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More work!
Foggy day and everywhere is far too damp to work outside. So, tunnel working day. Nice easy job, going through the plants in there and removing dead leaves etc. First one I picked up (Geum Abendsonne) had no roots and in the compost, a Vine weevil grub. Now this is not a surprise as they love Geums, but every plant in the tunnel was stood to its neck over night in strong Provado,so in theory that should have killed off any grubs.
So instead of a nice easy job, every plant in there has to be unpotted and checked. There are a lot of plants, for example over 400 baby Auriculas. They too are Vine weevil fodder.
Found grubs in five more Geums, but none in the Auriculas so far. Only a a thousand plants to go.
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Nil desperandum
...and nil illegitimi carborundum either.
Horrible for you Berghill. Is there a special reason for growing geums in tunnels? Ours are all outside all year and don't get vine weevils - touch wood.
They'll only do it if you let 'em. But geum are particular illigitimae in my opinion as they allowed st Bennett's herb to sneak into my garden . When I realised it was not geum, it was too late!.
The Geums are future sales plants and they are in the tunnel to keep them growing on so they are in flower for the big sale in May. Ditto the Auricula.
Good luck with them. Tip out 3 per minute. The maths is beyond me. Hope you don't find any more
I treated all my pots and tubs with Provado only once in the Spring, expecting to have to do it again now, but on checking, there were none.
I can sympathise Berghill. I felt hard done by after tipping a pot of compost onto a border yesterday, not realising it had weevils in it. The thought of a thousand pots to sift through is totally depressing.
I've had very little trouble with them in the past, a bit of adult damage to foliage which doesn't bother me. Never lost a plant to them until now.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I had some of that stuff, but it is not a nice chemical as an organo-phosphate.
There is a new treatment for professional growers now, but it is rather expensive and the shelf life once open is low., sold only by the kilo too. It is a fungus which eats the grubs. Claims to be persistent, so once on the roots of the plant it will continue to protect for the life of the plant.
Five and a half hours.