PBS Forum

Quote from: Sylvia on July 04, 2024, 08:02:08 AMRobert -

My Zephs (can't spell the rest of the name in any case) over many years have bloomed precisely once.  The few pots I've retained have foliage now but as for buds, nada.

What am I not doing or am doing that's counter productive?

I don't get great blooms on mine...but I do get some. I get better blooming with potted plants (pots warm in the sun) and I can give them intermittent water, let them go dry, and then have an occasional "thunderstorm". The ones in the ground are in a sunny corner with occasional watering, but more regular tree rain from the fog, often those bloom late summer/fall when the soil finally dries out. Like I said, not great blooming, but there will be a few sprinkling of flowers after rain events. I'm going to put a buch of them out in the street median and see if they will flower in the fall with the beginning rains.

Robert
in pleasant breezy San Francisco, where the past two warm days have helped the summer bulbs that crave warmth.

Kites I would have thought would work, but................

Maybe 6-8-10 years ago bird-shaped kites that had a very fast and random flight pattern - a very clever, but presumably simple design, as most clever things are - were very popular over crops that are (wood) pigeon magnets. I don't recall seeing one for quite some while, near certainly not since before C19, and perhaps they only persisted for a year, maybe two?

I haven't heard a gas gun for umpteen years either (although I seem to recall mutterings of banning them due to noise nuisance).

If anything is effective and cost-effective, it tends to hang around.

Robert -

My Zephs (can't spell the rest of the name in any case) over many years have bloomed precisely once.  The few pots I've retained have foliage now but as for buds, nada.

What am I not doing or am doing that's counter productive?

Best,
Sylvia (in the East Bay hills without a trace of fog but cooling SW breeze)

Many of the fish and chip shops in Blackpool have flying outside the like of:

"Peregrine Pro Hawk Kites Professional bird deterrents that scare Seagulls and Pigeons away from rooftops
and gardens instantly. Kite on pole that takes a less than 5 minutes to install."

Seagulls being the second biggest predator of chips.

Zeph time... longistyla ex Córdoba (ARG, received from Uli), tubispatha (no data, from Gianluca Corazza), katheriniae (from Rimmer de Vries). The tubispatha are my first ones and though it's common in collections, I'm in love.

There will be plenty of seeds of katheriniae for the next EU-SX. I know that many people have it in the US, but it's rare in collections in Europe.

I only have one flowering plant of longistyla and it is self sterile, which is strange for a Zeph.


Longistyla

Katheriniae

Tubispatha

Over the years, what to hang in gardens/vegetable plots has changed.......

The most ancient of "guaranteed to work" were probably the foil cases/trays used for shop-bought pies and the like. The next idea was probably empty PET bottles, followed by PET bottles with some water in them (not much). The idea of using CDs has been around for ages (remember all those freebie AOL junk mail CDs?).

It is all fantasy. If it works at all, it doesn't for very long.

The other idea was to bury bottles  so that their tops were just proud of the ground - the sound from the wind blowing across the tops would frighten/discourage various things.

I presume that people are pining for the gamekeepers' gibbet? Equally as effective.

Mike

Glad to hear your trying to keep the poisons out of our environment.

I use Neem, Spinosad and Pyganic for control of the Oriental Fruit moth, Spotted Lantern Fly and Lily beetles.

I've seen a couple of the lily beetles at the beginning of the season and one shot of Neem seems to have done the trick.

I follow the recommendations of the Cornell site which give you the best days to spray based on temperatures at your local airport.  https://newa.cornell.edu/user

They track the maturation of insects based on degree days.  With the OFM you must spray when the insect is in the larva stage as that's when it is most  susceptible to control.

Last year the SLF was a true pest but I think with  pheromone traps and judicious control the population seems to have decreased significantly.

The narcissus fly lays its eggs where the leaves enter the soil.  I grow bushy plants to hide the base of the narcissus leaves.

Hello All,

Concern about greater bulb fly is always in the back of my mind.  I've lost some real treasures over the years.  Lately, I've been using unmentionable chemicals with great success.  I use them only in potted bulbs and keep saucers under the plants to control runoff.  I am well aware of the toxic troubles as I use similar chemicals (and worse) at work under protective clothing, with respirators, and in hoods.  It's very specific application and not in actual growing conditions.

Is anyone using neem to control bulb flies?  It works surprisingly well as a systemic control for other things.  Combined with spinosad, I use it to control lily leaf beetles.  For me, it is a reasonable contact kill as well as having a lasting effect for about three or four weeks.  I have found that neem can be phytotoxic in some applications. 

Does anyone have similar experiences?  Bulb fly?  Lily leaf beetle?  Is anyone using beneficial nematodes?  I know GB and the EU have banned quite a few chemicals in recent years. Any thoughts there?

From what I hear, there are non-neonicotinoid, systemic formulations that are/will be coming available in the next few years, but that's another thing.  I have yet to dive into this.

I know this can be a somewhat decisive subject but it would be great to have some discussion on more gentle or specific use pesticides.  Certainly, not all "organic" pesticides are more gentle on the environment, but perhaps there are other options.  

Thank you,
Michael