Pest Treatments

This is what I've done to begin my pest-control program:
1) Set out saucers of beer for the fungus gnats
2) Isolated plants with fungus from those that appear free of fungus or other problems
3) Put of starting the seeds I was going to start, until I get this all under control
4) Sprayed scale-infected plants with soap solution
5) Opened the bottom part of the greenhouse door and set the fan thermostat to a lower heat setting to increase air movement in the greenhouse and around the plants (Is this counterproductive? Will it help spread fungus?)
6) Scheduled daily MORNING work in the greenhouse, rather than afternoon work to avoid watering late in the day.

So far this appears to have brought things back under control.  I did have to just destroy a couple of plants that had been pretty much overcome by fungus.  They were all kalanchoes that I had started from cuttings in the spring of 2009 and then moved to larger pots several times during the summer.  It looks as though possibly with the last repotting in the late fall, I overcrowded them by planting several starts in a single larger pot.  As they filled in and branched out they were beautiful, but by the time they began blossoming in late January they were showing signs of stress which I failed to remedy, and then overlooked the start of the fungus until it had taken serious hold on those plants.  I've been able to control what few additional plants became affected because I addressed those immediately, but the original infected plants had to be destroyed.  Hard lesson.

More pests

Oh no! Scale also.... I'm going to have to spend some serious time cleaning and disinfecting, treating and isolating my plants in the greenhouse and house. I'll post some of the most useful sites that help me deal with my sudden infestations here in subsequent posts.

Greenhouse Pests

Well it's still cold and snowy out, and most days are still Michigan-winter-gray, but with the longer days plants overwintered in the greenhouse are waking up and sending out promising new leaves and shoots. Unfortunately, the pest population is also waking up, and although I try to be SO careful to keep my greenhouse clean and uncontaminated, I guess it's tough to do if you bring outdoor pots indoors. Overnight, I have fungus on some plants and fungus gnats on others. I probably overwatered because I got so excited to see fresh green again. Actually, I also watered late in the day after getting home from work, not giving the pots a chance to dry out during the day but instead staying damp all night in the cool night temps. I know better - I do - but thought I could get away with it a few times. ARGH! Now I have to experiment with the various non-commercial, relatively organic solutions to my problems that I've read about. Hopefully, the next post will contain success stories on this front.