Lucky Find
I finally found a space violet at Lowes. And it's a big one! It's in a 6" pot with a leaf spread of over 12". It's BIG! It's the biggest violet I have now. And it's in bloom too.
Who says you can't find healthy Optimara violets in a hardware store. It's going to get my usual new plant treatment. This one wasn't soaked so I didn't have to drain it on a stack of paper towels like most of them.
I always spray my new violets with a miticide and isolate them from my other violets for several weeks. I still use my 3 in 1 for fungus but I've switched to a spinosad spray called Captain Jack's Dead Bug Brew for it's thrip killing properties. The concentrate is the same strength as the Monterey spinosad concentrate mixed up with water. It's the exact same thing. Both have .5% of spinosad in the ingredients.
Because the concentrate of both are the same and dilute to the same strength when the recommended amount of water is added. The commercial spinosad in Conserve (at 11.6%) when diluted, dilutes down to .5% when mixed with water but it's for outside commercial nursery use. For indoor use and especially on my delicate violets, I would use the Monterey or Capt. Jack's (.5%) which dilutes down to .007 after water is added. That's still 7 times stronger than the premixed Capt. Jack's which is only .001. Don't buy the premixed, it's too diluted. Do the math. Whatever you put on your plants, always do a test plant first. Don't fry your violets!
Thrips have about a 20 day life cycle (but they can feed for 30 days) so I thoroughly spray my violets initially and then with it every 5 days for 3 more times. If it's got bugs, they will get killed through every stage and if it doesn't - no harm done, spinosad in the water is systemic. You can spray it on the soil and the plant leaves and flowers too. I spray it in the gravel saucers too.
I've learned to rotate my insecticides to keep the bugs (thrips mostly) from building up a resistance from generation to generation. I don't plan on letting another generation survive with this stuff. You can use imidacloprid or spinosad or spiromesifen under any name brand of the stuff.
I also still use my 3 in 1 fungicide with neem oil but it does not knock down thrips like spinosad does. You are always going to be fighting thrips because they just come in from other plants or through the window screens. That's just life with african violets.
This big, beautiful baby is now the queen of my collection. It's been a good day.
Who says you can't find healthy Optimara violets in a hardware store. It's going to get my usual new plant treatment. This one wasn't soaked so I didn't have to drain it on a stack of paper towels like most of them.
I always spray my new violets with a miticide and isolate them from my other violets for several weeks. I still use my 3 in 1 for fungus but I've switched to a spinosad spray called Captain Jack's Dead Bug Brew for it's thrip killing properties. The concentrate is the same strength as the Monterey spinosad concentrate mixed up with water. It's the exact same thing. Both have .5% of spinosad in the ingredients.
Because the concentrate of both are the same and dilute to the same strength when the recommended amount of water is added. The commercial spinosad in Conserve (at 11.6%) when diluted, dilutes down to .5% when mixed with water but it's for outside commercial nursery use. For indoor use and especially on my delicate violets, I would use the Monterey or Capt. Jack's (.5%) which dilutes down to .007 after water is added. That's still 7 times stronger than the premixed Capt. Jack's which is only .001. Don't buy the premixed, it's too diluted. Do the math. Whatever you put on your plants, always do a test plant first. Don't fry your violets!
Thrips have about a 20 day life cycle (but they can feed for 30 days) so I thoroughly spray my violets initially and then with it every 5 days for 3 more times. If it's got bugs, they will get killed through every stage and if it doesn't - no harm done, spinosad in the water is systemic. You can spray it on the soil and the plant leaves and flowers too. I spray it in the gravel saucers too.
I've learned to rotate my insecticides to keep the bugs (thrips mostly) from building up a resistance from generation to generation. I don't plan on letting another generation survive with this stuff. You can use imidacloprid or spinosad or spiromesifen under any name brand of the stuff.
I also still use my 3 in 1 fungicide with neem oil but it does not knock down thrips like spinosad does. You are always going to be fighting thrips because they just come in from other plants or through the window screens. That's just life with african violets.
This big, beautiful baby is now the queen of my collection. It's been a good day.
beautiful !
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