I had the same problem and found (by accident) that if you spray with insecticide BEFORE the rose buds open then you stand a better chance of seeing off th bugs. Y
Thank you for the suggestion of anti-fungal treatment on my lemon trees: I sprayed them with the same stuff as we put on the vines and they are distinctly better, putting on a lot of new leaf and the odd fruit, the infestation (whatever it was) has almost disappeared.Y
RussI too find a lot of the grubs around the place - I had thought they were Vine Weevils but I now see that I am up against something rather more nasty. They often appear in plant pots after the winter and in ground that has recently been grassland.I doubt that slug pellets are going to really do very much against the grubs but chickens sound pretty effective. Chemicals supplied by Bayer as powder for soil pest eradication does seem to work.If you want an organic system, there is a firm AgriEmporio which does online sales and their catalogue has nematodes: http://www.agriemporio.it/If you cannot find what you are looking on the home page for try typing 'biologico' into the search box on their website.I have not used this site myself so if anybody does please let me know if it is any good.Y
An authority on olive growing and harvesting who lives near Orvieto and was previously Australiam Minster of Agriculture has written this book which I recommend most highly:http://www.cottage-umbria.com/GrowingOlives.htmlAlso the rest of his website makes good reading.Y
Great to get your review of what grows here - very usefule. You are lucky to have found a local vivaio that has a good range of plants - most of us spend all our days driving around looking for new varieties!You are welcome to visit vivaio Margheriti but be warned - it is a vast vast place and the prices are sky high. Also they often don't have the plants in stock that they show in the catalogue. Nonetheless their catalogue is extremely useful and their plant comments are tuned to the locals growing conditions. But i would suggest that if you are going to travel over to the Chiusi area then you might try a much smaller and specialied vivaio where the owner is onsite and can help you in person: Salto del Prete, Canale, Città della Pieve 0578 294506. Lucia Scrovacricchi helped me plant up the terraces around my pond - do take a look at my blog to see the project. Happy plant hunting!
My lemon trees had a pretty tough winter as the place I had put them ended up being much colder than I had planned (windows of the out building blew in and have only just now been replaced). But the main trouble is that they get nasty white blobs all over the stems and whilst I try to pick these off and spray with anti bug stuff it just comes back. Ideas?Y
Comments posted
Just a quick remark about the idea that your tree might be a boy - what nonsense!
I had the same problem and found (by accident) that if you spray with insecticide BEFORE the rose buds open then you stand a better chance of seeing off th bugs. Y
Thank you for the suggestion of anti-fungal treatment on my lemon trees: I sprayed them with the same stuff as we put on the vines and they are distinctly better, putting on a lot of new leaf and the odd fruit, the infestation (whatever it was) has almost disappeared.Y
RussI too find a lot of the grubs around the place - I had thought they were Vine Weevils but I now see that I am up against something rather more nasty. They often appear in plant pots after the winter and in ground that has recently been grassland.I doubt that slug pellets are going to really do very much against the grubs but chickens sound pretty effective. Chemicals supplied by Bayer as powder for soil pest eradication does seem to work.If you want an organic system, there is a firm AgriEmporio which does online sales and their catalogue has nematodes: http://www.agriemporio.it/If you cannot find what you are looking on the home page for try typing 'biologico' into the search box on their website.I have not used this site myself so if anybody does please let me know if it is any good.Y
An authority on olive growing and harvesting who lives near Orvieto and was previously Australiam Minster of Agriculture has written this book which I recommend most highly:http://www.cottage-umbria.com/GrowingOlives.htmlAlso the rest of his website makes good reading.Y
Great to get your review of what grows here - very usefule. You are lucky to have found a local vivaio that has a good range of plants - most of us spend all our days driving around looking for new varieties!You are welcome to visit vivaio Margheriti but be warned - it is a vast vast place and the prices are sky high. Also they often don't have the plants in stock that they show in the catalogue. Nonetheless their catalogue is extremely useful and their plant comments are tuned to the locals growing conditions. But i would suggest that if you are going to travel over to the Chiusi area then you might try a much smaller and specialied vivaio where the owner is onsite and can help you in person: Salto del Prete, Canale, Città della Pieve 0578 294506. Lucia Scrovacricchi helped me plant up the terraces around my pond - do take a look at my blog to see the project. Happy plant hunting!
My lemon trees had a pretty tough winter as the place I had put them ended up being much colder than I had planned (windows of the out building blew in and have only just now been replaced). But the main trouble is that they get nasty white blobs all over the stems and whilst I try to pick these off and spray with anti bug stuff it just comes back. Ideas?Y