Ask Gerry

I have 3 citrus trees - Lemon, Lime and Orange. Presently the leaves of the lemon tree are going yellow and falling off at an enormous rate. The other two trees not so much. I have tried tomato feed as I am finding it hard to get citrus feed locally. Any ideas?

i have a grapevine in my conservatory affected by mildew. during the dorment season what treatment should i apply and simularly during the growing season. a lot of references are made to Captan ?

I have a problem with greenfly in my greenhouse. I have tried several sprays both organic and commercial chemicals but to no avail. I was hoping to get some advice on doing something over the winter-the only problem is that the greenhouse is never empty. There are winter lettuces and some permanent residents like lemon and orange trees.

I had always grown Shirley tomatoes very successfully in a tunnel but last year my sister grew Moneymaker tomatoes and they developed a disease whereby shoots became mouldy and died back. This year the shirley tomatoes had it as well and a lot of the shoots died back early. i don't know what tis disease s. I had assumed that shirley tomatoes were disease resistant. How do I clean up the tunnel to get rid of this disease?

I am growing a lemon tree in a pot in my living room. It was previously in a greenhouse ahd produced fruit. It is producing healthy leaves now but no flowers or fruit. Somtimes I see little black coloured "twigs" that break off it. Can you advise?

I have 100 carnation plants in a plastic tunnell with good size buds on them i have a wedding on 5th of nov how can i get them to full bloom for then tips on watering feeding.

l am in the process of building my base for my new green house 6 foot x 10 foot. l have read in a book that a good ldea is to put sheets of styrofoam around the outside frame of the greenhouse 2 foot deep to keep the cold soil coming into the soil in the greenhouse. Is this safe to do? can or would any chemicals leach from the styrofoam.

I would like to buy a greenhouse 8' by 6' approx. to start plants in winter and spring because there is very little growth here until June. Site is exposed. Not too expensive. Glass or poly? which is best? UV filter? What are the features/problems to be aware of? Where to buy and secondhand options

I have some home grown Basil and Chilli Pepper plants. All seemed well until I discovered some small white mites on top of the soil. They are not on the plants and when I water them these little guys jump and run around at great speed. They are too small to take a photo. They are elongated and have little antennae. Any ideas?

For the first time ever, I have had catterpillars in my glasshouse (I assume butterflies made their way in and laid eggs although I saw none??) I have noticed a lot of small groupings of little green and/or black pellets on my tomato plant leaves and window frames of the glasshouse...are these the droppings of the caterpillars?

I have a newly installed south facing porch. Looking for ideas for a plant or maybe fruit tree that would look well and survive. The leaves on my tomato plant have started to droop badly. What can I do to bring it back to health?Would blueberry work and look well ?

Could you name this plant please?

I have a black bell pepper growing, whats wrong with it.

She has this almond tree which is struggling and she wonders if it is because her soil seems to be mostly acidic.

I have problems with my greenhouse container grown (from seed) cucumbers. The plants sort of shriveled up when transplanted from the seed tray and while not dead are very sick looking, mottled crisp leaves and very slow growth. I had this trouble last year as well so this year tried using growbags but the problem has recurred. A plant I bought from a garden centre has thrived, healthy leaves and lots of flowers but the fruit are growing to about 1 inch and stopping there.