The Tropical Fruit Forum

Citrus => Citrus General Discussion => Topic started by: Millet on September 02, 2019, 11:57:01 AM

Title: Insect Free Tree
Post by: Millet on September 02, 2019, 11:57:01 AM
The temperature has been in the nineties for most of the month, and mealy bug and especially scale has been a problem.  I have found then on Santa Teresa lemon, Dekopon, Cara Cara, Sour Orange and New Zealand Lemonade..  However, for the entire summer not one insect has been found on the Valentine pummelo.  In fact I have never had an insect problem on that tree.
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: luak on September 02, 2019, 07:00:43 PM
Millet, do you know the life cycle of scale, do they start in soil.
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: Bomand on September 02, 2019, 07:40:41 PM
They spend their entire life on the host plant.  The reproduce on the plant. They are hard to control because reproduction take place under their armor. You have to have something to smother them to kill them. They produce honeydew that attracts other pest and the excrement will feed sooty mold. Neem oil will control them but is not for use when temps are high as they are now.
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: luak on September 02, 2019, 08:29:25 PM
did a spray with a chemical my wife use by accident. i use some of her empties for spraying my tree's. It work and did not hurt the tree's. I also use Imidan this past spring that work also, ants gone too.

(https://i.postimg.cc/RNVwzwnB/DSC00444.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/RNVwzwnB)
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: Millet on September 02, 2019, 08:44:48 PM
Common scale starts as an egg from its mother, usually on the leaves or branches of a plant. The egg then develops into two immature stages called Instars. The first instar stage are known as crawlers.  Crawlers move around the plant and in approximately one day's time settles down permanently on a particular spot of the host plant for the rest of their lives.  Then starts the second immature stage called the 2nd instar stage witch matures into the adult.  The adult causes all the damage to the plant by sucking out the juices of the plant. During periods of high temperatures scale can reproduce quickly.
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: SeaWalnut on September 02, 2019, 09:25:40 PM
That tree probably has a better immune system. The efficience of citrus essential oil as an insecticide.They say its as strong as thyme oil here https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4015406/ (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4015406/)
I think it would make a short work of these insects without killing the beneficial ladybugs and without having to spray poisons on the plants.
I just bought from supermarket somme lemmons and at home ive red on the label ,, Warning:Do not eat the peel ! Treated with Tiabendazol and Imazalil .'' .
I wonder how manny people eat these poisons without even knowing of them like when they buy individual lemons at supermarkets where the warning stays on the big crate label wich most people dont read.
(https://i.postimg.cc/KYsMPk0D/20190903-042608.jpg)
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: brian on September 03, 2019, 01:22:13 PM
My Valentine pummelo had spider mites along with the rest.  I doubt it is a genetic resistance.
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: Bomand on September 03, 2019, 01:46:55 PM
I also have a pommelo with spider mites.....but the spinosid, light neem oil and miticide have just about done them in. Some mites reprouduce in as little as 20 days. You gotta keep after them if you have a large problem.
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: Millet on September 03, 2019, 09:03:36 PM
My Valentine pummelo has been in the ground perhaps 5 or 6 years.  I am really not sure.  However, in the time I have been growing it don't remember ever having to spray the tree for insects of any kind.
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: lebmung on September 04, 2019, 04:43:35 AM
A systemic insecticide such as thiamethoxam will kill all scale in few days and for good, because they suck the sap and get suffocated. It's a good, one time treatment for all citrus that get into a protected greenhouse.
A side effect is that it will kill bees also. Best is to spray in winter after fruit harvest and during my a non flowering period.
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: Bomand on September 04, 2019, 09:24:46 AM
I can see using a systemic as a one time cure all for scale. The collateral damage to other insects would be mimimal. I use a systemic outside also. It has to be reapplied at intervals. I try not to use one that coincides with the bloom....but I will if it becomes a tree survial issue.
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: SeaWalnut on September 04, 2019, 06:40:14 PM
Bees couldnt care less about somme citrus trees in a greenhouse sprayed with poisons.
It will kill a few bees,maybe a dozzen,but a single queen can lay 2000 eggs in a day.
2000 bees would polinate a small citrus orange in just an hour or maybe less.
The major concern about the poisons its that you kill yourself over time by eating the fruits ( and otthers if you give them fruits)not the bees.
After reading the label on those lemons from supermarket im tempted to finally get one or 2 lemon trees to have my own lemons not treated with pesticides.
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: Bomand on September 04, 2019, 07:32:22 PM
I find no such labels on supermarket fruit. Tne bagged lemons and citrus have lots of information but not any of the chemicals on the label posted. With the focus on food safety, if one would be poisoned it would probably come from improper use of pesticide. I use caution and adhere to the directions for use. I am not aginst proper pesticide use.
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: SeaWalnut on September 04, 2019, 07:46:24 PM
I find no such labels on supermarket fruit. Tne bagged lemons and citrus have lots of information but not any of the chemicals on the label posted. With the focus on food safety, if one would be poisoned it would probably come from improper use of pesticide. I use caution and adhere to the directions for use. I am not aginst proper pesticide use.
You dont see such labels because you have less regulations there .
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: kumin on September 04, 2019, 08:08:39 PM
Seawalnut, your label is a good reminder that Romanian is a Romance language, rather than a Slavic language.
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: lebmung on September 06, 2019, 05:01:17 PM
Bees couldnt care less about somme citrus trees in a greenhouse sprayed with poisons.
It will kill a few bees,maybe a dozzen,but a single queen can lay 2000 eggs in a day.
2000 bees would polinate a small citrus orange in just an hour or maybe less.
The major concern about the poisons its that you kill yourself over time by eating the fruits ( and otthers if you give them fruits)not the bees.
After reading the label on those lemons from supermarket im tempted to finally get one or 2 lemon trees to have my own lemons not treated with pesticides.

Make no sense to fill your space with lemons. Lemons are in supermarket you can buy Bio which are not treated with anything of course 4 times the price for good one, but it is worth it.
Try to grow limes they make all year round and don't need to get yellow.
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: brian on September 07, 2019, 10:06:29 PM
Limes produce year-round?  I just heard the opposite, and my experience so far is that they only bloom in spring (mexican, persian)
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: Millet on September 08, 2019, 10:52:29 AM
In a follow up to Brian's post. I had a large in ground Bearss Lime tree.  It produced more limes then I could ever begin to use.  It only set one large crop per year, it did not bear fruit throughout the year.  I eventually got rid of the tree to replace it with a Valentine Pummelo due to the amount of space I have available to grown citrus.. Plus I don't use limes very much.
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: daytripper on September 09, 2019, 11:02:12 AM
My Persian lime blooms multiple times during the year.  It just started blooming again the other day.  This was the third time it bloomed since it went outside in May.  I have some limes that are just about fully ripened and I have pea sized limes.
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: Millet on September 09, 2019, 03:07:35 PM
Day tripper, does your P. Lime only bloom during the summer months?
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: lebmung on September 09, 2019, 04:21:08 PM
Limes produce year-round?  I just heard the opposite, and my experience so far is that they only bloom in spring (mexican, persian)

Yes they flower all year round, they don't grow that much during the winter or fruit gets aborted. A small size lime 2 feet high has about 10-14 limes. This is a cutting, a cutting will produce fruit very fast. Grafted on other rootstock they will not flower all the time.
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: daytripper on September 10, 2019, 09:31:44 AM
Day tripper, does your P. Lime only bloom during the summer months?

It will bloom in the winter but not as often.  I get about 3 blooms from may-sept while it is outside, and maybe 2 the rest of the year while indoors.  While indoors it sits in front of a south facing window with a 4 ft 4 bulb t5 above it which is on 8 hours a day.
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: SeaWalnut on September 13, 2019, 03:45:20 PM
This time i tryed to buy limes from supermarket,instead of lemons.I put them in a bag and right before leaving the fruit sector i see under the limes price tag ,the warning ,,is not recomended to eat the skin,,.
From ,,do not eat the skin,, to ,,its not recomended to eat the skin,, its a short way and probably a marketing trick used to sell their poisonous lemons and limes.
So i got back to the limes box and decided not to buy them since i wanted to use these for cooking trout in aluminum foil and i use the whoole lemon/ limes to flavour the meat.
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: Millet on September 13, 2019, 09:54:07 PM
SeaWalnut, the label is not referring to an insecticide, but the caution is because the fruit is washed in a fungicide bath.  Eating the fruit, or using its juice will not harm you in the least.  In my opinion you are being way over cautious. Actually just about all citrus varieties are washed in a fungicide bath, and have a wax coating applied to them, at least in the USA.  By simply washing the fruit in warm water should take care of the situation. However, do what you wish.
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: Bomand on September 13, 2019, 09:58:13 PM
My self imposed program is to wash all fruit and produce no matter where it comes from. Its just a good healthy practice. If I did not buy the things I need becaus I was afraid that I would be harmed.....I would soon starve to death.
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: SeaWalnut on September 14, 2019, 07:35:42 PM
SeaWalnut, the label is not referring to an insecticide, but the caution is because the fruit is washed in a fungicide bath.  Eating the fruit, or using its juice will not harm you in the least.  In my opinion you are being way over cautious. Actually just about all citrus varieties are washed in a fungicide bath, and have a wax coating applied to them, at least in the USA.  By simply washing the fruit in warm water should take care of the situation. However, do what you wish.
Did you see the label ive posted above ,where the producer says ,,do not eat the skin,,.
And your wrong in your statement that you can wash them well because the wax coating used to protect the surface prevents you from washing them even if you would use detergent.
To clean the wax coating you would have to wash the fruits in oil like a regular edible oil to remouve the wax first and after that you can use dishwashing detergent to eash the oil.
Using water to wash the wax thats mixed and covered the poisons would not work because wax and water do not mix,cant be washed.
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: Bomand on September 14, 2019, 08:53:10 PM
Bowmand has left the building.
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: SeaWalnut on September 14, 2019, 09:53:44 PM
Bowmand has left the building.
Only from that? I wasnt even give the reply to you because ive read your a woman,you like pesticides as much as possible and politics..
I apologise if i somehow offended you but dont be such a drama queen since this is a fruit forum.
Note,i dont wash the lemons in oil to remouve the wax,that was just a sugestion about a cleaning practice that works.
I have experience in cleaning wax/ parrafine because i am a beekeeper and i also boil my wood beehives in wax instead of just painting them.
Ive just ate a rare fruit that nobody on the whoole continent eats it ,without fear,im not too much affraid of pesticides,like normal people but if it says on the label ,, do not eat the peel,, i think its reasonable to follow that.
I am not trying to open the can of worms here and say lemons are poisonous just that i have an opinion- if you have 2-3 lemons,better keep them bio ,as natural as possible with the least possible pesticides treatments.
Id use ladybugs instead of somme chemical poison to treat my trees.

@Millet,im really not overly cautious,just reasonable.Immagine somewhone making jams from the peel of those lemons that have ,,do not eat the skin,, on the label.
Title: Re: Insect Free Tree
Post by: Millet on September 14, 2019, 09:56:51 PM
SeaWalnut, I see you are an extremely cautious person.  The best advice I can offer you is to throw away all your fruit and never ever purchase any more .  By doing so you will have nothing to worry about again.