June Flowers of the day

[davidwood]

My plants are always slow out of the gate so I was really pleased with my Saffron today.

Ian

I am on the waiting list for this and cant wait,it looks wondefull.

[jpiper82]

Charlie, Heaven Scent is now starting to bud up, a beautiful plant, I expect it to flower later in the month as we expected. Belle de Jour is a two day bloomer!, as is Valentines Day.  I have been watering from the bottom up and then top down, already started my Spinosad program, can't be too cautious! Temp yesterday was 99 deg.  I  have three blooms at one time on Chariots of Fire, not bad for having been repotted only last week.

Now that Orthenex (spelling) is no longer available in the spray cans, I have swiched to Bonide's Systemic Insect Killer with Acephate 9.4% to alternate with Spinosad. what do you think?
John

[Darkhorse]

Will take care of thrips on Monday, or maybe even this evening when I get home.  I think my Voodoo Magic has them too, as it dropped a big bud overnight.  Also, I did see a little pencil mark looking creature running around in my flower.  From what I remember last year, thrips are easy to treat.



Heartbreak Hotel and It's A Wonderful Life arrived yesterday!!!!   

[Charlie]

John, I'm so glad to hear that things are working out well so far. As for the Bonide acephate, that's a great one for using from time to time to prevent thrips becoming resistant to spinosad. I can't get it here from my distributor, must be a California thing (most overregulated state in the country), but it's very effective against thrips. I would use spinosad twice followed by one treatment of acephate over a 2 week time period if thrips are doing damage.

Charlie

[Darkhorse]

Charlie would a good alternative method for spraying thrips be spraying 2x with Spinosad followed by 1x with Ortho Rosepride Insect, Disease, and Mite Control?  I believe we talked about Ortho Rosepride last year.  I got it in a spray can from Home Depot... it has acephate in it but only .25%.  It also apparently controls spider mites (it claims).

I don't know if you've used it yet but it's pretty harsh from what I remember using it once last year.  It's a product you definitely need a respirator to spray safely.

[davidwood]

John, I'm so glad to hear that things are working out well so far. As for the Bonide acephate, that's a great one for using from time to time to prevent thrips becoming resistant to spinosad. I can't get it here from my distributor, must be a California thing (most overregulated state in the country), but it's very effective against thrips. I would use spinosad twice followed by one treatment of acephate over a 2 week time period if thrips are doing damage.

Charlie

A quick question on thrips.I get bud drop on 2 of my cv's,but only 2,the othes  are all ok.Are thrips mobile like spider mites,or is the fact with all the others being ok its unlikely to be thrips.

[Darkhorse]

David,

   Adult thrips are flies-- I believe-- so they can be mobile.  Try Charlie's test for thrips--  rip open a fallen bud and shake it over a white piece of paper.  It you see tiny little moving black creatures or yellow creatures you have thrips.  If your eyesight is good and there's a pretty decent infestation you can rip a fallen bud open and see them crawling around inside.  Thrips only cause the larger buds to fall off, so if tiny buds are dropping you have a different problem. 

[Darkhorse]

Excellent day for blooms today!

Black Dragon, Creole Lady and It's a Wonderful Life bloomed for me!

[helixturnhelix]

Nice Pics Jordan!  It's a Wonderful Life is impressive, especially since if I remember they were 4" pots that were for sale!  I hope that we can see some blue in future blooms of that one!

[davidwood]

Thanks Jordan,i just did as was suggested and i cant see nothing.I think the bud drop may be more due to the heat.I am going to move into a more shady area and see what happens.

[Charlie]

Charlie would a good alternative method for spraying thrips be spraying 2x with Spinosad followed by 1x with Ortho Rosepride Insect, Disease, and Mite Control?  I believe we talked about Ortho Rosepride last year.  I got it in a spray can from Home Depot... it has acephate in it but only .25%.  It also apparently controls spider mites (it claims).

I don't know if you've used it yet but it's pretty harsh from what I remember using it once last year.  It's a product you definitely need a respirator to spray safely.

Jordan, I'm glad you posed this question about acephate. The best way to use this wide spectrum insecticide is to just spray the tops of every stem and over any buds or flowers that are on the plant. You should not spray the entire plant and it is not necessary to spray up under the leaves for thrips control. This way you do not kill off the important beneficial predatory insects that may be on the lower parts of the plant but will get the thrips that are around the flower buds. The "harshness" you noticed will also be less stressful to the plant overall if you only spray over the tops of the stems and buds.

Acephate has a strong and unpleasant odor so is for outside use only. Since spinosad works so well against thrips the only reason to use acephate occasionally is to kill off any thrips that are becoming resistant to spinosad. I have first hand experience that this resistance will happen if you spray exclusively with spinosad in a greenhouse. It might not happen at all or not very quickly if used in an open garden but I would still alternate with acephate at least every 6th time when spraying for thrips. If you only need to treat for thrips a couple of times a summer you could just use spinosad and forget the acephate as long as it continues to be effective.

I don't know the other ingredients in the Rosepride product but it is doubtful that they provide much mite control. It's worth a try if mites are a problem but don't couint on full control from this product. Same with the Bayer 3-in-1 - it will help but is not usually a complete solution to a mite infestation.

Charlie

Charlie

[Charlie]

A quick question on thrips.I get bud drop on 2 of my cv's,but only 2,the othes  are all ok.Are thrips mobile like spider mites,or is the fact with all the others being ok its unlikely to be thrips.

John, yes thrips are mobile, much more so than mites. They can fly and can cover much larger distances than mites. As you know, high heat can cause bud drop in hibiscus that is unrelated to thrips. However, thrips also reproduce very rapidly in high heat and are often involved when temperatures are high. Since it can be hard to figure out if thrips are the cause I always go ahead and treat with spinosad so that I do not lose a lot of buds to them. Almost always less bud drop is the result, even in high temperatures.

For commercial growers the idea of "econonically significant" damage controls a lot of decisions about when to spray. It is impossible to get rid of all insects and is too costly to even attempt it. A small amount of insect damage is considered acceptable but we watch for the level at which that damage is about to become so bad that plants cannot be shipped and try to make sure treatments reduce the insects to the point where natural predators can keep them at low levels.

A similar idea can help you decide when to spray and when not to. Loss of a couple of buds is probably acceptable but loss of half the buds on your plants is probably not. Trying to prevent all loss of buds is going to be a challenge and will be time consuming and somewhat costly although spinosad is one of the cheaper pesticides.

Be sure that low water stress is not the cause of bud drop before assuming insects. Hibiscus watered in the morning can actually be in a drought situation and in distress by late afternoon. That happens before actual wilting of leaves is observed and can cause bud drop and lack of bud formation. This happens regularly with plants that have grown too large for their pots. A second watering is needed in that case or better yet transplant to a larger pot so that the water lasts from one watering to the next.

And, some bud drop is related to the specific variety. Doubles drop a lot more than singles, generally speaking. My observation has been that varieties that form very large buds before opening suffer from bud drop more than varieties that make smaller buds before opening. Final flower size is not involved. For example, Dragons Breath makes huge impressive buds that have often been reported to drop before opening in hot weather. Fantasy Charm makes relatively small buds (but huge flowers) that do not drop even in high temperature if watered well.

Please keep us updated about what you observe.

Charlie

[Charlie]

Excellent day for blooms today!

Black Dragon, Creole Lady and It's a Wonderful Life bloomed for me!

Pretty flowers, Jordan! How big was the It's a Wonderful Life bloom? If not at least 8 inches you can expect it to grow larger. Also try feeling the texture of the flower -  it is nice and heavy which helps it hold good form when it maxes out the size.

Charlie

[Darkhorse]

The IAWL was huge!  About 7 or 8 inches from my guess although I didn't measure it.  You're right about the texture.  It's just about perfect.  I do enjoy the more heavily textured flowers as compared to the thinner, flatter blooms.
 

I actually made myself late to work yesterday waiting for the 3 blooms to open all the way.  lol  Always good to have your priorities straight in life.......

[helixturnhelix]

95 degrees today!  So first love was showing her So Cal colors