"Joe B." wrote in message
. com...
Hi- my first post to this ng.

I live in London and my gardening is limited to indoor plants, not through
choice but through the fact that I currently live in a flat. I do love
outdoor gardenig and actually landscaped my parents' garden at the age of
12.
And I didn't mess it up either! Maybe some day i will have my dream walled
paved garden but meanwhile, pelargoniums on the window sills it is.

My current concerns are the zonal pelargoniums I've recently bought as
rooted
cuttings and am now trying to raise. I got about a dozen of these from
Vernon
Geraniums around six weeks ago now and all have thrived bar one which I
think
was/became diseased and which I threw out. These are rooted in gauze or
net
bags and the plants are potted on arrival with the bags which they are
supposed to rot away in due course. What I've noticed is that these plants
(or rather the compost) seems to be attracting a lot of attention from
those
tiny flies that I think are called fruit flies, and I'm a bit concerned
that
they may be laying eggs in the compost and the larvae may be mistaking my
zonals for "fruit".

These flies are not fruit flies, they are feeding on the compost, they are
quite common with peat-based composts. They wont harm your plant.

I'm wondering about using pesticides- I do remember
something about making a noxious liquid from boiling cigarette ends,
although
this probably doesn't qualify as organic but it does avoid handling and
using
the most noxious orthodox pesticides. Would the boiled fag-end solution be
appropriate here? My pelargoniums are not very big- all about 1 to three
inches of stem plus a few leaves. Any suggestions appreciated.

A quick burst of fly spray on the compost will deal with them if it bothers
you but they arent doing any harm.

BTW, it seems peverse to worry about 'noxious orthodox pesticides' (whatever
they are) if you or the people in your flat are directly inhaling various
actually known-to-be-toxic substances into your lungs on a regular basis!


--
Tumbleweed

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