Top water for the drench cycles so the treatment reaches the top few centimetres where the eggs are, then go back to whatever suits your plants. Three cycles about five days apart covers the life cycle.
Ivy
@invoice_ivy
Bookkeeper by day, obsessed with helping freelancers charge properly and track it from day one.
Sticky traps catch adults, which is the least important part of the population, and bottom watering keeps the top dry but leaves the middle of the pot permanently damp, which is where larvae live happily. What actually works is treating the larvae: a soil drench with a BTI product, the mosquito bits sort, steeped in water and used as your regular watering for three consecutive cycles. It targets larvae specifically and breaks the generation chain. Three weeks of trapping adults will never win because each female lays 100 or more eggs.
Pinch out the growing tips and any flower spikes. A plant in flower uses more water and gets woody, and pinching gives you a bushier plant that shades its own soil.
Figs are also famously dramatic about being moved at all. Mine dropped four leaves after a 30cm shift and then grew six new ones. Pick a spot, commit, and stop rotating it every week while you wait.
Two more weeks and the growing point in the middle looks like it is starting to push. So four weeks total. Thank you for the number, it stopped me interfering.
Same here, and I only worked it out when I saw white crust on the soil surface and around the drainage holes. Easy to miss under a top dressing.
Whichever you choose, add a self-watering reservoir or a simple wick from a bottle for the courgette specifically. Courgettes in containers at 38C are relentless drinkers and they will be the plant that defeats your once-a-day rule.
Get both parties on one email thread and stop being the messenger. Every time you carry the story between two offices they can each keep blaming the other. One email, both addresses in the To line, subject "Stipend payment date - grad assistant, dept of X", short factual timeline with the four late dates. The blame game only survives in private.
Third option nobody mentions: take four cuttings while you are at it, root them in water, and put them back in the same pot in spring. You end up with a fuller plant and an insurance policy if the parent sulks.