>(In a similar vein, when I send plants to people I strongly recommend
>that they quarantine the plant for a while, just to be on the safe side.
I COMPLETELY agree with this point. I slipped on this once with a plant
that looked clean upon initial inspection, and it ended up infecting a good
poortion of my collection with scale...... (ants helped speed the process
up quite a bit) Make no exceptions to this rule and you wil help insure the
health of your whole collection!
>I do this even though I'm sure my plants are okay, and I would never
>knowingly send a sick plant to someone.)
In terms of keeping your plants ok, please elaborate how you keep them that
way. I am always looking for hints on keeping pests away from my plants.
Orthene works fine, but anything else you can suggest?
I want to put the plants outside in the summer so they get the most balanced
light, etc.... BUT then every damn bug known to man decides to take up
residence on the plants. Spider mites in particular. Sow bugs in the peat.
A great irony that these plants which eat bugs are plagued by so many
critters. The other alternative is to keep them under lights which keeps
them bug free and alive, but they lack that
great color.
Take care & keep on growing,
-Tom- Hayes