George, Seminyak writes: Hello! My Frangipani trees are infected. They have whitish powder under the leaves which die and fall off. This has spread to other trees. We have tried various sprays to cure without success. I know this is a common problem, as I see it on other frangipani everywhere. Can you recommend something to kill it? At the point of taking them out!
George, you sound quite desperate if you are considering removal. Desperate ills require desperate remedies, so before removing the trees, try what follows.
Frangipani are hardy and very difficult to kill - mature trees dug up for transplanting survive for weeks before being replanted. They survive rust, (a yellow powdery fungus on the underside of their leaves), and the white powder you have described is almost certainly cushiony scale (a sap-sucking insect) – if it is greyish-white, it is powdery mildew. The method given below will ‘do’ for both ills.
Step 1: Strip all leaves and flowers from affected trees. Do not dump these anywhere within your garden unless you propose to incinerate immediately. Better put directly into industrial strength plastic bags, sealed off, then left in hot sun for several days to well and truly fry the ‘beasties’. Have a bucket of soapy water handy to wash hands regularly (avoids spreading disease) or use disposable plastic gloves.
Step 2: Using a sharp, clean saw, remove the top half of all frangipanis. Don’t leave short stumps on trunks/main branches. Saw these off flush, stimulating the plant to seal such wounds with its bark. To avoid stripping bark, make a shallow cut first on the underside of the branch, then saw downwards to complete the cut. Dispose of offcuts as above. Do not let anyone hack at the branches with parangs. Blades may be sterilized by dipping in boiling water or wiping with rubbing alcohol (methylated spirit/spiritus). Disinfect blades after cutting each tree.
You will already have prepared your ‘white oil emulsion’ in advance. Recipes for pesticides may be found at Articles, www.baliadvertiser.biz, along with general care and maintenance of frangipani. I don’t propose to repeat them here. You will make some changes to the recipe for white oil. Replace commercially available soft soap, with six tablets of 10% sulfur soap. Place in three liters of hot water until dissolved completely, making a jelly. Expect this process to take quite some time. -When ready, proceed as per recipe.
Step 3: Mix one liter of water with one liter of emulsion. Apply lavishly and thoroughly to all branches/trunks remaining with a new paint brush If any left over, add six liters of water and apply to the ground under the trees with a watering can.
Seal big cuts with proper tree wound sealer or with leftover plastic wall paint. This may look a bit quaint, but developing foliage soon covers up the polka dots.
Step 4: Apply fertilizer - urea/foska - at the rate of one handful per sq.m to each tree around the drip line, (ie: the outside circle where the leaves used to be). Instruct all males in your household to pee here – urine = urea - and is directly available to the plant. Water any dry fertilizer immediately and thoroughly.
You shouldn’t have problems keeping water up to the trees as so far we have had good rains about every second day. If there is a prolonged dry spell give each doctored tree a good soaking once a week. (Not your pembantu waving a hose around in the general direction for a few minutes.) Please report to me how your trees fare after such radical surgery.
Rosemary writes: I have a lovely yellow hibiscus that many of my friends want. But I cannot seem to propagate this correctly - have tried putting a healthy branch in dirt and have also tried it in water with some Miracle grow fertilizer mixed in. Please advise so I can share this and help keep the bushes trimmed.
Your pieces were too big. Propagate from pencil-thickness twigs rather than branches – either softwood (green bark) or hardwood (brown bark) cuttings. Local nurseries use rice hulls as their propagating medium; also often their potting mix.
A sure–fire method is layering as the mother plant keeps nourishing the baby. Take small lower branches which will bend but not break. With a sharp, clean blade (see above) make a small slit about 10-15mm in the lower side. Place a tiny stone between slit and main branch to keep it open. Loosen soil beneath the plant (where the piece easily touches ground), scrape up into small mound – about 15cm x 15cm.
Pin branch/es firmly into position, covering well with more soil, water in, always keeping soil moist. Application of rooting hormone (powder/liquid) hastens the process. After three weeks gently hose soil away to check progress, replacing soil (checking after heavy rain) until a strong root system has formed (4-6 weeks). Sever the new plant/s and pot on.
Please send all your gardening questions to
E-mail: gardendoctor08@yahoo.com
