Gardening question?
Question:I have a few random flowers growing around my house. I have been seeing holes in the plants. I am assuming it is from a bug? BUt How do I stop them from eating my flowers. (first time ever planting) Also I am growing Pumpkins for my kids and they are flowering do I have to take the flowers off or the stem when they are dead like other flowers? Please help. Thanks
Answers:
okay do this for the bugs . Mix equal parts listerine and dish soap in a spray bottle and spray . the flowers love it and the bugs hate it . no the flowers will fall off and you will have little pumpkins. good luck and happy gardening .
please do not take the flowers off, the stems, let them fall of naturally. depending on where you live and what type of flowers you have, it could be earwigs, slugs or dust mites. If you see slimy little trails it is slugs or snails, if not then it is a bugs, go to the Home center and get snail bait, the small granules and then some trizanon(Formerly Diazion) and sprinkler around the plants.
You could have a variety of bugs eating your flowers: slugs, grasshoppers, japanese beetles. Identify the pest first, then decide what to use to kill them.,.Disyston is a good all around systemic insecticide. Sprinkle on dirt, water in.
Pumpkin - leave the flower on, it will drop off on its own.
Your in luck that your having bug problems with flowers. An old trick I learned while working at a nursery was just spray a mixture of water and very hot chile pepper on the flowers. It keeps the bugs away since they don't like the hotness.
If you have dead flowers on a pumpkin plant just pick the flower off, NOT THE STEM. If you cut the stem part it will take much longer to grow back. It is most common not to let all the flowers grow into pumpkins since you will have an overflowing amount. You should try and get some recipes for pumpkin flowers, they are edible and tasty.
No, don't take teh flowers off the pumpkin vine! That is what becomes your pumpkins! :)
Holes in the plants are probably bugs. Inspect the leaves very carefully.sometimes they are super small and hard to see. Look especially at the part where the leaf joins the stem, and on the underside of the leaves. Once you identify what is eating the plant, you can figure out how to get rid of them. Spraying them with water with a squirt of dish soap in it often solves bug problems and is nontoxic.
I use HOME GARDEN & PET DUST from the Dollar Store. It only cost $3. Lightly dust plants and the bugs should stay away. You can go buy some real expensive stuff but why, This really works!
More Related Questions & Answers...