Tiny flowers on the mouse melons
A melon for mice, indeed
About a week or so ago I noticed that a couple of the ground cherry plants that had been struggling had given up. When I looked closely, I saw signs of a spider mite infestation – not serious, but definitely there. I pulled up the plants and composted them.
Over the weekend it was clear that the infestation was spreading – several plants were showing the golden spots on their leaves that are an early indication, although there weren’t many signs of their dense webs. And so yesterday I got out my eco-friendly bug spray (it’s based on fatty acids and suffocates pests, AFAIK) and gave everything in the Grow Dome a good spray. Then I fed and watered everything to keep all of the plants healthy and to raise the humidity (which spider mites don’t like).
This morning I have watered again. In a few more days I might spray again.
More positive news is that the spindly mouse melon plants (also known as Mexican gherkins) are flowering and setting fruit. They really are tiny – the fruit in the photograph is at most 0.5 cm long!
*This is the closest thing I’ve got to a cucumber at the moment, Patrick!
Patrick wrote:
...on Mon, Aug 4 '08 (1283 days ago)