Your worst enemy

i hate coast sandspurs, nutgrass, and fire ants, not in any particular order! i am also sick of whatever scale is constantly trying to kill my oleander. i thought i left it behind in the Keys, but i bought a few dwarf salmon oleander and within 2 wks. there it was. it really is insidious and it will kill the plant unless drastic measures are taken. you know, now that i think of it, i dont think this stuff is nutgrass. globe sedge? all i know is that it is bright green, in a rosette, then the stem comes up thru the middle and 3 or 4 little globes push out. if you dont get them quick they harden up and presto-burrs stuck to your dogs feet.

This message was edited Jun 20, 2005 10:01 PM

Trackinsand, I used to have scale on my Solana and I spent a fortune on Volck oil and a fancy sprayer to get rid of it, but I recently read that Pam works just as well. Yes, I do mean the Pam spray you use in your kitchen if you are afraid of fat. It's already in a spray can, so it's easy as pie. No mixing, no special hose attachment, and a much lower price. It doesn't take much. You don't have to saturate the plant. Just spray it lightly.

Zuzu - really? I have scale investing my greenhouse. I tried neem oil & that just pushed them
back but they were still there. Then I tried pyrethrum spray & that ALMOST killed them off. I
ran out and they are coming back. Can I really just use Pam????

Tam

thats so funny! ive been using Pam for a couple of years instead of oils. it didnt phase this stuff! i had a man come out from the county extension office to look at my garden and he suggested trying orange spray (409, Blast) any cheap one will do as long as it has orange in it. ive used the orange blast on lots of stuff now and it really works. some plants are sensative to it tho (wont die, just get alittle sickly). i have had the best luck of all with a mix of alcohol, blast, and ivory dishwashing liquid mixed with water. i use a quart sprayer and about 2 TBL. of each. shake it up really good and go for it. this particular scale is white and minute and piles up on top of eachother. looks like a gob of spit with powdered sugar on top. sorry for that. it usually attacks the new bottom suckers and they die really quick!!! then it spreads on up. i cut the poor babies off and spray the other stems. DH suggested round-up. he hates oleander-all those catapillars (BT for them). we just moved here 6 mos. ago and i cant plant much yet (workmen coming), but i thought the oleander would be easy for now. not too happy to see this stuff here too. anyway, thanks for the Pam tip-hopefully that word will spread!

Tammy, try the Pam. If it doesn't work, the Volck oil will. Honestly, this stuff is like magic. In fact, I don't have any scale anywhere on the property anymore. The reason I was excited about the Pam tip is that the Volck oil took measuring, and spraying with the special attachment that doesn't like to be held upside down, and you have to drag the hose around with you, etc., etc. Using a Pam can sounded like heaven in comparison. If I ever get scale again, I'll try Pam, but if it doesn't work, I'll go right back to Volck oil. Trackinsand's elaborate formula probably works too, but it sounds as if it would be even more trouble. My mind shuts off after the third or fourth item in a list of instructions, and then I just go watch TV instead. I really, really like simple solutions.

thank you for the tips. I'll pick up a can of Pam next time I'm at the grocery store.
And I'm glad the scale isn't hardy here! I just hate it. If I didn't overwinter my hybiscus
and citrus in the greenhouse, I don't think I'd have a problem with it.
Tam

Voles!!!!

I have a new one. Yarrow! I regret the day I ever introduced it into my yard. Today DH and I spent all day trying to dig it all out of the secret garden that it's taken over. Plus, it stinks.

Any weed is bad, but no weed is as bad as Chinese Wisteria. It's absolutely beautiful one week out of the year and it spends the other 51 weeks trying to take over the world. It kills trees if you let it and you have to be on constant watch, because just when you think you have it under control its runners come up some place else. I hate the stuff. You just can't kill it. But I do have runners for anyone who'd like to start some. I'll even pay the postage!!

I don't know what type of wisteria it was but when we bought this place - now almost 8 yrs ago,
we found wisteria popping up in the grass near a stone wall. We've pulled & mowed it every time
it pops up. Its still alive!!!!!

Tam

I've got a few unidentified weeds that have come from neglected neighbours' yards. Is there a WEED identification page on this site?

Should probably take pictures, but you know weeds - they tend to hide in the middle of good plants. Have to respect them. LOL

I have a lot of what I've always called wood sorrel, but it doesn't match the description on Plant Files - yellow flower, heart-shaped leaves, seed pods which explode. Sour tasting and good in salads, but a real nuisance. Probably a type of Oxalis. And it seems to adapt its size to where it grows. Great big leaves and stems if it manages to hide in the garden and little ones to survive in the lawn. That's the one I really target when weeding - beyond the obvious - dandelions, thistles, plantain, lamb's quarters, etc.

Ann

Tammy in PA--I think you must have some of the runners from mine. LOL. You really can't kill the stuff. All you can do is keep mowing and chopping. And don't turn your back on it!! It'll git ya' like some horror movie thing.

I never should have planted those rock seeds. Now I find them every time I stick a trowel in the dirt. They just keep breeding.

Oh Sylvi - those seeds have really spread, they are here in MD also!! What have you done.... wait, maybe I planted them, I get confused between the root seeds and the rock seeds!! LOL

1gardengram - at least its not Kudzu coming from the south! LOL I put some
hosta near the place the wisteria pop up and now they've got a beach head.

Sylvi - oh my! You have those nasty self-seeding rocks too! I should post the
rock pile we've made. Its about 20' wide by 8' deep by 5-6' tall. That's 7yrs
worth of gardening. And they take forever to compost too. :-)

Tam

I don't know which is worse, kudzu or wisteria. At least wisteria blooms and smells good once a year. They both are the pestiest things I've ever seen! At least when you are pulling out the grass-type weeds in your flower beds, you know whether or not you are getting the roots. With those vines, it doesn't matter, 'cause they're just laughing at you anyway.

Composting rocks! Now I've heard it all. Let me know how it works out for ya'll!!

1- Oxalis crassipes 'Alba' (It grows. I weed it out. It grows. I weed it out. Repeat ad infinitum.)
2- Blackberries (Ugh. Painful and difficult to get rid of.)
3- Bindweed (A nuisance)

Oxalis, oxalis
You're the deadliest of foes.
I cannot kill you with my hands,
or with my many hoes.
If I was granted just one wish
I think that I would say
Please kill that darn oxalis
And do it now, TODAY!

Love it terracotta

Terracotta - love the poem! At my old house, my neighbors were
avid gardeners. In general, very knowledgable. Except one summer
he decided the oxalis was clover and that he should let it go to
add fertilitiy to his bed. Adjacent to mine. ARGH!!! I think his wife
figured out what he was doing, argued with him about it a few months
and after a year, convinced him it was a weed. By then, we both
had LOTS AND LOTS of oxalis weed to deal with.

Tam

Tam, what would we do without our neighbors, eh? Oxalis is decidedly NOT clover! Did you make your neighbor weed your yard? LOL.

My next-door neighbors enjoy blackberries and ivy (and have them growing onto our shared fence). Naturally, the plants don't recognize that a fence is a borderline, and they grow into my yard. The blackberries are especially horrible, nasty, scratchy things.

Did you & your neighbors manage to get rid of the oxalis? And was it the same kind I have (oxalis crassipes 'Alba')? With those white flowers that spread seed and all those jillions and jillions of "bulbils"? If you found something that worked, please, DO TELL! :-) I prefer not to use chemicals, but.....

Alas I have no solution to share. I also prefer not to use chemicals. I don't have
the species name but my oxalis has yellow flowers and plump seed pods that burst
their contents EVERYWHERE. I pull and pull and pull some more. I left that
property and moved to a much larger one in the country. I fought multiflora roses
my first 3 years (I cleared them from areas I'm gardening and let them protect me
from deer and roving eyes by letting them grow in the tree lines). Do you have those?
Multiflora roses? They have tiny white flowers for about a day, grow 20+ft into trees
or root by tip to tromp through open space.

Tam

Tam,
No, thankfully I have been spared the horror of multiflora roses. They sound ferocious! Perhaps I should come visit you. I am able to kill roses with the barest of glances. I am not sure if my powers extend to multiflora roses, but I would be willing to give it a try.

Stop over when you're in the neighborhood!
Tam