Citrus scale
I’ve been spending the day answering gardening questions and thought some of these are worth sharing.
Question from Marblehead, MA: I have rust colored insects attacking my Meyer lemon tree plants. The leaves are sticky and blackening. Can you please recommend a treatment?
Answer: Citrus plants are susceptible to scale, which is the problem with your lemon tree. I have two approaches, both which are effective and non-toxic. The first is to wipe off the scale from leaves and branches with a piece of gauze soaked in rubbing alcohol. Depending on the size of the plant this may or may not be practical. Neem oil does an excellent job in treating scale. A small amount of oil is combined with water and applied from a spray bottle. We offer for sale and recommend Dyna-Gro Pure Neem Oil.
Filed under: Gardening, Greetings From The Garden, garden | Tagged: , Meyer Lemon, scale
We have orange and lemon trees which are infested…infested with scale. I am not sure what kind of treatment is required and washing all 6 very mature trees (30 years old at least) would take me a very long time. What would you recommend to treat them and at what time in the growing season…I don’t mind losing a crop if it means these trees will profit and keep our garden the joy that it is. Thank you in advance, Monica
Thirty year old trees are far too valuable to lose and you should treat when the problem appears. My first choice would be a spray of neem oil (azidactrin) properly diluted according to package directions. You can combine this with an insecticidal soap for better coverage. You will probably need to repeat treatment in one week if scale persists. If you cannot locate a neem product use horticultural oil to smother the scale.
Examine plants for the presence of ants. They set up farming operations to collect the sweet secretions from scale and will spread the scale as well as attack predatory insects. If your trees are planted in ground you may wish to carefully wrap or paint the trunks with some type of sticky barrier. These are remedies that won’t be toxic to you or the environment.