Re: Where are you?
- Subject: Re: Where are you?
- From: B* G*
- Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 13:26:16 -0700
davidfeix@yahoo.com writes:
> I find this is common with
>things like Dahlia imperialis, which in full growth
>mode in warmer weather is relatively immune to snails,
>but is a snail magnet when the weather cools in late
>fall/winter, when it can be covered with snails.
>Thrips and scale also seem more attracted to the
>plants which are only marginally adapted to our local
>conditions, or may be suffering from pH or soil
>fertility in my garden.
Nice, i bought one of these from Plant Delights Nursery, and so far it's
doing well, putting out nice new leaves. So now i know to expect snails
later in the year. I havent seen a problem with thrips or scale yet. It's
growing mainly in sandy soil, which is essentially all the sand that over
the centuries has blown in from the beach (further west in Ft. Ord the
hills are essentially "fossilized" sand dunes). My city (Marina) , was
built over old coastal chapparal, which closer to the beach merges into
the beach plant communities. So, the soil here is naturally lean.
But, that hasnt stopped me from trying out things like the Sikkim Banana
(Musa sikkimensis) :)
An interesting thing: i have a problem with gophers which i am about ready
to poison (i know, not very ecologically friendly, but the stray cats
havent worked ;)). Someone on another list I am on said they used ammonia
to drive them away from their yard (albeit, this was before they planted
out their yard). Since the burrow was near the D. imperialis, when i
poured the ammonia in, i saw the gopher activity in that spot stop, but
the leaves of D. imperialis went bright yellow, it's recovering though, i
didnt kill it :).
