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[Smintie]

Hi
I discovered the joy of gardening fairly recently.
Im mainly interested in edible fruit as well as plants with medicinal value.

My collection currently consists of tree tomato fruit (orange as well as red), white fig, lemon, fruit salad, rocket, marogo (wild spinach), pineapple (started growing from the leaf crown on the fruit), mulberry, strawberry, pomegranate (bearing fruit at moment), watermelon

Aloe vera, cat mint, spearmint, elephants food, bushman's tea, lemon thyme, thyme, garlic, chives, mesembryanthemum, tortoise bush, onion and red onion, Venus flytrap. I look forward to start 2 variations of chili bushes soon and also garlic. I want to use these to prepare an organic insecticide if needed.

I would like to add more plants to my medicine garden. Hoodia, kanna, manna, nabbas, and of course anything else I discover from here onwards or that is recommended to me.

All of this started after purchasing 9 different rose bushes and seeing them flower shortly after planting them.

If anyone has advice on removing aphids on a lemon tree. I am really struggling to eradicate this and I don't want to use poison / harmful chemicals. I have tried the water and dish soap method. It helps but does not completely rid the plague.

1 Like Sunshine likes this.

[TBM]

Welcome to the forum! Be sure to add anything applicable to your Growing, Share, and Wish lists located on your profile page, these will help facilitate trades once you've become a full member.

I'm not sure what advice to give about your aphid problem there's bound to be a thread on here somewhere that'll help you rid the plague of insects

1 Like Sunshine likes this.

[Seed Collector]

Hello Smintie, welcome to ShareTheSeeds.  Thanks for joining.

Hopefully someone will know the answer to the aphid problem.

[nobody]

Welcome to STS.

For Aphids on citrus trees the best method without using harmful chemicals is a strong mixture of neem oil and insecticidal soap. Spray the tree with this every 5 to 7 days and the problem should clear up after about 3 weeks. Water / dish soap is good for drowning the aphids you can see but it does not kill the eggs inside the aphids.

Hope this helps

[gnosis]

Welcome to STS!!

[Frog Pajamas]

Hi. Welcome to STS!

[New Wisdom]

Welcome to STS!

[fairdinkumseeds]

G'day Smintie!
Great to see more new members.

This is the best permanent way I know of removing aphids bar none. Cheap as too.
You know the little farmer ants that move and protect them, they are the main problem, not the aphids themselves who are pretty much helpless little blobs.

I get a big jam jar with a little hole in it and put a chunk of meat or fish inside then sit it on a larger ants nest within 100m of the victim tree.
I find a meat/bull ants nest or even green ants. Anything warlike and much bigger than the puny little aphid farmers. A couple hrs later I come back and collect my jar of any ants and sprinkle a few along the ground all the way to the tree.
I then go get more and do that a couple times through out the day, as I am watering or wandering around.
Then once I reckon there is a decent pheromone trail from nest to tree I squish as many aphids and  farmer ants as I can and leave the last full jar of warrior ants in the tree. War commences, and the peaceful aphid farmers are wiped out.
The next day all the aphids are gone, and the nest the farmer ants lived in is wiped out and taken over, stopping them from coming back.

The warrior ants increase their territory and build a nest closer to the new food source, and your problems are solved.

It is super easy and always works and I reckon commercial citrus growers could easily do it here in OZ.
Cheaper and safer than any spray and I reckon most places worldwide would have a local breed of ant suitable.

Good luck!!!

3 Likes Mandrake, Greentoe and prasada like this.

[Smintie]

Thank you for the warm welcome and advice. I've been away for a week.  Have just started treating my lemon tree 2 days ago. It looks like the spray is working, thanks for the advice nobody.

I'm very keen to try the permanent solution offered by fairdinkumseeds. Thank you for the detailed answer!

I've received a batch of different seed which I ordered. Very keen to plant them as my indoor greenhouse and lights are operational now.  I saw a nice tip to make a DIY seed tray warmer using a rope light. Plan to repurpose my old rope light the weekend. I'll comment on how this works out maybe it will make the difference to enable germination of my Catha Edulis seed.

I have also started a few cuttings with growing hormone a day ago. I look foreword to them sprouting roots

[nahuatochtl]

Welcome and Goodluck with those seeds!

keep us updated on those ones!