Aphids on Sally - Neem Oil Time?

[solomon]

I came home after 3 days away to find my Salvia mother plant is covered in dead aphids and some living buggers around the fresh growth.

So I squashed quite a few and was about to reach for the pyrethrum spray, what I had used once in the past in the greenhouse when there were aphids on my SD in there.

I'm not too hasty to use the pyrethrum, last time it seemed to stunt the plants for a couple weeks where they put out nasty deformed wee leaves.

Is neem oil a good idea?

Thanks

[tryptamine]

I use Neem on mine, not specifically for aphids, but critters in general, apply it after the sun goes down a few night in a row, making sure to also spray the underside of the leaves. The plants don,t seem to mind, just be sure to leave it a couple of weeks before harvesting.

[solomon]

Cheers man, will get some tomorrow.

[gogogadget]

yea yea rub it in

Edited April 1, 2011 by gogogadget

[DarkSpark]

I use Neem on mine, not specifically for aphids, but critters in general, apply it after the sun goes down a few night in a row, making sure to also spray the underside of the leaves. The plants don,t seem to mind, just be sure to leave it a couple of weeks before harvesting.

 

I thought neem has a 3 day withholding period, even for food products. I would assume a week would probably be long enough. Time to go dig out the bottle.

Maybe thats what i did to my sally, sprayed with pyrethrum and ended up with really messed up growth.

[Marcel]

Yeah, pyrethrum really messes with my brugmansias. Makes any unopened calyx shrivel up and refuse to blossom. I might give neem oil a whirl when the spider-mites return.

[mescalito]

Yeah go the neem and rub the leaves to remove as much of the little buggers as you can...I had terrible troubles with my Chillis. But as said before re-apply several times.Make sure to blast the leaves with a little pump spray to get them off too and to wash off any residue.

If it rains stick her out in it!...unless it's in the ground already.

A mixture of soap and neem works well.Just don't expect them to piss off too quick as they lay eggs like mad.

Also Marigolds will attract them away,so you can have one several meters away and they will tend to attack the sacrificial plant over Sal.

Be vigilante and patient LOL

Good Luck centipede

[gogogadget]

lady birds can be bought online also pretty sure they eat aphids

[Magicdirt]

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Edited May 8, 2011 by Magicdirt

[planthelper]

aphids are often a green house pest, or what ever growing conditions favors there existance.

i'm sure your plant doesn't get any direct rain, and is kept in a too dry enviroment and probably a bit under nourished.

sometimes, you can move a plant like this to a better spot, and the pest goes away right away.

as said, spray with the hand mister often, specialy the underneath.

try to find a better spot for her.

fertilizer her if you feel she could be undernourished, pest's love under ferted plants.

most of the time, we avoid spraying, but if the infestation is bad, than we have to help the plant.

i would use pyrethrum, and make sure i can deliver a very fine mist.

after 2 min only, i wash all of the pyrethrum residue off, using another mister, filled with tank water.

many plants are very sensitive to pyrethrum, i would rather have to, spray again, than burning the leaves.

[mescalito]

http://www.goodbugs.org.au/

http://www.biomites.com.au/

When I finally got my Chillis under control...wel almost it pissed down rain,so I put them out and the next day a friendly wasp was doing the round having a feast

Edited April 2, 2011 by mescalito

[solomon]

Also check for ants around where they are growing, ants cultivate aphids and cart them from plant to plant.

Talcum powder will stop ants walking on a hard surface, they won't walk anywhere with that has been dusted.

 

Magicdirt, ants are uncommon where I am, I think maybe it's the temperature here.

 

aphids are often a green house pest, or what ever growing conditions favors there existance.

i'm sure your plant doesn't get any direct rain, and is kept in a too dry enviroment and probably a bit under nourished.

 

Yeah Planthelper, it isn't outside in the rain, it's in a very sunny window inside. I haven't put any SD outside yet as I had always thought it would be too cold.

 

http://www.goodbugs.org.au/

http://www.biomites.com.au/

 

Bugs in the mail

I had never thought about mealybug predators, something I will have to look into..

Thanks for the replies, I will try spraying the aphids off with water first and if that fails will resort to neem and then pyrethrum if the neem doesn't do the trick.

[mescalito]

Go garlic and chilli with some water and a little green-safe dish-washing liquid before the Pyrethrum dude....trust me

Look up recipes based on this.

Good luck dude.

[planthelper]

I haven't put any SD outside yet as I had always thought it would be too cold.

 

sometimes sally can be upset and she will not grow for a while, but set this aside, i think your sally would have grown better outdoors than indoors, you don't do her any favors at the window location.

divinorum will activly keep growing even if temperatures drop, they even can survive mild frosts (maybe -3 deg C if sheltered). so i would put her outside and only bring her in over winter.

it's important you get a plant which will suffer over winter, in tip top shape before winter arrives, because a strong healthy plant, will over winter much better, than a struggling one.

you will not be able to get rid of that pest longterm, even if your plant has been cleaned of the pest, as the amphids will always return. if you stick to the same spot, make sure the plant is well nourished and misted.

it is possible to grow them idoors, but believe me they will never thrive, same as a tomatoe plant in the same situation would only fruit poorly. people in england, put ther salvias outside over there short and cold summer and even there, they put on enourmous growth.

divinorum sometimes suffers from leafcurl and there growth get stunned, if that happens, just keep normal care up to them, till they recover. but if you think, you can force them into growing activly, (by ferting too much, or giving them, {the struggling plant}, too much light)you might kill them.

in short, if they leaves get deformed and she almost stopps growing, than just play it cool, and she will recover!

[solomon]

Thanks for the suggestion Mesc, I will look into that first as I have all those things at hand.

Thanks for the info on growing her PH, I never knew she was so hardy.

I will put one healthy plant outside and see how it does PH.

I have always wanted to try but in the past didn't have enough clones to risk it.

They have only put out deformed/stunted growth before once, which was when I acclimatized them from full humidity. Oh and when I used the pyrethrum.

Will report back on the aphids and the outdoor plant.

[mescalito]

Cool man,listen to PH hey!

Cloning is simple, back when they were legal I just put a clean cut almost leafless stem straight into a glass of water and kept it warm,changed the water everyday tho until roots sprouted.

Lucky bugger

[solomon]

Yeh PH sure is helpful when it comes to plants.

Mmm that's how I used to strike them, I've found they strike quicker just putting them in some nice soil, with or without rooting hormone.

Now the problem is I have too many clones, one of the reasons putting some in the ground is so appealing as I run out of space inside and in the greenhouse.

Anyway, I'm off to try out the chilli/garlic/green detergent mix, I've read that it is a good idea to reapply this spray every couple of days.

Should I mist the plants with water after they have had a couple hours with the chilli/garlic mix?

[mescalito]

IME give them a day then wash with force blasting with a mini-pump spray underneath is where they will hide at night,let the bugs re-emerge then hit'em again.

Repeat until they're gone...but don't forget about utilising sacrificial plants(Marigolds) as when they bugger off ya plants they will head there and give Sal a break.

Always have marigold on hand as they will suffer the attack,so you will need to replace them.There are other sacrificial plants too,just can't remember off-hand.

Do the spraying early in morning and at night,not during the day.

YEP it's a pain in the arse!

If you can afford to,then get some predators and learn about keeping/breeding them.

You might get some customers

[CβL]

Some other options would be spraying with nicotine or caffeine solution. These are quite good at killing bugs. I haven't tried personally though, so it'd be an experiment.

[2Deep2Handle]

My spiders protect my garden....Their my 'soldiers' or 'warriors' as i call them. I also have a resident big orange wasp that lives on a picture frame out the back of mine that i've caught collecting various types of caterpillars and stuffing his nest/eggs with :D

Best of all though, my shade house behind my shed has about 6 resident geckos that keep it spotless. ahhhh...the circle of life.

In summary fight bugs with bugs...natures way!

Then you never have to worry about 'tainting' your gnomes medications.