Organic Pesticide

I believe that everyone who grows every kind of plants must ever have the problem about the pesticide invading your garden. Me, too. About 3-4 days in a week, I have to kill the small plant louse or aphids in my garden. However, I don't want to use the chemical pesticide neither as it's not friendly environment. My solution is to use the organic pesticide whose ingredient you can in your kitchen or house. The organic pesticide can control the pest when you use it often and the situation in the garden is not severe and you use. In case the situation is beyond control, I'll suggest you to use the commerical pesticide and use the organic one later.

1. Tobacco or Nicotine Spray:
This mixture is great for combating many different types of bugs, but especially caterpillars, aphids, and many types of those nasty worms.
1 cup of tobacco

1 gallon of water

Put the tobacco into the container of water. Allow the mixture to set for approximately 24 hours. After it has stood for a day, check the color. It should be the shade of weak tea. If it is too dark, just dilute it with water until it looks right.

*** Don't use this solution on peppers, tomotoes, eggplants, or any other member of the solanaceous family. Tobacco chemicals can kill these types of plants!

2. Soap Spray (My favorite)

Another way to stop the slugs is with soapy water. Collect some of the water in a pan and pour it into a watering can or even use a pitcher to pour it over the plants. This works really well on hostas and mums, but also can be used on other hardy plants. Many bugs do not like their lunch spoiled by a soapy aftertaste!

For a stronger solution, mix 3 Tablespoons of liquid detergent into a gallon of water, I prefer Dawn, but any will do. Use this weekly in the evening otherwise the leaves will get burned.

3. Garlic Spray:

Here is the recipe for a garlic spray that fights slugs too. To make this smelly spray, use the following list of ingredients:

1 garlic bulb

1 quart of water

1 medium onion

1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon liquid dish soap

Crush the garlic, mincing it fine. Add finely chopped onion to the mixture, while adding the rest of the ingredients except the soap. Wait an hour before adding the soap to the mixture. The spicy ingredients must sort of stew or steep, almost like tea. After an hour, add the soap and your non-toxic spray is ready to use! This can be stored in the fridge for a week.

4. Spearmint-Hot Pepper-Horseradish Spray:

This works on many different kinds of bugs- too many to list!

1/2 cup of red peppers (hot)

water (read below)

1/2 cup of fresh spearmint

1/2 cup horseradish (root and leaves)

2 tablespoons of liquid detergent

1/2 cup green onion tops

Mix all of the spearmint leaves, horseradish, onion tops and peppers together with enough water to cover everything. Strain the solution. After mixing all of these, add a half-gallon of water and add the detergent also. To use this solution, mix 1/2 gallon of this solution with 1/2 gallon of water. You can use this to spray almost any plant safely. Store this mixture for a few days in a cool environment.

5. Buttermilk and Flour Spray:

Garlic spray is great for getting rid of cutworms, wireworms, whiteflies, and slugs too.

What you need:

1 pint of water

1/4 cup of dish liquid

2 teaspoons of paraffin

6 tablespoons of chopped garlic

Soak the whole garlic in the liquid paraffin for at least 24 hours. After a day, add the dish liquid and water to the mixture. Remember to shake it very well. Strain the solution and store it in a glass jar. This lasts around a week.

Canker disease in Cactus

Happy New Year everybody! Wish you be healthy and happy in 2010.

For the cactus & succulent planters, I think you all should ever have an experience with canker disease. The bacterium in the humid soil and air causes the canker which can occur with the citrus species (such as lime, orange, cherry) and cactus as well. The first symptoms in autumn are shallow depressions at the base of plants which enlarge in spring, completely circling the base of the branch and causing it to die. An amber like gum may also appear. When the size of the circle is enlarged, the circle will look like full sponge, which later become dark brown flakes split button which is rough and hard curve. But the middle will collapse into the sink itself.

How to Treat Canker

If your cactus has the canker, you should be cut out, back to good part, using a knife or chisel - burn the diseased one. The exposed healthy part can be painted with a canker paint available from larger garden centres. If canker is a major problem, spraying with a copper based fungicide (bordeaux mixture is sold by most garden centres), in August, September and October will greatly assist. Three consecutive sprayings are needed for the full effect.

However, the study show some growers use low rates of copper-based products during bud break to reduce symptoms of dead bud. Copper-based products have not worked well under conditions favorable for disease development. Heavy use of copper products is not recommended as Bacteria will resist copper products and the concentrations in the soil can build up to toxic levels in the long term. Now, we can control the canker the organic chemistry. Anyway, I don't know yet how to do and what the exact result is because the organic chemistry is successful with the lime and orange farms. So I'll have to test it and inform you later.

Cactus in the House & Garden Fair in Bangkok

There was the House & Garden Fair in Bangkok in the last month. In it, there was the cactus & succulent competition. Many cactus collectors always showed off their best cacti collection and exchanged the new tips & techniques in this Fair.


In fact, the award from the Fair didn't matter. The main point of the collectors is to present how excellent they are and update the news about the cactus & succulent.


I also uploaded some pictures of cacti and succulent.

It is said that Uebelmannia buiningii is probably the rarest and most endangered of all Brazillian cacti. It is so difficult to find or buy it in the market now.

Buiningii is a species of Uebelmannia cactus. It is spherical and sometimes elongated with greenish red-brown to deep chocolate bodies covered with very small waxy scales is probably the rarest and most endangered of all Brazillian cacti. It is so difficult to find or buy it in the market now.

Frost Tolerance: Avoid any frost

Minimum Avg. Temperature: 60°F (15°C)

Sun Exposure: Light shade to part sun

Origin: Brazil (Minas Gerais: Serra Negra)

Growth Habits: Solitary, dark green stem, often with reddish tinge, covered with minute waxy scales, up to 4 inches tall (10 cm), 3.2 inches in diameter (8 cm); 16 to 18 ribs; close-set areoles; 6 to 8 spines of unequal length, up to 0.6 inch long (15 mm)

Watering Needs: Like humidity in the air

Blooming Habits:
The diurnal funnel-shaped yellow flowers come in summer. They are up to 1 inch long (2.5 cm), 0.8 inch in diameter (2 cm)

What kind of pot is suitable for Cactus???

Question: What kind of pot is the most suitable for Cactus?

There is no the most suitable pot for cacti. Everything and every material can be the good pot for your plants: plastic, ceramic, clay or something else. I ever recycled the stainless old pot and yogurt cups in my kitchen to grow cactus. They are healthy and grow OK. So the plastic pot can mean every plastic recycling package which can hold the soil and have the bottom draining hole. It reduces the plastic junk well.

Each kind of pot has its own advantages and disadvantages:

Plastic Pot
- Light weight, durable
- Cheaper
- has various sizes to choose
- doesn't look good comparing with another kind of pot
- not drain water well

Ceramic
- looks nice, can use as decorative in your house and garden
- expensive
- heavy to carry or move
- drain water well but the best is the clay pot.

Clay/Terra Cotta
- drain water well so you should water the plant in the clay pot more often than one in the plastic pot
- not too light or heavy weight
- broken easily

The kind of pot is not the big deal. The real key is to make sure that your pot has a lot of holes in the bottom to promote drainage as well as the good draining soil mix. It only makes sense to have a pot that is well draining too.

Cactus Soil Ingredient

Do you have this question when you move the cactus to the new pot: what is the good soil ingredient for the cactus?

Soil is one of the most important factors for the healthy & beautiful cactus and good drainage is essential to prevent cactus roots from rotting. The beginners can buy the ready-mixed cactus soil from the local garden shops. However, when you're experienced growers, you will realize that no soil mix is ideal for all cacti species. It will be better and save more your money if you can make your customized soil for the cactus.

Here is the important soil mix:

1. Pumice is a relatively light weight volcanic rock that is porous. Pumice is not available in many areas. You substitute with pearlite, non-soluble cat litter, aquatic plant soil or Turface, chicken grit, or another similar substance. The goal is to provide an inorganic substance that allows water to pass through the mix quickly.

2. Coconut fibre or coir. It can help hold moisture and air while providing structure to the mix. Unlike peat, coir can easily be re-wet after it dries out and it does not compact. If you cannot find coir, peat can be used as a substitute, but you may consider using less of it

Here is the different recipe. You can adapt them yourself:

A. commercial potting mix (peat based)
bark mulch
3mm pumice sand
7mm pumice
all equal parts.

B. One part (75% sandy loam, 25% peat, plus limestone for a neutral pH, and slow release fertiliser)
One part aggregate (gravel or pumice or perlite)

C. 2 parts packaged potting soil
1 part coarse sand
1 part peat moss or leaf mold
Optional: slow release 14-14-14 fertilizer or bone meal

D. 2 parts packaged potting soil
2 parts sand
1/2 part leafmold or peatmoss
Optional Bone meal and Limestone

It is especially recommended for cacti and succulents that need a dry soil, such as desert cacti, agaves, and aloes. This formula creates a mix that feels coarse and sandy. Yet, it drains very quickly and doesn’t retain excessive moisture.

I usually place small broken clay pot pieces in the bottom of the container. It is as for some drainage material. You can choose Styrofoam packing peanuts, or small gravel rocks work well.

Cactus Item

Let's relax with the cute Cactus items!

































Are you dare to sit on this Chair???