SPRING 2009 - PLANTING TIPS

Pansies vs Insects
Pansies are thriving not just surviving another winter, ice storm and all. I have yet to determine why they are called pansies? After all they can survive extreme weather swings from freezing rain to warm sunny days all in a 36 hour period.

We still have a plentiful crop of pansies available for sale and these new plantings will last well into the late spring / early summer.

Applying a fresh coat of 'Colorstar' fertilizer to your beds will enhance plant growth and blooms from now until you are ready to plant your spring flowers.

Spring is just around the corner and the few warm days scattered here and there are making it seem closer and closer. As pleasant as it is for you and I to be out and about enjoying the longer days and beautiful sunshine, remember that many of the garden pests are also just as happy as we are and emerging from the winter.

One of the most troublesome pests are aphids during this time of year for pansies. Aphids are sucking insects that attach themselves to the leaves and foliage of plants and extract the nutrients. A clear sign of aphids is a 'sap' looking substance, sticky and gunky on the top side of leaves. A few aphids are normal and will normally not do fatal harm for pansies. however a heavy infestation can wreak havoc on a bed in little or no time.

To treat for aphids: use a broad spectrum insecticide spray labeled for aphids and completely saturate the foliage of the plants. Coating the underside of the leaves really well where the aphids most probably are. Follow the directions on the label of the product you are using, but remember to follow up with additional applications on regular intervals. If you only treat once, you are only killing the adult stage of the insect. In our climate it is important to kill each stage. One treatment will not have any effect and you will think the particular insecticide is not working. Normally three treatments on regular intervals should take care of any infestation should you have an over abundance of aphids.

Lee Reich, The associated Press (* copied from the web)
 In an ideal world, pesticides would never be needed in the garden. In the real world, they occasionally are.

That doesn't mean you need harsh chemicals; pesticide is anything that kills a pest, from DDT, which kills just about every insect, to baking soda, which is effective against certain fungus diseases. If you decide a pesticide is absolutely needed, choose and spray the material with utmost care to avoid harm to the environment, to yourself, even to the very plants that you are trying to protect.

And don't think that you can be slipshod just because you are spraying something "natural," such as rotenone. Rotenone was used by primitive fisherman as fish poison (makes for easy fishing), and is still deadly to fish if it seeps into any stream or pond. Rotenone is also quite toxic to you and me, more so than Malathion, even though this common chemical pesticide has a more ominous sound.

THE FIRST STEP: READ THE LABEL
As elementary as it sounds, reading the label is the first step to correct use of any pesticide. Read over the plants and pest problems listed. Is your particular plant and problem on that list? If not, don't use that pesticide; it may be not be effective.

Before you reach for pesticide, figure out what pest, whether it's a mite, an insect, a fungus, or a bacterium, is causing the problem. (Pesticides cannot control virus diseases.)

PROTECT YOURSELF
The next thing you will want to find out from the label is just how toxic the pesticide is — to you. Look for one of three signal words:
—CAUTION means that the product is only slightly toxic, or relatively non-toxic.
—WARNING is the next step up, signifying a moderately toxic pesticide.
—DANGER-POISON means that the material is highly toxic; five millilitres (one teaspoon) or less could kill you.

More detailed information on the label, or perhaps in a booklet attached to the label, will tell you what protective gear, such as gloves or a respirator, is recommended when using the pesticide.

MORE SMARTS
So much for specifics; a few general precautions with any pesticide will keep you from ever having to call your local poison control centre (usually listed at the beginning of your telephone directory):

• Always store pesticides in their original containers. People have been known to take a sip of pesticide foolishly stored in an old water bottle.
• Store pesticides well out of the reach of children, preferably in a locked cabinet.
• Never eat, smoke or drink when handling pesticides.
• The biggest danger in using pesticides comes when mixing them (unless they are premixed) because then you're dealing with concentrated material. Avoid getting splashed, and never stick the end of your hose into the spray solution. A drop in water pressure could have that solution siphoning back into your water lines.
• Protective clothing, when called for, needs to be of non-absorbent material. After all, you don't want pesticide-soaked material sitting against your skin.
• Take precautions to minimize adverse impacts on the environment and the plants that you are spraying. Generally, the best time to spray is early morning or late evening, because the air is calm and bees, back home in their hives, will be spared exposure.
• If you spray more than one pesticide, check the labels before mixing them for compatibility or else you might end up with an unhappier looking plant than you started with.
• Reserve a special sprayer for weed killers, if you use them, because they are hard to thoroughly clean from a sprayer. The smallest residue might kill your plant.
• Lastly, think twice before using any pesticide. Be aware that plants tolerate a certain amount of pest damage; you might also.