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Fact Sheet: Ask It/Solve It

Josh identifies a wind damaged crepe myrtle and Sophie helps with a mite problem

Presenter: The Gardening Australia Team, 05/03/2011

SERIES 22 Episode 04

JOSH BYRNE: So what have you got there?

NORMA, MARINO SA: Well a problem with a Crepe Myrtle.

JOSH BYRNE: That's mainly wind damage. So what you need to do is to provide some wind protection to this plant. Now I understand it's one of the low growing forms of Crepe Myrtle so that should be quite easy to do. The other thing is, it's probably showing some signs of some salt damage that happens towards the end of summer, so if you just shandy your water with some rainwater to dilute the salts and just rest the soil, increase the humus level in the soil, you should find that comes good.

NORMA, MARINO SA: Ok. Well that sounds fine. Good.


JEAN, BRIGHTON SA: I have this leaf - a Frangipani leaf and they're growing in a couple of pots and I've got this leaf damage.

SOPHIE THOMSON: You certainly have and that's a great indication of mite damage. Whenever you see this sort of speckled white it's because mites which you almost can't see to the naked eye, you really need a magnifying lens, they're tiny little sap sucking creatures and we have a huge problem in Adelaide with them. They affect all sorts of ornamental and vegies and basically, they only proliferate when we have hot, dry conditions. And being in a pot, this plant's probably drying out a little bit. The best way to treat it is two-fold. One is to make the plant happier and healthier and possibly to make the conditions that it proliferates in like the dry heat, less. So squirt with a hose up under the foliage - that will reduce the numbers, make sure that there's no dry, dusty surfaces on the top of the pot. And then the other thing is to use a 'miticide'. Now you can use either a sulphur spray when the temperature's aren't that hot or an insecticide or soap spray and they're friendly miticides that'll basically cause the mites to wither up. Unfortunately, the damage stays there - until the leaves fall off at least.

JEAN, BRIGHTON SA: Fair enough.
