August Flower Photos of the Day

[Kyle]

Winter 2016  and half the summer 17' my Pinot Noir shut down hard.  Months of bare wood but always had green growth and potential.     This year i removed the 2gal black plastic pot she was in.  No roots or they just fell off.   The soil was completely soaking wet at bottom.  I could still see the 1/2 gal rootbal from 4 years ago.   Now I know why she  shut down for so long and never recovered.  2 months ago  I transplanted her into a  3 gal  root bag designed for high air and root pruning.
She is doing great now.  Better than ever but needs another year of rooting to fill in the eyes.    It's like a new plant starting all over with no more floppy branches.
Laughing Fountain recovering as well.
I waited for the plants to recover enough before i tranplanted and timed it spring.  It was die or do something about it.
Hang tight, I will share with you a couple things I learned.
Kyle

[Kathleen]

That is a gorgeous bloom, Kyle.  What is this Root Bag of which you speak.  I sounds like I may have been able to save some of my plants with this method.  I loose 4-6 plants every year around this because we have soooo much rain this time of the year here in Florida.  The one thing I have learned over the years of killing plants is that the water until you see water coming out of the bottom of the pot is the worst thing I can do.  I dig my finger down into the soil and inch or two and it may feel completely dry, but the bottom half of the pot is soaking wet and drowning my roots.  I have learned that, for me at least, rationing my water so it doesn't seep down that far keeps my pot more evenly moist.  This time of the year however, with all the rain, all that goes out the window.

Kathleen

[Kyle]

Kathleen let me look for an older post and share with you a couple adjustments I made and what you can try doing but this will be  something that you can try when a  new plant arrives and start fresh.   Some things in off season to prep.
Guys I am trying out a new super high tech micronized sulphur powder for both foliar spray and root drench.
My gosh you won't belive it.    The biologist told me they were studying sulphur for it's nutrient properties but then learned how bemeficial it is as an organic pestcide and how it builds immunity and fights off disease and greens the plants up and enhances terpine and yields with lab work to prove it.
I'm dealing with some Downy and Powder Mildew on my sqaushes and cucumber and tried the sulphur and on all of my  hibiscus as the mite are trying to break out under the leaves while I was occuoied with Mildews.  
Check under the leaves well for webbing and little dots and use your bug blasters!  Love those things so refreshing.
I finally got Dark Energy where I want it.   Was worth all the work.  

Kyle

[Kyle]

Pink Panther open for 3 days in summer something new for me.   I think the opening and mid day is on my Facebook worth seeing.

[Kyle]

If anyone is trying to figure out a way to downsize and post your photos on the forum try  downloading the Reduce Photo Size App.    Open app, pick photo, crop your photo, reduce the photo to (VGA), save or save a copy and that's it.    VGA will usually put you in 250KB to 360KB  range.
Kyle

[Kyle]

Just imagine a nightcrawler like a Clydesdale and the castings are  double in size fed a dark peat humus as a base.
I made tea out of the pure castings that I included a blend of 2  bat guanos.
A Jamaican 0-10-0 red dense fresh guano and Down to Earth's  0-7-0 Bat Guano.    Primarily for my  produce but I did drench  a few hibiscus last week to see if they like it.
Finally, the last week in Aug. summer color flowers are here. 
Kyle






 

[Kyle]

Dark Energy came around nice on the 3rd summer.   I knew there was nothing wrong with it.