For Immediate Release:

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Lots of Questions!
Hi
Boy, I am happy to see that not only are you, folks, reading my Blog but also you have questions!
SO HERE WE GO….
Natural Flea Control Question
Can I use essential oils on my cats for flea control?? Unless you have had experience in how to properly use essential oils, I would not recommend you use these. They are very powerful, and cats can be susceptible to the odors. You can buy safe essential oil mix, but they too can be too strong for your pet. If you have to use, I will dilute it by 50% to be sure, and then I would wipe the cat clean, so it does not like it. Best to use essential oils sprayed on the rugs etc. I would get Flea Bully for that. They also sell a great steam unit which will kill the fleas and eggs on contact!
Drip Drip Drip
You said quite often about burying the dripline, but everything I’ve read says that it will clog it up and eventually stop working. What have you to say about that??Hi, good question. Yes, most of the drip lines on the market are the old types which will need protection if buried. I suggest you look into RainBirds XFS Subsurface Dripline. This line was built from scratch to be buried. Keeping the water below ground is essential to proper drought control. You will lose 75% less water to evaporation.
A Rose question
Love your Blog! I have roses that have an orange colored rust looking on the underside of the leaves. I tried everything, and it is still there. What can I do about this??Hi, it is called rust. Yep, rust. This comes from the overuse of water or is the placement of your roses too near a lawn or sprinkler. Roses hate over head water, and the rust disease needs water. Sometimes the fog will contribute to this. This is really a trace mineral deficiency. Calcium is way too low. This all comes down to what you are feeding the soil and in turn the roses. Start by looking at your watering. See where the overhead watering is coming from and change to drip if possible. If near a lawn, see if you can reduce the lawn watering or if not, you may have to move the roses. Try first to reduce the watering, then apply rock dust, compost and mulch. Use azalea/gardenia mix as a mulch. More than likely your soil ph is too high. Roses love a ph of 6.5 to 6.8. Use compost tea. I would immediately spray your roses with coffee, cream, and sugar. 1 cup milk in gallon coffee, add 1 oz molasses. Spray leaves once a day for a week. I would add either Superseaweed or any liquid seaweed. I would also stop using the chemical rose fertilizer you probably are using and go organic! Anawalt Lumber has several great organic fertilizers for roses you can use( so does Green Thumb nursery..they both also have rock dust) They also come with trace minerals and microbes. Compost! I bet you are not using compost either. The main problem is the soil so pay attention to the health of the soil. Buy live compost. Forget to get compost in the store or from the city (sewer sludge is not okay compost). Ask for local sources of homemade live compost. If you are a local source of home made compost, email me, and I will check it out first before I let others know about it.
Compost Question.
I am making compost. Lest I am trying. Now my compost bin has ants and rats are showing up to eat from the bin. What is going on? Help!?First off, you don’t mention the size of the bin. Minimum size should be 4 x 4 x 4. Anything smaller than that will not heat up. Do you know the difference between making compost and just letting food rot? Ants and rats do! If your bin were heating up, no ants would be found nor rats. So Please email me back with more details as to what you are putting in and how much. Off hand, you must have the correct carbon to nitrogen ratio. A C: N ratio somewhere around 25 to 30 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen, or 25-30:1. If the C: N ratio is too high (excess carbon), decomposition slows down, too low and it is not going to heat up enough. Next week I will go over in detail how to make compost.
Tree problem
Hi, I planted around 20 new trees along my property line in Jan. One tree is almost dead, and it seems the rest are following. What is going on and what should I be doing??Please, when emailing me, be specific as to what you have done, are doing and what the problem is. Many things can and will go wrong when planting trees. New trees do not have an established root system so that heat will be a factor. Many folks are under the false impression that more water will help. That is not correct. Too much will damage them just as not enough. You did not say what you were doing to try to keep them alive, but I am assuming you are overwatering them.If you are watering every day that is too much. Try only twice per week. I also do not know what you planted them in. Planting in straight clay soil will not work. Did you apply compost and then mulch? I don’t think so. What are you fertilizing them? Chemical fertilizers will only stress them out more. Use an organic fertilizer. Foliar spray them weekly.

Any questions send me an email at andylopez@invisiblegardener.com or members can leave their question in the comment section below.

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Love
andy Lopez
Invisible Gardener

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