If It's Bugs... It Must Be Fall!
It must be that time of year for all the nasty buggies to come in thru the screens and try to set up house in my plants. I haven't even brought my scented geraniums in yet! But you can bet they will get sprayed and bagged before I do! And put nowhere near my precious violets.
If you bring tomatoes in to ripen, you may get fruit flies too. They will get on your violets too so you have to bring them under control.
If you garden, you know that sooner or later you will have to deal with bugs. In the outdoor garden there are good bugs (bees, praying mantis, spiders) and bad bugs (slugs, caterpillars, mealy bugs, japanese beetles, aphids). But in the indoor garden, where african violets are concerned - all bugs are bad bugs. There is no good bug for your violets so all must be killed. And if that weren't enough, you have to deal with fungus, mold and blight too!
Again today I found one (1) fungus gnat on one of my plants. Like I said before, "there is never only one fungus gnat" so I was not surprised since I found another one on a plant a few days ago. You have to learn so much about pesticides and anti-fungals, etc. I just found out about sulfur powder for the gray fuzz fungus, boytritus. I always thought once the stem is effected you can't save it. Apparently you can try with sulfur by cutting away all the blight if the stem is still good. I've had this on my violets before. The leaves turn sticky mushy when you pull them off. YUCK!
I have a 3 way approach to handling bugs on my violets. First is prevention. Now I spray weekly with an all purpose fungicide/mitacide/insecticide which does not harm the flowers or leaves. Microscopic bugs can damage your plant before you even know they're there. You must have a prevention plan. It's not IF your violets will get bugs... it's WHEN they will get bugs.
Secondly, on plants where there is bug activity, I spray a lightweight pyrethrin or a heavyweight permethrin (depending on the severity of infestation) on the soil, pot and tray and then bag the plant away from the others every time I see a bug. AND I use a systemic spray with Imidacloprid in the soil as a preventative that lasts up to 30 days. Imidacloprid breaks the life cycle of thrips so you can get rid of them. Don't panic! Thrips will not destroy your plants but they do attack the stems and flowers and cause them to distort. Most growers say to get rid of them, you must de-bud the plant, ALL flower stems, buds and flowers. It hurts if you've waited months to see them bloom - but they will grow back.
Third, I mix diatomaceous earth in the soil of every plant either when I re-pot or mixed into the top soil until I re-pot. I also dust by puffing the underleaves and soil of each plant. Look up the benefits of diatomaceous earth if you don't know what it is. Even Optimara suggests you mix some in the soil when you re-pot. I've used it for several years in the garden and to keep bugs out of the home and I haven't seen a bug in my house since I started using it... unless it was dying or dead... or on my violets. It works just as well wet or dry as bugs come in contact with it. It's like glass shards to bugs. It works by microscopically cutting the exoskeleton of bugs and then the bug will emaciate (dry up). It kills parasites in humans and animals internally so it doesn't have to be dry to work.
Sometimes it just seems like everything is out to get your violets but if you put a plan in place, you can bring it under control. If you should lose a few violets to the pesties, you can always try again with a new leaf or plant. It takes a few failures to get good at growing these babies. I have heard of soaking the leaves in a 10 % bleach solution, rinse, dry and propagate. You should do that if you suspect that you can't save a plant.
The trick is to keep learning and never give up. All I can say is take plenty of pictures when they are in bloom and enjoy them as much as you can. Propagate your favorites to keep them going and who knows? You might have some that bring you joy for years to come. What more can you ask of a violet?
If you bring tomatoes in to ripen, you may get fruit flies too. They will get on your violets too so you have to bring them under control.
If you garden, you know that sooner or later you will have to deal with bugs. In the outdoor garden there are good bugs (bees, praying mantis, spiders) and bad bugs (slugs, caterpillars, mealy bugs, japanese beetles, aphids). But in the indoor garden, where african violets are concerned - all bugs are bad bugs. There is no good bug for your violets so all must be killed. And if that weren't enough, you have to deal with fungus, mold and blight too!
Again today I found one (1) fungus gnat on one of my plants. Like I said before, "there is never only one fungus gnat" so I was not surprised since I found another one on a plant a few days ago. You have to learn so much about pesticides and anti-fungals, etc. I just found out about sulfur powder for the gray fuzz fungus, boytritus. I always thought once the stem is effected you can't save it. Apparently you can try with sulfur by cutting away all the blight if the stem is still good. I've had this on my violets before. The leaves turn sticky mushy when you pull them off. YUCK!
I have a 3 way approach to handling bugs on my violets. First is prevention. Now I spray weekly with an all purpose fungicide/mitacide/insecticide which does not harm the flowers or leaves. Microscopic bugs can damage your plant before you even know they're there. You must have a prevention plan. It's not IF your violets will get bugs... it's WHEN they will get bugs.
Secondly, on plants where there is bug activity, I spray a lightweight pyrethrin or a heavyweight permethrin (depending on the severity of infestation) on the soil, pot and tray and then bag the plant away from the others every time I see a bug. AND I use a systemic spray with Imidacloprid in the soil as a preventative that lasts up to 30 days. Imidacloprid breaks the life cycle of thrips so you can get rid of them. Don't panic! Thrips will not destroy your plants but they do attack the stems and flowers and cause them to distort. Most growers say to get rid of them, you must de-bud the plant, ALL flower stems, buds and flowers. It hurts if you've waited months to see them bloom - but they will grow back.
Third, I mix diatomaceous earth in the soil of every plant either when I re-pot or mixed into the top soil until I re-pot. I also dust by puffing the underleaves and soil of each plant. Look up the benefits of diatomaceous earth if you don't know what it is. Even Optimara suggests you mix some in the soil when you re-pot. I've used it for several years in the garden and to keep bugs out of the home and I haven't seen a bug in my house since I started using it... unless it was dying or dead... or on my violets. It works just as well wet or dry as bugs come in contact with it. It's like glass shards to bugs. It works by microscopically cutting the exoskeleton of bugs and then the bug will emaciate (dry up). It kills parasites in humans and animals internally so it doesn't have to be dry to work.
Sometimes it just seems like everything is out to get your violets but if you put a plan in place, you can bring it under control. If you should lose a few violets to the pesties, you can always try again with a new leaf or plant. It takes a few failures to get good at growing these babies. I have heard of soaking the leaves in a 10 % bleach solution, rinse, dry and propagate. You should do that if you suspect that you can't save a plant.
The trick is to keep learning and never give up. All I can say is take plenty of pictures when they are in bloom and enjoy them as much as you can. Propagate your favorites to keep them going and who knows? You might have some that bring you joy for years to come. What more can you ask of a violet?
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