Misting - how often?

[Kiani]

I have

1 crabapple
1 chinese elm
5 junipers

How often should I mist the foliage on these trees? I was told by the people who sold me he crabapple that I should mist it often, to help reduce mildew.

 

[rockm]

Misting will INCREASE your chance for mildew, especially on an apple.

Misting in not necessary and in a lot of cases, unless the tree has been recently collected, can cause problems.

 

[BrianBay9]

Misting is more likely to be useful in Orange County, California than it is in Fairfax Virginia.....

 

[JudyB]

But it still will not reduce your chances for mildew....Even in CA.
I have seen people who swear by it, and people who say it's useless.
I imagine that if you do it often enough that it would add humidity, and be a good thing in a dry climate. But who can actually do it enough to make a difference??? I would think an automatic misting system would be helpful, but hand misting once or twice a day....don't know.

 

[rockm]

Misting an apple, crab or otherwise, is not a good thing to do anywhere. They are prone to a wide range of fungal and bacterial infections. Moisture sitting on leaves, buds and stems promotes disease doesn't help that susceptibility.

The list of pests and disease on malus is a very long one. The list includes fire blight, powdery mildew, rust, apple scab, several canker diseases, leaf defoliators, borers, scale and aphids. There are cultivars of crabapples that are resistant to some of these, but since the cultivar of this one probably isn't known, why tempt fate?

As the former owner of a couple of apples, I can say they don't need any help in attracting nasties.

 

[rock]

Good advice above as usual, misting has a bad long term side effect in so-cal of calcium deposits building on leaves as well over the summer.

Sounds like "the people that sold me" might need a little educatin' themselves,


Nice to see brianbay in action here. Indy , now eh? Your former bonsai nursery has a new website, www.kumabonsainursery.com
Rock..on

 

[Bill S]

rockm gives good info and advice on this. More likely to do good by using a fungicide.

 

[Dav4]

Funny...I must have missed the part in the original post about the reasoning behind the nursery recommending the misting, "...to help reduce mildew". Wow. That's right up there with telling someone to water their new indoor juniper bonsai every day.

 

[Ang3lfir3]

Funny...I must have missed the part in the original post about the reasoning behind the nursery recommending the misting, "...to help reduce mildew". Wow. That's right up there with telling someone to water their new indoor juniper bonsai every day.

wait..... you can't keep junipers indoors?????? .... OMG OMG OMG .... eeeeeek!!!!!!!

 

[Ron Dennis]

wait..... you can't keep junipers indoors?????? .... OMG OMG OMG .... eeeeeek!!!!!!!

Now this is funny! Thanks. I needed a laugh!

 

[Dan W.]

The junipers may be the only ones that would benefit from misting. You probably have a lot more humidity than I do though. Here in WY I mist my pines and junipers fairly regularly

 

[BrianBay9]

Good advice above as usual, misting has a bad long term side effect in so-cal of calcium deposits building on leaves as well over the summer.

Sounds like "the people that sold me" might need a little educatin' themselves,


Nice to see brianbay in action here. Indy , now eh? Your former bonsai nursery has a new website, www.kumabonsainursery.com
Rock..on

Thanks for the link Rock, I had lost touch. Moving to different climate zones is a killer for this hobby. Sold or gave away most of my trees for the third time now. Maybe I'll get back into posting when I have some decent tree progression to show.

 

[Alex DeRuiter]

I've been successfully growing junipers indoors for fifteen years.

Oh, sorry...did I not post this on April Fools?

Okay, okay, back to the topic, guys!

 

[Kiani]

The junipers may be the only ones that would benefit from misting. You probably have a lot more humidity than I do though. Here in WY I mist my pines and junipers fairly regularly

Yes it can get quite humid down here. And I only mist the trees at night.

So only mist the junipers once in a while and nothing else?

 

[JudyB]

why do you mist them only at night?

 

[Kiani]

why do you mist them only at night?

By the time I get home from work or other preoccupations it's usually night time.

Also i noticed around 5-6 1-2mm black/grey insects/mites on one of my junipers so I thought misting might help repel them. I did remove the ones I saw however.

 

[rockm]

Sorry to keep at this, but nightime misting is probably the worst time to do it.

The moisture you spray at night will typically sit on foliage all night long and will set your trees up for fungal problems. Nighttime humidity levels typically run 20 percent higher than in the daytime, so adding more moisture in the evening will make things soggy for hours. Morning is most humid time of the day--dew is condensed humidity, so your trees could remain wet until well into the next morning.

If the junipers haven't been repotted and their roots are intact, there's really no reason to mist them.

 

[jk_lewis]

I think the answer you need is: NEVER.

 

[Kiani]

Sorry to keep at this, but nightime misting is probably the worst time to do it.

The moisture you spray at night will typically sit on foliage all night long and will set your trees up for fungal problems. Nighttime humidity levels typically run 20 percent higher than in the daytime, so adding more moisture in the evening will make things soggy for hours. Morning is most humid time of the day--dew is condensed humidity, so your trees could remain wet until well into the next morning.

If the junipers haven't been repotted and their roots are intact, there's really no reason to mist them.

Thank you rock, big help.

 

[Shimpaku]

When I first started working with bonsai, I was convinced that misting was a good thing for me to do based on some reading. I liked the activity of doing "something" for my trees that I thought was beneficial. Never again. Water in the pot and let nature/evolution do the rest. I was hurting more than helping, for sure. Live and learn.