of pests. But netting goes a long way to solving the problem.

I have some fundamentally healthy looking broccoli (under netting) but most of the plants have a few minor holes (ranging from 0.5mm to 3mm) in the leaves. Is this a problem? Are these even pests, or just some kind of wear and tear in the leaf structure?


texts: How do I remove one of two different plants growing in the same spot?

texts:
There's a shrub planted in the corner of my property, that the previous owner put there to help mask the utility pole behind it. I kind of like this idea, but there is another plant growing in the same spot. I feel like the shrub would be healthier, fuller, and overall better-looking, if I removed it.

The problem is I i'm not sure how to effectively remove one plant without harming the other. Is this even possible? If you look at the closeup below, you can see the trunks - I want to keep the larger plant with the chunky-looking bark, and get rid of the smaller plant with smooth bark.

I've had some success killing hackberry saplings in my back yard by cutting them near grade with lopping shears and painting the top with glyphosate, but I'm afraid that if I do that, it could enter the root system of the larger shrub. Is that an actual possibility, or will the glyphosate remain only in the target plant? If not, how should I go about this?


texts: Are my tomato plants damaged by a chemical or a disease?

texts:
Most of my tomato plants have started showing signs of what I think is Cucumber Mosaic Virus. I have shoestring, fernleaf, and curling leaves. They also have a leathery appearance.

At first I thought this was the plants reacting to being moved into the full sun, but the new growth continues to look like this and there's no signs of it getting better.

All of my plants are heirloom varieties but not all are effected. The varieties in question are:

Blue Beauty
Blue Berries
Dester
Goldman's Italian American
Hillbilly Potato Leaf
Mortgage Lifter (Halladay's strain)

More pictures, and higher resolution, can be seen here.

Update 6/20/14:
After talking to a local farmer, and as suggested below, this looks like it may be herbicide damage. Even though we don’t use herbicides that doesn't rule out drift from a neighbor using it.

Another possibility is they could have come in contact with algaecide, another pool chemical, or Simple Green while they were stored on the patio before being planted out in the garden.

Update 7/2/14:
I've continued to observe the plants and have noticed the following:

Overall growth has been stunted, the plants are growing but much slower than normal
The foliage looks green and healthy aside from being malformed, it’s showing no signs of yellowing, dropping, or black spots
Buds are continuing to form and show signs of fruit
On some plants the majority of the buds are turning brown and dropping by the time pea-sized fruit show up
New top growth is showing signs of being affected, but in most cases it's not as severe as the initial leaves
New suckers show signs of being affected but not as much as the main
plant, and in some cases it’s almost unnoticeable
New suckers below the affected area (the first 2-3 leaves) show little or no sign of
being affected

After posting this I came across some blog posts from someone who had gotten contaminated soil, his plants show similar symptoms as mine. You can read those here, here, and here.

At this point I'm pretty confident that the issue is due to a chemical and not a virus.


texts:
I once read that storing garden hand tools (weeder, hand shovel, pruning sheers, etc.) in sand mixed with a little bit of mineral oil is a good practice because it lubricates them and keeps them sharp.
I have been doing this for several years, but I now question that this is a good idea - at least for the pruning sheers. They get sand all through them and seem to dull faster than I would expect.
Is the practice of storing garden tools in sand wise/good (e.g. does it actually actively help tools)? Or have I been slowly ruining my garden tools?
Update: By "store", I mean between uses, not just over the winter (though, in practice they get placed in the sand over the winter as well).


texts: What's the best way to eliminate the moss in a shady, damp area of my lawn?

texts:
I need to sort out a patch of grass at the back of my garden. It's covered in moss as you can see from the picture. I'm not an expert of any sort when it comes to the garden but I would like it to look nice.

So please can you give me your best advice for eliminating the moss and replenishing it with healthy grass?

I can't particularly state my soil type but I live in the UK and the patch of grass which I'm looking to repair is at the end of the garden which doesn't get direct sunlight and is a damp spot.

This is a rental property so I'm looking for the cheapest but most efficient solution.

Any solutions are more than appreciated!

Click on the picture for a bigger view.


texts: Small cactus with woolly sides identification

texts: I got this cactus as a present, at least I think it is a cactus, but don't know what species it is. It is small now about 5-6 cm in height. It has hairy or woolly sides, and has multiple stems. Does anyone know what species it is, and how big it can grow? Thanks in advance.


texts: What is this seedling I found sprouted in my sink?

texts: I found a seed that had sprouted unnoticed in my sink. I never saw the seed. By the time I saw anything it was a sprout. Curious as to what it is, I planted it. The first two true leaves have now emerged. Any idea what this is?


texts: What is the name of this plant with 5-petaled pink flowers?

texts:
What is the name of this plant?

The image was from a China tour website, although it doesn't seem to be on that page anymore. I am not sure if it is also popular in America.


texts: What's the difference between Berberis Thunbergii cultivars 'Golden Ring' and 'Coronita'?

texts:
I'm trying to distinguish between two cultivars of Berberis Thunbergii.

Two that are similar are available in my area: 'Golden Ring' and 'Coronita'.

What is the difference? What do you recommend?


texts:
I’ve just noticed small white egg-like sacs on the bark of the branch that I use to grow my tongue orchid Dockrillia linguiformis.

In fact the sacs are not solid white but appear to be translucent.

The timber substrate I use is Australian swamp oak Casuarina glauca.

It may be circumstance, but I noticed a part of the older length of orchid had been pried away from the bark to which it was fixed. Maybe something laid these “eggs”, or maybe something was trying to eat these “eggs” and either way knocked the section of orchid.

Photos are included below...


texts: How to fix a small pond that has become stagnant?

texts:
I'm working in a park and we have a small pond, a part of a river system that has become stagnant, mucky and smelly. The river that previously ran into the pond is no longer there and we'd like to be able to make the pond less mucky and have clear water. The pond has a small stream that flows out of it, but the pond itself doesn't seem to have any water flow whatsoever. The bottom is all mud and has no wildlife, expect for a few leaves.The pond is about 2 feet deep, 7 feet across and about 12 feet long. So its relatively small. It's located in Paradise, Newfoundland, Canada. The pond is in a park surrounded by mostly pine trees. And a lot of moss. I'm assuming a river once ran into the pond but now it's mostly boggy moss.
Our project for the summer is to try to get the pond to flow again or just make it so it doesn't smell and has clearer water. What can we do? (We have no money to work with, just manual labour.)


texts: What is the turquoise-green succulent in this succulent group?

texts:
Could you please ID succulent E in the following picture? I am impressed by its blue color and gentle habit. What is its hardiness zone? Would it survive the coldness of zone 5, if left outdoor in the winter, while keeping it in its current container and arrangement?

This question is based on another (closed) question.


texts: Is landscape fabric stressing my plants?

texts:
About a month ago I did a little bit of landscaping at home. My dad insisted that we put landscape fabric down, even though I said I didn't care to use it.

The type of landscape fabric that was used seemed overly heavy to me. It looks something like this My parents have a weed barrier at their home, but its more of a cloth look, like this.

A few days after planting a few new plants, putting down the weed mat, and adding new mulch some of the new plants were looking a little weary. I at first thought it was maybe just a small shock. Three weeks later, here I am with the same weary looking plants, one plant has lost it's flower buds, and a rose bush that has been there from the beginning also lost all of it's flowers.

I've kept the plants watered and occasionally lift the weed barrier to make sure the soil is still moist, which it has been. The fact that the rose bush has died is what makes me wonder if it's the landscape fabric that is causing the problem. My rose bush thrived all last summer with zero problems, even with the amount of extreme heat we had.

My first thought was maybe the landscape barrier is too thick and is shedding most of the water away from the base of the plants.

So the question is, could it really be the landscape fabric that is causing my problems? If it is the cause of the problem, what are some other minimal effort ways to control weeds?

Japanese beetle pictures: image 1 image 2


texts: How can I tell who's responsible for the death of new sod laid in July?

texts:
I need some help to figure out what steps I should take next. I paid close to $6,000 to have new sod laid back in July. This was after I paid a couple thousand to have sprinklers installed. The landscaper I used is blaming me for "killing it" even though it was watered and cut by someone else since he installed it.

Everyone is telling me to get a refund but he is saying he wants to pull it out and put seed down at a cost to me.

Trugreen is also saying it may be a fungus. I also pulled up some pieces as they don't appear to have stuck.

I have attached as many pictures as possible. Here are the before and after pictures. Does anyone know why it might have died?


texts: Juniperus virginiana and producing berries

texts:
As you may have noticed from other questions of mine, I am in a process of transforming my yard into a bird garden. (This is a long-term multi-year enterprise).

One of the most attractive plants for birds ever is Juniperus virginiana (Eastern Red Cedar), I found that from numerous internet sources. For example a web site says:

  Eastern Red Cedar is great for birds. The berry-like cones provide
  food from late summer through much of the winter for many bird
  species.  The social Cedar Waxwings, for whom fruit is a larger part
  of their diet than it is for most birds, were named for their love of
  these cones.  Eastern Red Cedar’s dense foliage provides good coverage
  for small to medium sized birds who are looking for a place to perch
  safely out of view and reach from larger predators.

The base species is a large tree (30 m), but its cultivars (that are much smaller) are usually sold by nurseries, and then planted in gardens. In my area, cultivars 'Spartan' and 'Heitzii' are available.

My questions regarding Juniperus virginiana are following:

1) Are both female and male plants needed for producing berries?

2) If yes, do male and female plants need to be of the same cultivar?

3) Do some of you have berry-producing Juniperus virginiana? What is your experience regarding male/female relations?


texts: How to revive a low nitrogen and rocky soiled lawn?

texts:
The situation is explained below in terms of my lawn with the question at the end

I recently moved into a new home two years ago and by the looks of the lawn it was low in nitrogen.  A little more back story is that I don't think it was ever treated with fertilizer or chemicals as it was weedy, patchy, and overall in disarray.

While I haven't done a soil test I did quite a bit of work to get the weeds out and had a company treat with weed and feed for the past two years.  After last summer the grass was still dry at times even with a diligent watering regimen.

I still suspect the lawn is low in nitrogen and I know it's very rocky underneath as I found when planting three trees. The area is newer and it appears much of the soil was taken from a nearby quarry.

Come spring I plan on doing my own lawn maintenance and have done extensive research on seeding, fertilizer, watering, and overall maintenance.  All fertilizers I have researched have different claims in regards to when to apply and to what grass, but none really have a good explanation of how to treat lawns with low nitrogen, high clay and rocky soil.

Is there anything else I need to take into consideration in terms of fertilizer, weed and feed, or chemicals that I need to keep in mind when trying to revive my lawn?

What I am already doing

Will get soil tested
Have watering plan
Researching applicable fertilizer


texts: How to reclaim my backyard that has turned into a swamp?

texts:
Problem

Anyone on the East Coast of the US is probably aware of what a rainy year it has been. As of my writing this, the last six months in Northern Virginia have had more rain (1149mm at Dulles Airport) than the yearly average (1021 mm).

This year's rain has exacerbated the swampy conditions of my backyard. After heavy rainfall, my yard gets so swampy that I can barely walk back there. Work boots tend to punch holes in the turf, and if I slip in the slick conditions, I'll tear up the grass. This year, the whole backyard has been so wet that I have not actually mowed a single time. The yard has been so soggy, that no one has been in it since April. I am barely exaggerating when I say that the soil has the consistency of mayonnaise.

The conditions

My backyard is more or less designed to be swampy. First, it is entirely in the shade of the house or backyard trees; it gets at most a few hours of partial sun a day. Second, most of it is at a 10% of higher grade, facing north-west, which is mostly away from the sun.

I thought the grade would help water to run off, but that hasn't been the case. Having dug some fenceposts, I can tell you the soil has about 4-6 inches of topsoil, followed by 1-2 feet of red dirt, then a pretty solid clay layer that is hard to dig through. I believe the problem is that drainage through the red dirt is slow, so the upper topsoil layer ends up super saturated.

What I need

I'm looking for some lawn-like vegetation to help control the swampiness problem. I am wondering if there are plants that can either

a. help to promote drainage, perhaps with deeper roots that let water get through that red dirt
  b. help solidify the soil someone, so that it can be walked on even if it has rained for a few days.

The grass that came with the house when I bought it (mostly fescue, I think) has survived for at least 4 years. I have no trouble with trying a more mixed lawn, even a 'lawn' of grass mixed with some other non-grass forbs, so long as they can help with drainage and be cut with a lawnmower.

For an alternate solution, the part of my backyard that is entirely underneath the trees has been overgrown with English Ivy. This looks fine, and is actually easier to walk on than the slippery lawn, but doesn't meet my requirements of looking somewhat lawn-like.

Edit for more info:

This shows the general slope and transition from grass to ivy. The stuff under the leaves is mostly grass, though mostly dead.

Beyond the end of the slope there is about 50 yards of woods until the next house. There is a stream back here that is perhaps another 10 feet in elevation below my back fence; this picks up whatever runoff there is.

If you look at the neighbor's house/deck, the deck is attached to the main level and the basement opens into the backyard. My house is the same way, so all this yard is below my basement level, so there are no flooding issues. We are on city water and sewer which comes in through the front. My front driveway is probably ~20 feet elevation-wise above the fence at the back end of the property.

For reference, this is what a footprint looks like. It hasn't rained in about 72 hours, and there was a heavy rain about 90 hours ago. Note any footstep totally smashes the plants underneath, that's why no one in the family has been back here all summer, it just destroys what grass there is. Also note, there actually isn't much grass left. That footprint looks mostly like clover and wild strawberry.


texts: Identify a doughnut-shaped free-spinning mower part

texts:
I serviced my mower this morning and gave it a clean with a hose with a moderate level of water pressure. It appears that I have blown a part off the lawn mower though I am not sure how. I can't figure out where the part came from and am hoping someone can identify it so that I can narrow down where it might have come from.

Image of front and back of the part:

Click image for full size

The inner part spins free of the outer part and that's about all the information that I have.

The mower I have is a Rover i5500 and the manual is rather light on pictures or diagrams so it was not much help, the manual is also quite easy to find online if that is of any particular help.


texts: Tiny white insects in the soil-eating roots?

texts:
I notice a lot of white tiny tiny insect in the soil if my plants. They mainly stay in the soil, nothing on the stem or leaves.
I just noticed these things today, so not sure how long they have been living there.
Are they harmless?
Thank you.


texts: Just transplated Zucchini and bean outside and noticing some white spots on leaves and brown stems

texts:
So a few days ago I transplanted my pole beans and Zucchini plants into containers. I'm noticing a few things on the plants.

We had a heavy rain and some wind a few days after I transplanted them and one of the pole beans leafs had fallen off. I'm now noticing browning on the stems.

My zucchini leaves have big white spots on the leaves. I transplanted these 2-3 days ago.
My other Zucchini plant has little tiny white specs forming on its leaves

Not sure if its just over watering. Pests? Not enough food? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! thanks so much!


texts: Can a person tell if a plant was grown hydroponically or in a soil medium

texts: The question is very simple, yet I can't seem to find the answer. Is there any identifying marks overall that someone can point out, to tell if a plant was grown hydroponically or not?


texts:
I will be removing all of the leaves and debris from the gap between the cement patio and the wire fence in my garden and was wondering what I could fill the gap with? I plan on erecting a shad in the patio area and would like to fill the gap with something that is sturdy, any ideas?

https://imgur.com/s7v7LyQ


texts:
I'm very new to this field, and these plants are all I have so far. A few days ago I bought them from IKEA and left them in the kitchen. My bad, I know and I apologize for it.

Now I'd like to save these plants, if it is not too late. I've read that basil likes sun and, it is not so good for it to live in the indoor environment. I live in south Poland so I'll keep them outside of my kitchen window. I'll water them in mid-day.

For now I don't know what to do in order to save them, so I have some questions:

Does the basil on the left side have any chances of survival? It doesn't seem likely, but there is still some green on the leaves.
The one from the right has some leaves with black spots. Should I remove them entirely or only the black spots?
I live on the second floor of a big building. My apartment has windows facing east and west. Is it recommended to move the plant during the day in order to have more sun, or is it recommended to leave it in the same place?


texts:
I have an olea europa that I bought at 3-4ft and allowed to grow as it wished.

I've now pruned it quite heavily, and would like to train its 'leader' branch back to being more central: as it is, it kinks slightly to one side, and another, smaller branch has grown to the other.

They are very close together - is there anything I could do to encourage them to merge together, cut the bark inside and bind them together perhaps - or should I prune the smaller one and just accept the other is not straight and perhaps tie it to a cane to make the best of it?


texts:
From my understanding, hydroponics is essentially growing plants without soil. Instead of soil, the plant is placed in water.

Are there any advantages to growing plants hydroponically?

Are there instances where plants can grow faster if they are grown hydroponically?


texts:
I brew my own beer and as such have a relatively large amount (2KG dry weight) of spent malt grains and a small amount (100g dry weight) of hops that go in the compost once a month or so.

Hops are added to beer traditionally because of their antibacterial properties, and it's recently occurred to me that adding them to the compost might not be a good idea. I wondered if anyone else has any experience of this.


texts: How can I shape bougainvilleas on a trellis?

texts:
I have a trellis (Cairo Egypt) that I would like my bougainvilleas to completely cover. The trellis is 2 meters in width and 4 meters in height. I planted 4 bougainvilleas each apart by 0.5 meters. However I’m not sure now how it would cover the entire trellis. I want it to be very dense, so I have two options I guess:

plant more bougainvilleas with more density, so maybe between each two bougainvilleas I already planted I add one more, but I'm not sure if 0.25m between each plant is a safe distance
or after the bougainvilleas reach out the 4 meters height, I try to twist it to 180 degrees so it continues spreading in the other direction

The idea here is to have a wall of bougainvilleas, completing covering what’s behind it.


texts:
I planted some of my veggies in starter pods, and let them sit for a while without adequate sunlight.  The first ones to germinate first shot up way too fast and their stems are getting long and skinny.

If I select only the shortest, or the last to germinate in the group, will I be introducing plants with less desirable traits into my garden?  Or is there something to be said about late bloomers, or germinaters in this case?


texts: Are 16 " high pop-up spray heads available? I have a 12" high pop-up spray head positioned 3' from a rose bush. It sprays forefully into the small rose bush (15" - 18" high). I prefer not to move the head, the spray covers the rest of the plants in the mulched bed. What I would like to do is leave the head in that location and simply change the 12" pop-up spray head to a 16" (or higher if available) thereby raising the spray height so it doesn't spray forcefully into the small rose bush.


texts: Why are my lilacs dying and what can I do about it?

texts:
I have some large, old lilacs that seem to be dying. They start out great in the season, then leaves on individual branches start to get a variegated look, then curl, then brown, then finally die.

I have many lilacs, but three in particular seem to be suffering. They are situated in a row, north to south. I moved into this house in 2012 and the three were doing great. I sprayed a bit of herbicide on the brick pathway near the lilacs at that time, being careful not to hit any lilac shoots. Maybe the timing was uncanny, but about two weeks later, the south lilac began to curl and brown and finally the entire plant was dead in about 6 weeks. I chalked it up to bad luck with the herbicide.

The next year, the two remaining plants did great and had no issue. The south plant even grew back a little, but only about five percent of what it was. Again, I just figured it was bad luck with the herbicide.

This year the same thing is happening with the middle plant and slightly with the north plant. I have sprayed no herbicides and asked my neighbor if she had sprayed any. She had not. It is not bad luck with the herbicide. The south plant came back a bit more than the previous year, but it is also dying in the same fashion again.

So I've done some research to find out what it is.

I've learned about a bacterial blight, but a description I read of how the leaves look when dying does not fit.
I've learned that lilacs are susceptible to over watering, but that is not a problem, because I rarely water them and I don't think runoff is a problem for their location.
I've learned that under watering can be a problem, but I doubt it because my other lilacs in other locations are doing fine with the same watering attention.
I've learned that over fertilizing can be a problem, but I don't fertilize much and didn't the first year when the south plant died (but the previous owner might have).

I'm in the inland Northwest USA.

I'm not sure what to do and would be very saddened if I lost the other two. Here are my pictures of the plants. Click on them to see a larger view.


texts: I have a lemon tree that is 8 years old. I didn't water it enough during its first years, and as a result it's only 2 meters (6 feet) high. How and when should I prune my lemon tree to stimulate its growth?


texts: Will the effectiveness of soaker hoses degrade too much if I connect multiple ones together?

texts: I'm looking to use soaker hoses on my tomatoes this year and need a bit over 100 feet to get all the plants. The maximum length I can get one in is 50 feet so I would need three hoses to get everything evenly. Would they work ok if I connected them all together or would it be better to use a 3-way splitter on them? If it helps the hoses I was looking to get are these.


texts: What is this annual weed with square stems and purple bracts?

texts: This plant is a low-growing cool season annual. I'm guessing it is in the mint family because of it's square stems, triangular hairy leaves and distinctive odor. The plants are 4-8" tall, and grow wild in fields, gardens, lawns, and along roadsides. To my knowledge they are not cultivated. They grow in the same season as chickweed, Sprouting in fall, growing and blooming through winter, then peaking and finally dying by late spring. What is the name of this plant?