Finally, killing my plants with kindess - over-fertilisation. :(
I've been battling against all odds & fighting plant diseases after the use of the organic worm tea. I shouldn't have experimented the organic worm tea on my plants... *SIGH*
The situation was further exarcerbated by the over-fertilisation quite some time back - I should have simply lay off all forms of fertilisation & flush out the excess using plenty of water (also known as "leaching").
The situation was further exarcerbated by the over-fertilisation quite some time back - I should have simply lay off all forms of fertilisation & flush out the excess using plenty of water (also known as "leaching").
It was a challenging feat & apart from fighting against the yellowing of the leaves & fungus in the form of yellow-spots all over the green leaves, we were shocked to see that white centipedes had invaded the soil!
After googling up some information of the white "centipede", I would like to take this opportunity to share in this forum that those were not beneficial centipedes or garden centipedes that feast on organic matter.
They were infact pests that are out to harm the plants & are known as Symphylans. I read through extensive reports on this pest & methods for eradicating this creature but apparently, there aren't any cures for it where chemicals are concerned.
They take over the tunnels created by earth worms & occupy them. And their behavioural patterns are such that they do not come up to the surface & would only barrow in soil that are hard in structure. As such, the only recourse is to partially reduce its population by digging into the soil & destroying their tunnels below the soil.
The terminology used by gardeners for an attempt to exterminate them is known as tillage. Meaning that we had to till the soil in loosening up the soil. Once the soil is sandy & easily permeable with water, these symphylans would just die off.
However, even with the most effective method being tilling the soil, this wouldn't cure the problem completely as it would only assist in reducing the population of these pests in the soil.
One of the rules for preventing symphylans is to have good cultivation habits, which includes not over using organic matters in fertilising. Reason being that when the organic matters rot, they introduce bad bacteria which inturn invites such undesirable pests such as Symphylans to your plants.
These pests would chew & eat up all the roots & the poor ginger plants would start to weaken & be unable to absorb any nutrients from the soil.
And in severe cases, the plants would die off due to the lacking in nutrients when it's roots are being eaten up by these pests!
After googling up some information of the white "centipede", I would like to take this opportunity to share in this forum that those were not beneficial centipedes or garden centipedes that feast on organic matter.
They were infact pests that are out to harm the plants & are known as Symphylans. I read through extensive reports on this pest & methods for eradicating this creature but apparently, there aren't any cures for it where chemicals are concerned.
They take over the tunnels created by earth worms & occupy them. And their behavioural patterns are such that they do not come up to the surface & would only barrow in soil that are hard in structure. As such, the only recourse is to partially reduce its population by digging into the soil & destroying their tunnels below the soil.
The terminology used by gardeners for an attempt to exterminate them is known as tillage. Meaning that we had to till the soil in loosening up the soil. Once the soil is sandy & easily permeable with water, these symphylans would just die off.
However, even with the most effective method being tilling the soil, this wouldn't cure the problem completely as it would only assist in reducing the population of these pests in the soil.
One of the rules for preventing symphylans is to have good cultivation habits, which includes not over using organic matters in fertilising. Reason being that when the organic matters rot, they introduce bad bacteria which inturn invites such undesirable pests such as Symphylans to your plants.
These pests would chew & eat up all the roots & the poor ginger plants would start to weaken & be unable to absorb any nutrients from the soil.
And in severe cases, the plants would die off due to the lacking in nutrients when it's roots are being eaten up by these pests!
These are some photographs of the hateful Symphylans.
Don't they look like white centipedes with many legs & a pair of fillers on top of their heads?
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these photographs of the symphylans which are posted as above. Kindly give the credits of these photographs to the its owners. Thank you.
Don't they look like white centipedes with many legs & a pair of fillers on top of their heads?
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these photographs of the symphylans which are posted as above. Kindly give the credits of these photographs to the its owners. Thank you.
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