Experts on Outdoors please view

Hello, I will admit I am a newbie. I'm growing my first plant, and I need a little insight.
First, I want to give you my status. I am growing one plant in a safe location that gets drenched in sunlight, and watered everyday. The plant is about 6 inches tall. It's near a lake, and is positioned on a very slight downhill grade. It is surrouned by briar patches and lots of foilage. It's been growing there for about 4 days. I think I've done pretty good for the correct spot. BUT, my problem is my growing technique and skill. Today when I went out to look at it...it had white spots on the leaves. After doing a bit of research to correct the problem. I found out that it was spidermites eating my leaves. The advice given was to spray with dawn dish liquid mixed with water out of a spray bottle, That could and probably should be added with NEEM OIL. Well, I added AJAX dish liquid with water with no neem oil and sprayed the plant to rid of the mites. I may of jumped the gun , because I didn't want those little bastards killing my plant. Lets face it I'm also impatient when it comes to fixing problems. Was the AJAX instead of DAWN a bad idea?? Plus I've heard that adding a little miracle grow helps. So I added about half a teaspoon to a bottle of water about a third full, and watered it with only a couple of tablespoons of it. When I finished ... it rained, watering my plant more. Is too much water for my plant bad? How much should I water it, if so? Anymore tips and advice for me about anything in my situation would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much.

 

You want to use ivory dishwashing liquid, other types of soap have phosphates as an active ingredient which will burn your plant to death, literally. You can find ivory at a drug store usually.

You also want to water every two or three days- if the soil stays wet all the time ,the roots will rot.The rain probabl saved your plant from harsh detergent, it takes weeks for spidermites to kill a plant- be careful and get ivory. The neem is trickier- plain soap and water works if you spray daily- very first thing in the morning before the sun is hot.

 

Thanks a lot man. Whew!...I really hope the rained saved her.

If not...I can always grow more...I guess.

 

How do you know it's a 'HER'?

You maybe wasting your time cultivating just 1 plant as it may turn into a useless male strain, by the way.

 

Another option (I wouldn't use any form of soap) is a natural predator like ladybugs/ladybirds.

Most garden centres can supply you with another predator for as small price that eat the spidermites then die.

White spots can be caused by all sorts of deficencys (SP?) PH too high/low - not enough nutrients, get yourself The Indoor Marijuana Horticulture book by Jorge Cervantes (I know your growing outside but all inside is forcing what grows naturally) another option is try www.overgrow.com

Jon.

 

I been using ivory dishwashing liquid for over 25 years, it has never burned one of my plants- and you can spray it daily to better break the breeding cycle of mites. So like whatever jon.

 

The ivory is an oldy and a goody.


There's so many things wrong with releasing a non-native insect into the area that I can' begin. There's more to Organic than dirt and no synthetics.

If lady bugs are common in the area, catch them and turn them loose around your plant by all means, but otherwise AND in any case, soap them puppies.

A gurrellia grower needs a NOW solution.

I've done it sucsessfully several times, I imagine TD has done it dozens.

 

If you use beneficials there is a couple organic products called Good Bug Blend,Ladybug Lure which supply scents of all pests which will keep the beneficials happy and in your garden.That is the biggest prob with beneficials,they dont hang out very long and those 2 products will increase there time in your garden!Check out Diatect V for all your pest probs.Used by Organic growers who need to retain ther certification.


GO TO: www.groworganic.com