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Re: little black bugs... And peat free composts

Hi All,
Still alive and well in Scotland - after a mild winter, I am so busy trying
to control whitefly that computer time has diminished to nearly zero...

> As to the use of tobacco.  I read a book, years ago, on organic controls
> using tobacco smoke.  One method the author depended upon was to invite
> cigar smokers into her plant room, and let them puff away.  It seems
> that insects don't like the smell of cigar smoke any more than I do. 
> I'm not sure if the smell drove them away, or ...
Cigars don't work, I have definite proof of that :-).  Up to the beginning
of this year I smoked little cigars (I have now been a 'smokeless zone' for
2 months 2 weeks 13 hours 24 minutes...) and the whitefly just went on
multiplying, not to mention the fungus gnats, the mealy bug, the
spidermite... I use the yellow sticky traps as control for flying things,
they seem to work as well as anything, especially since I appear to have
insecticide tolerant bugs. Mealybug and spidermite are treated to a wash
with detergent, I have given up on sprays, all they seem to do is kill the
bees.
One point about a nicotine drench, am I right in thinking that this falls
into the illegal insecticide area in the UK?  I seem to remember reading
something about homemade sprays a while back.

Has anyone tried using a peat free compost to satisfy their ecologically
green conscience?  I did last year.  What a disaster. Last summer I
repotted all my Abultions (and I have more than a few) in this
environmentally friendly peat free compost with added water retention
pellets (not a loam based compost);  I didn't particularly like the feel of
the stuff, but I thought I would give it a go and save all those peat bogs
that are being decimated so I can grow beautiful plants.  Come this spring,
my plants are impossible to water, they are peely-waly (pale and sick
looking), and when I take them out of their pots, there is no new root
growth at all, and the bottom inch of compost is sodden while the rest is
powdery dry.  I know there are different grades of peat free compost, but I
bought one which equated in price to the average 'normal' stuff, thinking
it should be fine.  I left the plants for about 6 weeks after repotting -
the suggested time - before feeding again and I watered to keep them from
drooping during the winter.  Never did they stand in water, I use Hortag to
bench my plants so the roots are above standing water but there is some
humidity.  I have been indoor gardening for years and NEVER have I had
plants look so poorly after repotting!  
Needless to say, I am now embarked on a serious re-repotting programme and
hopefully I can turn round my sickly looking Abultions;  as I said above, I
have a serious whitefly problem and my plants need to be in A1 condition if
they are not to succumb to the infestation... 

Back to bug hunting and repotting.
Liz Bradbury in Scotland.
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