Hi there,
Just to let you know that the tiny 'blue eggs' are almost certainly something called
SusConGreen.
It is only available to the horticultural trade, and is a slow-release chemical used
to kill vine weevil grubs, and to prevent further infestation for 12-18 months.
There are some species that it can't be used for, including anything edible.
It is mixed thinly into the compost before the plants are potted up or potted on.
You will often see it in the pots of container grown plants bought at garden centres,
if you do what you should always do, and look at the rootball before buying ANY plant
from ANYWHERE, however reputable!!
I am always amazed how few people do so.
Regards,
Chris King in Somerset.


"John Martin" wrote in message
...
|
| "Paul Kelly" wrote in message
| ...
|
|
| Spherical? Cream coloured? distributed individually through the compost?
|
| Fear not! It is Slow release fertilizer!
|
|
| No - I know what they look like! The 'eggs' are slightly ovoid.
|
| It's actually the blue 'eggs' that I really can't fathom...
|
|

in article , CK at
wrote on 6/4/03 6:06 pm:

Hi there,
Just to let you know that the tiny 'blue eggs' are almost certainly something
called
SusConGreen.
It is only available to the horticultural trade, and is a slow-release
chemical used
to kill vine weevil grubs, and to prevent further infestation for 12-18
months.
There are some species that it can't be used for, including anything edible.
It is mixed thinly into the compost before the plants are potted up or potted
on.
You will often see it in the pots of container grown plants bought at garden
centres,
if you do what you should always do, and look at the rootball before buying
ANY plant
from ANYWHERE, however reputable!!
I am always amazed how few people do so.
Regards,
Chris King in Somerset.


"John Martin" wrote in message
...
|
| "Paul Kelly" wrote in message
| ...
|
|
| Spherical? Cream coloured? distributed individually through the compost?
|
| Fear not! It is Slow release fertilizer!
|
|
| No - I know what they look like! The 'eggs' are slightly ovoid.
|
| It's actually the blue 'eggs' that I really can't fathom...
|
|

MEM to people using biological control in greenhouses SusConGreen or however
it's spelled, interferes with those natural processes, apparently. Don't
use the two together. My husband was an early pioneer of bio control in
greenhouse growing in this country and that was his experience. The
manufacturers hotly denied it but he was proved to be correct.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk

In article ,
(CK) wrote:

look at the rootball before buying ANY plant
from ANYWHERE, however reputable!!
I am always amazed how few people do so.

So, when you're at a Garden Centre, you tip plants out of their pots,
knock the compost away and take a good look. Then you scape up the mess
and put it back?

Steve Harris - Cheltenham - Real address steve AT netservs DOT com

in article ult, Steve Harris at
wrote on 7/4/03 10:00 am:

In article ,
(CK) wrote:

look at the rootball before buying ANY plant
from ANYWHERE, however reputable!!
I am always amazed how few people do so.

So, when you're at a Garden Centre, you tip plants out of their pots,
knock the compost away and take a good look. Then you scape up the mess
and put it back?

Steve Harris - Cheltenham - Real address steve AT netservs DOT com


Good point. This would NOT be a popular move here - or anywhere, I'd think.
But luckily, we don't have vine weevil probs.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk

In article , Sacha
writes
in article ult, Steve Harris at
wrote on 7/4/03 10:00 am:

In article ,
(CK) wrote:

look at the rootball before buying ANY plant
from ANYWHERE, however reputable!!
I am always amazed how few people do so.

So, when you're at a Garden Centre, you tip plants out of their pots,
knock the compost away and take a good look. Then you scape up the mess
and put it back?


Good point. This would NOT be a popular move here - or anywhere, I'd think.
But luckily, we don't have vine weevil probs.

Though the RHS Encycl of gardening has lots of pic of 'good' and 'poor'
specimens of container plants, based mainly on the state of their
rootball. I wonder how they expect you to find out? Or is it a new sort
of game of chance - choose your plant, take it home, then check the
rrotball to see if you got a good or a bad 'un ;-)

--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

The message
from (Steve Harris) contains these words:

In article ,
(CK) wrote:

look at the rootball before buying ANY plant
from ANYWHERE, however reputable!!
I am always amazed how few people do so.

So, when you're at a Garden Centre, you tip plants out of their pots,
knock the compost away and take a good look. Then you scape up the mess
and put it back?

If the plant is fit to be sold then it should be perfectly possible to
carefully hold it in one hand, and gently slip off the pot without
disturbing the compost at all, like a sand pie. What you hope to see is
a network of fine roots covering at least half the surface of the
compost where it touches the pot. If you find a tangled mass of thick
long roots spiralling round and round the entire compost surface and
going out through the drainage hole, that plant has been there far too
long and will find it much harder to establish in your garden; if it's a
tree it will probably never do well. Carefully slip the pot back on.If
your careful sandpie instantly collapses because no roots are holding
the compost together at all...you are probably at a cheaty underhand
place that potted up some of its bare-root roses or hedging plants
yesterday, and is now selling them as "potgrown plants" :-(

Janet.

in article , Janet Baraclough at
wrote on 7/4/03 10:08 pm:

The message
from (Steve Harris) contains these words:

In article ,
(CK) wrote:

look at the rootball before buying ANY plant
from ANYWHERE, however reputable!!
I am always amazed how few people do so.

So, when you're at a Garden Centre, you tip plants out of their pots,
knock the compost away and take a good look. Then you scape up the mess
and put it back?

If the plant is fit to be sold then it should be perfectly possible to
carefully hold it in one hand, and gently slip off the pot without
disturbing the compost at all, like a sand pie. What you hope to see is
a network of fine roots covering at least half the surface of the
compost where it touches the pot. If you find a tangled mass of thick
long roots spiralling round and round the entire compost surface and
going out through the drainage hole, that plant has been there far too
long and will find it much harder to establish in your garden; if it's a
tree it will probably never do well. Carefully slip the pot back on.If
your careful sandpie instantly collapses because no roots are holding
the compost together at all...you are probably at a cheaty underhand
place that potted up some of its bare-root roses or hedging plants
yesterday, and is now selling them as "potgrown plants" :-(

Janet.

To be fair, you could also be at a Nursery which has just potted the plants
on from the previous size of pot! If that is the case with smallish plants,
which have just made the transition from 1l to 2l pots, for example, *we*
usually sell them at the previous price, however. But our real nightmare
are the people who pick up pots and for some reason I can never understand,
stand there pressing the compost down HARD with their thumbs.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk