Dan West Garden Center

December 2007 Newsletter

Preventative Spraying

Gardening in the Mid-South...mild winters, moist springs, hot humid summers and slow drying clay soil… conditions that make for a fungus and insect heaven in your garden.

Gardeners in the Mid-South...determined to grow a lot of the same kind of non-native plants in a small area… conditions that also make for a fungus and insect heaven in your garden.

Garden Centers in the Mid-South...thankful for all of the above!

When farmers plant acres of the same crop, they set up an environment for insects and diseases that attack their crop, to run rampant.  To get the best results, they have to spray to prevent problems.  We've done the same thing in home gardens. How many of the same plant are within a 500 ft circle of your home?  How many of the same plant do you have in your yard?  How many crape myrtles do you think are in Memphis?  We've set up the same environments and micro-environments by planting the same thing in Mid South gardens...over and over.

If you want to grow fruit trees in the Mid-South (and have them produce any fruit), you'll need to be on a season long spray program.  Many roses are going to get blackspot, powdery mildew and aphids, so they'll need to be sprayed every week or two.  Azaleas, exposed to some sunlight, are likely to get lacebugs.  Redtip Photinias (related to roses) will probably get leafspot.  Otto Luykin laurels get shothole.  Grapes get brown rot and flyspeck.  Golden Euonymus gets everything.  Junipers and arborvitae get bagworms and spider mites. Pines get borers, bark beetles and pine tip moths.  Flowering cherries get borers. Crape myrtles get scale, aphids and sooty mold and so on.  As sure as a Bradford pear will split in the wind, you're likely to have these problems at some time.

Preventative spraying is best on plants that you know you’re going to have problems with.  This winter, spray dormant fruit trees, blackberries, roses and crape myrtles with a lime sulfur and dormant oil combination.  Spray the entire plant and the ground around the plant to clean up over-wintering insects and insect eggs, as well as fungal spores.

Spray broadleaf evergreens with a dormant oil this winter when the temperature is expected to be above freezing for 2-3 days.  A dormant oil spray not only smothers insects and their eggs, it helps protect the plant from water loss during very cold weather.

After your dormant spray on fruit trees, your first application of a fruit tree spray should be when the flower buds are pink but not open.  Your second application should be after 70 to 80% of the flowers have shattered.  Then spray per label instructions until harvest.

For bagworms, whiteflies and lacebugs, a once a month preventative spray of Acephate is best.  Start about April 15th and continue until night temperatures fall into the 40's in the fall.

For season long control, try Imidicloprid.  Best applied to shrubs and trees in the late fall, winter and early spring, this is poured close to the trunk and controls borers, aphids, scales and many other insects for a full growing season.

For an organic alternative, try Neem Oil as a fungicide/insecticide combination.  Coating the leaf surface with an oil makes it difficult for fungal spores to penetrate the coating, plus Neem kills some insects and repels others.  For caterpillars use BT, a bacterium that is especially effective for bagworms.

Studies have shown that preventative insect sprays, whether chemical, organic or biological work better than curative sprays.  Young insects are more easily controlled than adults, so the presence of an insecticide when insects first attack a plant and the adult population is low, is much more effective.  Fungicides always work better as preventative sprays.  Now this is not a recommendation to spray your whole garden once a month whether it needs it not.  Your first option should always be to plant the right plant in the right place and shy away from those that are high maintenance.. Then you should selectively spray those plants that you've had problems with in the past or those you are just determined to grow.

Check out our November 2006 newsletter for care instructions for all your holiday plants and greenery.

We talked about Camellias last month so I thought you might like to see a few in flower

right now.

Shishi Gashira                     Setsugekka                        Debutante

Jessica’s Ruffles                Hana Jiman                        Yuletide