JOIN NOW LOG IN
iVillage GardenWeb iVillage GardenWeb THE INTERNET'S GARDEN & HOME COMMUNITY ADVERTISEMENT
Blogs Forums Photo Galleries Ask The Experts Tools & Directories        
Return to the Trees & Shrubs Forum | Post a Follow-Up

 o
Photinia's

Posted by Joyster3 2212 NSW Aust (My Page) on
Sat, Oct 2, 04 at 3:24

We are growing a heap of compact photinia's for planting at Bundanoon as a fence when our land finally is finally registered and we build. We are having trouble with something eating the leaves. Last year we found grubs in the new leaves that were growing. Of late the leaves seem to have been eaten but there is absolutely nothing on the leaves anywhere. Could there be something which comes at night that nibbles (eats) and then departs before they can be seen?


Follow-Up Postings:

 o
RE: Photinia's

Have you got earwigs in the garden as they come out at night & eat holes in leaves they are brown & strip with pinchers on the back if so I don't think you can do much to get rid of them
Jan.


 o
RE: Photinia's

Does it look like possum damage?


 o
RE: Photinia's

Vertivert8, Thank you for your response. No it wouldn't be possum damage as we don't have possums in our area but thanks anyway.

I see you like bonsai and cacti. I've been given a bonsai plant as a gift and it is a nice challenge.


 o
RE: Photinia's

I'm glad it wasn't possums! The scamper of little feet on the roof can be quite disconcerting, and the wild cackling!

About the bonsai: if it's in a shallow pot your biggest challenge is to prevent it from droughting over summer. Easiest is to immerse it in a bucket of rain water and wait until the bubbles stop. Daily, if necessary. Then rest it on gravel in a dish above some water to provide local humidity. It must have free drainage because standing in water will kill its feeder roots. Protect from afternoon sun, but leave it outdoors.

The second one is to keep it upright in the wind.

Third is remembering to feed it (half strength liquid such as MiracleGro) - and keep it's shape by tactful pruning.

If you can get hold of a book on bonsai by Dorothy Koroshoff, at the library or at your local bonsai club; she's Australian and is very practical.

As our president says, "You'll never look at trees the same way again." (Nor plants for sale at the garden centre...)


 o
RE: Photinia's

Thanks Vetivert8 for your notes on bonsai which I found very interesting and helpful.

By the way we caught some little green grasshopper looking bugs on our photinias and a couple of grubs.


 
 

 

 


Click here to learn more about in-text links on this page.



iVillage GardenWeb: The Internet's Garden & Home Community  
  iVillage Home & Garden Network