Catching up on Summer and Early Autumn. The Bad the Good and the Cute.
Spring sprang and now it's autumn again already! Summer was a mild one this year, with the occasional rainfall, even. It's been an odd summer with quite a few people across South Australia noting die back of leaves on plants akin to sunburn when it hasn't been that hot. However, I feel like the UV may have been particularly high despite the lack of heat. It certainly felt that way on my skin.
The oddness is continuing into autumn. My orange tree has been flowering, as have my cherry and apple seedlings. They should be losing leaves right now, not flowering! Others have mentioned late fruiting on some plants, as we go cold then warm then cold then warm again.
I've been dealing with spider mites on my solanum plants, in particular the pepinos. The telltale sign is the speckling of the leaves as they lose their chlorophyll from the mites feeding. It was frustrating as I'd recently transplanted some into the planter I'd moved to the edge of the patio and they ended up smothered in them just as they were getting established. I was struggling to get on top of them so I ended up cutting them right back to more manageable levels and hosing the last couple of stems down. They recovered well, with just a quick hose every couple of days as a preventative, however, now they are once again established, one of them is under attack again.
The little black dots are tiny, full stop sized ladybirds which feed on the spider mites (you may also be able to make out even smaller reddish dots, which are the spider mites themselves). This is great news as I've got back-up, but they have still been needing a hand. I'm hoping I've caught it soon enough to get them under control and don't have to cut right back again, rather just hose occasionally where the ladybirds aren't apparent (dry conditions are purported to be the ideal climate for the mites, so hosing may help there too). Last time there were only a few of the full stop ladybirds, not enough to have an impact. I didn't want to destroy them, though, so what I cut off I dropped in a pile away from any other solanum plants. Considering the larger amount of the ladybirds now on the pepino it looks like I didn't harm the population, which is great news.
Over with the animals, the pigeons are still trying to hatch babies, despite me earnestly informing them it's way too close to winter. I haven't been in the right frame of mind to harvest poultry lately, so I'm afraid I've been removing their eggs. Nine pigeons is more than enough in that run! We can use the eggs, anyway.
At least the quail and chickens are moulting like they should be. Speaking of chickens, our flock queen, Ginger, had a bad eye a few months back. It started off with it being a bit weepy and her closing it some of the time.
I couldn't find an obvious issue, so I gave her sprays of colloidal silver and checked on it daily. It gradually got worse, though, and I was starting to worry it might be a respiratory infection, but her other eye was fine. I did get some straw out of it one day, but still no improvement. Then one day I noticed a bit of straw again and, expecting it to just be caught in the weepiness of her eye like before, I managed to grab it and ended up pulling a grass seed out from under her eyelid. Poor girl, it was huge, especially considering the size of her little chicken eye!
She made a swift recovery after that came out!
I've been really happy to see we have at least one mantis back in the garden. It was eating an earwig on the lavender plant one day.
We used to see babies every year, then one day I found an adult dead by the garage door; it must have gotten caught when I used it. I was gutted and didn't see any mantises for a couple of years after. This year I've found two egg casings, one in the front garden on the fennel and one on the apple tree in the back garden. Looking forward to seeing babies around again.
I’ve been delaying letting the chickens back in the area with the apple tree until I'm sure the mantises must have hatched. It takes up to 3 weeks, usually, so we should be clear by now. I really hope they all hatched safely.
Other predators I'm glad to still be seeing around are the geckos.
Right now I'm looking forward to fresh oranges, which will soon finish ripening.
Oh yes, I nearly forgot, I'll leave you with these guys trying to grow their adult feathers in.
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Thank you @steemflow. I hope you are well and apologies for not finding time to drop by your page, lately.
It's perfectly fine @minismallholding ....neither I am so active...few post now and then...just isolation time allow me to curate few posts...and yours is always a worth a read.
Argh! Spider mites I hated these things on my Bonzai and my herb patch. I ended up going to my local pet store and buying some preying mantis. Noting that it is winter now so they won't really do well and your chooks might love them for lunch.
I try to avoid chemicals, I also find oil mixed with water or citrus juice and water even vinegar and a light spray in the evening helps.
You can't always use that method on things like Rosemary and other herbs otherwise the flavour comes across. The olive oil works best in that instance as I tend to cook with olive oil alot.
I wish you all the best and watch out for frost bite this time of year!
That's something I hadn't considered before. Thankfully these mites are only going for the nightshade plants. Perhaps they are a specific type. They are a real pain, one of the harder pests to shift.
Bonsai was a hobby of mine for along time. Fighting bugs was a full time job especially in summer. Because I used to grow alot of my own herbs at our old house I was constantly outside battling.
Unfortunately after many years someone decided to jump my back fence and steal a plant that I had been working on for 8 years. It was worth over $2000. I was shattered and lost all interest. I have one left now but that's because it was in training and it's still in the pot and hasn't died. It's like the last little bit of me holding on and not wanting to let go lol
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Oh wow, that would be sure to knock you back. I'm guessing your little ones keep you busy as well, now, so maybe that urge will be rekindled when you have an empty nest.
Ah that's still some time away and I might have kissed this earth good bye by then. 🤷♂️
!ENGAGE 25
Do you live that dangerously? 😅
No, but I'm married 🤣
ENGAGEtokens.Nice post
Awww, poor Ginger! I'm glad you got it out!
Also, UGH spider mites are THE WORST. We hates them, nasty, tricksy, false! (Gollum noises)
That's pretty wild about your plants not knowing what season it is. Global weirding, indeed.
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I've never encountered spider mites until a couple of years ago. They are hard to shift!
So "global weirding" is a phrase now. I thought it was just something a friend had made up to help avoid the climate arguments. I rather like it, because you can't really argue that the world isn't weird. 🤣
It came from, if I recall correctly, the book "Hot, Flat, and Crowded." 🤣
Coming back on main to vote and say !BEER
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BEER.Hey @minismallholding, here is a little bit of
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BEER.Plucking seeds from the eyes of chickens...
🤣 Now that sounds twisted!
What a lovely post! Poor chicken, that must have been horrible to have in her eye for that long as well..I wonder how it even got in there, it seems so huge for a chicken's eye. Glad you managed to discover it, she must be very happy you relieved her from this thing!
Loving the garden, can't wait for us to have one too :)
I'm still perplexed as to how it got in there, but having spoken to other chicken keepers, it's not any uncommon thing to happen with them. Mind you, they do like to dive on any food put in the in a frenzy, so maybe some it was from the straw I chuck in when cleaning the rabbits out.
Well, glad it's now out, as that must have been horrible! I already go nuts when I have an eyelash in my eye that I can't seem to be able to locate so that I can remove it :) haha, can't even imagine having something like that in my eye.. do you think the eye is still ok?
I'm the same! The tiniest spec of dust hurts like hell in my eye!
Her eye is completely undamaged. I guess whatever her body coated it with did its job at protecting it and eventually brought the seed in view for it to be removed.
Good!
Gosh poor chicken, glad you got that out of her eye. Having an orange tree must be nice. I always dream of having a garden full of plants like these.
Nice little read I had. 😊
My guess on the mites is a badly balanced soil, not providing enough or a balance of what that plant needs to be healthy enough to resist pests. It's hard to have balanced soil in a pot. But often times a good quality balanced foliar feed can reverse these problems. By the end of the summer, most plants have utilized whatever was available in the soil, and they weaken due to inability to be nourished. Foliar feeding can help with this. It should NOT be high nitrogen as that will make the problem worse.
Love the chicken photos and glad you found that seed! Bet she is too.
Our summers are a nightmare to keep the soil damp enough for the microbes. I also know the soil still needs a lot more work, so that sounds about right. Over the years I have been having less pest problems, however, so maybe that's a sign I'm slowly getting there. Thank you for the foliar feeding tip. I'm not at all versed on foliar feeds, would a seaweed one be helpful?
You want a balanced one. Seaweed would have some more nutrients than other types, but mostly you want to be careful about the nitrogen content. Too much nitrogen will make the problem infinitely worse.
Poor chicken, those grass seeds get everywhere, I keep a close eye on my puppy and her paws.
Gosh, don't they! I pull them out of my shoes and socks quite regularly. Can imagine it would be a hazard for dogs.
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The oddness continues our side of the pond as well @minismallholding. A few years ago our almond tree got totally confused. One half was losing leaves while the other half full of blossoms. To this day it continues it's wierd behaviour. It still bears fruit but wierdly (or maybe obviously) the almonds only grow on one half.
Happy autumn days here too. Almost my favourite time of year. Almost......
I recently heard about a fruiting tree which got struck by lightning and now flowers in two stages, one after the other. Your half and half almond made me think of that.
I wonder........
AW, thanks so much for updating me on your lovely garden. I'm sorry you had mites - I've never had them, so I wouldn't know what to do. My chook got an eye infection a while back and it was a grass seed, so it's the first thing I check for. My biggest problem with them in the noise as they shout at rats at the moment - I really must deal with that problem.
I've had the seed in the eye before, but this one was completely hidden, couldn't see any signs of it before that gunk began to push it into view.
Your garden likely has better balanced soil than mine, then. Goldenoak was just saying how that helps you avoid the pests. I know our soil isn't great, but I'll keep working at it.
Spider mites can devastate a garden so quickly. I use neem oil to control a lot of the pests in our garden. Neem oil is organic and will do no harm to any plant it is used on. If you haven't tried it, you may want to give it a shot, I find that it works great for all kinds of insects.
I have only seen a few PRAYING MANTIS in this area, but when I do I'm delighted. As you know, they are bug-eating machines.
At one point, I'm not sure the law is still in effect, it was against the law to kill them and if you did you would be fined. I'm not sure how they could enforce this law, but it was on the books.
If I would have run into the nest of the mantis, I'm sure that I would not have known what it was.
Good job continuing to keep an eye out for the chicken with the bad eye. Most folk may have just blown it off, figuring that there was nothing they could do. That sure was a large seed in the poor fellow's eye. I'm sure she'll lay a few extra eggs every day to let you know how much she appreciates you doctoring her up.
The little fellows are so cute.
Have a great day.
I usually try to avoid even the natural chemical pest control, because it will affect the good guys too. I know I've got the parasitic wasps and these little ladybirds, so I don't want to harm them. It has been tempting, at times, but over the years the natural pest predator balance seems to be getting better.
We have a similar law about killing snakes here. I've often wondered the same. How are you going to know if someone kills one, in order to enforce it? Especially as getting someone out to remove one from your home or garden is going to cost. I suspect many get killed and binned or buried.
I hear you with wanting to not kill the good guys. The one thing about using the neem oil is that you don't have to go around indiscriminately killing everything. I put the solution in a small spray bottle and only use it on the infected area. It kills on contact. and in the insect is not there at the time it's not going to perish.
But if you feel that the situation is getting better, I would also stick with what I'm doing!
Wow that is very odd. Seems these strange times that we are in are also affecting our seasons. I have other speculations of why things are odd but I won’t say it here.
Okay so I’m taking note that we want to have mantisis in our gardens. I need to learn about all of the helpful predators that keep unwanted pests out of our gardens.
Oh my gosh I’m so glad you found that seed. Thank goodness you kept looking.
Wow love that orange tree and all of the chicken photos! I am really enjoying seeing other garden posts :)
We've certainly been seeing some much milder winters here. Plants that were annual are starting to keep going and just not die off.
Yes, mantises good and spiders aren't bad either, as much as some would rather not see them. 😆
Wow that’s something. I’m sure it’s a great benefit that they’re sticking around.
Haha yes I would rather see the mantises! 😅
I guess mites gotta eat too but aaargh XD
Why are you afraid of removing the eggs?
I've been loving the seasons lately even if the poor plants are rather puzzled.
Ahh look at the little chickens so cute XD
Removing the eggs just means they'll lay more often and they haven't exactly been bred to be layers like chickens and quail, so I feel a bit cruel. Especially when they fret around the nest afterwards. 😕
Oh they're broodies, I see :<
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Can't say I've ever seen mantis egg casings before, very strange. They look as if they were sewn by human hands. Save some oranges for me, that's an exotic fruit here in Suriname.
Really!? Seems strange that they would be exotic. I guess I always thought them good to grow in any climate that was hot, because it was too cold in England. Are citrus more hot, but not too humid climates? They do well here in South Australia.
Wish I could teleport some to you. You could have some of the tomatoes too.