On Sat, 10 Jul 2004 14:04:53 +0100, blaadyblah
wrote:


Hello.


By way of introduction, my name is Flick, I'm gardening in West Sussex
on the solid clay (we've made cups out of it!) of a flood plain
through which a small stream runs. The garden is quite small, about
eight metres by twelve and the southern half is in the shade of
several Oaks who graciously provide me with the means to improve the
soil each year.

I've recently moved a curly willow from a neighbour's garden into my
own. The tree is a beautiful specimen (it was ten feet before moving
and a lovely shape) and if not moved immediately would have been
binned, so despite the time of year (June) we bit the bullet and moved
it anyway. A full day's slog digging out the root system paid off and
we managed to transplant the tree without losing too much of it's root
system. We cut back about half the body of the tree to minimise stress
after moving.

Predictably, the plant went into shock. All the leaves crisped and
curled and soon enough it started dying back from the extremities. I
kept on watering and sure enough (much sooner than I expected) new
leaves started to appear a week or so ago along the main branches.
Tenacious trees, willows!

This morning I've been out to cut back all the remaining dead wood,
and generally tidy it up a bit. I've discovered several colonies of
Giant Willow Aphid that weren't there before. I'm of the understanding
that these can do quite significant damage to Willows in general, and
given that this particular plant has had more than enough stress
already this year I'd prefer not to leave it to the birds and other
insects to take care of them.

What can I do to get rid of them? Preferably without using
particularly ecologically unfriendly or harmful chemicals, my garden
is not exactly organic, but I do try to minimise the use of noxious
substances if at all possible and I've not had cause to use any for
several years, if it can be avoided I'd prefer not to start again now.

Flick.

Many people here swear by a spray of soft soap or household detergent
for attacking aphids and many other garden pests (see the thread on
blackfly). I use Fairy Liquid, but I guess any detergent will do. One
good squirt into a 5 litre pump sprayer, but the concentration isn't
critical (fill the sprayer with water first, then add the detergent,
otherwise you get loads of froth). But whether it'll work on those big
beasties, I've no idea. We had them on a willow in our garden when I
was a teenager, and IIRC they were the size of match-heads and on the
branches, not the leaves.


--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net