overwintering Winter-Summer in OZ "Comparison" / Aussie Blabberers

[nee]

Hi guys..
I moved one of my larger pots earlier and found quite a few ants under it, all carrying egg things by the look of it. I got rid of them but wondered if ants are a potential problem, or nothing to worry about and to just let them get on with it.
I can't find the post now, but i'm sure i read something from one of you guys regarding ants attracting aphids?

 

[ferozaj]

I had a black spot fungus looking thing all over the stems and leaves of my chilli. It wouldnt budge with peroxide...i tried spraying it for weeks and pulling ALL the leaves that had black spots on it. Problem was the whole stem had it on there.


Couple of days ago i hit it with copper poison aimed at killing fungus, seems its doing the job well, the black fungus/bacteria just scrapes off now.

Ill hit it again this weekend.

I got over trying natural means, i spray the aphids with poison now (on roses not chilli)....i hate roses but this rose plant is in the bloody lease so i cant pull it out

ALSO


At what stage should i pot up my chillis that are in jiffy pellets into small pots??

 

[harry]

Hi guys..
I moved one of my larger pots earlier and found quite a few ants under it, all carrying egg things by the look of it. I got rid of them but wondered if ants are a potential problem, or nothing to worry about and to just let them get on with it.
I can't find the post now, but i'm sure i read something from one of you guys regarding ants attracting aphids?

Ants spread aphids by farming them. Have you ever seen ants crawling on your plants?

 

[nee]

Ants spread aphids by farming them. Have you ever seen ants crawling on your plants?

No. That's a bad thing yeah? If so i will be sure to keep an eye on things!
I'm dreading aphids already, as i've read so many horror stories from you guys!

 

[megamoo]

Hey Megamoo, Nova and myself were doing an air pruning experiment(mentioned about a million pages ago in this thread).
I never found out how Nova went but mine was a bit of a failure in the end.
I started them inside and they grew extremely well and vigorous. I then took them outside which is when I had trouble.
I was finding that they were drying out real quick in our heat and when I watered the water seemed to go down so far then start to come out of the holes in the pot which stopped alot of water getting right down to the bottom of the roots.
I looked into it and I think Nova mentioned that it looks like you really need a type of flood and drain system where you can soak them in some nutrients/water then drain it off.
I started dousing some in a bucket of water every day which worked better but still needed more.

Micca

I've got a few small hydro net pots so I might have a go using them as air pots. For the first pot up at least, going to have to keep them well watered.

 

[Mezo]

Nee thats the first sign of trouble, i didnt even know back then that the ants carry "eggs" on to your plants to start a wee little farm going, once they have established themselves its a nightmare to control.

Do yourself a favour & go buy some "Ant Sand" & spread it all around you plants (especially under the pots) dont delay on this one mate trust me, if only i knew back then what was about to happen.

Mezo.

 

[Micca302]

I've got a few small hydro net pots so I might have a go using them as air pots. For the first pot up at least, going to have to keep them well watered.

They might work. If I remember correctly they are pretty small though. If I find some pictures of mine i'll post them up.
Hey where abouts are you again? I might be able to get some that I have spare to you?

Micca

 

[nee]

Nee thats the first sign of trouble, i didnt even know back then that the ants carry "eggs" on to your plants to start a wee little farm going, once they have established themselves its a nightmare to control.

Do yourself a favour & go buy some "Ant Sand" & spread it all around you plants (especially under the pots) dont delay on this one mate trust me, if only i knew back then what was about to happen.

Mezo.

Many thanks for the heads-up Mez...will whip to zee Bunnings in a bit and sort it..

 

[Mezo]

Make sure it the ant sand not the liquid (no use outdoors) and if you can find the nest sprinkle it all around, as soon as the ants walk over it there gonna`s.

Mezo.

 

[nee]

Sorted

 

[Mezo]

Just keep an eye out under the leaves & in the crown of your plants Nee.

The soapy water thing works & its far cheaper than all the crap on sale at Bunnings.

Mezo.

 

[megamoo]

They might work. If I remember correctly they are pretty small though. If I find some pictures of mine i'll post them up.
Hey where abouts are you again? I might be able to get some that I have spare to you?

Micca

I'm in Hamilton Hill. I'm not concerned about using them that much, just wanted to know if they turned out to be amazing or not.
Right now I'm more concerned with growing the seedlings without killing them, and acquiring a hundred plus larger pots for the final pot up. I've got a whole bunch of 9 litre buckets with holes in them but I'm not convinced they will work well enough. I'm thinking the plastic could be too thin and the roots will heat up or something.
Might have to bite the bullet and get a pallet of them from a major supplier. Sounds expensive tho

 

[Pablo_h]

Like I said before, maybe wrap the buckets up with newspaper? Or rags?
Those air pots are not for aussie summer for sure anyway. I was only going to use them for winter grows myself when I was thinking about them.

 

[Micca302]

I'm in Hamilton Hill. I'm not concerned about using them that much, just wanted to know if they turned out to be amazing or not.
Right now I'm more concerned with growing the seedlings without killing them, and acquiring a hundred plus larger pots for the final pot up. I've got a whole bunch of 9 litre buckets with holes in them but I'm not convinced they will work well enough. I'm thinking the plastic could be too thin and the roots will heat up or something.
Might have to bite the bullet and get a pallet of them from a major supplier. Sounds expensive tho

Yeah it's a real pain buying pots, specially for people like us that need 100 odd!
Bunnings rips you a new one and is getting harder to raid their bin now
So you live over Hammy hill, do you have a Reject Shop over there?
I have been looking everywhere and have now managed to find pots there(9lt jobbies) for $3.50ea and they come with a saucer.
I know they wont have a hundred of them but have been raiding mine alot. A pallet from a wholesaler might be good too.

Micca

 

[ferozaj]

Has anyone ever had any problems getting devils tongue white to germinate??

Got some from grant, they havnt germinated and the other seeds are all on their first true leaves. Also +1 to grant being awesome, sent me a few extra chilli varieties too

 

[JungleRain]

Your plants are looking great there Grant as usual. looks like a good amount of space for growing your jungle there.
I have just started transitioning my little babies outside so looks like the season has started for me. My overwinters are just starting to take off and some are now starting to flower.

Have a great season and will be looking forward to drooling over some piccies.

Happy Chilli Growing,
Micca

Thanks Micca

Has anyone ever had any problems getting devils tongue white to germinate??

Got some from grant, they havnt germinated and the other seeds are all on their first true leaves. Also +1 to grant being awesome, sent me a few extra chilli varieties too

Hey Mitch, how long have they been germinating? if its been over 3 weeks, let me know and I'll send you more!

 

[ferozaj]

Its been about 3 weeks i believe. I still have a lot of seed in the packet, i noticed a couple out of 15 didnt germinate from other seeds also.

Im happy with that rate, ill just get some more seeds out and try again

 

[nee]

Some seeds it appears you just have to wait it out! Pimenta De Neyde was about 90 days for me, and i know Meeeeeezo had a few Bhuts about the same waiting time!

 

[Pablo_h]

Sometimes it's not the seeds, but it's you or the media you are germinating in.
About 4 weeks ago I plants 20 new varieties.
4 popped up in the usual 1-2 weeks.
After that, nothing.
4 weeks later I checked them, 7 were rotted and bad seeds.
3 had germinated but didn't make it to the surface as they were watered in too deep (planted fine but they do get buried more if you pour water on them roughly)

The other 6, the seeds seemed too dry. I re-soaked them and in 3 days, 3 of that remaining 6 have popped out already.

Point is, it's not always the seed. Sometimes it's temperature, but also some seeds end up too deep, others get kept too wet or too dry. And that's using coir (and you would get similar results with peat or jiffies), when you are using seed raising or potting mix*, then results would be worse as you are dealing with fungus, bacteria and other nasties prevalent in moist soil you don't get with dried products like coir or jiffies.

* I've had a disastrous start to the season after potting up seedlings into potting mix. IE I germinate fine in coir, but then transplant into some potting mix, it doesn't grow or just gets root rot or stem shrivel (damping off) after transplanting due to fungus or bacteria in the potting mix. If you were trying to germinate in potting mix it might be the crap in the potting mix that is causing the seed not to germinate. Or it could be a mix that is very woody/chippy so the seed dried out as it's surrounded by that and air, not a moist close contact media.

From now on every bag of potting mix I buy gets places in a 40L tub and dried and baked in the sun before I even use it. I'm never letting that stuff get near a seed that needs germinating.

 

[gasificada]

Pablo raises some good points.

3 had germinated but didn't make it to the surface as they were watered in too deep (planted fine but they do get buried more if you pour water on them roughly)

Another good reason to bottom water.

I had one I must have planted too deep not so long ago. I waited and waited for it to pop, nothing, then eventually I noticed roots growing out the side of the jiffy. OK, that's odd... never seen that before. Dug it up right away but the hook was deaded by that stage.

Some seeds it appears you just have to wait it out! Pimenta De Neyde was about 90 days for me, and i know Meeeeeezo had a few Bhuts about the same waiting time!

I've always had troubles with getting PDN to germ. I reckon they are one type that are just tricky to get going. Maybe it's just me (doing something wrong?) but they seem a bit fragile/weak as babies too. Once they get going though, they seem to really toughen up.