Callistemon Problems

19 years ago

I have 2 varieties of bottlebrush in my garden, 'Little John' and 'White Anzac' which form buds to flower but the ends go brown and stiff and they do not flower. There appears to be web around the buds. At first I thought it was webbing caterpiller but I havnt spotted a caterpiller or any type of spiders. I have sprayed with carbaryl, a couple of times, but it is not working. The plants are less than a year old.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

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Comments (2)

pos02
19 years ago
Do you ever notice skinks and spiders around your garden? I find that there is a balance which you need to live with in order for everything to survive - ie the skinks and spiders eat the insects which eat your plants. If you keep this balanced, there should be minimal damage to the plants, especially once they are established. I would personally go a bit lighter on the insecticides to see if nature can take it's course (obviously you need to nurse the young plants through to maturity however).
macbirch
19 years ago
Our Little Johns had major problems with webbing caterpillars when they were small. Never saw the culprits, just lots of webs. One nursery barely glanced at the branch we took in for id, just tried to sell us something. The other nursery had a look and said we could sell you something but it wouldn't be very effective and you're better off just removing the webbing by hand until the plant is more mature and then it won't be as vulnerable to those things any more. So I occasionally cleaned off the webs and pruned off dead branches and wondered if I should just replace the plants with something less troublesome. And then one day I realised the plants were growing pretty well. It does seem a problem that they grow out of without the need to upset the balance in your garden. (BTW, the use of carbaryl has been under review.)
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Callistemon Problems

Comments (2)

pos02

macbirch

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