Starting the Year with Clean-ups
2021 has ended, and how I wanted to just sleep the whole day and do nothing....
But I know I have been procrastinating to look into my terrarium box that has been neglected due to long hours of work and at the same time I was taking care of my mom and settling house chores first.
I know that the salad garden is becoming too disarray and it really time to have a proper trim
Moreover there could be some mealybugs sipping in looking at the salad looks "very healthy"
And my worry became my nightmare!
True enough when I started harvesting, I already spotted some "cottons" around that is usually the signs of mealybug nests...
And it is even more horror when I see most of the healthy big leaves were already laced with mealybug eggs all over!
I thought the worse was over when I had a thorough clean up before.... unfortunately they returned with vengeance!
And the more I checked, the more horror I see! You can actually see mealy bugs staring to hatch from the cotton nests, and they actually move, jut very slowly... and when I was moving the salad stems around, they just stopped and "play dead"
YES... Insects are smart too!
I had no choice but to start with Collateral Damage
Starting with throwing away those stems were all laced with either baby bugs / eggs... It was so heart breaking because those plants looked healthy but they were all entirely infected. Moreover I had to immediately spray with water based aerosol to kill the bugs before the adults jumps out.
Yes.... they can jump!
Imagine that they suddenly jump onto your body , or your hair!
Further more horrifying is that when I started spotting the bugs have infested the soil.... all the small dots are the eggs as well as seeing some of the baby mealy bugs moving around.
I had to do the unthinkable; just like when we take anti-biotics the medication actually eliminate all the good and bad bacteria, so did it happened when I poured the "infected soil" into boiling hot water, in the process I also accidentally killed a tiny earthworm along the way.
It was really heart breaking, but the soil is actually good soil specially brewed for the terrarium box, and the last time I "killed a soil like a nuclear bomb of a whole pot of boiling hot water", I managed to let the soil rest and revived with the good microbes later on.
So sorry earthworm! Please forgive me!
Thankfully, I didn't have to use that method on the entire box! Or else I would have to let it rest a whole week after every "good inhabitant" were practically genocide, which is literally killing the soil itself too.
However, I did have to clean up every single stalk of salad, double and triple checking which are good to wash, keep and replant; while the bad ones in to the bag and sprayed with poisonous aerosol.
All in all after almost 6 hours of checking and tending and letting the cuts nourished with water (before replanting) a whole new bed of salad is ready!
Hopefully they will be given a chance to grow, and I will need to look for a proper new box to transplant them over later / get the same size and just use the cover because the cover was broken and it was exposed to attack a lot more.
All was not lost though...
At least I got a really good box of fresh greens that are still edible for either cooking or salad...
And me and my family had a yummy treat with fresh harvested greens as part of a home made soupy prawn-based soup with Sarawak instant noodles (which is very very different from usual ramen)
Still a good day's work! I must say!
How about you?
Was your first day of the year a sublime restful day? I do hope that it wasn't as hectic as mine, getting my hands dirty, literally!
Until then
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Thank you so much for noticing my post!
Oh no that sounds bad. I'm glad you took care of it though, awesome start to the New Year! Also, a great way to consume healthy, and super fresh greens! Have a great week ahead!
Yeah it was horrifying knowing the fact that it was greatly compromised because of the damaged cover. I need to get a new box soon and transplant it over. I hope @pwdfarmability will not be too upset because the box was indeed deteriorating
You got a nice terrarium there 👍👍
I always wanted to have one. But I'm afraid I would not be able to take care of it 😅😅
Actually, terrariums are actually the easy kickstart for garden newbies.
If you are in Klang Valley, look for @pwdfarmability 's website (pwd smart farmabilty) and register for a box for RM150. Not only you will get a fully grown crops, your contribution is actually supporting OKU farmers / underprivileged households who are learning to be self sustain through food security and change of a better diet.
Good „ your agriculture.
Thanks. I do what I can.
Well bummer, did you have to get rid of all the mature plants or just the infested parts? I wish you better luck on the next go, sounds like you need to find whatever local creature likes to eat mealy bugs.
Yeah I had to get rid of all the mature plants, look for non infested branches, snip them out and soak them in water to wash out whatever potential eggs there is as much as I can.
Ladybugs actually is mealy bug's nemesis. I saw it came to my floor once (it is too high) and pretty soon it left. I hope it will come visit again, even though it is so high up the floor.
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