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This plant is Zephyranthes carinata, a bulb with the common name Rain Lily. There are lots of hybrids these days, but the reason they're called rain lilies is because they flower after rain. Some only flower once a year, and that is later in the summer/autumn, when the autumn or summer rains arrive, but some of the newer hybrids flower more often and do ...
10
That is Early Blight, Alternaria solani. The earlier you treat, the better the control, as a strong infection will build up resistance to the fungicide.
Here's what to do:
Remove all leaves showing signs of early blight (yellowing, dry margin, large to small round dead spots.)
Do not touch the unaffected leaves with the removed portions, or your hands ...
8
From pioneer.com:
"Foliar absorption of herbicides occurs in a liquid phase only; once a water droplet has dried on the leaf surface and herbicides have crystallized little to no additional absorption occurs. Therefore, any environmental condition speeding the drying of spray droplets on a leaf surface will reduce absorption. Low humidity and high winds can ...
6
It is essentially pure water but has absorbed gases from air . The only gas that has an affect in this situation is CO2. It dissolves and makes carbonic acid, I forget the pH, it may be about 4.
The acidic nature of the water makes little difference to plants if they are in soil. The buffering affect of soil, particularly calcium, overwhelms the tiny ...
5
Raindrops can hit the ground with a surprisingly large force. If there is bare soil then you will get muddy splatter. As you mention in your question ground cover is the way forward. This could take the form of planting or a mulch. Essentially, you want to cover the soil with something that is going to absorb the force of the raindrops so that they cannot ...
5
Glyphosate is a systemic herbicide. It really only needs a few hours to get into the plant before a rain. It is not a quick killer in basic formulation, but absent resistance, it kills the whole plant. Farmers started using it in the 70s using contact applicators to brush it onto Johnsongrass. Roundup would take a week to kill it, but it got it all, down to ...
5
This looks like typical wooden-linked mushroom. They come here to feed on the wood you put to feed your earth and this is a good thing: It shows that life is working around your plants in your garden. They won't be a problem to your young plants because they feed on something different, and even better, they enrich the soil for them!
The mushrooms will ...
4
A light vegetable oil. A miniscule amount can float on the water surface and totally gum up larval mosquito breathing. Put enough drops in to produce an oil sheen on the water surface.
BTI Mosquito disks - they float on the surface, slowly dissolving and release BTI, a soil bacteria that's lethal to the mosquito intestinal tract.
4
You need somewhere for the water to go. If there is anywhere close by that is lower than the planting area then:
dig a trench to the lower area about six inches wide and at least six to twelve inches deep.
Place four inch perforated drain pipe with sleeve in the trench
backfill the first four inches with gravel
Optional -place a layer of landscaping fabric ...
4
I found this alternate solution that might be easier, less visible, and possibly more attractive. (That is, if your geraniums have not already grown too tall for this to be feasible this year. Of course, then it won't work.)
From the link: "This rather poor photo shows how I support a hardy geranium (G. sanguineum) with a simple tunnel of bent wire mesh ...
4
I only do this for peonies, but I don't see why it wouldn't work for geraniums.
Stake around the plot (whatever sort of "garden stake" you typically use should be fine.) Tie string around the perimeter, and for large clumps, criss-cross through the middle as well. For taller plants, it is sometimes helpful to run two or more levels of strings. The strings ...
4
You can use tap water if you use a water filter. Even a portable filter as along as it has activated carbon in it. That will soak up the chloramine and a few other compounds that some plants are sensitive to.
Distilled water is not a good solution as it has no dissolved compounds and plants use some of the things in water, just not the chlorine levels ...
4
One of the cool features of greenhouses is that you have more control. Storing water makes more sense rather than hit or miss by rain...to include over watering. Our gardens are always going to be artificial. We humans will always be completely responsible for every little thing our plants our crops need to survive.
If you want to be successful with ...
3
Two things: Most rainwater collection systems have a diverter to allow the first few minutes of rain to NOT go into the collection barrel, or what have you. This first water tends to have a lot of dirt and dust in it. If you created a system like you describe, you may want to rig up some sort of diverter to avoid this water.
The other thing I thought of was ...
3
It depends a lot about the type (species) in your grass. I estimate that there is more than a factor 20 between ideal dry grass and ideal wet grass. Unfortunately being above 3-5 time the ideal value could ruin your grass. But probably you have drainage, so possibly it is less sensitive to overwatering.
So I would change approach. Try (maybe looking at the ...
3
Thanks for the extra information. Because the plants you have in the bed already aren't big plants, adding ground cover won't look so good, so I'd be inclined to use gravel or shingle or small stones of a suitable tone or colour. Use weed membrane beneath (you can cut it to fit round existing plants) simply to stop the gravel or stones from disappearing into ...
3
More nitrogen, IMO, is not going to help in a waterlogged situation like this. It will most likely contribute to root rot instead.
Potassium, while perhaps not the answer to your problem (it might be enough, though), will help the plants to handle and absorb extra water better than before, while strengthening the roots.
If you can find something of the ...
3
If the plants are in containers, you water as normal - unless rain is torrential and persistent, it doesn't make much impact on potted plants, especially as the season progresses and topgrowth/foliage increases in size, helping to keep even more rain off the soil in the pots. I'm assuming the containers have drainage holes...
3
Let's ponder the concept of "so you put some plants out in the yard and they get rained on" - it's the same water - so it really should not be any worse.
If you incorporate a standard trick of roof rainwater collection ("roof-washing") - basically letting the first few gallons go, so that any accumulated dust/bird poop on the roof and the initial pollutants ...
3
Safety is really difficult and/or expensive to attest as J. Musser has pointed out. Your storage containers and gutter material will determine the nature of what is in your water (Roof quality does seem to be a big deal from looking it up online).
At a minimum, you could use pH as a measure to see what your rain water composition is. If you are very close ...
3
I have a very healthy Aloe Vera as well as giant Lucky Bamboo (potted in soil), I use regular tap water for them and they are growing well. (You can use normal drinking water if you want!)
Both of these plants are strong enough, hence you may not worry about them.
Some key points for these plants are:
Aloe Vera:
Water it low to moderately.
Keep it in ...
3
My goodness...based on the two pictures, pruning would definitely help the air-flow. Make sure you clean your pruners with alcohol between each plant pruned. FYI, it takes ONE fungal spore to infect a plant. The spores are in the soil and watering will splash the spore onto leaves. Once the plant has been infected there is not much one can do to stop the ...
3
If you're collecting rainwater via guttering round the roof of your house, ensure the gutters are kept clear of debris and clean - water from dirty or clogged guttering kept stored for even a relatively short period may cause disease in any plants you use it for later on.
You've said you want to use it for plants, but I would not recommend you use it as ...
3
During the hot summers, I put water tanks under the end of the AC water runoff pipes of the building. Most of the water is otherwise wasted, and I save lots of water when I irrigate.
Recently, I've been (in the last two years) into tropical plants, a dramatic shift from strictly succulents and fruit garden. I still tend my succulents and fruit trees, and ...
2
Glyphosate must penetrate the leaf surface to provide effective weed
control. While absorption occurs relatively quickly, rain after an
application can wash glyphosate off before it has a chance to enter
the leaf. The rain-free period required to prevent reduced activity is
influenced by the susceptibility of the target weed and the glyphosate
rate. Small ...
2
I wonder if this "Flexible Tie" would work for you. It's really useful! Very bendable, and has a really soft rubber coating that doesn't cut into plant stems. It's almost like a stronger, longer version of a twist tie, and you can re- bend it quite a bit without the inner wire breaking. You could use something a little more rigid for low stakes, and then ...
2
It's not the rain as such, it's the high humidity when it rains that triggers flowering. As said previously, they need periods of drought and they are bulbs, which means they may repeat flower, but can't be in flower all the time, or whenever you wish them to be, if that is frequently. If you could find a way of raising the humidity of the air around them, ...
2
As far as plants go, forever. For ingestion by humans two years is tops as long as 1/4 cup of bleach has been added to that amount 3X3X3 feet? The chlorine evaporates rapidly when the tank is opened to the air or water is drawn off and allowed to sit before drinking. Plants do not worry about disease and digestive disorders. If the water collected isn't ...
2
There are a few reasons that mulch will move:
If it's small enough, wind can blow it.
In an area with movement (e.g. people walking, bikes, hand-carts, golf-carts) then that traffic can push the mulch.
Water, whether from rain or a flood from next door or sprinklers, can push the chips. If there's enough water an even worse problem is that the water will ...
2
I wouldn't recommend the habit of giving any plant "just a bit of water" if that means "less than it really needs". Over time it can lead to poor development of the plant, like a shallow root system to catch most of the "bits of water" in the short term at the expense of getting a proper supply of water and nutrients from deeper in the soil in the long term.
...
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