Elaine :- I use a round take-away container with detergent & water. I slowly approach from under with detergent and then from above with other hand and they drop away believing they've outsmarted me :--- LOL.
You can pick off those bugs (Shield bugs, Rutherglen bugs?) by hand with a glove on. Careful not to get too close, when disturbed they can shoot out some disgusting and corrosive liquid from their back ends. Drop them into a bucket with some water and detergent in it. They drown quite quickly and you are shielded from anything they might spray at you.
Susan:- We bought the place in 2003 and the tree was here and was about 3 years. I had a lot of trouble with sugar ants years ago and they farmed scale and their sugary secretion caused a black sooty mold infestation, so I decided to severely prune and paint all the bark with lime. Either I killed the tree or it would survive, and luckily it worked. The very next flowering gave us the best crop up till then, and I had also heavily mulched the tree. The oranges were huge, so I do know what this tree is capable of.
Susan :- when your citrus are flowering be very vigilant and kill these bugs, the very young fruit will go yellow and fall off. I found about 2 dozen tiny fruit that had dropped off.
How old is your tree? I'm very jealous of your tree - I left my last lot on too long and when it flowered, I only had 4 fruit set this year. Oh well, maybe next year I'll be in for a bumper crop like you.
My Washington Navel has about 80 fruit and If I had of mulched earlier the fruit would have been larger. I'm an addicted Genealogist and I couldn't tear myself away from the computer at flowering, much to Christine's disgust. Citrus love mulch. I did spend time killing the huge shield bugs that insert their probosces into the young fruit which then turn yellow and fall off. We now have to be satisfied with the Joppa sized fruit. The taste is just the same : --- beautiful
Comments
Beats the heck out of the frontal approach-dodging-sprays that my Dad used!
Elaine :- I use a round take-away container with detergent & water. I slowly approach from under with detergent and then from above with other hand and they drop away believing they've outsmarted me :--- LOL.
You can pick off those bugs (Shield bugs, Rutherglen bugs?) by hand with a glove on. Careful not to get too close, when disturbed they can shoot out some disgusting and corrosive liquid from their back ends. Drop them into a bucket with some water and detergent in it. They drown quite quickly and you are shielded from anything they might spray at you.
Susan:- We bought the place in 2003 and the tree was here and was about 3 years. I had a lot of trouble with sugar ants years ago and they farmed scale and their sugary secretion caused a black sooty mold infestation, so I decided to severely prune and paint all the bark with lime. Either I killed the tree or it would survive, and luckily it worked. The very next flowering gave us the best crop up till then, and I had also heavily mulched the tree. The oranges were huge, so I do know what this tree is capable of.
Susan :- when your citrus are flowering be very vigilant and kill these bugs, the very young fruit will go yellow and fall off. I found about 2 dozen tiny fruit that had dropped off.
Susan, some people do say it is every 2nd year you get a better yield from Citrus. Hope you are lucky next time around.
How old is your tree? I'm very jealous of your tree - I left my last lot on too long and when it flowered, I only had 4 fruit set this year. Oh well, maybe next year I'll be in for a bumper crop like you.
Great Yield. They look very nice...
Very nice!
My Washington Navel has about 80 fruit and If I had of mulched earlier the fruit would have been larger. I'm an addicted Genealogist and I couldn't tear myself away from the computer at flowering, much to Christine's disgust. Citrus love mulch. I did spend time killing the huge shield bugs that insert their probosces into the young fruit which then turn yellow and fall off. We now have to be satisfied with the Joppa sized fruit. The taste is just the same : --- beautiful