The Story Of My "tree" Musketeers

[edenstrauss 3]

[photographs of chinese new year plants]

[edenstrauss 3]

[photographs of cny plants & flowers]

[edenstrauss 3]

Towards this early evening, I was surprised to see a yellow bug which clung onto one of my red "corns".

I took it off carefully & was told by my hubby that it was a lady bug which was said to be beneficial to all plants. Lady bugs were beneficial insects who helped in getting rid of pests such as aphids. By eating them of course.

However, out of ignorance, I brought the lady bug down to the ground floor & left it onto a flowering shrub as I didn't believe that it was a lady bug since it was yellow & not red with black pokka dots as typically depicted in cartoons or photographs.

I almost kicked myself when the search engines on the internet has confirmed that it was indeed a precious yellow lady bug! I've just sent off a good insect that would benefit my plants!

Ain't I stupid?

Right now, I could only be hopeful that my plants would be a future resting place for more lady bugs in the near future.

And the worse part was, I didn't even take a photograph of the yellow lady bug.

This was how my yellow lady bug looked like...

I think I must be crazy to chase away such a precious insect whose doing good to my ginger plants. *sob* Let's just hope that other lady bugs would find their way to my plants.

Edited February 11, 2012 by edenstrauss

[edenstrauss 3]

Even after I stopped watering the plants with worm tea, I did notice that the plants were blooming again with just watering them with tap water.

I had a sneaky suspicion that becox the N-component (Nitrogen) has been higher in percentage than the P-content (Phosporous, which is essential to promote flowering), the plants were growing vigorously with green leaves & new baby shoots at the expense of blooming.

After I stopped watering the plants with worm tea for the time being, my "Ginger" plants had been blooming consecutively for days when they had been exposted to an abundance of strong morning sun.

The following photographs were taken on 7th February 2012:

Edited February 12, 2012 by edenstrauss

[edenstrauss 3]

Contd:

7th February 2012 (Photographs)

[edenstrauss 3]

Check out this stem-bound new plant that grew out from the "neck" of an old matured red "corn" in this photograph.

A white pouch-like sac found concealed within the dried "scales" of the matured red "corn", resembling money bags.

[edenstrauss 3]

Photographs of my "Ginger" plants that were taken on 9th February 2012:

[edenstrauss 3]

Photographs that were taken on 10th February 2012:

[edenstrauss 3]

Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!

I've mentioned in my preceding posts in this thread that I had chased away a yellow spotless ladybird, not realising that it was supposed to be good for my plants as ladybirds were said to eat up pests such as aphids & mealy bugs.

After leaving our guests on a flowering shrub that was 2 blocks away from our flat during weekends, we were surprised by the presence of yet another yellow spotless ladybird.

I had no idea if it was the same chap that we removed over weekends but anyway, I have decided to leave it untouched & let this ladybird be our guest since we've plenty of room here with our "Ginger" plants.

I had also taken the valuable opportunity to take a few photographs of our guest... becox it looked so loveable & cute! Don't you agree?

[edenstrauss 3]

Isn't this spotless yellow ladybird cute-looking? It looks "kawaii"...

And here's another "kawaii" shot of our guest. The yellow wings looked so polished & glossy.

Doesn't the ladybird remind us of a yellow Volkswagen Beetle?

Isn't it just adorable? hahahaha

However, I did wonder if such a breed of ladybird is supposed to be beneficial to plants or are they leaf eaters as some of the breeds are?

Anyways, I will have to be on a look out to see if my plants had been attacked.

But meanwhile, please enjoy photographs of these cuuuuuuuuuuute ladybird

Edited February 15, 2012 by edenstrauss

[edenstrauss 3]

After consulting the owner for the following website (Everything on Ladybug), he had kindly advised me that this particular breed of ladybird is known as illeis koebelei.

http://www.everything-ladybug.com/ladybug-pest-control.html

This breed of spotless yellow ladybird is a plant-friendly insect that thrives on cleaning up mildew & fungus attacking plants.

As such, we were more than happy to have it become a permanent resident of our plants. However, we don't see it nowadays. We are hoping to see it coming back to our plants & welcomes it making our plants its home & where possible, breeding there.

I recalled seeing this strange looking chap crawling around my plants a month ago... it moved really fast & I had made several attempts to catch hold of it but was unsuccessful. Now I realised that it might be the larvae or baby of the spotless yellow ladybird.

Disclaimer: I do not own the photograph of the larvae for the illeis koebelei uploaded as above. Kindly give the photo credits to the owner of the following website: http://gaga.biodiv.tw/new23/s7-26.htm . Thank you.

[edenstrauss 3]

While I was watering my plants recently, I came across another 3 ladybirds loitering around my plants...

By the time I fetched my camera, the other 2 were no longer in sight & the other chap has flown towards another plant in the same pot. However, I have managed to take some photographs of it before it flew off to another location.

[edenstrauss 3]

[edenstrauss 3]

Yet another 2 photographs of a spotless yellow ladybird at our "Ginger" plant... Taken on 26th February 2012...

It was quite a challenge trying to take a snippet of it close-up becox the location it was at was almost out of reach. The spotless yellow ladybird was camera-shy & was crawling towards a hiding place where it could not be easily seen...

Edited February 26, 2012 by edenstrauss

[edenstrauss 3]

Hi folks,

I've been battling against all odds & fighting plant diseases after the use of the organic worm tea. It was a challenging feat & apart from fighting against the yellowing of the leaves & fungus in the form of yellow-spots all over the green leaves, we were shocked to see that white centipedes had invaded the soil!

After googling up some information of the white "centipede", I would like to take this opportunity to share in this forum that those were not beneficial centipedes or garden centipedes that feast on organic matter.

They were infact pests that are out to harm the plants & are known as Symphylans. I read through extensive reports on this pest & methods for eradicating this creature but apparently, there aren't any cures for it where chemicals are concerned.

They take over the tunnels created by earth worms & occupy them. And their behavioural patterns are such that they do not come up to the surface & would only barrow in soil that are hard in structure. As such, the only recourse is to partially reduce its population by digging into the soil & destroying their tunnels below the soil.

The terminology used by gardeners for an attempt to exterminate them is known as tillage. Meaning that we had to till the soil in loosening up the soil. Once the soil is sandy & easily permeable with water, these symphylans would just die off.

However, even with the most effective method being tilling the soil, this wouldn't cure the problem completely as it would only assist in reducing the population of these pests in the soil.

One of the rules for preventing symphylans is to have good cultivation habits, which includes not over using organic matters in fertilising. Reason being that when the organic matters rot, they introduce bad bacteria which inturn invites such undesirable pests such as Symphylans to your plants.

These pests would chew & eat up all the roots & the poor ginger plants would start to weaken & be unable to absorb any nutrients from the soil.

And in severe cases, the plants would die off due to the lacking in nutrients when it's roots are being eaten up by these pests!

For more information on Symphylans, please visit the following link:

http://www.gardenseeker.com/plant_pests_problems/plant-pests/symphylids_symphylans.htm

Edited April 21, 2012 by edenstrauss