The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

15 Basic Ways To Landscape Your Homepage

Other plant foods are prepared especially for bulbs, camellias, roses, sweet peas, pansies and similar plants. Many fertilizers are also manufactured in deodorized liquid form containing ingredients similar to the powdered form.

Sprays

PLANT PESTS and garden diseases still remain a problem to be overcome in home landscape programs. Fortunately constant research by chemists and manufacturers has greatly simplified the task of pest control or elimination.

Clean gardening and watchfulness are important steps in controlling disease and peats. Remnants of old crops and weeds should always be burned to remove breeding places for insects.

Carefully checking and examining all plants puts the gardener in a position to prevent serious onslaughts. Hand picking and destroying large insects is another effective means of control.

You should be able to identify some of the pests that must be combatted plus having a basic knowledge of the spray chemicals used and what they are designed to accomplish when used according to directions.

Pests are controlled by use of insecticides, and diseases by use of fungicides. Insects are considered cither sucking or chewing. Sucking types include aphids, red spider, Scale, mealy bug, white fly and chrip. These cause yellowing of the leaves and crippling of plant.

Generally, sucking insects are controlled with contact insecticides. These are oil sprays containing nicotine, pyrcthrum or rotenone, chemicals which cover the insects' pores and smother them.

Chewing or biting insects include beetles, caterpillars, grasshoppers and various worms. They are controlled with stomach poisons which remain on the plant after it is sprayed. Lead arsenate or rotenone are effective for this purpose.

Fungus diseases are caused by minute parasitic plant organisms which include various rusts, mildew, leaf curl, blisters and mold. Controls include agricultural sulphur, or a bordeaux mixture with a base of copper sulphate and lime.

Control materials are available in either spray or dust forms. Sprays are applied with piston-type sprayers or with a convenient bottle-type spray gun attached to a garden hose. A small amount of insecticide automatically mixes in proper proportion with air or water coming through the nozzle.