Category: Uncategorised houseplants ideas

Mildly insecticidal spray

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I’m trying Alocasias again after finding this method with Sphagnum & leca. However, when I got home from the plant store with my newly bought Alocasia cuprea, I found out that it had thrips. I thoroughly showered the plant and removed all the soil (microwaved for later re-use) and repotted with the new method. I couldn’t find any more thrips after that, but to be safe I wanted to try a mild insecticide.

A retired botanist in the comments under this video recommended a 200 mL leaf spray using 13 drops of lavender essential oil, 19 drops of lemongrass essential oil and 5-7 mL rubbing oil (to emulsify). I don’t have lemongrass oil, but I do have lavender and a few other somewhat insecticidal oils. Also, instead of rubbing alcohol I have bio-ethanol which I think should work similarly well as an emulsifier and contact killer for some pests.

So I’m trying this leaf spray:

  • 32 drops of essential oil (~0.8%):
    • 15 drops lavender (somewhat effective against thrips as well as mites)
    • 9 drops rosemary (mostly effective against spider mites)
    • 5 drops tea tree (antifungal, effective against spider mites)
    • 3 drops lemon (somewhat effective against thrips)
  • 6 mL 95% bio-ethanol (~3%)
  • 2 drops of mild dish soap
  • distilled water to 200 mL

It does smell nice, although I know it’s not very healthy to inhale so I spray somewhere with good ventilation that I know nobody will be in for a while. Also citrus oils can cause phototoxicity so I should only spray in the evening.

Let’s see if the plant survives the repotting and leaf spraying, and if the pests stay away so it can graduate from quarantine.

Two propagation racks

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I salvaged an aluminium drying rack for glass tubes. I already had some salvaged lab glass tubes and long bottles that I wanted to make racks for, and they fit nicely in the holes. However, I didn’t have enough of the bottles to fill it up, and it was too tall for the reaction tubes. So I drilled out the little rivets, sawed one of the plates with holes into two, and made the thing into two racks to fit both the tubes and the bottles.

It was nice to work with rivets again, I don’t have much experience with those. It shows if you look closely – the one in the back has four different sizes of rivets – but I learned in the end.

I’ll use these for propagating plant cuttings. They fit perfectly in the windowsill :)

Hormones

thomasLeave a comment

I want to play with plant hormones. See what their effect is on growth patterns of houseplants. I specifically want to see if I can prevent epiphytic aroids from reverting to a more juvenile form when growing downwards instead of up something.

I already did some literature research. I also found this page, I want to read it with some healthy scepticism because biodynamics. But first, other projects.