Another Shot for My Curry Leaf, and Leave the Bottle!

For two months my curry leaf plant has been in solitary confinement in my bathroom.  It looks pretty pathetic.  In January it had more leaves at the top and looked like this.  In between then and now things have been sad.  It seemed like every day more leaf stems were falling to the floor. I fed the plant yogurt.  I gave it an eggshell and I continued to spray it from time to time with vodka and soap. I was all but ready to give up,  but then to my amazement new growth began to appear on the tall spindly plant. The first growth started at the base of the plant.

Then a new set of cute little leaves appeared  along the stem.  Tiny green bumps can be seen in other places too.

If the plant can try this hard to battle those disgusting little sucking scales,  then the least I can do is do my part.  Maybe my lush plant can be a lush plant again if I hang in there, and if the booze holds out until spring.  It's worth at least a shot or two!

Happy to Start a New Year!!!

December in the garden has been warm and cold. What little snow we have had has not lasted long. The garden has been experiencing freezing temperatures at night in the twenties or sometimes in the teens. During the day the sunlight  melts the snow and softens the ground. White remains only in shaded locations. The plants in the garden have to deal with the constant change of freeze and thaw. It looks like a pretty snow covered garden photograph will not appear this year.

My focus has shifted to indoors and my "lush" house plants. I have never been really terrific at caring for house plants. I am usually content to get the plants through the winter . Most years things go pretty well. There are always a few dead plants to compost, but most of the plants get by fine. This year it has been a battle. The enemies have been spider mites and scale . My plants have been getting their soap and vodka spray. They are running up a considerable bar tab. These are definitely not the kind of lush plants I would like to have. For now the spider mites seem to be gone. You can see from the shiny leaf on my bay tree that the scale is still with us.

My curry leaf plant still has scale too. If you compare it an earlier photograph, you can see it is losing more of its leaves and the battle.  I'm thinking one more shot of alcohol for New Year's Eve, but when 2012 gets here this curry leaf plant may find itself out in the cold. The sweet bays will surely get a reprieve. They seem to be holding their own and waist high bay trees are not as easily replaced.

My Poor Curry Leaf Tree

Last winter my curry leaf tree came through the winter with flying colors. It even had pretty white fragrant flowers. This year things are not so rosy. I really love it when my plants are healthy. When they are not I don't have the knowledge or the patience to deal with it. My curry leaf tree is currently residing in the bathroom. I knew when I found it with sticky leaves that it was in trouble. Now the poor thing is isolated from its friends and being treated to my version of intensive care. I wasn't feeling too awful about how spindly the tree had become until I read Garden Rant and saw a picture of healthy happy curry leaf trees.

My plant nursing skill is sadly lacking but I do  know one thing. Here are the real villains. It's scale! These disgusting tiny little suckers cling to the leaves like grim death and they multiply faster than rabbits! I'm giving the plant showers, scraping the scale that I can see off with my fingernails, using detergent mixed in water. Today I read that full fat yogurt mixed in water fed to a curry leaf plant will perk it right up. Perhaps I'll try that too. Secretly my plant probably wishes it could just hop a plane to Mumbai for the winter, but I'm afraid it's stuck here in upstate New York with me. Six months of intensive care in my bathroom nursery could turn out to be a life sentence or maybe the yogurt will turn the trick and give the plant the will to live and I will find the perfect solution to kill the scale.