Help. Is there any life left here?

[pronker]

This palm was transplanted one month ago to help it get more sun. It only received 33 per cent of available daylight where it was before. Twice it's been eaten down by rabbits and revived itself; this time, the vitamins and frequent watering do not seem to have aided in its survival, though the bark is green, the top is slowly browning. Like

Comments

[plantyhamchuk]

Cut off the top well below where it is browning, and wait to see if any new growth appears?

[pronker]

That's a thought -- I shall try that technique. ThanksQ.Q

[leeneh]

Yeh, try this.

And, make it a chicken wire cage.

[pronker]

Will do and we no longer have rabbits in the yard -- I do have some feral cats that come and go and the cosmos have a wire cage around them. Thus far the cats haven't bothered anything else, though my indoor cats adore roses and one can't have any sort of rose display in the house /glares at Comet and Willow/

[leeneh]

You have my sympathy. "My" ferals have ruined my redcurrant - it took them less than a day - and today I found one of them in top of my four feet olive tree, which they so far have left alone. I need to buy more chicken wire. *sigh*

[pronker]

Aw, that's too bad. Cats are attracted to the strangest scents and textures. A four-foot olive tree is just a young thing. I've heard that mothballs strategically placed can deter cats from things, haven't tried that yet.

[leeneh]

Oh, thank you! Mothballs - I'll have look into that!

*a look...

[pronker]

You're welcome. There's this other really weird thing that I can't quite credit ... some say that jugs of water placed in each corner of a small lawn scare the ferals into leaving the lawn alone for their 'deposits'. It wouldn't seem likely to work attractively in a front lawn but I guess a back one would be worth a try. I haven't tried that one yet, either. It seems too strange. /shrugs/

[leeneh]

Yeh, people here place PET bottles filled with water in front of/around their front doors to keep the males from marking (I live in the Tuscan countryside where people don't give a hoot about looks, so you get to see all kinds of gizmos and contraptions for and against all kinds of things...). They claim it works, but I haven't even thought about trying it myself. Thanks for the reminder!

Aha, a testimonial for water bottles!

[pronker]

Sure. And the Tuscan countryside must be fascinating and a gorgeous place to live.

Re: Aha, a testimonial for water bottles!

[leeneh]

Well, it's not home to a homesick Norwegian, but better than many other places, I suppose. And, interesting it is, sometimes - here, for instance, is another thing they swear to around here, but that I haven't tried, either: in the kitchen they hang up a big sheet of paper facing the door, with the number 58 drawn on it in huge characters to scare off flies. The theory is that they mistake it for a huge spiderweb. The flies, not the Tuscans.

Some pictures here, here, and here, just to show you.

If there is a scientific explanation to why it works (assuming it does), I don't want to hear about it.

But now I think I have lost sight of the original topic something bad. Sorry.

Fascinating! as Mr. Spock would say.

[pronker]

It's a big, beautiful, and puzzling world we live in ... back OT, I've scalped the palm and am awaiting * I hope! * some signs of life in the next month or so. Poor thing.

Re: Fascinating! as Mr. Spock would say.

[leeneh]

I'm crossing my fingers for you and your poor palm.

For anyone who'd like to try this "fly repellant"

[virginiadear]

A house guest of my neighbor's told me that a clear plastic/polyethylene bag filled with water and five or six pennies/copper coins, and hung from the lintel piece of the doorway will keep flies from entering through that door (or window, I suppose.)
That old gentleman swears it works; I haven't tried it, yet.

Re: For anyone who'd like to try this "fly repellant"

[pronker]

Aha, this I've heard of -- and the flies' remarkable magnifying eyes are suppose to become confused the the reflections and ripples of the water -- this would be fine in the garden, as well, when those pesky flies bother the gardener. I guess one could dangle a bag from a hoe handle or something nearby.