Gardening in Fuerteventura

[Archer]

Thanks Tamara. Yes, we have 2 nice young specimens. They have a tendency to drop needles if the conditions aren't right, and unlike the common Casurina Pino never grows that area back. Hence why you see some around with many branches missing or bare 

Maybe at Christmas we'll start to dec it out with lights 

[OMR + MIN]

Hi Tamara & Tardis

Yes the milkweed leaves do disappear very quickly.

Last year we had 5 fully grown plants & managed to get 7 Monarchs away. Totally strpped all the leaves & the plants have to be cut right down to re grow. 

What we do for nature on our lovely Island 

[Tardis]

Bill & Ben got very fat, very quickly and today have disappeared! I hope they have hidden to pupate and not been dinner for something else   
There was only a couple of leaves left on the milkweed plants so perhaps I didn't have enough for them (1 plant each!)

Hi Tamara and OMR + MIN

Hope all goes well with Bill & Ben
 
The last week has been very eventful.  We’ve had over 200 Monarch caterpillars and the two female butterflies are still laying eggs!
 
Although we had 12 milkweed plants, they were just not sufficient to sustain so many caterpillars.  It was not a nice thing to do, but in the end we had to cull most of the caterpillars, so that some of the larger ones could survive.  
 
Last Saturday we bought 4 more milkweeds and relocated a few caterpillars on them.  Three have changed to chrysalises - two of them on the leaves of the milkweed plants themselves.
 
From Tamara’s experience, it seems that  one small to medium plant is adequate for one caterpillar.  I read somewhere that you might be able to get away with 3 or 4 caterpillars on a one metre high plant.
 
The other thing we have learnt is that caterpillars produce a large amount of poo on the leaves.  This can cause diseases, especially if you have too many caterpillars.
 
Hopefully we will have some new butterflies in about two weeks.  I have a couple of questions.  Does anyone have experience of how long it takes flowers to appear again?  At the moment our existing plants are bare twigs after being ravaged by the caterpillars.  We tend to water the milkweed when the soil starts to feel dry.  But the plants do seem prone to leaf fall.  Any advice is very welcome.

[OMR + MIN]

Hi Tardis

Did you see my earlier post about plants leaves & re-growing?

It's news to me about the poo! Water regularly. Flowers come on the more mature plants but I think only once a year?

The 5 original plants, last years, were strppied bare by this years catapillars. I cut them down then with a little regrowth the next lot of caterpillars stripped them again!!!

They are now totally bare again with no sign of any leaves. Will probably dig them up, cut back down & give them some TLC in pots to hopefully rejuvenate them?

Also have sown seeds from the plants in a pot & are now coming through. Fingers crossed. 

You have done really well. Congrats. 

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

By sharing our experiences hopefully we can provide optimum conditions for next years broods!
Tardis, where did you manage to get more plants from recently? I looked this week but didn't see any. I've sown seeds but nothing showing yet.

[Tardis]

Tardis, where did you manage to get more plants from recently? I looked this week but didn't see any. I've sown seeds but nothing showing yet.

We bought them from Happy Plants.  Hope they still have some left for you.

[Tardis]

Thank you OMR + MIN for the recent info.  The stripped milkweeds are starting to produce new shoots.

Our Monarch butterflies definitely prefer milkweed flowers to graze on.  But they will also feed on our bottlebrush plant, as a second choice.  They ignore our statice/sea lavenders and only occasionally browse on the marigolds. . 

Are there any other flowers that grow on the island that they might like?

[OMR + MIN]

Hi Tardis, do the caterpillars eat the bottlebrush leaves?

[Tardis]

Hi Tardis, do the caterpillars eat the bottlebrush leaves?

No, just the milkweed leaves

[OMR + MIN]

I was afraid that would be your answer.

Am growing 2 lots of seeds for next year! Hoping they will grow enough leaves to satisfy several caterpillars.

Still not sure if plants should be grown fresh each year as mine are recovering too well ?