i prune that santa rosa like crazy- the more i prune it, the quicker it grows back. I prune it 2-3 times ayear by about 50%. unlike my european plum trees that grow with 10 or so major limbs, this tree has about 3-4 limbs and hundreds of 2-3mm diametered stems growing off the main limbs. truth is, i think im gonna get rid of it. it was an impulse buy from a local nursery. I have had it for about 3-4 years and only get about 60-80 blooms and 1-2 plums per year- this year i got no plum set at all. i have a bavay gage tree in a large pot and it needs a ground home and i have zero room. so i think this crazy growing non fruit producing santarose plum has to go and the bavay gage will take its place.

I just wanted to do a little follow-up on the corn rootworm damage issue. I got a little too busy to follow my own advice. Several weeks have gone by and the beetle population increased while I wasn't paying attention. Below are two photos of ornamental sunflowers about 5-inches in diameter. The first photo is of a bloom that has been open for a about a day. The beetles don't seem to begin feasting on the sunflowers until they open up and begin producing pollen. As soon as the pollen appears, they also begin ravaging the outer ray petals -- as seen in the first photo below. This second photo is about a day later in our blistering hot, dry weather. Normally, the blooms will look great for a week or longer without the beetle damage. It is kind of interesting that a defense mechanism of these beetles is to just fold their legs up under themselves when disturbed. They simply allow their bodies to freefall to the ground. I have even played with some I find on the leaves and when you bother them, they will just begin rolling down the leaf until they fall off. You can take advantage of this habit by simply mixing up a little soapy dishwater in a small dish. Hold this dish under the blooms and they will fall right into it. I like to call this, The Dish of Death. (Heh, heh, heh.) This whole process only takes a few minutes in the garden and can be repeated as necessary. The Dish of Death IronBelly

No, but I have also noticed they are not much of a problem. They do chew small holes but there are not many of them most of the time to do a lot of damage. I am currently having a problem with cucumber beetles. They ruined much of my squash and cukes last year, and this year I see a few, but not as many. They are on my ground cherry plants. I actually had to break down and apply some sevin dust..(ugh, shuttering at the though)..but nothing else seems to work. I have tried Neem oil and that does not work well.

Just guessing but I don't think he is harmful - in fact I think he may be a predator type. I have them here but don't see too many or very often.