Now what????

Hi, all -

I cannot believe how many issues I am battling with my Brug cuttings this winter - those *^%^$(*7 spidermites, then the fungus gnats, then rotting, then calcium defiency (I think it was calcium deficiency) - now I find THIS! What is causing those weird deformities at the tips and sides of the leaves. It doesn't look chewed, just well - see for yourself. Now this poor cutting has been through a lot - first spider mites darn near killed it, the spray for the mites completely defoliated it, then I recently repotted it in fresh soil and it started growing really well again but now the leaves look pale with darker veining and I thought this too might have a calcium defiency..so a few days ago I fed it with water infused with garden gypsum and epsom salts (still waiting for my calcium fert to arrive in the mail). I checked the PH - it's 6.0 and the Rapid Test meter says the fertilizer level is "ideal". So what gives?? Anybody wanna hazard a guess??

Diane

I probably wouldn't worry about it. Even with it's problems, it looks better than my cuttings. Once they go outside, they snap out of it and within a very short time, they look great. Most of mine have very few leaves and probably have some white flies on the undersides again. Just can't get rid of them. Looking forward to getting everything outside. Yours look pretty good. Maybe it is just due to having so many chemicals on it in a short period of time. Just guessing because I have no idea. LOL!

Diane, I had something similar last growing season, thought it was broad mites, or other mites, and treated for just about everything under the sun. Had the county agent come out and she said that I had a bumper crop of cats, but no other bugs that she saw any signs of, or deficiency problems, and she thought my problem was irregular watering and a low bed. The brugs with the problem were in a cluster in the same area. So, this year I hope to install a drip system and regulate my watering, raise the bed and hope for the best. If you find a solution, please let me know, because something makes me think I haven't whipped the problem. Good luck!!!

Shirley, I'm also fighting whiteflies. I can't find anything that gets rid of them. I think everything I spray them with makes them multiply. I took a picture of a Abulition and the leaves were covered with whiteflies.

Ok Diane,

I have stayed out of this 'til now, so now I am going to tell you what I use. There are people that will swear at this but if it doesn't work you can swear at me. I finally, knock on wood, got rid of my broadmites using a systemic. Fortunately I had some pretty good, powerful, stuff to work with but thre is one called Bonide that you can even use on houseplants. Because you can use it on houseplants I have to believe it isn't as strong as the one I have.

But, look at your local nursery because they carry shelf after shelf of things. But get a systemic. It is usually a granual that you sprinkle on the soil around the plant, scratch it in and then water it. The idea is that it gets into the entire system of the plant and anything that chews on the plant, any part of it, dies.

This will even get rid of the gnat larvae that eats the roots. Besides using this, I keep a spritz bottle next to my plants with 1 Tablespoon each of palmolive dish soap and hydrogen peroxide and fill it up with distilled water. I spray any of those darn fruit flies, gnats, I see flying and I also spray the soil where they lay their eggs.

I'm still knocking on wood, 'cause I was suppose to, according to the systemic bottle, treat the plants every 5 to 6 weeks but I haven't since December and I still am looking good.

Hope this helps., Jeanette

LOL Jeanette, what is the name???

The new stuff I use kills white flies. the brand is Safer, it is a killing soap with seaweed extract, for indoor and outdoor plants and flowers

I'll have to try it, Doris. I hope they sell it in much bigger bottles that that. LOL

Doris, I have to add that I finally caved the other day and decided to bring out the "big guns" as far as mite removal, so I picked up the Safer you recommended at WalMart. I splurged.
Well, I was just plain tired of spraying w/ what I was using and I wanted to bring my other brugs out of dormancy in the same room, so I was worried the mites would move to them.
After one spray, I haven't seen a mite since, and I have checked this poor plant so many times a day since that I'm sure it's getting a complex. (No defoliation, either.)
I'm a believer, but of course, only time will tell. So, thanks!
I have the same leaf thing going on with my smaller cuttings, so I can't help Diane. I was thinking it had to do with irregular watering on my part, because I refuse to drown anybody again. I hope someone will recognize the problem.
Jackie

LOL Ada! LOL

ahelms - thank you for posting the picture of the whitefly, I was most curious as to what they looked like. I had this on my only Brug last fall but had no idea what it was. I gave it the royal treament - dunked, sprayed and prayed (joking). Therefore I can't begin to tell you which one took care of the problem.

A bottle of the Safer Insect Killing Soap with Seaweed Extract does not go far, if you have say 30 brugs, so I guess it's pricey, but it works. I have found the Safer Insect Killing Soap in a concentrate, but it does not have the seaweed extract, which I love. So, I ordered seaweed extract, supposed to be the 'real' thing (we'll see), and I will attempt to mix my own. Doris, if you or anyone else locates the concentrate WITH the seaweed, PLEASE let me know. I got the insect killing soap concentrate at Lowes....

This message was edited Mar 12, 2005 10:06 PM

Doris, I got something from the nursery, Hi Yield Di-Syston for aphids on camellias and it was great and we had tried everything, I used it on some brug seedlings that remained free of all pests...

Judycooksey, you're welcome. I wish I had never seen a white fly. LOL

Oh, Ada , I pray I never do LOL
Jackie

I hope you don't too Jackie. LOL

Seems like we did this once before didn't we Kell? LOL

Jeanette

Yep, Jeanette, this thread has been done at least once before that I know of, lol, because i mentioned the Hi Yield Di-Syston systemic and, I raved about the Safer Insect Killing Soap with Seaweed Extract, and not a single person mentioned, that I read, having used it, until this year - Doris, I was thrilled when you used it and it worked for you, thanks, because I had begun to think Greenville MS was the only place it was stocked. IMO, recycling threads is great, it really helps to hammer in stuff, to me, because sometimes it goes right over my head - when I was a real newbie, I had a terrible time finding the products, and the kinda newbie I am/was, I wanted everything I used to be just right and correct. As it was, I defoliated any number of brugs, over watered others, let some dry out, but finally drug myself out of ignorance and figured out that basically I was on my own, and what was good in Maine or Arizona, might not work at all here...

Well I am glad it worked for you also, I have not seen anything on my brugs since I sprayed, Did you ask at Wal-Mart if they had the Larger container, I thought they did when I got mine, I don't have big Brugs so I didn't need any more than I got.

Doris, none of the many WalMart stores in my area carry the Safer brand, and ONLY Lowes in Greenville MS, about 35 minutes from me. Lowes is doing better on fertilizer this year, they have 13-13-13, water soluble, a pretty full line of Safer products, more Bayer stuff, so they are getting there. The ONLY thing I don't like about the Safer is that it has to be sprayed on the underside of the leafs (as well as the top), which is fine this time of they year, but when it is really hot, I nearly passed out, whew!!!

This is the first time Wal-mart has ever had anything but MG here.
I can't wait to have to look UP at my Brugs.