Thrips question

Hello everyone!

I planted a lot of glads last year but almost every single one of them are infested with thrips! Do I toss them out or can do something to save them?

Thanks,
Aelana

You can use Sevin powder after you dig them and dry them to store. Shake them in a bag with it. You have to use something early in the growing season, like when they are about 5-7 inches tall to control them. Not sur what sprays are still available to you. Maybe neem would work, don't know. I gave up on glads because of thrips, but read that the light coloured ones attract them. This year I grew only purple and didn't have thrips.

Thank you very much, echoes. I will try to look for sevin powder.

Regards,
Aelana

I have an infestation this year. Found this:

http://nhb.gov.in/bulletin_files/flowers/gladiolus/gla007.pdf

We use a liquid drench after are bulbs are cleaned.
We had a fairly bad infestation in 2007. We treated all the corms before storing. They were stored at around 40º.
I never had to spray in past summer & no sign of thrips.

I found out that thrips thrive in onions. We made sure no onions were close to glads this year. Maybe this helped.

Also I bought new bulbs from a different source in 2007. Maybe I bought them!

Our year is nearly over. My tally shows sales of 1368 bunches of flowers, each containing 6 spikes. That is over 8000 spikes! Made many people happy. Many were bought by people who were taking them to their church.

Good growing to all!
Bernie

What kind of liquid drench ? Is it sprayed on or do the corms take a bath in it ??

Hi,

Thrips are the "pits". The material in this post should be very helpful.

There are several preferred liquid drenchs used by larger growers, like the lady from MN. Most contain several "pesticides" for control of both disease and insects. For the lady from Monroe, WA (we have kids there) If you peel back a few of the husks on the corms and they appear shiny and smooth. Storing with a good sprinkling of Sevin powder is a cheap and practical control for storage. The problem is they can float in at any time with air currents for miles.

For those of you who are strictly organic. You will have to use your preferred insecticides very frequently. Those of you who use traditional pesticides are best served by a spray containing Acephate. Ortho name for it is "Orthene" and is sold as Systemic Insect Control. Systemics are absorbed by the plant leaves and will give control for 10 to 14 days. So repeat treatment is important. The first spray should be applied prior to the appearance of a flower stalk as the larvae form of thrip crawls into the bud and feeds on the petals. It is important to continue treatment according to the label. The benifit of using Acephate systemic is that it works on many other plants such as roses.

Another method for home gardeners is to use one of the systemic rose feed and fertilize formulas and sprinkle in the row when planting or side dress and work into the soil when the plants are activily growing.

I also invite you to view the following Website for more information on Gladiolus.
www.gladworld.org.

LOWELL

Bernie, I just harvested the last double row of glads. Altogather about 500 plants. I can handle that, but you look like you have 10 times that many or more.

it must be quite a job of harvest each fall.....cutting tops, plowing or digging them up, and clipping the stems, and removing the juvenile corms.

Took 3 short days to get them up. We use our potato digger to lift them. We take the shaker chains off. We just grab them & snap the corms off the stems, then put them on tables in our greenhouse to dry. Many hours spent cleaning & sorting the corms.
I'm not sure how many we have this year, but probably over 10,000. We sold 1400 bunches of 6 stems this summer. There are always lots of not salable flowers.
Bernie

Aelana,

We live in Eastern WA and as a members of the North American Gladiolus Council we are always interested in the number of gladilous growers either for a hobby or business such as farmers markets etc.

One of my ambitions has been to form a statewide Gladiolus growers organization. Perhaps you could be of help by telling me if their are other folks who raise gladiolus in the area. Also I know they have a good sized fair in Monroe and if there are many gladiolus shown.

LOWELL

Hello Lowell,

First and foremost, thank you for answering my question about thrips.

When you mean raise gladiolus, how many plants are you talking about? Are you talking about growers? I will ask around for you. :)

Regards,
Aelana

We are interested in those who are either hobbiest or commercial growers including farmers marketers. My thoughts were to ask around your gardening friends and the fair experience. I am on no timeline.

Thank you

LOWELL