Gardening tips

This topic was created in the Miscellaneous forum by Ram416 on Friday, May 24, 2019 and has 17 replies.
Inspired by @Ellygant 's mini-rant earlier.

If you have any gardening tips or hacks that you might like to share, please do so.

Some of my plants had some serious ant infestation but because they're fruit/vegetable plants, I couldn't use pesticide spray. I ended up boiling some orange rinds and spraying the water on the plants....and it worked!


Will post tomorrow
For starters..


diatomaceous earth

I sleep now
Posted by _Dazed

For starters..


diatomaceous earth

https://draxe.com/diatomaceous-earth/

This looks interesting. Right now I'm only using a mix of organic and regular garden soil.
Use bon neem or neem oil
good stuff here - I live in the country and the weeds have taken over faster than I can manage them

I go this stuff call creeping charley all over my lawn - about an acre in total now - and it's run into my garden which I'm attacking now - at least in the garden. the only thing it is good for is that the ticks hate the stuff so my house is surrounded by tick repelling weeds but it is just way too invasive

I use diatomaceous earth all around my house for tick and flea control - it also kills beetles and any hard-shelled crawling insect

Posted by CapNCrunch

10-10-10 fertilizer has always been good to me for gardening.

Root stimulator for things that look bleak ( I had someone dig up the wrong tree for me once and the whole root ball was cut off. Root stimulator kept it alive and it's still alive some 15+ years later)


For weed use African violet plant food.


really ? I wonder what is in African Violet plant food that kills weeds ?
Posted by Unwording

Mostly for house plants:

- Salt spray for spider mites

- Orange oil and cayenne for ants

- Eucalyptus oil is good to have in your arsenal

- Proper drainage

- Water/mist early in the morning or the evening

- Avoid direct sunlight at noon, especially during summer

- Most importantly, know your plant, and provide the right soil



Hmmm I should see if I can get that. Ants often attack my lime and chilli plants, I'm just waiting to see if my cherry tomatoes are affected. Right now the citrus water concoction works.
Posted by Skeleton

Collect all the eggshells, crush it combined the soil in it. and that gives a plants some vitaminz in.
Got it! Will be doing it for my cherry tomato plants
Posted by Ellygant

I’ve screenshot so much already! Yay!

My succulents, which were growing bright, open and big for the last two months, all started shriveling/baking this week once we hit 90° temps. One half of a plant is literally a dark orange now, in just one day. The rest have closed up and look pale.

I’ve moved them into a spot that gets a little less sun but now I’m worried they won’t be able to recover after getting so scorched. Any tips?
Soak the soil with water . Don't put too much though (I.e. Don't turn the soil into muddy water) Then spray the leaves with water. See if you can trim off the scorched and dead parts. That will help too.

I've managed to do this with my plants, especially the curry leaf plant which was under direct sunlight during our heatwave 2 months ago.
Posted by Ellygant

So the kitchen manager at work has been saving me eggshells. He sent me home with 2 quarts!!! The plants seemed to have adjusted to the heatwave too and aren’t getting schorched anymore. Even the succulent I thought wouldn’t make it, the half burned one, is starting to grow again! The half that isn’t burned lol.

True to obsessive Scorpio form, I stopped by to get more planters for some inpatients and two jalepeño seedlings my dad gave me, and brought home five new tomato plants and 12 sweet pepper plants. 😅😅😅. So I now have 20+ tomato plants, herbs, succulents, and peppers. Plus the inpatients lol. I might have enough for my own little tomato stand lol.

I did notice a bunch more ants in the yard (not on the plants) when putting out the new tomatoes tho. So I’m going to preemptively make that orange spray to be safe.

My basil and thyme have wilted down badly. But I moved them towards more sun. The jalepeños might not make it too. I’ve been working so much that I mainly get time to check and water. Only one day where I have enough time to plant. Idk if they’ll hold out a few more days but I hope so. 😅😢

How’s everyone else’s holding up?
My chilli and cherry tomato seedlings have sprouted!

I'm going to try the spoiled milk mixed with soil trick this weekend to see if it catalyses further growth for them.
Posted by Ellygant

Posted by Ram416

Posted by Ellygant

So the kitchen manager at work has been saving me eggshells. He sent me home with 2 quarts!!! The plants seemed to have adjusted to the heatwave too and aren’t getting schorched anymore. Even the succulent I thought wouldn’t make it, the half burned one, is starting to grow again! The half that isn’t burned lol.

True to obsessive Scorpio form, I stopped by to get more planters for some inpatients and two jalepeño seedlings my dad gave me, and brought home five new tomato plants and 12 sweet pepper plants. 😅😅😅. So I now have 20+ tomato plants, herbs, succulents, and peppers. Plus the inpatients lol. I might have enough for my own little tomato stand lol.

I did notice a bunch more ants in the yard (not on the plants) when putting out the new tomatoes tho. So I’m going to preemptively make that orange spray to be safe.

My basil and thyme have wilted down badly. But I moved them towards more sun. The jalepeños might not make it too. I’ve been working so much that I mainly get time to check and water. Only one day where I have enough time to plant. Idk if they’ll hold out a few more days but I hope so. 😅😢

How’s everyone else’s holding up?
My chilli and cherry tomato seedlings have sprouted!

I'm going to try the spoiled milk mixed with soil trick this weekend to see if it catalyses further growth for them.
I totally missed the spoiled milk thing!!

*goes back and reads*

That might rescue the jalapeños.

I literally breathed a huge sigh when I saw my succulents doing better. In learning all about this new hobby, I’ve found them to be harder to take care of than any of the herbs, flowers or fruits/vegetables, despite their rep as being hardy! They’re super sensitive to environmental changes.

Did you say you were doing a lime tree this year? My dad was thinking of doing a lime or lemon tree for the first time. What’s your experience with them?
click to expand
Lime plant...I have no space for a lemon tree lol

Lime plants, I have 2 ( 2 different species of lime). They're easy to grow and maintain and quite hardy in harsh weather. At the moment neither is bearing fruit, so I suspect both might be male. But we'll see...

Posted by Ellygant

Motherfucking caterpillars.

I just lost a whole tomato plant, literally overnight. To one. By the time I found him he ate the whole thing. Granted it was still a sapling, only about a foot high. But now it’s 7 inches high and hasn’t two twiggy arms. Everything else, gone.

Any solutions other than daily patrols and the bottom of my boots?

Also some pest ate an entire planter box of inpatients. They’re tiny and gray or maybe brown? Maybe a millimeter big if that? Like a hundred? Also overnight. Came home from work around midnight and checked the garden and they’d swarmed and were everywhere. Any ideas what they are and how to prevent/rid of them? Basic Internet search was inconclusive.

It’s summer and all the beauty bugs out here.
Do a search on what keeps pests away from plants. HippieGem posted about cayenne peppers, and in my case citrus water keeps ants away.

I'm not sure about caterpillars though.

@Arielle83 might have an idea since she gave me the idea about citrus water.
Some of my plants got scorched during the recent heatwave. Especially the curry leaf plant.

Most of its leaves died from the heat, but I just kept watering the stem. 1 week ago, new leaves started to sprout. Will post pictures later if I get the chance.
For those interested in growing these sort of plants, or live in conducive environments for such plants.

https://says.com/my/life style /beginner-friendly-plants-you-can-grow-at-home-on-your-balcony?fbclid=IwAR3ooCdzseqZjj6tMY4buHeSxbfXZoceMvjmQqgltS06wlzFZaebdKstjzI