Last season, I had eight balloon flowers (sentimental blue). My goal was to string the front of the balcony with a mix of purple and white all the way across the ledge.
As mentioned in a previous blog, spider mites ate all but two before I realized what a spider mite was. This is the smaller one of the two survivors, before I found out the mites were back again!
This season, this is what they have done to the pictured above balloon flower:
Grr! So I asked questions here, and went bonkers looking for solutions to getting rid of these little nasties quick. Neem oil was the favorite choice from all the answers I received, so it seemed to be what I needed to get to save my plants.
But I also found something else from…dare I say it…a ‘cannabis growing’ website. Apparently, spider mites love that plant too! A mix of rubbing alcohol and water came as a their quick fix and instant kill of spider mites. Yes it’s very chemical, but after losing so many flowers last season, I just wanted them fried, lol.
The recipe called for rubbing alcohol (71%) at 30 percent, and the rest water. Multiple applications may be necessary for next several days, but apparently it will kill them quickly. After a few days, and on the verge of dumping this plant and the soil in the trash, I noticed this:
New stems are growing off the nearly dead stems! I was thrilled to see that it is still fighting to live, and at this moment, I’ve seen no spider mites on this plant.
The bigger one, also treated with this mix was deadheaded just before I realized it was being attacked. Here is what it looks like right now:
I haven’t seen any new growth yet, but I have also seen no new mites or webs. I’m keeping a close eye on the both of them, so hopefully they’ll hang in there.
I am a very observant type of person. I watch and examine patterns as well as changes that may occur with my balcony garden. So while pondering, I dwelled on just how could these spider mites attack again? Did they hibernate, then show up again? Did I bring them home with the new plants I bought?
I cannot conclude for sure how this has happened again, but I have to say that my strongest argument is from something I love and never considered. While plinking around online about birds, I found out how birds carry insects on their bodies all the time. Summarily, I feared that it is my beloved Perch and Zippy hummingbirds that feed here had them drop from their bodies and onto the plants.
I can’t rule this out, as I am trying to find all possibilities as to how I am getting them, so that I can properly fight them off in the future. I’m going to see how and if these balloon flowers revive and fight through this. I really hope they do.
Also mentioned previously, I planted six delospermas around my parent’s mailbox at their new home. I decided to bring one home, but a different one than I planted for them, the ‘Starburst’:
:)
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