Why I Oughta...

Over the past few weeks, I've made mention of a challenging infestation of Spider Mites that have come to take over a good swath of the dahlias in the sideyard.  Despite treating them multiple ways, they seemed to stick around and continue to attack the plants. I started by spraying everything with my normal miticide - Bifenthrin.  That has (historically) done the trick.  But, either the Spider Mites are immune to it, or I wasn't mixing it strong enough.  Because, they not only survived, they seemed to grow.  And take over more plants.  I did all the non-synthentic things, too.  Like...giving the plants a STRONG spray of water to knock the mites off.  And, I went for two-plus weeks with a heavy-hand of Neem Oil concentrate.  I sprayed the tops of the leaves.  I sprayed the bottoms of the leaves.  I sprayed the stems.  I sprayed the soil.  I sprayed the blooms.   Nothing would stop these freaking Spider mite...

I just applied the final feeding/treatment of the five Disneyland Roses and the 42 dahlias that are scattered around the garden.  I sprinkled the first application of the 3-in-1 systemic (and synthetic) granules at the beginning of May this year.   From there, I did a monthly application:  Early April, Early May, Early June, Early July, Early August and now....right as the calendar turns to September.  That's 7 applications.   This is the final feeding of the season.  And, that's the schedule that I've kept the past few years:  final application of fertilizer right around Labor Day.    Here's the post from 2025.   Here's the final feeding from 2024 (also in September ).  With all the plants that I need to treat, it seems that I'm using almost one full container of this BioAdvanced all-in-one Rose & Flower Care product with each feeding.   At about $22 per container, that's $150 of fertilizer, insecticide and fungu...