Thursday 11 March 2010

Pests

I was clearing the moss off the surface of the little Field Maple cause it makes it difficult to water. The moss will look lovely and the soil underneath is bone dry. this little one was starting to use a bit of water now that there was some foliage out.

Much to my disgust there were lots of little nasty wiggly white grubs under the moss.

The roots on this little one hadn't reached the outside of the pot - so I pulled off the loose bits and any signs of the grubs. I didn't want to disturb it too much though as it has started the year really strongly.

Interestingly you can see the Tesco's premium light kitty litter at the bottom of the pot. Roots were developing nicely in it. The straight John Innes No.4 didn't work very well and there was no visible root development in it after a year - not very good at all. It needs pumice and gravel to loosen it up.

I grabbed a bit of soil from the shed put it into a nice new ceramic pot.

Ive got some Provado Vine Weevil Killer and il dose all the plants with it.

Info on the chemistry of the insecticide - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imidacloprid