AlainK
Imperial Masterpiece
I had never seen any before, so when I noticed that a scots pine that I didn't work on this year had a massive attack of some pests, I did some research, and found it must be "pine needle scale insect Chionaspis pinifoliae".
For those who haven't seen what these killers look like, here is a close-up on one of the most infected branch:
Horrible, isn't it?
At first, I didn't know what it was so I sprayed it with a large-scale pesticide, but two weeks later, it was even worse.
Those bastards seem to like the sun because the lower branches are almost free of them. But I still have some product that contains malathion and parafine oil, it worked very well when I found some scales (the classic ones, that really have the shape of a brown shield) on my beeches.
What surprised me is that I have another one, next to it, which is perfectly healthy so at first I thought it might be a fungal disease cause by an inappropriate soil mix and when i saw the first symptoms, I first used a fungide.
So if it can help someone to tackle the problem with the right diagnosis and the right solution as soon as the symptoms appear, so much the better.
PS: I'm not sure I've become a better person, but the more I learn about cultivation and techniques, the healthier my trees are. And the healthier they are, the "prettier" I want them to look, so maybe I'm on the right path. Actually, what Kunio Kobayashi says in the video posted in another thread should have an echo in anyone wanting to improve, and as a girlfriend told me when I was in my twenties: "You never stop growing up"...
For those who haven't seen what these killers look like, here is a close-up on one of the most infected branch:
Horrible, isn't it?
At first, I didn't know what it was so I sprayed it with a large-scale pesticide, but two weeks later, it was even worse.
Those bastards seem to like the sun because the lower branches are almost free of them. But I still have some product that contains malathion and parafine oil, it worked very well when I found some scales (the classic ones, that really have the shape of a brown shield) on my beeches.
What surprised me is that I have another one, next to it, which is perfectly healthy so at first I thought it might be a fungal disease cause by an inappropriate soil mix and when i saw the first symptoms, I first used a fungide.
So if it can help someone to tackle the problem with the right diagnosis and the right solution as soon as the symptoms appear, so much the better.
PS: I'm not sure I've become a better person, but the more I learn about cultivation and techniques, the healthier my trees are. And the healthier they are, the "prettier" I want them to look, so maybe I'm on the right path. Actually, what Kunio Kobayashi says in the video posted in another thread should have an echo in anyone wanting to improve, and as a girlfriend told me when I was in my twenties: "You never stop growing up"...
