Tiny red ‘spiders’ on house plants and greenhouse crops are actually sap-sucking mites called red spider mites. There are many types of spider mite, but in the UK the red spider mite (Tetranychus urticae) is the species most likely to be found on indoor and greenhouse-grown plants. Red spider mites are around 0.5mm long and are also known as the two-spotted mite. They are usually considered a pest as they suck sap from plants, reducing their vigour. If left unchecked, red spider mites can multiply quickly and wreak havoc in a greenhouse or on house plants indoors.
For most of the year, red spider mites are a pale green colour with two dark spots on their back, but in autumn and winter they turn orange-red and may be spotted in cracks in windowsills and in our homes, as they look for places to hibernate. Red spider mites thrive in hot, dry conditions so life in the greenhouse or a centrally-heated home suits them perfectly. If the temperature stays above 12ºC, red spider mites can breed all year round.
Red spider mite symptoms
Red spider mites are easy to spot on green house plants and house plants. The easiest way to identify them is to look for fine, cobweb-like webbing on the leaves and stems of plants, while mottling is visible on the upper surface of leaves. Using a magnifying glass, look for small mites and eggs on the undersides of leaves. Affected plants will lack vigour and may eventually die.
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Spider mites are typically found on house plants and greenhouse plants, including greenhouse tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines and peppers, along with perennial crops like grapevines, peach and nectarine trees. Vulnerable house plants include poinsettias and
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Oxalis triangularis, also known as false shamrock, is an eye-catching bulbous perennial that makes an excellent and long-lived house plant. Bold, dramatic foliage in shades of dark purple to wine-red creates a striking contrast to blush-white flowers borne in summer. The leaves are three-lobed, hence the name of shamrock which it resembles, though is not actually related to. Oxalis triangularis is native to from Brazil. Its leaves have extra fascination because they open during the day and close at night.
Goji berries (Lycium barbarum) are a popular ‘superfood’ to eat fresh or dried. Native to China, they’re packed with vitamins and antioxidants and have been used in Chinese medicine for over a thousand years. They’re easy to grow at home in the UK and bear fruit after just one or two years. The best thing about growing your own goji berries is that you can eat them straight from the bush – most commercially available goji berries are dried.
Home-grown garlic takes up little space and requires hardly any effort to get a good crop. It’s an easy crop to grow, spouting from a garlic bulb separated into cloves, which you plant individually. Certified, disease-free garlic bulbs are sold at garden centres or online.
Since last autumn, I’ve regularly discovered fresh holes in the lawn as well as scratch marks on a favourite tree. I suspect my garden is being visited by a badger. Is this damage likely to continue – and what should I do? Anna, Co Wicklow
Common juniper (Juniperus communis) is one of only three conifers native to the UK. It’s a member of the cypress family and grows on chalk or limestone in lowland areas, and moors, woodland and cliffs in northern Britain. Juniper is in decline in wild populations and has been designated a UK Biodiversity Action Plan priority species. This special tree has disappeared from several areas in the south of England. Many remaining colonies are so small that they’re considered functionally extinct. Scotland is now the stronghold for 80 per cent of the UK’s juniper trees.
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These are some of the most vivid options that not only give you a palette of hues that flourish in Florida’s warm atmosphere, but also some fragrant choices!
They say that you can tell a surprising amount about a gardener by the kind of potatoes they grow. Some of us, for example, are traditionalists who’ll plump for the floury, fluffy ‘British Queen’ (colloquially known as ‘Queens’) every time. Others are passionate foodies who prefer the firm, waxy, flavoursome, yellow flesh of a salad potato such as ‘Charlotte’, or the heirloom ‘La Ratte’. Individualists, meanwhile, often like to seek out unusual kinds, such as the dark magenta-fleshed ‘Vitanoire’, or the knobbly ‘Pink Fir Apple’, the heritage variety famed for its more-ishness.