Green Club

[Bunnylady]

Well, the Bunny's in a deep blue funk this morning. Hubby saw some whiteflies in the greenhouse, and decided to spray with Neem oil again. It's an organic product, one we've been using for years with no issues. This is the product that caused the damage a month or so ago. Thinking it might have been contamination in the sprayer, he bought a new sprayer that he has only used in the greenhouse. He has sprayed another chemical with no damage from that sprayer. He did a test spray on one plant, saw no damage, so he decided to spray everything a few days ago. Yesterday he saw a few bracts starting to curl. This morning, there are black, necrotic areas on a lot of the still-developing bracts, particularly on the red Poinsettias. The white ones look fine, but the majority of the crop is red, of course. It's hard to say at this point, but it looks like the majority of the crop is a write-off.

 

[Capvin]

Bunny, I have no doubt that the things you describe after using neem oil did, in fact, occur. My problem is I have no idea why??? In all my experience I have never heard of anything like that happening with using neem oil and would be very interested to find out why. What time of day was it used and what were the temps during and then after the use? Do research on line and see if the same or similar has happened to anyone else. I have not found anything.

 

[Bunnylady]

Nor has Hubby. Heaven knows, we've been through this dance many times. We know not to spray when the sunlight is too intense, etc - and this was a cloudy day. As for temperatures. this is a relatively small greenhouse (1000 sq. ft), the fan comes on at 80 degrees and the heater at 68 - so temps wouldn't be varying much. We're beginning to wonder about product contamination/adulteration. The brand we had been using was not available from the local source (a "big box") this year; they had another brand. The label indicates the same active ingredient and concentration as the previous one. This Spring, Hubby noticed some leaf curling when he sprayed with this product, but thought it was related to temperature or something else.

A few years ago, we suddenly found out that the various products we had been using for whitefly control were no longer effective. Research made us suspect that we had been "gifted" with the notorious Q-type whiteflies with that year's crop of cuttings.(I think that if you looked at one of these beasts under a microscope, you'd find that they don't have wings, they have a cape, with SWF for "Super White Fly" on it) There are only a very few products that are effective against the Q-type, so we want to use them sparingly. Neem oil had been working; it's a bummer to think we no longer have something so benign in the arsenal.

Oh, well, there's always next year.

 

[Wisher1000]

Oh, Bunny! What a shame! I was looking forward to pics of beautiful red Poinsettias (no more than you, I'm sure.) I hope that it is slight damage and that at least some can be salvaged. Are the white ones very popular? I see them every year but they do not say "Christmas" to me like the red ones.

 

[Bunnylady]

So, Hubby spent much of yesterday afternoon cutting the worst damaged bracts off the points. A lot that just had damage along the very edges he left. Knowing that the damage would likely provide a starting point for Botrytis (a fungus), he then sprayed everything with a fungicide. At the moment, the red points have white spots from the fungicide, but maybe, maybe . . . .

 

[sourland]

Hopefully!

 

[Wisher1000]

Jaaaaaaaaaayyyy - Deeeeeeeeeeeeeee? Anybody seen JD around here?

 

[EmtheFishLady]

Anybody want to borrow a kid who won't go to sleep?!?

 

[bluesub]

Me, me!!! Pick me!!!

 

[EmtheFishLady]

Yeah yeah Blue, she'd return even more spoiled than she already is!