Please Help/what happened ?

[Sean Walker]

I have a Fukien Tea Tree that I got back in July. It's health was good for a few months (new leaves and flowers).
I was taking it outside during the day and letting it sit in the sun and bringing it back in over night. I was watering only when the soil got dryish on the surface lightly spritzing its leaves every other day or so and fertilizing every 2 weeks. Then 2 weeks ago its leaves all started falling off and where new growth was starting it developed white spots and I noticed on the one remaining leaf there are white things on the underside? What did I do wrong? What can I do to save it?

 

[petegreg]

You might have done all well, but the aphids...

 

[Sean Walker]

Can I get rid of them?

 

[petegreg]

Yes, sure, use some appropriate insecticide available on your market. I don't know where you live, but these plants don't like changing position. Keep it outside when season allows and inside fall ->beginning of summer.

 

[0soyoung]

I agree that the little things look to be aphids, but it could be scale. Aphids are easily squished with a thumb and forefinger pinch, right where they are on the leaf (you don't need to pinch so hard as to damage the leaf). Aphids can also be easily washed off with a jet of water from your garden hose; scale not so much (rubbing alcohol on a cotton swab will dislodge scale). Spraying with NEEM or an insecticidal soap will help tamp down a major infestation like you may have just experienced. Eggs take a week or two to hatch, so watch closely for a reappearance.

 

[GailC]

I hate aphids, they are thick around here. For minor infestations, I use a soapy water solution but when they get bad, I break out the chemicals.

 

[petegreg]

I've never had a success to get rid of them using whatever except insecticides.
I could wash them, remove them, use oily/waxy sprays... And they can migrate and wait on the other plant and then return back. From my experience I know the plants they like and when they appear I treat these species same, following manuals...

 

[Anthony]

Two points -

[1] Ill plants are attacked by insects. Insecticide is not the answer.

[2] Try and grow at least 10 plants.

So something is wrong and I would ask about that soil.
Good Day
Anthony

 

[GSCarlson]

I would suspect the soil is the reason for the decline rather than aphids. My fukiens always have at least a few aphids but they have never done much harm. I brush off the aphids with a small paint brush rather than spray anything. Fukiens are fussy enough without adding insecticides to the mess.

 

[petegreg]

You all are right. It always starts with soil, the conditions that a plant is grown under and our care.
I'm not an advocate of chemicals, but...plants in indoor environment do not have the best conditions, do not have their natural predators present. Tried all possible measures, if aphids appear, just a few, I try to manage them manually. If they re-appear shortly I spray. My FTs can stand insecticides without any harm.

 

[sorce]

Welcome to Crazy Bro!

Your aim was correct!

@petegreg I can't believe you get aphids up that high....11 floors....
I can't help but think if you kill em all they wouldn't come back....

Are you bringing them on other plants?

Very shocking....I wouldn't figure on them finding you up there.

Sorce

 

[petegreg]

We have everything here xcept ratts and similar animals. You know, this is not an asphalt jungle, we are surrounded by lot of green, tall trees, houses and gardens... I've never found the aphids on my trees outside, just on those tortured indoors. It's pretty interesting my wife's got some potted flowers on her balcony and aphids are present there.
...oh and now I know how to stay chemically free, knock them down 11 fl...

 

[Sean Walker]

Hmmmm
I haven't changed the soil so what would I need to do to see if that is the problem. Would an aphid infestation make all the leaves die ?
This is my only plant.

 

[0soyoung]

Hmmmm
I haven't changed the soil so what would I need to do to see if that is the problem. Would an aphid infestation make all the leaves die ?
This is my only plant.

Things like this can be the result of root anoxia, which means the roots don't get oxygen and go through the process of dying. This happens because the soil is too water retentive (specifically it has a low air-filled porosity) which can happen because it is compacted clay or you simply watered too much.

You don't say what the substrate (soil) is - it looks like it might be ordinary potting soil. The dryness of the soil surface is not a good measure of how wet the potful is, generally. You need to dig into it with your finger - don't water it until the dirt doesn't stick to your finger. Another way is to thrust a chop stick into the soil and use it like a dip stick - don't water until it feels dry. You calibrate yourself by not watering your plant until you see the leaves droop (loose turgidity) - then you note the condition of your monitoring device (finger or chopstick) and water your plant. After this calibration session, you can rely on your finger/chopsitck and water just before it reaches this critical point of being too dry (lost turgidity).

Further, if you are using potting soil, you are likely fertilizing way too much. Substrates with high organic content have high CEC which, in simple terms, means that it retains fertilizer. Too much fertilizer in the soil means that water will come out of the tree's roots by osmosis, pretty much regardless of how wet the soil is. This is fertilizer burn, and its symptoms are similar to the soil being too dry, since excess fertilizer is causing water to come out of the tree rather than go into the tree.

So, even though your tree now has aphids, my guess is that it had root problems. You'll have to figure out why and correct your habits. Someone may be able to give you further help if you've got more details, including what you've learned from some investigation toward was it too wet or was it too much fertilizer.

 

[sorce]

on her balcony

She has her own balcony?

Nice!

Of course, the building I work at...20floors, doesn't have plants or trees up top, but I never see more than spiders, wasps, and mayflies....never seen anything else in the many many webs....

We get falcons, seagulls, and crows, but never sparrows....one day, when it was really foggy, we had sparrows, only cuz they couldn't see how high they were!

Sorce

 

[petegreg]

She has her own balcony?

Nice!
Sorce

Well, yes and she's fed up with the bugs on all her flowers we selected for W-facing balcony so carefully. I suggested pines, junipers, olives and bougies and she will decide till next spring. Her trees... No, I don't wanna capture her place, she works hard and likes relaxing there.

 

[Cypress187]

all the leaves die

Mine also did this (I shocked it to dead by placing it from cold to a warm environment (out/inside)), perhaps begin with a ficus?

 

[Eric Group]

I have a Fukien Tea Tree ?

That was your mistake.