Thrips Invasion! Quarantine!

 I am SUCH a slow learner. It has taken me over a year to internalize the well-publicized fact that thrips come into your house ON NEW PLANTS!!! Youŕe supposed to quarantine any new plants for some time (?) for this very reason. Not me. I just invite the thrips in to feast on all my other plants. Puuueeee.

So I´ve been fighting them off of the Crown of Thorns ever since it came in to the house. Sigh. So, first lesson: quarantine all new plants. Browsing Google suggests that quarantine should last anywhere from two to six weeks. Put them in a separate, plant free location. Yeah, if I lived in a mansion instead of a one-bedroom apartment with only two windows. The best I can do is to put them on my dining room table, which is in shade instead of full sun, and hope they can survive for the quarantine.

Then I have to decide IF the new plant is infested. I watched UCCE's Floriculture & Nursery Advisor, Jim Bethke,  on YouTube describe how to do it. Basically, you put a leaf or flower from the plant into la jar of ethenol alcohol, shake it up, pour the alcohol through a porous cloth, and viola, all creatures will show up. I have a new plant arriving in a few days, so I can try this.

Meanwhile, I have thrips on the Crown of Thorns which is 12 inches away from its neighbor. Time to move this guy to the dining room table which is four feet from the nearest plant. There are now three plants in quarantine. 

One is another new plant, the Mandevila Vine. I´m not sure what is going on with her except that every day more leaves turned brown and fell off so I just kept spraying her with Natria Insecticidal Soap. She has some new growth and plenty of leaves so I think Iĺl test her for thrips tomorrow with Mr. Bethkeś method. 

The other new plant, the Garden Flox, went into isolation from day one because she looked sick right out of the box. However, since she dies down in winter, maybe she´s really looking normal.

Oops, four plants! My newest plant, Fishbone Prayer Plant, looked perfectly healthy when she came, but nevertheless I moved her this morning to quarantine. Letś see if sheś still healthy in a couple weeks.

Meanwhile, I have to treat the Crown of Thorns. As I previously wrote, Natria Insecticidal Soap has been my go-to method for treating any pest. However, recently I´ve read information that says I should wash off the plant and/or cleank the leaves withi alcohol. So this morning I washed Crown of Thorns in alcohol before I put her into quarantine. Maybe tomorrow I´ll wash her in the shower and spray her with Natria.

Preparing for Winter

Summer´s over, and my Glory Lily withered and died practically overnight. Thus, it´s time to cut her back to soil height and stop watering.

So Itś time to prepare for winter. Glory wants two months in the dark at 50 degrees F. This will be a trick because in New York in winter one generally dresses for the beach when indoors. That is, heat rises; so even with the heat turned off, itś always 75 degrees in my 10th floor apartment. Where can I find a 50 degree location?

I tried asking Quora, but the answer was ¨nowhere.¨ I started thinking about refrigerators. How ridiculous is it to spend $100 to winterize a $20 plant?  Well, originally I thought I needed to winterize three plants so I actually considered it, and placed this post on Facebook:

My friend Doug won the contest with an answer of 1.6 cubit feet, but I think it was a flop and reveals the flaw in the math teacherś explanation of why we should study math because these is no way those three plants will fit in here.

 

I thought about using the stairwell, the basement, a friendś garage, my car, and even considered sending the plant to my sister in California. However, this morning I purchased an AstroAl 9 Liter mini fridge for $48.99 because of it´s removable shelf and internal dimensions of 9.96” x 8.26” x 6.22.¨ I think Glory will fit, just barely.

The AstroAl will cool up to 32 degrees below ambient temperature; so we should be able to maintain 50 with no trouble. Now all I need to do is decide when to go dark!

Received a Fishbone Plant

 

Todayś mail brought a Fishbone Plant ordered from wishlistplant on Etsy. It was beautifully and safely packaged in a three inch pot and included a full page of descriptive information and instructions. Suppliers dont usually provide this, so it was greatly appreciated.

Wishlistplant cautioned me not to repot this baby for two full weeks--which is another piece of advice usually not provided by suppliers. Travelling is shocking to plants. Imagine that you´ve lived happily in a greenhouse for your entire life, and then suddenly you´re grabbed up, shoved into a tiny, dark and airless box (helllllpppppppp!!!), and bounced around in trucks and airplanes for days or even weeks. When you finally see daylight again, you would definitely need some time to settle down, recharge, re-acclimate, find your zen.

I added the Fishbone Plant into Planta, my mobile app, putting her in the bedroom on the plant stand, about four feet from the window. Wishlistplant advised that she prefers bright, indirect light but will survive in low light. I bought her for her low light survival abilities but won´t move her to low light until sheś well established.