First identify what you have. Spider mites (two-spotted) are easily visible to the naked eye, a translucent beige colour, and full size adults have two dark spots on their backs. True spider mites are usually considered to like low humidity...False spider mites are barely visible to sharp eyes if y...

Dear Folks, I have mined your collective past posts on Red Spider Mite (assorted Tetronychus species) and False RSM (assorted Brevipalpus, Tenuipalpus, and Pentamerismus species) . Since the whole field seems initially to be slightly complex and unclear to amateurs like me (many pest genera and spec...

Oh %&^$£"*, now they have Red Spider Mite (RSM) too!

That is what I get for putting them outside to enjoy the sunshine...

I will follow the many previous Forum posts on treating RSM now.

Dear Folks, I have some aphids on my prize Boswellia sacra (Frankincense). I had assumed that the resin would make these plants unpalatable, but apparently these aphids are not too troubled. Obviously there are a host of options for battling common greenfly, but does anyone know which insecticides m...

Dear Penfold2, Sorry you cannot seem to reply to my Personal Message (PM) as yet: have you checked it out with the BCSS Administrator? You can always email me on euan.arnott@btinternet.com in the meantime, since we seem to have very similar taste in plants at the moment! Worth checking out another F...

Thermometer shows that the "boiling water" soak-treatment can subject the seeds to a wide variety of actual temperatures (as one would expect), depending upon the mass, heat capacity, and heat conductivity of the vessel into which the water is poured, and also upon the volume of water used...

An amateur two cents' worth: So are the three plants all from the same seed or not : I am not clear on this? :?: The first one made me think of L. schwantesii or L. karasmontana , for example, but one's conclusions are presumably affected by whether the ID must be the same for all three, or whether ...

Dear Folks, I would like to read more about my assorted new Burseraceae . Are there any recommended texts or articles? I am aware from earlier Forum posts of two books by Rowley and De Vosjoli respectively that might touch on them, but I was looking for something more dedicated to the Family Bursera...

Dear Folks, IanN is widely regarded as one of the main Forum experts on Lithops (and many other topics!), so I would always defer to his wise advice (posted above). I will just append my own thoughts/experiences here: In my limited experience, Lithops will often adapt well to surprisingly shallow po...

Thanks to all.

My Lithops are always very arid when I unpot. I will use the Toilet-roll Solution (or Phone-book Rip Off Option), as suggested.

So glad I asked before I made a mess of things. I aways tend to over-complicate, I think...