Varuna Garden - Invidious

Varuna Garden

Welcome plant people! I am Vandana from Bangalore, an amateur gardener! I make plant videos and occasional cat videos.

I LOVE growing plants from seeds! I also love experimenting in my garden! I am a hobbyist hibiscus breeder! I am now getting back to biology to read up on genetics - dominant and recessive genes so that I can use some knowledge in creating a hybrid!

More frequent posts on Instagram! DM me there! Bye

View channel on YouTube

Switch Invidious Instance

Videos

Shorts

Playlists

Posts

Varuna Garden

Hi all,

I'm excited to share this where I've been featured in All That Grows gardening blog post. 😊🌸🌿 www.allthatgrows.in/blogs/posts/atglife-mates-feat…

2 years ago | [YT] | 5

View 0 replies

Varuna Garden

A snippet of my garden! 🌿 Produced by ‪@AmruthFarming‬ .

2 years ago | [YT] | 1

View 0 replies

Varuna Garden

Hibiscus Cross Pollination : How to and a few tips if you are curious 😀. Kannada+ English explanation.

2 years ago | [YT] | 1

View 0 replies

Varuna Garden

My Varuna Garden tour video, shot by ‪@AmruthFarming‬! Please check it out and share it with fellow gardeners! 🌿🌺🪴

2 years ago | [YT] | 3

View 0 replies

Varuna Garden

This Tuesday morning was very exciting and eventful! I'm thrilled to share that I have been featured in today's newspaper - Hindustan Times - Live Mint under the wellness section along with a few more plant lovers. Congrats to all others that are featured in the article! :) It's such a nice read about the healing power of nature.
The best part is that my cat Raaji is also featured! 😍
Click here to read! www.varunagarden.in/post/nurture-yourself-with-the…

2 years ago | [YT] | 2

View 0 replies

Varuna Garden

Came across this interesting video and had to share it with all of you! 🌴💕

3 years ago | [YT] | 2

View 0 replies

Varuna Garden

Last evening was quite a memorable one. An important milestone in my hibiscus growing journey and I was successful in my mission. I did one of the unthinkables - disturbing the root ball of my seedling!

A little background for those who don't know. I am currently growing 120 hybrid hibiscus seedlings (from seeds after cross pollination) and they are between 10 to 14 months. No blooms yet. Unfortunately all these are infested with root mealybugs. Imagine the bugs in the roots sucking away all the nutrition for months together. This probably is one of the reasons why the plant hasn't put out any buds yet.
I was torn between using chemical insecticides (as all my pots have earthworms in them) and saving my plants from these horrible @#_&*!€¥% pests!

One of the solutions that experts suggested was to report the seedlings in a new soil after cleaning the roots. I have always associated reporting with root shock and sometimes death of plants! In this case I had to expose the roots, clean the roots completely, and then repot. This was a sure shot death of the plant in my mind.

I was corrected by one expert that the cause of the root shock is not because of transplanting or disturbing the root ball, it's because there's a change in the pH value of the soil after. Because of the difference in value, the roots aren't able to absorb the nutrition the same way they used to do earlier.

This is the reason why I had asked in this group sometime back for a reliable pH meter because I want to test the soil of my seedlings before transplant. Unfortunately there are no reliable/affordable ones in the market, the one I bought from Amazon did not work. I reached out to a couple of nursery owners and all of them gave me the same reply saying there is nothing that is accurate in the market. One farm said that they actually take their soil to the agricultural university and get it tested in the laboratory for accurate results! There are reliable and accurate ones available but I can't afford them because they are between 12K to 18K🥺.

So last evening I did something daring. I sterilized the soil of one seedling in an iron 'bandle' (wok). Literally sauteed the soil, exposed the bare roots and cleaned it under running water, dipped the roots in Diatomaceous Earth powder (one of the organic methods to treat Root Mealys) and repotted it in a new container. 12 hrs later the plant is healthy! No root shock or withering. Yay SUCCESS 😃👏🏻.

Keep in mind the sterilized soil is dead, it has no nutrition, no microorganisms. After repotting I added some seaweed fertilizer and a solution that contains important microbes. I'll top it up with some vermicompost and introduce earthworms to rejuvenate the soil.

I did this whole exercise to retain the pH value of the soil and retain the earthworms. Without a reliable and an affordable pH tester, I didn't want to take the chance of transplanting my seedlings and put them through any kind of root shock.

I really hope the sterilized soil would have killed all the Root Mealy bugs and their eggs and the DE powder keeps up its promise of killing any bugs attached to the roots.

Now I just have to do the same for the remaining 119 seedlings! Easy peasy!
😅

P.S- If you are interested in watching this! bit.ly/3juhlnn
#hybridhibiscus #treatingrootmealybugs