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All year, we wait for Spring to enjoy the two lush, beautiful flowering Chinese Fringe trees in our yard. The trees are completely loaded with fringe-y flowers for a full two weeks, sometimes longer.
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We never tire of neighbors stopping by and remarking on the sheer beauty of the trees, asking us where we bought them. (We purchased them from Tru Value Hardware store on Trent Road/McCarthy Blvd. about six years ago, when they were young saplings.)
Unfortunately, we were so busy admiring the flowering trees and doing yard work, that we failed to notice a slow but steady downturn in our beloved Meyer Lemon tree, until the leaves were almost gone. It was spider mites again. The tree has turned ugly, at least for a while. After three sprays for spider mites, we finally have seen new growth, but it will take a while for the tree to come back. The spider mites are stubborn and there are still some on the underleaves.
I marked our calendar for next February. We'll check our citrus trees then for spider mites. They're going to be there every year, guaranteed -- we just have to spray before the damage becomes severe.
Our thanks to the girls at Pinecone Perennials for cluing us in on the spider mites. We do love that store.
Your potted lemon tree looks like our potted orange trees. I've sprayed, but to no good effect. Our lemons don't seem to be affected, even in trees right next to the oranges. What spray should I use? I can't grow an orange tree no matter what for over 10 years here. The trees are very close to our Torrey Pines. Is there something coming from the pines? I am so upset about this.
ReplyDeleteQnut, Hubby used a dormant oil spray and applied several times over a month. We thought we had lost the trees, they looked that bad. We repotted in late August and they have continued to grow like crazy, covered with lots of leaves, blossoms and fruit. You would never know they were the same trees that looked dead last year.
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