I REFER to one of our two standard fuchsias, now at least 20 years old. They had been in the unheated greenhouse right through that period of low temperatures, until two weeks ago. The entire above-ground part of each plant was dead, so I cut it off near soil level.
Since mid January, the pair of them have been standing on the draining board in the utility room getting a little warmth and as much light as possible.
The stumps and surrounding twigs have been sprayed over with tepid water every day and, “eureka”, the little sprouts of recovery are beginning to appear. Some of them will be used as cuttings quite soon, so the cycle starts all over again.
Be warned. There will be a lot of that same thing happening in the open garden this spring, and the message is: don’t give up hope and, more importantly, don’t take precipitate action.
This is another trite, well-used phrase, but in this instance, it means something quite different.
These clever biological-control people at Becker Underwood, who produce the Nemasys pest-control range, have a new product to launch this season. It is not quite a catch-all, but it is a huge step forward.
Let me explain. Nemasys Grow Your Own has been specially formulated to control some of our most common fruit and vegetable pests, as follows – carrot fly, cabbage root fly, onion fly, leatherjackets, cutworms, ants, sciarid fly, caterpillars, gooseberry sawfly, thrips and codlin moth. This maybe sounds too good to be true.
The new product will be easy to use because you don’t have to worry about specific application times – just follow the suggested programme.
Furthermore, it looks to me as if the treatment will be cheaper than the other more specific Nemasys control materials.
Let me remind you again how this biological-control system works.
The “basic ingredient” consists of huge numbers of naturally occurring eelworms. These microscopic nematodes are present in most soils all the time, feeding on other insects, but at such low levels they almost go unnoticed.
Apply them in huge numbers to a specific area and they will need a lot more food.
One of the early introductions, for example, was the Nemasys Vine Weevil control, containing a specific nematode known to target Vine Weevil larvae.
As you know, there are a number of others, the most notable, perhaps, being Nemaslug.
What Becker Underwood has done is to select a number of species of these eelworms that feed on specific, but common, insect pests and blend them together in one product.
Nemasys Grow Your Own is a special mix of different nematode species selected to target that broad range of pests which I have already listed.
For soil pests, you apply the material as a drench in the area they will be operating in – along carrot rows, for example.
For pests on the plants, such as caterpillars, you spray the solution directly on to the pest.
Ants are the exception: they will not tolerate the nematodes being near their nests, so they move the nests away.
To treat an area of 60sq m will cost about a fiver.
For some problems, the recommendation may be to treat every two weeks over the key period.
Where the problems are more widespread, it may still be necessary to go for the single Nemasys product specifically designed for it, such as Nemasys No Ants or Nemasys Caterpillar Killer.
All in all, this is a good-news story for the amateur gardener.
If you want more information on these products, visit www.nemasysinfo.co.uk. The Freephone order line number is 0800 085 3105.
Last week, I promised to return to the subject of new varieties on offer this season, and my attention was drawn to a less well known, but easy-to-grow, dessert fruit often used to garnish dishes. Of course, I mean Physalis.
It comes from quite a big family, but the one in question, which we know as the Cape Gooseberry, is developed from Physalis peruviana.
That name should give you the clue that this plant is not hardy, but treated like a half-hardy annual, it could probably be grown outside from June onwards on a sheltered south-facing patio.
I will grow it in the cool greenhouse. It does belong to the same family as the tomato, so that should give you some indication of the growing conditions it prefers.
What caught my eye about this new one was the colour of the outer skin which hides and protects the fruit, and which is actually the calyx.
The variety, from seedsman D.T. Brown, is called Little Lanterns.