P is for Potted Plant Problems and Phuqing Phungus Phlies

We haven't had as much garden or insect stuff as I'd imagined I'd post, but that may change at some point, as it's all piling up on the PC, but here's one I've been battling with which might be of some help to some of you.

 

One of the most depressing things of the last few years has been the loss of the garden, which will obviously go to the new owners of the house, and while I managed to get as much as I could to Mum's friends and neighbours, I've ended-up with 20-odd pot plants which are down the bottom of a neighbour's garden, but they need to sell now, too, so I may lose them, unless someone knows someone in North Hampshire/Surry with a quiet corner of a farm or estate where I could leave them for a few month 'till a year or so?

 

In addition, there were houseplants and cacti which wouldn't survive down the bottom of someone's garden, so I gave away as many as I could, and brought the rest to the flat, where I have one of each I think, with a few duplicates where the flowers or foliage are different, like the Geraniums which apparently aren't Geraniums (Pelargoniums), I think one of the Cacti has finally died, and the Amaryllis is looking poorly, but I think they always do at this time of year, and I should cut off the floppy old leaves and wait for it to go-again, later?

 

But in the biggest pot was this thing, I think it's some kind of Iris or Lily, but a non-hardy one, it may be perfectly happy outdoors though, I don't know, however it was in the 'summer-room' (a fancy kit of plastic panels and oversized Meccano I built for Mum, with Mimi's help, about 14-years ago), so it came here, and as you can see, a week ago it was not looking very happy.

 

Six months ago this pot was full of greenery, up to 8-inches tall in the middle, but shortly after I moved it here, one of the last to arrive, I started noticing these little flies, and took great delight in dealing with them every evening after work four, one night, eight, another, Ohh, more than ten, I've lost count!

 

However, I soon noticed that the plant was dying off slowly, and I'd water it, it would put out a few new shoots, but a dozen old ones would die-off! Google revealed the problem was these little fruit flies, called Fungus Gnats, and I re-started my efforts at eradication with more earnestness, getting dozens every night, and a bunch in the mornings before work (my PC table is next to the plant, so I was 'on site'), days-off were fly-carnage!

But still the plant ailed, as you only have to miss a couple of adults long enough for them to get together and do the jiggy-thang, get the eggs in the pot, and another batch of grubs has to be waited for, until they hatch, meantime they are eating the roots of the plant! So war was declared, more Googling done, and the little yellow thing above is part of the campaign.

The first purchase was these sticky pads, from the cheapie-hardware store up in town (Fleet Essentials, previously Ziggy's, but with one of the Ex-Baker's staff now helping them get in the right stuff), and this was the 'right stuff', look at it!

 

You have a single line of sticky on the back, which you peel to stick the sheet down, then you peel the backing sheet off the front (almost an oxymoron there?), and all the little flies go "Wha-hay a sunflower", and die, slowly, and quietly, producing little guilt as you can see what they and their kids have done/are doing to your precious plant!

Yet, it was a slow process, and I was still killing lots of flies by hand, every day (f'ousands of 'em since December Sah! F'ousands!), so after a return to Google I spent £4.50 on this at B&Q, chemical warfare had come to the flat!

Ladies and Gentlemen, two months later, and it hadn't killed a single fly, the plant was looking as it does in the first shot, and I was clearly losing the war . . . against phuqing flies! Indeed, the only use I will ever get from it is as a possible rocket-engine on a scratch-build!

The apparently non-toxic (and non-attractive to Fungus Gnats) liquid went down the drain, revealing seven glass beads? The magic ingredient in this complete rip-off of a fake solution (in both senses of the word) is the remains of some shot-blasting, sunk in snot? Somebody should go to jail for this scam!

Yeah! In the spares pile they go, they're not even the same size - so not much use for anything!

I then took the pot back to the old house, took it down to the bottom of the garden, and dug-out the remains of the plants with a desert-fork, carefully, as the greenery is very snappy. And with two bits of root (Holmes, Rhizomes?) and three plants, drowned them while I was at work, to kill any hidden larvae or eggs.

 

You wouldn't believe the pot-sized ball of dried, hollowed-out, root remains, that tumbled out, it had been fighting the grubs for years, and while looking OK on top, was being absolutely decimated underneath. Another couple of weeks and it would have been gone.

 

Heading off to Redfield's garden centre, which I discover has become not a garden centre, but a multi-function, high-end, leisure-destination/tourist-facility, mall, restaurant and day-care centre, for the young and old? 

 

Almost single-handedly responsible for the death of half the shops in the High Street, including the aforementioned Bakers (another post for another day), they even have a clothes section, not out-door or garden apparel, but chic, fashion and everyday-wear? A toy shop and grocery store, it's like the world's most expensive Trago Mills!

AND, you are forced by shelving, and displays, and phuqing little-phences, to go round 9/10th's of it! Fortunately, a fifth-columnist in the houseplant section let me go through her secret passage, direct to the tills, so I got a fresh-bag of compost, and saw a surface layer, expressly for Fungus Gnats!

This was all last week, and I re-potted last Thursday-night, after washing the pot (and crocks) with bleach, and drying thoroughly, before the remains of the plant drowned as well as the larvae/eggs, and after pay-day last weekend, I went back for the surface treatment, a crushed pumice, which I applied as above, about a centimetre deep (that's about half a banana stalk for our N. American readers), on Saturday last.

 

As you can see, three fresh shoots are already up/out, and I'm hoping the two little pieces will germinate in a few days, they are buried at 4 and 7 if you know what I mean; on the clock face as viewed. There will be a follow-up photo' if anything happens!

 

Now to maybe being of some help to you - 

• Don't buy the liquid traps, they are just another capitalist rip-off.
• Do buy the sticky-traps (there were four in the pack, about a fiver), the second is now on the window, just in case!
• Understand the sticky-pads won't cure the problem, but they'll hold it in check for a few weeks while you work-up the will for the serious bit of faffing!
• The pumice would make ideal model-railway ballast, and there's a lifetimes supply in one 9-quid bag, ten times cheaper than modeller's scatter, and probably the same stuff?
  

Over the next few days I killed another four flies, which were probably lone operators who'd meandered to other parts of the flat, and came back looking for a feed, or somewhere to lay their eggs, but since last Monday or Tuesday, it has been fly free!