Would you sacrifice new growth to avoid pests?

15 years ago

I went to a nursery the other day and asked to see all their citrus they had.

They told me they had leftovers from the fall, but they looked terrible because they pluck ALL the leaves off of them in order to avoid spidermites, mealybugs, and a host of other insects eating the new growth. They said that they try to force their trees into dormancy, and try to keep them this way, leaving them in the coolest room with less light, and lack of watering, and yet they still want to put out new growth. They are constantly plucking off any new growth that appears..You should see them, they are all BARE.

Would you defoliate your trees, or at least pluck all the flush of growth off?

Does this makes sense? I ask, because everytime any of MY citrus trees start to push new growth, such as my "lemon meyer" as of yesterday, it never fails that some of the new growth falls off, or curls, or tiny buds drop due to tiny mites, no matter how vigorous I am at spraying.. Of course I am constantly spraying to keep up with them, but it seems to me, the only time I do not have any pest problem, nor have to spray, is when there is no new growth.

Would you keep plucking off all new growth, and just keep old growth, until you can stick them outside? Or is this a bad idea? What would you do? Or would you just do the best you can to keep most mites away,and just watch as the ones you can not seem to kill, attack a bit of the new growth, and say, the hell with it?

Thanks so much for any help on this one.

Right now my "lemon meyer" has tons of new growth developing, while at the same time, it is being attacked by these almost microscopic mites. I am loosing brand new shoots and baby buds while many of the new growth seems to be avoiding these critters.

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Comments (5)

jerry_d
15 years ago
Mike, I have not had much luck getting a lot of new growth on any citrus that I have had over the past few years and am happy to see any new growth when it comes. So I wouldn't want to pluck off new growth at all. There has to be a better way to get rid of pests than destroying new growth...
User
15 years ago
I have just about all my citrus in the "garage" in the winter. Temps are maintained between 32. F and 58 F. for the core of the winter and under these conditions, I don't have any problems with scale or mealy bugs. I also keep them on the dry side, and although I want to encourage a degree of dormancy, the trees have leaves on them. New Growth and flowering usually starts in February (I don't really want active growth then but I don't cut off new growth.) Of course, the citrus are moved outside in the Spring for the growing season. I have a few citrus in the house and inevitably they have more difficult time with bugs (mostly scale). Citrus just have a lot of aromatic oils in their leaves and I guess that's why the bugs just love them. By the way, I find that kumquats are a LOT less inclined to get bugs under average growing conditions and also keep their leaves (and fruits) better. I highly recommend them to novice growers. Cutting off the leaves of non-deciduous citrus IS going to set back the plants in the Spring as they haven't been actively photosynthesizing all winter. Besides, one of the citrus that I kept inside has developed a thick infestation of scale ON THE STEMS (not the leaves). There are Citrus that are normally deciduous (cold hardy Poncirus for
example), but that's a different story.

Jerry D.: Something is wrong if you are not getting active growth on your plants. I find that Citrus tend to grow in active spurts followed by inactive periods (throughout the year if temperatures permit). Some factors that may result in inactive growth include: inadequate sun, excessively wet soil conditions, inadequate feeding, and containers that are too small (or too big) for the plant.
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jerry_d
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njoasis, I do get some new growth during the summer months. My kumquat had two spurts of leaf growth this past summer, and my Bearss Lime had one spurt that produced much new foliage. But I don't get any new growth during the winter months, which is fine with me... This winter so far I have been disease-free with my two citrus and neither plant has shed as many leaves as in the past. I have been very disciplined about misting both plants twice a day and that seems to have helped out... I live in the Chicago area; so it is going to be another three or four months before my citrus can be moved outside for the summer. It would be nice to live somewhere where the citrus could stay outside all year long...
yugoslava
15 years ago
I just posted a question regarding care of Meyer lemon and reading here I find citrus is very prone to mite and scale. My tree, when I had it, would start forming fruit in the fall and since I live in Toronto, it would be brought in by the end of September, or beginning of October, with fruit not fully developed. Is Meyer lemon bearing fruit through the year and is it possible to force it to start fruiting earlier.
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15 years ago
Most citrus will be relatively inactive during the winter season. I water a lot less in the winter and keep them very cool. (Remember that most of our citrus and kumquats originated in subtropical Asia with strong seasons of summer monsoon and drought.) The secret is that most citrus actually thrive on a bit of neglect. I encourage their seasonality and get the return in the Spring with fragrant blooms and subsequent fruiting. Waitin' for those orange blossoms!

Would you sacrifice new growth to avoid pests?

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