Bugs and fungus

[Fidur]

I'm a beginner in his second spring.
When I begun I made some months of reading (thanks internet). I decided then to use only akadama and lava for my soils ( where I live, we are frostfree and akadama is easily avalaible).
Also, as my tap water is not any good, decided to use only collected rain water. I've fertilized with whatever I've found avalaible .

At first I was expecting as bugs and fungus as I could see in my garden plants. But to my surprise I only could see some (white fly, aphids, and a lot more I don´t know how to translate) but only a fraction of those in the garden. As soon as I saw them I killed them (mechanically or with a systemic). In this second spring there are even less than in the first and no fungus have appeared (my roses and others have oidium, roya,...).
Now I'm talking about +50 trees, evergreens, temperates, tropicals, ...

I try to understand what makes my trees less prone to infestations. I know I'm always watching my trees and looking for any problem, and that can be a good reason.
But I also think that my trees are helthier than the mean I observe here.
So maybe my soils and good watering could also have a rol.

What is your experience and thoughts?

PD: Some of my trees

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[Paradox]

The healthier the better for fending off bugs and fungus however health alone will probably not prevent insects and fungus attacking your trees.

Learning what bugs and fungus are prevalent in your area is the first line of defense. This will come with time as you keep trees, youll see things that tend to appear every year. Once you figure out what issues your area and trees are prone to, doing things to prevent an infestation in the first place is key when you can.

I have fungus in my area that infects my pines. To combat that I treat preventatively with products that prevent fungus infections. For some fungus, by the time you see it, its too late. They attack the newly emerged needles (talking pines here) and you wont actually see it manifest itself until a full year later. Its too late at that point, you need to do something to prevent the infection in the first place.

As for insects. I treat my trees in early spring with a granular insecticide to take care of any scale or other insects that tend to become prevalent on the trees in the spring. Other than that, I generally dont spray insecticides until I see a problem.

I also tend to treat my pines and junipers with neem oil before I put them in the cold frame for the winter as a fungus preventative and it also inhibits scale and other things from overwintering on the trees.

For both fungus and insects (lesser so for insects but it still applies some). Make sure there is plenty of space between your trees on the bench for plenty of air movement around and between them. This helps with fungus especially, but will still not prevent it.

Another thing that helps with fungus is to water so that the foliage doesnt stay wet for long or if you can avoid getting it wet in the first place.
My trees get watered with a sprinkler and I schedule that so they are watered in the morning so the foliage dries quickly rather than watering at night when its cooler and the water evaporates more slowly. Some plants dont like their foliage to get wet that much (example Azalea) so I will be moving those to a drip system to prevent the foliage from getting wet every day.

The key is vigilance and monitoring you trees every day and watching for signs of insects and treating them early when you do see them.

 

[pjciii]

I'm a beginner in his second spring.
When I begun I made some months of reading (thanks internet). I decided then to use only akadama and lava for my soils ( where I live, we are frostfree and akadama is easily avalaible).
Also, as my tap water is not any good, decided to use only collected rain water. I've fertilized with whatever I've found avalaible .

At first I was expecting as bugs and fungus as I could see in my garden plants. But to my surprise I only could see some (white fly, aphids, and a lot more I don´t know how to translate) but only a fraction of those in the garden. As soon as I saw them I killed them (mechanically or with a systemic). In this second spring there are even less than in the first and no fungus have appeared (my roses and others have oidium, roya,...).
Now I'm talking about +50 trees, evergreens, temperates, tropicals, ...

I try to understand what makes my trees less prone to infestations. I know I'm always watching my trees and looking for any problem, and that can be a good reason.
But I also think that my trees are helthier than the mean I observe here.
So maybe my soils and good watering could also have a rol.

What is your experience and thoughts?

PD: Some of my trees

- View attachment 435075

That is a really nice spot for Your trees and to work in. Is your water feature where the collected rain water goes?

 

[Fidur]

That is a really nice spot for Your trees and to work in. Is your water feature where the collected rain water goes?

Thanks. No , I collect rain water in a 500l. deposit that is about 15 mt. far, so I use a pressure pump. Also in august rain water is off, so I use a reverse osmosis system till the first rains in november...

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

My experience is that as soon as my soil biome is going well, the trees will have very little bacterial and fungal issues.
I used to see a lot of needle cast in my pines, but nowadays it's maybe 5-10 needles per tree. All I did was increase the mycorrhizal content of the soil and the problem solved itself for the most part.