Rain, Rain Go Away!

Hey!
Recently Hawaii's been hit with some bad weather. Between high speed winds, and heavy rain the garden has definitely taken a big hit. I lost a bunch of seedlings, and many of my younger hybrids suffered some damage. Luckily Hibiscus are persistant plants. They will recover and be twice as vogrous as before.

Unfortunately a few days ago, I noticed a small amount of snow scale on a few of my hybrids. Snow scale is a pest that is hard to deal with for a few reasons. This pest lives on the bark of the hibiscus and looks like a bunch of white specs. They survive by sucking nutrients from the plants stem, and multiply rather quickly. They can easily multiply and become a severe infestation. Snow scales are particularly problematic because of their hard outter shell. This prevents pesticides from reaching the scale itself, therefore pesticides like Bayer 3-in-1 are ineffective. Many people will recommend a horticulture oil. This solution is effective, but also has some flaws. Horticulture oil if not applied via sprayer, will need to be applied to the bark manually using a sort of brush. Multiple applications may also be necessary in order to control the scales. I personally use Bayer Tree & Shrub, which is a systematic insecticide. Systematic insecticides are diluted and applied directly to the roots of the plants via watering. I prefer this because the effects of the insecticide lasts for about a year, and it's also a slow realease fertilizer. The downside to using Bayer Tree & Shrub is that it can only be used on ornamental plants. If you plan to harvest anything from your plants, I suggest the horticulture oil.

Thanks for reading, hopefully this stuff is useful to somebody besides myself. The blog is still under major construction, but I hope to have it looking amazing very soon!!

~Pic of the day~