Hi Stan
I have a sunroom full of geraniums, ivy and regular and some 10 year old fuchsia plants. The geranium cuttings are taken during the summer to shape the plants. The cuttings are just stuck back in the ground and in the fall potted in 4 or 6 inch pots, beautiful rooted. I now have 40 young plants ready to be bedded out in spring. The fuchsias are prone to get white fly and one year I got fed up and threw them outside in -2C temperatures. Figuring to get rid of them I put them back in my garage and promptly forgot about them until to my amazement I discovered small green buds appearing.
I moved them back to the sunroom and the next summer they bloomed profusely. Now I do the same every year. Freeze, defoliate [ to make sure there are no flies or eggs left] and shape them. At the moment they are setting buds which I remove to save the plants. The mean temperature in the room is 10C but I will increase that soon to speed up development.
This will also bring back the danger of white-fly since they seem to hibernate in the soil. Will the pellets from Dr. Doom do the trick and are they safe to use inside? I can isolate the room so there will be no fumes in the rest of the house. I enjoy your Sunday program as often as I can and appreciate your help.
Sincerely
Chris
Chris - thanks for your info, and the rather uncommon method of vernalizing your fuchsia. I am sure these methods will be of interest to the general visitors to our site. One fact you may need to know: white fly eggs since the late 70's are quite able to over-winter in greenhouses that are unheated, and outside in the weed or mulch covering the soil in close proximity to any structure.
Duty 1, in preparation for spring, is to make sure all of the equipment is clean, including tools, flats, interior structures and the seeding or potting mix. Doktor Doom has the only product available to the domestic grower, that fumigates for the very damaging and crop loss pests houses in a structure that can be isolated.
Doktor Doom has the hand held spray necessary to kill damaging pests on outdoor plants and house plants as well.
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