Red Swan

Pests & beneficial insects

🐛 Prone to: Aphids

Aphids

Aphididae

Curled leaves, sticky honeydew and ants on patrol — usually with something already eating them.

, Spider mites

Spider mites

Tetranychidae

Fine pale stippling in hot, dusty, dry weather. Visible webbing means you are already late.

, Cutworms

Cutworms

Noctuidae

A seedling lying beside its own stump in the morning, cut clean through at soil level.

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Attract Hoverflies

Hoverflies

Syrphidae

The adults only drink nectar. It is the larvae that eat the aphids.

, Lacewings

Lacewings

Chrysopidae

Golden-eyed adults that mostly drink; larvae that hunt like small alligators.

, Ladybugs

Ladybugs

Coccinellidae

The one predator here where the adults hunt as hard as the larvae do.

, Parasitic wasps

Parasitic wasps

Braconidae, Ichneumonidae and relatives

Pinhead-sized, stingless, and lethal to aphids and caterpillars from the inside.

, Predatory mites

Predatory mites

Phytoseiidae

Too small to see without a hand lens, and the main thing holding spider mites down.

, Minute pirate bugs

Minute pirate bugs

Anthocoridae

Two to three millimetres, and both stages hunt — thrips and spider mites, thirty a day.

, Ground beetles

Ground beetles

Carabidae

Night-active ground hunters, taking slugs, cutworms and leatherjackets at soil level.

to keep them in check — plant African MarigoldGreat, French MarigoldGreat and YarrowGood nearby.

Growing from seed

Direct-sow Red Swan outdoors about 1 weeks after your last frost, keeping seeds in warm soil (around 20–25 °C). Seeds usually come up in around 8 days. Grow in full sun, spaced about 10 cm apart. Expect to harvest in roughly 55 days.

Red Swan seed rarely stays viable beyond 3 years — track what's still worth sowing.

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  Growing Beans: Bush or Pole, Snap or Dry

  Beans are the crop most likely to be called easy and most likely to be grown wrong. Almost every decision — where they go, what you feed them, when you pick — follows from two questions you answer before you sow: how tall does this one get, and are you eating the pod or the seed?

  Read the guide

Companion Planting

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  Buchii Lavender
  

  Buchii LavenderExcellent pair

  • ❧Buchii Lavender attracts Hoverflies and Parasitic wasps, which prey on the Aphids that attack Red Swan
  • ❧Red Swan fixes nitrogen in the soil that Buchii Lavender feeds on
  • ❧Red Swan draws Bees and Bumblebees that improve pollination for both
• 
  round leaf lavender
  

  round leaf lavenderExcellent pair

  • ❧round leaf lavender attracts Hoverflies and Parasitic wasps, which prey on the Aphids that attack Red Swan
  • ❧Red Swan fixes nitrogen in the soil that round leaf lavender feeds on
  • ❧Red Swan draws Bees and Bumblebees that improve pollination for both
• 
  African Marigold
  

  African MarigoldGreat pair

  • ❧African Marigold attracts Hoverflies and Lacewings and more, which prey on the Aphids and Spider mites that attack Red Swan
  • ❧Red Swan fixes nitrogen in the soil that African Marigold feeds on
  • ❧African Marigold suppresses pests that trouble Red Swan

How to grow Red Swan

1. Sow1 weeks from frost
2. Germinates8 days
3. Space10 cm apart
4. GrowFull sun
5. Harvest~55 days

Water: Medium · Height: 45 cm · Soil: Well-draining, moderately fertile