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De-scaling a fig... or just about any other plant
(ladybugs!)
Bird-brained helpers deserve applause
Recipe: Pepper spray for plants
Plant chemicals: Healthy plant, healthy people
Just a dash of fireplace ash for the garden
Other uses for stashed ashes
Unusual words: Pale leaf and bug hatch
Mentors brush off aphids, leave great books behind
Celebrating a white birch Christmas
Making more light indoors for healthier plants
When travelers learn to zone, home gets greener
In our garden: Bag a plant, swaddle a gardener
45 mph garden: House finds itself in shade of a houseplant
How to re-coup missed issues, nix extra index
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De-scaling
Below: Arrows point to a soft brown scale (left side) and
its giveaway -- the shiny, sticky dots of honeydew it drips onto
leaves below.
Above: Soft brown scale (Coccus hesperidum)
is the scale most often found on houseplants,
especially citrus, Ficus, ferns and ivies. This one is
living on a bay leaf. Its sister may be imbibing from a
nearby orchid if it was able to crawl across adjacent
leaves or drop from overhanging foliage. It's a bit more
than 1/8 inch log, about average for a full grown member of
its species.
Early control is the key to staying ahead of these ubiquitous
pests. Shake hands with the plant regularly, checking leaf
blades for shiny, sticky honeydew that's telltale even
before the scales are large enough to see easily. Look on
leaf undersides, too, for adults. Rub off the adults or
kill them with a dab of rubbing alcohol, being careful not to get
too much on the plant, as it can burn some leaves.
However, you shouldn't quit there, since there are almost certainly
crawlers at work if you see an adult. Apply an
insecticide, too or wash the plant thoroughly with soapy water
and then a forceful rinse.
Below: To keep a houseplant healthy, keeps its leaves clean.
Cover the soil surface and spray it thoroughly with a mild soap
solution, then shower it off. Clean leaves receive more light -
that's more energy -- and the bath washes away pests.
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illustrated here.
More light
Above: A full-spectrum bulb in a cast-off shop lamp might be
the thread an indoor plant hangs by, in winter's dark
days. Above: This might not be much but left on 24 hours a
day, it's better than nothing and may be what keeps our excess
jades healthy until we find them homes!
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In this issue you will find answers to these Search terms:
acidic soil
alkaline soil
aphids
applying ash to gardens
Araucaria araucana
Araucaria bidwillii
Artemisia annua
Asclepias currasavica
ash
beech
Bouncing Bet
Bunya pine
calcium carbonate
capsaicin
cherry
chickadee
chlorosis
cleaning houseplants
Coccus hesperidum
Coneflower
controlling scale
Cotton
cottony maple scale
crabapple
cucumber beetles
Echinacea
eclose
elm scale
Ficus
fireplace ashes
Fletcher scale
fungus gnat
Gossypium
grow lights
gypsum
handling wood ash
hardiness zones
harvesting phytochemicals
honeydew
horticultural oil
hot pepper solution
hot pepper spray recipe
immature lady beetle
insecticidal soap
insecticide
lady beetle Download to read this issue
ladybug
lecanium scale
lilac
locust
lye
Magnolia scale
mealybugs
medical uses of phytochemicals
midwinter fire traditions
Milkweed
monkey puzzle tree
natural enemies of scale
Neem oil
oak
oyster shell scale
Peppers
Perilla frutescens
pesticide
phytochemical
pine needle scale
plant defenses
plant-derived phytochemicals chart
Poreleaf
Porophyllum gracile
quote, quotation
sap-sucking insects
Saponaria officinalis
scale crawlers
scale life cycle
soap-making
soft brown scale
soft brown scale on houseplants
soil pH
sooty mold
spread ashes on the garden
sticky plant
sulfur
Sweet Annie
systemic insecticide
Thalassa Cruso
Tulip tree
vacation plant care
virus infection
whitefly
wood ash and nitrogen fertilizer reaction
wood ash uses
Wooly foxglove
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