Starting Over

Oops, seems all the potting soil I was using was full of spider eggs. Fortunately only one hatched. Had to dump all the seedlings, papaver, cosmos, lavender rosea, snapdragons, heliconia
Oh well, starting over!
Another reason to get an early start (in case of big mistakes) LOL!

Haighr. What do spider eggs look like? What kind of spiders?

They look like small irridescent peas. I noticed them in the soil in my heliconia seeds and thought nothing of it. Then as I was seeding three new trays today, I saw them again and thought ahhhh what's that. Then I went up to check some of the trays that were doing well with seedlings up an inch or so and noticed the same small pea-sized yellowish clear ball and thought maybe spiders. Then, I saw the spider that just hatched, must have liked it under those grow lights. We had to dump all of them, about 2 hundred seedlings or we would have been infested with spiders. Ordered new seeds today and will start over. That is what happens when you leave the soil out in the garage over winter.
ANOTHER lesson learned the hard way.

it wasn't those fertilizer pellets like Osmocoate was it??

Ratsaroo--and you had such a neat setup too. I wish you the best luck with this new venture. I also thank you for the info. Dawn

I hate to say this, but I think those were soil amendments of some kind, either fertilizer pellets (as tiG said) or perhaps something for drainage. Could be wrong here, but I have seen those in my potting soil with no problem...

Same here, hope you didn't act too quickly..Also, couldn't something have gotten rid of the spiders, and would they really hurt anything? Good luck..
Lsrkie

No tig, they were spider eggs, as soon as I saw the first spider on the lid of the tray I knew what had happened. I saw them in the soil and strangely enough, wondered how they could come to the top of the soil, well now I know the heat and light was pulling them up and they had begun to hatch "or whatever you call it" -
Hated to throw all that work away, but better than being infested with spiders.
Thanks for your support all, but they weren't soil amendments.

glad to know that!!! still sorry you lost so much, but at least you didn't do it in vain.

But Candee, you are supposed to keep telling yourself that spiders are good bugs! LOL Okay, that is what I tell me to keep from squashing them on instinct. I am so sorry you had a bumper crop of them. Too much of some things is definately not a good thing. Wishing you good luck on the next batch.

I wouldn't have minded outside, but my seedling trays are under lights in my DINING room. very near the table. Yuk, better to just start over, I've got time. Wouldn't have wanted to go home one day to a room full of creepy spiders all over the table!
It was bad enough seeing the one hatched creeping around under the lid of the tray of lavendula.

do you still need any seeds? I might have something you didn't order the second time

Yeah I know. I scream like a girl and throw stuff when I acidentally touch one or get near it. LOL

yeah,me too....

I don't like spiders and snakes, and that aint what it takes......to make me happy! Candee, let me know what seeds your looking for, maybe I have a pretty or two I can enclose in your Dahlia order.

"eyes"

Oh thanks so much all, but I immediately got the catalog out and reordered. They were just ones I didn't have before, columbine, lavendula rosea, datura, snapdragons and a few others.
The only ones I can't replace are the heliconia, maybe I'll find more later.

Gosh you guys--I take the spiders cuddle them in my palms and take them outside.. Of course haighr, when ther are 2 million little tiny specks this is a tad difficult.

okay, I'll ask a really dumb question. Are ALL spiders good??

Sunrize, if I had known, I would have kept them in the dining room until you could get here LOL!

tig, I think that all spiders are basicly good, just misunderstood. LOL I think that spider mites are the only ones that are bad for your plants. The rest of them just eat the bug that want to eat your plants.

I think a brown recluse might be bad if it is hiding in your shoe. Nasty bites from those guys!

Yikes, better go check!

I still have some assorted Datura seeds if you want some let me know.:)

Thanks so much for the offer root, but hopefully will have some coming in a day or two, should be enough time to start over!
I'll take you up on the offer if I have another failure!

Got Doubles and Triples?Tempt Tempt Tempt,LOL

Haighr I too wonder about the eggs??. You know that slug eggs look like what you described. I don't mind spiders, but not too crazy about them in the house. I do bring them in accidently sometimes with plants. Outside I love to see a cluster of garden spiders. I have a neat picture i took last summer of a cluster of several hundred o rh yellowish garden spider just after the hatched. If I ever learn how to send pictures to DG I will send it along. Donna

rutholive it is pretty simple if the pictures are on your computer,or you have a scanner,if you want drop me an Email, I'll see if I can talk you through it.

Root, you got double and triple Dats??


"eyes"

Got some seeds sittin here,and all I need growin,hit me with an E for what you need.
Root :)

Got the new seeds yesterday and started over with them. There weren't any spider eggs in the new soil, so this should work well.

If I have learned enough about sending pictures from Root, here is the photo I took of hundreds of baby garden spiders. I took it last year and the next day they had all gone their seperate ways. rutholive (Donna)

Tells you how good a teacher I am ,LOL,



Don't give up Donna,go for it again!!!You'll get it!

This message was edited Thursday, Mar 13th 9:07 AM

Well second batch is better, no spiders and the snapdragons and lavendula rosea are already sprouting up in the seed trays.

I think my problem is retreiving my photo from My Documents. Everytime I try to open the file just tells me file not found, but here is one last try. Donna

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally!! The picture is of hundreds of baby spiders. I took the photo last summer. The next day the babies had gone their seperate ways to do their business of eating aphids, etc. Some one asked what spider eggs look like. They are usually in a sack on the mamas back, sometimes the sack is as large or larger than the mother spiders body. Donna

Thanks Root. I'm sure i will need more help, but i sure appreciate so far. i must go get busy in the greenhouse. It is too windy outside for me to plant the plants from Siskiyou, it is cloudy, but warm, but the wind is about 25 to 30 miles per hour. Donna

Eeeeeek!!!

I like spiders okay, but nothing in 'swarms' or in my house where I can see it looking at me. We have spiders everywhere here inside and out, but we have an agreement - I don't see you, I don't squish you.

LOL eco - I hate squishing them myself, so I am glad they are outside where they belong. The new bags of potting soil did the trick and there were no eggs in any of it. Guess I learned my lesson on storing the potting soil over winter. Will be putting it in a sealed container next time.

Gosh now I'm going to be suspicious of all my soil/bark/etc. I keep it all outside. Oh dear.
I just have this mental picture of me giving a pile of soil the evil eye whilst poking at it with a long stick. *lol*