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Crape myrtle bark scale sooty mold
Chinch bugs in St. Augustine
Crape myrtle bark scale sooty mold
Chinch bugs in St. Augustine
Dear Neil: What do I do with a diseased crape myrtle that looks like it’s been through a fire?
Answer: Your plant has been attacked by crape myrtle bark scale. They’re the white, practically immobile insects that are attached to the stems. They suck the sap out of the leaves and twigs and secrete sticky honeydew residue. Black sooty mold fungus grows in the honeydew substrate. The good news is that the sooty mold is essentially harmless. It will slough off as the bark peels away the following spring. You may have seen my recommendation of applying the systemic insecticide Imidacloprid as a soil drench in mid-May to prevent the scale from getting a start.
Dear Neil: I have two 24-by-24-inch wooden planter boxes that are 36 inches deep. I have not been able to get any vegetables to grow in them. I recently discovered that the potting soil gets very hard between waterings. What can I do?
Answer: You may have answered the question for yourself. Potting soil needs to be loose, highly organic and well-draining. I mix my own using 45 to 50% sphagnum peat moss, 25% finely ground pine bark mulch, 20% sandy loam topsoil and 10% expanded shale. Fertilize each time that you water with a water-soluble, high-nitrogen fertilizer. Supplement that with a complete-and-balanced timed-release food. Be sure the containers both have good drainage – large holes that allow water to percolate through freely.
Dear Neil: I planted this Meyer lemon in a half whiskey barrel in March 2022. I’m seeing “black” lemons right beside the normal lemons. What causes that?
Answer: They have aborted, probably due to lack of pollination. You really want to have good bee activity around all of the flowers, and when you don’t you can expect the primordial fruit to shrivel and turn black. By the way, you’ll need to move it up to a larger container very soon. Don’t let it get rootbound. If the plant gets dry, that can also lead to aborted fruit.
Dear Neil: Happily, my Mexican fan palm has progressed out from under too much shade for 20 years. But what has caused this trunk disruption pictured? Can I fix it?
Answer: The plant looks terrific, so my first inclination would be to do nothing and let it continue to grow on its own. Many times when we perceive a problem and try to “help,” we end up doing more damage than good. It appears that some of the leaf bases on the bottom side of the trunk may have been trimmed really short or they may have decayed. The question will be if the trunk is still sound. If you do anything you might want to have a certified arborist familiar with palms look at it closely on site to see if he or she could detect any specific problem.
Dear Neil: My once-beautiful St. Augustine lawn has been riddled with chickweed (got rid of it with weed-and-feed) and now doveweed (need any suggestions – I’m told only hand pulling works). But chinch bugs are my biggest problem. I’ve treated twice already and it still looks really bad. Help.
Answer: Chickweed is a cool-season annual that can be prevented by applying pre-emergent weedkiller granules September 1. The seeds will never germinate. Doveweed is a warm-season weed that can be prevented with the same pre-emergent granules applied mid-March and repeated mid-June. Doveweed also prefers wet spots so let the soil dry out between waterings. Step up your feeding program as well. And as for chinch bugs, unless you’ve actually seen them, I doubt if you’ve had that many chinch bugs for that many weeks. I think you might have had take all root rot instead. It’s the April/May late-spring disease, which would explain why the insecticide wasn’t helping. I’m also seeing telltale round patches suggestive of brown patch (large patch), although it normally shows up in the fall. I just spent a full day posting an extremely detailed description of each of the St. Augustine problems and how you can identify and solve them on my website. You can access it from my website’s home page at https://neilsperry.com.
Dear Neil: I planted 23 Encore azaleas at our home last spring. They have been beautiful, but now they are starting to show iron deficiency symptoms. I’m using a 9-13-11 fertilizer with 3 percent iron and I’ve added 8 pounds of iron sulfate plus a new layer of bark. Their bed is 30 inches wide. What more should I do to prevent iron deficiency?
Answer: What I don’t know is the pH of your native soil and how you prepared the planting bed in the first place. In acidic soils of East Texas all gardeners need to add is a bit of organic matter to help hold moisture and nutrients, but for most of the rest of the state, where soils are generally very alkaline (as are irrigation waters), it’s imperative that azaleas be planted into beds 10 or 12 inches below grade and 6 to 8 inches above grade, and that those beds consist of equal amounts of sphagnum peat moss and finely ground pine bark mulch (no native soil). Without that basic knowledge I don’t know where to start in advising you. You may need to dig and replant these this winter, or you might be able to get by with a water-soluble liquid iron product if you already have a suitable soil mix. (Remember that iron products can stain masonry and painted surfaces.)
— Have a question for Neil? Mail it to him in care of this newspaper or e-mail him at mailbag@sperrygardens.com. Neil regrets that he cannot reply to questions individually.