Beginner Gardening: Pollinating Hibiscus...., 2 by vanita79

vanita79 wrote:
Thanks a lot, I found the hibiscus forum and am going through the posts, there are many hibiscus related problems there some of which may describe problems similar to what I'm facing.

This is the first time I'm growing hibiscus and its not that I misunderstood your words (excuse me if I seem a little nervous sometimes) I'm a bit worried because I'm a loss on whats happening with my plant, in-spite of reading so much about it on various websites and forums. I discover new problems every week.

I'll surely keep you posted on what I learn. This is what I learned so far.

I've got three plants in a pot and I have explained other problems here on this post. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1378455/

The plant I talked about here seems to be the healthy one, blooming constantly that does not seem to have any other problem besides the pollination (calyx falls off without inflating and forming seeds).

I suspect it is either younger and stronger or disease resistant to some extent.

Now the other plants in the same pot seem to be affected by various problems explained in above post.

I seem to see many symptoms but the attackers are just non-existent. I have examined fallen buds but see no thrips, I see leaf cuts and holes like this (picture attached) but no earwigs or slugs or catepillars or hibiscus beetles (just ants and some flying insects like shore flies or some gnats probably), so I'm really at a loss on what all could be happening. Any ideas what could be eating it?

I've discouraged the ants to a certain extent by squishing the ones I see putting chemical poisons and small baits around the pots, no chemicals go into the pot as I love hibiscus tea (and we don't get it here) plus I also like to use the healthy leaves for my hair treatment (its quite amazing what a hibiscus paste hair mask can do for your hair) http://www.hiddenvalleyhibiscus.com/care/ants.htm

And I don't see aphids but I've got a tomato leaf spray ready for spraying as a precautionary measure.

I have drenched my pot a few times so if excess nitrogen is the problem, it could drain out.

I've used neem oil spray (quite slow but I don't see many of the flies around now so it must be working). I've used chilli garlic spray this week and if this does not work, I am planning to drench the soil with detergent before next week (I just wonder if the plant will be safe to use for tea after this).

Here is an interesting site (I found on one of the hibiscus forums) that lists out all the problems:
http://www.hiddenvalleyhibiscus.com/care/pests.htm