Hopefully you'll have been keeping an eye on your plants over winter, but not too late to remove all those old yellowing leaves, which, if left, can encourage the formation of grey mould that can damage or even kill affected plants. Particularly a worry when so much moisture in the air.
Plants will look so much happier after a good tidy.
The last couple of years have been challenging for all auricula growers and you may be disheartened by winter losses, but just think toward that array of colour to com over the next few months.
We have had to adapt our growing regime over the last couple of years due to changing climatic conditions. Very harsh cold winters have resulted in unexpected losses and so we keep bringing forward our autumn repotting regime which previously has been done successfully through September and October. Now we will start as soon the days get cooler in August. We have also been hit by high temperatures in Spring which have caused newly potted plants to suffer. So an ever reducing window. To that end we will commence potting well rooted offsets in the next week or so. As a general rule avoid repotting if either very cold or very hot weather is anticipated in the couple of weeks after potting.
Now that there are very few chemicals available to combat insect and vine weevil attack we have to pay particular attention to plant hygiene and preventative biological controls:
Regular repotting every year with removal of all old compost.
We spray regularly with SB plant invigorator which helps control whitefly and spider mite through a physical action.
Biological control- We use the beneficial predator Amblyseius Andersonii prophylactically from Spring to combat red spider mite.
