It's that time again! A new season of gardening has begun. Here's the first fly-over video from my drone.
On Thursday, April 26, I started a new attack on the evil, iris borer. In the past this would have been a application of Bayer Rose and Flower 2 in 1. It contains fertilizer, but more importantly Merit, one of the few chemicals that are effective against this very specialized pest. Actually it used to have Merit. This year Bayer has replaced it with a new insecticide. I had some left over so I played it down earlier however I am not sure of the effectiveness of the new compound.
When I was in New Orleans I was told there is a way to attack the borer without chemicals: NEMATODES. These are microscope creatures apparently. I order 50 million of them from BioLogic on Amazon. They were deliver in a resealable pouch about 5" x 7". They came with an icepack and went into the refrigerator immediately.
One teaspoon in a gallon of water and I used my Ryobi garden sprayer to apply them. I went through 6 gallons and still have about 25 million left. That's based on observation, not counting.
The instructions say if "the problem" is serious you can double the dosage... so tomorrow I'll give the little guys who have settled in some new friends.