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Stop Bad Bugs from Hiding in Your Pots
Slugs, small snails, earwigs, millipedes, and sow bugs love to hide in the drain holes in
pots. Over time, soil falls out of the drain holes, creating nice little caves for
leaf-eating bugs to hide in during the daytime. They then crawl out at night to do their
dining damage. Prior to adding soil to the pot, cut a piece of shade cloth of
ample size to cover the single drain hole inside the bottom of a clay or plastic pot
(about 3" by 3"). |
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If you’re growing plants in a gallon or larger plastic
nursery pot, cut the shade cloth about 6" larger than the diameter of the bottom of
the pot. This will allow the shade cloth to come up 3" on all sides of the pot,
covering all the drain holes. Then add the soil, pressing it slightly to make the shade
cloth protrude slightly convex out the drain hole. Here at Lingle’s, we use 70% shade
cloth, which is conveniently sold by the foot at large garden centers. This will keep all
the soil in the pot while still providing adequate drainage, and keep all the bad bugs
out!
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Stop Bad Bugs from Hiding in Your Pots
Slugs, small snails, earwigs, millipedes, and sow bugs love to hide in the drain holes in
pots. Over time, soil falls out of the drain holes, creating nice little caves for
leaf-eating bugs to hide in during the daytime. They then crawl out at night to do their
dining damage. You can stop this easily and inexpensively by placing a shade cloth barrier
in the drain hole. Prior to adding soil to the pot, cut a piece of shade cloth of
ample size to cover the single drain hole inside the bottom of a clay or plastic pot
(about 3" by 3"). If you’re growing plants in a gallon or larger plastic
nursery pot, cut the shade cloth about 6" larger than the diameter of the bottom of
the pot. This will allow the shade cloth to come up 3" on all sides of the pot,
covering all the drain holes. Then add the soil, pressing it slightly to make the shade
cloth protrude slightly convex out the drain hole. Here at Lingle’s, we use 70% shade
cloth, which is conveniently sold by the foot at large garden centers. This will keep all
the soil in the pot while still providing adequate drainage, and keep all the bad bugs
out!
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Keeping Creepers Under Control
Some of the most wonderful herbs you can grow are also some of the most invasive. They may
want to take over your entire garden, and once they have become established, they're very
difficult to remove.
At Lingle's Herbs, we're convinced that the only two things that could survive worldwide
nuclear war are cockroaches and mint! And if you've ever planted mint in the ground, you
now what we're talking about--you'll never get rid of it. Mints runners will spread under
ground until your entire garden is a mint patch.
So how do you keep invasive plants under control? You could just keep them in a pot on the
patio, but that makes for one more hand-watering task. When we want to place an invasive
plant in the garden bed at Lingle's Herbs, we place it in a 1 or 5 gallon plastic pot
(depending on the size of the plant and how large we want it to grow), and then we sink
the pot into the ground.
But be sure to follow these important tips.
First, before adding soil to the pot, cover the drain holes on the inside of the pot
completely with two layers of 70% shade cloth. (Shade cloth, as you may remember from our
last gardening tip, is conveniently sold by the foot at large garden centers.) This will
create a barrier sufficient to keep the plants runners from escaping out the pots drainage
holes and into the garden bed.
Second, when planting the herb in the pot, plant it shallower than normal, about 4 to 5
inches from the top rim of the pot. This will create an above-ground barrier to impede the
plants runners from climbing over and out of the pot and rooting in the garden bed. And if
they do, you can snip them off before they root outside the pot.
Then, just make sure to set the pot shallow enough in the soil so the soil level is the
same inside and outside the pot to maintain your above-ground barrier.
This works well with all Mints, Asian Cilantro, Greek Oregano, Diep Ca, Gotu Kola,
Creeping Thyme, or any herbs you want to contain if you have a small herb garden plot.
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Ring Around the Rosemary
It takes several months for drought tolerant plants like rosemary, lavender and sage to
become established in the ground. Only then will their roots go deep enough in the soil
where they will find sufficient water to tide them over between infrequent waterings.
But when new, young starts are planted in the ground, even these drought lovers need a
little extra water because their roots are so shallow (only about 2 ½ inches when planted
from 3-inch pots.) This shallow top layer of garden soil can go completely dry without
frequent watering.
With this in mind, remember to water young transplants more frequently than you would
established plants.
And here's a neat little method to be sure they get the extra water they need. Using a
small trowel or your hands, make a little ring, or indented well, in the soil around the
base of the plant. This ring will collect the extra water these young plants need to get
established. It will also supply a deeper watering which will encourage deep root growth
and help the plant become established quicker.
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| Got Ants in
Your Plants? |
"...but in this world
nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes and ants."
- Benjamin Franklin (slightly paraphrased)
Ants. These tiny, black, pesky insects are virtually omnipresent
throughout North America. Leave a bit of garbage in an unattended trash
can, and they swarm over it, forming a super-efficient eight-lane
expressway that is never encumbered by traffic jams or "spectator
slowing".
Ants do perform some beneficial functions. They play an important role in
our ecosystem by disposing of the remains of other dead insects. Ants also
play an important role in the pollination of flowers. A few ants coming to
gather nectar from the blooms is not a plant pest problem. But when you
have too many ants in your plants, forming an expressway up the stalks of
a plant, this is indicative of some other bug problems that need to be
addressed.
Ants themselves do not harm your plants. But ants are ingenious little
'farmers' that help several other bad bugs harm your plants. Ants like to
farm aphids, whitefly, scale, and mealybug. These bugs, particularly
aphids, suck the juices out of plant stalks. Then they pass 'honeydew', a
euphemism for their excrement. The ants take the highly nutritious
honeydew back to the ant colony for food. Ants protect these bad bugs from
their natural predators, attacking ladybugs and their larvae that eat the
aphids. |
The first step is to control the bad bugs
doing the plant damage. But it's important to identify beneficial insects
so you don't inadvertently harm them. Most people are familiar with what
adult ladybugs look like, but many people do not know what their larvae
look like. And the larvae eat three times more aphids than an adult does.
(You may say, "Oops! I've been smashing those!")
Prior to spraying any insecticide, gently coax the adult
ladybugs to "fly away home", and very gently move the larvae to
a plant you're not going to spray. Don't worry, the larvae will hunt and
find more food. |
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Now, the most environmentally
friendly way to get rid of aphids is to dislodge them from a plant with a
sharp stream of water. If the infestation is particularly bad, you can
kill them with Insecticidal Soap. Dishwashing liquid, although often
recommended, is not organic but will kill insects just the same. Don't
apply Insecticidal Soap on hot humid days, and rinse the plant off after
about 15 minutes of application to avoid any leaf burn on young, tender
leaves. The aphids will be dead by then.
To control whitefly, scale, and mealybug, you need to apply horticultural
oil. Horticultural oils are mineral or vegetable based oils which smother
these insects and their eggs. When using oils, apply them only on cool
days late in the afternoon or at dusk. Do not rinse off the plant or you
will rinse the smothering oil off these damaging insects.
Now you need to control the ants. Spray them with Insecticidal Soap.
Follow their trails as far as you can to discourage them from returning.
You may have to be persistent when using Insecticidal Soap. Stronger, more
dangerous chemical pesticides leave a harmful residue on both the trail
and the dead ants for several days. Insecticidal Soap does not, and you
may find the ants returning the next day to collect their dead to take
back to the colony for food. (Those efficient little cannibals!)
Getting rid of plant pests organically requires a little more tenacity on
the growers part, but the reward of less dangerous chemicals in the
environment and safer herbs to harvest is well worth the extra effort.
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Lingle's Herbs
2055 N. Lomina Ave., Long Beach, CA 90815 Phone: (800) 708-0633 Fax: (562)
598-3376
info@linglesherbs.com www.linglesherbs.com |
Lingle's Herbs Quick Gardening Tips