The Winter Rains Came Late and Pests are Having a Field Day!

in #homesteading6 years ago (edited)

Winter in South Australia is normally our wet season, but this year has been the driest I've ever known. Plants have been surviving without extra watering, because it's been cold enough. However, we haven't had much in the way of growth like we normally do. We are now in our last month of winter.

This last week we finally started getting some decent downpours. On Monday we even had a bit of hail! Everything's putting on fresh growth.

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The apricot tree is flowering already, so I guess I'll be moving the chickens out of that run sooner than expected. Another reason to move them is that it looks like we have rats again. They must be hungry because they're trying to chew through the lid on the food storage bin and nearly succeeding!

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I guess since the people over the fence moved out and aren't feeding their dog outside any more, they need to find another food supply. I don't want it being my apricots this year again, so I'll have to move the chickens and put bait down.

I threw a load of old seeds down in the other run hoping that the chickens would have a lush growth to go to, but the lack of rains has meant that growth has been slow and they are still little more than seedlings. I don't think they'll last more than an hour once the flock gets to them though, which is disappointing.

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I've taken out some of the seedlings for our own use and left the rest to the chooks.

Broccoli or cauliflower on the left, coriander/cilantro on the right.

On the up side, the other flock’s second run is full of growth. I've removed some of the coriander/cilantro seedlings and as soon as I'm sure they've taken we should be able to fence off the orange tree (so if doesn't get its leaves stripped by the chooks) and let the flock in.

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The Orange tree has had a bad case of scale and I've trimmed off a lot of the worst affected twigs, but I want to go over it and see if there's much left. It will probably need a bit of a trim still, to keep it manageable, and I want to weed wherever will end up inside the fencing. Could do with a loan of some extra time!
You might be able to see the scale insects in the centre of the photo and on the leaf on the bottom right. The black on the leaves is a sticky substance from the big infestation which the ants have been farming.

A friend gave me some lettuce seeds and they were coming up nicely. I was going to spread them out a bit, but they started disappearing without a trace. When I was down to three I put a cage around them thinking it was the birds, but it turned out to be a nest of baby millipedes which were under a nearby brick. I now have one lonely seedling left.

If you keep on top of things, pests aren't usually too much of a problem, but I've been prioritising other things lately and haven't kept on top of things!

~○♤○~


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Ohhhhhh that’s happened to my kefir lime tree and I had no idea what it was!!! Ants are swarming those leaves!!!!! I didn’t know how to work out what was happening!!
And yes, I have been sad at the lack of growth of my winter veggies this year 😢

Once the ants discover them and start farming there's no hope of aphid predators dealing with them, because they'll see them off! So frustrating.
Let's hope the rains continue into spring a bit to give the summer veggies a good start.

Yes!
And I didn’t know how to deal with the lime leaves so started pulling off the affected ones and throwing them out... do you think the unaffected leaves are still okay to use in curries or is the whole tree doomed? 😬

The unaffected ones will be fine. The scale will easily rub off even the affected ones, so you can save those leaves to try and avoid stripping the tree. Citrus needs its branches protected from the sun, as the bark burns easily, so I try to make sure I leave enough leaf cover to shade them. I can hardly talk, though, because all my citrus on the front are bare! Bad soil I think. :(

Ahh good! I was going to bring some last meetup because I have plenty to spare but I was worried they were unfit for eating! I’ve still been cooking with them but just nervous to give out!

Looks like climate change is really may be real as wood afterall. Good news is Chickens looking really healthy.

Ah, climate change. The ever bickered about topic on Facebook! Lol!
Yes, chickens are all nicely re-feathered after their moults and looking their best.

Your garden is amazing! Aphids won't leave my chamomile alone >:(. My strawberry plants have started to flower, and I have some broccoli saplings popping up! It's a very small garden at the moment but its very exciting. I wish I had a big enough yard to spend an hour a day out gardening - its so peaceful.

Some rain is certainly overdue, especially for our farmers. It seems as each year progresses, I can't remember a summer as hot as the current one nor a winter as dry. Climate change? Or poor memory?

Aphids won't leave my chamomile alone

That would be a tough one to clear them from too! Such fine leaves. I struggle to even grow chamomile to get that problem. XD

Your garden is amazing!

Thank you. It doesn't feel like it that much at the moment, but I guess if everything wants to eat it, then it can't be so bad! XD

My lime tree got aphids so bad that i treated it with pyrethrum, then it dropped all its leaves! Only 4 leaves on it now... darn pests! Good luck managing yours. Enjoyed your post :)

Errk! I was thinking warm soapy water and an old toothbrush to scrub them and the black stuff off. I'll try to remember to avoid pyrethrum!
All my citrus saplings on the front have lost their leaves. I think that has more to do with the shoddy soil though. I certainly hope the orange doesn't go the same way.

I've decided. Produce out the back, natives to attract butterflies out the front.
Now I just need to actually do it. (not my strong suit).
We have wheat farming family over on Eyre Peninsula and they really needed that rain we just had.
A little bit more and they'll be set.
How's @svitlaangel doing in the UK? All okay?

Sounds like a good plan. Our front is so barren and exposed that only natives and hardy Mediterranean plants seem to core with it. I can't believe how dry this winter has been. It's really hitting the farmers hard.

Angel's doing good; well looked after. Did you see her post? She finally got some time to share a bit. Had a bit of a problem with the airline who canceled her return flight and refunded barely even half enough to get her a flight back. She might have to work a bit to earn some more pennies. She wants to stay for Christmas now, so flights after then will increase in price.

I hadn't, just had a look. If she's planning to stay longer that's gotta be a good sign.
Aussies are pretty popular over there from what I understand.

It's the accent. So much cuter than the American one!

I think Evelyn watches too much youtube; she has a little American twang. It's pretty cute though.

Lol! I think my daughters are guilty of the same! I can't think how many times I've corrected pronunciations back to Aussie English. Even Shaun started pronouncing compost the American way. When do we decide we need to surrender?

Think all of our seasons have been shifting a bit later into the year. We had a couple of years where it was still cold in December, and then we didn't end up going to the beach much and I felt rather ripped off XD Same deal with the rains, though lately it feels like we're getting a LOT (just from the sound of it) but I haven't actually looked at the dam charts to see if it's more or less than or about average.

Good that at least one of the flocks have some nice greens to get into in their other run. Do yours free range or there's just two separate flocks with their separate runs? Good luck getting rid of the pests!

We have four runs and two coops, so each coop opens out to a choice of two runs which we alternate with growing veg. Most of the garden is given over to growing food, so we can't really free range them unless we want to lose all the plants!

I've given up trying to predict seasons any more; they're all over the place. I think I need to get the spring seeds in now.

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