My balcony has been practicing natural cultivation without fertilizers or pesticides since around October last year.
Things were going well, and although the flowers were smaller and fewer in number than usual, I could clearly see that there were fewer insects and diseases, and the plants themselves were healthier.

Meanwhile, for the first time in a long while, this plant that I cherished had aphids.

Antique Viola Frosted Chocolate Premium

Photographed on January 13th

It depends…but I wonder if it’s because the seedlings were too good or because of this year’s warm winter.
At this point, the plant had grown quite large and was growing as if it were the end of spring.
I somehow felt like I was saying, “I’ve grown up too fast and I’m tired…” so I decided to cut back in an attempt to rejuvenate myself.

As I was cutting it and looking at it, I noticed that the longest stem was over 15cm long, and there were a lot of insects attached to the base.
That’s what I want to remove the most, so when I put the scissors in from the place closest to the root, I could see a lot of new shoots at the base.

There aren’t many aphids there.
According to Akinori Kimura of “Miracle Apple,” which I use as a reference, aphids may be trying to remove excess nutrients such as fertilizer.
There was indeed a small amount of fertilizer left at the base of the plant that had been applied to the plant since I bought it, so I tried removing it.
Maybe the sprouts got so long because of the fertilizer left behind that they didn’t have enough insects.

By the way, although the viola decolletage next door is also overgrown, there is no insect damage at all.
There are no insects or diseases on the leaf peonies, which aphids love, or on other plants, including violas.

From what I’ve observed, weakened plants tend to get infected with diseases and insects, so I took cuttings just in case something goes bad.
The flowers are so cute that I can’t cut them out, so I’ll add scissors when I’m satisfied with them.

By the way, there are no aphids on the two seedlings that I inserted earlier and have already grown, so I think this original plant was weak after all.

Luckily it’s been warm this winter, so I hope it grows soon.
I hope I can meet those wonderfully beautiful flowers again!

After that, I sprayed the area with diluted wood vinegar and looked at it the next morning, and there were no aphids to be seen.
I want to continue observing.