djayz

Great news! I too love tomatoes! It's a great feeling to eat the produce you have grown yourself. 

I collect the seeds from my toms to sow the following season. If interested, drop me a PM and I'll email you a list of what I'm currently growing/collecting. The only thing I would ask for in return is some of your seeds. The same goes to anybody here who would like to swap tomato seeds. 

How do I say in Thai "what time does the last bus/train/boat leave at?"

On 1/23/2024 at 1:18 PM, drtreelove said:

I sympathize, it takes awhile to gain confidence in shelving the harsh chemicals and trusting the biologicals and integrated pest management. But it does work if you can get it right. The key is not one product or practice, but a comprehensive preventive management plan.

 

I have found that plant pest and disease resistance can be achieved faster than I thought with preventive management, primarily good water management (not too much or too little) and soil fertility building. Not just 'fertilization' for growth response, but building "high nutrient density" in soil and plants, as taught by the Soil Food Web School and modern Regenerative Agriculture models, reduction vs oxidation practices as taught by Dr Olivier Husson and featured by Matt Powers, The Permaculture Student. Avoid high salts, high NPK chemical fertilizers, they definitely set up the wrong kind of chemistry which becomes a pest magnet. Cover crop with mixed species (Dr Christine Jones), or plant mixed diversified beds as in the Grow Biointensive method (How to Grow More Vegetables... John Jeavons), mulch, never allow bare ground around your plantings. 

 

Recognize that the beneficial soil biology, as well as a protective microbiome on the leaf and stem surfaces, are important natural plant protection processes and barriers for pests and pathogens. Cultivate this and don't destroy this biology as best possible. As well as building soil organic matter content or cover cropping, inoculate your soil with compost, compost tea or extract, worm castings or the effluent, and spray the foliage and stems with it too. 

 

There are always some aggressive pests or disease that can get started no matter how good your management, but that is best handled by knowing local issues and anticipating seasonal infestations and infections, and by daily or at least weekly inspections and early intervention. Like right now, as the weather warms up and the spring growing season kicks in, you can expect to see moths and butterflies flying around looking for inviting habitat to lay their eggs, which hatch into hungry larvae/caterpillars. If you know this is coming, you can get ahead of it. Inspect daily for egg masses or first instar caterpillars, especially the underside of leaves. Mechanical control is an important and effective IPM method; Hand picking off of caterpillars, rubbing off mealy bugs with a rag or cotton glove, or using a water blast can achieve a practical level of control without any environmental contamination.

 

If necessary, use your botanicals with the right timing, you don't wait for the caterpillars to start feeding heavily and then try to knock them down, but you anticipate this and apply your rosemary, lemon grass and/or clove botanical, or Aza concentrate (neem seed oil extract of azadirachtin) weekly as a preventive repellent. Or if you are away from your garden and it gets ahead of you a little, then you can still do early intervention before the losses mount. Wood vinegar, pyrethrins (harder to find here) are potent organic program compatible knock down insecticides with minimal residual environmental contamination. 

 

Don't panic at the first sign of insect activity. If you have built reasonably good soil fertility the moths may fly around but not be attracted and not lay their eggs  and feed on your plants. One or two grasshoppers may start to feed a little but not be attracted and not call in their swarm of buddies. Some insects seek habitat on your plants but do not feed there. Try to identify and know what you are dealing with so that you don't over-react and can manage appropriately and use biorational methods and materials.  Don

Every time I start to lose faith, I read your posts and know that there must be light at the end of the tunnel again. Thank you Don. 

On 1/16/2024 at 11:40 AM, drtreelove said:

I thought you were striving for organic management.  The approach you indicate is contrary to a biological program. Be advised, Abamectin as well as obviously being ineffective, is a harsh chemical pesticide, detering or killing off beneficials (pest predators and parasites, birds, weaver ants, mini-wasps, beneficial bacteria and fungi). It's also a "translaminar" (penetrating systemic) chemical that can penetrate the skin and contaminate your fruit.  A better approach might be to cultivate the micro-biome on plant and fruit tissue surfaces, and to build a favorable environment for beneficials, build soil fertility and natural resistance to pests and diseases. 

I was/am/was/am striving to grow organically, but sometimes (rightly or wrongly) I feel it's futile here. Despite using organic methods, sprays, etc. once or twice a year I get these infestations and it seems like the organic approach isn't harsh enough to solve the problem. That's why, once or twice a year, I feel like I have no other choice but to turn to the stronger chemical pesticides. 

The time and effort I have put into, and am still putting into, growing fruit and vegetables simply can't be in vain. 

Perhaps it is taking me longer to build up a beneficial growing environment, soil fertility, etc. than I had expected. 

As always, thank you for your feedback. It's very helpful. 

So they too can profit from those "special stickers"? 

AFFS! 

Now I've heard it all! 

I'm glad she cleared that up! I couldn't sleep worrying about how much she is really worth. 😉

12 hours ago, NanLaew said:

Where has she revealed her credit card details?

 

More like she's having a tongue-in-cheek pop at Thai internet citizen's unhealthy infatuation with other people's business, especially how much money they (probably don't really) have.

Internet citizens wouldn't be infatuated with other people's business, wealth, etc. if [other] people didn't constantly feel the need to keep their fans up-to-date with absolutely every aspect of their lives. 

I'm so glad I live in a country that has absolutely no other issues which need solving. 

CCTV was not designed to "prevent" crimes from happening, just to record them as they happened. If your gf's family want to prevent them from stealing, then perhaps a wall/fence around the property may be the solution, considerably more costly, I know.

People here don't seem to be into naming and shaming. There seems to be a tendency to solve these issues in a calm manner. 

 If her family have lived with this for years, then why are you getting involved in their way of life (not trying to provoke you, it is a genuine suggestion). 

I wouldn't get involved unless the criminals were stealing from me. 

Wasn't there an issue a few years ago when Deutschland confiscated a certain person's private plane until Thailand paid certain debts? Would love to be a fly on the wall if that nugget came up over dinner. 😂

Am away for a few days but my missus has just sent me these photos.

The fruit was taken from my Spanish Lisbon lemon tree, which I sprayed with abamectin 2 weeks ago and again last week with wood vinegar. 

What are these little red fellas called? Anybody know? 

Was there not talk of a canal only a year or two ago? What happened to that idea? 

38 minutes ago, scottiejohn said:

They are if you click the link!

So we have to read the Pattaya "News" to get the dates? Why can't AseanNow print the dates here in the story?

Stop talking about it and get the job done! 

Names and addresses of all sickos should be made public. That might deter them from ruining young, innocent lives. 

I can think of no reason why it wouldn't be possible. 

From my own experience, don't water the plants or their leaves as they don't like wet leaves. This causes problems. Instead, just water the base of the plant. 

I grow mine in the soil, not pots, and I give them a really good, long watering about every 4 - 5 days. They seem to prefer this to watering a little every day. 

Re pollination; temperatures need to drop more before they are ready to pollinate. Up here in Korat, I have the best results from Dec. to Feb. when nighttime temperatures drop to 10, 11 degrees when the sun sets. 

Lastly, I only feed mine a balanced fertilizer, preferring organic, such as cow manure before planting out and compost or "green tea" after planting them in the soil. Check out "jadam fertilizer" by Huw Richards on YT for another organic way to fertilize plants. 

The beginning of the end.... 

Next thing is, they'll want to be prime ministers.

😂 😆 😂 😆

And so it begins...

Soon at the airports, we'll see signs saying "Welcome to China". 

On 1/14/2022 at 10:32 AM, webfact said:

This large commitee agreed to set up another committee

The large committee can't resolve the problems, so they set up another committee to handle them?! 

Could this be the problem?

10 hours ago, NextG said:

In that case, every restaurant in the area should charge 300 baht?

Location. Location. Location. 

6 hours ago, BenStark said:

 

I thought I made that clear already.

That dish cost, according to the noodle shop owner, 36 baht in noodles, and add another 24 baht for an egg and some spices.

Selling that at 300 baht should buy me a nice Benz by the end of the first year

I'm afraid you forgot rent, utilities, staff and, eventually, brown envelopes.